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Rice to get costlier as weather, India’s farm perks threaten supply

Farmers plant rice saplings at a water-logged rice field on the outskirts of Srinagar on June 19, 2023. (AFP)
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Updated 06 July 2023
Reuters
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Rice to get costlier as weather, India’s farm perks threaten supply

  • Rice is a staple for more than 3 billion people and nearly 90 percent of the water-intensive crop is produced in Asia, where the El Nino weather pattern usually brings lower rainfall.
Updated 06 July 2023
Reuters

MUMBAI: Global rice prices, now at their highest in 11 years, are set to rally further after India moved to boost payments to farmers, just as El Nino threatens yields in key producers and alternative staples get costlier for poor Asians and Africans.
India accounts for more than 40 percent of world rice exports, which were 56 million tons in 2022, but low inventories mean any cut in shipments will fuel food prices driven up by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year and erratic weather.
“India was the cheapest supplier of rice,” B.V. Krishna Rao, president of the Rice Exporters Association (REA), told Reuters. “As Indian prices moved up because of the new minimum support price, other suppliers also started raising prices.”
Rice is a staple for more than 3 billion people and nearly 90 percent of the water-intensive crop is produced in Asia, where the El Nino weather pattern usually brings lower rainfall.
Yet even before the weather phenomenon can disrupt production, the global rice price index of the Food and Agriculture Organization hovers above an 11-year high.
That comes despite a forecast by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) for near-record output in all top six global producers — Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam.
“The impact of El Nino is not restricted to any single country; it affects rice output in almost all producing countries,” said Nitin Gupta, vice president of Olam India’s rice business.
The price of Indian rice exports has jumped 9 percent to a five-year high, following a hike of 7 percent last month in the price the government pays farmers for new-season common rice.

Export prices in Thailand and Vietnam have risen to more than two-year highs since that incentive, aimed at luring the votes of farmers in key Indian state elections this year and a general election next year.
In recent months, the prices of sugar, meat and eggs have jumped to multi-year highs worldwide, after producers cut exports to rein in domestic costs.
Despite the forecast for a strong Asian crop, some global trading houses expect El Nino to crimp the output of all key rice producers.
“Rice prices have already been rising due to limited supplies,” added Olam’s Gupta. “If production decreases, there will be a rally in prices.”
Global inventories of rice are set to drop to a six-year low of 170.2 million tons by the end of 2023/24, as stocks fall in top producers China and India, the USDA says, after the rising demand of recent years.

Prices could rice by a fifth
Prices could rise a fifth or more if yields drop sharply, as El Nino means the second rice crop in almost all Asian nations will be lower than normal, said a New Delhi-based grains dealer with a global trading house.
No. 2 exporter Thailand has urged farmers to plant only one rice crop after May rainfall was 26 percent below normal.
In India, which plants its second crop in November, planting of summer-sown rice was down 26 percent from a year ago by Friday, as the monsoon brought 8 percent less rain than normal, government data show.
Weather in China, the top producer of the grain, has not been conducive for the early season crop but high stockpiles will balance supply and demand, said Rosa Wang, an analyst with Shanghai JC Intelligence.
Food inflation is always a concern for India’s ruling party, which banned wheat exports last year and curbed those of rice and sugar to bring down prices.
As elections near, the slow start of planting amid rising domestic prices is a concern for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), raising the prospect that it could further curb exports.
“The Modi government is grappling with the task of containing the price rise in wheat, which is why it would not hesitate to impose restrictions,” said the dealer based in New Delhi, the Indian capital.
Indian curbs would leave other countries struggling to make up supplies, industry officials say.

“The supply situation is extremely tight, and decrease in Indian exports could potentially cause global prices to surge,” said a Singapore-based dealer with a global trading house.
Taken together, Myanmar, Pakistan, Thailand and Vietnam could raise exports by 3 million to 4 million metric tons, the dealer added.
The price surge also complicates the task of building up stockpiles.
Demand from price-sensitive African countries has slowed, said Himanshu Agarwal, executive director at Satyam Balajee, an Indian exporter.
But some Asian buyers, such as Indonesia and the Philippines, have been building stocks and increasing purchases from traditional supplier Vietnam.
Last month Indonesia signed a rare pact with India to import 1 million tons if El Nino disrupts domestic supply. Indonesia usually buys rice from nearby Thailand and Vietnam.
“Rice has been a buyers’ market for the past few years, but it could become a sellers’ market if El Nino cuts production,” said the Singapore-based dealer.
 

Topics: climate change extreme weather rice supply India

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UK faith leaders urge PM to tone down migration rhetoric

Updated 57 min 12 sec ago
AFP
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UK faith leaders urge PM to tone down migration rhetoric

  • Downing Street has strongly rejected the claims but the religious leaders asked him to “reconsider the language the government uses“
  • The 25 signatories instead called for a “more compassionate narrative”
Updated 57 min 12 sec ago
AFP

LONDON: UK religious leaders on Friday called on Prime Minister Keir Starmer to tone down his language about migration, after comparisons were made to an inflammatory speech in the 1960s.

Labour leader Starmer this week announced tougher new policies to tackle high levels of migration, in an attempt to stem a growing loss of support to the hard right.

In a speech, he said the UK risked becoming “an island of strangers,” prompting comparisons to similar phrasing in the late politician Enoch Powell’s so-called “rivers of blood” speech about the dangers of uncontrolled immigration in 1968.

Downing Street has strongly rejected the claims but the religious leaders, including Church of England bishops, senior Muslim and Jewish clerics, asked him to “reconsider the language the government uses.”

“Our concern is that the current narrative, which presents only one side of the debate, will only drive public anxiety and entrench polarization,” they wrote.

“When you refer to the ‘incalculable’ damage done by uncontrolled migration, you are in danger of harming migrant members of our communities and strengthening those who would divide us,” they added.

Former human rights lawyer Starmer’s hardening tone has shocked some of his parliamentary colleagues and a YouGov poll published Friday indicated that half of Labour voters now have a negative opinion of him.

The 25 signatories instead called for a “more compassionate narrative,” pointing out that many migrants had become “part of our national story and fabric.”

“Our country would be so much poorer without them,” they added.

Starmer’s plans include restrictions on recruiting from abroad for the social care sector, doubling the length of time before migrants can qualify for settlement and new powers to deport foreign criminals.

The religious leaders said people who had come to the UK legitimately under rules set by previous governments, working and paying tax.

“Framing this as somehow unfair only feeds the politics of grievance and division,” they added.

The letter was sent to Starmer after his speech on Monday, The Guardian newspaper reported.

It quoted a Downing Street spokesperson as saying: “We are clear that migrants make a massive contribution to the UK, and would never denigrate that.

“Britain is an inclusive and tolerant country, but the public expect that people who come here should be expected to learn the language and integrate.”

Topics: British Prime Minister Keir Starmer Religious leaders migrants UK

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NYU denies diploma to student who criticized Israel in commencement speech

Updated 16 May 2025
AP
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NYU denies diploma to student who criticized Israel in commencement speech

  • Logan Rozos used his address to condemn US support for Israel's 'genocide' in Gaza
  • Speech was loudly cheered and drew a standing ovation from some graduating students
Updated 16 May 2025
AP

NEW YORK: New York University said it would deny a diploma to a student who used a graduation speech to condemn Israel’s attacks on Palestinians and what he described as US “complicity in this genocide.”
Logan Rozos’s speech Wednesday for graduating students of NYU’s Gallatin School sparked waves of condemnation from pro-Israel groups, who demanded the university take aggressive disciplinary action against him.
In a statement, NYU spokesperson John Beckman apologized for the speech and accused the student of misusing his platform “to express his personal and one-sided political views.”


“He lied about the speech he was going to deliver and violated the commitment he made to comply with our rules,” Beckman added. “The University is withholding his diploma while we pursue disciplinary actions.”
Universities across the country have faced tremendous pressure to crack down on pro-Palestinian speech or risk funding cuts from President Donald Trump’s administration, which has equated criticism of Israel with antisemitism.
But NYU, which is attended by Trump’s son, Barron, has largely avoided the president’s ire so far.
Rozos, an actor and member of the Gallatin Theater Troupe, was selected by fellow students to give the liberal art program’s address. He said he felt a moral and political obligation to speak to the audience about what he called the atrocities in Palestine.
“The genocide currently occurring is supported politically and militarily by the United States, is paid for by our tax dollars and has been livestreamed to our phones for the past 18 months,” he said.
The speech drew loud cheers from the crowd, along with a standing ovation from some graduating students.
But as video of the speech spread online, it was roundly denounced by pro-Israel groups, who accused NYU of creating an unsafe environment for Jewish students.
“No student — especially Jewish students — should have to sit through politicized rhetoric that promotes harmful lies about Israel during such a personal milestone,” the Anti-Defamation League said in a statement.
The group #EndJewHatred suggested the speech — which did not mention Jewish people — would meet the university’s newly-expanded definition of antisemitism, which includes certain criticism of Israel.
An emailed inquiry to Rozos was not returned.
As pro-Palestinian rallies roiled campuses across the country last spring, the 2024 commencement season was was marked by tensions and cancelations, and strict limits on what students could say.
With billions of dollars of funding at risk from the Trump administration, the stakes for universities are even higher this year, some faculty said.
“They are bending over backward to crack down on speech that runs counter to what the current administration in Washington espouses,” said Andrew Ross, a professor of social and cultural analysis at NYU.
“Myself and many of my colleagues are frankly appalled at the decision that’s being made to deny a student speaker his diploma,” Ross added. “This is a very good example of an administration falling down on the job.”

Topics: War in Gaza

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Salman Rushdie stage attacker sentenced to 25 years in prison

Updated 16 May 2025
AP
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Salman Rushdie stage attacker sentenced to 25 years in prison

  • Hadi Matar was found guilty of attempted murder and assault for the attack on stage during a lecture in New York state
  • He faces a second trial on terrorism charges with prosecutors claiming he had supported Hezbollah
Updated 16 May 2025
AP

MAYVILLE, New York: The man convicted of stabbing Salman Rushdie on a New York lecture stage in 2022, leaving the prizewinning author blind in one eye, was sentenced Friday to serve 25 years in prison.

A jury found Hadi Matar, 27, guilty of attempted murder and assault in February.

Rushdie did not return to court to the western New York courtroom for his assailant’s sentencing but submitted a victim impact statement. During the trial, the 77-year-old author was the key witness, describing how he believed he was dying when a masked attacker plunged a knife into his head and body more than a dozen times as he was being introduced at the Chautauqua Institution to speak about writer safety.

Before being sentenced, Matar stood and made a statement about freedom of speech in which he called Rushdie a hypocrite.

“Salman Rushdie wants to disrespect other people,” said Matar, clad in white-striped jail clothing and wearing handcuffs. “He wants to be a bully, he wants to bully other people. I don’t agree with that.”

Matar received the maximum 25-year sentence for the attempted murder of Rushdie and seven years for wounding a man who was on stage with him. The sentences must run concurrently because both victims were injured in the same event, Chautauqua County District Attorney Jason Schmidt said.

In requesting the maximum sentence, Schmidt told the judge that Matar “chose this. He designed this attack so that he could inflict the most amount of damage, not just upon Mr. Rushdie, but upon this community, upon the 1,400 people who were there to watch it.”

Public defender Nathaniel Barone pointed out that Matar had a otherwise clean criminal record and disputed that the people in the audience should be considered victims, suggesting that a sentence of 12 years would be appropriate.

“Every day since then, for the last couple of years, this case has been an international publicity sponge,” Barone said. “There was no presumption, ever, of innocence for Mr. Matar from the very beginning.”

Rushdie spent 17 days at a Pennsylvania hospital and more than three weeks at a New York City rehabilitation center. The author of “Midnight’s Children,” “The Moor’s Last Sigh” and “Victory City” detailed his recovery in his 2024 memoir, “Knife.”

Matar next faces a federal trial on terrorism-related charges. While the first trial focused mostly on the details of the knife attack itself, the next one is expected to delve into the more complicated issue of motive.

Authorities said Matar, a US citizen, was attempting to carry out a decades-old fatwa, or edict, calling for Rushdie’s death when he traveled from his home in Fairview, New Jersey, to target Rushdie at the summer retreat about 70 miles (112.6 kilometers) southwest of Buffalo.

Matar believed the fatwa, first issued in 1989, was backed by the Lebanon-based militant group Hezbollah and endorsed in a 2006 speech by the group’s secretary-general, Hassan Nasrallah, according to federal prosecutors.

Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued the fatwa after publication of Rushdie’s novel, “The Satanic Verses,” which some Muslims consider blasphemous. Rushdie spent years in hiding, but after Iran announced it would not enforce the decree he traveled freely over the past quarter century.

Matar pleaded not guilty to a three-count indictment charging him with providing material to terrorists, attempting to provide material support to Hezbollah and engaging in terrorism transcending national boundaries.

Video of the assault, captured by the venue’s cameras and played at trial, show Matar approaching the seated Rushdie from behind and reaching around him to stab at his torso with a knife. As the audience gasps and screams, Rushdie is seen raising his arms and rising from his seat, walking and stumbling for a few steps with Matar hanging on, swinging and stabbing until they both fall and are surrounded by onlookers who rush in to separate them.

Jurors in Matar’s first trial delivered their verdict after less than two hours of deliberation.

Topics: Salman Rushdie

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Conflict and climate drive record global hunger in 2024, UN says

Updated 16 May 2025
Reuters
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Conflict and climate drive record global hunger in 2024, UN says

  • “The 2025 Global Report on Food Crises paints a staggering picture,” said Rein Paulsen, FAO’s Director of Emergencies and Resilience
  • “Conflict, weather extremes and economic shocks are the main drivers, and they often overlap“
Updated 16 May 2025
Reuters

ROME: Acute food insecurity and child malnutrition rose for a sixth consecutive year in 2024, affecting more than 295 million people across 53 countries and territories, according to a UN report released on Friday.

That marked a 5 percent increase on 2023 levels, with 22.6 percent of populations in worst-hit regions experiencing crisis-level hunger or worse.

“The 2025 Global Report on Food Crises paints a staggering picture,” said Rein Paulsen, Director of Emergencies and Resilience at the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

“Conflict, weather extremes and economic shocks are the main drivers, and they often overlap,” he added.

Looking ahead, the UN warned of worsening conditions this year, citing the steepest projected drop in humanitarian food funding since the report’s inception — put at anywhere between 10 percent to more than 45 percent.

US President Donald Trump has led the way, largely shutting down the US Agency for International Development, which provides aid to the world’s needy, canceling more than 80 percent of its humanitarian programs.

“Millions of hungry people have lost, or will soon lose, the critical lifeline we provide,” warned Cindy McCain, the head of the Rome-based World Food Programme.

Conflict was the leading cause of hunger, impacting nearly 140 million people across 20 countries in 2024, including areas facing “catastrophic” levels of food insecurity in Gaza, South Sudan, Haiti and Mali. Sudan has confirmed famine conditions.

Economic shocks, such as inflation and currency devaluation, helped push 59.4 million people into food crises in 15 countries — nearly double the levels seen prior to the COVID-19 pandemic — including Syria and Yemen.

Extreme weather, particularly El Nino-induced droughts and floods, shunted 18 countries into crisis, affecting more than 96 million people, especially in Southern Africa, Southern Asia, and the Horn of Africa.

The number of people facing famine-like conditions more than doubled to 1.9 million — the highest since monitoring for the global report began in 2016.

Malnutrition among children reached alarming levels, the report said. Nearly 38 million children under five were acutely malnourished across 26 nutrition crises, including in Sudan, Yemen, Mali and Gaza.

Forced displacement also exacerbated hunger. Nearly 95 million forcibly displaced people, including refugees and internally displaced persons, lived in countries facing food crises, such as Democratic Republic of Congo, Colombia.

Despite the grim overall trend, 2024 saw some progress. In 15 countries, including Ukraine, Kenya and Guatemala, food insecurity eased due to humanitarian aid, improved harvests, easing inflation and a decline in conflict.

To break the cycle of hunger, the report called for investment in local food systems. “Evidence shows that supporting local agriculture can help the most people, with dignity, at lower cost,” Paulsen said.

Topics: Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO Food insecurity malnutrition

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Russia jails Australian man for 13 years for fighting on Ukraine’s side

Updated 16 May 2025
Reuters
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Russia jails Australian man for 13 years for fighting on Ukraine’s side

  • The court had ruled that he had taken part in combat operations against Russian troops
Updated 16 May 2025
Reuters

MOSCOW: Russia has sentenced an Australian citizen to 13 years in a maximum security prison for fighting alongside Ukrainian forces, state prosecutors in a part of eastern Ukraine controlled by Russia said on Friday.

Oscar Jenkins, 33, was found guilty by a court of participating in an armed conflict as a mercenary, a statement from the prosecutors said.

The court had ruled that he had taken part in combat operations against Russian troops between March and December 2024.

Australian media reported last year that Jenkins, a teacher from Melbourne, was serving alongside Ukraine’s military when he was captured by Russian forces.

In January, Australia summoned the Russian ambassador over what turned out to be false reports that Jenkins had been killed after being captured by Russia.

Topics: Russia-Ukraine Conflict Oscar Jenkins Russian troops court

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