Halving food waste can reduce hunger for 153 million people: report

A woman sells fruit at a street market in the Villa Fatima neighborhood of La Paz. (AFP)
Short Url
Updated 02 July 2024
Follow

Halving food waste can reduce hunger for 153 million people: report

  • UN nations have committed to cutting per capita food waste by 50 percent by 2030

PARIS: Halving food waste could cut climate-warming emissions and end undernourishment for 153 million people globally, the OECD and the UN’s food agency said in a joint report Tuesday.
Around a third of food produced for human consumption gets lost or wasted globally, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization — resulting in useless emissions and less available food for those who need it.
By 2033, the number of calories lost and wasted between produce leaving farms and reaching shops and households could be more than twice the number of calories currently consumed in low-income countries in a year, the report warned.
Cutting in two the amount of food lost and wasted along the journey from farm to fork “has the potential to reduce global agricultural greenhouse gas emissions by four percent and the number of undernourished people by 153 million by the year 2030,” according to the report.
“This target is a highly ambitious upper bound and would require substantial changes by both consumers and producer side,” they added.
Agriculture, forestry and other land use account for around one-fifth of global human-induced greenhouse gas emissions.
UN nations have committed to cutting per capita food waste by 50 percent by 2030 as part of sustainable development goals but there is no global target for reducing food loss along the production supply chain.
Between 2021 and 2023, fruit and vegetables accounted for more than half of the lost and wasted food given their extremely perishable nature and relatively short shelf life, according to the report.
Cereals followed, accounting for over a quarter of lost and wasted food.
The FAO estimates that approximately 600 million people will be facing hunger in 2030.
“Measures to reduce food loss and waste could significantly increase food intake worldwide as more food becomes available and prices fall, ensuring greater access to food for low-income populations,” the report said.
Halving food loss and waste by 2030 could result in increased food intake by 10 percent for low-income countries, six percent in lower middle-income nations and four percent in upper middle-income ones, it added.


China’s Xi affirms ‘no limits’ partnership with Putin in call on Ukraine war anniversary

Updated 51 min 12 sec ago
Follow

China’s Xi affirms ‘no limits’ partnership with Putin in call on Ukraine war anniversary

  • ‘China-Russia relations have strong internal driving force and unique strategic value, and are not aimed at, nor are they influenced by, any third party’

BEIJING: China’s President Xi Jinping affirmed his “no limits” partnership in a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday, China’s state media reported, on the third anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The leaders held the talks as US President Donald Trump has pushed for a quick deal to end the Ukraine war, raising the prospect that Washington could draw a wedge between Xi and Putin and focus on competing with the world’s second largest economy.

The call appeared aimed at dispelling any such prospects — the two leaders underscored the durability and the “long-term” nature of their alliance, with its own “internal dynamics” that would not be impacted by any “third party.”

“China-Russia relations have strong internal driving force and unique strategic value, and are not aimed at, nor are they influenced by, any third party,” said Xi, according to the official readout published by Chinese state media.

“The development strategies and foreign policies of China and Russia are long-term,” said Xi, adding that the two countries “are good neighbors that cannot be moved apart.”

Trump has alarmed Washington’s European allies by leaving them and Ukraine out of talks with Russia last week and blaming Ukraine for Russia’s 2022 invasion.

On Ukraine, Xi said that China was “pleased to see the positive efforts made by Russia and all parties concerned to defuse the crisis,” noting China’s initiatives such as the creation of a group of nations called “friends of peace.”

“All in appearance is normal and seems nothing happened to Sino-Russian partnership, but either side must know that many things could be different after Trump-Putin bilateral diplomacy, though itself highly confusing and uncertain,” said Shi Yinhong, professor at the School of International Studies, Renmin University.

This was the second call both leaders have held this year, after they discussed how to build ties with Trump in January.

China and Russia declared a “no limits” strategic partnership, days before Putin sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine in February 2022. Xi has met Putin over 40 times in the past decade and Putin in recent months described China as an “ally.”

Beijing has refused to condemn Moscow for its role in the war, straining its ties with Europe and the US as a result.

Both sides also discussed preparations for the commemoration of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in World War Two. Earlier this month Xi accepted Russia’s invitation to attend the event.


Turkiye says Ukraine-Russia talks should involve ‘both sides’

Updated 24 February 2025
Follow

Turkiye says Ukraine-Russia talks should involve ‘both sides’

  • Moscow and Washington have begun a direct dialogue in recent weeks
  • Russian and US officials held talks in Saudi Arabia in a meeting denounced by Volodymyr Zelensky

ANKARA: Turkiye’s foreign minister on Monday said Ankara backed a US initiative to end the Ukraine-Russia conflict but stressed that talks should involve both warring sides.
Moscow and Washington have begun a direct dialogue in recent weeks, against a backdrop of rapprochement between new US President Donald Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
“We attach great importance to the new US initiative as a result-oriented approach. We believe that a solution can be reached through negotiations in which both sides participate,” Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan told a news conference with Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Ankara.
Lavrov’s visit comes on the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and a week after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky traveled to the Turkish capital.
Lavrov said Russia is ready for negotiations on the Ukraine war but will only stop fighting when a peace settlement “suits” Moscow.
“We will stop hostilities only when these negotiations produce a firm and sustainable result that suits the Russian Federation,” he said.
Russian and US officials held talks in Saudi Arabia in a meeting denounced by Zelensky, who fears an agreement reached without him.
Fidan, whose country hosted talks between Ukraine and Russia during the start of the war, said Turkiye was ready to take any step that would help bring peace.
“Turkiye is always prepared to assume any facilitating or accelerating role... Our goal is to end this devastating war as soon as possible and to heal the wounds in the region,” he said.
NATO member Turkiye has sought to maintain good relations with its warring Black Sea neighbors, with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan pitching himself as a key go-between and possible peacemaker between the two.
Ankara has provided drones for Ukraine but shied away from Western-led sanctions on Moscow.
Lavrov is due to meet with Erdogan later in the day.


Russia says blasts at Marseille consulate look like terrorism, TASS reports

Updated 24 February 2025
Follow

Russia says blasts at Marseille consulate look like terrorism, TASS reports

  • There was no word on any casualties, and no immediate information on the extent of any damage

MOSCOW: Russia on Monday demanded a full French investigation into explosions at its consulate in Marseille which it said looked like an act of terrorism, state news agency TASS said.
There was no word on any casualties, and no immediate information on the extent of any damage.
“The explosions on the territory of the Russian Consulate General in Marseille have all the hallmarks of a terrorist attack,” TASS quoted Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova as saying.
“We demand (from France) exhaustive and prompt measures to investigate, as well as steps to strengthen the security of Russian foreign missions.”
The incident in the southern French city took place on the third anniversary of the Russia-Ukraine war.
French media earlier reported that a blast was heard near the consulate and firemen were at the site.


Thousands in limbo on Thai-Myanmar border after scam center crackdown

Updated 24 February 2025
Follow

Thousands in limbo on Thai-Myanmar border after scam center crackdown

  • Authorities from China, Thailand and Myanmar have attempted to dismantle scam centers and illegal online operations on the border
  • Thai and Cambodian police raided a building in a border town and freed 215 foreigners, a senior Thai official said on Sunday

BANGKOK: Thousands of foreigners freed from online scam-operating centers in Myanmar are stuck in limbo on the border with Thailand after a multinational crackdown on the compounds run by criminal gangs, three sources told Reuters on Monday.
In recent weeks, authorities from China, Thailand and Myanmar have attempted to dismantle scam centers and illegal online operations on the border, part of a network of illegal compounds across Southeast Asia where hundreds of thousands have been trafficked by gangs, according to the United Nations.
Thai and Cambodian police raided a building in a border town and freed 215 foreigners, a senior Thai official said on Sunday.
Two Myanmar armed groups – the Karen National Army (KNA) and the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) – are currently holding around 7,000 former scam center workers but are unable to send them to Thailand, a Thai security official and two aid workers said.
“Many are stuck in limbo and Thailand’s lack of response is causing great harm,” said one of aid workers, currently on the Thai side of the border. “It is like these victims are being revictimized again.”
Thailand’s foreign ministry said that agencies are currently planning for future handovers of those freed, which would “proceed based on the readiness of the embassies or the countries of origin.”
KNA and DKBA officials did not respond to calls from Reuters.
The majority of these workers are Chinese, with about 1,000 from other foreign countries, according to the aid workers.
Many of the former scam center workers are being held in dire conditions and local authorities are concerned about the lack of sanitation and health facilities, they said.
Thai Deputy Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai said last Thursday that Thailand doesn’t have the capacity to accept more people unless foreign embassies repatriate those crossing over.
Thailand this month accepted 260 scam center workers, more than half of whom were from Ethiopia, which has no embassy in the country.
Thai authorities also allowed China to repatriate 621 of its nationals via a series of flights from a border town last week.
Scam centers have been operating in the region for years, but face renewed scrutiny after the rescue of Chinese actor, Wang Xing, who was lured to Thailand with the promise of a job, and then abducted and taken to one such center in Myanmar.
Southeast Asian countries have since stepped up efforts to tackle scam centers, including Thailand cutting power, fuel and Internet supply to areas linked with scam centers.
Since March 2022, financial losses incurred by victims of telecom scams in Thailand alone stand at 80 billion Thai baht ($2.4 billion), Thai Police Col. Kreangkrai Puttaisong told reporters on Monday.


Russian veteran haunted by ‘terrible’ memories of Ukraine front

Updated 24 February 2025
Follow

Russian veteran haunted by ‘terrible’ memories of Ukraine front

  • In October 2023, Yury signed up with a private paramilitary company as a radio operator in an artillery brigade
  • Yury took part in an assault on the town of Chasiv Yar and on Bogdanivka, which fell to Russia in April 2024

ISTRA, Russia: In his kitchen in a Russian town near Moscow, Yury stirs his tea and tries to settle into a normal routine after months on the front line in Ukraine.
But the memories of a conflict that he says is “more terrible” than anything shown on Russian television still haunt the 39-year-old school employee.
“My wife says I came back bitter,” says Yury, 39, whose military call sign is “Lokomotiv” — a reference to his favorite Moscow football club.
He also brought back reflexes like scanning the sky for drones or not wearing a seat belt in order to evacuate quickly from the car in case of enemy fire.
This last habit has earned him several fines in Istra, 40 kilometers (25 miles) northwest of Moscow, where he lives with his wife and their four-year-old son.
When Russia announced partial mobilization in September 2022, Yury, who already had combat experience from the Russian Caucasus, was sure he would be one of the first to be called up.
“But it was my friends without any experience who were mobilized instead. Why them and not me? I felt then that I should go,” he said.
“My friends told me I was an idiot. ‘Why do you want to go? You have a family, a child, a good job’.”
In October 2023, he signed up with a private paramilitary company as a radio operator in an artillery brigade.
The brigade was based in Bakhmut, a city in eastern Ukraine that was captured by Russian forces in May 2023 after one of the bloodiest battles of the offensive launched by Moscow in February 2022.
Yury took part in an assault on the town of Chasiv Yar, where Ukraine’s troops are still clinging to the outskirts, and on Bogdanivka, which fell to Russia in April 2024.
Since returning, Yury is bored with “daily routine.”
On the front line “there was always something new — you are afraid for the first two weeks and after that it is an adventure,” he said.
His wife Albina, 40, said she had made “a huge fuss” when she found out he was planning to go to Ukraine.
“It was tough. I was afraid of losing him,” she said, sitting on a sofa in their modest apartment.
She said his nine-month deployment felt “like five years.”
“I rushed to my phone every time I received a notification. I was afraid of reading or hearing some bad news. Every morning started with this fear. It was terrible,” she said, crying.
“In reality it was more frightening more terrible than anything they show on television,” Yury said.
“If they showed everything that happens there on television, people might change their mind” about the conflict, he said.
In Istra cemetery there are around 30 graves with Russian flags and pictures of men in military uniform who died in Ukraine.
The area is known as an “Alley of Glory,” like similar corners of cemeteries across Russia, where thousands have died on the front.
The overall toll is a state secret.
Yury points to the grave of a school friend and says in total five of his friends have died on the front.
“The majority die or are injured by shrapnel, from artillery fire or from explosive drones,” he said.
“I think every Russian understands that this war is against the West,” he said, repeating the official rhetoric which portrays the conflict as a wider confrontation initiated by Western countries.
Yury said he was skeptical about the outcome of possible truce talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump.
“It would be good if they could agree, if the war ended, but it will not finish immediately,” he said.
“A ceasefire will only make the situation worse. We have to get to the end of this!” he said. “If it’s not over by the New Year, I’ll go back.”