International
World leaders call for urgent action on food security
AFP
by Leon Bruneau and Amelie Bottollier-Depois
World leaders called Tuesday for urgent efforts to address global food insecurity, with fears mounting of a disastrous harvest next year due largely to the war in Ukraine.
On the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, ministers from the European Union, United States, African Union and Spain met on food shortages which are seen as a key factor in conflicts and instability.
“There is no peace with hunger and we cannot combat hunger without peace,” Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said as he condemned Russian President Vladimir Putin’s February invasion of Ukraine.
“The truth is Putin is trying to blackmail the international community with food,” Sanchez said.
The Group of Seven major industrial powers at a June summit in Germany promised $5 billion to fight food insecurity but German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said there was still “great urgency.”
“The Russian war of aggression has caused and accelerated a multidimensional global crisis. Countries in the Global South with prior vulnerabilities have been hit hardest,” Scholz said.
President Joe Biden will address the General Assembly on Wednesday and announce new US aid, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said.
In his own address on Tuesday, French President Emmanuel Macron said his country will finance shipments of Ukrainian wheat to Somalia which is facing risk of famine.
Ukraine is one of the world’s largest grain producers and the Russian invasion sent global prices soaring.
Russia has cast blame on Western sanctions, an assertion denounced by the United States, which says it is not targeting agricultural or humanitarian goods.
Turkey and the United Nations in July brokered a deal between Russia and Ukraine to allow ships with grain to sail through the blockaded Black Sea.
Putin has recently criticized the deal, pointing to shipments that have headed to Europe. US officials say some of the grain is then processed and sent to poorer countries.
“Despite some of the misinformation that continues to come from Moscow, that grain and other food products are getting where they need to go to the countries most in need, predominantly in the Global South,” Blinken said.
“It’s also helped lower food prices around the world. So it needs to keep going, it needs to be renewed. That is urgent.”
Long-term fears
Concerns are also mounting on the long-term impacts. A recent report by the Ukraine Conflict Observatory, a non-governmental US group, found that around 15 percent of grain stocks in Ukraine have been lost since the invasion began.
Experts warn that disruptions in fertilizer shipments could seriously impede future harvests around the world.
“It’s very clear that the current food supply disruption and the war in Ukraine is having an impact on the next harvest,” said Alvaro Lario, incoming president of the International Fund for Agricultural Development.
“There’s one or two harvests per year, and already we’re seeing that it’s going to be devastating for next year,” he told AFP, warning that the impact could be “much worse” than Covid.
He called for longer-term action, which would entail billions of dollars of investment, to ensure the stability of food supply chains and to adapt to a warming climate.
“We know the solutions and we have the institutions to make that happen. What is currently lacking is the political will, in terms of the investment,” he said.
In a joint report in July, UN agencies including UNICEF and the Food and Agriculture Organization said that between 702 and 828 million people were impacted by hunger in 2021, or 9.8 percent of the world population.
The figure was up by 46 million people from 2020 and by 150 million from 2019, showing the heavy impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the world’s food economy.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said recently that the world had enough food in 2022 but that the problem was distribution.
If the situation does not stabilize this year, in 2023 “we risk to have a real lack of food,” he said.
International
Merengue concert turns to mourning as Jet Set collapse claims 136 lives
Dominican rescue teams will end search and recovery operations on Wednesday, April 9, 2025, at the Jet Set nightclubin Santo Domingo, where the building collapsed during a live concert.
Authorities estimate that the final 20 bodies will be recovered from the rubble today, bringing the official death toll to 136. This includes 12 additional bodies found overnight in the disaster zone, adding to the previously confirmed 124 fatalities.
Outside the collapsed nightclub, desperate relatives of the missing continue to gather, clinging to hope for news. Many also visited nearby hospitals and morgues in search of their loved ones.
A list of confirmed victims has been posted on a tent set up near the site, where the bodies are being transferred for identification.
The tragedy occurred during a performance by renowned merengue singer Rubby Pérez, who was among the deceased.
Central America
Colombia to host fourth EU-CELAC Summit in November
The Fourth Summit between the European Union (EU) and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) will take place on November 9 and 10 in Santa Marta, Colombia, according to a joint statement released Wednesday by the Colombian government and the European Council.
The summit will be co-chaired by Colombian President Gustavo Petro, in his role as pro tempore president of CELAC, and European Council President António Costa, the statement added.
The last EU-CELAC summit took place in July 2023 in Brussels, when both blocs agreed to hold these meetings every two years.
The summit brings together the 27 EU member states and the 33 CELAC countries, representing 14% of the global population, 21% of global GDP, and one-third of the members of the United Nations, the communiqué noted.
International
Russia and US to Meet in Istanbul for Diplomatic Talks on April 10
The Kremlin confirmed today a forthcoming meeting with the United States to discuss the normalization of diplomatic relations, which will take place in Istanbul.
“Our participation will be through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,” said Dmitry Peskov, the presidential spokesperson, during his daily telephone press conference.
Peskov was responding to a question about who would represent Russia in the new round of negotiations, which is supposedly scheduled for April 10.
Subsequently, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed that the delegations will be led by the Russian ambassador to the U.S., Alexandr Darchiev, and the U.S. Deputy Secretary of State, Sonata Coulter.
These are the same negotiators who met in late February in Istanbul, where the expert-level negotiation format was the same, according to the source.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov had said a few days ago that the next meeting would be held in the Turkish city, though he did not confirm a date.
Lavrov, who participated in only one of these meetings, clarified that the upcoming discussions would address the issues still dividing Moscow and Washington diplomatically, referring to the operations of both countries’ embassies.
The Kremlin asserted that Washington has not yet responded to Russia’s security concerns, preventing a ceasefire declaration on land, sea, and air.
Meanwhile, Trump expressed discontent with Russia’s recent attacks, including one last week that killed 20 people in Krivi Rig, the hometown of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
So far, Russia has rejected a cessation of hostilities and only declared a 30-day ceasefire on March 18 against attacks on energy infrastructure, which was extended by Kyiv a week later.
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