World
Putin says nearly all Ukraine’s grain has gone to the EU. Is he right?
Russian President Vladimir Putin has claimed nearly all of grain leaving Ukraine’s reopened ports has gone to the European Union.
Talking at an financial discussion board in Vladivostok on Wednesday, Putin mentioned the exports had gone to the EU as an alternative of poorer international locations world wide.
He has now threatened to satisfy Turkey to revise the deal that lifted Russia’s blockade on Ukrainian ports in July.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has hit again at Putin and says that tonnes of grain will quickly arrive in Somalia, the place famine is approaching.
In the meantime, the United Nations’ personal figures present that simply over a 3rd of the grain they’ve chartered for launch from Ukraine has gone to the EU.
The UN-brokered deal on grain is without doubt one of the few agreements signed since Russia invaded Ukraine in February, however the blame sport over the difficulty of world meals safety continues.
What did Putin say?
A number of Russian officers have accused the West of importing most of Ukraine’s grain, however Wednesday was the primary time that Putin had echoed the declare with such sturdy phrases.
He mentioned that, of 87 ships loaded with grain from Ukraine, simply two carried grain for the UN’s World Meals Programme (WFP). In accordance with Moscow, that quantities to only 60,000 tonnes out of the overall of about 2 million tons leaving Ukrainian ports.
“[The West] cheated the general public and companions in Africa and different areas who acutely want meals,” Putin mentioned.
“They have been claiming that they have been performing within the pursuits of creating international locations, however acted completely in their very own pursuits.”
For the reason that struggle started in February, numerous African leaders have visited Russia to satisfy with Putin and focus on the influence of the port blockade in Ukraine.
Earlier than the struggle, Ukraine was one of many world’s largest grain exporters, producing sufficient meals to feed 400 million folks per 12 months, in line with the WFP.
“If we exclude Turkey as an middleman nation, then virtually all of the grain exported from Ukraine is distributed to not the poorest creating international locations, however to European Union international locations,” Putin claimed.
“It’s apparent that with an strategy like that, the magnitude of the meals downside on this planet will continue to grow, and that might result in an unprecedented humanitarian disaster,” he added.
The place has the grain gone?
Talking in Istanbul on 22 July, UN Secretary-Basic Antonio Guterres mentioned the Black Sea Grain Initiative would deliver reduction to “essentially the most susceptible folks on the sting of famine”.
In accordance with the UN’s Joint Coordination Centre (JCC) – run by the UN, Turkey, Russia and Ukraine – 100 outbound ships have thus far left Ukraine, carrying greater than 2.3 million tonnes of grain.
In a press release to Euronews, the JCC acknowledged that simply 36% of this had gone to European Union international locations, whereas 30% of the cargo has thus far gone to low- and lower-middle-income international locations.
In accordance with the most recent knowledge, 20% of grain went to Turkey, whereas one other 27% was distributed amongst Asian international locations; China (7%), The Republic of Korea (6%), Iran (5%), India (4%), Israel (2%), Yemen (2%), and Lebanon (<1%).
Turkey is a well-liked vacation spot as a result of it’s a main miller of wheat, and the grain arriving there may very well be then shipped to poorer nations in Asia and Africa, or to Europe. The locations usually are not recorded by the JCC.
Of the 36% of produce that went to the EU, 15% reached Spain, whereas Italy (7%), the Netherlands (5%), Romania (4%), Germany (3%), Eire, France (1%), Bulgaria (<1%) and Greece (<1%) have all benefitted.
The remaining 17% of the cargo has reached African international locations; (10%), Sudan (3%), Kenya (2%), Somalia (1%) and Djibouti (1%).
Along with the JCC shipments, business vessels leaving Ukraine have carried a variety of meals merchandise together with wheat, corn for animal feed, sunflower meal, soya beans, sunflower oil and sunflower seed.
Meals safety specialists have mentioned many of those shipments are deliveries on current contracts that have been struck earlier than Russia’s invasion, reasonably than new shipments which were earmarked for Europe.
Simply three ships underneath the World Meals Programme
“The target of the Black Sea Grain Initiative is to spice up business provides of grain into the market that may assist comprise and scale back meals costs,” a press release to Euronews learn.
The UN is hoping to help poor households and susceptible populations world wide, in addition to allow farmers to develop meals at a manageable value.
However whereas at the very least 30% of the grain leaving Ukraine has reached international locations in want, Putin is appropriate to say solely a small quantity has been shipped underneath the World Meals Programme.
To this point, the WFP has chartered simply three vessels to load wheat from Ukraine in help of its humanitarian operations world wide.
The primary deliberate WFP cargo, which left the Ukrainian port on the Razoni ship in early August, by no means reached its supposed port after the preliminary Lebanese purchaser in Tripoli refused the supply, citing a five-month delay. The vessel was left to dump a lot of its 26,000 tonnes of corn on the Syrian port of Tartus.
Just one ship from Ukraine has thus far arrived in sub-Saharan Africa, docking on the port of Djibouti on August 30. An estimated 23,000 tons of grain on that ship will go to drought-affected Somalia and Ethiopia, in line with the WFP.
The UN says the cargo is sufficient to feed 1.5 million folks on full rations for a month, however meals safety specialists say it’s only a drop within the ocean for East Africa’s wants.
Analysts additionally imagine it’s going to take weeks for folks in African international locations to see grain from Ukraine arrive and even longer to see it deliver down excessive meals costs.
In 2021, two-thirds of the 4.4 million tonnes of meals help distributed world wide by the WFP got here from Ukraine. Somalia alone had sourced round 90% of its wheat from Ukraine and Russia earlier than 2022.
On Tuesday, Kyiv mentioned that 28,600 tonnes of wheat will arrive in Somalia within the coming weeks.
“Ukraine continues to avoid wasting the world with its grain,” Zelenskyy wrote on Twitter, blaming the approaching famine in North Africa on Russia’s invasion.
The WFP has a second ship, the MV Karteria, loaded with 37,500 tonnes of wheat for Yemen by way of Turkey.
“The grain will present a 50-kg bag of wheat flour to just about 4 million folks for one month and can assist WFP handle speedy gaps in help,” a assertion learn.
An estimated 46% of Yemen’s 2021 wheat imports got here from Ukraine and Russia.
One other business vessel authorised to depart Ukraine on Wednesday is sure for Kenya with 51,400 metric tons of wheat, the JCC added.
However the WFP has admitted that “export volumes stay far under pre-conflict averages” and time could also be working out.
The July settlement brokered by the UN and Turkey solely lasts for 120 days. If Russia continues to press for a revision, the deal might not be prolonged after November.
World
Earth bids farewell to its temporary 'mini moon' that is possibly a chunk of our actual moon
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Planet Earth is parting company with an asteroid that’s been tagging along as a “mini moon” for the past two months.
The harmless space rock will peel away on Monday, overcome by the stronger tug of the sun’s gravity. But it will zip closer for a quick visit in January.
NASA will use a radar antenna to observe the 33-foot (10-meter) asteroid then. That should deepen scientists’ understanding of the object known as 2024 PT5, quite possibly a boulder that was blasted off the moon by an impacting, crater-forming asteroid.
While not technically a moon — NASA stresses it was never captured by Earth’s gravity and fully in orbit — it’s “an interesting object” worthy of study.
The astrophysicist brothers who identified the asteroid’s “mini moon behavior,” Raul and Carlos de la Fuente Marcos of Complutense University of Madrid, have collaborated with telescopes in the Canary Islands for hundreds of observations so far.
Currently more than 2 million miles (3.5 million kilometers) away, the object is too small and faint to see without a powerful telescope. It will pass as close as 1.1 million miles (1.8 million kilometers) of Earth in January, maintaining a safe distance before it zooms farther into the solar system while orbiting the sun, not to return until 2055. That’s almost five times farther than the moon.
First spotted in August, the asteroid began its semi jog around Earth in late September, after coming under the grips of Earth’s gravity and following a horseshoe-shaped path. By the time it returns next year, it will be moving too fast — more than double its speed from September — to hang around, said Raul de la Fuente Marcos.
NASA will track the asteroid for more than a week in January using the Goldstone solar system radar antenna in California’s Mojave Desert, part of the Deep Space Network.
Current data suggest that during its 2055 visit, the sun-circling asteroid will once again make a temporary and partial lap around Earth.
___
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
World
Israel confirms death of missing Abu Dhabi rabbi: 'Abhorrent act of antisemitic terrorism’
Israeli officials on Sunday confirmed the death of an Abu Dhabi rabbi who had been missing since Thursday.
“The UAE intelligence and security authorities have located the body of Zvi Kogan, who has been missing since Thursday, 21 November 2024,” the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement on X. “The Israeli mission in Abu Dhabi has been in contact with the family from the start of the event and is continuing to assist it at this difficult time; his family in Israel has also been updated.”
“The murder of Zvi Kogan, of blessed memory, is an abhorrent act of antisemitic terrorism. The State of Israel will use all means and will deal with the criminals responsible for his death to the fullest extent of the law,” the statement added.
RABBI FEARED KIDNAPPED, KILLED BY TERRORISTS AFTER GOING MISSING, PROMPTING INVESTIGATION
Rabbi Zvi Kogan was an emissary of the Chabad Lubavitch movement, a prominent and highly observant branch of Hasidic Judaism based in Brooklyn’s Crown Heights neighborhood in New York City.
The 28-year-old was a resident of Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates when he went missing Thursday. He is a citizen of both Moldova and Israel.
According to his LinkedIn, Kogan worked as a recruiter and was “passionate about volunteering and serving [his] community.”
‘CHEERLEADING FOR TERRORISM’: TWITCH STAR CALLED FOR NEW 9/11, DISMISSED HORROR OF OCT 7
The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office announced its investigation into the unusual disappearance on Saturday. At the time, the statement said the disappearance appeared to be related to “a terrorist incident” but did not elaborate.
The United Arab Emirates’ Ministry of Interior had confirmed it was investigating Kogan’s disappearance, but described his citizenship solely as a “Moldovan national.”
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The Rimon Market, a Kosher grocery store that Kogan managed on Dubai’s busy Al Wasl Road, was shut Sunday, according to the Associated Press. It had been a target of anti-Israel protests.
Kogan’s wife, Rivky, is a U.S. citizen who lived with him in the UAE. She is the niece of Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg, who was killed in the 2008 Mumbai attacks.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
World
‘Optical illusion’: Key takeaways from COP29
Rich countries have pledged to contribute $300bn a year by 2035 to help poorer nations combat the effects of climate change after two weeks of intense negotiations at the United Nations climate summit (COP29) in Azerbaijan’s capital, Baku.
While this marks a significant increase from the previous $100bn pledge, the deal has been sharply criticised by developing nations as woefully insufficient to address the scale of the climate crisis.
This year’s summit, hosted by the oil and gas-rich former Soviet republic, unfolded against the backdrop of a looming political shift in the United States as a climate-sceptic Donald Trump administration takes office in January. Faced with this uncertainty, many countries deemed the failure to secure a new financial agreement in Baku an unacceptable risk.
Here are the key takeaways from this year’s summit:
‘No real money on the table’: $300bn climate finance fund slammed
While a broader target of $1.3 trillion annually by 2035 was adopted, only $300bn annually was designated for grants and low-interest loans from developed nations to aid the developing world in transitioning to low-carbon economies and preparing for climate change effects.
Under the deal, the majority of the funding is expected to come from private investment and alternative sources, such as proposed levies on fossil fuels and frequent flyers – which remain under discussion.
“The rich world staged a great escape in Baku,” said Mohamed Adow, the Kenyan director of Power Shift Africa, a think tank.
“With no real money on the table, and vague and unaccountable promises of funds to be mobilised, they are trying to shirk their climate finance obligations,” he added, explaining that “poor countries needed to see clear, grant-based, climate finance” which “was sorely lacking”.
The deal states that developed nations would be “taking the lead” in providing the $300bn – implying that others could join.
The US and the European Union want newly wealthy emerging economies like China – currently the world’s largest emitter – to chip in. But the deal only “encourages” emerging economies to make voluntary contributions.
Failure to explicitly repeat the call for a transition away from fossil fuels
A call to “transition away” from coal, oil, and gas made during last year’s COP28 summit in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, was touted as groundbreaking – the first time that 200 countries, including top oil and gas producers like Saudi Arabia and the US, acknowledged the need to phase down fossil fuels. But the latest talks only referred to the Dubai deal, without explicitly repeating the call for a transition away from fossil fuels.
Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev referred to fossil fuel resources as a “gift from God” during his keynote opening speech.
New carbon credit trading rules approved
New rules allowing wealthy, high-emission countries to buy carbon-cutting “offsets” from developing nations were approved this week.
The initiative, known as Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, establishes frameworks for both direct country-to-country carbon trading and a UN-regulated marketplace.
Proponents believe this could channel vital investment into developing nations, where many carbon credits are generated through activities like reforestation, protecting carbon sinks, and transitioning to clean energy.
However, critics warn that without strict safeguards, these systems could be exploited to greenwash climate targets, allowing leading polluters to delay meaningful emissions reductions. The unregulated carbon market has previously faced scandals, raising concerns about the effectiveness and integrity of these credits.
Disagreements within the developing world
The negotiations were also the scene of disagreements within the developing world.
The Least Developed Countries (LDCs) bloc had asked that it receive $220bn per year, while the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) wanted $39bn – demands that were opposed by other developing nations.
The figures did not appear in the final deal. Instead, it calls for tripling other public funds they receive by 2030.
The next COP, in Brazil in 2025, is expected to issue a report on how to boost climate finance for these countries.
Who said what?
EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen hailed the deal in Baku as marking “a new era for climate cooperation and finance”.
She said the $300bn agreement after marathon talks “will drive investments in the clean transition, bringing down emissions and building resilience to climate change”.
US President Joe Biden cast the agreement reached in Baku as a “historic outcome”, while EU climate envoy Wopke Hoekstra said it would be remembered as “the start of a new era for climate finance”.
But others fully disagreed. India, a vociferous critic of rich countries’ stance in climate negotiations, called it “a paltry sum”.
“This document is little more than an optical illusion,” India’s delegate Chandni Raina said.
Sierra Leone’s Environment Minister Jiwoh Abdulai said the deal showed a “lack of goodwill” from rich countries to stand by the world’s poorest as they confront rising seas and harsher droughts. Nigeria’s envoy Nkiruka Maduekwe called it “an insult”.
Is the COP process in doubt?
Despite years of celebrated climate agreements, greenhouse gas emissions and global temperatures continue to rise, with 2024 on track to be the hottest year recorded. The intensifying effects of extreme weather highlight the insufficient pace of action to avert a full-blown climate crisis.
The COP29 finance deal has drawn criticism as inadequate.
Adding to the unease, Trump’s presidential election victory loomed over the talks, with his pledges to withdraw the US from global climate efforts and appoint a climate sceptic as energy secretary further dampening optimism.
‘No longer fit for purpose’
The Kick the Big Polluters Out (KBPO) coalition of NGOs analysed accreditations at the summit, calculating that more than 1,700 people linked to fossil fuel interests attended.
A group of leading climate activists and scientists, including former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, warned earlier this month that the COP process was “no longer fit for purpose”.
They urged smaller, more frequent meetings, strict criteria for host countries and rules to ensure companies showed clear climate commitments before being allowed to send lobbyists to the talks.
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