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THE UNITED STATES and Russia blamed each other yesterday for the worsening food situation around the world as the war in Ukraine unfolds.
Washington called on Russia to allow exports of Ukrainian grain that is held up in Black Sea ports. Ukraine is one of the world’s top producers of wheat.
“Stop blocking the ports in the Black Sea. Allow for the free flow of ships and trains and trucks carrying food out of Ukraine,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said during a UN Security Council meeting organized by the United States.
“Stop threatening to withhold food and fertilizer exports from countries that criticize your war of aggression,” he said.
“The food supply for millions of Ukrainians and millions more around the world has quite literally been held hostage by the Russian military,” Blinken added.
Russia’s ambassador to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia, countered by saying his country is being blamed for all of the world’s woes.
He said the world has long suffered from a food crisis caused by an inflationary spiral stemming from rising costs of insurance, logistical snarls, and speculation on Western markets.
He argued that Ukraine’s ports are blocked by Ukraine itself, which, he said, has placed mines along the Black Sea coast.
And Ukraine does not want to cooperate with shipping companies to free up dozens of foreign freighters that are blocked in port, Nebenzia said.
He also denounced Western sanctions against Russia, saying their consequences are worsening food insecurity around the world.
Blinken countered that “sanctions aren’t preventing Russia from exporting food and fertilizer.”
“Sanctions imposed by the United States and many other countries deliberately include carve outs for food, for fertilizer and seeds from Russia,” he said.
“The decision to weaponize food is Moscow’s and Moscow’s alone,” said Blinken.
Serhii Dvornyk, a member of Ukraine’s mission to the UN, echoed that assertion.
“We demand that Russia stop illicit grain stealing, unblock Ukrainian seaports, restore freedom of navigation, and allow trade ships to pass,” Dvornyk said. “About 400 million people throughout the world depends on grain supplies from Ukraine.”
The country’s grain exports fell from five million tons per month before Russia’s February invasion to 200,000 in March and about 1.1 million in April, he added.
A day after the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres called on Russia to allow exports of Ukrainian grain, some 80 countries participated in the council meeting yesterday, overwhelmingly expressing concerns about the risk of food shortages.
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A day will come when we regard the days of social media dominance in the same way we view smoking in the office and drink driving today. We will look back and think what the f were we at? They are a c4ncer.
@David Clements: So true and sadly a lot of people can’t see the correlation between rising mental health issues and the internet/social media in general. It should really come with a health warning.
All the “moderators” of Facebook are useless anyway. I’ve reported quite a few disturbing things that apparently isn’t against their “standards” (not that they have any), yet someone’s unpopular opinion gets silenced, and you land in Führer Zuckerberg’s jail.
@Dan Skelton: Literally just what i said! its absolutely crazy. You can get banned for basically standing up for yourself. Se x ually explicit bullying is allowed, being called this and that and being told you need a good s** g (i was told this, by a woman, no less) and when i reported her, they said she posted nothing offensive.
@Dan Skelton: I reported a comment just this week where someone said that “Gay people were just the same as Peados” . It didn’t go against their guidelines. I was given the option to have the decision reviewed so I clicked that. They responded that they haven’t time to review it and their decision stands.
@Pauline Gallagher: I called out a homophobe on a sick rant about gay people by asking him if he was gay himself such was his fervent anti gay diatribe and I got a 7 day ban for bullying. You couldn’t make it up. (This comment is getting a 7.2 on the journals toxicometer.)
Maybe then they should spend less time targeting the wrong people for banning from Facebook? I got banned for using a so- called trigger word; i called this much more abusive man ‘a pile’, that was it, thats all i used, and i was banned for 30 days under their draconian bullying harassment laws. The guy in question was accusing me of being homophob ic and all sorts of things just because i raised concerns on an article about unisex bathrooms in a school. You cant say anything these days.
@Pauline Gallagher: On the contrary. You can say pretty much anything you want these days,with any number of platforms to facilitate your soapbox. you’re just not free from consequence of what you say.
@OnlyHereForTheComments: Consequences? I didnt do anything wrong. Youre missing the entire point of what i said.
I deactivated my twitter account recently…. Feels good…
End the internet! It’s just one big platform for advertising! It’s also making society a more closed place.
@Will: “End the internet!”
Steady on! The internet is the greatest thing humanity has invented since the wheel.
Just stay away from unsocial media and you’ll be right.
Farcebook is an absolute joke, the moderation is awful, a friend asked me where I was after posting a photo,I responded “I’d have to kill you if I told you that” followed by a big smile, I got blocked from commenting for 3 days, sad lot, obviously no understand of Irish wit.
Brave lady for doing what she did. That took guts.
@Adele Ryan: steady on, next she’ll tell everyone she’s a man and they’ll put her on the cover of Time Magazine
@Adele Ryan: She literally went through a full recruitment process to get that job. She knew full well what she was signing up for. Why is she moaning about it now. If she doesn’t like the job that she applied for then she should go and look for a job that suits her temperament !
logged off Facebook just over a year ago, best thing I’ve done in a long time, my mental health has improved.
I use twitter but I use an anonymous account.
I got banned from Facebook for saying that Israel was stealing Palestinians houses in Jerusalem and had killed children. Those content moderator are on hair triggers.
have your say