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Best of the Web: Turkey suspends olive oil exports as prices across Europe surge 60% - latest country to enforce food export ban

Ragip Soylu
Middle East Eye
Wed, 02 Aug 2023 12:58 UTC
olive oil
© AFPOlive oil production in Spain and Italy declined by 20 percent in the 2022-23 season
Turkey has taken the unprecedented step of suspending the export of bulk and barrelled olive oil until the harvest season in November.

The move comes in response to a devastating drought that has hit Europe, leading to increased demand for Turkish products and a surge in the price of olive oil in Turkey.


Comment: Much of Europe has seen cooler than average temperatures thus far, and this year's drought doesn't appear to be worse than previous years, so is that really the cause? Because there are other factors to consider: Turkey's economy has been devastated by soaring inflation; inflation and the energy crisis in Europe has caused its own produce to be more expensive than usual; and, indeed, extreme weather and the erratic seasons has put a strain on supplies.


According to a statement issued by the Turkish Trade Ministry on Tuesday, producer and market prices have seen a staggering increase of 102 percent in Turkey since June.

Comment: This is just the latest export ban to come into force, with India, followed by Russia, banning exports of rice in order to stabilise the supply at home. As countries are forced to prioritise feeding their own people, or risk societal unrest at home, it's likely that these food bans are just the beginning, and next up will be the food shortages that numerous officials have been warning about for the last few years:

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Rainbow

Gender Neutral Pronouns - Why?

Juliana Barembuem
YouTube
Mon, 31 Jul 2023 00:00 UTC
juliana barembuem
Let's discuss gender-neutral pronouns from a linguistic perspective. Are they useful and efficient? How do different languages use gender pronouns? How should they be used? What is the psychological truth behind them?
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Bullseye

Russia strikes Ukraine's Danube port, global grain prices surge, Turkey-Russia grain deal talks

Pavel Polity
Reuters
Wed, 02 Aug 2023 12:10 UTC
odessa port strike
© Ukraine's Operational Command 'South' /Handout via REUTERSFirefighters work at a damaged property, following a Russian drone attack, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, at Izmail, Odesa region, Ukraine, August 2, 2023, in this screen grab obtained from a handout video.
Russia attacked Ukraine's main inland port across the Danube River from Romania on Wednesday, sending global food prices higher as it ramps up its use of force to prevent Ukraine from exporting grain.


Comment: Russia is preventing the West and Ukraine from shipping weapons, not grain. Further, some EU countries, such as Poland, and Hungary, are actively working to block Ukraine's grain: Kiev should 'appreciate' Poland's support: Diplomatic spat erupts as Polish pro-war policy clashes with Ukraine grain ban


The attacks destroyed buildings in the port of Izmail and halted ships in their tracks as they prepared to arrive there to load up with Ukrainian grain in defiance of a de-facto blockade Russia reimposed in mid-July.

Commercial ship tracking data showed dozens of international ships halting and dropping anchor at the mouth of the Danube, many of them registered to arrive in Izmail from the Black Sea in an apparent bid to open a breach in Russia's blockade.

Comment: For more on the implications of these precision strikes, see: Korybko: Russia's surgical strike on the Moldovan-Romanian-Ukrainian tri-border sent several messages

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Cloud Lightning

Nobel Prize winner who doesn't believe climate crisis has speech canceled

Matthew Impelli
Newsweek
Mon, 24 Jul 2023 16:39 UTC
Dr. John Clauser
© Christine Olsson/TT News Agency/AFP/GettyPhysicist Dr. John Clauser poses after having been awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics 2022 during the Nobel Prize award ceremony at the Concert Hall in Stockholm, Sweden, on December 10, 2022. The Co2 Coalition said this week that the International Monetary Fund canceled Clauser's speech scheduled for July 25, 2023.
Nobel Prize winner Dr. John Clauser, who has disputed issues surrounding climate change, recently was told he would not be speaking to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), according to Co2 Coalition, a non-profit organization that believes carbon dioxide is beneficial to society.

"Nobel Laureate (Physics 2022) Dr. John Clauser was to present a seminar on climate models to the IMF on Thursday and now his talk has been summarily cancelled," the Co2 Coalition said in a statement. "According to an email he received last evening, the Director of the Independent Evaluation Office of the International Monetary Fund, Pablo Moreno, had read the flyer for John's July 25 zoom talk and summarily and immediately canceled the talk. Technically, it was 'postponed,'" the statement added.

The announcement by the Co2 Coalition came shortly after Clauser made comments disputing climate change during a speech in Seoul, South Korea, at Quantum Korea 2023, an international conference centered on the global trends of quantum ecosystem innovations from the academic, government and private sectors.

Comment: See also: Boiling ocean update: Florida sea temperature 'record' drops 15°F in just 48 hours

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Flashlight

Witness to Obama chef's drowning was female employee who tried to help, swam to shore for aid

Hannah Nightingale
The Post Millennial
Tue, 01 Aug 2023 00:01 UTC
tafari campbell obama
A female staff member of Barack Obama has been revealed to be the second person with chef Tafari Campbell when he drowned while paddle boarding in Edgartown's Great Pond near the former president's Martha Vineyard estate last month.

The woman, who had been with Campbell on a separate board, desperately tried to reach Campbell after he fell in the water but was forced to return to the shore to call for help, according to the Daily Mail.

Sources told the outlet that it was a Secret Service agent who then called emergency services from the Edgartown estate to report the incident.

Comment: See also:

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Attention

White South African farmer's throat slit on his property by 4 teens the day after 90,000 black people gathered in a stadium to chant about killing white farmers

Joel Abbott
Not the Bee
Tue, 01 Aug 2023 00:01 UTC
Economic Freedom Fighters marlinda theo bekker
What's happening in South Africa should be a lesson to us all when you teach people to hate others based on the color of their skin.

On Sunday, 79-year-old Theo Bekker and his wife Marlinda were attacked by four black teens who trespassed on their farm, tortured them, beat Theo with an iron bar, and then slit his throat.

They then stole cash and guns from the farm and took off in one of the couple's vehicles. Marlinda managed to run to a neighbors house and call the police, leading to a chase that ended in the perpetrators crashing.

Comment: See also:

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Attention

Let them eat bugs: Challenging the WEF's corporate-driven food reset

Colin Todhunter
Global Research
Mon, 31 Jul 2023 19:55 UTC
genetically modified foods graphic dna
© AYDINOZON/istock
The prevailing globalised agrifood model is built on unjust trade policies, the leveraging of sovereign debt, population displacement and land dispossession. It fuels commodity monocropping and food insecurity as well as soil and environmental degradation.

It is responsible for increasing rates of illness, nutrient-deficient diets, a narrowing of the range of food crops, water shortages, chemical runoffs, increasing levels of farmer indebtedness, the undermining and destruction of local communities and the eradication of biodiversity.

The model relies on a policy paradigm that privileges urbanisation, global markets, long supply chains, external proprietary inputs, highly processed food and market (corporate) dependency at the expense of rural communities, small independent enterprises and smallholder farms, local markets, short supply chains, on-farm resources, diverse agroecological cropping, nutrient dense diets and food sovereignty.

It is clear that there are huge environmental, social and health issues that stem from how much of our food is currently produced and consumed and that a paradigm shift is required.

Comment: Small and locally diffused seems the way to go. It worked for centuries. People know it instinctively. Look how many took up vegetable gardening or chicken keeping during the pandemic. It wasn't just a way to fill time while barred from their jobs. Those paying attention took note of the precariousness of their food supply and chose to do something about it, however small.

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Toys

Covid lockdowns had a 'catastrophic' impact on children's social and emotional skills, half of parents say

Connor Stringer
Daily Mail
Mon, 31 Jul 2023 19:28 UTC
school children wearing masks
Youngsters aged between four and seven were significantly more likely (52 per cent) to be affected than 12- to 15-year-olds (42 per cent), the research by the Institute of Fiscal Studies (IFS) reported
Nearly half of parents said their children's social and emotional skills got worse during the Covid-19 pandemic, a major study found.

Adults whose jobs were disrupted by the crisis, including those on furlough, were more likely to report that their offspring suffered development problems.

Youngsters aged between four and seven were significantly more likely (52 per cent) to be affected than 12- to 15-year-olds (42 per cent), the research by the Institute of Fiscal Studies (IFS) reported.

Furiously responding to the findings, campaigners blamed Covid lockdowns and school closures for having a 'catastrophic' impact on Britain's young.

The IFS surveyed 6,095 parents in England with children aged four to 16 about the impact of the first year of the pandemic.

It found that nearly half (48 per cent) reported that their sons and daughters' social and emotional skills deteriorated.

Children whose parents were furloughed were 'significantly more likely to experience a worsening in their socio-emotional skills than those whose parents had not been furloughed (51 per cent versus 45 per cent)'.
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Arrow Down

Russian State Duma Chairman accuses the Kiev regime of supporting crimes against children


Rossa Primavera News Agency
Tue, 01 Aug 2023 08:07 UTC
Crime Against Children
© India TV News
The Kiev regime supports crimes against children, Russian State Duma Chairman Vyacheslav Volodin said on his Telegram channel on August 1.

"Crimes against children are supported by the Kiev regime at the highest level," he emphasized.

Volodin noted that the surrogacy industry is booming in Ukraine, with advertisements everywhere. Agents are recruiting young women all over the country.
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Heart - Black

Woman escapes from 'maniac' after 14 years in captivity


RT
Tue, 01 Aug 2023 19:00 UTC
Russian investigator, village of Smolino, woman held for 14 years
© Russia's Investigative Committee in Chelyabinsk RegionA investigator working at a home in the village of Smolino where a woman had been held for 14 years.
A resident of Russia's Chelyabinsk Region allegedly kept a woman hostage for 14 years, while killing another female he had held, the local branch of the Investigative Committee said Monday. According to media reports, the suspect's mother helped the woman escape.

Investigators said that in the fall of 2009, the suspect brought the woman - a local resident - to a private house "under the pretext of drinking alcohol" and had kept her there ever since. This year, "after an exacerbation of mental illness, the man was taken to a medical institution and the woman was able to leave the household in which she was kept," the statement reads.

According to media reports, the victim, who was 19 years old when she was kidnapped, managed to escape on Saturday. The following day, police arrived in the Urals village of Smolino and searched a house belonging to 50-year-old Vladimir Cheskidov and his elderly mother Valentina.
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