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One of the world’s biggest snack companies, Mondelez International, has been labeled an enemy of Ukraine due to its reluctance to exit Russia, Ukrainian media reported on Thursday.
The Ukrainian National Corruption Prevention Agency (NCPA) has designated the producer of Milka and Alpen Gold chocolate, Oreo and Barni biscuits, Picnic bars and Dirol chewing gum an “international sponsor of war” in an effort to “put pressure on those involved in the war.” Headquartered in Chicago, Mondelez is among the largest foreign companies still operating in Russia. The US company is the Russian market leader in chocolate, sweets, and biscuits and is also ranked second in the chewing gum and lollipops categories. In March 2022, Mondelez CEO Dirk Van De Put declared the company would be “scaling back all non-essential activities in Russia while helping maintain continuity of the food supply during the challenging times ahead.” In 2022 alone, the firm’s Russian subsidiary paid more than $61 million in taxes to the Russian budget, according to the NCPA. Mondelez has three large production facilities in the country employing some 3,200 people. The Ukrainian agency claimed that the “company continues to promote its products in Russia and import new products to this market” and by doing so is indirectly involved in financing the conflict. The Oreo manufacturer has been branded an enemy of Ukraine along with Raiffeisen Bank International, Auchan, Metro, Procter & Gamble, Bonduelle, Leroy Merlin, Xiaomi and many other international companies. Eurozone inflation surged to 7% in April in the first increase in the last five months, data released by the European Union’s statistics office Eurostat on Tuesday showed. Consumer prices rose from 6.9% in March, driven by food prices that soared 13.6% year-on-year last month. Food, alcohol and tobacco are expected to have the highest annual rate in April, followed by non-energy industrial goods, which picked up 6.2%.
Services climbed by 5.2% in April, compared with 5.1% the previous month. Energy prices were up again by 2.5% after a slight decline by 0.9% in March, according to the report. Core inflation – excluding food and energy prices – declined from 5.7% in March to 5.6% in April. The figures are closely watched by European Central Bank policymakers, who will decide whether to continue raising interest rates to curb inflation when they meet on Thursday. Latvia continues to struggle with the highest inflation at 15%, followed by Slovakia, Lithuania and Ireland — all dealing with a double-digit surge in consumer prices among the 20-member eurozone. Inflation in Germany, the EU's biggest economy, declined to 7.6% in April from 7.8% in March. In France, however, consumer prices rose 6.9% last month up from 6.7% in March, Eurostat said. While the ECB has not committed to a new rate hike, the latest figures make it more likely, economists warn. The key deposit rate in the eurozone stands at 3%. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) recently said that taming inflation while avoiding a recession was the biggest challenge the EU will face in the months to come. Farmers movement BBB has become the largest party in all twelve Dutch provinces, according to the provincial results. Utrecht was the last province to get its results in. GroenLinks and BBB were neck-on-neck in the province, but BBB came out on top with 13.2 percent of the votes. GroenLinks is the second largest party there with 12.8 percent, followed by VVD with 11.9 percent, NOS and ANP report.
The turnout stood at 57.5 percent, higher than 2019’s already high 56 percent. According to the broadcaster, the turnout for this provincial election will likely be the highest since the late 1980s. Prime Minister Mark Rutte called the BBB’s massive victory “a very clear cry to politicians” and a “very clear relevant signal” from the voter. Rutte told ANP he does not yet know how to interpret this cry. He needs more time to think about it. Sixteen hours after the first results is too early for a “full-fledged analysis,” he said. To NOS, Rutte said he believes there is still support for his Cabinet. “We have a majority in parliament; there have been democratic elections.” The coalition already didn’t have a majority in the Senate, but losing more seats will still be a blow. Rutte wants to see how this plays out “In the coming days and weeks.” Results per province In Drenthe, the BBB got 33.5 percent of the votes, amounting to 17 seats in the Provincial Council - more than the total number of seats of the parties in places 2 to 7, according to the broadcaster. In Overijssel, the party got 31 percent of the votes. In the municipalities of Dinkelland and Tubbergen, BBB even won outright, getting more than half of the votes. In these two municipalities, the CDA - traditionally the farmers’ party - lost a lot of voters. The turnout in Tubbergen was also 16 percent higher than in 2019. In Limburg, BBB got 18.5 percent of the votes, here too, mostly at the expense of the CDA. Geert Wilders’ PVV, traditionally strong in Limburg, lost some voters but became the second-largest party with 12.7 percent of the votes. In Groningen, BBB got 23.6 percent of the votes. PvdA and GroenLinks are the second and third biggest parties in the province, each getting about 10 percent of the votes. CDA’s votes about halved, from 8.1 percent in 2019 to 4.1 percent this year. The other coalition parties also scored less well than in 2019. Friesland’s provisional results had the BBB with 27.9 percent of the votes. The PvdA is the second-largest party with 10.6 percent, followed by CDA with 8.7 percent. BBB got 23.8 percent of Gelderland voters' votes. The VVD is in a distant second place with 10 percent. PvdA is the third party with 8.8 percent of the votes. In Zuid-Holland, the farmers' party got 13.7 percent of the votes, beating the VVD's 12.9 percent. In 2019, the ruling party still got 15.7 percent of the votes. GroenLinks is the third largest party in Zuid-Holland with 9.7 percent of the votes, 0.6 percent more than in 2019. BBB got 14.2 percent of the votes in Noord-Holland, over a percentage point more than second-place VVD. PvdA and GroenLinks are the third and fourth largest parties in the province. Together, the two left-wing parties are larger than the BBB. In Noord-Brabant, the farmer's movement got 18.2 percent of the votes. VVD is the second largest party, with 14.1 percent of the votes. BBB will get 11 of the 55 seats in the Provincial Council, the VVD 9. GroenLinks is the third largest party, with 7.7 percent of the votes and five seats. In Flevoland, BBB got 20.8 percent of the votes. VVD came in second largest with 9.9 percent of the votes, followed by the PVV with 7.7 percent, PvdA with 7.6 percent, and GroenLinks with 6.9 percent. And in Zeeland, the BBB is the largest party with 19.7 percent of the votes, pushing the CDA from its throne. Left-wing combination GroenLinks/PvdA is the second largest party with 13.4 percent, followed by the SGP with 12.5 and then CDA with 11.4 percent. Eerste Kamer This was the BBB’s first time participating in the provincial elections, and its massive victory translates into 16, maybe 17 seats in the Eerste Kamer, the Dutch Senate, according to a prognosis by ANP on Thursday afternoon. The left-wing bloc PvdA/GroenLinks is projected to get 15 seats. The two parties had separate electoral lists but will form one faction in the Senate. The biggest loser in this election was FvD, who won 12 seats in the 2019 elections and only 2, maybe 3, in this one. Though due to infighting and split-offs, the FvD currently only has one actual seat in the Senate, so even with the much fewer votes, it may be considered a win. All four coalition pirates - VVD, D66, CDA, and ChristenUnie - lost seats. For many voters, dissatisfaction with the current Cabinet motivated their choice to vote for someone else, according to an online poll by Ipsos. The distinctive triangular Swiss Toblerone chocolate is losing the Matterhorn mountain image from its branding as production will soon no longer be based exclusively in Switzerland. The new wrapping will feature a generic mountain design instead, the confectionery brand’s US owner Mondelez has revealed. The company had earlier decided to shift some of the Toblerone production to its plant in the Slovakian capital of Bratislava from the end of 2023, where it also produces the Milka chocolate brand.
“The packaging redesign introduces a modernized and streamlined mountain logo that aligns with the geometric and triangular aesthetic,” a Mondelez spokesperson told Swiss newspaper Aargauer Zeitung last week. The designation “Toblerone – of Switzerland” will be replaced with “Established in Switzerland,” the spokesperson stated. The new wrapping will reportedly also feature the signature of its founder, Theodor Tobler. Under “Swissness” legislation introduced by Switzerland in 2017, milk and milk-based products have to be entirely produced in the country in order to use national symbols in their marketing. An exception is for cocoa because it cannot be sourced locally. For other foodstuffs to market themselves as “made in Switzerland,” 80% of the raw ingredients must be sourced from the country and the majority of processing must take place there. The Toblerone chocolate bar, consisting of nougat, almonds and honey, has been produced in the Swiss capital Berne, also known as the ‘City of Bears’, since 1908. The fate of a bear, which is climbing the 4,478-meter-high (14,690ft) Matterhorn mountain in the current Toblerone logo, remains unknown. Russia wants its main agricultural lender Rosselkhozbank to be reconnected to the SWIFT financial network, in order to free up grain and fertilizer exports, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Vershinin said on Saturday.
“This is not the first time we are discussing this because, from my perspective, reconnecting Rosselkhozbank, which provides the majority of agricultural transactions, is a key issue… We have discussed this issue and received assurances again from the UN representatives that they also consider this issue to be vital,” Vershinin told reporters. His comments follow a meeting with senior UN officials on Friday, addressing the deal guaranteeing safe passage to Ukraine’s grain exports via the Black Sea. Under the pact, brokered in July by the UN and Türkiye, Russia sought a sanctions reprieve for its own agricultural trade, but has since voiced discontent with UN efforts to lift Western restrictions affecting the sector. While the sanctions do not directly target Russia’s agriculture, they affect payments, insurance and shipping. Many Russian banks were disconnected from the SWIFT financial messaging system earlier this year, making it difficult to carry out direct settlements for exports. According to Vershinin, one way to ease the problem would be to open correspondent accounts in foreign banks, such as Citibank and JPMorgan, to facilitate payments for Russian exports. “This option, if anything, can only be temporary, because the real solution is a full reconnection to the SWIFT financial messaging system of Rosselkhozbank,” he stressed, adding that the issue needs to be resolved before the grain deal expires on November 19. Vershinin noted that Moscow has not yet agreed to extend its participation in the deal. Previously, a number of top Russian top officials warned that the country could choose to exit the agreement, if the UN does not fulfil its pledges regarding Russian exports. Some farmers in Europe are winding down production this winter due to high energy prices, further threatening the global food supply that is already in a crisis. Europe faces a potential energy shortage this winter as countries in the region are highly dependent on Russia for natural gas. However, Russia has shut down a significant pipeline to Europe, citing technical issues due to sanctions over the invasion of Ukraine, and the EU is planning a full Russian oil ban this winter. This has caused a massive surge in natural-gas prices that were already on the rise even before the war due to rebounding demand as pandemic restrictions eased.
As energy is required throughout the food production process, farmers and food producers are feeling the pinch from red-hot prices with some halting or slowing output in the colder months ahead. Nordic Greens Trelleborg, a top Swedish tomato producer, said it will not be planting a winter crop this year because it would be running at a loss given current electricity prices, Swedish newspaper Afton Bladet reported on Sunday. That's because Nordic Greens had already locked in tomato prices earlier in the year when electricity prices were lower, explained the company's site manager Mindaugas Krasauskas. It's the first time the company is suspending production. EU farmer union Copa-Cogeca told the Financial Times that the dairy and bakery sectors are the most impacted by the surge in fuel prices because processes for pasteurization and milk powder production consume a lot of energy. This, in turn, has pushed up butter and milk powder prices, which were up 80% and 55% respectively at the end of August from a year ago, according to the European Commission. Meanwhile, some greenhouses — which regulate temperatures for off-season growing — in the Netherlands are switching off or reducing production areas this winter due to expensive fuel prices, Reuters reported on Wednesday. The Netherlands is the world's second-largest agricultural exporter after the US, so a reduction in farm output would hit shipments of fruits, vegetables, and flowers. With man-made farming solutions slowing due to the energy crisis, the industry could be going back in time this year. "It's like we will go back in history again with Spain producing in wintertime and the northern European countries producing their own vegetables in summertime," Rabobank analyst Cindy van Rijswick told Reuters. "Some people say maybe that's the way it should be." The Dutch government announced it will allocate € 60 million ($ 65.4 million), to support the formation of an ecosystem around cellular agriculture. It represents the largest public funding into the cellular agriculture field ever, globally. The funding is awarded under conditions by the National Growth Fund, which aims to create structural economic growth by investing in the public domain to support innovative economic sectors.
We are proud to be part of the consortium that submitted the cellular agriculture growth plan, Cellular Agriculture Netherlands. Together with this group of Dutch entrepreneurs, scientists, academics and food pioneers we are developing a more sustainable food system that makes sure people can eat the food they love, without harming people, the planet or animals. This financial impulse represents a first step towards funding a larger growth plan proposing to invest € 252 – € 382 mln in cellular agriculture, specifically stimulating cellular agriculture education, academic research, publicly accessible scale-up facilities, societal integration (including farmers and consumers) and innovation. The broader growth plan is projected to generate an incremental €10 – €14 billion in Dutch GDP growth per year by 2050, with significant global climate, environmental and health benefits. For example avoiding ~12 Mton CO2-eq. emissions and 100-130 kton ammonia per year in 2050. “We are very excited for the visionary leadership the Dutch government is demonstrating today again,” said Ira van Eelen, on behalf of the Dutch Cellular Agriculture Foundation. “The Netherlands is the ideal place for cellular agriculture to flourish. It has a rich history in laying the global foundations of cellular agriculture. It is a global powerhouse in alternative protein and food innovation. It has a global frontrunner position in biotechnology and agriculture. It is the 2nd biggest exporter of traditional agricultural products in the world. And let’s not forget, it was the first country to publicly fund cultivated meat research and present the first proof of concept hamburger to the world. This is a great way to grow sustainably whilst our growth is currently under pressure.” The Netherlands has a strong history of innovating food production. This public investment in cellular agriculture is a demonstration of the Dutch government’s commitment to building an agricultural ecosystem that is healthy and sustainable. In combination with reforms to traditional farming, cellular agriculture can be an additional tool to satisfy the world’s growing appetite for protein. While individual cellular agriculture companies have been successful in attracting private funding, the Growth Fund financing is explicitly aiming to support the public part of the ecosystem. The expectation is that this impulse will attract more companies, more funding, and more collaboration across the cellular agriculture field in and with The Netherlands over the next few years. This announcement is not changing the process individual companies have to follow to obtain regulatory approval to sell their products, which is the European Novel Foods procedure. “Cultured meat is a fast-growing industry and it’s important to invest and support education and research across all areas from universities to research labs as well as informing the wider population about this dynamic industry. This is an exciting next step in the development of the cellular agriculture ecosystem, supporting this innovative new industry like so many other emerging industries before it, and one that will be beneficial to us all,” concludes Daan Luining CTO & co-founder of Meatable. Music artists and liquor brands seem to go hand-in-hand. Moguls like Diddy and Jay-Z helped pioneer the trend for hip-hop artists securing spots in the liquor realm, and now it’s becoming even more common for recording artists to own liquor companies. From Bruno Mars to Sammy Hagar, we’ve put together a roster of recording artists who have their own alcohol brands, some of which you may already be familiar with, and others that you might now know. Below, find a list of musician-backed spirits and lagers, plus a non-alcoholic option and a beverage collab. For more boozy content, read our roundup of musician-owned wines.
An article published by the United Nations hailing the benefits of hunger has gone viral on social media today, with netizens expressing shock over the claims made in the article titled “The Benefits of World Hunger”. Written by retired Hawaiian professor George Kent, the article explains how hunger is needed to get workers for low-level manual jobs. It was published on UN Chronicle, the flagship magazine of the UN. The article argues that people work to fight hunger, and if there is no hunger, there will be nobody to do the manual jobs. Kenk shockingly says, “For those of us at the high end of the social ladder, ending hunger globally would be a disaster. If there were no hunger in the world, who would plow the fields? Who would harvest our vegetables? Who would work in the rendering plants? Who would clean our toilets? We would have to produce our own food and clean our own toilets.”
George Kent also claims that only hungry people work hard, while well-nourished people are far less willing to do such work. He termed the notion that people should be fed well to make them more productive ‘nosense’, saying that “No one works harder than hungry people.” The article caused great outrage on social media across the world, with common netizens and well-known people slamming it for glorifying hunger for the benefits of the rich. While the article has gone viral today (6th June 2022) for some reason, actually it was published more than a decade ago. The article was originally published on the UN Chronicle, the flagship magazine of the United Nations, way back in 2008 in printed form. Later the article was republished on the UN website in 2019, which has gone viral now. The same article is also available on researchgate, the repository of research papers, which says that it was written in June 2008. While the premise of the article is indeed absurd, it actually seems to be a work of satire. George Kent, who was a professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Hawaii and now a Professor Emeritus at the university, had actually written the article to claim that the rich keep the poor people hungry so that they work for the comfort of the rich. In fact, he has added in the article, “people at the high end are not rushing to solve the hunger problem. For many of us, hunger is not a problem, but an asset.” In the article, George Kent also claimed that people at the high end are not rushing to solve the hunger problem due to this reason. Although subtle, this suggests that the article was satirical in nature. While most people were outraged by the article, some people said that it was a satire. George Kent has written extensively on the issue of global hunger, including a book titled “Freedom from Want: The Human Right to Adequate Food”. Therefore it is unlikely that he will write something positive about the issue, and hence it can be said that the article is satirical. Fast-food fanatics went crazy over a photo of a recently “discovered” Burger King, preserved and appearing almost blemish-free despite being a relic of the past. The old restaurant was found hidden behind a wall in a Wilmington, Delaware, mall and looked completely untouched. “A fully intact vintage Burger King was found behind a wall at the Concord Mall in Wilmington, DE. This photo was snapped by Jonathon Pruitt April of 2022,” People loved the blast from the past and commented their shock and amusement. “And the plants are still alive,” someone joked alongside a GIF reading “Gullible.” To which the original poster wrote: “What if I told you they were fake plants?” “I have experienced this mall … it was frightening,” another noted. One user reminisced about visiting the mall in their younger years in response. “It was sorta dreamy to me, post-apocalyptic and you’re walking among the ashes. Also, that old mall aesthetic kinda brings up fond memories of childhood,” they wrote. “That’s so crazy! I live here and remember [the mall],” someone else added. “[It’s] probably been closed about 15 years, I swore something took over the space. I don't go to that mall much anymore but im def going to look next time I'm nearby, I remember exactly where it was.”
Burger King recently found itself in the fryer with its Pride month campaign in Austria last month. The fast-food chain launched its “Pride whopper,” which had all of the same ingredients as the company’s regular burger except for “two equal buns.” Burger lovers were able to get their meaty sandwiches with either two top halves or two bottom parts. “The Equal Buns campaign was executed by our Burger King Austria team, in an effort to highlight equal rights and equal love — through a play on the traditional Whopper build — featuring two identical buns on the two options of the sandwich,” a BK spokesperson said in June. “Burger King Austria also serves as an Official Proud Partner and Sponsor of Vienna Pride 2022,” they continued. Customers were not happy with the meal and ran to Twitter to slam the company’s poor choice of Pride products. Jumbo floating restaurant, a once famed but financially struggling Hong Kong tourist attraction, sank in the South China Sea after being towed away from the city, its parent company said Monday. It capsized on Sunday near the Paracel Islands after it “encountered adverse conditions” and began to take on water, Aberdeen Restaurant Enterprises announced in a statement.
“The water depth at the scene is over 1,000 meters, making it extremely difficult to carry out salvage works,” it added. The company said it was “very saddened by the incident” but that no crew members were injured. It said marine engineers had been hired to inspect the floating restaurant and install hoardings on the vessel before the trip, and that “all relevant approvals” had been obtained. The restaurant closed in March 2020, citing the Covid-19 pandemic as the final straw after almost a decade of financial woes. Operator Melco International Development said last month the business had not been profitable since 2013 and cumulative losses had exceeded HK$100 million ($12.7 million). It was still costing millions in maintenance fees every year and around a dozen businesses and organizations had declined an invitation to take it over at no charge, Melco added. It announced last month that ahead of its license expiration in June, Jumbo would leave Hong Kong and await a new operator at an undisclosed location. The restaurant set off shortly before noon last Tuesday from the southern Hong Kong Island typhoon shelter where it had sat for nearly half a century. Opened in 1976 by the late casino tycoon Stanley Ho, in its glory days, it embodied the height of luxury, reportedly costing more than HK$30 million to build. Designed like a Chinese imperial palace and once considered a must-see landmark, the restaurant drew visitors from Queen Elizabeth II to Tom Cruise. It also featured in several films — including Steven Soderbergh’s “Contagion”, about a deadly global pandemic. A group of institutional investors in the Netherlands, led by Peter Savelberg of Peter Savelberg en Partners, have joined forces to present the Netherlands plus parts of Belgium and Germany as a single city network named Tristate City.
By treating the Netherlands as an urbanised delta with 17 million inhabitants, the project’s supporters say that are creating a very strong player in this ‘battle of the titans.’ ‘Our city marketing is too fragmented and inefficient,’ the project website says. ‘In practice, the Dutch cities compete with each other abroad.’ Amsterdam Metropool, Brainport Eindhoven, Twentestad, Ede Food Valley, Regio Groningen Assen and Dairy Delta are just some of the names Dutch regions use when marketing themselves abroad. The Netherlands must present itself as one of the ‘most powerful and sustainable city networks in the world,’ the project’s backers say.
Global energy prices are projected to rise dramatically, culminating in the biggest price jump in commodities in nearly half a century, the World Bank has warned. According to the bank’s April Commodity Markets Outlook report, global energy prices, which have already seen a dramatic surge due to ongoing Covid-19 lockdowns in China and the Russia-Ukraine conflict, are expected to surge by 50.5% in 2022.
“This amounts to the largest commodity shock we’ve experienced since the 1970s. As was the case then, the shock is being aggravated by a surge in restrictions in trade of food, fuel, and fertilizers,” the World Bank’s Vice President for Equitable Growth, Finance, and Institutions, Indermit Gill, said in a statement accompanying the report released last Tuesday. The report points out that sanctions imposed on Russia have undermined global trade in commodities, having triggered huge energy-price increases. Food prices are projected to increase by 22.9% this year as well, the most since 2008, as wheat prices jump 40% to record highs. That will put pressure on developing economies that rely on wheat imports, especially from Russia and Ukraine,” the World Bank said. Ukraine was expected to produce 10% of the world’s wheat in 2022, but the institution says anywhere from 25% to 50% of that production has been affected by the conflict. Meanwhile, metal prices are expected to grow by 16% before easing next year but will reportedly remain at elevated levels. According to the report, surging commodity prices have contributed to inflation levels not seen in more than 40 years in the US, and a record 7.5% jump in consumer prices in Europe. “These developments have started to raise the specter of stagflation. Policymakers should take every opportunity to increase economic growth at home and avoid actions that will bring harm to the global economy,” Gill said. A "No Fishing" sign on the edge of Iraq's western desert is one of the few clues that this was once Sawa Lake, a biodiverse wetland and recreational landmark. Human activity and climate change have combined to turn the site into a barren wasteland with piles of salt. Abandoned hotels and tourist facilities here hark back to the 1990s when the salt lake, circled by sandy banks, was in its heyday and popular with newly-weds and families who came to swim and picnic. But today, the lake near the city of Samawa, south of the capital Baghdad, is completely dry. Bottles litter its former banks and plastic bags dangle from sun-scorched shrubs, while two pontoons have been reduced to rust. "This year, for the first time, the lake has disappeared," environmental activist Husam Subhi said. "In previous years, the water area had decreased during the dry seasons." Today, on the sandy ground sprinkled with salt, only a pond remains where tiny fish swim, in a source that connects the lake to an underground water table. he five-square-kilometre (two-square-mile) lake has been drying up since 2014, says Youssef Jabbar, environmental department head of Muthana province. The causes have been "climate change and rising temperatures," he explained. "Muthana is a desert province, it suffers from drought and lack of rainfall." 1,000 illegal wells A government statement issued last week also pointed to "more than 1,000 wells illegally dug" for agriculture in the area. Additionally, nearby cement and salt factories have "drained significant amounts of water from the groundwater that feeds the lake", Jabbar said. It would take nothing short of a miracle to bring Sawa Lake back to life. Use of aquifers would have to be curbed and, following three years of drought, the area would now need several seasons of abundant rainfall, in a country hit by desertification and regarded as one of the five most vulnerable to climate change. The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, a global treaty, recognised Sawa as "unique... because it is a closed water body in an area of sabkha (salt flat) with no inlet or outlet. "The lake is formed over limestone rock and is isolated by gypsum barriers surrounding the lake; its water chemistry is unique," says the convention's website. A stopover for migratory birds, the lake was once "home to several globally vulnerable species" such as the eastern imperial eagle, houbara bustard and marbled duck.
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