India, the world's second-largest wheat producer, bans all wheat exports after record-breaking heat wave



India has banned all wheat exports following a widespread heatwave that affected the country’s supply of the crop.

A notice that was sent out in the government gazette by the directorate of foreign trade, on Friday, said the food security of India, its neighboring, and vulnerable countries was being threatened by the rise in global wheat prices. Global wheat prices have increased by more than 40% since the beginning of the year.

The Guardian reported that one of the Indian government’s key aims is to control the rising cost of domestic food prices.

Prior to the Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, both countries accounted for a third of global wheat and barely exports. Since Russia’s February invasion, Ukraine’s ports have been blocked and civilian infrastructure and many grain silos have been destroyed.

Western nations have also issued thoroughgoing sanctions on Russia making trade with the country incredibly difficult.

While Russian and Ukrainian wheat exports were being tied up due to war, India’s own wheat harvest experienced stunted production rates due to a record-breaking heatwave.

Even though India is the world’s second largest producer of wheat, it’s population consumes the lion’s share of the crop it produces. Hoping to capitalize on the global disruption of supply chains and decreased wheat access due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Indian government had set a goal of exporting 10 million tons of domestically produced grain in 2022-23.

Indian wheat producers were preparing to find new markets for their product in Europe, Africa, and Asia. However, this plan has been halted for the foreseeable future. Much of the wheat and barley that was expected to be exported in this lot would have been sent to developing countries such as Indonesia, the Philippines, and Thailand.

The recent heatwave, however, wasn’t the only issue facing India’s wheat supply. The country’s historically vast stocks of wheat and barley — which in years past have served the country well as a reliable buffer against famine — became strained during the COVID-19 pandemic as the Indian government began to dole out grain to roughly 800 million people.

The Indian government needs about 25 million tons of wheat and barley each year for its extensive food welfare program that usually feeds more than 80 million people annually.

Statista reported that in 2018/2019 the United States had the fifth largest production volume of wheat worldwide at 51.29 metric tons.

First lady Jill Biden made a surprise Mother's Day visit to Ukraine, White House confirms there are no plans for Joe to travel to Kyiv



First lady Jill Biden made a surprise visit to Ukraine this Sunday marking a rare solo as the spouse of a sitting president to visit an active war zone.

Fox News reported that the first lady entered Ukraine by crossing the border from Slovakia on Sunday morning after visiting with Ukrainian refugees at a processing center. Reportedly, she met with Ukrainian first lady Olen Zelenska. The Ukrainian first lady has not been seen in public since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Mrs. Biden said, “I wanted to come on Mother’s Day. I thought it was important to show the Ukrainian people that this war has to stop and this war has been brutal and that the people of the United States stand with the people of Ukraine.”

Zelenska praised her American counterpart for making a “courageous trip” which reportedly occurred as an impromptu stop on the U.S. first lady’s four-day trip to Eastern Europe without her husband.

The first ladies met in a small classroom in front of reporters before holding a private meeting. Zelenska and her children have reportedly remained in an undisclosed location due to safety concerns as Russian officials made it an early priority of their invasion to assassinate Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and members of his family.

The two women later joined a group of children who live at the school where they met in making tissue-paper bears to give as Mother’s Day gifts.

The first lady’s visit to Ukraine marks the third high profile meeting between U.S. and Ukrainian officials.

In late April U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin met with Zelenskyy to discuss the U.S. federal government’s role in providing the Ukrainian military with more than $300 million in financing. And in early May, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi along with the Democratic U.S. Reps. Jason Crow of Colorado, Jim McGovern of Massachusetts, Gregory Meeks of New York, and Adam Schiff of California met with Zelenskyy to show support for the Ukrainian government.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has also visited Ukraine and held a private meeting with Zelenskyy in the country’s capital city of Kyiv.

President Joe Biden has yet to visit Ukraine or host Zelenskyy.

Zelenskyy previously told CNN host Jake Tapper that he thought Biden ought t visit Ukraine because ‘’he is the leader of the United States, and that’s why he should come here to see.”

White House press secretary Jen Psaki, however, confirmed that there are no plans to send Biden to Ukraine.

She said, “No. No, we are not sending the president to Ukraine.”

Elon Musk and SpaceX thwarted a Russian electromagnetic attack on Ukraine



SpaceX — a company founded and owned by Elon Musk with the express intention of colonizing Mars — successfully stopped a Russian electromagnetic attack in Ukraine.

In March, Musk’s company worked at a breakneck pace to shut down Russian efforts to disconnect Ukrainians from the internet by jamming the country’s access to its Starlink satellite constellation.

Starlink is operated by SpaceX and provides internet coverage to 32 countries. The constellation consists of more than 2,000 mass-produced small satellites that reside in low orbit and communicate with designated transceivers on the Earth’s surface.

At the outset of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, when it became clear that the Russian government was going to target the Ukrainian people’s ability to communicate, Ukrainian officials pleaded with Musk to intervene and provide them with relief.

Starlink service is now active in Ukraine. More terminals en route.
— Elon Musk (@Elon Musk) 1645914834

Dave Tremper, director of electronic warfare for the Office of the Secretary of Defense, lauded SpaceX’s ability to turn on a dime and swiftly stymie Russia’s efforts to jam the Starlink satellite’s ability to provide broadband.

Defense News reported that Tremper said, “The next day [after reports about the Russian jamming effort hit the media], Starlink had slung a line of code and fixed it, and suddenly that [Russian jamming attack] was not effective anymore. From [the] EW technologist’s perspective, that is fantastic … and how they did that was eye-watering to me.”

Tremper noted that it would have taken the American government considerably longer to counteract the Russian electromagnetic attack than it did Musk’s company.

Tremper said, “We need to be able to have that agility. We need to be able to change our electromagnetic posture to be able to change, very dynamically, what we’re trying to do without losing capability along the way.”

Noting that electromagnetic warfare requires very finely tuned machinery and highly skilled operators, Tremper said the Russian invasion of Ukraine indicated how important it was to make sure that American personnel were properly trained in electromagnetic warfare operations.

He said, “It is a very hard problem, if you don’t have well-trained operators. The degree of coordination and synchronization of these types of operations is such that the undertrained operator will have a harder time pulling off those types of events successfully.”

This is not the only time that Elon Musk has thwarted the Russians’ plans in the ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

When the Russian government threatened to drop the International Space Station on the Earth by ceasing to provide it with resources and technology for propulsion, Musk said that he would keep the station from falling onto the planet.

Ukrainian forces reclaim the region containing Kyiv as Russian forces withdraw and regroup



As of Saturday, the Ukrainian military has taken the entirety of the region containing the country’s capital city of Kyiv.

In a statement shared on Facebook, Hanna Maliar, the Ukrainian defense minister, said, “Irpin, Bucha, Gostomel, and the whole Kyiv region were liberated from the invader.”

The Daily Mail reported that the towns of Irpin and Bucha — from which people would previously commute to and from Kyiv — were reclaimed by Ukrainian forces earlier this week. Both towns have reportedly suffered high civilian death tolls and experienced large-scale destruction.

The mayor of Bucha said that 280 people had been buried in a mass grave while corpses littered the city’s streets, while at least 200 people have been killed in Irpin — which is often considered a suburb of Kyiv.

There was also heavy fighting in Gostomel as both Russian and Ukrainian forces sought to gain control of the region’s airfield.

Ukrainian officials have said that Russia’s current process of withdrawing from the northern parts of Ukraine is strategic so that the Russian military can refocus its forces on the country’s eastern and southern regions.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson reportedly called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to congratulate Ukraine’s “brave armed forces” for successfully pushing back the invading Russian army.

Ukraine’s apparent victory at retaking Kyiv comes as broken-down Russian artillery litter the highways that connect the city to the rest of the country.

The Daily Mail said, “As Ukrainian units advance, they’re met with burned-out tanks and heavily-armored personnel transport vehicles that line the roads once populated by commuters that would have been heading in or out of the capital.”

Despite the off-putting nature of abundant worn-down and broken machinery, the Ukrainian military apparently continues to discover gruesome relics of war, potentially indicating that the Russians continued to commit war crimes as they withdrew from Kyiv.

Reportedly, Ukrainian troops found the bodies of 20 men dressed in civilian clothing on a single street. Eyewitnesses said that one of the corpses had his hands tied.

The dead bodies were strewn across roads of residential areas and suburban towns.

Zelenskkyy warned that the withdrawing Russian forces were leaving behind “catastrophic” situations by placing land mines outside of residential areas, abandoning their broken-down equipment, and the “bodies of those killed.”

The Ukrainian forces were also successful in retaking control of the infamous Chernobyl nuclear plant.

The Russian invasion has reportedly displaced 4 million Ukrainian refugees.

UN tells staff to avoid using terms 'war' and 'invasion' to describe Putin's war in Ukraine



The words "war" and "invasion" are apparently too politically incorrect for the United Nations, which has instructed staff to avoid using those terms in reference to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Instead, the U.N. communications department would like staff to use terms such as "conflict" or "military offensive" to describe the nearly universally condemned war of aggression waged by Russian President Vladimir Putin against his country's smaller neighbor. Employees were also asked to refrain from describing the conflict as a war and from adding the Ukrainian flag to their personal or official social media accounts or websites.

“[USE] ‘conflict’ or ‘military offensive’ and NOT ‘war’ or ‘invasion’ when referring to the situation in Ukraine,” an email reported by the Irish Times stated. “Do NOT add the Ukrainian flag to personal or official social media accounts or websites."

The instructions were given to avoid harming the international body's reputation by offending Russia, which has killed hundreds of Ukrainian civilians and forced 2 million people to flee the country.

“This is an important reminder that we, as international civil servants, have a responsibility to be impartial,” the email stated. “There is a serious possibility of reputational risk that has been flagged by senior officials recently.”

Teachta Dala Neale Richmond, spokesman on European affairs for Ireland's Fine Gael party, blasted the "illegal war of aggression" and called on the U.N. to condemn Russia in a statement to the Irish Times.

“The fact is just because Russia is a big country that has an essential role in the UN, they’re influencing policy in a direction that’s simply false,” he said, referring to how Russia holds one of five permanent seats on the United Nations Security Council.

"Quite clearly this is not just any war, but an illegal war of aggression, that should be condemned from a height by all members of the U.N. and the U.N. itself," he added.

Russian officials refer to the invasion as a "special military operation," using Putin's preferred euphemism for the war. Putin's government has severely restricted what Russian media outlets are allowed to report about the war with a new law enacted Friday that could put journalists in prison for up to 15 years if they publish any stories the government considers "fake."

Thousands of Russian anti-war protesters have also been arrested, two local independent broadcasters were closed down, and international media websites have been blocked in the country.

American officials travel to Venezuela to re-establish trade and further isolate Russia



Senior American officials traveled to Venezuela to try and drive a wedge between Venezuela and its longtime ally Russia.

The New York Times reported that this trip is the highest-level visit to Venezuela by American officials since 2019.

In 2019, the United States broke off diplomatic relations with the socialist government of Nicolas Maduro due to allegations of electoral fraud. The Trump administration closed the American embassy in Venezuela and issued sanctions on Venezuelan oil exports and senior members of the country’s government.

The Trump administration also moved to officially recognize the leader of Maduro’s opposition — Juan Guaido — as the lawful president of Venezuela. In a direct slight to the Maduro regime, Trump hosted Guaido at the 2020 State of the Union Address.


WATCH: Trump praises Venezuela’s Juan Guaidó at the State of the Union | 2020 State of the Union youtu.be

In response to American sanctions, Venezuela sought economic relief and diplomatic assistance from its counterparts in Russia, Iran, and China.

Russian energy companies have played a crucial role in allowing Venezuela to continue exporting oil throughout the world.

With Russia’s ongoing aggression in Ukraine, the Biden administration is paying closer to attention to the allies of Russian President Vladimir Putin in South and Latin America. The Biden administration is concerned that Putin could leverage these relationships in ways that pose a threat to U.S. safety.

As sanctions from Western allies weaken the Russian economy, American leadership is lunging at opportunities to drive a wedge between Russia and its allies who rely on it for economic support.

The New York Times alleged that there is bipartisan support for reestablishing diplomatic relations with Venezuela in an effort to undermine Russia.

Scott Taylor, a former Republican congressman from Virginia, works alongside pro-Venezuelan lobbyists and said, “We should take this opportunity to achieve a diplomatic win and a wedge between Russia and Venezuela.”

Trish Reagan, a former Fox Business host, said, “Venezuela has the largest source of oil reserves yet, we’re handing that to the Chinese and Russians.”

In the past month, prior to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Nicolas Maduro spoke with Putin by telephone and has hosted Russia’s deputy foreign minister, Yuri Borisov.

Maduro appears to be open to discussing re-establishing trade relations with the United States.

In a public speech he delivered this past week, Maduro said, “Here lies the oil of Venezuela, which is available for whomever wants to produce and buy it, be it an investor from Asia, Europe, or the United States.”

This past week, Venezuelan diplomats at the United Nations did not vote to condemn Russian aggression in Ukraine.

John Kerry's response to Ukraine invasion: 'I hope President Putin will help us to stay on track with respect to what we need to do for the climate'



John Kerry cautioned Wednesday that Russia's war on Ukraine will distract the international community from one of the Biden administration's top national security priorities: climate change.

The former secretary of state and current U.S. special envoy for climate was discussing Russia's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine during an interview on BBC Arabic when he said the war will have "massive emissions consequences" for the entire world.

"I'm very concerned about, I'm concerned about Ukraine because of the people of Ukraine and because of the principles that are at risk, in terms of international law and trying to change boundaries of international law by force. I thought we lived in a world that had said no to that kind of activity. And I hope diplomacy will win," Kerry said.

"But massive emissions consequences to the war but equally importantly, you're going to lose people's focus, you're going to lose big country attention because they will be diverted and I think it could have a damaging impact," he continued. "So, you know hopefully President Putin would realize that in the Northern part of his country, they used to live on 66% of the nation that was over frozen land.

"Now it's thawing, and his infrastructure is at risk. And the people of Russia are at risk," he added. "And so I hope President Putin will help us to stay on track with respect to what we need to do for the climate."

Former U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on BBC Arabic: The Ukraine Crisis Could Distract the World from the Climate Crisis While Having Massive Emissions Consequences #RussiaUkraineConflict #UkraineRussie #UkraineRussiaCrisis #ClimateCrisis @JohnKerry @ClimateEnvoypic.twitter.com/nsOC1iZeGm
— MEMRI (@MEMRI) 1645699336

Kerry's comments echo comments he made in an interview Sunday, when he told GZERO Media's Ian Bremmer that a Russian invasion of Ukraine will have a "monumental impact on the ability and willingness of people to do what's necessary" to fight climate change.

"Ukraine, one way or the other — we're going to resolve it, ultimately, over X number of years. But the climate crisis remains existential, just as it was before the Ukraine crisis came up," Kerry said, before the invasion began.

Russia launched a full-scale invasion of its sovereign neighbor Ukraine Thursday with ground, air, and naval forces in the largest military campaign by one state against another in Europe since World War II.

Ukrainian cities have been attacked with shelling and airstrikes. Civilians have either attempted to flee or made makeshift bomb shelters in subway systems. Reports indicate there are hundreds of casualties, although the exact numbers of injured or dead remain unknown in this chaotic, ongoing war.

Russia's Defense Ministry claimed Thursday that the Russian army destroyed 74 Ukrainian military facilities, including 11 airbases, just hours after launching the invasion.

Ukraine said Thursday morning that at least 40 soldiers and 10 civilians had been killed in the conflict.

In the context of widespread suffering in Ukraine caused by Russian President Vladimir Putin's war, Republican lawmakers blasted Kerry's statements about climate change.

"Climate change religious zealot John Kerry is worried that the first major ground war in Europe in 80 years & #Putin’s threat of nuclear consequences is getting more attention than his climate agenda," Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) tweeted.

"As Sec. of State, John Kerry did nothing to stop the invasion of Crimea, all for an unenforceable agreement to fight the air. Now that his chickens came home to roost, he’s more worried about emissions from war & distraction from the climate than the slaughter in #Ukraine," said Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.).

"Putin is killing innocent Ukrainians and John Kerry is asking him to stay 'on track' for the climate? Despicable," Rep. August Pfluger (R-Fla.) remarked. "Russian energy is some of the worst for the environment. The Biden Admin climate religion has made our world less safe."