白夜行

EU Will Reap What US Sows: Who Benefits From Looming Global Food Crisis_我的网站

天装战队护星者

一 | AI摘要厦门近日启动道路“地下体检”，利用三维雷达检测车对58条主干道开展无损探测，无需封路。

二 | Russian Minister of Agriculture Dmitry Patrushev weighed in on the issue of global food security on Friday, warning that a crisis of planetary proportions is taking shape.,“The situation in global markets is difficult, especially for wheat. This season, due to a number of factors, including drought in the US and Europe, floods in Australia and bad weather in India, the global supply of milling wheat will drop. Also, due to climate anomalies, a decrease in the quality of wheat in North America is expected, first and foremost in the United States. All of this, together with logistical restrictions, could lead to serious risks in terms of global food security in the current agricultural year,” Patrushev said, speaking to ministry officials in Bashkiria.,Patrushev updated officials on the state of Russia’s harvesting campaign, saying about 27 percent of the fields have been cultivated, with 55 million tons of grain collected – a good indicator, but far below yields shown a year ago, thanks to a cold spring, poor weather and problems with obtaining parts for foreign-made agricultural equipment.,“Altogether, this creates risks in terms of achieving [the planned] grain harvest of 130 million tons. Of course, we will fully provide for the domestic market, there will not be any problems with this. However, if the planned volumes are not reached, we will have to revise our export target of 50 million tons, and this may have a negative impact on the world grain market,” the minister warned.,Russian Agriculture Ministry Warns of Risks to Global Food Security in Current Crop Year 5 August, 09:08 GMT,Sanctions Food for Thought,The United States and Europe got a rude awakening in the spring when the nations of the Global South refused to join them in slapping sanctions on Russia after it kicked off its special military operation in Ukraine. While the US, Canada, the UK, the European Union, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand drafted thousands upon thousands of new restrictions against Moscow, not a single country in Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, or non-US allied East Asia has joined them so far.,The developing world’s quest for food security, and Russia’s status as a major global exporter of both grains and fertilizers, is undoubtedly an important factor in calculations made by regional leaders when it comes to sanctions.,At the same time, the Global South has not been spared the consequences of the West’s secondary restrictions. African Union chief and Senegalese President Macky Sall outlined the scope of the problem in June, telling Russian President Vladimir Putin that sanctions had “aggravated the situation with the supply of grains and fertilizers to African countries,” and sparked “a serious threat to food security” for the continent.,AfricaAnti-Russia Sanctions Left Africa Without Access to Grain and Fertilisers, African Union Chief Says3 June, 11:13 GMT,Notwithstanding concerns about global food security going back to the COVID crisis of 2020 and 2021, which wreaked havoc on supply chains and aggravated economic pain across much of the developing world, the US and its allies unflinchingly and nearly instantaneously slapped agriculture- and fertilizer-related sanctions on Russia and its ally, Belarus, in February and March of 2022.,Oleg Kobiakov, director of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization’s Russian liaison office, recently revealed that his agency estimates that some 828 million people were suffering from hunger at the end of 2021, with their numbers increasing by some 150 million people compared to the pre-COVID year 2019. Amid the escalation of the Ukrainian crisis and Western sanctions, Kobiakov stressed the importance of the FAO-proposed international fund to support the export of food, fertilizers, and energy to assist developing countries, particularly in Africa.,Western Sanctions, Global Consequences,The sanctions slapped on Russia in the spring of 2022, which included direct restrictions on food and fertilizer exports, plus efforts to limit Russia’s trade in agricultural commodities with third countries via so-called secondary sanctions on cargo ships or insurance providers, have already had a noticeable impact on food security, not only in the Global South, but the very heart of the so-called "First World" as well.,Earlier this year, German media sounded the alarm after calculating that the country’s farmers stand to lose some three million tons of agricultural output thanks to sanctions. In June, Bild reported that nearly one in six Germans is forced to skip meals thanks to out-of-control hikes in food prices.,In neighboring Poland, local media reported this week that Ukrainian wheat supplies flooding into the country were causing a “catastrophic” dampening of prices for domestic producers. “If the situation doesn’t improve, there will be riots in the countryside!” a farmer in Plonsk told a Wyborcza correspondent.,In Italy, the National Institute of Statistics has reported a double-digit jump in prices for flour and pasta, with prices for the staple components of Italian cooking growing between 18 and 21.5 percent year-on-year in July, and the cost of cooking oil spiking by a whopping 66 percent.,RussiaLIVE UPDATES: First Bulker With Ukrainian Grain Reaches Istanbul2 August, 05:00 GMT,Food insecure regions of the planet have fared even worse. According to a recent estimate by international aid agency Mercy Corps, flour prices in Lebanon, which depends on Russia and Ukraine for over 80 percent of its wheat flower needs, have jumped over 200 percent since the escalation of the Ukraine crisis.,For many countries, the Ukrainian emergency has only served to exacerbate an array of already existing problems. In Morocco, for example, Agriculture Minister Mohammed Sadiki reported in the spring that the country expects to lose up to 53 percent of its grain harvest this year due to the worst drought of the decade. The Horn of Africa faces similar worries amid the worst regional drought in 40 years. In Ethiopia, Somalia and Kenya, over 18 million people face hunger, and British charitable group Oxfam International fears that as many as 350,000 children could die from malnutrition this year in Somalia alone.,Earlier this year, the UN’s Refugee Agency calculated that the numbers of people forced to flee their homes in search of a better life had reached its highest-ever recorded number, with food scarcity, inflation, and the climate crisis adding to existing hardships and stretching humanitarian resources to the breaking point. According to the World Food Program, the number of people suffering from hunger could increase by 30-50 million people, with the poorest countries of Africa including Somalia, Sudan, the Central African Republic, Chad, and Congo expected to be hit hardest.,RussiaFighting Africa's Food Crisis: Russia Strengthening Ties and Stretching Helping Hand to Kenya3 August, 10:08 GMT,In June, the WFP warned that in Latin America too, food inflation is threatening to cause a migration wave of Biblical proportions amid calculations that some 14 million people across 13 countries are threatened with “extreme” food insecurity – up from 8.3 million in late 2021, if the current crisis continues.,“All of you are watching caravans, caravans of migrants moving, and before we used to talk about migration from the north of Central America, but now, unfortunately, we talk about migration being hemispheric. We have the whole continent on the move,” WEF Latin America and the Caribbean region coordinator Lola Castro told reporters.,Good for the Goose, But Not the Gander?,Last month, on the heels of the signing of the Russia-Ukraine-UN grain deal, the US Treasury reversed course on a number of food and fertilizer sanctions directives, “clarifying” in a fact sheet that it would no longer threaten secondary restrictions for the purchase or transport of Russian agricultural commodities. For the domestic market, Washington quietly eased restrictions on Russian agricultural products, including fertilizers, back in March, after the domestic farming lobby warned of out-of-control price hikes and possible food shortages.,Brussels, which joined Washington in slapping tough restrictions on Moscow in the spring, did not follow suit in easing them until late last month, after the damage to domestic and international markets had already been done.,WorldEU Reportedly Set to Unfreeze Some Russian Bank Funds for Food, Fertilizer Trade19 July, 10:26 GMT,Biden administration National Economic Council director Brian Deese raised eyebrows late last month when he boasted that compared to the rest of the world, the United States is in a better position to weather the global food security crisis.,“With respect to food, we’re a net exporter of agricultural commodities. Obviously the high prices are hitting Americans very hard, but in a way that is different from some places that are facing famine for example,” Deese said.,Biden economic advisor Brian Deese says the U.S. is doing better economically than other countries because we’re not in a “famine” pic.twitter.com/2JwO7YneOI— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) July 27, 2022,Biden’s detractors blasted the White House over Deese’s comments, suggesting it was absurd to lower the bar on the administration’s economic performance to the point where it was bragging that "at least the US isn’t facing famine." However, in the broader scheme of things, and amid the global food security crisis artificially exacerbated by Washington and its allies using sanctions, Deese isn’t wrong, with other countries, including many of the US’ allies, suffering much more.,Quo Vadis?,Serbia, home to the so-called “Balkan route” for migration during the 2015 European migrant crisis, has recently reported a major uptick in immigration amid the global food crisis.,On July 20, Serbian Commissioner for Refugees and Migration Vladimir Cucic indicated that the number of migrants traveling through Serbia had jumped 55 percent in 2022, with the number of people from Africa, Asia and the Middle East using the country as a transit state reaching 68,000, and expected to hit 100,000 before the end of the year. Cucic is confident that the global food crisis is directly responsible for the migration uptick, which he said has hit Africa, Pakistan, Bangladesh, parts of India and other Asian nations hardest.,“Hunger is forcing more and more people to move on out. You’re not going to wait and see how your children die from hunger, you will give them everything you have and tell them "get out of here!’” the official stressed.,UK Home Office Fails to Handle Increased Flow of Migrants Via English Channel21 July, 18:30 GMT,Food scarcity has been a factor driving revolutions, coups, wars, and civil unrest throughout human history, and has been used expertly by foreign manipulators to spark crises and institute regime change throughout the 20th and early 21st centuries. Food insecurity was a critical factor in the so-called "Arab Spring" unrest which swept across the Middle East and North Africa in early 2010. That crisis, together with the US and NATO military interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan, helped spark the 2015 European migrant wave, which saw more than 1.3 million people making their way to the continent, sparking mass unrest and a host of other social ills and problems in the countries that were made to accept the newcomers.,Observers fear that the second time around, the situation could prove far more explosive.,“Europe is not prepared morally, technically, or politically to accept additional refugees. They already overstrained themselves with the Syrian crisis,” Elena Suponina, an advisor to the director of the Russian Institute for Strategic Studies and expert at the Russian International Affairs Council think tank, told Sputnik in an interview.,The West, Suponina believes, is not ready to “save” people from Africa and Asia in the event of a global food crisis which she says has been manufactured by the United States.,“The United States has always been interested in limiting the strength of the European economies. Besides being partners, they are also competitors. The US has always kept in mind that Europe is first and foremost a competitor,” the expert stressed.,Tiberio Graziani, chairman of Vision & Global Trends - an Italy-based international affairs think tank, echoed Suponina's concerns, suggesting that Europe is "by no means ready to handle new potential waves of migrants," and still reeling from the consequences of the 2015 crisis. At the same time, he said, hunger has been a "recurring theme" in a world dominated by the West and its political and economic systems of governance.,"The food crisis is mainly due to the predatory policies carried out - in recent decades - by the so-called Western system in the different corners of the world. The hyper-liberal-democratic policies of the West have favoured the large globalist interest groups which, similarly to the colonial past of the nineteenth century, have deconstructed the various economic-productive fabrics of many areas of the planet, producing misery and dependence. The sophisticated technology that could help the fate of millions of people, since in the hands of large producers, often tied to financial interests, has instead, paradoxically, exacerbated the problem. Non-state organizations such as the UN, beyond good speeches, have failed to find adequate solutions to the problem. The world as a whole could find solutions - to this challenge, as well as to others - only if world power were more evenly distributed. Only a new multipolar system that adopts - in both economic and political international issues - a solidarity and cooperative practice, antithetical to current hyperliberism, could save us. It can be noted that some initiatives taken by the BRICS countries are moving in this direction," Graziani stressed.,The academic also agreed with Suponina's analysis of Washington's interest in the current crisis.,"The interest of the United States is to maintain global hegemony. This can also involve the sacrifice of nations such as Ukraine or the Old Continent: in the context of the North American strategy, these would be 'side effects'. The internal situation of the EU would worsen further: Europe as a whole would become even weaker and more dependent on the US than it currently is," Graziani concluded.。预计9月底出具报告，精准排查空洞、脱空等隐患，保障城市道路安全运行。三维雷达检测车在湖里区滨海路探测地下病害。三维雷达检测车缓缓驶过，作业无须封路，市民如常通行，道路地下的“CT影像”正在一帧帧生成。近日，厦门开展道路“地下体检”，共覆盖58条主干道路，车道里程约2300公里，环岛路、环岛干道、滨海路、翔安大道、集美大道均在检测范围内。市交通局公路中心表示，预计9月底能拿到“CT报告”，排查出空洞、脱空隐患等道路病害。地下3米全“看得见” 在湖里区滨海路，一辆黄色小车正缓慢行驶，后方警示灯不停闪烁。车尾离地不到10厘米处，托着一个长方体的装置，车身标有“随时停车”“地质病害检测车”字样。“就像医院做CT一样，我们用雷达给地下做检测，地下3米全‘看得见’。”检测车内，检测员小何的眼睛几乎没离开过面前的屏幕。屏幕上是一条不断向前延伸的彩色波形图，像一张被拉长的心电图。

三 | “这就是地下的‘照片’。”小何指着屏幕说，车载三维阵列雷达以200兆赫兹的频率向路面以下发射电磁波，遇到土体密实度变化，比如空洞、脱空、疏松体、富水体，波形就会出现异常反射。车外，一辆防撞缓冲车始终尾随，爆闪灯在日光下一闪一闪。“这是标配，每辆检测车后面都得跟着一辆。”市交通局公路中心直属公路部门工程师陈志勇说，作业时安全防护一刻不能松。一天检测近100公里城市道路地下管线错综复杂、地质条件多变，受管涵施工、地下水渗流等多重因素影响，道路路基薄弱区域易出现空洞、脱空等隐蔽病害。 “以往依靠人工目视巡查、图文记录等方式，无法排查地下深层隐患。”陈志勇介绍，如今依托地质病害检测车等智能检测设备，车辆行驶即可精准探测地下病害，检测效率与精准度大幅提升。 “一辆检测车一天能跑80到100公里。”检测公司技术人员毕翔介绍，岛内岛外多辆检测车同步分段推进。车流相对平稳的道路，安排在白天作业；而长岸路、环岛干道会展段、嘉禾路、厦门大桥段这些车流量大的特级主干道，全部留到夜间。但不是所有天气都能作业。雨天、台风天、汛期强降雨必须停工——雨水会吸收电磁波，探测精度直接打折扣。

四 | 三年周期覆盖全域公路检测车跑一遍，只是第一步。

五 | “雷达画面只记录轨迹和路面影像，没法实时识别空洞，需要靠后期人工判读。

六 | ”毕翔介绍，检测车采集到的数据要带回公司，用专用软件逐帧解析，人工复核每一段波形，标记出疑似空洞的位置、范围和体积，形成靶向病害台账。标记出的隐患点，还要用手推式二维雷达上路二次复测。“车载的是初筛，手推的精度更高，用来定点确认。”毕翔说，最终完整的检测报告交付市交通局公路中心，为后续维修处置提供科学依据。陈志勇告诉记者，从2021年起，市交通局公路中心每年委托第三方开展道路“空洞”检测，实行三年一轮全域全覆盖——三年周期内，辖区所有县道、乡道至少完整检测一遍，高等级道路单周期内可检测2到3次。“通过对比历年数据，可对病害发展趋势进行动态追踪和提前预警。”陈志勇说。市交通局公路中心相关负责人表示，将依托现代化检测手段、落实科学修复方案，全力保障道路通行，为市民打造平稳、安全的出行环境。