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World
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THURSDAY, JUNE 11, 2020
UN chief urges fast action to avoid ‘global
food emergency’
A woman waits to be served a plate of food at a soup kitchen in Luque, Paraguay. PHOTO: AP
UNITED NATIONS (AP) - United
Nations (UN) Secretary-General
Anton i o Gu t e r res ca l l ed for
immediate action on on Tuesday
to avoid a “global food emergency,”
sayingmore than 820million people
are hungry, some 144million children
under ive-years-old are stunted, and
the COVID19 pandemic is making
things worse.
He said there is more than
enough food to feed the world’s 7.8
billion people but “our food systems
are failing.”
The UN chief launched a policy
brie ing on the Impact of COVID19
on Food Security and Nutrition
on Tuesday which said before the
pandemic more than 820 million
people were “chronically food
insecure,” with 135 million at crisis
levels or worse.
“That number could nearly
double before the end of the year
due to the impacts of COVID19,”
the brie ing said.
AndGuterres said some49million
extra people may fall into extreme
poverty due to the pandemic and
its impact.
Noting forecasts of a global
economic downturn this year, he
warned that every per centage
point drop in global gross domestic
product (GDP) means an additional
700,000 stunted children.
According to the brie ing,
measures to tackle the COVID19
pandemic are affecting global food
supply chains.
“Border restrictions and lock-
downs are, for example, slowing
harvests in some parts of the world,
leaving millions of seasonal workers
without livelihoods, while also
constraining transport of food to
markets,” the UN brie ing said.
It pointed to the forced closure
of meat processing plants and food
markets in many locations because
of serious COVID19 outbreaks.
Agnes Kalibata, the UN special
envoy to a Food Systems Summit
scheduled in 2021, said “from the
US to India, produce is rotting
in the ields as lock-downs keep
people fromharvesting and planting
crops.”
“That means less income for
desperately hungry people to
buy food and less food available,
at higher prices,” she said in a
statement. “And this is happening
across the world.”
Kalibata also said millions of
litres of milk are being dumped in
the United Kingdom (UK) for lack of
buyers “while in Colombia families
hang red lags outside their windows
to indicate they are hungry.”
The brie ing said high levels of
unemployment, loss of income, and
rising food costs are also making
access to food dif icult.
To address food security during
the pandemic, Guterres said food
and nutrition services must be
designated as essential, and food
workers must be protected.
He said countries must ensure
access for the most vulnerable “to
safe, nutritious foods, particularly
for young children, pregnant and
breastfeeding women, older people
and other at-risk groups.”
And he urged investment in
food systems that better address
the needs of food producers and
workers and provide “more inclusive
access to healthy and nutritious
food so we can eradicate hunger.”
Guterres also called for re-
balancing the relationship between
food systems and the environment.
“We cannot forget that food
systems contribute up to 29 per cent
of all greenhouse gas emissions,
including 44 per cent of methane,
and are having a negative impact
on biodiversity,” he said.
Kalibata, the UN envoy, said
“Countries face an agonising trade-
offbetweensaving livesor livelihoods
or, in a worst-case scenario, saving
people fromCOVID19 to have them
die from hunger.”
Human remains found at property
of man tied to missing kids
BOISE, IDAHO (AP) - Authorities
sa i d t hey uncove red human
remains at an Idaho man’s home
on Tuesday as they investigated
the disappearance of his new wife’s
two children - a case that’s drawn
global attention for its ties to two
other mysterious deaths and the
couple’s doomsday beliefs.
Chad Daybell, who married
the children’s mother, Lori Vallow
Daybell, was arrested on suspicion
of concealing or destroying
evidence after local and federal
investigators searched his property,
according to the Fremont County
Sheriff’s Of ice.
He has not yet been formally
charged, and his attorney, Mark
Means, did not immediately respond
to a request for comment.
Joshua JJ Vallow, who was seven
when he vanished, and 17-year-old
Tylee Ryan haven’t been seen since
September, and police said Chad
and Lori Daybell lied to investigators
about the children’s whereabouts
before quietly leaving Idaho.
Theywere found inHawaii months
later. Besides the missing children,
the couple has been under scrutiny
following the deaths of both of their
former spouses.
Police from the small town
of Rexburg, the FBI and sheriff’s
investigators searched Chad
Daybell’s home in the eastern Idaho
town of Salem for the second time,
bringing in backhoes and setting up
tents in a nearby ield.
The search warrant is sealed, and
Rexburg Assistant Police Chief Gary
Hagan said he couldn’t reveal details
other than the search is linked to the
children’s disappearance.
“Throughout the investigation,
detectives and investigators have
recovered what’s believed to be
human remains that have not been
identi ied at this time,” Hagan said
in a news conference.
Lori Daybell has been charged
with child abandonment and
obstructing the investigation and
is in jail on USD1 million bond. She’s
pleaded not guilty.
The Idaho attorney general’s
of ice has said it was investigating
Chad Daybell in the death of his irst
wife, Tammy Daybell.
Investigators search for human remains at Chad Daybell’s residence in
Salem, Idaho. PHOTO: AP
Prosecutors close probe into
Swedish PM murder, suspect dead
STOCKHOLM (AFP) - Swedish
prosecutors said yesterday they
had closed their investigation into
the 1986 murder of prime minister
Olof Palme as their main suspect,
a Swede known for his opposition
to Palme’s leftwing policies, was
now dead.
Palme was killed on February
28, 1986, after leaving a Stockholm
cinema with his wife Lisbet to
walk home, having dismissed his
bodyguards for the evening.
An unidenti ied attacker shot
Palme in the back and led, leaving
the 59-year-old dying in a pool of
blood on the sidewalk.
More than 10,000 people have
been questioned over the years,
and 134 people have confessed to
the crime.
“We can’t get around one
person as the perpetrator. He is
Stig Engstrom,” Chief Prosecutor
Krister Petersson told reporters,
referring to a man dubbed “the
Skandia man” in Swedish media
because he was working late in the
Skandia building near the scene on
the night of the crime.
“Because he is dead, I can’t
press charges against him,
and have decided to close the
investigation,” Petersson said.
A lower lies on a memorial plaque showing the place where Swedish
Prime Minister Olof Palme was shot dead in February 1986, in
Stockholm, Sweden. PHOTO: AP