Day: May 14, 2022

SYDNEY Former Australian test cricketer Andrew Symonds has died after a single-vehicle auto accident near Townsville in northeast Australia. He was 46.

Cricket Australia reported Symonds’ death on its website on Sunday, citing a police statement with details of the accident late Saturday night.

It described Symonds as “a cult hero during the peak of his international playing career and one of the most skilled all-rounders Australian cricket has seen.”

“The Queenslander was a larger-than-life figure who drew a widespread fan base during his peak years for not only his hard-hitting ways but his larrikin persona.”

Symonds played 26 test matches for Australia and posted two centuries, but he was better known as a limited-overs specialist. He played 198 one-day international for Australia and won two World Cups.

After retiring as a player, Symonds became a popular commentator for cricket broadcasters.

Queensland Police said the accident occurred at Hervey Range, about 50 kilometers from Townsville.

“Early information indicates, shortly after 11 p.m. the car was being driven on Hervey Range Road, near Alice River Bridge when it left the roadway and rolled,” a police statement said. “Emergency services attempted to revive the 46-year-old driver and sole occupant. However, he died of his injuries.”

Symonds’ family appealed for privacy.

Former Australian captain Allan Border was among those to pay tribute to Symonds on Sunday.

Border said Symonds “hit the ball a long way and just wanted to entertain.

“He was, in a way, a little bit of an old-fashioned cricketer,” Border told the Nine Network. “He was an adventurer, loved his fishing, he loved hiking, camping. People liked his very laid-back style.”

That style brought Symonds into conflict with authority late in his career. In 2008 he missed Australia’s one-day series against Bangladesh after going fishing when he was required to attend a team meeting. He also was disciplined before the 2009 Twenty20 World Cup for breaching team rules around alcohol.

With dreadlocks and his face daubed with zinc cream, Symonds always cut a flamboyant figure in the Australian team.

His loss is another bitter blow for Australian cricket after the death in Thailand in March of legendary leg-spinner Shane Warne. Wicketkeeper Rod Marsh also died in March aged 74.

Source: Voice of America

India banned wheat exports without government approval Saturday after its hottest March on record hit production, in a blow to countries reeling from supply shortages and soaring prices since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The announcement drew sharp criticism from the Group of Seven industrialized nations’ agriculture ministers meeting in Germany, who said that such measures “would worsen the crisis” of rising commodity prices.

“If everyone starts to impose export restrictions or to close markets, that would worsen the crisis,” German Agriculture Minister Cem Ozdemir said at a press conference in Stuttgart.

Global wheat prices have soared on supply fears following Russia’s February invasion of Ukraine, which previously accounted for 12% of global exports.

The spike in prices, exacerbated by fertilizer shortages and poor harvests, has fueled inflation globally and raised fears of famine and social unrest in poorer countries.

It has also led to concerns about growing protectionism following Indonesia’s halting of palm oil exports and India putting the brakes on exports of wheat.

India, the world’s second-largest wheat producer, said that factors including lower production and sharply higher global prices meant it worried about the food security of its own 1.4 billion people.

Export deals agreed to before the directive issued Friday could still be honored, but future shipments need government approval, it said.

But exports could also take place if New Delhi approved requests from other governments “to meet their food security needs”.

“We don’t want wheat to go in an unregulated manner where it may either get hoarded and is not used for the purpose which we are hoping it will be used for –- which is serving the food requirements of vulnerable nations and vulnerable people,” said BVR Subrahmanyam, India’s commerce secretary.

On Thursday New Delhi said it was sending delegations to Morocco, Tunisia, Thailand, Vietnam, Turkey, Algeria and Lebanon “for exploring possibilities of boosting wheat exports from India”.

It was unclear whether these visits would still take place.

Global help

Possessing major buffer stocks, India previously said it was ready to help fill some of the supply shortages caused by the Ukraine war.

“Our farmers have ensured that not just India but the whole world is taken care of,” Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said in April.

India said that it planned to increase wheat exports this financial year, starting April 1, to 10 million tons from seven million tons the year before.

While this is a tiny proportion of worldwide production, the assurances provided some support to global prices and soothed fears of major shortages.

Egypt and Turkey recently approved wheat imports from India.

But India endured its hottest March on record – blamed on climate change – and has been wilting in a heatwave in recent weeks, with temperatures upwards of 45 degrees Celsius.

This has hit farmers hard, and this month the government said that wheat production was expected to fall at least five percent this year from 110 million tons in 2021 — the first fall in six years.

Indian wheat exports in the past have been limited by concerns over quality and because the government buys large volumes at guaranteed minimum prices.

The country’s exports have also been held back by World Trade Organization rules that limit shipments from government stocks if the grain was bought from farmers at fixed prices.

Urgent need

The Ukrainian agriculture minister has traveled to Stuttgart for discussions with G-7 colleagues on getting its produce out.

About “20 million tons” of wheat were sitting in Ukrainian silos and “urgently” needed to be exported, Ozdemir said.

Before the invasion, Ukraine exported 4.5 million tons of agricultural produce per month through its ports – 12% of the planet’s wheat, 15% of its corn and half of its sunflower oil.

But with the ports of Odesa, Chornomorsk and others cut off from the world by Russian warships, the supply can only travel on congested land routes that are much less efficient.

G-7 ministers urged countries not to take restrictive action that could pile further stress on the produce markets.

They “spoke out against export stops and call as well for markets to be kept open”, said Ozdemir, whose nation holds the rotating presidency of the group.

“We call on India to assume its responsibility as a G-20 member,” Ozdemir added.

The agriculture ministers would also “recommend” the topic be addressed at the G-7 summit in Germany in June, which India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, has been invited to attend.

Source: Voice of America

The Second APEC Senior Officials’ Meeting (SOM2) and related meetings is continuing discussions pertinent to sustainable and inclusive growth under Thailand’s host year theme of “Open. Connect. Balance.”, with the Bio-Circular-Green (BCG) Economy Model as the overarching thinking. The APEC SOM2 agenda centres around the still fragile recovery from COVID-19, coupled with pressing economic challenges from global disruptions, and discussions on sustainability will focus on (1) accelerating APEC’s work on sustainability through the BCG Economy concept, and (2) leveraging the whole-of-society approach to achieve sustainable and inclusive growth by promoting understanding and greater utilisation of the BCG economy among businesses and youth.

Thailand has proposed the “Bangkok Goals on BCG Economy”, as a key deliverable under the APEC 2022’s priority of “Balance in All Aspects”, to accelerate APEC’s efforts towards sustainability through the BCG Economy concept. This Leaders’ level document was first introduced at the Informal Senior Officials’ Meeting (ISOM) in Phuket last December and is a work in progress. The Bangkok Goals on the BCG Economy will seek to advance APEC’s sustainability agenda in a more holistic and integrated manner by emphasising the whole-of-society and whole-of-APEC-system approach to achieve 4 goals, namely (1) climate action including net zero greenhouse gas emissions (2) sustainable trade and investment, (3) sustainable management of resources and conservation of the environment and biodiversity, and (4) resource efficiency and sustainable waste management. During SOM2, the Bangkok Goals on BCG Economy Dedicated Session will be held on 17 May 2022. APEC Senior Officials will have a strategic discussion on the substance and

implementation of the draft, which will be further developed and submitted for endorsement at the APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting in Bangkok in November 2022.

APEC SOM2 is also paving the way for the Ministers Responsible for Trade (MRT) Meeting on 21-22 May 2022, which will discuss pathways towards sustainable development, based on the BCG Economy approach. Discussions will emphasise engaging the whole of society, especially businesses and youth. The APEC BCG Symposium 2022 will be held on 20 May 2022, with a key focus on increasing MSMEs competitiveness through necessary knowledge and know-how for a sustainable future, providing policy guidance on incentivising and stimulating the private sector to apply the BCG model for more sustainable businesses, and building networks between stakeholders across the region. In terms of youth engagement, APEC’s young talents in software development will have the opportunity to participate in the 2022 APEC App Challenge, organised in collaboration with key private and development partners during 19-20 May 2022. They will compete to develop digital tools to help farmers and potential entrepreneurs make better use of the BCG appr

oach for more sustainable agri-food businesses, and connect them with more market opportunities through greater access to both local and export markets.

At the core of promoting Balance in All Aspects is to ensure that people and businesses in the Asia-Pacific region will benefit from a long-term economic growth in tandem with social and environmental objectives. This can be achieved by creating more conducive and resilient trade and investment environment that empowers all groups of society through green and digital transformation.

Source: Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Kingdom of Thailand.