Category World News

Russia has accused Ukraine of starting a series of missile strikes on Ukrainian grain on commercial vessels in the Black Sea, threatening to end a period of relative calm that has helped to stabilise global food prices.

Russia has been accused of attacking grain-carrying vessels for the first time.

Which ships have been struck?

On Monday, a missile hit the Optima, a Palau-flagged vessel which had left the southern Ukrainian city of Odesa, killing one crew member and injuring five.

In as many days, a ship carrying grain exports was attacked again. On Sunday, the Saint Kitts and Nevis-flagged Paresa was hit as it carried a cargo of 6, 000 tonnes of corn.

Russian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha claimed that Russia had used a “deliberate terrorist tactic” while Ukraine’s deputy prime minister Oleksiy Kuleba accused Moscow of trying to “destroy shipping in the Black Sea guaranteeing food security.

Ukraine had accused Russia of striking a civilian grain vessel for the first time in September prior to these two strikes. The Aya bulk carrier was attacked in Romanian-occupied Black Sea waters at that time.

The Aya, which was carrying grain to Egypt, had left the port of Chornomorsk, according to Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who was president of Ukraine. Sybiha, the foreign minister, said the strike was “a brazen attack on freedom of navigation and global food security”.

Commercial vessels had avoided significant harm before these ships’ missile strikes because Russian missiles were being fired at Ukraine’s port infrastructure.

Moscow has repeatedly denied attacking civilian targets, and the Russian Ministry of Defense has not made any comments regarding the grain ship strikes.

How have Ukraine’s grain exports been affected by the war with Russia?

Ukraine, a leading global grain exporter, has battled to keep food supplies flowing during the war with Russia.

Russia imposed a blockade of all of Ukraine’s Black Sea ports when it launched its invasion in February 2022. The following month, global food prices reached an all-time high, and consumers as far away as Lebanon, Somalia, and Egypt were affected by the effects.

Shipments were restarted in July 2022 as part of the Black Sea Grain Initiative, a pact between Turkey and the United Nations that allowed for Ukrainian-produced commercial food and fertilizer, until Russia reneged in the agreement a year later.

Since then, Ukraine has been exporting grain using its own corridor, which passes through the territorial waters of Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey. Without Russia’s consent, Kyiv has been able to continue exporting large quantities of agricultural products to its pre-war markets in Asia and Africa.

According to data from Lloyd’s List, the near-300-year-old shipping journal based in London, the total capacity of all foreign grain vessels arriving in Ukraine during the first quarter of 2024 – including ports on the Black Sea and the Danube river – was 25.1 million tonnes deadweight, a 78 percent rise on the same period in 2023, when the Russia-backed corridor was in place.

But Pavlo Martyshev, an expert in food markets at the Kyiv School of Economics, said Russia has also heavy sway over world grain markets, in competition with Ukraine.

Russia exported more than 55.4 million tonnes of wheat during the marketing year 2023-2024, according to data, increasing supplies to several Asian nations.

“The recent attacks could affect Ukraine’s competitiveness”, making Russian exports more profitable and benefitting its war machine, Martyshev told Al Jazeera. Russia can purchase weapons for the war the more money it receives.

Russia strikes commercial grain ships, but why?

Exports are a crucial revenue source for Ukraine’s cash-strapped farmers.

According to figures from the Ukrainian Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food, Ukraine exported about 6.5 million tonnes of grain each month before the Russian invasion in early 2022, making $ 27.8 billion in revenue for the year 2021. It was the world’s seventh-largest exporter of wheat and fourth-biggest exporter of barley, according to the Foreign Agriculture Service of the US Department of Agriculture.

In the middle of the war, just over a year after the war, grain exports had dropped to just over 2 million tonnes per month.

Farmers who “need cash to buy seeds for the next winter’s sowing season” are in doubt thanks to the recent ships’ recent strikes, Martyshev said. Because planting depends on their earnings right now, they are trying to maximize their own profits.

According to experts, the recent strikes will cause insurance premiums to rise and make it less appealing for foreign shippers to deal in Ukrainian grain in a critical time, in addition to lowering Ukrainian revenues.

According to Martyshev, “It makes it much harder psychologically for our traders and exporters to face infrastructure attacks,” which results in a bottleneck in our logistic supply chain.

The repeated attacks, according to Dmitry Gorenburg, a senior research scientist at CNA, a US-based security-focused think tank, indicate the “implicit bargain” that allowed Ukraine to operate its corridor without Russia’s approval may be about to end.

According to Gorenburg, who compiled the terms of the unspoken agreement, “Russia wasn’t targeting grain ships and Ukraine was largely staying away from Russian Navy ships in the eastern Black Sea.”

Ukraine might now resume drone strikes on Russian assets.

Gorenburg, whose research focuses on Russia’s leadership decision-making processes, said the reasoning behind Moscow’s targeting of grain-exporting ships was not yet clear.

Russia may be motivated by its recent victories in the Donbass or may be pursuing retaliation for the surprise attack by Ukraine in Kursk, he said.

It might be looking for fresh strategies to stifle Ukraine as well. “If you can weaken Ukraine economically, that reduces its ability to resist”, Gorenburg said.

New Delhi, India – On January 22, J*, a student who lives hundreds of miles away in Kerala’s southern state, was about to post his opinion of the controversial Hindu temple on Instagram as Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was inaugurating it in the northern city of Ayodhya.

The 21-year-old student of humanities criticized the Hindu nationalist leader for allegedly undermining India’s secular constitution by holding a religious ceremony at a temple constructed from the remnants of a 16th-century mosque in the post “Remains of Indian Constitution Beneath Ram Mandir: ASI Survey.”

Since India’s independence in 1947, dozens of Hindu groups, led by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the far-right ideological mentor of Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), claimed the Mughal-era Babri Mosque stood at the exact site where Ram, among Hinduism’s most prominent deities, was born. In 1992, a Hindu mob demolated the mosque, causing deadly riots that claimed more than 2, 000 lives and fundamentally altered India’s political landscape.

After the demolition, the state-run Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) backed the Hindu groups ‘ claim as the dispute went to the country’s top court, which in 2019 gave the site to a government-backed trust to build a Ram temple. Muslims were given another piece of land in Ayodhya, several kilometres away from the temple, to build a mosque.

Modi inaugurated the grand temple in January of this year, setting the tone for his record-elective third term by placing the foundation stone there a year later.

As soon as J made the Instagram post, it went viral. It invited backlash from right-wing Hindu trolls. But it also helped The Savala Vada to grow exponentially.

using humor to “report truth”

J and his two coworkers who work with him on the handle prefer to remain anonymous because they fear they could “be attacked or killed” as they put it.

According to J, “there is an entire ecosystem in place that is aimed at people who disagree.” It’s also about standing up for oneself when speaking up against the ruling class and authority in online forums. Anonymity gives me that protection”.

Al Jazeera sought comments from multiple BJP spokespersons on J’s allegations, but did not receive a response.

The Savala Vada, a satirical article published on local and international news in the United States, was the inspiration for J’s launch on July 21, 2023. “Savala” in Malayalam language means onion, and “vada” is a popular South Indian snack. J remarked that his endeavor is also a “homage” to the work of The Onion.

He told Al Jazeera, “The idea was to create a space where we could discuss and present contemporary sociopolitical events with a humorous and satirical spin.”

It also concerned using comedy and satire tropes to report the truth in a democratic, secular, and pluralistic environment.

According to J, the Instagram handle initially focused on news and current affairs before shifting to posts about historical or cultural events. He claimed that this was because the mainstream media had become more and more hostile toward minority Muslims and Christians, and that it was also serving as a subservient to Modi.

In the current polarized world, it is extremely difficult for me to express my dissent, according to J, who added that his goal was to “combine humor and resistance” with reaching out to Gen Z and millennials through his satire.

Apart from The Onion, J said he was also inspired by American comedian George Carlin, British stand-up John Oliver, and Australia’s The Juice Media, which posts satirical takes targeting the government.

Over the past year, The Savala Vada has made more than 680 Instagram posts and gained close to 69, 000 followers. Last month, it saw 7.8 million views on its posts and stories.

The handle responds to significant national and international events by condensing its precise and direct headlines in a way that challenges the conventional wisdom.

For example, when Israeli air strikes denied targeting hospitals in Gaza during the continuing genocide, The Savala Vada wrote: “Israeli Defence Forces Claim Gaza Armed With Self-Exploding Hospitals”.

The handle for several Indian journalists who had traveled to Israel to cover the Israeli-Palestine conflict read, “Air India Flights To Israel Cheaper Than To Manipur for Indian Journalnos,” a retort against the same journalists or their organizations’ refusal to report on ethnic riots that have been occurring for more than a year.

They once made fun of the state of Indian journalism by saying, “Mainstream Indian Journalism Committed To TheSacred Duty Of Endangering Lives of Muslims.”

Some of their posts responded to the tense Indian-administered Kashmir region, which Modi’s administration in 2019 stripped of its swayed autonomy. The move, Kashmiris say, is aimed at stealing their resources and changing the demography of the Muslim-majority region.

One of their viral posts about the mountainous region known for its snow and skiing, read, “Lapse Disappoints Indian Tourists While Lack of Human Rights Disappoints Kashmiris.” Another statement made reference to one of the world’s most militarized regions, where the army enjoys enormous powers and impunity, and the Indian Army started teaching political science in Kashmir high schools.

Rana Ayyub, a journalist for The Washington Post and a critic of the Indian government, claimed for Al Jazeera that she regularly shares their posts online and follows The Savala Vada, underscoring how “gasping for breath” mainstream journalism in India is.

According to Rana, “they speak for the oppressed the way that our mainstream media doesn’t.” The handle is an excellent illustration of how satire and hitting the nail on the head work together to maintain power. They have filled the empty space left by the mainstream media in India.

“Remarking the absurdity of reality”

The Savala Vada’s situation, however, hasn’t been pleasant. Its X handle has twice been blocked. In the first instance, it changed the handle name and image to “Narendra Modi” so that it could post a greeting for Eid Mubarak, and made a promise to outlaw RSS and release all political prisoners to honor the Muslim holiday.

The X handle was also hacked twice, once after Hindu right-wing trolls, some with tens of thousands of followers, reported it to the microblogging platform in large numbers. “It’s a means of intimidation, to stop us from doing our work”, J said. It “denotes unmistakably that what we post has disturbed them.”

J claimed their Instagram handle has also often been shadow-banned by the platform. Then there are online abuses and threats, with people calling them “mullah” (a slur for Muslims), “Jihadi”, “Pakistani”, “Chinese” and “antinational ‘ among other things.

They have also been threatened with legal action, the most recent of which occurred during the Ram Temple’s dedication in Ayodhya, according to J.

” It feels scary and depressing. But it is also funny sometimes, “he said”. We laugh off those slurs when we hear them. People, mostly from the right wing, often don’t get sarcasm. We pin those comments]on social media] and joke about it.

Our goal is to highlight the absurdity of the world we live in rather than to offend any particular community. And satire gains popularity because it resonates with viewers, he added.

Satire is also risky. It’s difficult to pursue satire in the largest democracy in the world. You could end up in jail for a joke, J said.

India placed 159th in the annual Reporters Without Borders World Press Freedom Index, which is released every year in a slight improvement from the ranking of 161 in 2023, but it is still significantly below the 140-point mark.

In a report released earlier this year, watchdog Free Speech Collective claimed that “free speech in India has sunk into a perilous abyss, and steadily falling press freedom indices underscore the danger of crossing a line that is becoming increasingly contentious.

According to J, The Savala Vada does not want to launch a website or launch a print version of The Onion because of the country’s censorship and surveillance. It will leave a digital footprint online, according to J. J.

We refute narratives, we say.

The Savala Vada and Australia’s The Juice Media collaborated on their Honest Government Ads project, which satirizes the state of democracy in poll-dense nations, during the Indian general elections this year. This year, they included 14 nations, including India, Pakistan, the United States, Indonesia and Iran, among others.

A video posted by the group on YouTube featured a “public service announcement” that critiqued the Modi government for imprisoning opposition leaders, threatening journalists, bulldozing the homes of Muslims and targeting free speech in the world’s largest democracy.

Following a request from the Indian government, YouTube removed the video. A government agency in India, according to The Juice Media, lodged a legal complaint against the Australian business for provocation, insulting the Indian flag, and violating the Indian Constitution.

J feared the government would act against The Savala Vada after the video was removed. He continued, “I thought they were going to come after us,” adding that the fear had forced him to remove any mention of The Savala Vada from its Instagram page.

Anand Mangnale, a journalist and researcher who studies media, claims that there is a more organized form of right-wing outrage on social media.

“Earlier there would be abuses and trolls online, but what we witness now is much more organised”, he told Al Jazeera.

“As of right now, online communities are being established to target specific individuals or report specific content. Then, it serves as legal case ammunition. According to him, the cases are not based on the rule of law but rather on the fake outcry they generate on social media.

A number of mainstream Indian journalists have recently taken to YouTube and Instagram to continue their work after refusing to abide by their employers’ diktats or leaving private companies. J claimed that he and others are attempting to “democratize the same information space with a satirical spin.”

“In the current world that is so bleak and dystopian, we are trying to imagine a different world, a world where we counter narratives, uplift marginalised voices, and fight against hate”, he said.

Melbourne, Australia – Myanmar’s remote jungle hills may be a world away from sun-soaked Australia, but the two countries share an insidious bond – crystalline methamphetamine.

Otherwise known as “ice” or “crystal meth”, crystalline methamphetamine is a highly addictive substance which has permeated Australia’s suburbs.

The Australian Federal Police estimates about 70 percent of the drug comes from northeastern Myanmar, near the Golden Triangle,  where the country borders Thailand and Laos, and is transported through Southeast Asia before arriving in Australia by boat.

A recent National Drug Strategy survey showed that one out of every 100 Australians over the age of 14 had used ice in the last 12 months, mostly in the country’s major cities.

The same survey also indicated that about 7. 5 percent of Australia’s population had tried methamphetamine during their lifetime.

Charlie Samson, who lives in Australia’s second-biggest city, Melbourne, first smoked ice when he was just 18. He soon found himself addicted.

“We’d go out for drinks, and someone knew a bloke who had some ice. And so we all tried it,” he told Al Jazeera.

“The next week, we did the same thing, and then it snowballed from there. Fast forward three or four months, I was secretly buying it on a Monday, because I’d been up all weekend. ”

At the peak of his addiction, he was spending 2,500 Australian dollars ($1,690) a week on the drug. Despite his habit, Samson managed to maintain his well-paid construction job with the vast majority of his salary going on the drug.

“Before I rolled out of bed, I used to have to smoke about a gramme just to be able to function,” he said.

‘Smelled like tea’

Australia’s official health campaigns often declare ice users to be “psychotic” and “violent”, underscoring the prevailing stereotype of the homeless “meth addict”.

However, Samson told Al Jazeera that ice addiction could affect anyone and that people could remain apparently functioning members of society even when addicted.

He said he had seen lawyers and businesspeople all fall prey to the drug.

“I’ve met a few people who I thought, ‘He’s got a family, he’s paying a mortgage. And now he’s got nothing. ’ Because at some point, it gets a hold of you, even if it’s not financially, it’ll get you mentally,” he said.

Samson, who is now 29, managed to hold down his job for six years before the addiction completely overran his life, and it was only after a short stint in prison that he managed to get clean.

While Samson told Al Jazeera he never knew the source of the ice he bought, he did recall batches that “smelled like tea”, indicative of methamphetamine originating from Myanmar, which is often smuggled in tea boxes.

The production of methamphetamine and heroin has increased in Myanmar since the 2021 military coup plunged the country into crisis and civil war, with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) saying that seizures of methamphetamine hit a record 190 tonnes in 2023 across East and Southeast Asia.

The UNODC says that Myanmar has also emerged as the world’s leading source of opium.

Most of the drug production is centred in the northern hills of Shan and Wa states, regions which have long been notorious for opium production and trade.

But the civil war has seen a spike in the drug trade, including heroin, methamphetamine and what is known as yaba – small pills containing a mix of methamphetamine and caffeine – with the proceeds used to finance the conflict.

The Australian Federal Police, which maintains ongoing operations in the region as part of efforts to stem the flow of drugs to Australia, told Al Jazeera that “transnational crime is not only a result of, but a driver of the current conflict, as it is financing various actors in the conflict and, therefore, reducing the incentive to pursue a durable peace. ”

“Like heroin historically, methamphetamine production remains a significant source of income to transnational crime groups in Myanmar,” a spokesperson said. “Ongoing offshore seizures of drugs from Myanmar show this region remains a major source to the lucrative Australian market. ”

Between 2012 and 2022, almost 10 tonnes of ‘tea packet’ methamphetamine was seized by the Australian Federal Police. In 2022 alone, this included more than 2. 1 tonnes with a street value of more than 1 billion Australian dollars ($671. 6 million).

‘Tea packet’ methamphetamine refers to methamphetamine manufactured in Southeast Asia and commonly packaged in branded tea packets for concealment and marketing purposes; different colours indicate purity, with green being the highest.

While the likely origin is Myanmar, the police told Al Jazeera it was “difficult to put a percentage on the amount of methamphetamine originating from Myanmar, as it is transhipped through multiple countries, concealing the true source of the illicit drugs”.

Increasingly potent

Samson has remained clean since leaving prison in June 2023.

But many other Australians are unable to break ice addiction and struggle even to take the first step of seeking help.

Turning Point is a Melbourne-based clinic whose services include assistance for those seeking help for methamphetamine use, including counselling and detox.

Clinical Director Shalini Arunogiri echoes Samson’s observations that methamphetamine addiction affects a variety of Australians.

“We see people who may fit that homeless stereotype,” she told Al Jazeera. “But we absolutely do see people who are working full time. We see parents. We see people who are in high functioning jobs who might be using daily. ”

She added that the stigma of methamphetamine addiction is often a barrier to those seeking help.

“I think there is that real stereotype that has been portrayed in media, advertising and in public health campaigns. Those public health campaigns aren’t effective. In fact, they marginalise people who use that drug even more. ”

Arunogiri says the purity of methamphetamine coming from high-volume trade regions such as Myanmar has increased over the last two decades.

“The drug that we have available in Australia for the last decade is quite potent – we’ve got very high potency crystalline methamphetamine. Here, it’s virtually impossible to get non-crystalline methamphetamine. ”

She told Al Jazeera that the effects of the drug can be seen across a range of physical, mental and criminological indicators.

“One in three people who use at least every week are likely to experience psychotic symptoms – seeing things, hearing things. We know that a significant proportion go on to develop things like schizophrenia and long-term psychological illnesses. Using methamphetamine also often comes with criminal aspects as well. ”

The Australian Institute of Health and Wellbeing recently reported that at least 46 percent of those entering prison had used methamphetamine in the previous 12 months.

John Coyne, Head of Strategic Policing and Law Enforcement at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, told Al Jazeera that methamphetamine use in Australia “fuels a cycle of criminal activity that often leads to incarceration”.

He says this includes theft and robbery to fund addiction, as well as violent behaviour, which can be triggered by the drug.

“Additionally, the illegal nature of meth means that possession and trafficking come with harsh penalties, further contributing to incarceration rates,” he said.

Coyne says the ongoing conflict in Myanmar, along with endemic corruption and human rights abuses by the military regime, creates serious challenges for Australian police in tackling the export of drugs from the region.

“While disrupting illicit drug routes is essential for regional security, engaging with a regime known for its oppressive tactics raises ethical and legal concerns,” he said.

According to the United Nations, the Myanmar military has killed more than 5,000 civilians since the coup and has reinstated the death penalty for political activity, executing pro-democracy activists.

That the regime is also allegedly directly involved in the drug trade presents a myriad of operational and ethical challenges for Australian law enforcement.

“The Australian Federal Police must navigate these complexities carefully, ensuring that intelligence-sharing is strictly focused on disrupting drug networks without inadvertently supporting a corrupt regime,” Coyne told Al Jazeera.