Hedge funds making billions from Ukraine turmoil – study

Experts blame the organizations for exacerbating the food crisis by “betting on hunger”

Ten of the planet's largest hedge funds made nearly $2 billion from the food-price spike that occurred after the start of Russia’s military offensive in Ukraine, The Guardian has reported. The British newspaper cited a report by Greenpeace’s investigative journalism branch Unearthed and Lighthouse Reports, a journalism nonprofit.

Hedge funds are investment firms that buy and sell equities and commodities for profit.

According to the study, analysts examined the returns made by Societe Generale’s SG Trend Index for the first quarter of last year, both prior to the start of the conflict on February 24 last year, and immediately afterwards. The analysis focused on grains and soya beans. Calculations showed that the hedge funds in question made $1.9 billion in returns on these commodities, a much higher figure than the returns on them in the first quarter of any of the previous five years.

“Hedge funds helped inflate a price bubble, putting upward pressure on food prices… and this has affected hunger levels of the world’s poorest people… Hedge funds and financial speculators have made obscene profits by betting on hunger and exacerbating it. That cannot be right,” Olivier De Schutter, a UN special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, said, commenting on the findings. He accused investors of intentionally “piling” into grains and commodities aiming solely to “capitalize on uncertainty and rising food prices.”

Analysts found that food companies have also profited from the crisis. Calculations showed that the globe’s 20 largest food companies made $53.5 billion in windfall profits in the last two years, first from rising food prices during the Covid-19 pandemic and then from last year’s spike amid the crisis in Ukraine.

“What we are witnessing is an enormous transfer of wealth to a few rich families that basically own the global food system, at a time when the majority of the world population is struggling to make ends meet,” Greenpeace International campaigner Davi Martins stated.

The prices of staple foods like wheat and fertilizers rose sharply following the start of the military operation, propelled by soaring energy costs as the globe feared for the future of Russia’s energy exports amid sanctions that followed the conflict. They have somewhat subsided later in the year, especially after the Ukraine grain deal was reached in mid-2022 that allowed the country’s agricultural products to be exported from Ukrainian ports despite the ongoing military action.

However, the situation is still turbulent due to deficiencies in the deal, which has so far failed to assist Russia with its own agricultural exports. Russia faces difficulties exporting its produce due to economic restrictions placed on the country. As a result, global food prices have not yet returned to 2021, pre-conflict levels, prompting the International Monetary Fund to warn last month that “many vulnerable countries still face heightened food insecurity.”

Analysts urged global regulators to introduce stricter rules for market speculation, including better transparency in the food market and restrictions on how big a position investors are allowed to take in this market.

https://www.rt.com/business/574752-hedge-funds-food-crisis/

SNL Goes All In on Supporting Mutilating Children, Has ‘Non-Binary’ Cast Member Go on Rant About ‘Protecting’ Trans Kids

Saturday Night Live went all in defending the mutilation and sterilization of “trans kids” during the weekend update.

The rant about supporting sex change surgeries and hormone treatments was delivered by Molly Kearney, who identifies as “non-binary.”

“As you know, I’ve been wanting to come to Update and talk about trans people. But I have them for a much longer time than that wanted to fly down from the ceiling,” Kearney said after she dropped in on a harness.

“But I’m not gonna lie, this harness is pretty tight and my groin area is beefed,” the actress asserted. “I’ve been hung up by my genitals for far too long and I’m starting to feel like a frickin’ Republican lawmaker.”

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/04/snl-goes-all-in-on-supporting-mutilating-children-has-non-binary-cast-member-go-on-rant-about-protecting-trans-kids-video/

Former Planned Parenthood Director Commits Suicide as Child Porn Investigation Intensifies

A former Planned Parenthood director, Tim Yergeau, 35, was found dead in his New Haven, Connecticut, apartment on Tuesday from suicide.

His death comes as a police investigation into a child pornography case intensified but was hampered by a botched raid on the apartment building in which Yergeau resided.

The Middletown Press reports:

Investigators are looking into the city police department’s botched child pornography raid last week at the apartment building of Long Wharf Theatre staffer Tim Yergeau who died by suicide on Tuesday, officials said.

“The person who died was definitely the suspect in a child pornography investigation and the person who committed suicide,” New Haven Police Chief Karl Jacobson told Hearst Connecticut Media Group on Wednesday.

The chief has requested an internal affairs investigation after members of the Special Victims Unit investigating the child pornography case broke down the door of Yergeau’s neighbor and handcuffed the woman before realizing they raided the wrong apartment.

“They obviously hit the wrong door,” Jacobson said.

The internal affairs investigation will also examine how Yergeau wound up taking his own life five days later, the chief said.

“Unfortunately, a mistake was made,” Jacobson said. “We feel for the woman and we’re going to do everything we can to make it right.”

“The investigation is part of holding my department accountable and transparent,” he added.

Jacobson, who said he plans to reach out to the woman, declined to confirm Yergeau was the suspect in the child pornography investigation. But Yergeau’s neighbor and the state Office of the Chief State Medical Examiner both confirmed he died Tuesday morning. The medical examiner also confirmed Yergeau died by suicide.

Yergeau’s social media is rife with leftist causes including the announcement of his former job with Planned Parenthood.

“Excited to announce that today I start a new job on the marketing/communications team at Planned Parenthood of Southern New England. Excited to be working on issues I’m passionate about: healthcare access, reproductive and sexual health, diversity and inclusion, civic engagement, and voting rights.”

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/04/former-planned-parenthood-director-commits-suicide-as-child-porn-investigation-intensifies/

UN workers killed in Sudan violence

Three humanitarian aid staff have died during the fighting between two branches of the country’s security forces, an official said

Three employees of the UN World Food Programme (WFP) were killed and two more injured during armed clashes in Sudan, the international agency’s executive director Cindy McCain said on Sunday. The agency has temporarily halted operations in the country, she added.

UN workers were slain on Saturday in the Kabkabiya District in the western part of the country, McCain said. She added that a WFP-operated aircraft was “significantly damaged” at Khartoum International Airport the same day.

“Any loss of life in humanitarian service is unacceptable and I demand immediate steps to guarantee the safety of those who remain,” McCain said, adding that “aid workers are neutral and should never be a target.”

“While we review the evolving security situation, we are forced to temporarily halt all operations in Sudan,” the WFP boss announced.

On Saturday, clashes broke out in the capital Khartoum and other cities between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), an independent security branch with roots in pro-government militias. Each side has accused the other of starting hostilities.

In 2019, Omar al-Bashir, Sudan’s ruler of more than 25 years, was overthrown in a coup. The country has since been governed by the Transitional Sovereignty Council (TSC) that was briefly dissolved and then reinstated in the wake of another coup in 2021. The current conflict comes after a failed attempt to mediate growing tensions between army chief and TSC chairman Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, who is also the body’s deputy chairman.

Fighting was reported around the airport and the presidential palace, as well as around military bases. Dagalo claimed on Sky News Arabia on Saturday that his troops were in control of “more than 90% of strategic sites in Khartoum.”

The Sudan Tribune, meanwhile, cited a SAF statement on Sunday as saying that the army has captured seven RSF bases across the country, including one in the capital.

Egypt and South Sudan, sharing a border with Sudan, have called for a ceasefire. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi spoke over the phone with his South Sudanese counterpart, Salva Kiir, on Sunday. The leaders expressed readiness to mediate the end of the conflict, according to Sisi’s spokesman, Ahmad Fahmy.

At least 56 civilians were killed as of Sunday and 595 people, including soldiers, wounded, the Sudanese Doctors’ Union said, as cited by Al Jazeera.

https://www.rt.com/africa/574834-un-workers-killed-sudan/

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