The cost of consumer goods in France jumped 6% in January in annual terms from 5.9% in December, conclusive data by the country’s statistics agency Insee showed on Friday.

The higher consumer price index (CPI) rate was prompted by an acceleration in food costs, which were up 13.3% year-on-year, and in energy prices, which soared 16.3%. The price increases of manufactured goods and those of services have slowed, according to Insee.

The report showed that seasonally adjusted, consumer prices increased by 0.8% over a month.

The core rate, which excludes items with volatile pricing such as unprocessed food and energy, increased to 5.6% in January from 5.3% in December. Meanwhile, the European harmonized CPI was up 0.4% on the month and 7% on the year.

According to a Bank of France forecast, inflation in the country will peak in the first half of 2023, after which it will gradually slow to about 2% by the end of 2024. In December, it was reported that French food manufacturers had asked retailers to raise product prices by 15-25% from the beginning of 2023 amid inflation and rising production costs.

Economists expect inflation in the country to start easing once increases in energy prices subside. Its Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire has said that the country’s top economic priority was to bring down energy prices and spiralling inflation.”

Band Aid Not The Solution

“The Spanish social affairs minister, Ione Belarra, has called on the government to bring down prices of basic products by introducing discounts, as food costs continue to rise in the country amid double-digit inflation.

A reduction in value added tax (VAT, known in Spain as IVA) has proven insufficient as prices for essentials are still “the highest,” Belarra posted on Twitter on Thursday. She urged the ruling Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) to subsidize the basic consumer basket by 14%.

The minister also proposed bringing prices down to levels seen prior to the conflict in Ukraine, adding that Spanish “families can’t wait any longer.” She argued that the proposed subsidy would help mitigate the impact on consumers of soaring inflation, and even suggested a price intervention.

Food inflation in Spain has remained over 15% despite an IVA cut on some basic products. In January, inflation eased from 15.7% recorded in December, but was still raging at a rate of 15.4% for food and non-alcoholic drinks, the National Institute of Statistics (INE) reported on Wednesday.

Cash-strapped households in Spain have taken a hit from surging costs of most meats, fish, yoghurt, butter, cereals, coffee, tea and baby food, as these items were not classified as basics and did not receive a tax cut.

The overall January inflation reading was higher than INE expected, and stood at 5.9% with a 0.6% rise from December.”

https://www.rt.com/business/

Dave C

 More people are depending on food banks than ever before in Britain, new figures show. 

 “Ever-increasing” numbers of households – including pensioners, NHS staff and teachers – seek help amid the cost of living crisis.

Cost of living increases was given as the biggest problem, followed by inadequate wages and waiting times for initial universal credit payments. A third of independent food banks said benefit sanctions and deductions were a driving factor.

New research by the Independent Food Aid Network (Ifan), shared with the Observer, found that almost 90% of food banks surveyed reported increased demand in December 2022 and January 2023 compared with a year earlier.

 Half of the 85 organisations running 154 food banks that responded said if demand rose further they would either have to cut support or turn people away.

The Trussell Trust, the UK’s biggest provider, between April and September alone  distributed 1.3m emergency food parcels – a third more than the same period in 2021 and over 50% more than pre-pandemic.

Food banks are struggling to meet record demand from people who are in work – including NHS staff and teachers – the Ifan research found. More than 80% reported supporting a significant number of people for the first time, while many said demand was growing among pensioners and families with babies.

Sabine Goodwin, Ifan coordinator, said: “It’s very clear that people have been trying to muddle through the winter on credit and are now building up debts that will push people over the edge.” Accusing the government of “unsustainable and unethical” reliance on charitable food aid, she said that without a change of approach there will be “nowhere for people to turn”.

Many food banks are also reporting issues with burnout among staff and volunteers. Judith Vickers, from Lifeshare in Manchester, said: “Staff are reporting burnout, heavy caseloads, and a constant stream of new referrals. We are coping, but the level of demand is relentless. Volunteers often feel that we can’t do enough for people.”

Food inflation is at 16.7% and the cost of gas is nearly 130% higher than a year ago. The Office for Budget Responsibility forecast in November that households’ disposable income would fall by 4.3% in 2022-23, the largest drop since comparable records began in 1956.

Revealed: record number of households in UK depending on food banks | Food banks | The Guardian

 “The world’s biggest food corporation, Nestle, has said prices for staple items would continue to grow during 2023, after more than a year of price increases that have forced the ordinary consumer into an ongoing struggle to buy groceries.

The giant increased prices by 8.2% last year, but says this was not enough to offset a rise in its own costs that had substantially dented profits.

According to Nestle CEO Mark Schneider, Nestle’s price increases, which are expected to vary by market and category, will be “very targeted” and will only be implemented where “input cost inflation justifies it.”

“We are still in a situation where we’re repairing our gross margin and, like all the consumers around the world, we’ve been hit by inflation and now we’re trying to repair the damage that has been done,” Schneider said.

The executive provided no details on what projected increases will affect which of Nestle’s 2,000 brands, a range spanning confectionery, frozen foods, and baby formula.

“Last year brought many challenges and tough choices for families, communities and businesses,” the company’s statement reads. “Inflation surged to unprecedented levels, cost of living pressures intensified, and the effects of geopolitical tensions were felt around the world.”

Higher commodity costs and wages have brought the problem of pricing strategies into sharp focus for food-producing companies as they struggle to maximize their profits without turning away customers.

Unilever, Coca-Cola, Heineken, Colgate-Palmolive and Procter & Gamble have all flagged further increases in the prices of their goods in 2023, as they grapple with elevated commodity, energy and labour costs.”

RT 19\2\23

Dave C

The new Conservative deputy chair, Lee Anderson, claimed that Calais refugee charities are “just as bad as people-smugglers”.

He accused refugee organisations based in northern France of “fuelling” people’s desire to cross the English Channel in small boats. Anderson alleged that on a recent trip to Calais with the Commons home affairs select committee, he saw “hundreds of young men” being helped by those working with the British charity Care4Calais:

“You’ve got the people-smugglers, you’ve got the camps, the charities at the camps. You’ve then got, when you get to England, the hotels, the lefty lawyers – it is one big multimillion-pound industry.”

Anderson, a former Labour councillor who defected to the Tories, also claimed migrants were “encouraged” to make the dangerous crossing by being taught English by the volunteers.

“They weren’t fleeing any war, or persecution, they told us that they wanted to come for a better life in the UK,” he claimed.

In response, volunteer-run Care4Calais said: “Our operations in northern France focus on the provision of humanitarian aid and we seek to provide some friendship and dignity through activities like English lessons, football matches, and simple teas and coffees. We provide no assistance – or encouragement – to refugees with journeys to the UK. We do not want any individual to attempt to cross the Channel in a small boat, or by other dangerous means.

“We see the real-life consequences of people-smuggling; that is why we campaign for safe routes for people who want to seek asylum in the UK.”

The charity distributes aid to refugees sleeping rough in and around Calais, many of whom have fled war, persecution and political oppression.

Meanwhile, in Liverpool, hundreds of people attended a rally in support of refugees following violence outside a Merseyside hotel housing asylum seekers a week ago.

Liverpool mayor Joanne Anderson and former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn joined the event, saying they wanted to “stand up for refugees”.

One speaker said Liverpool has been “bringing in people from around the world for as long as we’ve been a city and we cannot forget our roots”, while another said the city’s accent was a result of migration.

76% of South Koreans believe the nation should develop and deploy its own nuclear weapons to serve as a deterrent.

 Many in the South have been alarmed at the perceived fragility of the security alliance that has tied the US to Seoul since the outbreak of the Korean War in 1950.  Questions have grown about Washington’s commitment to the alliance as trade rivalries have increased. 

While in power, President Donald Trump strong-armed Seoul into sharply increasing the amount it paid to keep US troops in the South by threatening to withdraw US forces from the peninsula.

   The US has taken a firmer stance on imports of South Korean electric vehicles and is shifting away from a long reliance on Korean semiconductor manufacturers. 

 “The fact that the US does not subsidize Korean electric vehicles and tries to compete in the semiconductors industry is creating anxiety for South Korea,” explained politics Professor Hyobin Lee at Chungnam National University. “South Koreans do not trust the nuclear umbrella provided by the US.” She added, “How can we trust someone for protection if they treat us as a competitor?” 

The sense is that if Washington cannot be trusted on trade, then how can Seoul be absolutely certain US forces will be committed in the event of another invasion from the North or a threat to South Korea from China? 

Some are placing their support behind a homegrown nuclear capability. They say it would permit Seoul to rely less heavily on the defensive umbrella provided by the US, enable a drawdown of US military personnel and ensure that South Koreans made decisions for themselves on matters of national security.  The acquisition of nuclear weapons was once a topic for the political fringe but has now become a mainstream element of security discussions.   

Another reason for that support is a concept called “unwanted use theory.”  According to the theory, as the credibility of US power and preparedness to use nuclear weapons from bases in South Korea increases, that paradoxically makes the South more of a target for its regional rivals, either as a pre-emptive strike or in retaliation.  

President Yoon Suk-yeol in January said his nation might need to acquire a nuclear capability or, at the very least, play a more active role in managing US weapons that could be reintroduced to the South, seeking a return of tactical nuclear weapons or nuclear sharing.

if South Korea were to try to create its own nuclear deterrent, it would take less than one year to develop a weapon.  Any such decision would also mean Seoul would be abandoning its commitments under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty

South Korea: Why support for nukes is on the rise – DW – 02/17/2023

 The World Socialist Movement is against any war between peoples and has opposed, oppose and always will oppose war. The socialists’ role  is to carry on proclaiming that there is but one war of emancipation: the one waged in every country by the oppressed against the oppressor, by the exploited against the exploiter. Our task is to summon wage-slaves to revolt against their masters. To all soldiers from every country convinced that they are fighting for justice and freedom, we explain that their heroism and their valour serves only to perpetuate hatred, tyranny and misery. 

The World Socialist Movement  reaffirms its allegiance to the principle of internationalism and working-class solidarity the world over, and proclaims its unalterable opposition to all war. Whether they have been wars of aggression or have been represented as wars of “defence,” they have always been made by the ruling classes and fought by working people.  We call upon the workers of all nationa to refuse support to their governments in their wars. 

Wars bring wealth and power to the capitalist and pain and suffering to the worker. Wars breed nationalist unreason and race hatred. In support of the capitalists we will not willingly sacrifice a single life or shed a drop of blood. Modern wars as a rule have been caused by the commercial and financial rivalry and intrigues of the capitalist interest in the different countries. The death and destruction which is now convulsing unfortunate Ukraine was caused by the conflict of capitalist interests. The acute competition between the Western powers and Russia, their distrust of one another and the fear of the others rising power has led to the madness of war. This war is a war of the capitalist class, worldwide.

It is not a war to advance the cause of democracy. Democracy can never be imposed upon any country by a foreign power by force of arms. War is an inevitable product of the capitalist system. No capitalist power can prosper within its own borders atone; it must expand or suffer paralyzing economic crisis; to survive, it must get new markets abroad, new sources of raw materials, new fields of investment, new spheres of influence. When it is blocked from securing or consolidating these objectives by the economic or political power of another nation, it will eventually resort to military means.

It is not enough to point an accusing finger at the politicians who are running the government  or the greedy CEOs. Their individual avarice and lust for power are important factors but not the decisive ones. In the first place, they are not acting on their own; they are the representatives and administrators of their class, the capitalist class. Without the consent of their class they would never dare embark on such a dangerous venture as war. War represents a terrible risk for them yet they are driven to desperate measures for resolving international disputes not merely by some quirk in their individual or collective minds or hearts, but by the very needs of the capitalist system itself. 

If we don’t say it’s a class war, a war of the oppressor against the oppressed, of the exploiters against the exploited, of the capitalists against the workers and oppressed people of the world, then we are not telling the whole truth.

The end of wars will come with the establishment of socialism the world over. In a rational world cooperative there would of course be no war over raw materials, which would be accessible to all and collectively used for the common welfare. But a world dominated by capitalism is not a rational world. It’s a world whose very fate is based on such conflicts as the competition for raw materials. it’s a dog-eat-dog system, where each dog is ready to undergo some suffering himself in order to remain or become the top dog, and where all the dogs are indifferent to the welfare of canines as a whole.

You can’t end war without ending its cause, capitalism. The World Socialist Movement calls upon all workers to join it in its struggle to reach its goal of a new society in which peace, fraternity and harmony will prevail. 

 Extreme weather events in Central America are becoming more frequent and more severe, far outpacing resilience and recovery. In Guatemala hurricanes and tropical storms, as well as droughts and El Niño and La Niña weather pattern changes, are intensifying. Guatemala is prone to sudden-onset climate events, including 12 hurricanes and tropical storms over the past 20 years. Hurricane Mitch (1998), Tropical Storm Stan (2005). Tropical Storm Agatha (2010) alone cost Guatemala more than $2.4 billion in damages. But slow-onset events, particularly drought, have also been a challenge for the country.   

From 2012 to 2016, Guatemala experienced one of the worst droughts in the country’s history. In 2012, drought affected more than 80 percent of the country. The drought ruined half of the maize and bean crops, causing an estimated loss of around $10 million. In 2014, another prolonged drought struck, which prompted the government of Guatemala to declare a state of emergency. The drought negatively impacted 70 to 80 percent of basic food crops.

Some 236,000 families, or around 1.1 million people, were directly affected. The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) reported that in late 2018, poor households in the “Dry Corridor” of the country “were still working to recover from indebtedness and lost assets” from the 2014 drought.  

The region of Chiquimula is in what is called the region’s “Dry Corridor,” and faces frequent drought. Many of its communities also were hit hard by hurricanes Eta and Iota in 2020 and tropical storm Celia in 2022.  .Almost 70 percent of the total population—290,638 people—were affected in some way. Infrastructure and agriculture were hit particularly hard.

Eta and Iota displaced hundreds of thousands of Guatemalans. The storms triggered massive landslides and flooding that wrought destruction and affected more than 2.4 million people in Guatemala. It is likely that the prolonged drought meant that soil was too dry to sufficiently absorb water that resulted in flash floods. More than 300,000 people were evacuated in the face of the storms, with more than 230,000 remaining displaced in the short-term. While the number of displaced people has dropped dramatically, homes are still badly damaged or destroyed.  

Eta and Iota also took a toll on food security, damaging 130,000 cultivated hectares, including maize, bean, plantain, banana, tomatoes, onion, broccoli, cardamom, and coffee. According to the World Food Program (WFP), the hurricane damage exacerbated food insecurity for 1.8 million already-food-insecure Guatemalans. Eta and Iota also damaged homes, livestock, water systems, and infrastructure, such as schools and health centers, making recovery slow-going.

People in the area faced significant losses and are still struggling to recover. Crop failures affected their livelihood and triggered food insecurity. The storms destroyed people’s homes, forcing them to try to rebuild or relocate without the proper resources to do so.

Matters are worse in rural, poor, and indigenous areas, where government support is traditionally lacking and where the absence of land titles makes it difficult for those who do not own their land to rebuild.  

Two years on from Eta and Iota, people in the area still need significant support—and more must be done to prepare for future such climate hazards. Two years on from Eta and Iota, families in affected communities still need support to rebuild their homes and meet basic needs, including food aid. Half of the people Refugees International interviewed had been unable to return to their homes. These communities tend to rely on a patchwork mix of efforts—from municipalities, NGOs, community support, and remittances—to piece together some semblance of recovery. But affected communities are typically left with a series of untenable options: they can rebuild in hazard-prone areas; move to areas with higher rents than they can afford; or remain in a protracted state of displacement.  

Climate change has made hurricanes and droughts in Guatemala more intense. It has induced anomalously warm ocean and air temperatures, supercharging Atlantic hurricanes to become stronger, wetter, and prone to stalling over land longer. These changing conditions have also induced more “rapid intensification” of hurricanes, or an increase in rotational wind speeds of 35 mph or more within a 24-hour period. Eta and Iota both embodied these climate-charged features, with Eta intensifying at a particularly exceptional rate. In addition, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) scientists find El Niño and El Niña weather patterns have already been changing, and that droughts induced by the 2015–2016 El Niño were partially attributable to human influences. 

Two years after Eta and Iota, Guatemalans continue to deal with the aftershocks. Families in Chiquimula are still struggling with issues of shelter, poverty, and food insecurity. Many of them remain in a state of displacement or are at risk of displacement. The government of Guatemala has not stepped up to meet their needs, and the international community has not either.

Two Years after Eta and Iota: Displaced and Forgotten in Guatemala — Refugees International

 At least 18 people, including a child, have been found dead in Bulgaria in an abandoned lorry near the capital Sofia. Those discovered were from Afghanistan and were being smuggled to Serbia.

“There has been a lack of oxygen to those who were locked in this truck. They were freezing, wet, they have not eaten for several days.”

In the UK, five anti-migrant demonstrations are happening over this weekend and being promoted by the far-right groups Britain First and Patriotic Alternative.

“I fled Syria because of fear of death in my country and now I’m living in fear here,” said one asylum seeker.

One asylum seeker at the hotel in Dunstable said: “We are in a dangerous situation. We are at risk and are scared to go outside the hotel. Everyone is in stress…”

 The head of UNAids, Winnie Byanyima, has strongly criticised pharmaceutical giants for prioritising profits over saving lives, and warned that “racist” inequalities are undermining progress towards ending Aids, especially in Africa.

“The World Trade Organization rules allow lifesaving medications to be traded in the same way we could trade luxury goods. They allow pharmaceutical companies to set the price wherever they want, hoard their technologies and reap billions at the cost of lives,” she said.

The injectable drug cabotegravir, for instance – administered every two months and considered the most effective form of prevention – is only available in high-income countries like the UK and the US, and even there remains largely unaffordable. Last year, Zimbabwe became the first African country to approve the drug for use, but with the country in economic crisis the drug remains effectively unavailable.

Such policies expose racial inequalities and discrimination in health, she said. “To me, that’s racism, even though people don’t want to call it out: valuing the profit of a few people, who happen to be white, over the lives of black and brown people around the world.”

 “For Africa, the lesson was: you must have the capacity to produce yourself.”

Sub-Saharan Africa accounts for more than half of all new infections, with women and marginalised groups facing higher new infection rates. 

Aids-related illnesses were the leading cause of mortality among African women, and adolescent girls and young women were three times more likely than men to get HIV.

Marginalised groups on the continent, including sex workers, gay men and transgender people, accounted for a large proportion of new infections in 2021. 

Thirty-two African countries have laws criminalising same-sex relations, and this often stops LGBTQ+ people accessing sexual and reproductive health services. Gay men in countries with the most severe anti-LGBTQ+ laws were more than three times less likely to know their HIV status than their counterparts in countries with the least restrictive laws,

Kenya spends up to five times more on debt servicing than it does on health.

Big pharma must value African lives above profits, warns head of UNAids | Global development | The Guardian