🌞 Big News – April 04 2022

*Stock data as of market close, cryptocurrency data as of 5:00 am ET.

The Lead: World Wide Food Supply

credit: time

Russia’s war has changed lives in and around Ukraine. If it doesn’t end soon, it will change the world.

Last week, the executive director of the U.N. World Food Program said that the war will have a global impact “beyond anything we’ve seen since World War II.”

The main reason: wheat. Farmers in Ukraine can no longer farm the global staple. The U.N.’s World Food Program, which fights famine around the world, gets 50% of its grain from Ukraine. U.N. food chief David Beasley further noted that the world gets 30% of its wheat from Russia and Ukraine, along with 20% of its corn and 75%-80% of its sunflower seed oil.

“If we end the conflict, address the needs, we can avoid famine, destabilization of nations and mass migration,” Beasley said. “But if we don’t, the world will pay a mighty price and the last thing we want to do as the World Food Program is taking food from hungry children to give to starving children.”

Taliban Cracks Down on Heroin

credit: giphy

The Taliban outlawed poppy farming this weekend and said that anyone caught growing crops of poppies will be subject to Sharia law. Which means violence.

Poppies are where heroin and opiates come from. The Taliban says that they are trying to end the opioid crisis with this move and it will make a difference since Afghanistan grows 85% of the world’s poppies. Last year, production increased by 8%.

While the intention of the ban sounds good, it will devastate many farmers whose livelihood depends on poppy farming at a time when the Afghan economy is on life support.

“One farmer is responsible for feeding five to 10 families,” one poppy farmer told The Wall Street Journal. “We make no money from growing wheat and vegetables. There’s a lot coming from Iran and Pakistan, and nobody buys ours. The Taliban issue decrees without thinking of the local people.”

The Taliban says that it will destroy any crops of poppies it finds from now on.

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Medium Covid

credit: getty

We are writing the Covid book as we’re reading it so new information comes regularly. Sometimes, that makes us change what we’ve been doing (see: masks, school shutdowns). Other times, it changes nothing at all.

Apparently, people now have a name for symptomatic COVID infections that are not quick hits and not long Covid: medium Covid.

People with medium Covid have lingering symptoms for weeks. Ok. I know this is different because I can deal with the same cold for weeks that my kid recovers from in a day. But is it? Really?

Covid is worse than a cold for some and Covid can take away your ability to get out of bed, smell fire, breathe easily. So maybe that’s the difference. Still, I’m not so sure we need a “medium Covid.”

Kid of The Year

credit: time

Time Magazine’s Kid of the Year for 2022 is 11-year-old Orion Jean, who doesn’t want any money for the hope he brings to this world. Unless it’s going to someone in need. Actually, yes, he’d like that money, please.

“When the pandemic began, people were losing their jobs, homes, and access to food and other essential things,” Jean said. “I wanted to help. But the opportunity actually came when my teacher suggested I enter the National Kindness Speech Contest in 2020. I won, and with the prize money, I started a kindness initiative to help people.”

Jean was nine when he won that contest, and he gave his prize money to a local children’s hospital. Since then, Jean’s “Race to Kindness” initiative has donated 100,000 meals to the food-starved and 500,000 books to the book-starved.

In these dreary, depressing times, Jean is a bright beacon to help us all get out of our heads and attempt to live by his words: “If you see a problem, fix it.”

News By The Numbers

2.6 million. That is how many weddings are anticipated in the U.S. in 2022, up from 2.2 million in 2019 before the pandemic because weddings are BACK.

40,000+. That is how many Syrians have signed up to fight with Russia in Ukraine (see above).

$0. That is how much residents of New Mexico will pay to go to college in the state starting in July.

54%. That is how much more people in the U.K. are paying for energy.

2. That is how many speeds of sound the first audio recording on Mars revealed. High-pitched sounds like lasers move faster than low-pitched booms, unlike here where it all reaches us at the same speed. Super frustrating for Mars parents whose kids ‘talk’ to them across the house.

What’s Trending?

credit: getty

U.S. actor Estelle Harris, who yell-cared for her son George on “Seinfeld,” is trending. Harris has died at age 93.

Bin Laden is trending because U.S. GOP Representative ​​Lisa McClain falsely gave former President Trump the credit for catching al-Qaeda founder and leader Osama bin Laden. That happened under President Obama, and (almost) everyone knows it. She also said unemployment is at a 40-year-high under President Biden. But… but… say it enough and it’s true, right?

Grammys 2022 is trending because they were last night and, just so you know, pink is the new black.

David Byrne is trending because the oversized suit that Justin Beiber wore to the Grammys was reminiscent of David Byrne’s iconic look.

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