Seed distribution in Northern Bari Payam, South Sudan. (Credit: FAO/Mayak Akuot)

🌾 Record high levels of food insecurity in 2021. Around 193 million people faced hunger in 2021, and the situation is already forecasted to worsen this year, a UN report on world hunger warned on Wednesday. Impact of the ongoing war in Ukraine, a global producer of wheat, cereals and other agricultural products, and the consequences of Covid-19 are expected to trigger a global economic slowdown, further deteriorating situations where people already have trouble accessing food.

⚖️ Swiss firm accused of pillaging, new trials at ICC, Ukraine violations: April war crimes round-up. The second edition since its launch in March, Geneva Solutions "war criminal hunt" round-up, in collaboration with Geneva-based NGO Civitas Maxima, provides a summary of the most interesting developments in the field of international criminal law, from Geneva and abroad.

Protest against Russian invasion in Ukraine, Portugal. 27 February.2022 (Credit: Alice Kotlyarenko / Unsplash)

🇺🇦 Why Ukraine only has one official language. Russian propagandists often use the “language issue” card to justify Russia’s aggression in Ukraine. The Russian speakers are “in danger,” they say, they need to be “protected.” Moreover, Russia has long argued that Ukraine should introduce Russian as a second state language. To explain why it’s not simple, one needs to trace the history of Ukraine and how the two languages were born and developed. Ukrainian journalist and literature expert, Kateryna Hodik explains.

💰 What’s the cost of the war for Russia, and what could be done with this money? The war is now in its third month. Destroyed cities, millions of refugees. And a paradoxical fact that defies comprehension: enormous sums of money are spent daily on this mass murder that could have been spent on solving social problems. So what sums are we talking about? Russian journalist, Aleksey Maltsev, writing under a pseudonym, puts together some estimates.

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