Category: Business

GENEVA, June 14 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The United Nations on Monday begged world trade ministers meeting at the WTO not to impose export restrictions on food for humanitarian purposes, amid a food security crisis.

The UN’s human rights chief Michelle Bachelet and its trade and development head Rebeca Grynspan said Russia’s war in Ukraine was increasing the risk of hunger and famine for tens of millions of people who are already food insecure or approaching food insecurity.

Countries meeting at the World Trade Organization’s ministerial conference in Geneva this week are trying to reach a consensus position on food security.

Mindful of less-developed countries, net food-importing developing countries and those reliant on the UN’s World Food Programme, the two UN chiefs said that in 2020, African countries imported about 80 percent of their food and 92 percent of their cereal from outside the continent.

They urged WTO members to “refrain from imposing export restrictions on essential foodstuffs purchased by LDCs and NFIDCs as well as those purchased by WFP for non-commercial humanitarian purposes”.

Russia’s invasion has heightened concerns for global food security as Ukraine’s Black Sea ports are blocked, preventing the country from exporting its produce.

Before the February invasion, Ukraine was the world’s fourth-largest supplier of wheat and maize.

India capped sugar exports to safeguard its own supplies and ease inflation, days after its ban on wheat shipments sent global prices soaring.

Immediately after the May 25 sugar announcement, WTO chief Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala urged countries not to block or restrict exports of basic foodstuffs given the tensions on global food markets.

A decision on food security and export restrictions is one of the main expected outcomes at the WTO ministerial conference, which opened Sunday and runs until Wednesday.

A second text aims to ban export restrictions on WFP purchases but India and Tanzania oppose the move.

The UN leaders said they would work with WTO members to address anti-competitive and unfair business practices.

“Hoarding, excessive stockpiling of basic foodstuffs and associated speculation, especially during global food shortages, adversely affect the enjoyment of the right to food and erodes efforts to achieve food security for all,” they said.

EU trade commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis met India’s Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal for talks at the WTO on Monday.

“We need all members to show the same level of ambition and spirit of compromise to make this WTO ministerial a success,” the EU executive vice president said afterwards. — NNN-AGENCIES

Source: NAM News Network

LONDON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Akanda Corp. (“Akanda” or the “Company”), an international medical cannabis company, today announced the completion of its initial public offering of 4,000,000 common shares at a price of $4.00 per share to the public for a total of $16,000,000 of gross proceeds to the Company (the “Offering”), prior to deducting underwriting discounts, commissions, and other Offering expenses.

All of the common shares were offered by Akanda. The Company intends to use the proceeds primarily for property, plant and equipment, operations, working capital and general corporate purposes.

The Company has listed its common shares on The Nasdaq Capital Market, effective March 15, 2022, under the symbol “AKAN.”

Boustead Securities, LLC served as the lead underwriter for the Offering.

A registration statement on Form F-1, as amended (File No. 333-262436) relating to the common shares was filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) and was declared effective on March 14, 2022. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy these securities, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or jurisdiction.

About Akanda Corp.

Akanda is an international medical cannabis and wellness platform company seeking to help people lead better lives through improved access to high quality and affordable products. The Company is building a seed-to-patient supply chain, connecting patients in the UK and Europe with diverse products including cannabis products cultivated at its competitively advantaged grow operation in the Kingdom of Lesotho and with other trusted third-party brands. Akanda’s initial portfolio includes Bophelo Bioscience & Wellness, a GACP qualified cultivation campus in the Kingdom of Lesotho in Southern Africa, and CanMart, a UK-based fully licensed pharmaceutical importer and distributor which supplies pharmacies and clinics within the UK.

Connect with Akanda: Email | Website | LinkedIn | Twitter | Instagram

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Information and Statements

This press release contains certain “forward-looking information” within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation and may also contain statements that may constitute “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking information and forward-looking statements are not representative of historical facts or information or current condition, but instead represent only Akanda’s beliefs regarding future events, plans or objectives, many of which, by their nature, are inherently uncertain and outside of Akanda’s control. Generally, such forward-looking information or forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as “plans”, “expects” or “does not expect”, “is expected”, “budget”, “scheduled”, “estimates”, “forecasts”, “intends”, “anticipates” or “does not anticipate”, or “believes”, or variations of such words and phrases or may contain statements that certain actions, events or results “may”, “could”, “would”, “might” or “will be taken”, “will continue”, “will occur” or “will be achieved”. Forward-looking information may relate to anticipated events or results including, but not limited to business strategy, product development and sales and growth plans. The forward-looking information and forward-looking statements contained in this press release are made as of the date of this press release, and Akanda does not undertake to update any forward-looking information and/or forward-looking statements that are contained or referenced herein, except in accordance with applicable securities laws.

Source: Business Wire

Malanje – An overall 3 million US dollars is to be channeled for the operationalization of the Southern African Development Community(SADC )’s Regional Cassava Leadership Centre, set to be launched within three months in the northern Malanje Province, with the aim to strengthen research on the crop and boost the value chain.

The information was disclosed Tuesday by the coordinator of the Agricultural Productivity Programme for Southern Africa (APPSA), Joaquim César, on the occasion of the 27th Scientific Council of the Agronomic Research Institute (IIA) being held since Monday in Malanje.

Cesar said the preparations are under way for the launching of the referred centre, which will have a research complex with laboratories, greenhouses and other facilities to be supported by 50 technicians from the Agronomic Research Institute (IIA).

Mr Antunes said the SADC Regional Cassava Leadership Centre is part of the Agricultural Productivity Programme for Southern Africa that started in 2020, and that, despite having cassava as main crop, includes research on other products such as maize, peanuts and beans.

He said the APPSA is budgeted at 25 million US dollars and has as its main axis the generation and dissemination of technology for the aforementioned crops with eight sub-projects already underway to improve the cultivation system and consequent transformation.

Besides Angola, APPSA also includes Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia and Lesotho, where regional centres of leadership for rice, corn, legumes and vegetables will be created.

The programme is funded by the World Bank.

Source: Angola Press News Agency

Seychelles has revised its advisory that restricted travel from seven southern African countries, introduced on November 27, to curb the spread of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 as it is now widespread around the world and has also been detected in the small island nation.

From January 6, travellers from South Africa, Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia and Zimbabwe are able to travel to Seychelles again.

The Public Health Commissioner, Jude Gedeon, told a press conference on Thursday that the travel restriction to those countries was imposed to curtail the entry of Omicron “but now that laboratory tests have shown that we already have the variant, there is no point in keeping the countries on the restricted list.”

Air Seychelles will restart its flights to Johannesburg on January 7 and continue flying once a week, an Air Seychelles spokesperson confirmed to SNA.

Meanwhile, Gedeon has expressed concern over the rapid increase in positive cases of COVID-19 in just over a week but no new restriction measures have been put in place.

He said that the total number of active cases in Seychelles is 2,481, with an increase of 2,180 cases since December 30, when the country had 621 active cases. However, the number of deaths as a result of the virus has not increased, which remains at 134 since the start of the pandemic.

“We have seen during the festive period, parties were taking place, people were mixing households and this is what has caused this surge that we are facing now,” he said.

Gedeon said that with the current spike in active cases, the record of active cases in a day, which was 629 in May last year, has been broken and is now 692.

“The current trend is more acute than the previous surge that we had early last year around May when the highest registered number of active cases was 3,046. It appears that we can have a higher number of active cases based on the current trend that we are seeing,” he warned.

No new health measures were announced but Gedeon said that group sports will not be allowed to take place because of the close contact between players. He also added that Ministry of Health and Ministry of Education officials will meet to decide on school calendars. Public schools are scheduled to open in around 10 days.

Meanwhile, Seychelles, an archipelago in the western Indian Ocean, is continuing its vaccination efforts and people who have taken two doses of a COVID vaccine are being encouraged by the health authorities to have a third dose of the Pfizer vaccine being offered at the moment.

Source: Seychelles News Agency

Rohingya refugees from Myanmar are suing Meta Platforms Inc, formerly known as Facebook, for $150 billion over allegations that the social media company did not take action against anti-Rohingya hate speech that contributed to violence.

A U.S. class-action complaint, filed in California on Monday by law firms Edelson PC and Fields PLLC, argues that the company’s failures to police content and its platform’s design contributed to real-world violence faced by the Rohingya community. In a coordinated action, British lawyers also submitted a letter of notice to Facebook’s London office.

Facebook did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment about the lawsuit. The company has said it was “too slow to prevent misinformation and hate” in Myanmar and has said it has since taken steps to crack down on platform abuses in the region, including banning the military from Facebook and Instagram after the February 1 coup.

Facebook has said it is protected from liability over content posted by users by a U.S. internet law known as Section 230, which holds that online platforms are not liable for content posted by third parties. The complaint says it seeks to apply Burmese law to the claims if Section 230 is raised as a defense.

Although U.S. courts can apply foreign law to cases where the alleged harms and activity by companies took place in other countries, two legal experts interviewed by Reuters said they did not know of a successful precedent for foreign law being invoked in lawsuits against social media companies where Section 230 protections could apply.

Anupam Chander, a professor at Georgetown University Law Center, said that invoking Burmese law wasn’t “inappropriate.” But he predicted that “It’s unlikely to be successful,” saying that “It would be odd for Congress to have foreclosed actions under U.S. law but permitted them to proceed under foreign law.”

More than 730,000 Rohingya Muslims fled Myanmar’s Rakhine state in August 2017 after a military crackdown that refugees said included mass killings and rape. Rights groups documented killings of civilians and burning of villages.

Myanmar authorities say they were battling an insurgency and deny carrying out systematic atrocities.

In 2018, U.N. human rights investigators said the use of Facebook had played a key role in spreading hate speech that fueled the violence. A Reuters investigation hat year, cited in the U.S. complaint, found more than 1,000 examples of posts, comments and images attacking the Rohingya and other Muslims on Facebook.

The International Criminal Court has opened a case into the accusations of crimes in the region. In September, a U.S. federal judge ordered Facebook to release records of accounts connected to anti-Rohingya violence in Myanmar that the social media giant had shut down.

The new class-action lawsuit references claims by Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen, who leaked a cache of internal documents this year, that the company does not police abusive content in countries where such speech is likely to cause the most harm.

The complaint also cites recent media reports, including a Reuters report last month, that Myanmar’s military was using fake social media accounts to engage in what is widely referred to in the military as “information combat.”

Source: Voice of America

WASHINGTON — The United States is donating 17 million doses of the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine to the African Union, bringing the total American donation to the continent to 67 million doses.

The U.S. previously donated 50 million doses to the AU, which has 55 member states, including some of the world’s poorest nations. The new tranche of 17 million will be delivered to the African Union in the “coming weeks,” the White House said in a statement Thursday.

“We’re continuing our shared fight against COVID,” Biden said Thursday, during a meeting with Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta. “The United States, we’ve donated 2.8 million doses of vaccine to Kenya as part of 50 million doses we’ve donated to the African Union. And I’m proud to announce that today, that we’re making additional, historic, one-time donation and 17 more million doses of the J&J vaccine to the AU.”

Kenyatta said the United States “has done its best to step up, in terms of not only helping Kenya, but with the African continent, in general, with regard to access to vaccines.”

The White House said it chose the one-dose vaccine for its unique advantages.

“(The) J&J vaccine is in high demand and short supply in Africa and elsewhere around the world,” the White House said. “Single-dose administration, long shelf life and easy cold chain make this vaccine an asset to global vaccine programs.”

That vaccine has not been as popular in the U.S. as its two-dose counterparts.

Any new vaccines are likely to be welcomed, after the World Health Organization said Thursday that its assessment found that six out of seven COVID-19 infections are not being detected on the African continent. WHO estimates there are 59 million cases in Africa — far more than the reported number of cases, which stands at 8 million.

But health advocates say more needs to be done.

“Speed matters as we fight this pandemic, and Africa urgently needs more doses to stem the overwhelming impacts of COVID-19. This donation is another example of U.S. leadership on the global response and is a step in the right direction in closing the vaccine access gap,” said Sarah Swinehart, senior communications director for North America at the ONE Campaign, a group that advocates to address extreme poverty and preventable disease, particularly in Africa.

“As we continue to work towards the goal of getting 70% of the world vaccinated, all wealthy countries must be bolder and more ambitious. This will require more doses and more money to get those doses into arms.”

The White House has countered criticism over its push for already vaccinated Americans to receive boosters when many people across the planet have yet to receive a single dose.

“With this donation, the U.S. will be giving away over half of the J&J vaccines purchased by the U.S. for its domestic program,” it said in Thursday’s statement.

The announcement coincided with Biden’s first face-to-face meeting with an African leader. Kenyatta met with Biden in the Oval Office to discuss a range of topics, including democracy and human rights issues, as well security, accelerating economic growth and addressing climate change.

Source: Voice of America