Author: Web Desk

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Russia-Ukraine conflict: Russia ‘provoking hunger in the world’ with Ukraine war – EU

BRUSSELS— Russia’s war in Ukraine, and not the sanctions imposed on Moscow, is what is causing an escalating global food crisis, the EU’s top diplomat said.

“They are causing scarcity. They are bombing Ukrainian cities and provoking hunger in the world,” Josep Borrell told a media conference after chairing a Monday meeting of EU foreign ministers.

He said the Russian military was “sowing bombs on Ukraine’s fields, and Russian warships have blockaded tens of ships full of wheat”.

“They are bombing and destroying the stocks of wheat and preventing this wheat to be exported,” he said.

Borrell warned that in addition to the violent battles raging on the ground in Ukraine, “there is another battle: a battle of narrative”.

While Moscow, he said, was attempting to portray Western sanctions as “responsible for the food scarcity and rising prices,” it was Russia that was “provoking hunger in the world by blocking the ports, the wheat, and by destroying the stores of wheat in Ukraine”.

“Stop blaming the sanctions,” he said. “It is the Russian military that is causing food scarcity.”

His comments came after the United Nations warned last week that global food prices hit an all-time high in March following Russia’s invasion of agricultural powerhouse Ukraine.

The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization said the disruption to exports resulting from the February 24 invasion, coupled with the international sanctions on Russia, had spurred fears of a global hunger crisis.

Concerns were especially acute in the Middle East and Africa, where knock-on effects were already playing out.

Russia and Ukraine possess vast grain-growing regions that are among the world’s main breadbaskets. Their harvests represent big shares of the globe’s exports in several major commodities, including wheat, vegetable oil and corn.

Russia and Ukraine together accounted for around 30 percent and 20 percent of global wheat and maize exports, respectively, over the past three years, the FAO said.

The FAO estimates famine in West Africa and the Sahel regions — both highly dependent on Russian and Ukrainian grains — could worsen and affect over 38 million people by June if no measures are taken.

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK

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UNHCR West and Central Africa: Persons of Concern (as of 28 February 2022)

The total of 1.5 million refugees represent a 14% increase from February 2021. Chad hosts the largest number or refugees with 67% from Sudan. Cameroon hosts the second largest number of refugees mainly from the Central African Republic (73%) and Nigeria (26%).

The number of internally displaced persons reported by 7 UNHCR operations rose to an estimated 7.5 million, up from 6.4 million at the end of February 2021 (17%). Nigeria hosts 42% of the IDP population in the region.

Central Sahel countries host 28% of PoC in the West & Central Africa with most of the forced displacements (87%) taking place within individual countries, rather than across national borders.

Source: UN High Commissioner for Refugees

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UNHCR West and Central Africa: Persons of Concern (as of 31 January 2022)

The total of 1.5 million refugees represent a 14% increase from January 2021. Chad hosts the largest number or refugees with 67% from Sudan. Cameroon hosts the second largest number of refugees mainly from the Central African Republic (73%) and Nigeria (26%).

The number of internally displaced persons reported by 7 UNHCR operations rose to an estimated 7.5 million, up from 6.4 million at the end of January 2021 (17%). Nigeria hosts 42% of the IDP population in the region.

Central Sahel countries host 28% of PoC in the West & Central Africa with most of the forced displacements (87%) taking place within individual countries, rather than across national borders.

Source: UN High Commissioner for Refugees

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Announcing Green Horizons, a Trailblazing Cannabis Cultivation and CPG Brand Campus

Green Horizons’ State-of-the-Art Cannabis Cultivation and CPG Brand Campus is on Track to Make Coachella Valley to Cannabis What Silicon Valley is to Tech

GREEN HORIZONS’ CULTIVATION CAMPUS

The state of the art facility will feature scaled cannabis cultivation alongside CPG brand development

COACHELLA VALLEY, Calif., April 11, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Today Green Horizons announced plans for its massive, trailblazing Canna-Campus in Coachella Valley, which broke ground late last year and is under construction. The first-of-its-kind facility will feature scaled cannabis cultivation alongside CPG brand development, positioning the Company to become one of the largest vertically integrated brand platforms in the world. Green Horizons will also offer campus tours, education and workshops to outside visitors.

Green Horizons is launching the first 226,787 sq. ft. of its campus with options to scale to 1,000,000 sq. ft. as market conditions dictate. Phase I of the Green Horizons campus will consist of 101,787 sq. ft. of a state-of-the-art, sealed, Class “A” automated light deprivation greenhouse. Phase II adds an additional 125,000 sq. ft. that will serve as the Company’s corporate headquarters as well as its brand incubator, along with additional light deprivation greenhouse cultivation space.

Green Horizons’ mission is to fuel a portfolio of in-house brands with in-house supply to guarantee consistency and uniformity. Combining the management team’s track record of cultivation excellence with the Company’s high-tech sun powered cultivation facilities, Green Horizons aims to redefine the cultivation landscape to create a blue ocean of top shelf flower at greenhouse COGS. In leveraging its low-cost basis, Green Horizons will be able to continue scaling as commoditization exerts downward pressure on higher cost producers.

The Company will be formally announcing their much-anticipated debut brand, a crossover from the fashion world, which will launch in Q3 of 2022, to be followed by a value brand paying homage to the Coachella Valley, anticipated in summer 2023. Upon completion of the facility, the brands will be exclusively powered by proprietary genetics bred in-house by the Company, a cornerstone differentiator for all Green Horizons portfolio brands.

“The Coachella Valley is the perfect place to build a world class cultivation and CPG brand campus at this scale,” said Carlos “Los” Arias, Chief Executive Officer of Green Horizons. “Coachella has long been a stalwart agricultural community, and I am honored to now help make Coachella a global cannabis destination. Being built to last is more important than being first, and we’re just getting started.”

Green Horizons was co-founded by Arias and Michael C. Meade. Arias leads the Company’s vision to create culturally relevant brands that bring people together. Known for his high vibrational presence, Arias is an exemplar of community-minded collaboration that serves as the bedrock of the Company’s culture. Meade serves as Green Horizons’ President and largest investor. Through an unrelated entity, Meade is developing Coachella Cann Park, which is being leased to Green Horizons. Meade’s development company has secured an $18.5M construction loan from Innovative Industrial Properties to fund construction of the property.

Arias and Meade are joined by founding investor Star Branding Investment Group, LLC, which brings its global entrepreneurial prowess to Green Horizons, drawing on its success in building global brands and experience in a wide range of operational matters. Brought together, Green Horizons and its principals have the requisite capabilities in-house to scale a profitable cultivation and CPG enterprise, synchronizing facility operations expertise and global brand prowess.

SOCIAL JUSTICE

Green Horizons recognizes the privilege to work within the legal cannabis space and is committed to positive social change at the local level.

Education is a pillar of the Company. With a mission to destigmatize cannabis through education and transparency, Green Horizons will open its doors to offer campus tours to outside visitors, along with workshops and educational programs for the community and those interested in learning more about the cannabis plant and the industry.

The Company is partnering with the City of Coachella in launching the Build the Valley Initiative, which will consist of two prominent initiatives: first, building infrastructure for the community; and second, advocacy for expungement and job creation for which Green Horizons will create a dedicated Coachella Valley program. In addition to their local community activism, Green Horizons is also invested in the sustainable future of the cannabis industry and is a member of an industry task force, comprised of top operators, financiers and attorneys, whose aim is to eradicate the use of plastics in the cannabis supply chain.

ABOUT GREEN HORIZONS

Green Horizons is a next gen, vertically integrated cannabis company that builds CPG brands. With world class facilities to fuel globally relevant brands, the Company’s aim is to crossover and create meaningful brands that bring people together. www.greenhorizons.io

ABOUT CARLOS “LOS” ARIAS, J.D.

CO-FOUNDER, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER OF GREEN HORIZONS

Arias is regarded industry wide as a plant medicine expert, honed from his Cuban/Brazilian lineage and years of dedication to studying and working with medicinal plants all over the world. A lawyer by training, Arias is responsible for the Company’s key strategic partnerships.

ABOUT MICHAEL C. MEADE

CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER OF COACHELLA CANN PARK, CO-FOUNDER AND PRESIDENT OF GREEN HORIZONS

In addition to securing the first issued cannabis licenses in Riverside County 15 years ago for cultivation and retail, Meade went on to build a cannabis real estate empire in the desert valley, fueled by Wilson Meade commercial brokerage and Desert Rock Development.

ABOUT STAR BRANDING INVESTMENT GROUP

Star Branding Investment Group, LLC is a private investment vehicle founded by Mr. Tommy Hilfiger and Mr. Joe Lamastra, through which it, and its subsidiaries seek investments in businesses across a broad range of industries.

For media inquiries please contact: press@weareprismatics.com

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at: https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/02b2422e-e386-488a-b236-26245b458b36

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Zoom Announces New Education Features, Enhancing Hybrid Learning Experience for Educators and Students

Zoom responds to educator requests with debut of virtual background support for Chromebooks, video messages in Zoom Chat, Breakout Rooms enhancements, and Anywhere Polls

SAN JOSE, Calif., April 11, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Zoom Video Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: ZM) today announced, at the CoSN2022 national conference, new features for education in response to requests from teachers and administrators. These features span Zoom’s Chat and Meetings offerings and are designed to support teachers who need to engage and manage students joining class remotely or submitting homework assignments.

Virtual Background & Blur for Chromebooks
Chromebooks are a popular choice for students and teachers. Virtual background and blur are now available for Zoom for Chrome Progressive Web Application (PWA) users. Zoom developed this capability after requests from various education customers, including Clayton County Public Schools, one of the 100 largest school districts in the United States, serving more than 52,000 students in Georgia.

“Virtual background and blur for Chromebooks are extremely beneficial to our students and teachers. Many students were reluctant to turn their cameras on before this feature enhancement,” said Rod Smith, Chief Technology Officer, Clayton County Public Schools.

Breakout Rooms Enhancements
Breakout Rooms, a popular education feature, also received enhancements in this latest release. Program Audio allows meeting hosts to share content with audio to Breakout Rooms, adding the ability to share videos with audio. With the LTI Pro integration enhancement, educators can populate Breakout Rooms from the course roster. This can be used to assign Breakout Rooms in advance, then automatically sort students into Breakout Rooms.

Additional Features for Chat and Waiting Room
Other new features include sending audio and video messages into Zoom Chat, and the ability to rename participants in the Waiting Room. Asynchronous video allows users the time to consider their responses and then record as needed to provide thoughtfully crafted responses. Users can click “video” at the bottom of the chat client and record up to a 3-minute video message that goes directly into the out-of-meeting chat channel. This is useful for situations such as students submitting brief video assignments. Renaming participants before they join the meeting can be useful for attendance taking where students may be using shared devices, for creating an anonymous student group, or for affirming gender identity.

Anywhere Polls
Anywhere Polls will allow polling content to live in a central repository that can be accessed from any meeting on an account, instead of being associated with a particular meeting. This will make it easier for instructors to reuse polls and will also be beneficial for grading. This feature will be available soon.

“We’re looking forward to the Anywhere Polls feature,” said John J. “Ski” Sygielski, Ed.D., President and CEO of HACC, Central Pennsylvania’s Community College. “The polling enhancements will make it simpler for large groups of students to provide feedback across the College. It will be easier than ever for instructors to replicate content for each course.”

“Delivering happiness to our customers is the core of what we do at Zoom,” said Johann Zimmern, Global Education Strategy Lead, Zoom. “We work closely with our global K-12 and higher education customers, taking their requests into account and involving them in feature development. As a direct result of this, Zoom developed these exciting new features for education.”

For more details about Zoom’s new education features, please see our blog here.

About Zoom
Zoom is for you. Zoom is a space where you can connect to others, share ideas, make plans, and build toward a future limited only by your imagination. Our frictionless communications platform is the only one that started with video as its foundation, and we have set the standard for innovation ever since. That is why we are an intuitive, scalable, and secure choice for large enterprises, small businesses, and individuals alike. Founded in 2011, Zoom is publicly traded (NASDAQ:ZM) and headquartered in San Jose, California. Visit zoom.com and follow @zoom.

Zoom Public Relations
Beth McLaughlin
PR Specialist
press@zoom.us