Food prices spiked in March as Middle East conflict drove up energy costs, UN says
Food prices rose sharply in March as war in the Middle East drove up energy prices and freight costs around the world, a UN report says,An index of food commodity prices by the UN’s food and agriculture organisation increased by 2,4% in March, its second consecutive monthly rise,The index – which tracks grain, sugar, meat, dairy and vegetable oil costs – had risen for the first time in five months in February,The biggest increases were in vegetable oil and sugar prices, which increased by 5% and 7% respectively in March.
There are fears that the war in the Middle East could trigger elevated food inflation, as higher fuel, fertiliser and electricity prices push up the cost of moving, processing and cooking food.About a third of fertiliser production travels through the strait of Hormuz, a key shipping channel that has in effect been closed since the start of the war.UN projections indicate that global prices could average 15% to 20% higher in the first half of 2026 if the crisis persists.The report says: “Price indices across all commodity groups – cereals, meat, dairy, vegetable oils and sugar – rose to varying degrees, reflecting not only underlying market fundamentals but also responses to higher energy prices linked to the conflict escalation in the near east.”Global wheat prices rose by 4.
3% in March, it found, partly driven by deteriorating crop conditions and drought concerns in the US, as well as lower levels of planting in Australia owing to higher fertiliser costs.This was partly offset by better crop conditions in Europe, according to the report, and strong export competition.In the UK, the Food and Drink Federation, which represents 12,000 food and drink manufacturers, has predicted food prices will rise by at least 9% by the end of 2026, almost tripling a forecast of 3.2% that was made before the Middle East conflict.Even that forecast assumes that the strait will reopen to cargo traffic within the next two to three weeks and the majority of large energy facilities, such as oil, gas and fertiliser sites, return to normal within a year – both of which are far from certain.
British farmers have already reported that producers of salad vegetables and dairy are running into problems.The British Tomato Growers’ Association has warned that shoppers could see an increase in the price of tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers in the next six weeks as a result of rising costs of heating glasshouses using gas.This week the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, met retailers including the bosses of Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons, Marks & Spencer, Aldi and Lidl to discuss what could be done to ease the cost of living for consumers and how to strengthen supply chains.However, companies across the UK are expected to raise their prices more rapidly in the coming months.A survey by the Bank of England of more than 2,000 chief financial officers found that they now expect to raise their prices by an average of 3.
7% over the coming year.That represents a rise from 3.4% in February, while the bosses’ expectation of inflation across the economy rose from 3% to 3.5%.
Goodbye mrbrightside416: Google allows users to alter quirky Gmail addresses
Did your McLovin!1976!@gmail.com email address seem funny at the time but less so now you are applying for dozens of jobs?Google has said it is giving US users a chance to appear more professional by letting them change their Google account username – whatever appears before @gmail.com in an email address – without losing access to their account.However, the tech company will limit the name changes to one per 12 months. In an example shared online by Google, the email address sk8tergrl123
Pupils in England are losing their thinking skills because of AI, survey suggests
Pupils using artificial intelligence are losing their capacity for critical thinking, according to a survey of secondary school teachers in England.Two-thirds said they had observed the decline among children who they also said no longer felt the need to spell because of voice-to-text technology.“Students are losing core skills – thinking, creativity, writing, even how to have a conversation,” one teacher told the National Education Union poll.“AI is destroying what ‘learning’ – problem-solving, critical thinking and collaborative effort – is,” said another. A third anonymous contributor added: “Children no longer feel the need to spell as voice-to-text replaces knowledge
Claude’s code: Anthropic leaks source code for AI software engineering tool
Anthropic accidentally released part of the internal source code for its AI-powered coding assistant, Claude Code, due to “human error”, the company said on Tuesday.An internal-use file mistakenly included in a software update pointed to an archive containing nearly 2,000 files and 500,000 lines of code, which were quickly copied to developer platform GitHub. A post on X sharing a link to the leaked code had more than 29m views early on Wednesday, and a rewritten version of the source code quickly became GitHub’s fastest-ever downloaded repository. Anthropic issued copyright takedown requests to try to contain the code’s spread. Within the code, users spotted blueprints for a Tamagotchi-esque coding assistant and an always-on AI agent, per the Verge
SpaceX confidentially files to go public at $1.75tn, reports say
SpaceX has confidentially filed for an initial public offering on the US stock market, according to reports from Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal. The IPO is set to be one of the most closely watched and highly valued listings in market history.Elon Musk’s company, which has become a dominant power in both space travel and satellite communications, could potentially seek a valuation upwards of $1.75tn. The confidential filing will give regulators a period to review and discuss the company’s financial disclosures before investors and the public are able to view them
‘System malfunction’ causes robotaxis to stall in the middle of the road in China
A “system malfunction” has caused several self-driving robotaxis to stall in the middle of the road in China, police have confirmed, after distressed riders were stranded for hours.Local authorities in the central Chinese city of Wuhan said they began receiving calls “one after another” on Tuesday night from riders reporting that autonomous vehicles operated by the Chinese internet company Baidu had frozen.“Multiple Apollo Go cars stopped in the middle of the road, unable to move,” police said in a statement on Wednesday, referring to Baidu’s driverless taxi service. “After investigation, preliminary findings suggest the cause was system malfunction.”Baidu has a fleet of more than 500 driverless cars in Wuhan
Unregulated chatbots are putting lives at risk | Letters
Your coverage of AI-associated delusions exposes a gap that training-level guardrails cannot close (Marriage over, €100,000 down the drain: the AI users whose lives were wrecked by delusion, 26 March). As someone who has worked in health systems across fragile and low-income contexts, I find it striking that AI companies have failed to adopt a safeguard that even the most underresourced clinic in the world already uses: screening patients before exposing them to risk.The Patient Health Questionnaire-9 for depression and the Columbia Suicide Severity Rating Scale are administered daily in settings with no electricity, limited staff, and patients who may never have seen a doctor. These tools take minutes. They are validated across dozens of languages and cultural contexts
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Food prices spiked in March as Middle East conflict drove up energy costs, UN says
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