BBC: Why India's rice ban could trigger a global food crisis

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-66360064

By Soutik BISWAS (August 02, 2023)

[What happens when India bans exports of a food staple that is essential to the diets of billions around the world?

On 20 July, India banned exports of non-basmati white rice in an attempt to calm rising domestic prices at home. This was followed by reports and videos of panic buying and empty rice shelves at Indian grocery stores in the US and Canada, driving up prices in the process.

(...)

India is the world's top rice exporter, accounting for some 40% of the global trade in the cereal. (Thailand, Vietnam, Pakistan and the US are the other top exporters).

Among the major buyers of rice are China, the Philippines and Nigeria. There are "swing buyers" like Indonesia and Bangladesh who step up imports when they have domestic supply shortages. Consumption of rice is high and growing in Africa. In countries like Cuba and Panama it is the main source of energy.]

...to be continued:

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-66360064

BBC: Why India's rice ban could trigger a global food crisis

BBC: August 02, 2023

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-66360064

by Soutik Biswas

[What happens when India bans exports of a food staple that is essential to the diets of billions around the world?

On 20 July, India banned exports of non-basmati white rice in an attempt to calm rising domestic prices at home. This was followed by reports and videos of panic buying and empty rice shelves at Indian grocery stores in the US and Canada, driving up prices in the process.

(...)

India is the world's top rice exporter, accounting for some 40% of the global trade in the cereal. (Thailand, Vietnam, Pakistan and the US are the other top exporters).

Among the major buyers of rice are China, the Philippines and Nigeria. There are "swing buyers" like Indonesia and Bangladesh who step up imports when they have domestic supply shortages. Consumption of rice is high and growing in Africa. In countries like Cuba and Panama it is the main source of energy.]

...to be continued: 

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-66360064

BBC: Iran sex tape scandal

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-66349073

(July 29, 2023)

By Sebastian Usher, Arab affairs editor & Alys Davies

[A sex tape in Iran has led to the suspension of an official in charge of promoting Islamic values - and prompted authorities to deny any prior knowledge of his alleged behaviour.

[A video posted online allegedly shows the head of culture and Islamic guidance in Gilan province, Reza Tsaghati, having sex with another man.

(...)

The video - which has been widely shared on social media - has caused furore online. Mr Tsaghati is the founder of a cultural centre focused on piety and the hijab.

On Saturday, Iran's culture minister Mohammad Mehdi Esmaili said no negative reports relating to Mr Tsaghati had existed prior to the video's publication.

Some have said the removal of Mr Tsaghati from his post highlighted the difference in how Iranian officials are treated when accused of a crime compared to the LGBT+ community, or women who do not adhere to Islamic rules.

Under Iranian law, which is based on Sharia, same-sex relations are viewed as crimes that carry a maximum penalty of death. This severe punishment has seldom been used, but the LGBT+ community face daily discrimination.

Women have also been severely punished in Iran for not wearing the hijab. Nationwide protests against its mandatory wearing erupted in September, sparked by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini. She died three days after she was detained by Iran's morality police for allegedly violating rules requiring women to cover their hair.]

...read on this insightful article:

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-66349073

BBC: Iranian female prisoners tell of filmed strip searches

by Parham Ghobadi (July 21, 2023)

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-66258415

[Former Iranian prisoners of conscience have told the BBC that they were filmed during strip searches in prisons.

They also said some detainees were forced to remove their sanitary pad or tampon during their period and squat or squat jump.

"They do this to humiliate us," Mozhgan Keshavarz, who spent nearly three years behind bars, mostly in notorious Evin and Qarchak prison in Tehran province, told the BBC.

She said she experienced three strip searches in front of security cameras during her incarceration, which ended in January 2022.

The third time, a female prison guard took photographs of her naked, she said. When Ms Keshavarz protested, she was told it was necessary to counter future claims of torture.

"Who would see these videos and pictures? Would the regime use them later to silence us?" she asked, referring to the risk of being blackmailed even when her sentence was over.

Ms Keshavarz is a women's rights activist who has protested against the mandatory hijab, or headscarf.]

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-66258415

BBC - Delhi's earliest crimes revealed by 1800s police records

[On a cold January night in 1876, two weary travellers knocked at Mohammed Khan's house in Delhi's Sabzi Mandi - a thriving labyrinth of narrow alleys in India's capital - and asked if they could stay the night.]

by Zoya MATEEN

(July 09, 2023)

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-66083952

BBC: slavery in contemporary India

BBC News - Osmanabad: The tortured Indian labourers who were kept as slaves

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-66038795

[On a scorching June night, Bhagwan Ghukse woke up with a jolt and decided to run for his life. 

For the past month, Mr Ghukse had been kept captive in a squalid shanty in the western state of Maharashtra along with six other daily-wage workers. The workers were hired by some contractors in the state's Osmanabad district to dig wells, but were later forced into bonded labour which is illegal in India.]

(by Praveen THAKRE in Osmanabad and Zoya MATEEN in Delhi - June 28, 2023)

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-66038795

BBC: Dowry in contemporary India

BBC - 'I have been rejected by dozens of men over dowry'

[Dowries have been illegal in India since 1961, but the bride's family is still expected to gift cash, clothes and jewellery to the groom's family.]

by Geeta PANDEY (2023, July 04)

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-66084575

Aye mere dil-e-nadan tu gham se na ghabarana

 🙏

...voici une traduction provisoire d'une TRÈS belle et TRÈS émouvante chanson transmise par un.e de mes précieux contacts à Madagascar...

...here is a temporary translation of a very beautiful and very moving song sent by one of my precious contacts in Madagascar 

Mounir / મુનીર / मुनीर 

🙏 🙏🏼 🙏🏾

https://youtu.be/0I9m6e_gtGc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjtkCGDfNL4

Movie: Tower House (1962) starring Ajit and Shakeela

Lyricist: Asad Bhopali, S H Bihari

Music Director: Ravi

Singer: Lata Mangeshkar

Aye mere dil-e-nadan tu gham se na ghabarana..

O MY INNOCENT HEART, DON'T LET SORROWS OVERWHELM YOU..

Ik din to samajh legi duniya tera afsaana

ONE DAY, PEOPLE WILL FINALLY UNDERSTAND YOUR SIDE OF THE STORY

Aye mere dil-e-nadan tu gham se na ghabarana..

O MY INNOCENT HEART, DON'T LET SORROWS OVERWHELM YOU..

Armaan bhare dil mein zakhmon ko jagah de de 

IN YOUR HEART, ALONG WITH DESIRES, MAKE SOME ROOM FOR WOUNDS

Bhadke hue sholon ko kuch aur hawa dede

LET SOME WIND BLOW THE FIERY COALS THAT ARE BURNING YOU

banti hai to ban jaaye yeh zindagi afsaana

IF THAT HAPPENS, THEN LET THE STORY OF YOUR LIFE BECOME A SORROWFUL LEGEND 

Aye mere dil-e-nadan tu gham se na ghabarana..

O MY INNOCENT HEART, DON'T LET SORROWS OVERWHELM YOU..

Fariyad se kya haasil, rone se natija kya

FRUITLESS YOUR COMPLAINTS WILL BE AND SO WILL YOUR TEARS

Bekaar hai yeh baatein

THESE WORDS DON'T MAKE SENSE

In baaton se hoga kya

YOU WON'T GET ANYTHING FROM THESE WORDS

Apna bhi ek pal mein ban jaata hai begaana

YOU WELL KNOW THAT YOUR LOVED ONE WILL ALL OF A SUDDEN TURN INTO A COMPLETE STRANGER

Aye mere dil-e-nadan tu gham se na ghabarana..

O MY INNOCENT HEART, DON'T LET SORROWS OVERWHELM YOU..

Ik din to samajh legi duniya tera afsaana

ONE DAY, PEOPLE WILL FINALLY UNDERSTAND YOUR SIDE OF THE STORY

Aye mere dil-e-nadan tu gham se na ghabarana..

O MY INNOCENT HEART, DON'T LET SORROWS OVERWHELM YOU..

🙏 🙏🏼 🙏🏽

BBC: Salt workers in Gujarat

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-63830934

Gujarat: The difficult lives of India's salt workers

India is the world’s third largest producer of salt after China and the United States. 

More than 70% of this salt is produced in the western state of Gujarat.]

Video by Vikas TRIVEDI and Debalin ROY (December 04, 2022)

BBC: Scoop: Netflix show on colliding worlds of crime and media

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-65887676

[The sensational murder of India's best known crime reporter in June 2011 and the subsequent arrest of a female crime journalist on allegations of being involved in the murder had stunned the country (India).]

by Geeta PANDEY (June 26, 2023)

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-65887676

BBC: The secrets of India's haunted fort

[Bhangarh Fort in Rajasthan, India, was once the home of a mighty empire but why was it abandoned?]

(October 03, 2022)

https://www bbc.com/reel/playlist/inside-india?vpid=p0d3s2br

BBC: Iranian female prisoners tell of filmed strip searches

By Parham Ghobadi (July 21, 2023)

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-66258415

[Former Iranian prisoners of conscience have told the BBC that they were filmed during strip searches in prisons.

They also said some detainees were forced to remove their sanitary pad or tampon during their period and squat or squat jump.

"They do this to humiliate us," Mozhgan Keshavarz, who spent nearly three years behind bars, mostly in notorious Evin and Qarchak prison in Tehran province, told the BBC.

She said she experienced three strip searches in front of security cameras during her incarceration, which ended in January 2022.

The third time, a female prison guard took photographs of her naked, she said. When Ms Keshavarz protested, she was told it was necessary to counter future claims of torture.

"Who would see these videos and pictures? Would the regime use them later to silence us?" she asked, referring to the risk of being blackmailed even when her sentence was over.

Ms Keshavarz is a women's rights activist who has protested against the mandatory hijab, or headscarf.]

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-66258415