Why is there a riot in the EU against Ukrainian agricultural products, why do the French need "pot concerts" and how Musk wants to curb AI

In the outgoing week, passions raged around the decision of Poland and a number of other EU countries to impose a ban on agricultural products from Ukraine. The media suggested that restrictions on Ukrainian food were testing the feasibility of Kyiv's bid for EU membership. Meanwhile, the NATO Secretary General paid an unscheduled visit to Kyiv, during which he outlined the prospects for Ukraine in this alliance. The French, after the signing of the law on pension reform, organized "pan concerts", and the President of France in a televised address announced the holding of "100 days of reconciliation" in the country. To top it all off, tech mogul Elon Musk came out with his futuristic predictions and also shared his new plans for artificial intelligence. Let's talk about everything in more detail.

Farm Crisis. What passions are raging in the EU around Ukrainian agricultural products

Throughout the week, the media discussed the statement of Poland (and then other countries) on the introduction of a ban on grain and other agricultural products from Ukraine for several months. Particularly noteworthy was the fact that the ban was announced on April 15 - just ten days after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's visit to Warsaw and Andrzej Duda's assurances of Ukraine's continued support. It turned out that speeches and hugs in front of the cameras of journalists are one thing, and their own interests are completely different. As they say, friendship is friendship, but tobacco is apart.

After the announcement of Poland's plans, a chain reaction followed. As a result, four countries - Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria and Slovakia - introduce a temporary ban on the import of grain and other Ukrainian agricultural products that come without duties. In Romania, they said that customs would check all agri-food products from Ukraine, since they had previously recorded "increased levels of pesticides."

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The current farming crisis was preceded by the fact that the EU decided to suspend for a year (until June 2023) the effect of duties and quotas on Ukrainian exports destined for it, including agricultural products. Also, Ukrainian grain was supposed to go in transit through a number of European states along the "corridors of solidarity" created by the EU. In fact, it turned out that agricultural products from Ukraine end up in large volumes in the markets of border countries, bringing down prices and making local grain and oilseeds practically unclaimed. At the same time, the problems of farmers were ignored for a long time. No concrete measures were taken by the EU to overcome the difficulties caused by the supply of Ukrainian agricultural products at minimum prices. This caused dissatisfaction among European farmers and numerous protests.

The revolt of the five countries in a very unsightly light showed the "European unity" that Western leaders love to trumpet. Therefore, the European Union finally had to turn its attention to the problems of farmers.

According to REUTERS, the prime ministers of these countries, in a letter to the EC, stressed that the scale of supplies from Ukraine of products such as grains, oilseeds, eggs, poultry MEAT and SUGAR was "unprecedented" in 2022, which negatively affects local farmers. They advocated the creation of a single European mechanism for the import of Ukrainian grain and the introduction of customs quotas for agricultural products from Ukraine in the European Union.

On April 5, Polish Minister of Agriculture Henryk Kowalczyk resigned due to the situation with Ukrainian grain. The high-profile resignation took place on the same day of Zelensky's state visit to Poland. Kowalczyk indicated as he left office that he had failed to convince the EC to take action to deal with the surplus of Ukrainian grain. The European Commission, ignoring the problem, published a draft extension for another year of duty-free import - until June 5, 2024.

The leader of the ruling Law and Justice party, Yaroslav Kaczynski, argued the measures taken in Poland to protect the interests of local farmers. In addition to grain, many other goods were also banned, including Ukrainian sugar, honey, fruits, vegetables, wine, eggs, meat, MILK.and dairy products. The ban on the import of Ukrainian grain to Poland also applies to its transit to third countries, Minister of Development and Technology of Poland Waldemar Buda wrote on Twitter on April 16. On April 18, the HEAD of the Ministry of Agriculture of Poland, Robert Telus, said that Poland and Ukraine, during the negotiations, were able to reach a consensus on the issue of transit. Trucks transporting agricultural products from Ukraine through Poland will be accompanied by representatives of the Polish tax and customs services. In addition, containers with Ukrainian grain will be sealed and equipped with GPS sensors, which will allow tracking their location.

BBC points out that the Polish party "Law and Justice" traditionally relies on farmers. On the eve of the general elections, the Polish government decided to meet them halfway. Euronews notes that the Polish government, one of the staunchest supporters of Ukraine, is stronger than others against the excess of cheap Ukrainian agricultural products. Warsaw calls on Brussels to take measures to ensure that Kiev's exports go to Africa and the Middle East, and not inside the EU.

Hungarian Minister of Agriculture Istvan Nagy, speaking about the ban, complained that Ukrainian farmers began to EXPORT to the European market, in addition to grain and oilseeds, a large number of other products. Due to the duty-free regime for the import of Ukrainian goods and their low cost, the agricultural sector of Hungary suffers. In an interview with the Magyar Nemzet newspaper, the minister said that, in particular, the cost of wheat harvested in Hungary decreased by 27-37% as a result of Ukrainian grain deliveries. The head of the Ministry of Agriculture also said that the EC leadership is resorting to double standards when solving the problem of grain supplies from Ukraine at dumping prices. Due to losses, only Poland, Romania and Bulgaria received financial assistance. Hungary called for a review of the decision, which is "not technical, but rather political".

Kyiv expressed regret over the ban imposed by Poland, calling it "harsh and one-sided." The Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine stated that the decision of the Polish authorities contradicts the previously reached agreements. At the same time, the Ukrainian department decided it would be appropriate to compare whose farmers suffer more: "We understand that Polish farmers have a difficult situation, but we emphasize that Ukrainian farmers are in the most difficult situation." The British newspaper Express, in unison with the Ukrainian Ministry of Agrarian Policy, wrote that the EU countries are abandoning Ukraine in a difficult situation.

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The European Commission condemned the introduction of bans. The EC statement emphasized that "trade policy is within the exclusive competence of the European Union", therefore "unilateral actions are unacceptable." European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyendemanded to observe European unity in the field of trade. The head of the EC recalled that a single market and a single customs area have been created in the European Union. Therefore, the EU states should adhere to the common European approach when making decisions. Ursula von der Leyen said affected European farmers would receive support. The EU is considering the "concrete but unintended" consequences of an unexpected increase in Ukrainian imports in the respective countries. Work is underway to create a program to help farmers with a total amount of 100 million euros. This money will be allocated on the condition that grain imports from Ukraine continue.

The unconditional support of Ukraine from the countries of Eastern Europe gave the first cracks against the backdrop of the situation around the import of Ukrainian agricultural products to the EU, writes the Spanish El Pais. By imposing a ban on the import of Ukrainian grain, Warsaw demonstrated that assistance to Kyiv ends where Poland's own interests begin. El Pais points out that the first signs of a change in Poland's policy regarding support for Ukraine appeared a few months ago, when it was announced that the partial collection of accommodation fees from Ukrainian refugees.

The Financial Times notes that restrictions on Ukrainian grain test the feasibility of Kyiv's bid for EU membership. Some European countries are in favor of Ukraine's possible entry into the EU, but the consequences of such a step, as it turned out, were not fully discussed, the material indicates. The American magazine The American Conservative expressed the opinion that the permission for duty-free import of food from Ukraine played a cruel joke on the eastern flank of the EU. The material notes that the measure was taken by the EU due to fears of a global food shortage, but so far such forecasts have not been justified, and the EU refuses to revise its trade policy towards Ukraine.

Meanwhile, the representative of the European Commission, Miriam Garcia Ferrer, said that since the beginning of the "corridors of solidarity" the EU has exported by land from Ukraine about 57 million tons of agricultural products worth a total of 25 billion euros.

Why did the NATO Secretary General come to Ukraine and what excited the residents of Kyiv

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg arrived in Kyiv on April 20 for a short, unannounced visit. Therefore, the event had the effect of surprise - when the first photos of the Secretary General on Mikhailovskaya Square in Kyiv were published, the news quickly spread around the world media. Then the fact of the visit was confirmed in Brussels. By the way, unannounced trips to Ukraine have already become a tradition for Westerners.

For Stoltenberg, this was the first visit to Kyiv in 14 months, Kommersant notes. The head of the bloc met with Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky.

It was noted that Stoltenberg's visit to the Ukrainian capital is the final stage of preparations for the meeting of the contact group on Ukraine, which will be held on April 21 in Germany at the Ramstein airbase, during which he plans to call on the allies to expedite the supply of weapons to Ukraine.

On the day of the NATO Secretary General's visit, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba expressed dissatisfaction on Twitter with the inability of the European Union to implement its own decision to jointly organize the supply of ammunition to Kyiv. At the end of March, the EU agreed on a plan for the supply of ammunition to Ukraine in the amount of 2 billion euros. Kuleba indicated that he was disappointed with the delay in the implementation of this decision. "This is a test of whether the EU has strategic autonomy in making new critical decisions in the field of security," wrote the head of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry. Kuleba did not specify what kind of delays he was talking about. Politico wrote, citing sources, that a conflict arose in the EU between Poland and France over the supply of ammunition to Ukraine. The Politico publication noted that the main problem was thatusa , UK and other countries. France, however, according to sources, insists that the money should remain within the EU. In Poland, they believe that it is necessary to include companies from such countries as the USA and Great Britain in the list.

At a joint press conference with Zelensky, Jens Stoltenberg used courteous, but not specific, promises. He announced a discussion of Kyiv's path to membership in the alliance at the July NATO summit in Vilnius, where the President of Ukraine was invited. "Ukraine's rightful place is in the Euro-Atlantic family. Ukraine's rightful place is in NATO ... But now the main goal of the alliance should be to ensure the victory of Ukraine, since this is the only way to have a meaningful discussion about the future membership of Ukraine," Stoltenberg said.

Jens Stoltenberg. Photo by the Office of the President of Ukraine

Volodymyr Zelenskyy replied: "We need something more than the current format of relations. We want to understand when Ukraine will be in NATO." Zelensky indicated he was grateful for the invitation in person to the NATO summit in July, but now is the time to bring Ukraine into the alliance. In addition, the Ukrainian president said that Kyiv needs more weapons. Reuters notes that Ukraine hopes for a counteroffensive "in the coming weeks or months."

Ukrainian Ambassador to the UK Vadym Prystaiko said in an interview with Newsweek magazine that the North Atlantic Alliance should plead for Ukraine to become part of NATO. The ambassador pointed out that now the only goal of the Western military bloc is to fight the Russian Federation. "If you want to have someone who is not just ready, but knows how to do it, ask Ukraine," he said.

German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius, in an interview with ZDF, said that Ukraine could be accepted into NATO only after the end of the conflict. He pointed out that this issue should be resolved "with a cool head and a warm heart, and not vice versa."

The Kremlin said one of the NVO's goals remains to prevent Ukraine from joining what Moscow sees as a hostile bloc. "This will pose a serious, significant threat to the security of our country," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

Another touch of the outgoing week: late in the evening of April 19, a very bright flash was seen in the sky over Kiev. An air alert was declared on the territory of the Kyiv region. For two days, the event was actively discussed on the Internet and speculation was made about what kind of object it was. There were versions about a meteorite, a satellite, and even a UFO. In social networks they joked that it was the NATO Secretary General teleported to Kyiv. The Ukrainian edition of Strana noted that initially the head of the office of the Ukrainian president, Andriy Yermak, published a post in which he called air defense work the cause of the outbreak, but then deleted his message. The State Space Agency of Ukraine said that the most likely cause of the outbreak is a meteorite fall from the Lyrid stream. The Kyiv city military administration stated that this phenomenon could be the result of the entry into the atmosphere of a US space satellite. NASA denied this information. NASA spokesman Robert Margetta made a statement that on April 19, the decommissioned American RHESSI satellite actually descended from low Earth orbit, but the device entered the earth's atmosphere in the sky over the Sahara Desert.

Pension reform and "pan concerts" in France. Will Macron succeed in "100 days of reconciliation"?

French President Emmanuel Macron, despite the mass protests of the French that have been going on for several months, on April 15 hastily signed a law raising the retirement age to 64 years. It happened the next day after the recognition of the legitimacy of changes in pension legislation by the Constitutional Council. In its ruling, the French Constitutional Council concluded that the executive "had not violated a single constitutional requirement" either when it incorporated the reform into the budget amendment law or when it invoked article 49.3 of the Basic Law to approve it in parliament without a vote. The Constitutional COURT recognized the "unaccustomed nature" of the joint use of these legislative procedures, but did not find any contradictions in the Constitution in their application. In a separate resolution on April 14, the Constitutional Council rejected another attempt by the parliamentary opposition to block Macron's pension reform. Having challenged the controversial law itself, opposition deputies took the initiative to hold a referendum in France on the issue of retirement age, RFI points out.

Trade unions, which have already held 12 nationwide days of protest against the pension reform, again demanded that Emmanuel Macron abandon the changes. A new nationwide day of protest, the 13th in a row, union leaders set for May 1, urging the French to turn Labor Day into "a day of exceptional mobilization of popular protest against pension reform." In the next two weeks, trade unions intend to continue protests and strikes of a local nature. The parliamentary opposition also plans not to stop the fight against the reform.

According to the sociological service Elabe, 64% of French residents surveyed believe that it is necessary to continue protesting against the pension reform, despite the fact that the law has already been signed by Macron.

Emmanuel Macron delivered a televised address on April 17, three days after the Constitutional Council approved the foundations of his reform, to turn the page on French pension change and emerge from the current crisis, writes Le Journal du Net. "Is this reform accepted by society? Obviously not," he said. The French leader at the same time again called the law necessary and expressed regret that he could not find a "consensus" on pension reform, "despite months of consultations." Macron then moved on to plans for the development of the country. He indicated that he wanted to implement three "priority projects", including a new pact concerning the working conditions of the French. French Prime Minister Elisabeth Born will be responsible for launching these priority projects. They "

At the same time, the French President announced that he intends to take stock of the work 100 days after the presentation of the new government roadmap. "We have a hundred days of reconciliation, unity and action ahead of us for the good of France," Macron said. They want to present the preliminary results of the work by July 14, when a national holiday is celebrated - Bastille Day.

During the speech of the President of France, protesters gathered near the building of the Paris City Hall and banged spoons on pots. The protesters said at the same time that Macron himself refused to dialogue with the people when he did not pay attention to people's opinion on pension reform. Social networks have previously circulated calls for the French to come out at 20:00 on April 17 (the beginning of the speech of the President of France) to the mayor's offices of cities and municipalities for protests and holding "pot concerts" in order to symbolically drown out Macron's voice. According to the BFM TV channel, in addition to the capital, similar "pot concerts" were held in Lyon, Lille, Nantes, Rennes, Rouen. In Marseille and Dijon, local authorities banned pot demonstrations during the president's address and threatened participants with heavy fines.

RFI notes that immediately after the speech of the French leader on April 17, spontaneous demonstrations were held in Paris and many other cities in France, in which thousands of people took part. Sometimes they escalated into riots and confrontation with the police. Garbage was also set on fire. In Lyon, protesters damaged the building of the city hall of one of the districts and set fire to the facade of the police station. According to the Le Figaro newspaper, in Rennes, the police had to resort to tear gas and water cannons to push the protesters away from the center. "Our president is deaf and doesn't hear what the people are shouting at him. And we don't want to listen to him either," one of the demonstrators said in an interview with RFI. The general secretary of France's largest trade union, CFDT, Laurent Bergé, criticized the development plan, saying there was "nothing concrete" about it.

RFI also notes that Macron invited trade union leaders to resume direct dialogue, "which he himself refused during all three months of political and social conflict, mass protest demonstrations and strikes."

Meanwhile, Macron does not leave attempts to prove that he can achieve diplomatic success on a global scale. BLOOMBERG, citing sources, said the French president plans to work with CHINA on a plan that could facilitate peace talks between RUSSIA and Ukraine. To achieve this goal, the French leader instructed his foreign policy adviser Emmanuel Bonn to work together with Wang Yi, head of the office of the Commission for Foreign Affairs of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China . Paris believes that negotiations between the Russian Federation and Ukraine, under favorable conditions, can take place this summer. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin, in response to Macron's initiative, said that Chinasupports the European side, which, "guided by its own fundamental and long-term interests", seeks to resume Russian-Ukrainian negotiations as soon as possible. Wang Wenbin stressed that China stands for the creation of "an effective and sustainable framework for ensuring security in Europe." Bloomberg notes that Macron's attempts to resolve the Ukrainian conflict did not please Western officials. In the West, they fear that the French peace plan for Ukraine will split the EU.

What does Elon Musk warn about and what is he planning?

This week, the tireless entrepreneur Elon Musk burst into the information space again. He issued two warnings at once and shared his immediate plans.

First, in an interview with Tucker Carlson of Fox News, the billionaire said that the development of artificial intelligence (AI) could threaten to destroy humanity. According to Musk, AI has "the potential to destroy civilization." "But it won't happen like in The Terminator, because the mind will be in the data centers," he warns. The tech mogul believes that everything is going to the fact that artificial intelligence will make decisions for people who will no longer be able to turn it off. In this regard, the entrepreneur announced the need for state control in the field of AI. It is unacceptable for companies to neglect safety requirements and people to suffer. “The deeper problem is not just that AI will become autonomous and turn us all into slaves, but that

“I saw this happen long before GPT-1, so I tried to warn the public for years,” the American billionaire said. "The only meeting I ever had with Obama as president that I used not to promote Tesla or SpaceX, but to encourage AI regulation," he said.

At the same time, Musk announced that he would launch his own version of an artificial intelligence chatbot similar to ChatGPT. "I'm going to launch something that I call TruthGPT (an immediate parallel to Donald Trump's Truth Social) - a maximum truth-seeking artificial intelligence that tries to understand the nature of the universe," the CEO of Twitter and Tesla said. “I think this might be the best path to security in the sense that AI that cares about understanding the universe is unlikely to destroy humans because we are an interesting part of the universe,” the entrepreneur continued.

Elon Musk. Photo elonmusknews.org

In addition, Elon Musk took to Twitter with another warning. Commenting on the publication of the White House on the US national debt, an American businessman wrote that a default in the United States is inevitable. "The question is not whether a default will occur, but when it will occur," Musk said, drawing attention to federal spending. Earlier, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said that after reaching the ceiling of the national debt, her ministry will have to take "extraordinary measures" to avoid default. In her opinion, such measures will help the country "hold out" until the beginning of June.

In the meantime, according to the BBC, Elon Musk's SpaceX company on April 20 from the second attempt (the launch scheduled for April 17 was postponed) launched the largest rocket and ship in the history of mankind - Super Heavy and Starship. SpaceX has been waiting for more than a year to get approval from the US Federal Aviation Administration to conduct a test flight, CNN points out. The launch was only partially successful: unlike the first attempt, the rocket with the ship was launched from the cosmodrome, but after four minutes they exploded. "Uncontrolled disconnection" - they called what happened in the Space X broadcast. Despite the emergency, Space X said they considered this test launch a success: after all, the entire structure of the rocket and the ship was able to go into flight. unknown

Reuters reports the words of company engineer Keith Tice, who also indicated that this time the main thing for the creators of the giant rocket and the ship was that they take off. The height of the ship and launch vehicle together was almost 120 meters, and the thrust was almost twice the power of the most powerful rocket built so far. Musk expects the Starship rocket to revolutionize the rocket and space industry. It is designed to be fully and quickly reusable and, according to Musk's idea, will be able to make several flights a day, delivering people or cargo into orbit. University of Southern California astronautics professor and SpaceX consultant Garrett Reisman told the BBC: "Musk sees Starship as potentially another giant paradigm shift, an incredible leap of opportunity - for example,