Western governments are calling on Russia to reverse its decision to pull out of a UN-brokered grain deal, a move that undermines efforts to ease a global food crisis, with Ukraine saying Moscow had planned the move well in advance. The Turkey and UN-brokered deal was signed between Russia and Ukraine in July under which Moscow allowed the grain ships to leave Ukrainian Black Sea ports. The agreement has already allowed more than 9 million tonnes of Ukrainian grain to be exported and was due to be renewed on November 19. Moscow suspended its participation in the deal on Saturday, effectively blocking shipments from Ukraine, one of the world's top grain exporters, in response to what it called a major Ukrainian drone attack earlier in the day on its Black Sea Fleet headquarters near the port of Sevastopol in Russian-annexed Crimea. "Russia's decision to suspend participation in the Black Sea deal puts at risk the main export route of much needed grain and fertilisers to address the global food crisis caused by its war against Ukraine," European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on Twitter on Sunday.

At its flagship technology conference Think 2019, Armonk-headquartered tech giant IBM is addressing the issue of hunger and will introduce scientists working on solutions to the global food crisis at the event, a report by the tech giant stated. The company will showcase how blockchain can prevent food from going to waste, how technology can map the microbiome of bad bacteria and how artificial intelligence-based micro sensors can detect food pathogens at home…

Fred Rogers of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood shared that his mother would say, in times of crisis, "Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping." This advice holds true when looking at the potential for artificial intelligence to change the world. People are using technological advances to create and experiment with innovative approaches to global issues that have affected humanity for generations. The plight of displaced persons, the global food crisis and natural disasters are real challenges people face every day.

With the growth of the world's population showing no sign of slowing down, George Kantor of Carnegie Mellon University hopes robots can produce the food we need. Food and robotics are being intertwined in such a way now that our very future could depend on this partnership as our world heads towards a possible global population of just under 10bn by the year 2050, according to the UN. This, of course, means more food is needed and, based on our production and available arable land, this could prove to be an insurmountable problem with catastrophic consequences. One person hoping to use robotics to solve that problem is George Kantor, a senior systems scientist at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) where he leads projects that bring research ideas from multiple disciplines to develop new robotic systems that solve interesting, practical problems. After receiving his PhD in electrical engineering from the University of Maryland, College Park, he moved to CMU as a postdoctoral student.