A jump in the number of people in China infected with bird flu this year is raising concern among experts, who say a previously circulating strain appears to have changed and may be more infectious to people.
China has reported 22 human infections with the H5N6 subtype of avian influenza in 2021 to the World Health Organization (WHO), compared with only five last year https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/china-reports-22-humans-infected-with-h5n6-avian-influenza-683363

Australia- Vegetable growers north of Adelaide are counting the cost after hail yesterday damaged glasshouses and ruined their crops. Hail hit Adelaide, the Barossa Valley and the northern Adelaide Hills. "We would anticipate it could be up to a 70 per cent loss; however, once a few days go by we'll be able to ascertain what can still be picked and sent to market https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-10-29/sa-vegetable-growers-count-cost-of-hailstorm/100579320

A cyberattack on Papua New Guinea’s finance ministry briefly disrupted government payments and operations, officials. Ransomware infiltrated and compromised a core server at the department of finance last week, hampering the government’s access to foreign aid, its ability to pay cheques and carry out other basic functions. https://www.samaa.tv/technology/2021/10/ransomware-attack-hits-papua-new-guineas-access-to-foreign-aid/

U.S. wheat futures edged higher Friday to linger near a near 9-high high as concerns about global supplies pushed the grain towards monthly gains of 7%. The fifth monthly gain and the biggest four-week rally since April. https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/grains-wheat-lingers-near-2013-high-set-for-monthly-gain-of-7-2021-10-29

US- Top shipping officials this week said that a Biden administration-backed plan to issue emergency fees for containers lingering too long won’t work and will lead to chaos. Two days later, the officials who attended a meeting of the National Shippers Advisory Council (NSAC)—comprised of 12 importers and 12 exporters including Walmart, Amazon, and Home Depot—said the port fees are “crazy” and “catastrophic.” https://www.theepochtimes.com/shipping-companies-fear-catastrophic-supply-chain-fallout-over-new-california-port-fees_4074782.html

Iran’s subsidized fuel distribution system was partially restored Friday, though a majority of services remained grounded, three days after an unprecedented cyberattack by unknown perpetrators. Among 4,300 fuel stations across the country, “at present, 1,450 are connected to the central fuel distribution system. https://www.timesofisrael.com/most-iran-gas-stations-still-offline-three-days-after-cyberattack/

Fertilizer in Europe is poised to get even pricier, adding to concerns that bigger production costs for food could add to inflation. A gauge of western European prices for ammonia, used to make nitrogen fertilizer, surged to a 13-year high to $910 a metric ton. Europe has been hard hit by the natural gas crunch, which has forced a number of nitrogen-fertilizer plants to halt or curtail production. https://www.bloombergquint.com/onweb/european-fertilizer-prices-set-to-surge-amid-energy-squeeze

Banque de France is about to complete a 10-month central bank digital currency (CBDC) testing experiment for its government bond deals with over 500 participating institutions. During the experiment, the participants were made to trade some security tokens and government bonds was via a CBDC, which the French central bank supplied. https://www.econotimes.com/Stiglitz-urges-S-Korean-regulators-to-shut-down-cryptocurrencies-1620259

Hackers have targeted a section of the computer system at the National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) and caused disruption which may result in payment delays for thousands of public sector employees. The hackers failed to gain access to the NBP’s main servers, though they did take control of some of the computers running Microsoft’s software. https://www.samaa.tv/news/2021/10/cyberattack-targets-national-bank-of-pakistan-causes-nationwide-disruption/

North Africa, one of the world’s biggest grain importers, is increasingly feeling the impact of higher food costs on grocery bills. Egypt is hiking subsidised vegetable oil prices by almost 20%, and reiterated that higher bread costs are coming. Tunisia doesn’t expect any relief in prices of the wheat it imports to make semolina and pasta until next year’s harvest. And Algeria blamed global markets for more expensive food at home, vowing to boost its grains harvest in the next three years to become less dependent on imports. https://www.gulf-times.com/story/703469/Food-security-alarm-bells-ring-in-North-Africa

Sri Lanka’s inflation in the 12-months to October 2021 surged to 7.8 percent, the highest since October 2017, The Colombo Consumer Price Index jumped 1.9 percent in October to 146.9 points, with some foods which were kept under price controls understating inflation in prior months were officially allowed to go up. Food prices rose 2.8 percent in the month and were up 12.8 percent over the past 12 months.
Food prices have risen 24.1 percent over two years amid local and Fed money printing. https://economynext.com/sri-lanka-inflation-soars-to-4-year-high-in-october-2021-food-up-24-pct-over-2-years-87423/

The idea that supply chain problems are “driving inflation” gets the causation backward. It’s money supply inflation that’s causing much of the supply chain's problems. Not the other way around. After all, as of September 2021, M2 has increased from $15.2 trillion to $20.9 trillion since February 2020. That’s an increase of 35 percent. https://mises.org/wire/feds-inflation-behind-supply-chain-mess

What is going to compel the shippers and carriers to invest in the needed infrastructure? The owners of these companies can theoretically not change anything and their business will still be at full capacity because of the backlog of containers. The backlog of containers doesn’t hurt them. It hurts anyone paying shipping costs — that is, manufacturers selling products and consumers buying products. But it doesn’t hurt the owners of the transportation business — in fact the laws of supply and demand mean that they are actually going to make more money through higher rates, without changing a thing. https://medium.com/@ryan79z28/im-a-twenty-year-truck-driver-i-will-tell-you-why-america-s-shipping-crisis-will-not-end-bbe0ebac6a91

The Black Shadow hacking group, in recent days has been leaking personal information from Israeli websites. The suspected Iran-linked group’s main Telegram channel for communicating messages, as well as a separate channel for releasing data, were both removed on Sunday afternoon, just hours after it had demanded a new ransom payment of $1 million in digital currency to stop the leak. https://www.timesofisrael.com/suspected-iran-linked-hackers-telegram-account-blocked-after-ransom-demand/

Peabody Energy Corp., the top American supplier, has contracts for more than 90% of its coal from the Powder River Basin region next year and all of the power-plant fuel from its other U.S. mines. And Arch Resources Inc., the No. 2 producer, has lined up deals with utilities for all of its 2022 output from the basin at an average price that’s 20% higher than current spot prices. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-10-28/u-s-coal-miners-sold-out-for-2022-as-utility-demand-surges

Fuel retailers in parts of China are rationing diesel volumes to customers as the nation ramps up efforts to avert a similar supply crunch that’s engulfing the coal and natural gas sectors. In some areas, customers are being restricted to 1,000 yuan ($157) of diesel a day, down from 2,500 yuan, as filling stations rationed supplies to prevent shortfalls.https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-10-27/china-gas-stations-ration-diesel-adding-to-supply-chain-squeeze

Wheat export prices in Russia, the world's largest exporter, have been rising for four months on a weekly basis except one week in October when they took a brief pause. Chicago futures, a global benchmark for this market, are close to the highest since 2013 on Monday amid supply woes. Russian wheat with 12.5% protein loading from Black Sea ports for supply in the first half of November was $317 a tonne free on board (FOB). https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/russian-wheat-prices-rise-with-global-benchmarks-export-demand-2021-11-01

Bulgaria's gas network operator Bulgartransgaz said it has halted the transport of natural gas to Serbia and Hungary early on Monday following a pipeline rupture in the gas network near the northeastern village of Vetrino. Bulgaria transports Russian gas through its gas network to Serbia and Hungary. https://news.trust.org/item/20211101074540-d7k36

Namibia suspended imports of live poultry, birds and poultry products from Germany and the Netherlands on Monday after outbreaks of the highly pathogenic H5N1 bird flu in the European countries. The risk to humans from the disease is considered low, but previous outbreaks among farm birds have resulted in extensive slaughtering programmes to contain the spread. https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/namibia-suspends-poultry-germany-netherlands-after-bird-flu-outbreak-2021-11-01/

A possible cyber attack against the healthcare system in the Canadian province of Newfoundland has disrupted services and forced the cancellation of some appointments. "This led to progressive failure of what's been described to me as the brain of the data center and a loss of functionality and systems across the regional health authorities," https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/possible-cyberattack-disrupts-healthcare-services-in-canadian-province-minister/ar-AAQcdDx

Wheat surged to $8 a bushel in Chicago for the first time since December 2012 as strained global supplies collide with robust demand. The most-active futures contract for soft red winter wheat -- baked in cookies and cakes -- climbed 3.5%. World wheat reserves are ebbing after extreme weather battered crops in key exporters, and dryness is again spreading in North America. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-11-01/priciest-wheat-since-2012-threatens-to-worsen-food-inflation