Too much for tea

The price of tea has jumped to a 2½-year high as poor crops strain supplies in some of the world's most important producers. Dry conditions, poor rains, and frosts are responsible for a hit to tea production in Kenya, the largest exporter of black tea. A bad monsoon has reduced production prospects in India and Sri Lanka, two other major exporters. The wholesale price of the highest quality black tea, known as broken pekoe 1 or BP1, has surged 41% higher since the start of the year, last month surpassing US$4 a kilo, a level seen only once before in late 2009, when prices reached US$5.45. The increase in prices will be felt the world over by drinkers of sweet brews in Cairo, milky cuppas in London, and iced tea in Los Angeles. Tea lovers in poorer countries are likely to feel the biggest impact, as retailers' margins are lower than in the west.

But that's nothing compared to this: an Australian newspaper found itself the focus of a 14-paragraph denouncement by the state-run North Korean media agency, KCNA. KCNA, known in full as the Korean Central News Agency, lashed out at mX, a free commuter paper in three Australian cities, calling it sordid, foolish, bullying, degrading, incompetent, pitiful, and rogue - among other things. So how did a paper that focuses on fun news, sport, and entertainment earn the verbal wrath of Pyongyang? Last week, the paper published the Olympics medal standing (pictured) and differentiated between South Korea and North Korea by calling them respectively "Nice Korea" and "Naughty Korea." I couldn't agree more. Kim Jong-un has only been Supreme Leader for almost eight months and he has already made some rather stupid mistakes in that time. A failed rocket launch in April wasted money that could have helped to feed the entire population for about nine or ten months. He'd better start playing ball or else there could be revolution.