NOW LET'S MAKE VLAD AN EXAMPLE OF REGIME CHANGE:

Bread is a staple food in the Middle East, eaten with most meals. Researchers suggest that, depending on the country, bread and grains make up to half of the average local's diet there, compared to up to a quarter of the average European's.

"In these countries, affordable bread for the working masses is a social contract," Michael Tanchum, a senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, who specialises in political economics of the Middle East and Africa, explained. Many Middle Eastern countries subsidise bread for low-income families.

In the past, rising bread prices have been a catalyst for political change in the region.

Egypt, for example, has a history of "bread riots". In 1977, after economic reforms saw state subsidies cut and food prices rise, there were violent demonstrations around the country that resulted in at least 70 deaths.

In 2011, during the Arab Spring, a popular slogan at demonstrations that would eventually topple the military government of Egyptian leader, Hosni Mubarak, was "bread, freedom and social justice".

Researchers looking into the causes of the Arab Spring protests of 2011, which changed the political landscape in the region, found that high food prices and food insecurity, often due to climate change, played a role alongside the public's frustration with their authoritarian leaders.

The phenomenon is ongoing: in 2019, Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir was pushed out of power by protests that began when bread prices tripled.

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