DT_20190713

B14 WORLD Saturday, 13 July 2019
Daily Tribune
UN: 1.3B ‘multidimensionally poor’
There are vast inequalities across countries, and
among the poorer segments of societies
UNITED NATIONS, US — A United Nations index report published
Thursday showed that 1.3 billion people across the world are
“multidimensionally poor.”
The 2019 global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) from the UN
Development Programme showed that, in the 101 countries studied
-- 31 low income, 68 middle income and two high income -- 1.3 billion
people are “multidimensionally poor,” which means that poverty
is defined not simply by income, but by a number of indicators,
including poor health, poor quality of work and the threat of violence.
There are vast inequalities across countries, and among the poorer
segments of societies, the report said.
“Action against poverty is needed in all developing regions,” the
report said, noting that sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia are home
to the largest proportion of poor people, some 84.5 percent.
Within these regions, the level of inequality is described as
“massive.” In sub-Saharan Africa, it ranges from 6.3 percent in South
Africa to 91.9 percent in South Sudan. The disparity in South Asia
is from 0.8 percent in the Maldives to 55.9 percent in Afghanistan.
Many of the countries studied in the report show “extensive”
internal levels of inequality. In Uganda, for example, the incidence
of multidimensional poverty in the different provinces ranges from
6 percent in Kampala to 96.3 percent in Karamoja.
More than half of the 1.3 billion people identified as
poor, some 663 million, are children under the age of
18, and around a third, some 428 million, are under
the age of 10.
The vast majority of these children,
around 85 percent, live in South Asia and
sub-Saharan Africa, split roughly equally
between the two regions. The picture is
particularly dire in Burkina Faso, Chad,
Ethiopia, Niger and South Sudan, where 90
percent or more of children under the age of 10
are considered to be “multidimensionally poor.”
One section of the report evaluated the
progress being made in reaching Goal 1
of the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable
Development, namely ending poverty “in all
its forms, everywhere.”
The report identified 10 countries, with
a combined population of around 2 billion
people, to illustrate the level of poverty
reduction, and all of them have shown
statistically significant progress toward
achieving Goal 1. The fastest reductions were
seen in India, Cambodia and Bangladesh.
However, the report noted that no
single measure is a sufficient guide to both inequality and
multidimensional poverty, and that studies such as the MPI,
Human Development Index, and Gini coefficient, which
measures countries’ wealth income distribution, can each
contribute important and distinctive information for
policy action to effectively reduce poverty. Xinhua
AN AFGHAN
boy holds his
sister at a slum
area in Kabul,
Afghanistan an
area hit hard by
poverty left by
war. XINHUA
‘CLEAR, CONSISTENT OPPOSITION’
China army slams
Taiwan arms sale
The Chinese military has lodged solemn representations with
the US side
BEIJING, China — The Chinese
military on Thursday expressed strong
dissatisfaction with and resolute
opposition to the United States State
Department’s approval of a plan to sell
weapons worth about $2.22 billion dollars
to Taiwan.
The Chinese military has lodged
solemn representations with the US side,
said Wu Qian, spokesman for China’s
Cuba lessens
tourists
target
Despite the US government’s
measures to curb tourism in
our country, we will welcome
4.3 million visitors in 2019
HAVANA, Cuba — Cuba has revised
down by about 15 percent its forecast for
the number of tourists visiting this year,
after a US ban on cruise ship stopovers
in the Communist island, the government
said on Thursday.
President Donald Trump’s
administration announced the ban on 4
June, aiming to cut an essential revenue
source for a country that Washington
accuses of helping prop up Venezuelan
President Nicolas Maduro.
“Despite the US government’s
measures to curb tourism in our country,
we will welcome 4.3 million visitors
in 2019,” Minister of Tourism Manuel
Marrero said in a televised address to
parliament.
That is around 15 percent down on
forecasts of 5.1 million tourists in 2019
and around 10 percent lower than the
number of visitors in 2018.
Nearly 900,000 tourists visited the
island on cruise ships last year, and
almost 40 percent were American,
according to official figures.
Cuba seemed set to welcome record
numbers of US cruise ship tourists this
year. In the first four months of this year
250,000 arrived, double the rate of the
previous year. AFP
Ministry of National Defense.
Taiwan is an inalienable part of
China. China’s firm opposition to US
arms sales to Taiwan is clear and
consistent, Wu said.
The erroneous actions of the US side
seriously violate the one-China principle
and the provisions of the three China-US
joint communiques, interfere in China’s
internal affairs, harm China’s sovereignty
and security interests, seriously endanger
the development of bilateral and
military-to-military relations, and
seriously harm peace and stability across
the Taiwan Strait, he said.
As an internal affair of China, the
Taiwan issue concerns China’s core
interests and the national feeling of the
Chinese people, and brooks no external
interference, he said.
China urges the US side to honor its
commitment, abide by the one-China
principle and the provisions of the three
China-US joint communiques, immediately
withdraw the aforementioned arms sales
to Taiwan, and stop all forms of military
contact with Taiwan so as to avoid further
damage to the relations between the two
countries and their armed forces, he said.
The Chinese armed forces have
the firm will, full confidence, and
sufficient capability to thwart any
form of interference by external forces
and separatist acts of the “Taiwan
independence,” and will take all
necessary measures to safeguard national
sovereignty, security and territorial
integrity, he said.
Xinhua
ALGAE, caused by the warming of sea temperatures and the edible seaweed farming off the coast, surround boats in a bay in Qingdao,
China’s eastern Shandong province.
AFP
Venezuela leaders OK talks
The Barbados talks were an extension of the first round of
negotiations in Oslo in May, which ended with no concrete advances
CARACAS, Venezuela — Venezuela’s
government and opposition have agreed to
set up a platform for ongoing negotiations
to resolve the country’s simmering political
crisis after three days of talks in Barbados,
mediator nation Norway said Thursday.
Representatives of President Nicolas
Maduro and opposition leader Juan Guaido
met from Monday to Wednesday in the
Caribbean island nation for negotiations,
which Maduro has hailed as successful.
The Barbados talks were
an extension of the first round
of negotiations in Oslo in May,
which ended with no concrete
advances.
“After an intense day of work, we
developed six points with the government
of Norway and the opposition,”
Maduro said Thursday in
a television
and radio interview, though he did not
specify what the points were.
Earlier, Norway’s Foreign Minister Ine
Eriksen Soreide said in a statement that
the two sides had established a negotiation
table that will “work in a continuous
and efficient manner to reach an
agreed-upon solution within
the framework of t h e
Constitution.”
“It is foreseen that
the parties will carry out
PARTICIPANTS run next to Nunez del Cuvillo fighting bulls and steers on the sixth bull run of the San Fermin festival in Pamplona, northern Spain on Thursday.
consultations in order to advance the
negotiations,” the statement added.
Venezuelan government negotiator
Hector Rodriguez said he anticipated a
“complex path,” but one that leads to an
“agreement of democratic co-existence”
where each side recognizes the other.
Guaido representative Stalin Gonzalez
said on Twitter that Venezuelans need
“answers and
results,” and said
his delegation
would “make
consultations
toward
progress and
putting an
end to the
suffering.”
AFP
AFP
WORLD BRIEFS
Trump defeated
WASHINGTON — US President
Donald Trump backed down
Thursday from a push to force a
controversial question on citizenship
onto the 2020 census following a
backlash by civil rights campaigners.
Critics said the administration
wanted to add the question to
suppress participation by immigrant
communities in the once-a-decade
survey that helps officials determine
where to allocate federal resources.
“We are pursuing a new option to
ensure a complete and timely count
of the non-citizen population,” the
president told a news conference at
the White House.
Two weeks ago, the Supreme
Court seemingly ended a legal
and political battle over the issue.
It concluded that the Trump
administration’s stated reasons
for including the question were
“contrived,” and blocked the move.
Stung by the conservative-majority
high court’s 5-4 decision, Trump
raised the possibility of forcing the
issue with an executive order, or even
postponing the census. AFP
Soc-Med attack
WASHINGTON — President Donald
Trump ramped up his attacks on
Silicon Valley giants on Thursday with
a call for “regulatory and legislative
solutions” to what he described as
unfair treatment of conservatives by
major online platforms.
At a White House social media
“summit,” Trump excluded internet
firms from the gathering of
conservative activists who have been
curbed on social media.
But he said he would invite those
companies in the coming weeks for “a
big meeting and a real conversation”
on the topic.
Speaking to his supporters, Trump
repeated his argument of political
bias, claiming some activists were
blocked or limited on social platforms.
Trump, a frequent Twitter user
who has more than 60 million followers
on that service, nonetheless renewed
his complaint over “terrible bias” on
social media, and vowed a response.
He offered no specific proposal
but said he was directing his
administration “to explore all
regulatory and legislative solutions
to protect free speech and the free
speech of all Americans.” AFP
Immigrant raids
WASHINGTON — Democrats in the
US Congress demanded Thursday
that President Donald Trump protect
families and children ahead of
expected immigration raids this
weekend.
Immigration and Customs
Enforcement (ICE) will launch
sweeping deportation operations on
Sunday as the administration expands
its crackdown on undocumented
immigrants, the New York Times
reported.
ICE has obtained court orders
for the removal of about one million
undocumented migrants, according to
a senior administration official, but
the initial raids will target some 2,000
across at least 10 cities, the Times said.
Democrats lashed out at the plans,
saying they threaten people who have
lived in the United States for many
years and built families that include
US citizens.
AFP