World poverty to rise as climate change hits food supplies

Zimbabwe witnessed pretty violent elections 20 years ago. The United States and the European Union imposed a travel ban and also froze assets of the top officials and two decades on Zimbabwe continues to face consequences of those sanctions but it is the ordinary people in Zimbabwe who have been the worst affected, our next story gets you the details.

Cost of US sanctions still looms, future of Zimbabweans hang in balance

The Taliban’s acting prime minister has urged the Muslim nations to officially recognise their government that took over Afghanistan in mid-August last year.

“I call on Muslim countries to take the lead and recognise us officially. Then I hope we will be able to develop quickly,” Mohammad Hassan Akhund told a conference in Kabul to address the country's massive economic crisis.

Global leaders have been reluctant to recognise the Taliban administration due to which they have been unable to receive aid that was once formed the backbone of the economy.

The Taliban has been struggling to pay off the government employees as the western nations led by the United States have frozen their banking assets.

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/south-asia/watch-talibans-atrocities-continue-as-fighters-burn-weeping-musicians-instrument-in-afghanistan-445141">Taliban’s atrocities continue as fighters burn weeping musician’s instrument in Afghanist</a>an

“We do not want anyone's help. We don't want it for the officials," Akhund said, referring to diplomatic recognition.

"We want it for our public," he said, adding that the Taliban had fulfilled all necessary conditions by restoring peace and security.

Jobs have dried up, pushing millions of Afghans into poverty. The United Nations has warned that half the population is threatened with food shortages.

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/south-asia/amid-soaring-fuel-prices-and-dwindling-cash-reserves-in-afghanistan-taliban-say-all-is-well-421995">Amid soaring fuel prices and dwindling cash reserves in Afghanistan, Taliban say ‘all is well’</a>

Last month, a special meeting of the 57-member Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) declined to formally recognise the government, and the new regime's foreign minister was excluded from the official photograph taken during the event.

The OIC did, however, pledge to work with the United Nations to try to unlock hundreds of millions of dollars in frozen Afghan assets.

It also urged Afghanistan's rulers to abide by international obligations regarding the rights of women.

The militant group was slammed for excluding women from government employment, while it has shut secondary schools for girls.

(With inputs from agencies)

The Taliban’s acting prime minister has urged the Muslim nations to officially recognise their government that took over Afghanistan in mid-August last year. “I call on Muslim countries to take the lead and recognise us officially.

The Taliban’s acting prime minister has urged the Muslim nations to officially recognise their government that took over Afghanistan in mid-August last year. “I call on Muslim countries to take the lead and recognise us officially. Then I hope we will be able to develop quickly,” Mohammad Hassan Akhund told a conference in Kabul to address the country's massive economic crisis. Global leaders have been reluctant to recognise the Taliban administration due to which they have been unable to receive aid that was once formed the backbone of the economy. The Taliban has been struggling to pay off the government employees as the western nations led by the United States have frozen their banking assets. Also read | Taliban’s atrocities continue as fighters burn weeping musician’s instrument in Afghanistan “We do not want anyone's help. We don't want it for the officials," Akhund said, referring to diplomatic recognition. "We want it for our public," he said, adding that the Taliban had fulfilled all necessary conditions by restoring peace and security. Jobs have dried up, pushing millions of Afghans into poverty. The United Nations has warned that half the population is threatened with food shortages. Also read | Amid soaring fuel prices and dwindling cash reserves in Afghanistan, Taliban say ‘all is well’ Last month, a special meeting of the 57-member Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) declined to formally recognise the government, and the new regime's foreign minister was excluded from the official photograph taken during the event. The OIC did, however, pledge to work with the United Nations to try to unlock hundreds of millions of dollars in frozen Afghan assets. It also urged Afghanistan's rulers to abide by international obligations regarding the rights of women. The militant group was slammed for excluding women from government employment, while it has shut secondary schools for girls. (With inputs from agencies)

Taliban acting PM urges Muslim nations to officially recognise Afghan government

In last two years, Covid pandemic has changed the world. It has led to several deaths, restrictions, hospitalisations, economic hardships, etc. &nbsp;

Several people have been immensely affected by it. But has it brought trouble for everyone? Well, the answer would be no. &nbsp;

In this deadly pandemic, the wealth of several richest people of the world has increased. This comes as millions of people have also got plunged into poverty, said a report released by Oxfam on Sunday. &nbsp;

Also Read:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/chinas-q4-gdp-growth-seen-hitting-one-and-a-half-year-low-raising-heat-on-policymakers-445263" hreflang="en">China's Q4 GDP growth seen hitting one-and-a-half-year low, raising heat on policymakers</a>

The report&nbsp;talked about&nbsp;how the wealth of billionaires in the world hiked more than ever before in last two years. &nbsp;

As per the report, the world’s 10 richest people, who are all white men, have more than doubled their wealth. Their collective wealth has increased from $700 billion to $1.5 trillion. &nbsp;

A new billionaire seems to have got created every 26 hours between March 2020 and November 2021, the report said. Over 160 million people were also pushed into poverty in this time period. &nbsp;

Also Read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/apple-will-require-its-employees-to-show-proof-of-covid-booster-shot-report-445268" hreflang="en">Apple will require its employees to show proof of Covid booster shot: Report</a>

In a news release, Abby Maxman, president, Oxfam America, said, “One of the single most powerful tools we have to address this level of egregious and deadly inequality is to tax the rich.” &nbsp;

“Instead of lining the pockets of the ultra-wealthy, we should be investing billions of dollars into our economy, our children and our planet, paving the way for a more equal and sustainable future,” added Maxman. &nbsp;

(With inputs from agencies)&nbsp;

In last two years, Covid pandemic has changed the world. It has led to several deaths, restrictions, hospitalisations, economic hardships, etc. Several people have been immensely affected by it.

In last two years, Covid pandemic has changed the world. It has led to several deaths, restrictions, hospitalisations, economic hardships, etc. Several people have been immensely affected by it. But has it brought trouble for everyone? Well, the answer would be no. In this deadly pandemic, the wealth of several richest people of the world has increased. This comes as millions of people have also got plunged into poverty, said a report released by Oxfam on Sunday. Also Read: China's Q4 GDP growth seen hitting one-and-a-half-year low, raising heat on policymakers The report talked about how the wealth of billionaires in the world hiked more than ever before in last two years. As per the report, the world’s 10 richest people, who are all white men, have more than doubled their wealth. Their collective wealth has increased from $700 billion to $1.5 trillion. A new billionaire seems to have got created every 26 hours between March 2020 and November 2021, the report said. Over 160 million people were also pushed into poverty in this time period. Also Read | Apple will require its employees to show proof of Covid booster shot: Report In a news release, Abby Maxman, president, Oxfam America, said, “One of the single most powerful tools we have to address this level of egregious and deadly inequality is to tax the rich.” “Instead of lining the pockets of the ultra-wealthy, we should be investing billions of dollars into our economy, our children and our planet, paving the way for a more equal and sustainable future,” added Maxman. (With inputs from agencies)

Billionaires’ wealth hiked as millions got plunged into poverty in Covid pandemic, says report

The onset of Covid pandemic not only robbed the livelihood for millions of people all over the world, but it has apparently also created new billionaires.

Dubbed as “pandemic billionaires”, a recent Oxfam report has claimed that 20 people in Asia, mostly associated with the field of pharmaceuticals, saw their wealth zoom during the pandemic period.

According to the report, by March 2021, profits from the pharmaceuticals, medical equipment and services needed for the Covid response made 20 people rich even as lockdowns and economic stagnation destroyed the livelihoods of hundreds of millions of others.

These people mainly belonged from India, China, Hong Kong, and Japan.

Among the new billionaires include Li Jianquan, whose firm, Winner Medical, makes personal protective equipment (PPE) for health workers, and Dai Lizhong, whose company, Sansure Biotech, makes COVID-19 tests and diagnostic kits, the report said.

Also read |<a href="https://www.wionews.com/india-news/wealth-inequality-in-india-a-maid-would-need-to-work-for-22277-years-to-earn-as-much-as-a-top-ceo-275407">&nbsp;Wealth inequality in India: A maid would need to work for 22,277 years to earn as much as a top CEO</a>

The Asia-Pacific region saw the total number of billionaires growing by almost a third from 803 in March 2020 to 1,087 by November last year.

According to the report, their collective wealth increased by three-quarters (74 per cent).

The richest 1 per cent owned more wealth than the poorest 90 per cent in the region, the report said.

The report continues to mention that the wealth gap is set to grow.

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/richest-1-per-cent-of-americans-now-own-more-wealth-than-the-entire-middle-class-419838">Richest 1 per cent of Americans now own more wealth than the entire middle class</a>

According to Credit Suisse, by 2025, there will be 42,000 more people worth more than $50m in Asia-Pacific&nbsp;and 99,000 billionaires.

The number of millionaires by 2025 is projected to be 15.3 million, a 58 per cent increase on 2020. Both the World Bank and IMF have said that coronavirus will cause a significant increase in global economic inequality.

Earlier, the World Bank had predicted that global extreme poverty is expected to rise on the back of pandemic-related disruptions.

According to its estimate, the COVID-19 pandemic is likely to push an additional 88 million to 115 million people into extreme poverty this year, with the total rising to as many as 150 million by 2021.

“The pandemic and global recession may cause over 1.4 per cent of the world’s population to fall into extreme poverty,” World Bank group president David Malpass said.

(With inputs from agencies)

The onset of Covid pandemic not only robbed the livelihood for millions of people all over the world, but it has apparently also created new billionaires. Dubbed as “pandemic billionaires”, a recent Oxfam report has claimed that 20 people in Asia, mostly associated with the field of pharmaceuticals, saw their wealth zoom during the pandemic period.

The onset of Covid pandemic not only robbed the livelihood for millions of people all over the world, but it has apparently also created new billionaires. Dubbed as “pandemic billionaires”, a recent Oxfam report has claimed that 20 people in Asia, mostly associated with the field of pharmaceuticals, saw their wealth zoom during the pandemic period. According to the report, by March 2021, profits from the pharmaceuticals, medical equipment and services needed for the Covid response made 20 people rich even as lockdowns and economic stagnation destroyed the livelihoods of hundreds of millions of others. These people mainly belonged from India, China, Hong Kong, and Japan. Among the new billionaires include Li Jianquan, whose firm, Winner Medical, makes personal protective equipment (PPE) for health workers, and Dai Lizhong, whose company, Sansure Biotech, makes COVID-19 tests and diagnostic kits, the report said. Also read | Wealth inequality in India: A maid would need to work for 22,277 years to earn as much as a top CEO The Asia-Pacific region saw the total number of billionaires growing by almost a third from 803 in March 2020 to 1,087 by November last year. According to the report, their collective wealth increased by three-quarters (74 per cent). The richest 1 per cent owned more wealth than the poorest 90 per cent in the region, the report said. The report continues to mention that the wealth gap is set to grow. Also read | Richest 1 per cent of Americans now own more wealth than the entire middle class According to Credit Suisse, by 2025, there will be 42,000 more people worth more than $50m in Asia-Pacific and 99,000 billionaires. The number of millionaires by 2025 is projected to be 15.3 million, a 58 per cent increase on 2020. Both the World Bank and IMF have said that coronavirus will cause a significant increase in global economic inequality. Earlier, the World Bank had predicted that global extreme poverty is expected to rise on the back of pandemic-related disruptions. According to its estimate, the COVID-19 pandemic is likely to push an additional 88 million to 115 million people into extreme poverty this year, with the total rising to as many as 150 million by 2021. “The pandemic and global recession may cause over 1.4 per cent of the world’s population to fall into extreme poverty,” World Bank group president David Malpass said. (With inputs from agencies)

Covid spawned 20 new ‘pandemic billionaires’ in Asia, says Oxfam report

The cash-starved Taliban administration seems to have adopted the age-old barter system to pay out its hundreds of employees.<o:p></o:p>

On Tuesday, the Taliban said that they will be paying the salaries of government employees with wheat donated to Afghanistan by foreign countries, including India, as they do not have any money to pay them.<o:p></o:p>

Wheat, largely donated by India to the previous US-backed Kabul government, is being used to pay 40,000 workers 10kg of wheat per day for working five hours a day, agriculture officials told a news conference.<o:p></o:p>

The scheme, which has largely paid labourers on public works programmes in Kabul, will be expanded around the country, they said.<o:p></o:p>

“We are ready to help our people as much as we can,” said Fazel Bari Fazli, deputy minister of administration and finance at the Ministry of Agriculture.

<o:p></o:p>

Also read | <a href="https://www.wionews.com/south-asia/un-proposes-to-pay-nearly-6-million-to-taliban-for-security-438988">UN proposes to pay nearly $6 million to Taliban for security</a>

Fazli said that the Taliban administration has already received an additional 18 tonnes of wheat from Pakistan with a promise of 37 tonnes more and is in negotiation with India for 55 tonnes.<o:p></o:p>

“We have lots of plans for food for work programme,” he said.

<o:p>Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/south-asia/to-keep-aid-flowing-to-afghanistan-us-authorises-certain-transactions-with-taliban-439164">To keep aid flowing to Afghanistan, US authorises certain transactions with Taliban</a></o:p>

However, it was not clear how much of the donated wheat would be used as direct humanitarian aid and how much to pay workers, Reuters reported.<o:p></o:p>

On January 1, India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) announced that it has committed to providing the Afghan people with 50,000 MT of wheat, life-saving medications, and Covid vaccines.<o:p></o:p>

"In coming weeks, we will be undertaking the supply of wheat and the remaining medical assistance. In this regard, we are in touch with UN agencies and others to finalise the modalities for transportation,” it said in a statement.<o:p></o:p>

International sanctions on Taliban members, frozen central bank assets and the sudden drop off in international assistance that once formed the backbone of the economy has left the Taliban government with limited government finances and a growing economic crisis.<o:p></o:p>

On Tuesday, UN agencies asked donors for $4.4 billion in humanitarian aid for Afghanistan in 2022, calling the funds an "essential stop gap" to ensure the country's future.<o:p></o:p>

(With inputs from agencies)

The cash-starved Taliban administration seems to have adopted the age-old barter system to pay out its hundreds of employees. On Tuesday, the Taliban said that they will be paying the salaries of government employees with wheat donated to Afghanistan by foreign countries, including India, as they do not have any money to pay them.

The cash-starved Taliban administration seems to have adopted the age-old barter system to pay out its hundreds of employees. On Tuesday, the Taliban said that they will be paying the salaries of government employees with wheat donated to Afghanistan by foreign countries, including India, as they do not have any money to pay them. Wheat, largely donated by India to the previous US-backed Kabul government, is being used to pay 40,000 workers 10kg of wheat per day for working five hours a day, agriculture officials told a news conference. The scheme, which has largely paid labourers on public works programmes in Kabul, will be expanded around the country, they said. “We are ready to help our people as much as we can,” said Fazel Bari Fazli, deputy minister of administration and finance at the Ministry of Agriculture. Also read | UN proposes to pay nearly $6 million to Taliban for security Fazli said that the Taliban administration has already received an additional 18 tonnes of wheat from Pakistan with a promise of 37 tonnes more and is in negotiation with India for 55 tonnes. “We have lots of plans for food for work programme,” he said. Also read | To keep aid flowing to Afghanistan, US authorises certain transactions with Taliban However, it was not clear how much of the donated wheat would be used as direct humanitarian aid and how much to pay workers, Reuters reported. On January 1, India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) announced that it has committed to providing the Afghan people with 50,000 MT of wheat, life-saving medications, and Covid vaccines. "In coming weeks, we will be undertaking the supply of wheat and the remaining medical assistance. In this regard, we are in touch with UN agencies and others to finalise the modalities for transportation,” it said in a statement. International sanctions on Taliban members, frozen central bank assets and the sudden drop off in international assistance that once formed the backbone of the economy has left the Taliban government with limited government finances and a growing economic crisis. On Tuesday, UN agencies asked donors for $4.4 billion in humanitarian aid for Afghanistan in 2022, calling the funds an "essential stop gap" to ensure the country's future. (With inputs from agencies)

Cash-starved Taliban paying salaries in wheat to govt employees as economic crisis deepens

Since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan heartbreaking reports of poverty in the nation have been emerging. However, in the latest development, Afghanistan's finance ministry has managed to draft a national budget under the Taliban government.

This has happened for the first time in two decades without being funded by foreign aid. &nbsp;

As of now, the size of the budget has not been disclosed. Finance ministry spokesman Ahmad Wali Haqmal while speaking to AFP said that it would go to the cabinet for approval before being published.&nbsp;

Afghanistan had already been facing chronic poverty and drought but the situation worsened since the Taliban seized power, along with the disruption of aid.&nbsp;

An Afghan economist said that the new budget would likely end up being only a quarter of that for 2021. He said, "The Taliban are saying they have more transparency at the border crossings," this implies to lesser goods dodge duties than previously."

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/south-asia/rewind-2021-when-taliban-in-afghanistan-became-the-new-normal-437572">Also read |&nbsp;Rewind 2021: When Taliban in Afghanistan became the 'new normal'</a>

Last month, the new government's revenue department said that it had collected 26 billion Afghanis in the previous two and a half months, including 13 billion in customs duties.&nbsp;

It also announced a new Islamic tax in order to aid projects for poor people and orphans.

Foreign donors have suspended aid to Afghanistan. Also, the IMF had said that its engagement with Afghanistan will remain suspended until there is clarity on the recognition of the government led by the Taliban.

The IMF said that it is deeply concerned with the difficult economic situation in Afghanistan and the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan.

“We have said the immediate focus should indeed be on that humanitarian situation, aid to help the Afghanistan people; and allowing the flow of remittances and small-scale transfers; and providing assistance to countries hosting Afghan refugees,” it said.&nbsp;

(With inputs from agencies)

Since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan heartbreaking reports of poverty in the nation have been emerging. However, in the latest development, Afghanistan's finance ministry has managed to draft a national budget under the Taliban government.

Since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan heartbreaking reports of poverty in the nation have been emerging. However, in the latest development, Afghanistan's finance ministry has managed to draft a national budget under the Taliban government. This has happened for the first time in two decades without being funded by foreign aid. As of now, the size of the budget has not been disclosed. Finance ministry spokesman Ahmad Wali Haqmal while speaking to AFP said that it would go to the cabinet for approval before being published. Afghanistan had already been facing chronic poverty and drought but the situation worsened since the Taliban seized power, along with the disruption of aid. An Afghan economist said that the new budget would likely end up being only a quarter of that for 2021. He said, "The Taliban are saying they have more transparency at the border crossings," this implies to lesser goods dodge duties than previously." Also read | Rewind 2021: When Taliban in Afghanistan became the 'new normal' Last month, the new government's revenue department said that it had collected 26 billion Afghanis in the previous two and a half months, including 13 billion in customs duties. It also announced a new Islamic tax in order to aid projects for poor people and orphans. Foreign donors have suspended aid to Afghanistan. Also, the IMF had said that its engagement with Afghanistan will remain suspended until there is clarity on the recognition of the government led by the Taliban. The IMF said that it is deeply concerned with the difficult economic situation in Afghanistan and the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan. “We have said the immediate focus should indeed be on that humanitarian situation, aid to help the Afghanistan people; and allowing the flow of remittances and small-scale transfers; and providing assistance to countries hosting Afghan refugees,” it said. (With inputs from agencies)

Amid concerns of extreme poverty, Taliban manages to prepare new Afghan budget

The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic has had a series of consequences for the entire world, one of them being, extreme poverty. New research compiled by the World Health Organisation and the World Bank shows how this pandemic is going to put a pause on two decades of global progress towards Universal Health Coverage. Both the organisations have further revealed that the pandemic has pushed over half a billion people into extreme poverty. This is because they have to spend hefty amounts on health services.

Launched on Universal Health Coverage Day, the report further highlights how the pandemic has also triggered the worst economic crisis since the 1930s.&nbsp;

Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General said, “There is no time to spare."

“All governments must immediately resume and accelerate efforts to ensure every one of their citizens can access health services without fear of the financial consequences. This means strengthening public spending on health and social support, and increasing their focus on primary health care systems that can provide essential care close to home.”

The report further talks about how in 2020, the pandemic completely disrupted health services. As a result of this, immunisation coverage dropped for the first time in ten years.&nbsp;

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/omicron-south-african-president-cyril-ramaphosa-tests-positive-for-covid-19-isolates-himself-436376">Also read |&nbsp;Omicron: South African President Cyril Ramaphosa tests positive for COVID-19, isolates himself</a>

There was also a surge in deaths from TB and malaria.

“Prior to the pandemic, many countries had made progress. But it was not robust enough. This time we must build health systems that are strong enough to withstand shocks, such as the next pandemic and stay on course towards universal health coverage," says Tedros in an official press release by WHO.&nbsp;

Prior to the pandemic, in 2019, 68 per cent of the world’s population was covered by essential health services - treatment for diseases like HIV, TB and malaria, services to diagnose and treat noncommunicable diseases including cancer, heart conditions, and diabetes. However, there was no progress made in ensuring affordability.&nbsp;

This is why people living in the poorest areas are the last ones to obtain health care services.&nbsp;

Juan Pablo Uribe, Global Director for Health, Nutrition and Population, World Bank, in an official release by WHO said, "Even before the Covid-19 pandemic struck, almost 1 billion people were spending more than 10 per cent of their household budget on health."

He further highlighted how this is completely unacceptable. He said, "This is not acceptable, especially since the poorest people are hit hardest. Within a constrained fiscal space, governments will have to make tough choices to protect and increase health budgets."&nbsp;

(With inputs from agencies)

The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic has had a series of consequences for the entire world, one of them being, extreme poverty. New research compiled by the World Health Organisation and the World Bank shows how this pandemic is going to put a pause on two decades of global progress towards Universal Health Coverage.

The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic has had a series of consequences for the entire world, one of them being, extreme poverty. New research compiled by the World Health Organisation and the World Bank shows how this pandemic is going to put a pause on two decades of global progress towards Universal Health Coverage. Both the organisations have further revealed that the pandemic has pushed over half a billion people into extreme poverty. This is because they have to spend hefty amounts on health services. Launched on Universal Health Coverage Day, the report further highlights how the pandemic has also triggered the worst economic crisis since the 1930s. Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General said, “There is no time to spare." “All governments must immediately resume and accelerate efforts to ensure every one of their citizens can access health services without fear of the financial consequences. This means strengthening public spending on health and social support, and increasing their focus on primary health care systems that can provide essential care close to home.” The report further talks about how in 2020, the pandemic completely disrupted health services. As a result of this, immunisation coverage dropped for the first time in ten years. Also read | Omicron: South African President Cyril Ramaphosa tests positive for COVID-19, isolates himself There was also a surge in deaths from TB and malaria. “Prior to the pandemic, many countries had made progress. But it was not robust enough. This time we must build health systems that are strong enough to withstand shocks, such as the next pandemic and stay on course towards universal health coverage," says Tedros in an official press release by WHO. Prior to the pandemic, in 2019, 68 per cent of the world’s population was covered by essential health services - treatment for diseases like HIV, TB and malaria, services to diagnose and treat noncommunicable diseases including cancer, heart conditions, and diabetes. However, there was no progress made in ensuring affordability. This is why people living in the poorest areas are the last ones to obtain health care services. Juan Pablo Uribe, Global Director for Health, Nutrition and Population, World Bank, in an official release by WHO said, "Even before the Covid-19 pandemic struck, almost 1 billion people were spending more than 10 per cent of their household budget on health." He further highlighted how this is completely unacceptable. He said, "This is not acceptable, especially since the poorest people are hit hardest. Within a constrained fiscal space, governments will have to make tough choices to protect and increase health budgets." (With inputs from agencies)

Inflated health care costs have forced over half billion people into poverty amid pandemic

Since the Taliban took over Afghanistan, the nation has been struggling to battle extreme poverty. There have been reports of many Afghans selling possessions to buy food because the Taliban is unable to pay wages to civil servants. Also, the urban communities are facing food insecurity similar to rural areas.&nbsp;

Around 22 million Afghans, or more than half the country, will be facing an "acute" food shortage in the winter months.

Keeping the current circumstances in mind, several international donors have agreed to release $280 million in aid to the poverty-stricken nation.&nbsp;

A statement issued by World Bank states that the fund from the Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund (ARTF) will go "to provide humanitarian assistance to the people of Afghanistan at this critical time."

It added that the funds will go to UNICEF and the World Food Programme, which "have presence and logistics capacity on the ground in Afghanistan and will use these funds to cover financing gaps in their existing programs to deliver health and nutrition services directly to the Afghan people."

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/south-asia/afghanistans-pm-urges-charities-to-keep-offering-aid-as-nation-battles-poverty-432485">Also read |&nbsp;Afghanistan's PM urges charities to keep offering aid as nation battles poverty</a>

The statement states that the UNICEF will receive $100 million while WFP will receive $180 million.

There is also a threat of a “looming humanitarian crisis” in the country. Afghanistan had already been facing chronic poverty and drought but the situation has deteriorated since the Taliban seized power.

In September, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said that its engagement with Afghanistan will remain suspended until there is clarity on the recognition of the government led by the Taliban.

"We ask all the international charity organisations to not withhold their aid and to help our exhausted nation... so that the problems of the people could be solved," said new Prime Minister Mullah Mohammad Hassan Akhund in his first address to the nation since the Taliban took over.

(With inputs from agencies)

Since the Taliban took over Afghanistan, the nation has been struggling to battle extreme poverty. There have been reports of many Afghans selling possessions to buy food because the Taliban is unable to pay wages to civil servants.

Since the Taliban took over Afghanistan, the nation has been struggling to battle extreme poverty. There have been reports of many Afghans selling possessions to buy food because the Taliban is unable to pay wages to civil servants. Also, the urban communities are facing food insecurity similar to rural areas. Around 22 million Afghans, or more than half the country, will be facing an "acute" food shortage in the winter months. Keeping the current circumstances in mind, several international donors have agreed to release $280 million in aid to the poverty-stricken nation. A statement issued by World Bank states that the fund from the Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund (ARTF) will go "to provide humanitarian assistance to the people of Afghanistan at this critical time." It added that the funds will go to UNICEF and the World Food Programme, which "have presence and logistics capacity on the ground in Afghanistan and will use these funds to cover financing gaps in their existing programs to deliver health and nutrition services directly to the Afghan people." Also read | Afghanistan's PM urges charities to keep offering aid as nation battles poverty The statement states that the UNICEF will receive $100 million while WFP will receive $180 million. There is also a threat of a “looming humanitarian crisis” in the country. Afghanistan had already been facing chronic poverty and drought but the situation has deteriorated since the Taliban seized power. In September, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said that its engagement with Afghanistan will remain suspended until there is clarity on the recognition of the government led by the Taliban. "We ask all the international charity organisations to not withhold their aid and to help our exhausted nation... so that the problems of the people could be solved," said new Prime Minister Mullah Mohammad Hassan Akhund in his first address to the nation since the Taliban took over. (With inputs from agencies)

As Afghanistan continues to battle poverty, donors approve release of $280M

India stands out as a poor and very unequal country, with the top 1 per cent of the population holding more than one-fifth of the total national income in 2021 and the bottom half just 13 per cent, according to a report. The report, titled ‘World Inequality Report 2022’, has been authored by Lucas Chancel, co-director of the World Inequality Lab, and coordinated by several experts, including French economist Thomas Piketty.

It further said India is now among the most unequal countries in the world. The report pointed out that the average national income of the Indian adult population is ₹2,04,200. While the bottom 50% earns ₹53,610, the top 10 per cent earns more than 20 times (₹1,166,520).

“While the top 10% and top 1% hold respectively 57 per cent and 22 per cent of total national income, the bottom 50 per cent share has gone down to 13 per cent “India stands out as a poor and very unequal country, with an affluent elite,” it said.

According to the report, average household wealth in India stands at ₹983,010. It observed that the deregulation and liberalisation policies implemented since the mid-1980s have led to “one of the most extreme increases in income and wealth inequality observed in the world”.

It also said gender inequalities in India are very high. "The female labour income share is equal to 18 per cent. This is significantly lower than the average in Asia [21 per cent, excluding China],” the report said, adding that this value is one of the lowest in the world, slightly higher than the average share in the Middle East (15%).

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The world map of inequalities reveals that national average income levels are poor predictors of inequality — among high-income countries, some are very unequal (such as the US), while others are relatively equal (Sweden).

“The same is true among low- and middle-income countries, with some exhibiting extreme inequality [Brazil and India], somewhat high levels (China) and moderate to relatively low levels [Malaysia, Uruguay],” it said.

The report noted that income and wealth inequalities have been on the rise nearly everywhere since the 1980s, following a series of deregulation and liberalisation programs which took different forms in different countries.

“The rise has not been uniform: certain countries have experienced spectacular increases in inequality [including the US, Russia and India] while others [European countries and China] have experienced relatively smaller rises,” it said. The report pointed out that in 2021, after three decades of trade and financial globalisation, global inequalities remain extremely pronounced.

“They are about as great today as they were at the peak of Western imperialism in the early 20th century,” it said.

Lucas Chancel, lead author of the report, said the Covid crisis has exacerbated inequalities between the very wealthy and the rest of the population.&nbsp;"Yet, in rich countries, government intervention prevented a massive rise in poverty, this was not the case in poor countries. This shows the importance of social states in the fight against poverty,” he said.

India stands out as a poor and very unequal country, with the top 1 per cent of the population holding more than one-fifth of the total national income in 2021 and the bottom half just 13 per cent, according to a report.

India stands out as a poor and very unequal country, with the top 1 per cent of the population holding more than one-fifth of the total national income in 2021 and the bottom half just 13 per cent, according to a report. The report, titled ‘World Inequality Report 2022’, has been authored by Lucas Chancel, co-director of the World Inequality Lab, and coordinated by several experts, including French economist Thomas Piketty. It further said India is now among the most unequal countries in the world. The report pointed out that the average national income of the Indian adult population is ₹2,04,200. While the bottom 50% earns ₹53,610, the top 10 per cent earns more than 20 times (₹1,166,520). “While the top 10% and top 1% hold respectively 57 per cent and 22 per cent of total national income, the bottom 50 per cent share has gone down to 13 per cent “India stands out as a poor and very unequal country, with an affluent elite,” it said. According to the report, average household wealth in India stands at ₹983,010. It observed that the deregulation and liberalisation policies implemented since the mid-1980s have led to “one of the most extreme increases in income and wealth inequality observed in the world”. It also said gender inequalities in India are very high. "The female labour income share is equal to 18 per cent. This is significantly lower than the average in Asia [21 per cent, excluding China],” the report said, adding that this value is one of the lowest in the world, slightly higher than the average share in the Middle East (15%). The world map of inequalities reveals that national average income levels are poor predictors of inequality — among high-income countries, some are very unequal (such as the US), while others are relatively equal (Sweden). “The same is true among low- and middle-income countries, with some exhibiting extreme inequality [Brazil and India], somewhat high levels (China) and moderate to relatively low levels [Malaysia, Uruguay],” it said. The report noted that income and wealth inequalities have been on the rise nearly everywhere since the 1980s, following a series of deregulation and liberalisation programs which took different forms in different countries. “The rise has not been uniform: certain countries have experienced spectacular increases in inequality [including the US, Russia and India] while others [European countries and China] have experienced relatively smaller rises,” it said. The report pointed out that in 2021, after three decades of trade and financial globalisation, global inequalities remain extremely pronounced. “They are about as great today as they were at the peak of Western imperialism in the early 20th century,” it said. Lucas Chancel, lead author of the report, said the Covid crisis has exacerbated inequalities between the very wealthy and the rest of the population. "Yet, in rich countries, government intervention prevented a massive rise in poverty, this was not the case in poor countries. This shows the importance of social states in the fight against poverty,” he said.

India among most unequal nations; top 1% of population holds 22% of national income: Report

One by one, women poured into the mud brick clinic, the frames of famished children peeking out beneath the folds of their pale gray, blue and pink burqas.

Many had walked for more than an hour across this drab stretch of southern Afghanistan, desperate for medicine to pump life back into their children’s shrunken veins. For months, their once-daily meals had grown more sparse as harvests failed, wells ran dry and credit for flour from shopkeepers ran out.

Nearly four months since the Taliban seized power, Afghanistan is on the brink of a mass starvation that aid groups say threatens to kill 1 million children this winter.

The country’s hunger crisis has drastically worsened in recent months. This winter, an estimated 22.8 million people — more than half the population — are expected to face potentially life-threatening levels of food insecurity, according to an analysis by the UN&nbsp;World Food Program and Food and Agriculture Organization. Of those, 8.7 million people are nearing famine — the worst stage of a food crisis.

Since the Taliban seized power, the United States and other Western donors have grappled with questions over how to avert a humanitarian catastrophe in Afghanistan without granting the new regime legitimacy by removing sanctions or putting money directly into the Taliban’s hands.

But as the humanitarian situation has worsened, aid organizations have called on the United States to move more quickly.

US&nbsp;officials showed some flexibility around loosening the economic chokehold on Afghanistan last week when the World Bank’s board — which includes the United States — moved to free up $280 million in frozen donor funding for the World Food Program and UNICEF. Still, the sum is just a portion of the $1.5 billion frozen by the World Bank amid pressure from the U.S. Treasury Department after the Taliban took control.

The Taliban government has repeatedly called on the Biden administration to ease economic restrictions and has worked with international organizations to deliver some assistance. But already, millions of Afghans have been pushed over the edge.

One by one, women poured into the mud brick clinic, the frames of famished children peeking out beneath the folds of their pale gray, blue and pink burqas. Many had walked for more than an hour across this drab stretch of southern Afghanistan, desperate for medicine to pump life back into their children’s shrunken veins.

One by one, women poured into the mud brick clinic, the frames of famished children peeking out beneath the folds of their pale gray, blue and pink burqas. Many had walked for more than an hour across this drab stretch of southern Afghanistan, desperate for medicine to pump life back into their children’s shrunken veins. For months, their once-daily meals had grown more sparse as harvests failed, wells ran dry and credit for flour from shopkeepers ran out. Nearly four months since the Taliban seized power, Afghanistan is on the brink of a mass starvation that aid groups say threatens to kill 1 million children this winter. The country’s hunger crisis has drastically worsened in recent months. This winter, an estimated 22.8 million people — more than half the population — are expected to face potentially life-threatening levels of food insecurity, according to an analysis by the UN World Food Program and Food and Agriculture Organization. Of those, 8.7 million people are nearing famine — the worst stage of a food crisis. Since the Taliban seized power, the United States and other Western donors have grappled with questions over how to avert a humanitarian catastrophe in Afghanistan without granting the new regime legitimacy by removing sanctions or putting money directly into the Taliban’s hands. But as the humanitarian situation has worsened, aid organizations have called on the United States to move more quickly. US officials showed some flexibility around loosening the economic chokehold on Afghanistan last week when the World Bank’s board — which includes the United States — moved to free up $280 million in frozen donor funding for the World Food Program and UNICEF. Still, the sum is just a portion of the $1.5 billion frozen by the World Bank amid pressure from the U.S. Treasury Department after the Taliban took control. The Taliban government has repeatedly called on the Biden administration to ease economic restrictions and has worked with international organizations to deliver some assistance. But already, millions of Afghans have been pushed over the edge.

Facing economic collapse, Afghanistan is gripped by starvation

When Alan Piazza visited isolated villages in north central China in the 1990s as an economist for the World Bank, he found a place of “almost impossible poverty.”

People in the Ningxia region lived in cave dwellings dug into desert sand. They had no electricity, no clean water, and the land had been badly eroded by grazing goats and sheep, turning the already arid terrain into a “moonscape.” The soil was poor, and village leaders brought Piazza to visit families whose bins of corn would be empty months before the next harvest. To Piazza, improving conditions there seemed unimaginable.

But when he returned to the area in 2016, he was overwhelmed by the transformation. Families were living in brick homes with electricity and had access to clean water. Nearly every child attended elementary school. Shrubs and grasses blanketed the hillsides, having returned after the government paid farmers to prevent their animals from grazing.

In 1990, about 36% of the global population — and nearly half of people in developing countries — lived on less than $1.25 a day, the World Bank’s definition of extreme poverty at the time. (It’s now $1.90 a day.) In 2000, United Nations member states pledged to cut extreme poverty worldwide — specifically to halve the proportion of people living in extreme poverty, from 1990 levels, by 2015.

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/more-frequent-and-destructive-historical-records-show-a-surge-in-hurricanes-over-the-last-150-years-433667">Also read |&nbsp;More frequent and destructive: Historical records show a surge in hurricanes over the last 150 years</a>

Bottom line: The U.N. goal was met. By 2015, the share of the world’s population living in extreme poverty fell to 12% from 36% in 1990, a steep decline in just 2 1/2 decades. During a single generation, more than 1 billion people around the world climbed out of extreme poverty, surpassing the goal.

How did it happen?

The UN’s vow to cut extreme poverty came with aid commitments from rich countries as well as debt forgiveness, which allowed some nations to put resources toward education or health rather than toward paying debt service on loans to international funders. But those measures were not primarily responsible for the overall rise in incomes.

Though poverty has declined everywhere, China and India, the world’s most populous countries, account for a vast majority of the progress. China’s economic growth, spurred by reforms that opened its economy to trade and improved agricultural productivity, as well as foreign direct investment, gave the government the means to reduce poverty.

The government provided free elementary education for all children and financed major construction projects to bring electricity and clean water to rural areas. People moved from the countryside to coastal cities, where they worked in factories and sent money home. Government-sponsored programs moved more than 1 million people — some reluctantly — from the drought-stricken desert to newly built villages closer to roads and water.

China’s GDP rose an annual average of 9.5% for 40 years, in what the World Bank called “the fastest sustained expansion by a major economy in history.”&nbsp;

“When countries see sustained economic growth, you also see declining absolute poverty,” said Charles Kenny, a researcher at the Center for Global Development, a nonprofit think tank. “It’s as close to a universal law as we have.”

The most recent World Bank figures show just 0.3% of China’s rural population living under $1.90 a day.

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/amid-omicron-scare-google-delays-mandatory-return-to-office-beyond-jan-10-433700">Also read |&nbsp;Amid Omicron scare, Google delays mandatory return to office beyond Jan 10</a>

“It’s a great achievement,” Ning Zhu, an economist at the Shanghai Advanced Institute of Finance, said. “Of course, as an economist, we always worry about sustainability.”

Much of China’s success has been tied to transferring cash from the state to the private sector, Zhu said, but the coronavirus pandemic and China’s escalating debt may mean it cannot continue to rely on staggering economic growth.

China’s story is unique, but poverty has been declining in much of the rest of the world, too. Mexico and Brazil raised living standards by giving money to the poor and requiring only regular health checkups and school attendance for children in return. Dozens of other countries have tried similar programs. Though these initiatives can’t replace sweeping economic growth, they, as well as programs like meals in school and social pensions, can have significant effects: The World Bank estimates that social safety net programs are responsible for 36% of the global reduction in extreme poverty.

Americans felt the effects of this kind of spending during the coronavirus pandemic, when the government extended unemployment benefits and sent close to $1 trillion in direct stimulus payments to about 85% of households. This temporary expansion of the social safety net caused poverty to drop to the lowest levels on record in the United States.

Isn’t $1.90 a day a very low bar?

The figure for extreme poverty is set by the World Bank to track trends among the poorest people in the poorest countries. Above this threshold lie categories of only slightly less dire poverty. Almost half of the world, 3.3 billion people lives on less than $5.50 a day, which is still barely enough to meet basic needs in many countries. In China, despite its progress, some 92 million people living in urban areas still get by on less than that amount.

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/science/with-omicron-reinfection-is-three-times-more-likely-south-african-health-body-433684">Also read |&nbsp;With Omicron, reinfection is three times more likely: South African health body</a>

About 700 million people, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa, continue to live in utter destitution on less than $1.90 a day. The engine of economic growth has yet to rescue them.

The pandemic, too, showed how fragile some of the gains can be. UN&nbsp;Secretary-General António Guterres warned that extreme poverty rose last year for the first time in decades as a result of COVID-19, widening inequalities between rich and poor nations.

Kenny says he oscillates between elation and despair over the progress of the past few decades. Lifting much of the world from abject poverty has been an unprecedented achievement, he said. And yet, the benefits have been frustratingly uneven.

“Both of those things are true,” he said.

When Alan Piazza visited isolated villages in north central China in the 1990s as an economist for the World Bank, he found a place of “almost impossible poverty.

When Alan Piazza visited isolated villages in north central China in the 1990s as an economist for the World Bank, he found a place of “almost impossible poverty.” People in the Ningxia region lived in cave dwellings dug into desert sand. They had no electricity, no clean water, and the land had been badly eroded by grazing goats and sheep, turning the already arid terrain into a “moonscape.” The soil was poor, and village leaders brought Piazza to visit families whose bins of corn would be empty months before the next harvest. To Piazza, improving conditions there seemed unimaginable. But when he returned to the area in 2016, he was overwhelmed by the transformation. Families were living in brick homes with electricity and had access to clean water. Nearly every child attended elementary school. Shrubs and grasses blanketed the hillsides, having returned after the government paid farmers to prevent their animals from grazing. In 1990, about 36% of the global population — and nearly half of people in developing countries — lived on less than $1.25 a day, the World Bank’s definition of extreme poverty at the time. (It’s now $1.90 a day.) In 2000, United Nations member states pledged to cut extreme poverty worldwide — specifically to halve the proportion of people living in extreme poverty, from 1990 levels, by 2015. Also read | More frequent and destructive: Historical records show a surge in hurricanes over the last 150 years Bottom line: The U.N. goal was met. By 2015, the share of the world’s population living in extreme poverty fell to 12% from 36% in 1990, a steep decline in just 2 1/2 decades. During a single generation, more than 1 billion people around the world climbed out of extreme poverty, surpassing the goal. How did it happen? The UN’s vow to cut extreme poverty came with aid commitments from rich countries as well as debt forgiveness, which allowed some nations to put resources toward education or health rather than toward paying debt service on loans to international funders. But those measures were not primarily responsible for the overall rise in incomes. Though poverty has declined everywhere, China and India, the world’s most populous countries, account for a vast majority of the progress. China’s economic growth, spurred by reforms that opened its economy to trade and improved agricultural productivity, as well as foreign direct investment, gave the government the means to reduce poverty. The government provided free elementary education for all children and financed major construction projects to bring electricity and clean water to rural areas. People moved from the countryside to coastal cities, where they worked in factories and sent money home. Government-sponsored programs moved more than 1 million people — some reluctantly — from the drought-stricken desert to newly built villages closer to roads and water. China’s GDP rose an annual average of 9.5% for 40 years, in what the World Bank called “the fastest sustained expansion by a major economy in history.” “When countries see sustained economic growth, you also see declining absolute poverty,” said Charles Kenny, a researcher at the Center for Global Development, a nonprofit think tank. “It’s as close to a universal law as we have.” The most recent World Bank figures show just 0.3% of China’s rural population living under $1.90 a day. Also read | Amid Omicron scare, Google delays mandatory return to office beyond Jan 10 “It’s a great achievement,” Ning Zhu, an economist at the Shanghai Advanced Institute of Finance, said. “Of course, as an economist, we always worry about sustainability.” Much of China’s success has been tied to transferring cash from the state to the private sector, Zhu said, but the coronavirus pandemic and China’s escalating debt may mean it cannot continue to rely on staggering economic growth. China’s story is unique, but poverty has been declining in much of the rest of the world, too. Mexico and Brazil raised living standards by giving money to the poor and requiring only regular health checkups and school attendance for children in return. Dozens of other countries have tried similar programs. Though these initiatives can’t replace sweeping economic growth, they, as well as programs like meals in school and social pensions, can have significant effects: The World Bank estimates that social safety net programs are responsible for 36% of the global reduction in extreme poverty. Americans felt the effects of this kind of spending during the coronavirus pandemic, when the government extended unemployment benefits and sent close to $1 trillion in direct stimulus payments to about 85% of households. This temporary expansion of the social safety net caused poverty to drop to the lowest levels on record in the United States. Isn’t $1.90 a day a very low bar? The figure for extreme poverty is set by the World Bank to track trends among the poorest people in the poorest countries. Above this threshold lie categories of only slightly less dire poverty. Almost half of the world, 3.3 billion people lives on less than $5.50 a day, which is still barely enough to meet basic needs in many countries. In China, despite its progress, some 92 million people living in urban areas still get by on less than that amount. Also read | With Omicron, reinfection is three times more likely: South African health body About 700 million people, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa, continue to live in utter destitution on less than $1.90 a day. The engine of economic growth has yet to rescue them. The pandemic, too, showed how fragile some of the gains can be. UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned that extreme poverty rose last year for the first time in decades as a result of COVID-19, widening inequalities between rich and poor nations. Kenny says he oscillates between elation and despair over the progress of the past few decades. Lifting much of the world from abject poverty has been an unprecedented achievement, he said. And yet, the benefits have been frustratingly uneven. “Both of those things are true,” he said.

Extreme poverty has been sharply cut. What has changed?

Urging international charities to keep offering aid to Afghanistan, new Prime Minister Mullah Mohammad Hassan Akhund pledged that his government will "not interfere" in other countries' internal affairs. Ever since the Taliban took over Afghanistan, the country has been struggling to battle poverty. There is also a threat of a “looming humanitarian crisis” in the country. Afghanistan had already been facing chronic poverty and drought but the situation has deteriorated since the Taliban seized power.

In his first address to the nation since the Taliban took over, Hassan said,&nbsp;"We assure all the countries that we will not interfere in their internal affairs and we want to have good economic relations with them."

He added, "We are drowned in our problems and we are trying to get the strength to bring our people out of miseries and hardships with God's help."

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/south-asia/kabul-residents-worried-about-crashing-economy-as-winter-approaches-427414">Also read |&nbsp;Kabul residents worried about crashing economy as winter approaches</a>

In September, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said that its engagement with Afghanistan will remain suspended until there is clarity&nbsp;on the recognition of the government led by the Taliban.

"We ask all the international charity organisations to not withhold their aid and to help our exhausted nation... so that the problems of the people could be solved," Hassan said in his speech.

During a news conference, IMF spokesperson Gerry Rice told reporters, "Our engagement with Afghanistan has been suspended until there is clarity within the international community on the recognition of the government".

Many Afghans have been selling possessions to buy food as the Taliban is unable to pay wages to civil servants. Also, the urban communities are facing food insecurity similar to rural areas.&nbsp;

UNHCR spokesperson Babar Baloch has said that around 9 million Afghans are "just one step away from starvation." He further added that 700,000 people, mostly women and children, have been displaced this year alone.

(With inputs from agencies)

Urging international charities to keep offering aid to Afghanistan, new Prime Minister Mullah Mohammad Hassan Akhund pledged that his government will "not interfere" in other countries' internal affairs.

Urging international charities to keep offering aid to Afghanistan, new Prime Minister Mullah Mohammad Hassan Akhund pledged that his government will "not interfere" in other countries' internal affairs. Ever since the Taliban took over Afghanistan, the country has been struggling to battle poverty. There is also a threat of a “looming humanitarian crisis” in the country. Afghanistan had already been facing chronic poverty and drought but the situation has deteriorated since the Taliban seized power. In his first address to the nation since the Taliban took over, Hassan said, "We assure all the countries that we will not interfere in their internal affairs and we want to have good economic relations with them." He added, "We are drowned in our problems and we are trying to get the strength to bring our people out of miseries and hardships with God's help." Also read | Kabul residents worried about crashing economy as winter approaches In September, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said that its engagement with Afghanistan will remain suspended until there is clarity on the recognition of the government led by the Taliban. "We ask all the international charity organisations to not withhold their aid and to help our exhausted nation... so that the problems of the people could be solved," Hassan said in his speech. During a news conference, IMF spokesperson Gerry Rice told reporters, "Our engagement with Afghanistan has been suspended until there is clarity within the international community on the recognition of the government". Many Afghans have been selling possessions to buy food as the Taliban is unable to pay wages to civil servants. Also, the urban communities are facing food insecurity similar to rural areas. UNHCR spokesperson Babar Baloch has said that around 9 million Afghans are "just one step away from starvation." He further added that 700,000 people, mostly women and children, have been displaced this year alone. (With inputs from agencies)

Afghanistan's PM urges charities to keep offering aid as nation battles poverty

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi urged the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) to resume financing support to Afghanistan for reconstruction.

Ever since the Taliban took over Afghanistan in August, the country has been struggling with poverty and a humanitarian crisis.

Various financial institutions suspended their engagement with the country until there was clarity within the international community on the recognition of the government led by the Taliban.

Currently, banks are running out of money, civil servants have not been paid and food prices have surged.&nbsp;

The IMF said that Afghanistan's economy was set to contract up to 30 per cent this year. "Afghanistan is in need of revival on all fronts, and development is the top priority," said Wang.

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/south-asia/imf-suspends-its-engagement-with-afghanistan-413682">Also read |&nbsp;IMF suspends its engagement with Afghanistan</a>

During the call, he urged the US and other Western countries to lift unilateral sanctions on Afghanistan.&nbsp;He also asked the World Health Organization to provide more vaccines and medical supplies to help Afghanistan fight COVID-19.

China has said it will send $30 million worth of emergency humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan. "My overall impression is that the Taliban is eager to have dialogue and cooperation with the outside and that they are serious about this," Wang said.

Earlier, IMF had said it was deeply concerned about the economic conditions in Afghanistan as it urged the international community to take urgent steps to stall a “looming humanitarian crisis” in the country.

During a news conference, IMF spokesperson Gerry Rice told reporters, "Our engagement with Afghanistan has been suspended until there is clarity within the international community on the recognition of the government".

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi urged the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) to resume financing support to Afghanistan for reconstruction. Ever since the Taliban took over Afghanistan in August, the country has been struggling with poverty and a humanitarian crisis.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi urged the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) to resume financing support to Afghanistan for reconstruction. Ever since the Taliban took over Afghanistan in August, the country has been struggling with poverty and a humanitarian crisis. Various financial institutions suspended their engagement with the country until there was clarity within the international community on the recognition of the government led by the Taliban. Currently, banks are running out of money, civil servants have not been paid and food prices have surged. The IMF said that Afghanistan's economy was set to contract up to 30 per cent this year. "Afghanistan is in need of revival on all fronts, and development is the top priority," said Wang. Also read | IMF suspends its engagement with Afghanistan During the call, he urged the US and other Western countries to lift unilateral sanctions on Afghanistan. He also asked the World Health Organization to provide more vaccines and medical supplies to help Afghanistan fight COVID-19. China has said it will send $30 million worth of emergency humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan. "My overall impression is that the Taliban is eager to have dialogue and cooperation with the outside and that they are serious about this," Wang said. Earlier, IMF had said it was deeply concerned about the economic conditions in Afghanistan as it urged the international community to take urgent steps to stall a “looming humanitarian crisis” in the country. During a news conference, IMF spokesperson Gerry Rice told reporters, "Our engagement with Afghanistan has been suspended until there is clarity within the international community on the recognition of the government".

China urges IMF to help Afghanistan amid rising poverty

Since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan, the country has been struggling to battle poverty. Amid concerns of rising poverty and starvation, various aid agencies distributed food, blankets and cash to nearly 130 displaced families in Kabul.&nbsp;

UNHCR spokesperson Babar Baloch said that around 9 million Afghans are "just one step away from starvation." He further added that 700,000 people, mostly women and children, have been displaced this year alone.

The distribution was overseen by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the World Food Programme (WFP) and the Danish aid agency DACAAR.

"It's a story of hunger, of conflict, of poverty and now winter is coming as well. Afghans need help desperately and quickly," said Baloch.

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/south-asia/work-hard-taliban-to-offer-wheat-in-exchange-of-work-to-reduce-poverty-and-starvation-423598">Also read |&nbsp;'Work hard': Taliban to offer wheat in exchange of work to reduce poverty and starvation</a>

Meanwhile, UN special envoy Deborah Lyons has asked world leaders to come together and help Afghanistan from falling into extreme poverty as the UN warned that Afghanistan is on the brink of 'universal poverty'.

Lyons has warned that Afghanistan’s economy and culture are on the brink of total collapse of the country and has also said that this can lead to the spread of Islamic State to the neighbouring countries.

To battle growing poverty, the Taliban has also launched a programme in which they will exchange wheat for labour. "This is an important step for fighting unemployment," Zabihullah Mujahid said.&nbsp;

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/south-asia/afghan-girls-learn-code-underground-to-bypass-taliban-curbs-424641">Also read |&nbsp;Afghan girls learn, code 'underground' to bypass Taliban curbs</a>

Under the new scheme, nearly 40,000 men will be employed in Kabul and thousands of more people around the country. The food-for-work scheme will pay labourers in form of wheat, rather than cash.

The Taliban government is aiming to distribute 11,600 tons of wheat in Kabul, and nearly 55,000 tons in cities such as Herat, Jalalabad, Kandahar, Mazar-i-Sharif and Pol-i-Khomri, and a few more areas.&nbsp;

Since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan, the country has been struggling to battle poverty. Amid concerns of rising poverty and starvation, various aid agencies distributed food, blankets and cash to nearly 130 displaced families in Kabul.

Since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan, the country has been struggling to battle poverty. Amid concerns of rising poverty and starvation, various aid agencies distributed food, blankets and cash to nearly 130 displaced families in Kabul. UNHCR spokesperson Babar Baloch said that around 9 million Afghans are "just one step away from starvation." He further added that 700,000 people, mostly women and children, have been displaced this year alone. The distribution was overseen by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the World Food Programme (WFP) and the Danish aid agency DACAAR. "It's a story of hunger, of conflict, of poverty and now winter is coming as well. Afghans need help desperately and quickly," said Baloch. Also read | 'Work hard': Taliban to offer wheat in exchange of work to reduce poverty and starvation Meanwhile, UN special envoy Deborah Lyons has asked world leaders to come together and help Afghanistan from falling into extreme poverty as the UN warned that Afghanistan is on the brink of 'universal poverty'. Lyons has warned that Afghanistan’s economy and culture are on the brink of total collapse of the country and has also said that this can lead to the spread of Islamic State to the neighbouring countries. To battle growing poverty, the Taliban has also launched a programme in which they will exchange wheat for labour. "This is an important step for fighting unemployment," Zabihullah Mujahid said. Also read | Afghan girls learn, code 'underground' to bypass Taliban curbs Under the new scheme, nearly 40,000 men will be employed in Kabul and thousands of more people around the country. The food-for-work scheme will pay labourers in form of wheat, rather than cash. The Taliban government is aiming to distribute 11,600 tons of wheat in Kabul, and nearly 55,000 tons in cities such as Herat, Jalalabad, Kandahar, Mazar-i-Sharif and Pol-i-Khomri, and a few more areas.

Nearly 130 displaced families receive aid amid rising poverty in Afghanistan

In order to survive, parents of an Afghan baby girl were forced to sell her for $500 to feed the rest of her starving siblings. &nbsp;&nbsp;

The daughter was sold to a stranger, 'who wants her to marry his son' as the country is facing a total collapse. &nbsp;

This is not an isolated incident as several starving Afghan families are selling their children in a desperate bid for money. &nbsp;&nbsp;

Also Read:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/south-asia/chinese-fm-wang-yi-meets-talibans-acting-deputy-pm-baradar-in-doha-424134" hreflang="en">Chinese FM Wang Yi meets Taliban's acting Deputy PM Baradar in Doha</a>

The Taliban’s takeover has put an end to the foreign funds that propped up the fragile economy. It has been left on the brink of a collapse. &nbsp;

BBC reporter Yogita Limaye travelled to a village outside Heart and spoke to a mother, who sold her infant daughter for $500 to pay for food for her other children. &nbsp;&nbsp;

The buyer, who was an unnamed man, claimed he wanted to raise the girl to marry his son, but there is no guarantee of his intentions. &nbsp;&nbsp;

Also Read:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/south-asia/afghanistan-facing-food-crisis-warns-un-423948" hreflang="en">Afghanistan facing food crisis, warns UN</a>

The man paid $250 upfront, enough to feed the family for a few months, and will pay the rest, when he returns to collect the baby 'once she can walk'. &nbsp;&nbsp;

"My other children were dying of hunger so we had to sell my daughter. I am sad.&nbsp;She is my child. I wish I didn't have to sell my daughter," the mother told the BBC. &nbsp;&nbsp;

(With inputs from agencies)&nbsp;

In order to survive, parents of an Afghan baby girl were forced to sell her for $500 to feed the rest of her starving siblings. The daughter was sold to a stranger, 'who wants her to marry his son' as the country is facing a total collapse.

In order to survive, parents of an Afghan baby girl were forced to sell her for $500 to feed the rest of her starving siblings. The daughter was sold to a stranger, 'who wants her to marry his son' as the country is facing a total collapse. This is not an isolated incident as several starving Afghan families are selling their children in a desperate bid for money. Also Read: Chinese FM Wang Yi meets Taliban's acting Deputy PM Baradar in Doha The Taliban’s takeover has put an end to the foreign funds that propped up the fragile economy. It has been left on the brink of a collapse. BBC reporter Yogita Limaye travelled to a village outside Heart and spoke to a mother, who sold her infant daughter for $500 to pay for food for her other children. The buyer, who was an unnamed man, claimed he wanted to raise the girl to marry his son, but there is no guarantee of his intentions. Also Read: Afghanistan facing food crisis, warns UN The man paid $250 upfront, enough to feed the family for a few months, and will pay the rest, when he returns to collect the baby 'once she can walk'. "My other children were dying of hunger so we had to sell my daughter. I am sad. She is my child. I wish I didn't have to sell my daughter," the mother told the BBC. (With inputs from agencies)

Starving family sells baby girl for $500 in Afghanistan to make ends meet

On a busy street of Taimani, in the northwest of Kabul, one could see plenty of fruit sellers lined up along the streets. Just as one drives up along this street, a fruit seller, who wasn’t in this business until two&nbsp;weeks ago, stands out.

Nazar Mohammed was an assistant professor at the Kabul university at the Faculty of Fine Arts. He graduated from the Kazakh College of Fine Arts in Kazakhstan.

Afghanistan’s dire economic condition has forced him to sell bananas on the streets.&nbsp;Nazar, a father of two, lives in a joint family of 12. He is not accustomed to selling bananas, but he believes that this time won’t last forever.

Nazar is among the many teachers who continue to remain unpaid in Afghanistan for months now.

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/south-asia/completely-lost-for-some-afghans-returning-home-is-as-difficult-as-fleeing-423678">‘Completely lost’: For some Afghans, returning home is as difficult as fleeing</a>

The story of Nazar is one among many who scramble to make a living in the war-torn Afghanistan region, whose economy has taken a massive hit following Taliban takeover of Kabul and the resultant ouster of the civilian government.

Only five per cent of Afghan households reported having “enough food to eat”, according to a recent World Food Programme survey.

In Kabul’s Bibi Mahro area, it's 9 am as Ahsan, who used to be a teaching assistant at a private university, leaves his house. However, instead of going to a teaching institute, as his profession warrants, he goes to a busy street of the city centre called Sheher e Nau, where he is now washing cars to run his family.

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/south-asia/work-hard-taliban-to-offer-wheat-in-exchange-of-work-to-reduce-poverty-and-starvation-423598">'Work hard': Taliban to offer wheat in exchange of work to reduce poverty and starvation</a>

Ahsan says it’s difficult for him to make a living, he now earns 10 times lesser than what he used to. Ahsan believes that under the Taliban rule, there might be peace, but there is no place for professionals.

Watch |&nbsp;South Asia Diary: Afghanistan's heroin epidemic

<div class="videoWrapper trancodeVideo"><iframe allowfullscreen="" autoplay="1" class="includeVideo" frameborder="0" height="350" src="https://www.wionews.com/videos/south-asia-diary-afghanistans-heroin-epidemic-423980/embed" style="width:100%;max-width:560px;" width="560"></iframe></div>

In August, the Taliban overthrew the US-backed regime and declared an interim government, vowing to restore stability.

But the Taliban still face a range of international sanctions and a campaign of bloody attacks by the Daesh (ISIS) terrorist group – while climate change has made Afghanistan’s droughts more frequent and intense.

By early next year, it is projected that 97 per cent of the population in Afghanistan will be below the poverty line.

With the Taliban continuously insisting and requesting skilled professionals to stay in the country, as the nation continues to face an acute shortage of cash and other essentials, the treatment rendered out to educators would need more than just statements to hold them back as they strive to earn with dignity and hard work.

On a busy street of Taimani, in the northwest of Kabul, one could see plenty of fruit sellers lined up along the streets. Just as one drives up along this street, a fruit seller, who wasn’t in this business until two weeks ago, stands out.

On a busy street of Taimani, in the northwest of Kabul, one could see plenty of fruit sellers lined up along the streets. Just as one drives up along this street, a fruit seller, who wasn’t in this business until two weeks ago, stands out. Nazar Mohammed was an assistant professor at the Kabul university at the Faculty of Fine Arts. He graduated from the Kazakh College of Fine Arts in Kazakhstan. Afghanistan’s dire economic condition has forced him to sell bananas on the streets. Nazar, a father of two, lives in a joint family of 12. He is not accustomed to selling bananas, but he believes that this time won’t last forever. Nazar is among the many teachers who continue to remain unpaid in Afghanistan for months now. Also read | ‘Completely lost’: For some Afghans, returning home is as difficult as fleeing The story of Nazar is one among many who scramble to make a living in the war-torn Afghanistan region, whose economy has taken a massive hit following Taliban takeover of Kabul and the resultant ouster of the civilian government. Only five per cent of Afghan households reported having “enough food to eat”, according to a recent World Food Programme survey. In Kabul’s Bibi Mahro area, it's 9 am as Ahsan, who used to be a teaching assistant at a private university, leaves his house. However, instead of going to a teaching institute, as his profession warrants, he goes to a busy street of the city centre called Sheher e Nau, where he is now washing cars to run his family. Also read | 'Work hard': Taliban to offer wheat in exchange of work to reduce poverty and starvation Ahsan says it’s difficult for him to make a living, he now earns 10 times lesser than what he used to. Ahsan believes that under the Taliban rule, there might be peace, but there is no place for professionals. Watch | South Asia Diary: Afghanistan's heroin epidemic In August, the Taliban overthrew the US-backed regime and declared an interim government, vowing to restore stability. But the Taliban still face a range of international sanctions and a campaign of bloody attacks by the Daesh (ISIS) terrorist group – while climate change has made Afghanistan’s droughts more frequent and intense. By early next year, it is projected that 97 per cent of the population in Afghanistan will be below the poverty line. With the Taliban continuously insisting and requesting skilled professionals to stay in the country, as the nation continues to face an acute shortage of cash and other essentials, the treatment rendered out to educators would need more than just statements to hold them back as they strive to earn with dignity and hard work.

From professor to fruit seller : a life with dignity in Afghanistan

Some can afford space travel, but for some, managing the one-time meal is rocket science. A harsh reality of the world, which is technologically so advanced that it can achieve anything possible, but the widening of the gap between the rich and poor just can not be ignored.

Some can afford space travel, but for some, managing the one-time meal is rocket science. A harsh reality of the world, which is technologically so advanced that it can achieve anything possible, but the widening of the gap between the rich and poor just can not be ignored. The world made remarkable progress to end persistent poverty in recent years, however, the unprecedented coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic reversed decades of progress to a large extent in the fight against poverty and extreme poverty globally. According to the World Bank, the COVID-19 crisis has pushed between 88 and 115 million people into poverty, with the majority of the new extreme poor being found in South Asian and Sub-Saharan countries. It is important to note that the poverty rates in such regions are already high. ALSO READ | Why is India poised to become the next superpower? October 17 is observed as the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty as it provides an opportunity to analyse the efforts made to eliminate poverty and acknowledge the struggle of people living in poverty. It is a day to make sure that the concerns of those people living in extreme poverty are heard and the world is progressing together to build a sustainable future, with an aim to eradicate discrimination and poverty. World leaders also must ensure that everyone must fully exercise their human rights. Impact of COVID-19 on efforts to eradicate poverty: The World Bank report also mentioned that in 2021, the number of people being pushed into poverty is expected to have risen to between 143 and 163 million, joining the ranks of the 1.3 billion people who are already living in multidimensional and persistent poverty. These "new poor" is an added challenge to the countries around the world and their efforts to eradicate poverty as the already-existing issues aggravated during the global pandemic. However, as the world embarks on the post-Covid recovery, it is essential to move forward with better plans and sustainable development goals, instead of finding ways to get back to how it was before the pandemic because we certainly do not want to go back to a system with structural disadvantages and inequalities. Progress made by India: According to International Monetary Fund (IMF), at the growth rate of 11.5%, India was going to be the fastest-growing economy in 2021. The growth is a clear indication that the poverty rate in the country is on the decline, which is remarkable for a country aiming to become the next superpower. As per the Brookings report, India is no longer the country with the most extreme poverty as in the global poverty ranking, India is sliding down. The real-time data from the World Poverty Clock, 6 per cent or 86,799,498 (86.8 million) of the Indian population are living in extreme poverty and 30 Indians are escaping extreme poverty every minute. The Global MPI Reports 2019 and 2020 states that 21.9 per cent of the population was poor in the country. ALSO READ | Status of women and state of feminism in China Illiteracy, unemployment, famines and malnutrition are some of the root causes of poverty in India, however, the Indian government is making efforts including spending on rural welfare schemes, etc and the 1991 economic reforms is a catalyst in India's emergence as a success story in globalisation that goes hand in hand with meeting infrastructural needs of its own people. The government is focused on alleviating the poverty of Indian households with schemes like The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act 2005 (MNREGA), National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM), Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana-Gramin (PMAY-G), Public Distribution System (PDS), Housing for All, the Atal Mission for Urban Rejuvenation and Transformation (AMRUT), Smart Cities Mission, Digital India, Jan Dhan Yojana and Make in India. The target of the government is to eradicate extreme poverty for all people everywhere by 2030.

As COVID-19 creates 'new poor', here's how India is progressing to eradicate extreme poverty

After the withdrawal of US troops US, Afghanistan continues facing catastrophic humanitarian situation. To deal with this situation UN has granted $1 Billion as an humanitarian aid. Watch this video to know more details.

UNHCR warns of a mass exodus in Afghanistan

Since Taliban took control of Afghanistan heartbreaking images, videos and stories have been coming in from the country. Now, UN has warned that that Afghanistan is on the brink of 'universal poverty'.

UN special envoy Deborah Lyons has asked world leaders to come together and help Afghanistan from falling into extreme poverty.

Lyons has warned that Afghanistan’s economy and culture are on the brink of total collapse of the country, and has also said that this can lead to spread of Islamic State to the neighbouring countries.

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/videos/south-asia-diary-afghan-refugees-rebuild-their-lives-412083">WATCH |</a>

<div class="videoWrapper trancodeVideo"><iframe allowfullscreen="" autoplay="1" class="includeVideo" frameborder="0" height="350" src="https://www.wionews.com/videos/south-asia-diary-afghan-refugees-rebuild-their-lives-412083/embed" style="width:100%;max-width:560px;" width="560"></iframe></div>

"The economy must be allowed to breathe for a few more months, giving the Taliban a chance to demonstrate flexibility and a genuine will to do things differently this time, notably from a human rights, gender, and counter-terrorism perspective," Lyons said.

As predicted, humanitarian crisis is worsening in the country, leading to an impending danger for women and minority groups, in addition to other locals. However, there is another "looming crisis" that is being caused by the suspension of funds that used to come in from international groups and other countries. The freezing of billions of dollars in Afghan assets can cause "a severe economic downturn that could throw many more millions into poverty and hunger".

The ongoing crisis will set the country back for years and can also call departure of refugees.

UN envoy has urged the international groups and world leaders to provide humanitarian relief "on a "large scale"&nbsp;to prevent "a total breakdown of the economy and social order".

Since Taliban took control of Afghanistan heartbreaking images, videos and stories have been coming in from the country. Now, UN has warned that that Afghanistan is on the brink of 'universal poverty'.

Since Taliban took control of Afghanistan heartbreaking images, videos and stories have been coming in from the country. Now, UN has warned that that Afghanistan is on the brink of 'universal poverty'. UN special envoy Deborah Lyons has asked world leaders to come together and help Afghanistan from falling into extreme poverty. Lyons has warned that Afghanistan’s economy and culture are on the brink of total collapse of the country, and has also said that this can lead to spread of Islamic State to the neighbouring countries. WATCH | "The economy must be allowed to breathe for a few more months, giving the Taliban a chance to demonstrate flexibility and a genuine will to do things differently this time, notably from a human rights, gender, and counter-terrorism perspective," Lyons said. As predicted, humanitarian crisis is worsening in the country, leading to an impending danger for women and minority groups, in addition to other locals. However, there is another "looming crisis" that is being caused by the suspension of funds that used to come in from international groups and other countries. The freezing of billions of dollars in Afghan assets can cause "a severe economic downturn that could throw many more millions into poverty and hunger". The ongoing crisis will set the country back for years and can also call departure of refugees. UN envoy has urged the international groups and world leaders to provide humanitarian relief "on a "large scale" to prevent "a total breakdown of the economy and social order".

Afghanistan on brink of complete economy fall and extreme poverty: UN Envoy

The first cases of Delta variant of Covid-19 have been recorded in the impoverished Sahel state of Niger, which until now has been relatively spared in the pandemic, the authorities said Friday.

Genetic sequencing found six cases of Delta "among the last cases that occurred in August," Health Minister Illiassou Mainassara told AFP.

All the patients "were treated and recovered," he said, but added "serious forms of Covid-19 are more and more widespread."

The six cases were in the capital Niamey, the ministry's press office said, adding that efforts to track and trace contacts of the patients were underway.

"These are the first cases of Delta variant recorded in Niger, detected among people who were not vaccinated," it said.

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/uk-to-create-new-pet-abduction-offence-after-rise-in-dog-thefts-410500">Also read |&nbsp;UK to create new pet abduction offence after rise in dog thefts</a>

Niger is the poorest country in the world, according to the benchmark of the UN's Human Development Index (HDI).

It has had relatively few cases of coronavirus compared to other countries, with an official tally of 5,867 cases, 199 of them fatal.

So far, "more than four percent" of the country's population of 20 million have been vaccinated, Mainassara said, describing this as a "small upturn" compared with July, when only 0.3 percent had been jabbed.

On Thursday, Niger received 100,800 doses of AstraZeneca from Canada under the international Covax donation scheme for poor income countries.

It has also received 400,000 doses of Sinopharm vaccines from China, 600,000 AstraZeneca and Johnson &amp; Johnson jabs from the United States and 25,000 doses of AstraZeneca from India.

The first cases of Delta variant of Covid-19 have been recorded in the impoverished Sahel state of Niger, which until now has been relatively spared in the pandemic, the authorities said Friday.

The first cases of Delta variant of Covid-19 have been recorded in the impoverished Sahel state of Niger, which until now has been relatively spared in the pandemic, the authorities said Friday. Genetic sequencing found six cases of Delta "among the last cases that occurred in August," Health Minister Illiassou Mainassara told AFP. All the patients "were treated and recovered," he said, but added "serious forms of Covid-19 are more and more widespread." The six cases were in the capital Niamey, the ministry's press office said, adding that efforts to track and trace contacts of the patients were underway. "These are the first cases of Delta variant recorded in Niger, detected among people who were not vaccinated," it said. Also read | UK to create new pet abduction offence after rise in dog thefts Niger is the poorest country in the world, according to the benchmark of the UN's Human Development Index (HDI). It has had relatively few cases of coronavirus compared to other countries, with an official tally of 5,867 cases, 199 of them fatal. So far, "more than four percent" of the country's population of 20 million have been vaccinated, Mainassara said, describing this as a "small upturn" compared with July, when only 0.3 percent had been jabbed. On Thursday, Niger received 100,800 doses of AstraZeneca from Canada under the international Covax donation scheme for poor income countries. It has also received 400,000 doses of Sinopharm vaccines from China, 600,000 AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson jabs from the United States and 25,000 doses of AstraZeneca from India.

First Delta case emerges in poverty-stricken Niger

Boris Johnson is in dire straits as of now as the United Kingdom prime minister is facing another backbench rebellion over the Treasury’s spending this autumn.&nbsp;

A high-profile Tory MP has hit out at 'intolerable' levels of hunger and poverty in his affluent home counties constituency. The MP has also urged ministers to abandon plans to cut universal credit.&nbsp;

A leading Brexiter and MP for Wycombe in Buckinghamshire, Steve Baker has called on ministers to not ignore the cost of living crisis being faced by people 'in real trouble' in constituencies like his, who had been 'tipped over the edge' financially by the coronavirus pandemic.&nbsp;

The pandemic universal credit uplift of £20 a week will be withdrawn as planned at September end, confirmed work and pensions minister Thérèse Coffey.&nbsp;

Although Coffey was earlier uneasy about the end of the uplift and lobbied for its extension to September, the minister seems to have given in as both Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak are opposed to its further extension.&nbsp;

Baker’s comments came after a Sheffield University study identified Wycombe as having the UK’s highest levels of food insecurity. Around 14% residents had reported going hungry in January and February, while one third struggled to afford food.&nbsp;

Boris Johnson is in dire straits as of now as the United Kingdom prime minister is facing another backbench rebellion over the Treasury’s spending this autumn. A high-profile Tory MP has hit out at 'intolerable' levels of hunger and poverty in his affluent home counties constituency.

Boris Johnson is in dire straits as of now as the United Kingdom prime minister is facing another backbench rebellion over the Treasury’s spending this autumn. A high-profile Tory MP has hit out at 'intolerable' levels of hunger and poverty in his affluent home counties constituency. The MP has also urged ministers to abandon plans to cut universal credit. A leading Brexiter and MP for Wycombe in Buckinghamshire, Steve Baker has called on ministers to not ignore the cost of living crisis being faced by people 'in real trouble' in constituencies like his, who had been 'tipped over the edge' financially by the coronavirus pandemic. The pandemic universal credit uplift of £20 a week will be withdrawn as planned at September end, confirmed work and pensions minister Thérèse Coffey. Although Coffey was earlier uneasy about the end of the uplift and lobbied for its extension to September, the minister seems to have given in as both Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak are opposed to its further extension. Baker’s comments came after a Sheffield University study identified Wycombe as having the UK’s highest levels of food insecurity. Around 14% residents had reported going hungry in January and February, while one third struggled to afford food.

UK PM faces ‘backbench’ rebellion over hunger, poverty in home counties 

The huge increase in government aid prompted by the <a href="https://www.wionews.com/topics/coronavirus">coronavirus pandemic</a> will cut poverty nearly in half this year from pre-pandemic levels and push the share of Americans in poverty to the lowest level on record, according to the most comprehensive analysis yet of a vast but temporary expansion of the safety net.

The number of poor Americans is expected to fall by nearly 20 million from 2018 levels, a decline of almost 45 per cent. The country has never cut poverty so much in such a short period of time, and the development is especially notable since it defies economic headwinds — the economy has nearly 7 million fewer jobs than it did before the pandemic.

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/coronavirus-pushes-37-million-people-into-extreme-poverty-gates-foundation-327805">Coronavirus pushes 37 million people into extreme poverty: Gates Foundation</a>

The extraordinary reduction in poverty has come at extraordinary cost, with annual spending on major programs projected to rise fourfold to more than $1 trillion. Yet without further expensive new measures, millions of families may find the escape from poverty brief. The three programs that cut poverty most — stimulus checks, increased food stamps and expanded unemployment insurance — have ended or are scheduled to soon revert to their prepandemic size.

While poverty has fallen most among children, its retreat is remarkably broad: It has dropped among Americans who are white, Black, Latino and Asian, and among Americans of every age group and residents of every state.

“These are really large reductions in poverty — the largest short-term reductions we’ve seen,” said Laura Wheaton of the Urban Institute, who produced the estimate with her colleagues Linda Giannarelli and Ilham Dehry. The institute’s simulation model is widely used by government agencies. The New York Times requested the analysis, which expanded on an earlier projection.

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/new-report-warns-hunger-is-expected-to-rise-in-23-global-hotspots-401915">New report warns hunger is expected to rise in 23 global hotspots</a>

he finding — that poverty plunged amid hard times at huge fiscal costs — comes at a moment of sharp debate about the future of the safety net.

The Biden administration has started making monthly payments to most families with children through an expansion of the child tax credit. Democrats want to make the yearlong effort permanent, which would reduce child poverty on a continuing basis by giving their families an income guarantee.

Progressives said the new numbers vindicated their contention that poverty levels reflected political choices and government programs could reduce economic need.

<img alt="Graphic 1 (Source: The New York Times)" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="5006ff6b-8278-4f58-af83-0180ac52ccdf" src="//cdn.wionews.com/sites/default/files/inline-images/Untitled%20design%20-%202021-07-31T220041.401.jpg" />

Graphic 1 (Source: The New York Times)

“Wow — these are stunning findings,” said Bob Greenstein, a longtime proponent of safety net programs who is now at the Brookings Institution. “The policy response since the start of the pandemic goes beyond anything we’ve ever done, and the antipoverty effect dwarfs what most of us thought was possible.”

Conservatives say that pandemic-era spending is unsustainable and would harm the poor in the long run, arguing that unconditional aid discourages work and marriage. The child tax credit offers families up to $300 per child a month whether or not parents have jobs, which critics call a return to failed welfare policies.

“There’s no doubt that by shoveling trillions of dollars to the poor, you can reduce poverty,” said Robert Rector of the Heritage Foundation. “But that’s not efficient and it’s not good for the poor because it produces social marginalization. You want policies that encourage work and marriage, not undermine it.”

Poverty rates had reached new lows before the pandemic, Rector added, under policies meant to discourage welfare and promote work.

To understand how large the recent aid expansion has been, consider the experience of Kathryn Goodwin, a single mother of five in St. Charles, Missouri, who managed a group of trailer parks before the pandemic eliminated her $33,000 job.

Without the pandemic-era expansions — passed in three rounds under both the Trump and Biden administrations — Goodwin’s job loss would have caused her income to plunge to about $29,000 (in jobless benefits, food stamps and other aid), leaving her officially poor.

<img alt="Graphic 2 (Source: The New York Times)" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="ecf827d3-8ead-4164-8943-d7cb2a3190eb" src="//cdn.wionews.com/sites/default/files/inline-images/Untitled%20design%20-%202021-07-31T220101.346.jpg" />

Graphic 2&nbsp;(Source: The New York Times)

Instead, her income rose above its prepandemic level, though she has not worked for a year. She received about $25,000 in unemployment benefits (about three times what she would have received before the pandemic) and $12,000 in stimulus checks. With increased food stamp benefits and other help, her income grew to $67,000 — almost 30 per cent more than when she had a job.

“Without that help, I literally don’t know how I would have survived,” she said. “We would have been homeless.”

Still, Goodwin, 29, has mixed feelings about large payments with no stipulations.

“In my case, yes, it was very beneficial,” she said. But she said that other people she knew bought big TVs and her former boyfriend bought drugs. “All this free money enabled him to be a worse addict than he already was,” she said. “Why should taxpayers pay for that?”

The Urban Institute’s projections show poverty falling to 7.7 per cent this year from 13.9&nbsp;per cent in 2018. That decline, 45 per cent, is nearly three times the previous three-year record, according to historical estimates by researchers at Columbia University. The projected drop in child poverty, to 5.6 from 14.2 per cent, amounts to a decline of 61 per cent. That exceeds the previous 50 years combined, the Columbia figures show.

In addition to there being nearly 20 million fewer people in poverty, the institute projects about 10 million fewer in “near poverty,” with incomes of 100 to 150&nbsp;per cent of the poverty line. Under the yardstick the Urban Institute used (the government’s Supplemental Poverty Measure), the poverty line for two adults and two children with typical housing costs is about $30,000.

“The decline in ‘near poverty’ is significant because families in that income range, like people in poverty, suffer high rates of food insecurity and other hardships,” said Elaine Waxman, an Urban Institute researcher.

Poverty fell across racial and ethnic groups but most for people who are Black and Latino, meaning the gap with white Americans narrowed. The Rev. Starsky Wilson, the president of the Children’s Defense Fund, credited the racial protests of the past year for prompting lawmakers to act. “It’s no coincidence that the effort at mobilizing resulted in investments that reduced poverty and narrowed disparities,” he said.

<img alt="Graphic 3 (Source: The New York Times)" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="be777110-1106-44a1-b65f-9275d245b258" src="//cdn.wionews.com/sites/default/files/inline-images/Untitled%20design%20-%202021-07-31T220120.026.jpg" />

Graphic 3&nbsp;(Source: The New York Times)

Poverty fell less among Asian Americans, leaving them more likely than Black Americans to be poor. The institute found that was partly because they tended to live in more expensive areas.

Jessica Moore of St. Louis said the expanded aid helped her make a fresh start.

A single mother of three, Moore, 24, lost work as a banquet server at the pandemic’s start but received enough in unemployment insurance and stimulus checks to buy a car and enroll in community college. She is studying to become an emergency medical technician, which promises to raise her earnings 50 per cent.

“When you lose your job, you don’t expect benefits that are more than you were making,” she said. “It was a pure blessing.”

The institute projected spending on core programs would more than double, to about $13,900 per family from $5,700 in 2018. The stimulus checks removed more than 12 million people from poverty. Food stamps ended poverty for nearly 8 million people and unemployment aid for nearly 7 million.

Critics said the aid was poorly devised, noting that many people received more from unemployment benefits than they had earned on the job.

“We spent like we’ve never spent before and we reduced hardship for most people quite dramatically,” said Bruce D. Meyer, an economist at the University of Chicago. “But this came at a very high and unnecessary cost.”

While Democrats and Republicans remain divided over future safety net spending, a bipartisan group of senators agreed Wednesday on about $550 billion in new spending for roads, bridges and physical infrastructure projects, and the Senate advanced the package in an initial vote.

Measuring poverty is contentious, and some conservatives accuse the left of exaggerating the recent poverty reduction to justify more spending. They say the government’s methodology undercounts the benefits people receive and overstates what it takes to meet basic needs. The Urban Institute modified the government’s approach to correct for undercounting, but Wheaton said methodological issues did not change the conclusion that poverty fell since “we are applying a consistent measure to both years.”

If there are biases in the institute’s methodology, they lean in offsetting directions. Using a 2018 baseline may modestly overstate the recent poverty reduction, since poverty was lower when the virus hit. But the study, which was funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, also understated the poverty reduction by omitting several large new programs, including $45 billion in rental aid.

Robert Doar, the president of the conservative American Enterprise Institute, warned that the poverty numbers were being used to attack a successful social compact established a quarter-century ago with the overhaul of the welfare system. Under a new system of time limits and work requirements, payments to poor people without jobs fell, but subsidies for low-wage workers grew. Doar noted that while liberals warned child poverty would grow, by 2019 it had hit a prepandemic low.

“We required work, we rewarded work, and poverty rates were lower than had ever been,” he said. “The Democrats want to ignore all that and just send everybody a check.”

The huge increase in government aid prompted by the coronavirus pandemic will cut poverty nearly in half this year from pre-pandemic levels and push the share of Americans in poverty to the lowest level on record, according to the most comprehensive analysis yet of a vast but temporary expansion of the safety net.

The huge increase in government aid prompted by the coronavirus pandemic will cut poverty nearly in half this year from pre-pandemic levels and push the share of Americans in poverty to the lowest level on record, according to the most comprehensive analysis yet of a vast but temporary expansion of the safety net. The number of poor Americans is expected to fall by nearly 20 million from 2018 levels, a decline of almost 45 per cent. The country has never cut poverty so much in such a short period of time, and the development is especially notable since it defies economic headwinds — the economy has nearly 7 million fewer jobs than it did before the pandemic. Also read | Coronavirus pushes 37 million people into extreme poverty: Gates Foundation The extraordinary reduction in poverty has come at extraordinary cost, with annual spending on major programs projected to rise fourfold to more than $1 trillion. Yet without further expensive new measures, millions of families may find the escape from poverty brief. The three programs that cut poverty most — stimulus checks, increased food stamps and expanded unemployment insurance — have ended or are scheduled to soon revert to their prepandemic size. While poverty has fallen most among children, its retreat is remarkably broad: It has dropped among Americans who are white, Black, Latino and Asian, and among Americans of every age group and residents of every state. “These are really large reductions in poverty — the largest short-term reductions we’ve seen,” said Laura Wheaton of the Urban Institute, who produced the estimate with her colleagues Linda Giannarelli and Ilham Dehry. The institute’s simulation model is widely used by government agencies. The New York Times requested the analysis, which expanded on an earlier projection. Also read | New report warns hunger is expected to rise in 23 global hotspots he finding — that poverty plunged amid hard times at huge fiscal costs — comes at a moment of sharp debate about the future of the safety net. The Biden administration has started making monthly payments to most families with children through an expansion of the child tax credit. Democrats want to make the yearlong effort permanent, which would reduce child poverty on a continuing basis by giving their families an income guarantee. Progressives said the new numbers vindicated their contention that poverty levels reflected political choices and government programs could reduce economic need. Graphic 1 (Source: The New York Times) “Wow — these are stunning findings,” said Bob Greenstein, a longtime proponent of safety net programs who is now at the Brookings Institution. “The policy response since the start of the pandemic goes beyond anything we’ve ever done, and the antipoverty effect dwarfs what most of us thought was possible.” Conservatives say that pandemic-era spending is unsustainable and would harm the poor in the long run, arguing that unconditional aid discourages work and marriage. The child tax credit offers families up to $300 per child a month whether or not parents have jobs, which critics call a return to failed welfare policies. “There’s no doubt that by shoveling trillions of dollars to the poor, you can reduce poverty,” said Robert Rector of the Heritage Foundation. “But that’s not efficient and it’s not good for the poor because it produces social marginalization. You want policies that encourage work and marriage, not undermine it.” Poverty rates had reached new lows before the pandemic, Rector added, under policies meant to discourage welfare and promote work. To understand how large the recent aid expansion has been, consider the experience of Kathryn Goodwin, a single mother of five in St. Charles, Missouri, who managed a group of trailer parks before the pandemic eliminated her $33,000 job. Without the pandemic-era expansions — passed in three rounds under both the Trump and Biden administrations — Goodwin’s job loss would have caused her income to plunge to about $29,000 (in jobless benefits, food stamps and other aid), leaving her officially poor. Graphic 2 (Source: The New York Times) Instead, her income rose above its prepandemic level, though she has not worked for a year. She received about $25,000 in unemployment benefits (about three times what she would have received before the pandemic) and $12,000 in stimulus checks. With increased food stamp benefits and other help, her income grew to $67,000 — almost 30 per cent more than when she had a job. “Without that help, I literally don’t know how I would have survived,” she said. “We would have been homeless.” Still, Goodwin, 29, has mixed feelings about large payments with no stipulations. “In my case, yes, it was very beneficial,” she said. But she said that other people she knew bought big TVs and her former boyfriend bought drugs. “All this free money enabled him to be a worse addict than he already was,” she said. “Why should taxpayers pay for that?” The Urban Institute’s projections show poverty falling to 7.7 per cent this year from 13.9 per cent in 2018. That decline, 45 per cent, is nearly three times the previous three-year record, according to historical estimates by researchers at Columbia University. The projected drop in child poverty, to 5.6 from 14.2 per cent, amounts to a decline of 61 per cent. That exceeds the previous 50 years combined, the Columbia figures show. In addition to there being nearly 20 million fewer people in poverty, the institute projects about 10 million fewer in “near poverty,” with incomes of 100 to 150 per cent of the poverty line. Under the yardstick the Urban Institute used (the government’s Supplemental Poverty Measure), the poverty line for two adults and two children with typical housing costs is about $30,000. “The decline in ‘near poverty’ is significant because families in that income range, like people in poverty, suffer high rates of food insecurity and other hardships,” said Elaine Waxman, an Urban Institute researcher. Poverty fell across racial and ethnic groups but most for people who are Black and Latino, meaning the gap with white Americans narrowed. The Rev. Starsky Wilson, the president of the Children’s Defense Fund, credited the racial protests of the past year for prompting lawmakers to act. “It’s no coincidence that the effort at mobilizing resulted in investments that reduced poverty and narrowed disparities,” he said. Graphic 3 (Source: The New York Times) Poverty fell less among Asian Americans, leaving them more likely than Black Americans to be poor. The institute found that was partly because they tended to live in more expensive areas. Jessica Moore of St. Louis said the expanded aid helped her make a fresh start. A single mother of three, Moore, 24, lost work as a banquet server at the pandemic’s start but received enough in unemployment insurance and stimulus checks to buy a car and enroll in community college. She is studying to become an emergency medical technician, which promises to raise her earnings 50 per cent. “When you lose your job, you don’t expect benefits that are more than you were making,” she said. “It was a pure blessing.” The institute projected spending on core programs would more than double, to about $13,900 per family from $5,700 in 2018. The stimulus checks removed more than 12 million people from poverty. Food stamps ended poverty for nearly 8 million people and unemployment aid for nearly 7 million. Critics said the aid was poorly devised, noting that many people received more from unemployment benefits than they had earned on the job. “We spent like we’ve never spent before and we reduced hardship for most people quite dramatically,” said Bruce D. Meyer, an economist at the University of Chicago. “But this came at a very high and unnecessary cost.” While Democrats and Republicans remain divided over future safety net spending, a bipartisan group of senators agreed Wednesday on about $550 billion in new spending for roads, bridges and physical infrastructure projects, and the Senate advanced the package in an initial vote. Measuring poverty is contentious, and some conservatives accuse the left of exaggerating the recent poverty reduction to justify more spending. They say the government’s methodology undercounts the benefits people receive and overstates what it takes to meet basic needs. The Urban Institute modified the government’s approach to correct for undercounting, but Wheaton said methodological issues did not change the conclusion that poverty fell since “we are applying a consistent measure to both years.” If there are biases in the institute’s methodology, they lean in offsetting directions. Using a 2018 baseline may modestly overstate the recent poverty reduction, since poverty was lower when the virus hit. But the study, which was funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, also understated the poverty reduction by omitting several large new programs, including $45 billion in rental aid. Robert Doar, the president of the conservative American Enterprise Institute, warned that the poverty numbers were being used to attack a successful social compact established a quarter-century ago with the overhaul of the welfare system. Under a new system of time limits and work requirements, payments to poor people without jobs fell, but subsidies for low-wage workers grew. Doar noted that while liberals warned child poverty would grow, by 2019 it had hit a prepandemic low. “We required work, we rewarded work, and poverty rates were lower than had ever been,” he said. “The Democrats want to ignore all that and just send everybody a check.”

Pandemic aid programs spur a record drop in poverty

Acute food insecurity has soared 40% this year as recent food price hikes have exacerbated existing pressures from conflict, climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) said.

Defined as any lack of food that threatens lives, livelihoods or both, acute food insecurity is impacting, or is at high risk of impacting, a record 270 million people this year, the UN agency said.

"High food prices are hunger's new best friend," said WFP Chief Economist Arif Husain.

"We already have conflict, climate and COVID-19 working together. Now food prices have joined the deadly trio," he added.

The WFP said average wheat flour prices in Lebanon have risen 219% year-on-year amid accelerating economic turmoil, while cooking oil prices have soared 440% versus a year ago in war-devastated Syria.

On internationally traded markets, world food prices were up 33.9% year-on-year in June, according to the U.N food agency`s price index, which measures a basket of cereals, oilseeds, dairy products, meat and sugar.

However, they did fall in June versus May, the first such decrease in 12 months.

After declining for several decades, world hunger has been on the rise since 2016.

The WFP, which was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize last year, says around 690 million people or 9 percent of the world`s population go to bed hungry each night.

It is targeting 139 million people for assistance this year, the biggest operation in its history.

Acute food insecurity has soared 40% this year as recent food price hikes have exacerbated existing pressures from conflict, climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) said.

Acute food insecurity has soared 40% this year as recent food price hikes have exacerbated existing pressures from conflict, climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) said. Defined as any lack of food that threatens lives, livelihoods or both, acute food insecurity is impacting, or is at high risk of impacting, a record 270 million people this year, the UN agency said. "High food prices are hunger's new best friend," said WFP Chief Economist Arif Husain. "We already have conflict, climate and COVID-19 working together. Now food prices have joined the deadly trio," he added. The WFP said average wheat flour prices in Lebanon have risen 219% year-on-year amid accelerating economic turmoil, while cooking oil prices have soared 440% versus a year ago in war-devastated Syria. On internationally traded markets, world food prices were up 33.9% year-on-year in June, according to the U.N food agency`s price index, which measures a basket of cereals, oilseeds, dairy products, meat and sugar. However, they did fall in June versus May, the first such decrease in 12 months. After declining for several decades, world hunger has been on the rise since 2016. The WFP, which was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize last year, says around 690 million people or 9 percent of the world`s population go to bed hungry each night. It is targeting 139 million people for assistance this year, the biggest operation in its history.

Surging food prices fuel 40 per cent jump in global hunger: UN

As Uganda shifted to digital identity cards, nearly one-third of the adults in the African country have been excluded from getting proper access to healthcare and social services.

The National Identification and Registration Authority (Nira) had introduced ID cards in 2015. However, a report has revealed that nearly 23 to 33 per cent of the adult population does not have these ID cards till now.

Also read |&nbsp;<a data-ctorig="https://www.wionews.com/world/uganda-detects-first-case-of-covid-variant-first-found-in-india-381772" data-cturl="https://www.google.com/url?client=internal-element-cse&amp;cx=006054055338965708568:09spwrlibei&amp;q=https://www.wionews.com/world/uganda-detects-first-case-of-covid-variant-first-found-in-india-381772&amp;sa=U&amp;ved=2ahUKEwjN1oiEwIrxAhXu8HMBHSE_Dfs4ChAWMAR6BAgCEAI&amp;usg=AOvVaw0_Kkad5LxAl9ozi56F-M8q" dir="ltr" href="https://www.wionews.com/world/uganda-detects-first-case-of-covid-variant-first-found-in-india-381772" target="_blank">Uganda&nbsp;detects first case of Covid variant first found in India</a>

These ID cards are necessary to access government and private healthcare facilities, to claim social benefits, to vote, buy sim cards and even to open bank accounts.

While almost a third of the population does not own cards, some of them who do have these ID cards are unable to use them as they have errors in them.

To rectify these errors, the cost incurred would be 50,000 Ugandan shillings (£10), but more than 40 per cent of the population lives on less than £1.30 per day, which makes it near to impossible for the locals to get the errors rectified.

Through this report, the human rights organisations are urging the Uganda government to remove the requirement of ID cards to gain access to essential services and healthcare.

"Government has to go back to the drawing table and rethink the use of Ndaga Muntu, especially when it comes to tagging it to service delivery, because many people are being left out," said Angella Nabwowe, of the Initiative for Social and Economic Rights, one of the organisations that produced the report.

As Uganda shifted to digital identity cards, nearly one-third of the adults in the African country have been excluded from getting proper access to healthcare and social services.

As Uganda shifted to digital identity cards, nearly one-third of the adults in the African country have been excluded from getting proper access to healthcare and social services. The National Identification and Registration Authority (Nira) had introduced ID cards in 2015. However, a report has revealed that nearly 23 to 33 per cent of the adult population does not have these ID cards till now. Also read | Uganda detects first case of Covid variant first found in India These ID cards are necessary to access government and private healthcare facilities, to claim social benefits, to vote, buy sim cards and even to open bank accounts. While almost a third of the population does not own cards, some of them who do have these ID cards are unable to use them as they have errors in them. To rectify these errors, the cost incurred would be 50,000 Ugandan shillings (£10), but more than 40 per cent of the population lives on less than £1.30 per day, which makes it near to impossible for the locals to get the errors rectified. Through this report, the human rights organisations are urging the Uganda government to remove the requirement of ID cards to gain access to essential services and healthcare. "Government has to go back to the drawing table and rethink the use of Ndaga Muntu, especially when it comes to tagging it to service delivery, because many people are being left out," said Angella Nabwowe, of the Initiative for Social and Economic Rights, one of the organisations that produced the report.

One-third of Uganda's population excluded from healthcare system: Report

From Lyndon B. Johnson to Indira Gandhi to Xi Jinping, defeating poverty has been the ultimate dream of every politician. Many leaders have waged a war on poverty but has it been a mere war of rhetoric? Watch this report by WION's Palki Sharma to find out.

Gravitas: Why politicians love anti-poverty rhetoric

Did China lie about eradicating extreme poverty? Did it change the criteria and definition of poverty in order to claim victory? WION's Palki Sharma brings you the details.

Gravitas: Did China lie about eradicating poverty?

Chinese President Xi said on Thursday a "human miracle" has been achieved with the country lifting "hundreds of millions of people out of poverty" in a speech to the rural community in the country.

Chinese President Xi said on Thursday a "human miracle" has been achieved with the country lifting "hundreds of millions of people out of poverty" in a speech to the rural community in the country. Watch: "The CCP's leadership and China's socialist system are the fundamental guarantees against risks, challenges and difficulties," Xi said in Beijing's Great Hall of the People while asserting that, "No other country can lift hundreds of millions of people out of poverty in such a short time." "A human miracle has been created that will go down in history," Xi added. Xi said China had invested 1.6 trillion yuan in fighting poverty over the past eight years. Chinese authorities have vowed to continue to encourage poverty alleviation policies while releasing the "No. 1 policy document". The Chinese president asserted that the country had achieved the poverty eradication target 10 years ahead of the 2030 deadline set by the UN. According to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, China's extreme poverty rate fell from 66.3 per cent in 1990 to just 0.3 per cent in 2018 ensuring over 60 per cent decrease in global poverty. Xi informed that 98.99 million rural residents have been lifted from poverty in the past eight years with 770 million people from rural areas climbing out of poverty since the 1970s when China started opening up the economy. World Bank country director Martin Raiser had said that "For the vast majority of Chinese, life has dramatically improved in the space of a generation."

President Xi hails China's 'miracle' in tackling poverty

The early weeks of the Biden administration have brought a surge of support, in the White House and across party lines in Congress, for what could be the most ambitious effort in a generation to reduce child poverty.

The plans vary in duration, design and the amount they would add to the federal debt, but they share a new, central premise in the policy debate over how to help the poor: that sending monthly payments through tax credits to parents, even if they do not earn income from work, is the best way to help feed, clothe and house children from low-income families.

One such plan is a cornerstone of the legislative text that House Democrats introduced Monday as part of what will become a sweeping bill to implement President Joe Biden’s proposed $1.9 trillion economic aid package. That text included a monthly benefit of $300 per child for those age 5 and younger — and $250 per child ages 6 to 17 — as a means of making good on Biden’s pledge to increase the value of the child tax credit and help more families, even those with little or no income, reap its benefits.

While that payout would expire after a year, several Democrats and one influential Republican are pushing to permanently increase child benefits, which researchers say could lift the United States into the ranks of wealthy nations like Canada and the United Kingdom, both of which enjoy significantly lower child poverty rates.

The proposal released Monday came at the start of a week of committee hearings that will determine the final details of the Democratic plan to combat the economic and health toll from the coronavirus.

The Democrats called for sending $1,400 direct checks to individuals earning up to $75,000 a year and couples earning up to $150,000, the same threshold as previous rounds of payments. The size of the checks would shrink more rapidly for higher earners than in previous rounds, and no household earning more than $200,000 would be eligible for payments of any size.

The draft legislation also includes a provision, championed by progressive Democrats, that would increase the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2025. The Congressional Budget Office estimated Monday that such an increase would cut the poverty rate by nearly 1%, but reduce employment by 1.4 million jobs. That potential job loss, which the budget office has previously predicted, was immediately cited by conservatives who oppose the provision.

The full draft legislation, which largely mirrors Biden’s proposals and the president is expected to support, also includes billions of dollars to support schools and colleges, small businesses, and renters and homeowners. It expands benefits for the unemployed, dedicates $25 billion in aid to struggling restaurants and provides a financial rescue for certain private-sector pension plans that cover 1 million workers and retirees.

The congressional Joint Committee on Taxation estimated Monday that Biden’s temporary expansion of the child tax credit would cost $110 billion and that the direct payments to individuals would cost $422 billion. The committee has not yet prepared a cost estimate of the full legislative proposal.

To help hold down the overall cost, Democrats reduced an extension of unemployment benefits from six months to five, a change that Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., chairman of the Finance Committee, vowed to reverse in the Senate.

Democrats hope to have the entire package signed into law by mid-March to avoid yet another lapse in crucial unemployment benefits. U.S. stocks moved further into record territory Monday in a sign of investor optimism that Congress would soon pass another large spending package.

Optimism has also grown among lawmakers, who have long pushed for aggressive federal action to reduce child poverty, sensing a window from the crisis and an opportunity to work across the aisle.

“The escalation of hardship and uncertainty during the pandemic has renewed the focus on making sure that low-income families with children, in particular, have the resources they need to put food on the table for their children,” said Zachary Parolin, an assistant professor at Bocconi University in Italy and a senior researcher at the Center on Poverty and Social Policy at Columbia University.

Passing any of the plans under debate, he said, “would be one of the most important moments in the development of our social safety net since the development of Social Security.”

Three in 20 Americans under the age of 18 lived below the poverty line at the end of last year, according to the center. The share rises to more than 1 in 5 for Black and Hispanic children, which is more than double the rate for white children. And while Congress has passed several tax credits in recent decades — including a child tax credit created by the 2017 Republican tax overhaul — to help the poor, many do not reach children whose parents are out of work, which includes wide swaths of the Black and Hispanic children living in poverty.

“This was already a policy that was structured in such a way to prevent children who need it the most from getting it,” said Sophie Collyer, the research director at the Columbia poverty center.

Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, proposed last week to create monthly payments up to $350 per child, even larger than the temporary ones in Biden’s proposal. They would be sent from the Social Security Administration to families from the very poor to near the top of the income spectrum.

To avoid adding to the deficit, Romney’s plan would eliminate or streamline other safety net programs and eliminate the deduction for state and local taxes, which largely benefits high earners in high-tax states like New Jersey and New York. The moderate Niskanen Center estimates the net effect of the plan would be to cut the child poverty rate by a third.

Congressional Democrats in both chambers, even before they vote to approve Biden’s temporary rescue plan, are already working to write a large expansion of child benefits permanently into the tax code.

“We build the architecture for the future,” said Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, the chairwoman of the House Appropriations Committee, who introduced legislation with Reps. Suzan DelBene of Washington and Ritchie Torres of New York on Monday that would establish a permanent expansion of the child tax credit and make it fully refundable. “That has been underlying so that we’re not just throwing money at a situation, but we are looking at enduring, transformational change.”

Anti-poverty groups and a growing group in Congress have pushed for years to send more federal aid to parents. But they have run into long-standing concerns over “disincentives to work,” which conservative groups have lodged against their proposals. Those groups say that sending money not conditioned on earning income outside the home would make it easier for low-income parents to quit their jobs and rely solely on government support.

“At the very least, policies shouldn’t create disincentives to work, produce long-term economic consequences, nor enable dependency on the benefit,” said Veronique de Rugy, an economist at the libertarian Mercatus Center at George Mason University. Romney’s plan, she said, “would do that by transporting us to a pre-1996-welfare-reform world where the benefit is available no matter the marital or employment status of the parents.”

Biden campaigned on an expansion of child benefits to combat poverty. He and his cabinet have repeatedly invoked the plight of children in stressing the need for his economic aid package.

“We have 24 million adults and 12 million children that are going hungry every day,” Janet L. Yellen, the Treasury secretary, told CNN on Sunday. “And we need to provide them with food. We have people suffering, particularly low-wage workers and minorities, and through absolutely no fault of their own. We have to get them to the other side and make sure this doesn’t take a permanent toll on their lives.”

Democrats are poised to maneuver Biden’s rescue plan through a complex budget process to bypass the need for Republican votes in the Senate. As a result, any provision changing the child benefits will have to adhere to a series of parliamentary parameters. It is unclear if a permanent expansion of the benefit would prevail under the strict rules, as well as adhering to the overall price tag of the package outlined in a resolution that passed both chambers this month.

While longtime champions of a permanent expansion have endorsed Biden’s plans for a one-year expansion of the credit, they are continuing to make the change permanent. DeLauro, who has fought for the expansion for nearly two decades, personally lobbied the White House to ensure Biden included the expansion of the tax credit and is continuing to push for its permanence, while Romney is continuing to champion his proposal among moderate Republicans.

Such efforts could play out in the debate later this year over Biden’s next big economic proposal, which is expected to spend trillions on infrastructure, clean energy, education, health care and other liberal priorities, offset by tax increases on high earners and corporations.

Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., has been mounting his own push for a permanent expansion, including making a case with Yellen when she joined a recent Democratic caucus call and discussing the issue privately with a number of his colleagues, including Sen. Bernie Sanders, the Vermont independent in charge of the Senate Budget Committee, according to two people familiar with the conversations.

Booker, along with Rep. Ayanna S. Pressley, D-Mass., has also pushed Democratic leaders to move on a so-called baby bonds proposal, which would create a federally funded savings account for each U.S. child.

The early weeks of the Biden administration have brought a surge of support, in the White House and across party lines in Congress, for what could be the most ambitious effort in a generation to reduce child poverty.

The early weeks of the Biden administration have brought a surge of support, in the White House and across party lines in Congress, for what could be the most ambitious effort in a generation to reduce child poverty. The plans vary in duration, design and the amount they would add to the federal debt, but they share a new, central premise in the policy debate over how to help the poor: that sending monthly payments through tax credits to parents, even if they do not earn income from work, is the best way to help feed, clothe and house children from low-income families. One such plan is a cornerstone of the legislative text that House Democrats introduced Monday as part of what will become a sweeping bill to implement President Joe Biden’s proposed $1.9 trillion economic aid package. That text included a monthly benefit of $300 per child for those age 5 and younger — and $250 per child ages 6 to 17 — as a means of making good on Biden’s pledge to increase the value of the child tax credit and help more families, even those with little or no income, reap its benefits. While that payout would expire after a year, several Democrats and one influential Republican are pushing to permanently increase child benefits, which researchers say could lift the United States into the ranks of wealthy nations like Canada and the United Kingdom, both of which enjoy significantly lower child poverty rates. The proposal released Monday came at the start of a week of committee hearings that will determine the final details of the Democratic plan to combat the economic and health toll from the coronavirus. The Democrats called for sending $1,400 direct checks to individuals earning up to $75,000 a year and couples earning up to $150,000, the same threshold as previous rounds of payments. The size of the checks would shrink more rapidly for higher earners than in previous rounds, and no household earning more than $200,000 would be eligible for payments of any size. The draft legislation also includes a provision, championed by progressive Democrats, that would increase the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2025. The Congressional Budget Office estimated Monday that such an increase would cut the poverty rate by nearly 1%, but reduce employment by 1.4 million jobs. That potential job loss, which the budget office has previously predicted, was immediately cited by conservatives who oppose the provision. The full draft legislation, which largely mirrors Biden’s proposals and the president is expected to support, also includes billions of dollars to support schools and colleges, small businesses, and renters and homeowners. It expands benefits for the unemployed, dedicates $25 billion in aid to struggling restaurants and provides a financial rescue for certain private-sector pension plans that cover 1 million workers and retirees. The congressional Joint Committee on Taxation estimated Monday that Biden’s temporary expansion of the child tax credit would cost $110 billion and that the direct payments to individuals would cost $422 billion. The committee has not yet prepared a cost estimate of the full legislative proposal. To help hold down the overall cost, Democrats reduced an extension of unemployment benefits from six months to five, a change that Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., chairman of the Finance Committee, vowed to reverse in the Senate. Democrats hope to have the entire package signed into law by mid-March to avoid yet another lapse in crucial unemployment benefits. U.S. stocks moved further into record territory Monday in a sign of investor optimism that Congress would soon pass another large spending package. Optimism has also grown among lawmakers, who have long pushed for aggressive federal action to reduce child poverty, sensing a window from the crisis and an opportunity to work across the aisle. “The escalation of hardship and uncertainty during the pandemic has renewed the focus on making sure that low-income families with children, in particular, have the resources they need to put food on the table for their children,” said Zachary Parolin, an assistant professor at Bocconi University in Italy and a senior researcher at the Center on Poverty and Social Policy at Columbia University. Passing any of the plans under debate, he said, “would be one of the most important moments in the development of our social safety net since the development of Social Security.” Three in 20 Americans under the age of 18 lived below the poverty line at the end of last year, according to the center. The share rises to more than 1 in 5 for Black and Hispanic children, which is more than double the rate for white children. And while Congress has passed several tax credits in recent decades — including a child tax credit created by the 2017 Republican tax overhaul — to help the poor, many do not reach children whose parents are out of work, which includes wide swaths of the Black and Hispanic children living in poverty. “This was already a policy that was structured in such a way to prevent children who need it the most from getting it,” said Sophie Collyer, the research director at the Columbia poverty center. Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, proposed last week to create monthly payments up to $350 per child, even larger than the temporary ones in Biden’s proposal. They would be sent from the Social Security Administration to families from the very poor to near the top of the income spectrum. To avoid adding to the deficit, Romney’s plan would eliminate or streamline other safety net programs and eliminate the deduction for state and local taxes, which largely benefits high earners in high-tax states like New Jersey and New York. The moderate Niskanen Center estimates the net effect of the plan would be to cut the child poverty rate by a third. Congressional Democrats in both chambers, even before they vote to approve Biden’s temporary rescue plan, are already working to write a large expansion of child benefits permanently into the tax code. “We build the architecture for the future,” said Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, the chairwoman of the House Appropriations Committee, who introduced legislation with Reps. Suzan DelBene of Washington and Ritchie Torres of New York on Monday that would establish a permanent expansion of the child tax credit and make it fully refundable. “That has been underlying so that we’re not just throwing money at a situation, but we are looking at enduring, transformational change.” Anti-poverty groups and a growing group in Congress have pushed for years to send more federal aid to parents. But they have run into long-standing concerns over “disincentives to work,” which conservative groups have lodged against their proposals. Those groups say that sending money not conditioned on earning income outside the home would make it easier for low-income parents to quit their jobs and rely solely on government support. “At the very least, policies shouldn’t create disincentives to work, produce long-term economic consequences, nor enable dependency on the benefit,” said Veronique de Rugy, an economist at the libertarian Mercatus Center at George Mason University. Romney’s plan, she said, “would do that by transporting us to a pre-1996-welfare-reform world where the benefit is available no matter the marital or employment status of the parents.” Biden campaigned on an expansion of child benefits to combat poverty. He and his cabinet have repeatedly invoked the plight of children in stressing the need for his economic aid package. “We have 24 million adults and 12 million children that are going hungry every day,” Janet L. Yellen, the Treasury secretary, told CNN on Sunday. “And we need to provide them with food. We have people suffering, particularly low-wage workers and minorities, and through absolutely no fault of their own. We have to get them to the other side and make sure this doesn’t take a permanent toll on their lives.” Democrats are poised to maneuver Biden’s rescue plan through a complex budget process to bypass the need for Republican votes in the Senate. As a result, any provision changing the child benefits will have to adhere to a series of parliamentary parameters. It is unclear if a permanent expansion of the benefit would prevail under the strict rules, as well as adhering to the overall price tag of the package outlined in a resolution that passed both chambers this month. While longtime champions of a permanent expansion have endorsed Biden’s plans for a one-year expansion of the credit, they are continuing to make the change permanent. DeLauro, who has fought for the expansion for nearly two decades, personally lobbied the White House to ensure Biden included the expansion of the tax credit and is continuing to push for its permanence, while Romney is continuing to champion his proposal among moderate Republicans. Such efforts could play out in the debate later this year over Biden’s next big economic proposal, which is expected to spend trillions on infrastructure, clean energy, education, health care and other liberal priorities, offset by tax increases on high earners and corporations. Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., has been mounting his own push for a permanent expansion, including making a case with Yellen when she joined a recent Democratic caucus call and discussing the issue privately with a number of his colleagues, including Sen. Bernie Sanders, the Vermont independent in charge of the Senate Budget Committee, according to two people familiar with the conversations. Booker, along with Rep. Ayanna S. Pressley, D-Mass., has also pushed Democratic leaders to move on a so-called baby bonds proposal, which would create a federally funded savings account for each U.S. child.

Crisis spurs Congress toward big measures to lift families from poverty

Priyanka Chopra Jonas isn’t the kind to let a minute of her life slip away, even when life is on lockdown.

While others were perfecting their sourdough starters last spring, Chopra Jonas decided to write her first book — and finished it. As quarantine fatigue curtailed our enthusiasm for crafting and Kondo-izing, she was in London shooting the romantic drama “Text for You” alongside Sam Heughan and Celine Dion.

By the time a lot of us had been rendered bloblike, Chopra Jonas was in overdrive, simultaneously promoting three projects: her Netflix movie, “The White Tiger,” adapted from Aravind Adiga’s Booker Prize-winning rags-to-riches novel about a self-made Bangalore businessman; her memoir, “Unfinished,” which chronicles her 38 years, including her reign as Miss World and breakthrough into Bollywood and eventually Hollywood; and her new sustainable hair care line, Anomaly.

As if that weren’t enough, she was prepping to shoot “Citadel,” a spy series directed by the Russo brothers for Amazon, which had been delayed a year because of COVID-19 restrictions.

Through it all, Chopra Jonas was still finding room for some self-care and shut-eye, “which has to be scheduled time, because otherwise I would never get sleep,” she said. In a phone call in late January from her home in London, Chopra Jonas tracked the recent routines and cultural items that are keeping her busy.

These are edited excerpts from the conversation.

Wednesday morning

In our profession, my routine is dictated by the schedule that my team decides for me, predominantly. So the only thing routine-y about my schedule is I always make sure I have at least eight hours of sleep. My coffee machine is in my bedroom, right by my bed. The first thing I do is press the Nespresso button and smell the aroma of the coffee, and that’s how my eyes open.

Then I check out the news and scroll through Twitter usually still when I’m in bed. I need five or 10 minutes to orient myself to the fact that I’m waking up. On a languid day, maybe it would be half an hour. This ritual is ultimately what led me to “The White Tiger.” There was so much chatter around it in literary circles. I’m an avid reader. I try and pick up the books everyone’s talking about because I don’t really have the luxury of time to discover my own favourites.

My days start with a workout, usually on Zoom with my trainer. I started getting consistent with working out during quarantine. I hate working out otherwise. I’m not one of those people who’s like, “Oh my gosh, I enjoy it so much that I need it.” I listen to Hindi rap, like Raftaar and Divine, while I work out. It’s alive and visceral.

Wednesday afternoon

I watched the inauguration, and I think I felt exactly what the world was feeling. It was a very emotional time for a lot of my friends and family in America, and I felt very excited about the fact that the country is stepping into the right direction in terms of leadership. Not only should leadership look like this, but also sound like this. As someone coming from a country who has had many females in high positions of power, it’s awesome to see the U.S. finally get their first.

My days for the past two weeks have been back-to-back with recording my audiobook and promo, and [together] it takes 12 to 13 hours a day. I filmed three talk show interviews — Kelly Clarkson, Lilly Singh and Ellen — and I recorded a few podcasts and did several phone interviews. I think I was one of the earlier people to commit to the fact that we’re going to be working off Zoom for a really long time. So I found a corner of my room with a fireplace where I do all my Zoom calls.

Wednesday night

Before bed, I always need a few hours to unwind, and this is usually when I watch TV or read. Right now I’m reading “Amnesty,” Aravind Adiga’s next novel. I obviously am a fan. This is based in Australia, and it’s about a Sri Lankan immigrant, and it’s a thriller from his perspective. I do love to get out of work mode and just enjoy the content for what it is. But most of my reading I do with both [enjoyment and the idea of a project] in mind.

I haven’t been able to commit to a TV show because of how busy my schedule is. I recently finished “The Undoing,” “The Boys” and “Bridgerton” but I’m also really into movies after dinner. I’ve watched a lot of the Oscar contenders — “Sound of Metal,” “Da 5 Bloods,” “One Night in Miami.”

Thursday morning

Finally, I had some semblance of a morning I don’t even know how long. I woke up by 10, had a quick workout and then I had luxurious brunch with my mom, who is living in London with me. She was here with my husband during the holidays so that we could be together. I felt safer with her around me. My husband left-top of the year, but I didn’t let my mom go. So I’ve sort of kidnapped her right now.

Thursday afternoon

My first call wasn’t until 2 — a prep call with the producers of “Citadel,” which I am so excited to start. Prep calls are usually character development, which is one of my favourite things. The most exciting job as an actor is when you have the ability to take someone off the page and really breathe life into them.

Thursday night

Then it was back to promo. Unlike normal junkets where you’re local and live with the media, we have been up early and late to hit markets all over the world. Tonight we ended with “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” at 1 am.

I couldn’t sleep, because you know when you go beyond tired on the other side of the hill? That happened. Then I was on TikTok for hours. I’m a secret admirer, so I consume whatever they show me. It’s a lot of baby videos or doggy videos or kitten videos.

We got a quarantine pet, yes, we did! He’s Panda, and he’s a rescue. I got Nick a German shepherd for our anniversary last year, and my dog, Diana, who I’ve had for four years, she’s a rescue as well. So we had the two. But Nick’s parents were visiting and they brought their girls with them, and the house was full of four dogs, and it was so amazing that after Nick’s parents left, I was kind of feeling like, we need another dog. He’s a mix between an Australian shepherd and a husky. And he’s a punk. He deliberately defies you but he’s so adorable that you forget everything. He’s in LA with Nick at the moment, but they should be coming here sometime next month.

Friday morning

It was my last free weekday before I start “Citadel,” which I’ll be filming until next November. It was also release day of “The White Tiger.” Release day is filled with a roller coaster of emotions, but always with bright eyes and hope for a strong opening. I’m so proud to share this film with the world.

Friday afternoon

I did “Hot Ones.” Oh my God. I’ve done it before on Jimmy Fallon, and it almost killed me. But this time — and I love spicy food. I need hot sauce. I carry it everywhere — but some of the hot sauces are like poison. They’re insane how spicy they are. I literally felt like I was going to faint. I had to open the doors up and walk outside and eat ice cream and milk, and I was crying. Ghost pepper was at No. 4. So you could imagine what No. 10 was.

Friday night

I did a viewing party for “The White Tiger” with a lot of my family and friends all on Zoom. It is such a provocative tale of something that all of us have become so desensitized to, which is this large division between the haves and the have-nots. And COVID specifically showed the world that disparity so glaringly. When is the last time you’ve driven past a homeless shelter or a homeless person and not done anything about it? A majority of the world lives in circumstances like that, so it’s really a sort of mirror into self-reflection. I’m very proud of the movie because it has social commentary, but at the same time it’s sarcastic, funny, dark and really clever.

Priyanka Chopra Jonas isn’t the kind to let a minute of her life slip away, even when life is on lockdown. While others were perfecting their sourdough starters last spring, Chopra Jonas decided to write her first book — and finished it.

Priyanka Chopra Jonas isn’t the kind to let a minute of her life slip away, even when life is on lockdown. While others were perfecting their sourdough starters last spring, Chopra Jonas decided to write her first book — and finished it. As quarantine fatigue curtailed our enthusiasm for crafting and Kondo-izing, she was in London shooting the romantic drama “Text for You” alongside Sam Heughan and Celine Dion. By the time a lot of us had been rendered bloblike, Chopra Jonas was in overdrive, simultaneously promoting three projects: her Netflix movie, “The White Tiger,” adapted from Aravind Adiga’s Booker Prize-winning rags-to-riches novel about a self-made Bangalore businessman; her memoir, “Unfinished,” which chronicles her 38 years, including her reign as Miss World and breakthrough into Bollywood and eventually Hollywood; and her new sustainable hair care line, Anomaly. As if that weren’t enough, she was prepping to shoot “Citadel,” a spy series directed by the Russo brothers for Amazon, which had been delayed a year because of COVID-19 restrictions. Through it all, Chopra Jonas was still finding room for some self-care and shut-eye, “which has to be scheduled time, because otherwise I would never get sleep,” she said. In a phone call in late January from her home in London, Chopra Jonas tracked the recent routines and cultural items that are keeping her busy. These are edited excerpts from the conversation. Wednesday morning In our profession, my routine is dictated by the schedule that my team decides for me, predominantly. So the only thing routine-y about my schedule is I always make sure I have at least eight hours of sleep. My coffee machine is in my bedroom, right by my bed. The first thing I do is press the Nespresso button and smell the aroma of the coffee, and that’s how my eyes open. Then I check out the news and scroll through Twitter usually still when I’m in bed. I need five or 10 minutes to orient myself to the fact that I’m waking up. On a languid day, maybe it would be half an hour. This ritual is ultimately what led me to “The White Tiger.” There was so much chatter around it in literary circles. I’m an avid reader. I try and pick up the books everyone’s talking about because I don’t really have the luxury of time to discover my own favourites. My days start with a workout, usually on Zoom with my trainer. I started getting consistent with working out during quarantine. I hate working out otherwise. I’m not one of those people who’s like, “Oh my gosh, I enjoy it so much that I need it.” I listen to Hindi rap, like Raftaar and Divine, while I work out. It’s alive and visceral. Wednesday afternoon I watched the inauguration, and I think I felt exactly what the world was feeling. It was a very emotional time for a lot of my friends and family in America, and I felt very excited about the fact that the country is stepping into the right direction in terms of leadership. Not only should leadership look like this, but also sound like this. As someone coming from a country who has had many females in high positions of power, it’s awesome to see the U.S. finally get their first. My days for the past two weeks have been back-to-back with recording my audiobook and promo, and [together] it takes 12 to 13 hours a day. I filmed three talk show interviews — Kelly Clarkson, Lilly Singh and Ellen — and I recorded a few podcasts and did several phone interviews. I think I was one of the earlier people to commit to the fact that we’re going to be working off Zoom for a really long time. So I found a corner of my room with a fireplace where I do all my Zoom calls. Wednesday night Before bed, I always need a few hours to unwind, and this is usually when I watch TV or read. Right now I’m reading “Amnesty,” Aravind Adiga’s next novel. I obviously am a fan. This is based in Australia, and it’s about a Sri Lankan immigrant, and it’s a thriller from his perspective. I do love to get out of work mode and just enjoy the content for what it is. But most of my reading I do with both [enjoyment and the idea of a project] in mind. I haven’t been able to commit to a TV show because of how busy my schedule is. I recently finished “The Undoing,” “The Boys” and “Bridgerton” but I’m also really into movies after dinner. I’ve watched a lot of the Oscar contenders — “Sound of Metal,” “Da 5 Bloods,” “One Night in Miami.” Thursday morning Finally, I had some semblance of a morning I don’t even know how long. I woke up by 10, had a quick workout and then I had luxurious brunch with my mom, who is living in London with me. She was here with my husband during the holidays so that we could be together. I felt safer with her around me. My husband left-top of the year, but I didn’t let my mom go. So I’ve sort of kidnapped her right now. Thursday afternoon My first call wasn’t until 2 — a prep call with the producers of “Citadel,” which I am so excited to start. Prep calls are usually character development, which is one of my favourite things. The most exciting job as an actor is when you have the ability to take someone off the page and really breathe life into them. Thursday night Then it was back to promo. Unlike normal junkets where you’re local and live with the media, we have been up early and late to hit markets all over the world. Tonight we ended with “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” at 1 am. I couldn’t sleep, because you know when you go beyond tired on the other side of the hill? That happened. Then I was on TikTok for hours. I’m a secret admirer, so I consume whatever they show me. It’s a lot of baby videos or doggy videos or kitten videos. We got a quarantine pet, yes, we did! He’s Panda, and he’s a rescue. I got Nick a German shepherd for our anniversary last year, and my dog, Diana, who I’ve had for four years, she’s a rescue as well. So we had the two. But Nick’s parents were visiting and they brought their girls with them, and the house was full of four dogs, and it was so amazing that after Nick’s parents left, I was kind of feeling like, we need another dog. He’s a mix between an Australian shepherd and a husky. And he’s a punk. He deliberately defies you but he’s so adorable that you forget everything. He’s in LA with Nick at the moment, but they should be coming here sometime next month. Friday morning It was my last free weekday before I start “Citadel,” which I’ll be filming until next November. It was also release day of “The White Tiger.” Release day is filled with a roller coaster of emotions, but always with bright eyes and hope for a strong opening. I’m so proud to share this film with the world. Friday afternoon I did “Hot Ones.” Oh my God. I’ve done it before on Jimmy Fallon, and it almost killed me. But this time — and I love spicy food. I need hot sauce. I carry it everywhere — but some of the hot sauces are like poison. They’re insane how spicy they are. I literally felt like I was going to faint. I had to open the doors up and walk outside and eat ice cream and milk, and I was crying. Ghost pepper was at No. 4. So you could imagine what No. 10 was. Friday night I did a viewing party for “The White Tiger” with a lot of my family and friends all on Zoom. It is such a provocative tale of something that all of us have become so desensitized to, which is this large division between the haves and the have-nots. And COVID specifically showed the world that disparity so glaringly. When is the last time you’ve driven past a homeless shelter or a homeless person and not done anything about it? A majority of the world lives in circumstances like that, so it’s really a sort of mirror into self-reflection. I’m very proud of the movie because it has social commentary, but at the same time it’s sarcastic, funny, dark and really clever.

Priyanka Chopra Jonas’s Week: Fireside Zoom calls and 'Bridgerton' episodes

One in five people in the European Union, or more than 92.4 million of the bloc's population experienced poverty, said a United Nations report. This amounts to 21.1 per cent of the population experiencing poverty. The observation has been made by Olivier De Schutter, a UN special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, who interviewed dozens of EU officials to make his assessment.

De Schutter warned that the EU institutions -- which include the commission, the European Central Bank and the council of ministers -- must use the current covid crisis to "reinvent themselves" to fight poverty.

He also criticised EU&nbsp;policymakers for being focussed on austerity and balanced budgets rather than lifting tens of millions of Europeans out of poverty.

Currently, "EU member states are asked to be competitive and lean: they are pardoned for not being social enough," said the report.

EU member states all too often "compete with each other in very unhelpful ways", stifling social progress.

"They race to the bottom by lowering taxes, wages, and worker protections because they think that's how they can attract investors and improve... competitiveness," said De Schutter.

He also slammed the EU's much vaunted Green Deal, a vast programme that is meant to ensure the EU becomes carbon neutral by 2050.

"The fight against poverty is the missing piece of this Green Deal" even though it was presented as a key component, he said.

"But as long as this good intention is not translated into concrete actions, millions will continue to struggle for a decent standard of living in a society that leaves them behind."

He urged the EU to implement its so-called European Pillar of Social Rights, which should include minimum income guarantees and legally binding targets to erase poverty.

It "is an opportunity that should not be wasted," he said.&nbsp;

One in five people in the European Union, or more than 92.4 million of the bloc's population experienced poverty, said a United Nations report. This amounts to 21.

One in five people in the European Union, or more than 92.4 million of the bloc's population experienced poverty, said a United Nations report. This amounts to 21.1 per cent of the population experiencing poverty. The observation has been made by Olivier De Schutter, a UN special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, who interviewed dozens of EU officials to make his assessment. De Schutter warned that the EU institutions -- which include the commission, the European Central Bank and the council of ministers -- must use the current covid crisis to "reinvent themselves" to fight poverty. He also criticised EU policymakers for being focussed on austerity and balanced budgets rather than lifting tens of millions of Europeans out of poverty. Currently, "EU member states are asked to be competitive and lean: they are pardoned for not being social enough," said the report. EU member states all too often "compete with each other in very unhelpful ways", stifling social progress. "They race to the bottom by lowering taxes, wages, and worker protections because they think that's how they can attract investors and improve... competitiveness," said De Schutter. He also slammed the EU's much vaunted Green Deal, a vast programme that is meant to ensure the EU becomes carbon neutral by 2050. "The fight against poverty is the missing piece of this Green Deal" even though it was presented as a key component, he said. "But as long as this good intention is not translated into concrete actions, millions will continue to struggle for a decent standard of living in a society that leaves them behind." He urged the EU to implement its so-called European Pillar of Social Rights, which should include minimum income guarantees and legally binding targets to erase poverty. It "is an opportunity that should not be wasted," he said.

More than 92 million people in EU experience poverty: UN report

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