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October
World Bank says goal of ending extreme poverty by 2030 unlikely to be met
Written by Nur Yasmin
Shocks related to the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine mean the world is unlikely to meet a longstanding goal of ending extreme poverty by 2030, the World Bank said in a new report released on Wednesday.
The COVID-19 pandemic marked a historic turning point after decades of poverty reduction, the report said, with 71 million more people living in extreme poverty in 2020.
That meant 719 million people - or about 9.3% of the world's population - were living on just $2.15 a day, and the ongoing war, reduced growth in China and higher food and energy prices threatened to further stall efforts to reduce poverty, it said.
Barring sharp growth gains, an estimated 574 million people, or about 7% of the world's population, would still be subsisting at that same income level by 2030, mostly in Africa, it said.
World Bank President David Malpass said the new Poverty and Shared Prosperity report showed the grim outlook facing tens of million of people, and called for major policy changes to boost growth and help jumpstart efforts to eradicate poverty.
"Progress in reducing extreme poverty has essentially halted in tandem with subdued global economic growth," he said in a statement, blaming inflation, currency depreciations and broader overlapping crises for the rise in extreme poverty.
Indermit Gill, the World Bank's chief economist, said failure to reduce poverty in developing countries would have profound implications for the world's broader ability to combat climate change and could unleash large new flows of migrants.
It would also limit growth in advanced economies, since extreme poverty rates would prevent these often heavily populated developing countries from becoming bigger consumers of goods on the global market.
"If you care about prosperity in advanced economies, sooner or later you want these countries to have large markets, countries like India, countries like China," he said. "You also want these countries to grow so they actually start to become sources of demand and not just supply."
To change course, the World Bank said countries should boost cooperation, avoid broad subsidies, focus on long-term growth and adopt measures such as property taxes and carbon taxes that could help raise revenue without hurting the poorest people.
It said poverty reduction had already slowed in the five years leading up to the pandemic, and the poorest people clearly bore its steepest costs. The poorest 40% of people saw average income losses of 4% during the pandemic, twice the losses experienced by the wealthiest 20%, the World Bank said.
Government spending and emergency support helped avert even bigger increases in poverty rates, the report showed, but the economic recovery had been uneven, with developing economies with fewer resources spending less and achieving less.
Extreme poverty was now concentrated in sub-Saharan Africa, which has a poverty rate of about 35% and accounts for 60% of all people in extreme poverty, the report said. (Reuters)
October
Philippines' Marcos open to buying Russian fuel, proposes new Myanmar approach
Written by Nur Yasmin
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr on Wednesday said his nation may need to turn to Russia to fulfil its fuel needs amid rising global energy prices, bucking pressure from Western allies for countries to shun Moscow.
Speaking to the Manila Overseas Press Club, Marcos, who is also agriculture minister, said the Philippines may also deal with Russia for supply of fertiliser.
"We take we take a very balanced view because the truth of the matter is, we may have to deal with Russia for fuel, for fertilizer," said Marcos.
The Philippines like many countries is grappling with soaring inflation, due to supply woes fanned by Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The Philippines, a U.S. defence ally, has not imposed any sanctions on Russia.
Marcos, the son and namesake of the ousted late strongman who ruled the Philippines for two decades, also said he wanted his country to play a key role in promoting regional peace, amid challenges posed by North Korea and China-Taiwan tensions.
"We hope to be part of leading, the ones that are leading the effort for peace," he said.
He said he would propose a new approach to the crisis in Myanmar at an upcoming meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in November, which could involved engaging the military government directly.
Myanmar's ruling junta has been barred from regional summits over its failure to implement a five-point peace plan it agreed with ASEAN in April last year, after violent turmoil erupted in the country following a military coup.
The generals have been outraged by ASEAN's unusually tough stand and have said they intend to comply with its plan, but will not agree to its call to hold dialogue with a pro-democracy resistance movement they call "terrorists".
"It's time to put together, to put forward some concrete proposals on what we can do to at the very least to bring at least representatives of the military government to the table so we can begin to talk about these things," Marcos said.
On Wednesday, Cambodia, the current ASEAN chair, confirmed to Reuters that a request had been sent to the State Administrative Council, as the junta is known, that it nominate a non-political figure to represent Myanmar at the upcoming leaders' summits.
"Again, the SAC has refused to send anyone to the summits," Cambodia Foreign spokesperson Chum Sounry said. (Reuters)
October
Japan PM Kishida will likely speak with South Korea's Yoon on Thursday - Kyodo
Written by Nur Yasmin
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will likely speak with South Korea's President Yoon Suk-yeol over the phone on Thursday following North Korea's missile launches, Kyodo news agency said on Wednesday citing several government sources. (Reuters)
October
Major U.N. powers question Pacific islanders' call for nuclear legacy help
Written by Nur Yasmin
Nuclear powers have criticized an effort led by the Marshall Islands at the United Nations to seek help on dealing with the consequences of nuclear testing, sources following the talks involving countries including the United States, Britain, Russia, India and China told Reuters.
Pacific islanders, who are particularly threatened by rising sea levels from climate change, are becoming more vocal in seeking redress from former colonial powers and wealthy countries on environmental and climate issues which they say affect their human rights.
This motion brought to the Human Rights Council on Monday by the Marshall Islands, Fiji, Nauru, Samoa and Vanuatu and backed by Australia requests assistance from the U.N. rights office; seeks a report from its boss; and calls for a future debate at the council.
"The nuclear legacy is a lived reality for us that must be addressed," Samuel Lanwi, deputy permanent representative of the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) in Geneva told Reuters.
The United States conducted 67 nuclear weapons tests in the Marshall Islands from 1946 to 1958 including "Castle Bravo" at Bikini Atoll in 1954 - the largest U.S. bomb ever detonated. Islanders still suffer the health and environmental effects such as high cancer rates and enduring displacement from contaminated areas.
The Marshall Islands Ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva, Doreen de Brum could not join the talks because she is on leave following her daughter's death from cancer. "My fight for nuclear justice is personal," she said on Twitter.
While the motion does not mention the United States by name, some see it as an attempt to wield leverage over Washington in ongoing negotiations on a Compact of Free Association (COFA) that governs U.S. economic assistance to the RMI. Marshallese diplomats deny this.
The nuclear legacy has been a major sticking point in the talks, although last week U.S. President Joe Biden's administration acknowledged it and said it remained committed to addressing concerns.
The U.S. mission in Geneva declined to comment.
FUTURE LIABILITY?
The Marshall Islands, one of 47 voting members on the rights council, is a key Western ally including on human rights, such as on scrutiny of China's rights record.
Three sources who attended the Geneva talks told Reuters they were surprised by the level of resistance to a resolution seeking "technical assistance" - a term that could take the form of legal and political advice - rather than a formal probe.
"Nuclear powers were converging in their determination to protect themselves from any future accountability and there were attempts to empty out the resolution of any significance," Yves Lador from Earthjustice said.
Diplomats say there were concerns about opening the door for future litigation. Past nuclear test sites include French Polynesia, Algeria, Kazakhstan and China's Xinjiang.
The United States, Britain and India all argued that the rights council was not the appropriate forum to raise the issue and sought to strip out references to the new U.N. right to a clean and healthy environment, according to the sources.
China and Russia also argued for the latter, they said.
The British and Russian missions declined to comment. India's did not respond. A spokesperson for China's mission said they had "constructively participated" in the talks.
A vote might be called later this week - something that happens in a minority of cases when countries cannot agree.
Jennifer Philpot Nissen from the World Council of Churches said that her Marshallese constituents were hoping for a win. "Knowing they are not forgotten is huge," she said. (Reuters)
October
Egypt calls for return of Rosetta Stone 200 years after it was deciphered
Written by Nur Yasmin
Prominent Egyptian archaeologists have renewed a call for the return of the Rosetta Stone from the British Museum to Egypt, 200 years after the deciphering of the slab unlocked the secrets of hieroglyphic script and marked the birth of Egyptology.
The archaeologists' online campaign has gathered 2,500 signatures so far and aims to "tell Egyptians what has been taken from them", said Monica Hanna, acting Dean of the College of Archaeology in the Egyptian city of Aswan.
The Rosetta Stone dates to 196 BC and was unearthed by Napoleon's army in northern Egypt in 1799. It became British property after Napoleon's defeat under the terms of the 1801 Treaty of Alexandria, along with other antiquities found by the French, and was shipped to Britain. It has been housed at the British Museum since 1802.
Bearing inscriptions of the same text in Hieroglyphs, Demotic and Ancient Greek, it was used by Frenchman Jean-Francois Champollion to decipher Hieroglyphs from 1822, opening up understanding of ancient Egyptian language and culture.
Egyptian archaeologists have called previously for its return, but are hoping that increasing moves by Western museums to return artefacts that were removed from countries under colonial rule will help their cause.
"I am sure all these objects eventually are going to be restituted because the ethical code of museums is changing, it's just a matter of when," said Hanna.
"The stone is a symbol of cultural violence, the stone is a symbol of cultural imperialism.
"So, restituting the stone is a symbol of changing things - that we're no longer in the 19th Century but we're working with an ethical code of the 21st Century."
A British Museum spokesperson said there had been no formal request from the Egyptian government for the return of the Rosetta Stone.
In an emailed statement the spokesperson noted that 28 stelae engraved with the same decree written by Egyptian priests had been discovered, starting with the Rosetta Stone in 1799, and that 21 remain in Egypt.
The museum is opening an exhibition entitled "Hieroglyphs: unlocking ancient Egypt" on Oct. 13 which sheds light on the role of the Rosetta Stone.
"The British Museum greatly values positive collaborations with colleagues across Egypt," the statement added.
Egypt says the return of artefacts helps boost its tourism sector, a crucial source of dollars for its struggling economy. It is due to open a large new museum near the Giza pyramids to showcase its most famous ancient Egyptian collections in the next few months.
"Egyptian antiquities are one of the most important tourism assets that Egypt possesses, which distinguish it from tourist destinations worldwide," Tourism Minister Ahmed Issa said last week at an event to mark the 200th anniversary of Egyptology. (Reuters)
October
U.S. calls North Korea launch 'dangerous'; pledges to defend allies
Written by Nur Yasmin
The United States condemned North Korea's firing of a ballistic missile over Japan as "dangerous and reckless" and pledged to defend South Korea and Japan with all America's power, but said it remained open to dialogue with Pyongyang.
"This action is destabilizing and shows the DPRK’s blatant disregard for United Nations Security Council resolutions and international safety norms," White House National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson said in statement, referring to North Korea by the initials of its official name.
She said U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan spoke with his Japanese and South Korean counterparts to discuss "appropriate and robust joint and international responses."
Sullivan reinforced the "ironclad" U.S. commitments to the defense of Japan and South Korea and said Washington would continue efforts to limit North Korea's ability to advance its prohibited weapons programs.
The missile fired on Thursday was the first to fly over Japan in five years, prompting a warning for residents to take cover and a temporary suspension of train operations in northern areas of the country.
Daniel Kritenbrink, the State Department's assistant secretary for East Asian and Pacific affairs, said China needed to do more to fight sanctions evasion by North Korea in its coastal waters. He added that Beijing and Russia should work to shut down Pyongyang's procurement networks.
"The failure of the PRC and Russia to fully and completely fulfill their obligations ... has only, we fear, emboldened the DPRK in undermining the U.N. Security Council, the international rules-based order and global non-proliferation regime," he said.
Kritenbrink said that persuading North Korea to denuclearize ought to be an area of cooperation with China, but that there were some in Beijing who want to use the issue as leverage in the broader strategic rivalry with Washington.
He reiterated that Washington remained open to dialogue with North Korea without preconditions and called Pyongyang to "commit to serious and sustained diplomacy, and refrain from further destabilizing activities."
"Unfortunately... the only response we have seen thus far is an increase in the number of ballistic missile launches and other provocative actions," he said. "This is not a productive path forward, neither for North Korea or for any of us."
Kritenbrink reiterated a U.S. assessment that a resumption of nuclear testing by North Korea for the first time since 2017 was probably just awaiting political approval. He said such a "dangerous" act would represent "a grave escalation that would seriously threaten regional and international stability and security."
"It is in the international community's best interest to ensure the DPRK knows that such an action will be met by unanimous condemnation, that the only path towards long-term peace and stability is through negotiations," he said.
Kritenbrink said Washington would "respond resolutely" to the growing North Korean threat and "take all necessary measures, involving all elements of American national power" to defend treaty allies South Korea and Japan.
"I don't think anyone should doubt our result in terms of pursuing sanctions and other authority to impose a cost on these actions," he added.
Decades of U.S.-led sanctions have not stemmed North Korea's increasingly sophisticated missile and nuclear bomb programs, and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has shown no interest in returning a failed path of diplomacy he pursued with U.S. President Donald Trump. (Reuters)
October
Sri Lanka central bank to hold rates as inflation worries persist
Written by Nur Yasmin
Sri Lanka's central bank is likely to maintain interest rates on Thursday in an effort to get a grip on inflation which has remained stubbornly high despite a sharp contraction in the crisis-hit economy.
Nine out of 14 economists and analysts polled by Reuters said they expect rates to remain unchanged as the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) waits for the effects of its earlier hikes to filter through to the economy and for inflation to stabilise as the economy cools.
"The pace of inflation appears to be slowing but it is also largely cost push inflation caused by depreciation and global commodity prices, which a rate hike would have limited impact on," said Dimantha Mathew, head of research for Colombo-based investment firm First Capital.
The CBSL has raised rates by a record 950 basis points this year to battle high inflation which is adding to the country's economic woes.
However, inflation has remained high, hitting a record peak of 68.9% in September with food inflation climbing to 93.7%.
Sri Lanka's economy shrank 8.4% in the quarter through June from a year ago in one of the steepest declines seen in a three-month period, amid fertilizer and fuel shortages. The central bank predicts a 8.7% contraction in the economy for 2022.
An acute dollar shortage has left Sri Lanka grappling with its worst financial crisis in seven decades and struggling to pay for essential imports of food, fuel and medicine.
Holding rates at current levels will also help ensure demand does not push up imports, which Sri Lanka would struggle to pay for given the low foreign reserves, said Mathew.
The monetary authority held rates in its last policy announcement on 18 August.
The standing deposit facility rate (<LKSDFR=ECI>) and standing lending facility rate (<LKSLFR=ECI>) stand at 14.50% and 15.50%, respectively.
Sri Lanka entered into a staff-level agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a $2.9 billion bailout last month but has to figure out how to restructure its heavy debt load before funds can be disbursed. (Reuters)
October
Taiwan says China seeking to 'normalise' military activities near island
Written by Nur Yasmin
China is seeking to "normalise" its military activities close to Taiwan, including crossing the median line of the Taiwan Strait, which poses a challenge like none seen before, the Taiwanese defence ministry said on Tuesday.
China, which views the democratically-governed island as its own territory, carried out war games including firing missiles over Taipei in early August in response to a visit to Taiwan by U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
China's military activities near Taiwan have continued at a much reduced level although Chinese military aircraft are still routinely crossing the Taiwan Strait's median line, which had previously served as an unofficial barrier between the two.
"In the future, the activities of Chinese Communist military aircraft and ships entering our air defence identification zone, crossing the median line and approaching maritime areas close to the island will gradually become more normalised," the ministry said.
"The national military faces a challenge unlike (any) it has seen before," the ministry said in a report to parliament ahead of Defence Minister Chiu Kuo-cheng taking lawmaker's questions on Wednesday, a copy of which was reviewed by Reuters.
China says its armed forces have a right to operate around Taiwan as it is Chinese territory.
Taiwan's government has denounced Beijing's threats and rejects China's sovereignty claims, saying only the island's 23 million people have the right to decide their future.
Taiwan will react to China's military threats by "appropriately" raising its combat readiness level and remaining on high alert, the ministry said.
While the world is distracted by the war in Ukraine, China has been improving its armed forces and increasing pressure on Taiwan, the ministry said.
In its report seeking parliamentary approval for next year's defence budget, the ministry also said it hopes to prioritise spending for ammunition and weapon parts to meet "urgent combat readiness".
The government has proposed $19 billion in defence spending for next year, a double-digit increase on 2022 that includes funds for new fighter jets. (Reuters)
October
S.Korea President Yoon warns of 'resolute' response over N.Korea's missile launch -Yonhap
Written by Nur Yasmin
South Korea's President Yoon Suk-yeol on Monday warned of 'resolute' response after North Korea's missile launch earlier in the day, Yonhap News Agency reported.
Yoon also said that the North's missile flew about 4,000 kilometres, according to Yonhap. (Reuters)
October
Pakistan court drops contempt of court case against ex-PM Khan
Written by Nur Yasmin
A Pakistani court on Monday accepted an apology tendered by former prime minister Imran Khan and dropped a contempt of court case against him, his defence lawyer said, a ruling that ease the threat to him of disqualification from politics.
The Islamabad High Court had deferred Khan's indictment over the contempt case after he apologised to the court in person late last month.
A convicted politician is liable to be disqualified from contesting elections and holding a public office for at least five years under Pakistani law.
"Imran Khan extended his apology in honour and respect for the judiciary, and the court today reciprocated by discharging the case against him," defence lawyer Faisal Chaudhry told Reuters.
The charges were related to a speech by Khan in which he was accused of threatening police and judicial officers after one of his close aides was denied bail in a sedition case.
Khan and his legal team subsequently maintained that his remarks did not amount to a threat.
The cricket star-turned-politician has faced a spate of legal woes since his ouster in a confidence vote in April by a united opposition led by his successor, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
Khan has been leading rallies since his dismissal demanding snap elections, which the ruling coalition has rejected, saying voting will be held as scheduled later next year. (Reuters)