Biden, Metallica and Mariah Carey come together against poverty

NEW YORK, United States - Metallica and Mariah Carey on Saturday led an A-list of musicians, and President Joe Biden made a surprise video appearance, as the Global Citizen Festival sought to mobilize action against poverty and climate change.

Marking its 10th year, the six-hour festival brought thousands to New York's Central Park and featured a sister show in Ghana's capital Accra, where performers included American R&B great Usher and British grime icon Stormzy.

Global Citizen awards tickets to fans in exchange for their commitment to take action to eradicate extreme poverty -- such as contacting elected representatives to encourage foreign aid -- and coincides with the annual UN General Assembly in hopes of raising pressure on world leaders.

"We're inspired and grateful for all the work you've done and want you to know -- your fight is our fight," First Lady Jill Biden said in a video appearance next to her husband.

President Biden -- along with top Senate and House Democrats Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi, who both appeared in person -- highlighted a new climate package that is the most far-reaching legislation ever in the United States to spur clean energy.

But Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley of Barbados warned that action against climate change cannot come quickly enough for islands such as hers.

"Yes, my friends, our time is running out," she said.

Thrash metal legends Metallica got the crowd headbanging with eight songs including a version of "Nothing Else Matters" featuring vocalist Mickey Guyton, who has been outspoken about her experiences as one of the most prominent Black women in country music.

Guests sought to raise awareness on an array of issues including women's rights, especially in light of major protests in Iran following the death of Mahsa Amini, who was allegedly beaten to death after her arrest by morality police who enforce clerical rulers' dress codes on women.

"I have seen my sisters forced to flee abuse, oppression and femicide globally, women like Mahsa Jina Amini," said Anuscheh Amir-Khalili, a refugee advocate in Berlin of Iranian descent.

"We must speak up for oppressed women. I stand here for them," she told the crowd.

European Union chief Ursula von der Leyen, appearing on stage, said, "We have to take care of our girls and our women. They deserve it."

She highlighted recent pledges by Europe including 600 million euros for food security in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific amid rising hunger in much of the world worsened by Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Mariah Carey was introduced by leading ballerina Misty Copeland, who called the singer with her famed vocal range an inspiration, and was accompanied by a choreographed dance for her classic song "Hero."

Other performers included Maneskin, the new-generation Italian glam rockers who put on an energetic set, Spanish pop star Rosalia, and the Jonas Brothers, with Nick Jonas' wife, Indian screen star Priyanka Chopra, serving as master of ceremonies.

Agence France Presse

Pope steps up call for poor country debt cancellation

VATICAN CITY, Holy See - Pope Francis renewed a call on Tuesday for the cancellation of debt owed by poor countries in the face of the coronavirus pandemic, saying it was time for restorative justice.

The pope is preparing for an audience with the public on Wednesday, his first since the pandemic hit Italy nearly six months ago.

"I repeat my call for the cancellation of the debt of the most vulnerable countries, in recognition of the severe impact of the medical, social and economic crises they face as a result of COVID-19," the Roman Catholic Church's highest official said.

"We also need to ensure that the recovery packages being developed and deployed at global, regional and national levels must be regeneration packages.

"It is a time for restorative justice."

In April, the Argentinian-born pontiff called for debt to be reduced or cancelled in a message from an empty Saint Peter's Basilica.

On Tuesday he said: "Policy, legislation and investment must be focused on the common good and guarantee that global social and environmental goals are met."

The World Bank warned last month that coronavirus may have driven as many as 100 million people into extreme poverty.

The situation made it "imperative" that creditors reduce the amount of debt held by poor countries, the Washington-based institution's president David Malpass warned.

Advanced economies in the Group of 20 have already committed to suspending debt payments from the poorest nations until the end of the year.

There is growing support for extending that moratorium into next year amid a pandemic that has already killed more than 840,000 people and registered 25.2 million cases globally.

Agence France-Presse

Poverty researchers win Nobel Economics Prize

STOCKHOLM - A trio of American economists on Monday won the Nobel Economics Prize for their work in the fight against poverty, including novel initiatives in education and healthcare, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said.

Indian-born Abhijit Banerjee of the US, his French-American wife Esther Duflo -- a former advisor to ex-US president Barack Obama -- and Michael Kremer of the US were honored "for their experimental approach to alleviating global poverty," the jury said.

"This year's laureates have introduced a new approach to obtaining reliable answers about the best ways to fight global poverty," the jury said.

The science academy said that "more than 700 million people still subsist on extremely low incomes," and that around five million children under the age of five still die every year from preventable or curable diseases.

The three found efficient ways of combatting poverty by breaking down difficult issues into smaller, more manageable questions, which can then be answered through field experiments, the jury said.

"They have shown that these smaller, more precise, questions are often best answered via carefully designed experiments among the people who are most affected," it said.

"As a direct result of one of their studies, more than five million Indian children have benefitted from effective programs of remedial tutoring in schools. Another example is the heavy subsidies for preventive healthcare that have been introduced in many countries," the jury said.

Duflo is only the second woman to win the Nobel Economics Prize in its 50-year existence, following Elinor Ostrom in 2009.

CLINICAL TRIALS

Duflo, 46, who is also the youngest person to ever receive the Economics Prize, told the Nobel committee in a phone interview the honor was "incredibly humbling".

"I didn't think it was possible to win the Nobel Prize in Economics before being significantly older than any of the three of us," she added.

Duflo has made her name conducting research, together with her husband who was her PhD supervisor, on poor communities in India and Africa, seeking to weigh the impact of policies such as incentivizing teachers to show up for work or measures to empower women.

Her tests, which have been likened to clinical trials for drugs, seek to identify and demonstrate which investments are worth making and have the biggest impact on the lives of the most deprived.

"Our vision of poverty is dominated by caricatures and cliches," she told AFP in a September 2017 interview.

Banerjee, 58, and Duflo are both professors at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the US, while Kremer, 54, is a professor at Harvard University.

In the 1990s, Kremer used field experiments to test interventions to improve school results in western Kenya.

He has also helped develop programs to incentivize the distribution of vaccines for diseases in the developing world.

ONLY NOBEL NOT IN WILL

Unlike the other Nobels awarded since 1901, the Economics Prize was not created by the prizes' founder, philanthropist and dynamite inventor Alfred Nobel, in his 1895 will. It was devised in 1968 to mark the 300th anniversary of Sweden's central bank, and first awarded in 1969.

Each of the Nobels comes with a prize sum of nine million Swedish kronor ($914,000, 833,000 euros), to be shared if there is more than one winner in the discipline.

But unluckily for recent winners, the prize's value has lost around $185,000 in the past two years, due to the depreciation of the Swedish krona.

The trio will receive the prize from King Carl XVI Gustaf at a formal ceremony in Stockholm on December 10, the anniversary of the 1896 death of Alfred Nobel.

Last year, the prize went to William Nordhaus and Paul Romer of the US for constructing "green growth" models that show how innovation and climate policies can be integrated with economic growth.

The Economics Prize wraps up a Nobel season that stands out for its crowning of two literature laureates, Polish writer Olga Tokarczuk for 2018 -- delayed by a year due to a sexual harassment scandal -- and Austrian novelist Peter Handke for 2019, whose selection sparked controversy because of his pro-Serb support during the Balkan wars.

Prior to that, the laureates in the fields of medicine, physics and chemistry were announced.

On Friday, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed won the Peace Prize for his efforts to resolve the long-running conflict with neighbouring foe Eritrea.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

U2 singer Bono talks development aid with French president Macron

PARIS - Irish rock star Bono, founder of the ONE campaign against poverty and disease, met on Monday with French President Emmanuel Macron, who stressed his wish to increase development aid, according to the U2 frontman.

"I never had many conversations quite like that, a president very open to finding new, innovative ways to solve the problems affecting the world's poor," Bono told reporters after the meeting at the French presidential palace.


"We talked about the refugee crisis and how most Europeans now understand that what happens in Africa matters to them," the Irish singer and humanitarian added.

Macron "reconfirmed" his commitment to increase development aid to 0.55 percent of GDP by 2022, the singer told journalists, a move he described as "really important for all our campaigners".

The French government has decided to cut its aid development budget for 2017 as part of wider cost-cutting measures, a move which has been criticized by Bono's ONE group.

Bono also met with French first lady Brigitte Macron, a former teacher, discussing "how to deal with 30 million girls not going to school".

The U2 singer is no stranger to the Elysee Palace having already met Macron's predecessors Jacques Chirac, Nicolas Sarkozy and Francois Hollande.

Emmanuel Macron will continue meeting on Wednesday with Barbadian singer-songwriter Rihanna, ambassador for the Global Partnership for Education, to discuss France's funding of international education after she brought up the matter on Twitter last month.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Richest 62 people own same as half world's population - Oxfam

LONDON - The wealthiest 62 people now own as much as half the world's population, some 3.5 billion people, as the super-rich have grown richer and the poor poorer, an international charity said on Monday.

The wealth of the richest 62 people has risen by 44 percent since 2010, while the wealth of the poorest 3.5 billion fell 41 percent, Oxfam said in a report released ahead of the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland.

Almost half the super-rich individuals are from the United States, 17 from Europe, and the rest from countries including China, Brazil, Mexico, Japan and Saudi Arabia.

"World leaders' concern about the escalating inequality crisis has so far not translated into concrete action - the world has become a much more unequal place and the trend is accelerating," Oxfam International's executive director, Winnie Byanima, said in a statement accompanying the report.

"We cannot continue to allow hundreds of millions of people to go hungry while resources that could be used to help them are sucked up by those at the top," Byanima added.

About $7.6 trillion of individuals' wealth sits in offshore tax havens, and if tax were paid on the income that this wealth generates, an extra $190 billion would be available to governments every year, Gabriel Zucman, assistant professor at University of California, Berkeley, has estimated.

As much as 30 percent of all African financial wealth is held offshore, costing about $14 billion in lost tax revenues every year, Oxfam said, referring to Zucman's work.

This is enough money to pay for healthcare that could save 4 million children's lives a year, and employ enough teachers to get every African child into school, Oxfam said in its report.

"Multinational companies and wealthy elites are playing by different rules to everyone else, refusing to pay the taxes that society needs to function. The fact that 188 of 201 leading companies have a presence in at least one tax haven shows it is time to act," Byanima said.

Ensuring governments collect the taxes they are owed by companies and rich individuals will be vital if world leaders are to meet their goal to eliminate extreme poverty by 2030, one of 17 Sustainable Development Goals set in September, Oxfam said.

EXTREME POVERTY FALLING

The number of people living in extreme poverty has fallen by 650 million since 1981, even though the global population grew by 2 billion in that time, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

Much of this change has been because of the rise of China, which alone accounted for half a billion people moving out of extreme poverty.

Most of the world's poorest no longer live in the poorest countries, but in middle-income countries like India, the OECD said in a recent report.

The inequalities are partly to do with differences in income, especially between urban and rural areas, but also differences in access to healthcare, education and jobs, the OECD said.

"The figures suggest that the biggest causes of poverty are ... political, economic and social marginalization of particular groups in countries that are otherwise doing quite well," development economist Owen Barder is quoted as saying in the OECD report.

Barder is director for Europe at the Center for Global Development.

Although taxes and transfers help reduce income inequality in developed countries, these systems are less robust in many developing countries, according to the OECD.

An exception is Brazil, which makes payments to more than 13.3 million poor families on condition they enrol children in school and take part in health programs.

"That has helped to reduce rates of both child poverty as well as inequality," the OECD report said.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Pope Francis takes message to forgotten corners of home continent

VATICAN CITY, Holy See - Pope Francis embarks Sunday on an eight-day visit to Ecuador, Bolivia and Paraguay, three of South America's 'peripheral' countries which share common challenges in addressing poverty, inequality and the legacies of past authoritarian regimes.

In one of the longest and most gruelling trips of his papacy, the first pontiff from Latin American will deliver more than 20 speeches and sermons and catch seven flights covering a total of 24,000 kilometres (15,000 miles), including one which touches down at an altitude of just over 4,000m in the thin air of the Andes.

It is Francis's second journey to his native continent following his 2013 visit to Brazil and it is one which will closely reflect the dominant themes of his papacy: concern for the poor, the sick and the dispossessed and opposition to an economic order he sees as perpetuating their plight and damaging the global environment.

The latter issue will be highlighted by a series of encounters with representatives of indigenous communities and the use of their languages in some of the religious services.

The trip is also expected to highlight the plain-talking 78-year-old Argentinian's enormous popularity with those he seeks to help. A number of open air masses in the three countries are expected to attract crowds of between one and two million people.

The first of those will be on Monday, in Guayaquil, Ecuador's most populous city, where he will also connect with his Jesuit roots by hosting a lunch at one of the 475-year-old order's colleges where, during his time as Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Francis used to send young priests for instruction.

An even bigger crowd is expected the next day in the capital Quito for another mass, which will include readings in the language of the Quechua people.

Francis is due to meet indigenous Andean leaders later that day before a private visit to one of the most famous Jesuit churches, known locally as la Compania.

- Chewing coca leaves? -

He flies on Wednesday to Bolivia, where the El Alto airport that serves the capital La Paz is situated at more than 4,000 metres altitude.

The thin air causes problems for even the fittest of young people and there have been questions asked as to whether it is wise for Francis, who lost most of one lung as a young man, to risk visiting.

Vatican officials stress that he will only spend a few hours there and spokesman Federico Lombardi said the pope himself was not concerned about any health threat.

"He did not have the slightest doubt about the planning of any of the stages of the trip. He is completely calm about it," Lombardi said.

Francis himself has hinted he may partake of the local custom of chewing coca leaves to help combat altitude sickness, according to Bolivia's culture minister -- a move that will surely raise some eyebrows if he does it in public.

The raw ingredient for cocaine, the leaves are listed as an illegal narcotic by many countries while being widely used as a mild stimulant and remedy for various ailments in Bolivia.

On his way from El Alto airport to La Paz, the pope will stop at the site of the March 1980 assassination by the military of Spanish Jesuit priest Luis Espinal, which occurred at a dark time in the region's history, two days before Salvadoran bishop Oscar Romero was slain.

Francis will have a private meeting with Bolivian President Evo Morales before he heads for Santa Cruz de la Sierra, where up to two million are expected to turn out to hear him preach.

The city will also host the second World Meeting of Popular Movements, an initiative launched at the Vatican last year, in the presence of Francis and Morales, a former union official.

Among others taking part will be cardboard collectors, workers with no job security, landless farmers, shanty-town dwellers, indigenous people and migrants.

The following day sees the pope visit the huge Palmasola prison, the scene of violent gang fighting in 2013 which left 31 people dead.

In Paraquay, the final leg of the trip, the highlights will include a visit to one of the poorest districts of Asuncion, Banado Norte and a mass in which prayers will be said in Guarani, another indigenous language, with 1.5 million predicted to attend.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Global warming could undermine poverty fight: World Bank

WASHINGTON - Climate change could undermine efforts to defeat extreme poverty around the globe, the World Bank warned Sunday.

In a new report on the impact of global warming, the bank said sharp temperature rises would cut deeply into crop yields and water supplies in many areas and possibly set back efforts to bring populations out of poverty.

"Climate change poses a substantial and escalating risk to development progress that could undermine global efforts to eliminate extreme poverty and promote shared prosperity," the report said.

"Without strong, early action, warming could exceed 1.5–2 degrees Celsius and the resulting impacts could significantly worsen intra- and intergenerational poverty in multiple regions across the globe."

The bank said it is already likely that average temperatures will rise 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) from pre-industrial levels, based on the built-in impact of past and current greenhouse gas emissions.

That means that extreme heat events, sea level rise and more frequent tropical cyclones may now be unavoidable.

But without concerted action, the real danger is that the average global temperature increase could go to 4.0 degrees Celsius by the end of the century.

The bank called that "a frightening world of increased risks and global instability."

"Ending poverty, increasing global prosperity and reducing global inequality, already difficult, will be much harder with warming of two degrees Celsius, said World Bank President Jim Yong Kim.

"But at four degrees, there is serious doubt whether these goals can be achieved at all."

Shrinking crop yields

The new report, "Turn Down the Heat: Confronting the New Climate Normal" focuses on the specific regional impacts of warming.

Warming of two degrees could lower the yield of Brazil's soybean crop by 70 percent. Andean cities would be threatened by melting glaciers, and Caribbean and West Indian coastal communities could see their fish supplies dwindle.

Two-degree warming could reduce yields of maize, wheat and grape crops in Macedonia by 50 percent. In northern Russia, it would mean substantial melting of the permafrost, causing a surge in damaging methane emissions, which would amplify the warming trend.

The World Bank has set an ambitious target of eliminating extreme poverty around the world by 2030, and Kim says that can still be done if warming is limited to just two degrees.

But temperatures have already increased 0.8 degree from the pre-industrial mean, and the new study says it is likely already too late to forestall a 1.5-degree gain.

The impacts of poverty exacerbated by climate change are wide and complex, the report shows. It will increase migration, though some people without means will be stuck with worse prospects in life.

In the Middle East and North Africa, water resources and agriculture will be under severe threat from warming.

And in turn, the impact could be political. The report cited two studies that linked the Arab Spring uprising to the drought impact of warming on food prices.

Further climate change could add to security problems "by placing additional pressures on already scarce resources and by reinforcing such preexisting threats as political instability, poverty, and unemployment," it said.

"This creates the potential for social uprising and violent conflict."

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Prayers, tears in Philippines one year after super typhoon

TACLOBAN, Philippines - Survivors of the strongest typhoon ever to hit land descended on mass graves Saturday to mark one year since the storm devastated the central Philippines and condemned millions to deeper poverty.

Super Typhoon Haiyan claimed more than 7,350 lives as it swept in off the Pacific Ocean, with its record winds and once-in-a-generation storm surges flattening entire towns.

The typhoon tore across a corridor of islands where about 14 million people lived in farming and fishing communities that were already among the nation's poorest.

The rebuilding effort has been painfully slow for most survivors, with millions poorer and many dangerously exposed to the next big storm as they still live in shanty homes along coastal areas.

In an outpouring of grief, tens of thousands marched to the grave sites under the hot sun on Saturday to offer flowers, light candles and say prayers.

Josephine Crisostomo's three children died during the storm, including her youngest, who would have turned two years old on Sunday.

"I miss my children terribly, especially John Dave who would have celebrated his birthday tomorrow... I miss you, son, I love you so much," Crisostomo, 41, said at one of the mass graves in the outskirts of badly-hit Tacloban city.

Using felt-tip pens, mourners wrote names of those who died on the hundreds of white crosses planted on parched earth in symbolic gestures as the more than 2,000 people buried there had not been identified.

"I am looking for my brother, but his name is not on the list of those buried here," Elena Olendan, 50, told AFP, her eyes welling with tears, as she wandered around the grave site, about the size of six basketball courts.

Olendan had not reported her 60-year-old brother, Antonio, as missing when Haiyan struck. She found a cross on the far end of the mass grave and wrote her brother's name on it.

- National day of prayer -

The Philippines is a mainly Catholic country and many people in the typhoon zones, as well as across the nation, attended special church services.

The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines declared Saturday a national day of prayer, and church bells across the nation would ring at 6:00 pm to remember those who died or suffered in the storm.

The build-up to the anniversary had focused renewed attention on the pace of the reconstruction effort, with President Benigno Aquino's government criticized by many for a perceived lack of urgency.

Roughly one million people need to be moved away from coastal areas that are deemed vulnerable to storm surges, according to a 160-billion-peso ($3.6-billion) government master plan for rebuilding the typhoon zones.

However those plans have already fallen behind schedule, delayed by problems in finding new land that is safe and suitable for 205,000 new homes.

In a speech at the typhoon-hit town of Guiuan on Friday, Aquino defended the pace of the reconstruction program, saying he was determined to ensure it was carried out correctly rather than rushing.

"Curse me, criticize me but I believe I must do the right thing," Aquino said.

"I am impatient like everyone else but I have to stress that we can't rebuild haphazardly. We have to build back better... let's get it right the first time and the benefits should be permanent."

Aquino also cited international aid agencies as saying post-Haiyan recovery efforts were moving faster compared with programs in Indonesia's Banda Aceh after it was hit by mega-tsunami waves in 2004.

And while millions endure Haiyan-exacerbated poverty, there has been some remarkable progress from a year ago as international aid agencies have pumped hundreds of millions of dollars into the region.

Some of the big successes of the campaign have been the restoration of electricity within a few months, quick replanting of crops and sanitation programs that prevented major outbreaks of killer diseases.

Tacloban again resembles many other chaotic Philippine cities, with traffic jams, busy market stalls and packed shopping malls.

In the countryside, lush green paddies are testament to successful rice planting campaigns that have sustained millions.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Bill Gates hopeful of more aid from China

CANBERRA - The world's richest man Bill Gates Tuesday urged China to become a bigger player in foreign development following its success in lifting millions of its own people out of poverty.

Speaking in Australia, where the Microsoft co-founder met with Prime Minister Julia Gillard, Gates said the Asian powerhouse was already giving foreign aid but there were "very little facts and figures" on how much.

"I am hopeful that Chinese aid, both in terms of the quality of the aid and the quantity of the aid, will continue to increase," he told a lunch address in Canberra.

"I think that there is a real opportunity there. What they've done to date, as far as anything that is visible, is quite modest."

Gates, who recently overtook Mexican telecommunications tycoon Carlos Slim as the world's richest man with an estimated wealth of US$69.8 billion, said his work towards the eradication of polio was a personal priority.

Australia, which committed Aus$50 million (US$48 million) to fight polio in 2011, Tuesday pledged another Aus$80 million over four years from 2015 to wipe out the crippling disease which remains endemic in only three countries -- Afghanistan, Nigeria and Pakistan.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is contributing US$1.8 billion to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, one-third of the polio endgame strategic plan 2013-2018.

Earlier, Gates said he was disappointed that Australia had slowed the growth of its foreign aid budget but praised it as a global leader in development.

His visit comes weeks after Gillard's administration pushed back its goal of increasing aid spending to 0.5 percent of gross national income by another year to 2017/18 after a drastic hit to tax revenues.

"The sooner Australia can get up to the 0.5 percent, which is the stated goal, the more kids will be saved and the more this region will be stable," Gates told national broadcaster ABC.

"So when that got slowed down I was a little disappointed, but it has been increasing and people should feel good about that."

Gates said there were fewer than 300 cases of polio around the world in 2012, but acknowledged that it would be difficult to remove the disease from the countries where it remained.

"These are violent places. There are often rumours against the vaccines. We are going to have to do our best work, we are going to have to be innovative," Gates said.

Attacks against polio workers have resulted in some 20 deaths in Pakistan since December after a Taliban faction last year banned polio vaccinations in the tribal region of Waziristan, alleging the innoculation programme was a cover for espionage.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com