Indonesia’s shrinking middle class casts shadow on economic rise | Business and Economy

Indonesia’s shrinking middle class casts shadow on economic rise | Business and Economy

Medan, Indonesia – Halimah Nasution used to feel as if she had it all. For years, she and her husband Agus Saputra made a good living renting out supplies for weddings, graduations and birthdays. Even after splitting their earnings among several of their siblings, the couple in Indonesia’s North Sumatra…

Could legal bid stop ‘cruel’ UK government plan to axe winter fuel benefit? | Politics News

Could legal bid stop ‘cruel’ UK government plan to axe winter fuel benefit? | Politics News

A couple from Scotland is suing the UK government over its decision to abolish an allowance for at least 10 million elderly people to spend on additional heating fuel in the winter. Following the Labour Party’s landslide election victory in the UK’s general election on July 4, one of the…

Angered over BRICS veto, Venezuela recalls ambassador to Brazil | Nicolas Maduro News

Angered over BRICS veto, Venezuela recalls ambassador to Brazil | Nicolas Maduro News

Venezuela’s Foreign Ministry has accused Brazilian officials of making ‘interventionist, rude statements’. Venezuela has pulled its ambassador from Brazil in a spat over Caracas’s failed recent bid to join the BRICS alliance of major developing nations. Venezuela’s Foreign Ministry announced the diplomatic punch on Wednesday, slamming Brazil’s officials for “blocking”…

Commonwealth summit in Samoa: Why won’t the UK discuss slavery? | Human Rights News

Commonwealth summit in Samoa: Why won’t the UK discuss slavery? | Human Rights News

Commonwealth leaders have gathered in Samoa for the biennial Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) this week. This is the first time the summit has taken place on a Pacific Small Island Developing State (PSIDS). At the summit, a demand that the United Kingdom pay reparations for its role in…

Gustavo Gutierrez, champion of Christian liberation theology, dies | Religion News

Gustavo Gutierrez, champion of Christian liberation theology, dies | Religion News

An advocate for the world’s ‘poor and exploited’, Gutierrez promoted ideals that revolutionised the Latin American church. Peruvian priest Gustavo Gutierrez, regarded as the father of Latin American liberation theology, has died aged 96. He passed away on Tuesday night in Lima, said the Dominican Order of Peru, without giving…

‘We’ll never forget’: Town grieves after deadly Nigeria fuel tanker blast | Poverty and Development News

‘We’ll never forget’: Town grieves after deadly Nigeria fuel tanker blast | Poverty and Development News

Majia, Nigeria – Days after a fuel tanker explosion killed 170 mostly young people in Majia, a farming town in northern Nigeria’s Jigawa State, the close-knit community is still reeling from the overwhelming loss. “It was a terrible situation that we have never witnessed in this town; many people lost…

COVID, mpox, cholera: Is the world prepared for another pandemic? | Climate Crisis News

COVID, mpox, cholera: Is the world prepared for another pandemic? | Climate Crisis News

Some 4.5 billion people worldwide are currently without adequate access to essential healthcare services, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). This comes as more than 100,000 cases of mpox and at least 200 deaths have been confirmed globally, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, with…

UN report says 1.1 billion people living in acute poverty | Poverty and Development News

UN report says 1.1 billion people living in acute poverty | Poverty and Development News

Index shows that 83.2 percent of the world’s poorest people live in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. More than one billion people live in acute poverty, with nearly half of them in countries experiencing conflict, according to a new United Nations report. Countries at war have higher levels of deprivation…

Poorest countries in worst financial shape since 2006, World Bank says | Poverty and Development

Poorest countries in worst financial shape since 2006, World Bank says | Poverty and Development

Low-income countries still poorer than they were before the COVID-19 pandemic, report finds. The world’s 26 poorest countries are deeper in debt than at any time since 2006 and increasingly vulnerable to natural disasters and other shocks, the World Bank has said. The poorest economies are worse off today than…