The number of hungry people in Latin America and the Caribbean has risen by 30 percent since 2019.

 59 million people across the region currently are not getting enough to eat, an increase of 13.8 million people in just one year.

More than nine percent of people across Latin America and the Caribbean are going hungry.

Along with the people who are going hungry in absolute terms, four out of every 10 people in Latin America and the Caribbean – 267 million people – experienced moderate or severe food insecurity in 2020, said the UN report. That is 60 million more people than in 2019.

In 2020, 41.8 percent of women in the region experienced moderate or severe food insecurity, compared with more than 32 percent of men.

 A coalition of United Nations agencies called the situation “critical”.

“We must say it loud and clear: Latin America and the Caribbean is facing a critical situation in terms of food security,” Julio Berdegue, a regional representative with the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), said. “There has been an almost 79 percent hike in the number of people living in hunger from 2014 to 2020.”

The coronavirus pandemic has “exacerbated the situation”, added Rossana Polastri, regional director of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the UN’s agricultural bank.

In Brazil, the region’s largest and most populous country, some 19 million people have gone hungry during the pandemic, according to a study published earlier this year, while nearly 117 million – more than half the country’s population – live with some level of food insecurity.

Globally, 11 people die from hunger every minute, according to a July report from Oxfam, which found the number of people facing famine-like conditions has increased by six times over the past year.

Hunger increased by 30 percent in Latin America since 2019: UN | Food News | Al Jazeera

 El Salvador is the smallest country in Central America and has one of the highest population densities in the region, with more than 300 inhabitants per square kilometer. 

Alongside Guatemala and Honduras, it also ranks among the poorest countries in the Americas. 

More than 40% of children in El Salvador live in poverty. 

Remittances from Salvadorans abroad account for more than $400 million (€345 million) or 22% of El Salvador’s GDP.

 Drought and forest fires are destroying areas used for food production, while hurricanes and floods cause widespread devastation. Degraded soil and increasing urban sprawl pose a threat to water and food supplies.  

El Salvador has used the US dollar as legal currency for two decades, but recently it became the first country in the world to make bitcoin a national currency.

 

YORKSHIRE

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 At the Tusk conservation awards, Prince William suggested that population growth was responsible for the endangerment of wildlife in Africa. He was promoting the theory that argues humans are overburdening the planet and that some populations are more responsible than others.  It is an ideology with racist undertones – in short, Black, Brown and marginalised people are blamed for overpopulation and consequently the environment’s demise.

Heather Alberro, a lecturer in global sustainable development at Nottingham Trent University, explained, “Focusing only on human numbers functions as a red herring. What research increasingly shows is that extreme poverty, socioeconomic inequality and capitalist systems predicated on endless growth for maximising shareholder value are greater predictors of ecological decline.

“Is it any wonder that a poacher, driven by poverty and the lucrative price tag associated with ivory, would be compelled to kill an elephant?”

She argued, the focus should be on how global inequities are at the heart of the climate crisis. 

“Reckoning with the ongoing, violent legacies of colonial capitalism, which continue to drive the exploitation of people, places, resources, other species, is an important first step towards truly transformative change,” she said. “The irony is that recent research has found that Indigenous peoples are often the best stewards of ecosystems.”

“‘Conservation’ comes from a very colonial time. It treats people who are living there as feckless and worthy of being kicked off the land,” Josina added. “Some of the most dangerous narratives come from upper-class environmentalists. It’s not just Prince William; it’s not just his father, it’s also David Attenborough, it’s also Jane Goodall,” they said, referring to the British broadcaster and natural historian, and English primatologist.

“All these people promote this idea that it’s other people irresponsibility, that it’s poor people’s responsibilityJosina, from the grassroots environmental collective Land in Our Names, who also has a background in sexual and reproductive health, told Al Jazeera that the narrative on overpopulation is often linked to the “demonisation of Black and Brown women’s fecundity”.

“There’s a long history of Black women being blamed for having too many children. Now, what is too many? There’s no one in the royal family who will be demonised for having too many children. Boris Johnson has got quite a lot of kids.”

We should also recall the environmental damage done to the moors by the Royal Family with its game-bird shooting and heather burning. 

Most experts agree that Africa will witness a population boom. However, according to the UN, the continent only contributes to 2 to 3 percent of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions.

Experts critique Prince William’s ideas on Africa population | Wildlife News | Al Jazeera

 At the Tusk conservation awards, Prince William suggested that population growth was responsible for the endangerment of wildlife in Africa. He was promoting the theory that argues humans are overburdening the planet and that some populations are more responsible than others.  It is an ideology with racist undertones – in short, Black, Brown and marginalised people are blamed for overpopulation and consequently the environment’s demise.

Heather Alberro, a lecturer in global sustainable development at Nottingham Trent University, explained, “Focusing only on human numbers functions as a red herring. What research increasingly shows is that extreme poverty, socioeconomic inequality and capitalist systems predicated on endless growth for maximising shareholder value are greater predictors of ecological decline.

“Is it any wonder that a poacher, driven by poverty and the lucrative price tag associated with ivory, would be compelled to kill an elephant?”

She argued, the focus should be on how global inequities are at the heart of the climate crisis. 

“Reckoning with the ongoing, violent legacies of colonial capitalism, which continue to drive the exploitation of people, places, resources, other species, is an important first step towards truly transformative change,” she said. “The irony is that recent research has found that Indigenous peoples are often the best stewards of ecosystems.”

“‘Conservation’ comes from a very colonial time. It treats people who are living there as feckless and worthy of being kicked off the land,” Josina added. “Some of the most dangerous narratives come from upper-class environmentalists. It’s not just Prince William; it’s not just his father, it’s also David Attenborough, it’s also Jane Goodall,” they said, referring to the British broadcaster and natural historian, and English primatologist.

“All these people promote this idea that it’s other people irresponsibility, that it’s poor people’s responsibilityJosina, from the grassroots environmental collective Land in Our Names, who also has a background in sexual and reproductive health, told Al Jazeera that the narrative on overpopulation is often linked to the “demonisation of Black and Brown women’s fecundity”.

“There’s a long history of Black women being blamed for having too many children. Now, what is too many? There’s no one in the royal family who will be demonised for having too many children. Boris Johnson has got quite a lot of kids.”

We should also recall the environmental damage done to the moors by the Royal Family with its game-bird shooting and heather burning. 

Most experts agree that Africa will witness a population boom. However, according to the UN, the continent only contributes to 2 to 3 percent of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions.

Experts critique Prince William’s ideas on Africa population | Wildlife News | Al Jazeera

 At the Tusk conservation awards, Prince William suggested that population growth was responsible for the endangerment of wildlife in Africa. He was promoting the theory that argues humans are overburdening the planet and that some populations are more responsible than others.  It is an ideology with racist undertones – in short, Black, Brown and marginalised people are blamed for overpopulation and consequently the environment’s demise.

Heather Alberro, a lecturer in global sustainable development at Nottingham Trent University, explained, “Focusing only on human numbers functions as a red herring. What research increasingly shows is that extreme poverty, socioeconomic inequality and capitalist systems predicated on endless growth for maximising shareholder value are greater predictors of ecological decline.

“Is it any wonder that a poacher, driven by poverty and the lucrative price tag associated with ivory, would be compelled to kill an elephant?”

She argued, the focus should be on how global inequities are at the heart of the climate crisis. 

“Reckoning with the ongoing, violent legacies of colonial capitalism, which continue to drive the exploitation of people, places, resources, other species, is an important first step towards truly transformative change,” she said. “The irony is that recent research has found that Indigenous peoples are often the best stewards of ecosystems.”

“‘Conservation’ comes from a very colonial time. It treats people who are living there as feckless and worthy of being kicked off the land,” Josina added. “Some of the most dangerous narratives come from upper-class environmentalists. It’s not just Prince William; it’s not just his father, it’s also David Attenborough, it’s also Jane Goodall,” they said, referring to the British broadcaster and natural historian, and English primatologist.

“All these people promote this idea that it’s other people irresponsibility, that it’s poor people’s responsibilityJosina, from the grassroots environmental collective Land in Our Names, who also has a background in sexual and reproductive health, told Al Jazeera that the narrative on overpopulation is often linked to the “demonisation of Black and Brown women’s fecundity”.

“There’s a long history of Black women being blamed for having too many children. Now, what is too many? There’s no one in the royal family who will be demonised for having too many children. Boris Johnson has got quite a lot of kids.”

We should also recall the environmental damage done to the moors by the Royal Family with its game-bird shooting and heather burning. 

Most experts agree that Africa will witness a population boom. However, according to the UN, the continent only contributes to 2 to 3 percent of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions.

Experts critique Prince William’s ideas on Africa population | Wildlife News | Al Jazeera

 Cuts to education spending in England over the last decade are “effectively without precedent in postwar UK history” and have hit the most deprived schools hardest, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies.

Its report highlights how the most disadvantaged fifth of secondary schools have faced the biggest cuts, with a 14% real-terms fall in spending per pupil between 2009 and 2019, compared with 9% for the least deprived schools.

Colleges and sixth-forms have faced the biggest cuts, and even with additional funding from the spending review, spending per student will still be lower in 2024 than in 2010, the report says.

It also says recent changes to the way education funding is distributed has compounded that disadvantage by providing bigger real-terms increases for the least deprived schools, making the government’s stated levelling-up goals harder to achieve.

It also confirms earlier findings that the most deprived schools have lost out most in the reorganisation of schools funding via the national funding formula, with the least deprived schools receiving real-terms increases of 8%-9%, compared with 5% for the most deprived, between 2017 and 2022.

The pupil premium, which provides additional funding for children on free school meals, has failed to keep pace with inflation since 2015. “These patterns run counter to the government’s goal of levelling up poorer areas,” the report states.

In the early 1990s, health and education spending each represented about 4.5% of national income, but while education investment has stayed pegged at about this level, health spending rose to more than 7% of national income before the pandemic.

“Whilst we have been choosing to spend an ever expanding share of national income on health, we have remarkably reduced the fraction of national income we devote to public spending on education.”

The IFS said: “The cuts to education spending over the last decade are effectively without precedent in postwar UK history, including a 9% real-terms fall in school spending per pupil and a 14% fall in spending per student in colleges.

It said the government had ambitious goals to level up poorer areas of the country, including a big role for technical education. “However, changes to the distribution of education spending have been working in the opposite direction. Recent school funding changes have tended to work against schools serving disadvantaged areas. Cuts to spending have been larger for colleges and adult education, and still won’t be reversed by 2024.”

Luke Sibieta, an IFS research fellow and an author of the report, said: “Extra funding in the spending review will reverse cuts to school spending per pupil, but will mean 15 years without any overall growth. Recent funding changes have also worked against schools serving disadvantaged communities. This will make it that much harder to achieve ambitious goals to level up poorer areas of the country and narrow educational inequalities, which were gaping even before the pandemic.”

Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said the IFS report was a “grim indictment” of the government’s record. “It is a pretty dreadful legacy to have presided over cuts to education which are without precedent in postwar UK history.”

Most deprived schools hit hardest by education cuts in England, IFS says | Education policy | The Guardian

The remuneration of Australia’s highest-paid chief executives has exploded by an average of almost 70% in the past year.

Kogan boss, Ruslan Kogan, enjoyed the biggest increase among the top 50 highest paid executives, his pay skyrocketing from $594,000 to almost $9m this year – an increase of more than 1,400%.

Macquarie Group’s CEO, Shemara Wikramanayake, enjoyed the largest package among the top 50, worth $15.97m, up 7% from $14.91m.

On a take-home basis, CSL’s boss, Paul Perreault, pocketed $61m this year, boosted by a share price that has steadily risen over the past five years.

OpenDirector’s CEO, Donald Hellyer, said executive pay had “come roaring back” this year.

He said base pay had barely changed but short-term bonuses went up dramatically as share prices surged due to record low interest rates.

“The cynic in me says, is this a result of good, hard work, or is this just a result that very low interest rates are driving up the stock market?

“Who wins and who loses when you have really low interest rates, and the stock market goes up, housing market goes up. Well, people with money win out when interest rates go down, because they’re basically involved with risky assets.”

There was no skills shortage among executive ranks, he said. He questioned whether company directors, who oversee the pay and performance of executives, “have the strength of character to be prepared to lose senior executives based on pay”.

“I don’t see it,” he said. “You don’t really see executives leaving from one ASX 50 company to go work as a CEO for another ASX 50 company, so it’s certainly not happening at the top end of town.”

Australian executive pay ‘roars back’ with 70% increase for top 50, analysis finds | Executive pay | The Guardian

 The government’s plan to mandate electric car chargers across all new homes in England from next year risks making access to charge points “exclusive”, leaving behind motorists from poorer areas, industry leaders have warned.

Senior figures in the energy and motoring sectors said the plan for all new homes and buildings to be fitted with car charging infrastructure risks benefiting wealthier areas with space for off-street parking and leaving “blackspots” in areas where homes have less space. Guy Jefferson, the chief operating officer of Scottish Power’s energy network business, warned that the burgeoning electric vehicle market was “less likely to provide for all in our society” without deliberate action to ensure a fair energy transition.

“It’s essential that [electric vehicle] chargers are available not just in new homes, private driveways, wealthy high streets and motorway service stations, but in remote, rural and socially disadvantaged areas too,” Jefferson said.

Ross Easton, a director at the Energy Networks Association, added that the government “must make sure access to charging points is not exclusive”.

“Charging points must be accessible to everyone. To truly ‘level up’ charging point access and deliver on the Cop26 electric vehicle pledges requires strategic planning at all levels of government, nationally and locally,” he said.

Many modern homes do not have car parking spaces, and the number of new homes built each year in the UK is so small it would take decades to make much difference by this measure alone, according to industry sources.

Sarah Winward-Kotecha, the director of electric vehicles at RAC, said it was “important to remember that a lot of new housing stock, especially in cities, doesn’t even come with any car parking at all, let alone provision for electric charge points”.

Two-thirds of local authorities in the UK had no plans for public charging points. More than half said they were prohibitively expensive, and more than a third cited other constraints such as a lack of energy network capacity.

Plan for car chargers in all new homes in England ‘will make access exclusive’ | Automotive industry | The Guardian

 Thousands of Roma women were forcibly sterilized in Slovakia, a practice that continued until 2004. The government of Slovakia has now made a formal apology.

The human rights commissioner for the Council of Europe, Dunja Mijatovic, welcomed the “apology to victims of forced sterilisation as a first important step,” in a message on Twitter. “I now look forward to quick progress on an accessible and effective compensation mechanism,” she added.

One-fifth of Slovakia’s population belongs to the Roma minority. They have long been excluded from society, generally living in segregated settlements that often lack basics like electricity and running water, heating and gas. Roma tend to make up some of the most marginalized ethnic groups in Europe.

Slovakia issues apology for forced sterilizations of Roma women | News | DW | 25.11.2021