Muhammad Yunus, Bangladesh’s ‘banker to the poor’/node/2564891/world
Muhammad Yunus, Bangladesh’s ‘banker to the poor’
Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus (C) shakes hands with senior members of the Bangladesh Army, upon his arrival at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka on August 8, 2024. (AFP)
Yunus was awarded Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 for work on loaning small cash sums to rural women
Was hit with a 100 criminal cases and smear campaign by state-led agency after being at odds with government
Updated 08 August 2024
AFP
DHAKA: Nobel-winning microfinance pioneer Muhammad Yunus will helm Bangladesh’s interim government after the ouster of premier Sheikh Hasina, who had hounded him in speeches and through the courts.
The 84-year-old, known as the “banker to the poorest of the poor,” was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 for his work loaning small cash sums to rural women, allowing them to invest in farm tools or business equipment and boost their earnings.
Grameen Bank, the microfinance lender he founded, was lauded for helping unleash breakneck economic growth in Bangladesh and its work has since been copied by scores of developing countries.
“Human beings are not born to suffer the misery of hunger and poverty,” Yunus said during his Nobel lecture, daring his audience to imagine a world where deprivation was confined to history museums.
But his public profile in Bangladesh earned him the hostility of Hasina, who once accused him of “sucking blood” from the poor.
Hasina’s 15-year tenure was characterized by a growing intolerance of dissent before her hurried resignation and departure from Bangladesh on Monday and Yunus’s popularity had marked him as a potential rival.
Yunus announced plans in 2007 to set up his own “Citizen Power” party to end Bangladesh’s confrontational political culture, which has been punctuated by instability and periods of military rule.
He abandoned those ambitions within months but the enmity aroused by his challenge to the ruling elite has persisted.
Yunus was hit with more than 100 criminal cases and a smear campaign by a state-led agency that accused him of promoting homosexuality.
The government unceremoniously forced him out of Grameen Bank in 2011 — a decision fought by Yunus but upheld by Bangladesh’s top court.
He and three colleagues from one of the companies he founded were sentenced in January to jail terms of six months by a Dhaka labor court that found they had illegally failed to create a workers’ welfare fund. However, they were immediately released on bail pending appeal.
All four had denied the charges and, with courts accused of rubber-stamping decisions by Hasina’s government, the case was criticized as politically motivated by watchdogs including Amnesty International.
A Dhaka court acquitted him on appeal on Wednesday.
Indonesia’s Laki-laki volcano on Flores Island erupts, killing 9 people
Fiery lava and rocks hit the nearest settlements around four km from the crater, burning and damaging residents’ houses
Indonesia sits on the “Pacific Ring of Fire,” an area of high seismic activity atop multiple tectonic plates
Updated 24 sec ago
Reuters
JAKARTA: At least nine people died after Mount Lewotobi Laki-laki in eastern Indonesia erupted on Sunday, spewing explosive plumes of lava and forcing authorities to evacuate several nearby villages, officials said on Monday.
Mount Lewotobi Laki-laki, located on Flores Island in East Nusa Tenggara province, erupted on Sunday at 23.57 local time (15:57 GMT), belching a fiery-red column of lava, volcanic ash and incandescent rocks, Hadi Wijaya, a spokesperson for The Center of Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation (PVMBG), said on Monday.
“After the eruption, there was power outage and then it was raining and big lightning which caused panic among residents,” he told Reuters, adding that the authority had raised the status of the volcano to level IV or the highest.
The agency has recommended a seven-kilometer (4.35 miles)radius must be cleared.
Fiery lava and rocks hit the nearest settlements around four km from the crater, burning and damaging residents’ houses, Hadi said.
As of Monday morning at least nine people had died, said Heronimus Lamawuran, a local official at East Flores area, adding the eruption had affected seven villages.
“We have started evacuating residents since this morning to other villages located around 20 km (13 miles) from the crater,” he said.
The nearest villages were covered by thick volcanic ash on Monday morning, Heronimus added.
The authorities are still gathering data on the number of evacuees and damaged buildings.
Indonesia sits on the “Pacific Ring of Fire,” an area of high seismic activity atop multiple tectonic plates.
This eruption follows a series of eruptions of different volcanoes in Indonesia. In May, a volcano on the remote island of Halmahera, Mount Ibu, caused evacuation of people from seven villages.
North Sulawesi’s Ruang volcano has also erupted in May and prompted authorities to evacuate more than 12,000 people.
Flash floods and cold lava flow from Mount Marapi in West Sumatra province, covered several nearby districts following torrential rain on May 11, killing more than 60 people.
Harris, Obamas and voting rights leaders work to turn out Black voters in run-up to Election Day
How Black communities turn out in the 2024 election has been scrutinized due to the pivotal role Black voters have played in elections across the country
Democratic efforts have ranged from vigorous door-knocking campaigns in Atlanta, Detroit and Philadelphia this weekend to swing state rallies
Updated 39 min ago
AP
MIAMI, Florida: Concerts and carnivals hosted at polling precincts. “Souls to the Polls” mobilizations after Sunday service. And star-studded rallies featuring Hollywood actors, business leaders, musical artists and activists.
Such seemingly disparate efforts all have a single goal: boost Black voter turnout ahead of Election Day.
How Black communities turn out in the 2024 election has been scrutinized due to the pivotal role Black voters have played in races for the White House, Congress and state legislatures across the country.
Vice President Kamala Harris, who if elected would be the second Black president, has made engaging Black voters a priority of her messaging and policy platform. Meanwhile, former president Donald Trump has sought to make inroads with Democrats’ most consistent voting bloc with unorthodox and at times controversial outreach.
A key strategy in Harris and Democrats’ Black voter outreach includes dispatching the first Black president and his wife, the former first lady, to battleground states where winning may come down to how well the Obamas convince ambivalent or apathetic voters that they must not sit this one out.
Caption
Democratic efforts have ranged from vigorous door-knocking campaigns in Atlanta, Detroit and Philadelphia this weekend to swing state rallies. Michelle Obama rallied voters in Norristown, Pennsylvania on Saturday alongside Grammy award-winning artist Alicia Keys while Barack Obama stumped in Milwaukee on Sunday. The former first lady also conducted her own scrupulously nonpartisan rally on Tuesday where speakers evoked the South’s Civil Rights history.
“I’m always amazed at how little so many people really understand just how profoundly elections impact our daily lives,” Michelle Obama said. “Because that’s really what your vote is, it is your chance to tell folks in power what you want.”
Efforts to boost Black voter turnout often start at the community level. In Miami, members of local churches gathered Sunday at the African Heritage Cultural Arts Center and marched to a nearby early voting center as part of a Souls to the Polls event.
“It helps a lot to encourage others to vote,” said Regina Tharpe, a Miami resident. She had voted earlier, but said people “get excited when they see us walking down the street. It encourages them to get out.”
Sharina Perez, a first-time voter, brought her mother, Celina DeJesus, to vote on the last day of early voting in Florida. She said a number of issues inspired her to vote. “It was for myself, my future, my mom’s future and for the younger generation,” she said.
Organizers focused on Black communities say they are often combating exhaustion and cynicism about politics, especially among younger Black voters and Black men. But they are cautiously optimistic that their efforts will bear fruit.
“If you want the people who are going to be most impacted to come out, you have to go where they are,” said Jamarr Brown, executive director of Color of Change PAC, whose campaigns aimed at Black voters included live events in Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. The group has reached more than 8 million voters in those states through text messaging and digital in the last month, he said.
”We’ve been going to those precincts and communities, those new platforms and websites where there is so often misinformation targeting our communities,” Brown said.
Supporters wait for former US President Barack Obama to take the stage as he campaigns in support of Democratic Presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris at the Baird Center on Nov. 03, 2024 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (Getty Images via AFP)
Other events have had a more free-flowing structure. The Detroit Pistons, for instance, hosted a “Pistonsland” festival in a majority Black neighborhood featuring musical performances from rappers including Lil Baby, carnival games, food trucks and other fanfare alongside the opportunity to cast a ballot. The nonpartisan carnival was constructed next to an early voting polling place.
“I don’t like neither one,” said Karl Patrick, a Detroit native who attended the festival. He strongly backed Harris, however, “because Trump wants to be a dictator.” Not all of his close friends had come to the same conclusion — at least one of his friends was fervently backing the former president, he said.
Black voters are the most overwhelmingly Democratic voting demographic in the country. But the Trump campaign has made a more concerted pitch to win a greater share of Black voters this year, particularly Black men.
The Trump campaign has similarly zeroed in on economic arguments. Trump has repeatedly argued that undocumented immigrants take “Black jobs,” despite economists finding the claim unfounded. The campaign believes the former president’s broader pitch on the economy, crime and traditional values has appeal in Black communities.
“If Kamala wanted to turn our country around, then she would do it now,” said Janiyah Thomas, a spokesperson for the Trump campaign. “We deserve more than token gestures — we deserve a leader who respects us, empowers us, and backs it up with action.”
GOP Reps. Byron Donalds and Wesley Hunt have emerged as key surrogates in Trump’s outreach to Black men. The campaign hosted a Black men’s barbershop roundtable with Donalds in Philadelphia in October. The Black Conservative Federation, which hosted a gala Trump attended earlier this year, held a “closing argument” event Sunday with Donalds and Hunt.
Millions of Black voters, like many Americans, have already cast a ballot in the election, including in Georgia and North Carolina.
Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Georgia, spoke about that state’s turnout at a Tuesday brunch and bus tour launch hosted by the Black Music Action Coalition.
“The truth of the matter is that Trump has been advising his people who always vote on Election Day to get out early. So they’re the ones that are making these numbers look so big. On our behalf, Black people, we have been slightly underperforming,” Johnson said.
Early Black voter turnout slightly lagged in North Carolina compared to 2020, though increased turnout at the close of early voting shrunk the gap. Whether Black voter turnout breaks records in 2020 hinges on Election Day. Many veteran Black leaders are confident the myriad strategies will bring voters out.
“Now obviously, there’s always a group of people who still don’t believe that their vote makes a difference and they lag behind,” said the Rev. Wendell Anthony, a Detroit pastor and the president of the city’s NAACP chapter. But so far, he added, “the indicators to us are such that those people are going to turn out. They’re not going to miss this this historic moment.”
China to hash out stimulus plan with US elections in its sights
Beijing is anticipating the result of the US election, with Trump promising tariffs of 60 percent on all Chinese goods if he wins
China is battling sluggish domestic consumption, a persistent crisis in the property sector and soaring government debt
Updated 04 November 2024
AFP
BEIJING: China’s top lawmakers gather Monday to hash out a major stimulus package that analysts say could grow even bigger if former US president Donald Trump wins the White House this week.
Beijing has in recent months heeded calls to step up support for the economy after years of inaction, announcing a raft of measures including rate cuts and the easing of some home buying restrictions.
But they have refrained from unveiling a figure for the long-awaited stimulus, disappointing investors after a market rally fizzled when officials repeatedly failed to commit to a top line.
Analysts now hope this number could emerge from this week’s meeting of the Standing Committee of National People’s Congress, the top body of China’s rubber stamp parliament and headed by number three official Zhao Leji.
The standing committee reviews and approves all legislation, including allocating funds out of China’s budget.
“We are expecting more details on the proposals to be passed,” said Heron Lim of Moody’s Analytics, including “how this extra funding would be allocated to address the near-term economic issues.”
Nomura economists expect lawmakers this week to approve around a trillion yuan ($140 billion) in extra budget — mostly for indebted local governments.
Analysts also expect Beijing to approve a one-off one trillion yuan for banks, aimed at writing off non-performing loans over the past four years.
“A lot of money will go to cover losses,” added Natixis’ Alicia Garcia Herrero. “It’s not really a growth push.”
Concrete measures are expected to be announced when the meeting wraps up on Friday — in time for Beijing to take stock of results of presidential elections in the United States.
“We believe the US election results will have some impact on the size of Beijing’s stimulus package,” said Ting Lu, Nomura’s Chief China Economist, in a research note.
Both candidates in the race have pledged to get tougher on Beijing, with Trump promising tariffs of 60 percent on all Chinese goods coming into the country.
Nomura economists expect Beijing to adjust the size of its stimulus depending on the outcome.
“In our view, the size of China’s fiscal stimulus package would be around 10 to 20 percent bigger under a Trump win than under the scenario of a (Kamala) Harris win,” Lu wrote.
But he said that “the major challenges for Beijing emanate from within rather than outside.”
Mired in sea of debt
China is battling sluggish domestic consumption, a persistent crisis in the property sector and soaring government debt — all of which threaten Beijing’s official growth target of five percent for this year.
The property sector was long a key driver of growth, but is now mired in a sea of debt.
Average prices of new residential property ticked up slightly last month, according to a survey of 100 cities by independent researcher China Index Academy.
But China’s cities and provinces are still on the hook for a trove of unfinished and unsold housing units, and repurchasing them could cost Beijing up to 3.3 trillion yuan, according to Natixis estimates.
Prolonged housing woes continue to lead to weak consumer consumption, according to Lim of Moody’s Analytics.
“The average Chinese consumer with existing mortgages does not feel their wealth is increasing,” he said.
The issue of how local governments manage debt is also set to come under scrutiny at the NPC meeting this week.
Authorities at and above the county level will be required to report their debt situation to the NPC each year, Huang Haihua, spokesman for the NPC standing committee’s legislative affairs commission, said at a briefing Friday.
But China’s economic woes run deeper than local mismanagement and empty homes.
“The overall economy is losing productivity out of basically misallocated savings,” said Garcia Herrero, referring to issues within China’s industrial policy spending, including extensive subsidies.
“They need to really change all of that,” she said.
Angry crowd hurl mud at Spanish royals, prime minister on visit to flood disaster town
Nasty protest underscored the fury over the response to the disaster that has now killed at least 217 people with many more still missing
Most of the fury seemed directed at Prime Minister Sanchez and Valencia regional government head
Spanish media later reported of the possible involvement of far-right groups during the incident
Updated 55 min 44 sec ago
AFP
VALENCIA, Spain: Furious locals hurled mud and insults at Spain’s king, queen and prime minister on Sunday in a startling show of anger in the worst hit town in the flood disaster that has killed more than 210 people.
More heavy rain fell on the Valencia region after King Felipe VI, Queen Letizia and Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez were forced to leave Paiporta where more than 70 people died in floods last Tuesday.
Mud hit the monarchs in the face and clothes as they tried to calm the angry crowd in scenes that underscored the fury over the response to the disaster that has now killed at least 217 people with many more still missing.
The king and queen went to a crisis center in Paiporta. But extra security guards soon had to keep the angry crowd, shouting “murders,” away from the royals and prime minister. They put up umbrellas to stop mud hitting the royal couple.
The king said later that Spain had to “understand the anger and frustration” of people affected by the devastation to towns where cars have been left in muddy heaps in streets.
In a social media video, the king called on the public to give the victims “hope and their guarantee that the state in its entirety is present.”
Most of the fury seemed directed at Prime Minister Sanchez and Valencia regional government head Carlos Mazon.
“I understand the social anger and of course, I’m here to receive it. This is my political and moral obligation,” Mazon said in a post on X.
Queen Letizia of Spain (L) talks with a person as angry residents heckled during the Spanish royal couple's visit to Paiporta on Nov. 3, 2024. (AFP)
The rear window of Sanchez’s car was broken before he and the local politicians quickly left. The socialist leader said that while he empathized with the “anguish and suffering” of the victims, he condemned “all forms of violence.”
Spanish media later reported of the possible involvement of far-right groups during the incident. Sanchez’s deputy Maria Jesus Montero reacted to the allegations on X, saying “We will not allow radical groups to profit from people’s pain.”
Spain’s meteorological agency issued a “red alert” for new storms in the Valencia region on Sunday and heavy rain started falling in the night.
Police using megaphones urged Valencia residents to stay in their homes. While the alert was later downgraded, schools in Valencia were to remain closed Monday.
Authorities have come under fire over the lack of warnings before the floods and the slow reaction after.
“I am aware the response is not enough, there are problems and severe shortages ... towns buried by mud, desperate people searching for their relatives ... we have to improve,” Sanchez said.
With an extra 10,000 troops, police and civil guards sent to the Valencia region, Spain has now ordered its largest peacetime military and security force deployment, Sanchez said.
“Thank you to the people who have come to help us, to all of them, because from the authorities: nothing,” a furious Estrella Caceres, 66, told AFP in the town of Sedavi.
In Chiva, restaurant owner Danna Daniella said she was still in shock, haunted by memories of people trapped by the raging floods “asking for help and there was nothing we could do.”
“It drives you crazy. You look for answers and you don’t find them.”
Soldiers clean a street covered in mud in Massanassa, near Valencia, Spain, on Nov. 3, 2024. (REUTERS)
Transport Minister Oscar Puente told El Pais daily that certain places would probably remain inaccessible by land for weeks.
An army of volunteers with food, water and cleaning equipment have played a key role in the recovery, though authorities have urged people to stay home to avoid congestion.
On Sunday, the Valencia government limited the number of volunteers authorized to travel to the city’s southern suburbs to 2,000 and restricted access to 12 localities.
Despite this thousands made their way to stricken communes on foot, carrying brooms and shovels.
Locals and volunteers remove muddy water on Nov. 1, 2024, after a flooding devastated the town of Paiporta, in the region of Valencia, eastern Spain. (AFP)
Storms coming off the Mediterranean are common this time of year. But scientists have warned that climate change is increasing the ferocity, length and frequency of extreme weather events.
Emergency services on Sunday listed 213 dead in the Valencia region, one in Andalusia in the south and three in Castilla-La Mancha neighboring Valencia.
Authorities have warned the toll could rise as vehicles trapped in tunnels and underground car parks are cleared.
Trudeau condemns violence at Hindu temple near Toronto
“The acts of violence at the Hindu Sabha Mandir in Brampton today are unacceptable. Every Canadian has the right to practice their faith freely and safely,” Trudeau wrote on X
Updated 04 November 2024
AFP
TORONTO, Canada: Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau condemned as “unacceptable” violence at a Hindu temple near Toronto on Sunday, following skirmishes blamed by some leaders on Sikh activists.
Local police in the city of Brampton, roughly 50 kilometers (30 miles) northwest of Toronto, said they had deployed heavily outside the Hindu Sabha Mandir in order to maintain calm during a protest.
A spokesman for the Peel Regional Police told AFP that no arrests had been made. Police have also declined to assign blame for the reported violence.
“The acts of violence at the Hindu Sabha Mandir in Brampton today are unacceptable. Every Canadian has the right to practice their faith freely and safely,” Trudeau wrote on X.
A federal lawmaker and member of Trudeau’s Liberal Party, Chandra Arya, blamed the incident on “Khalistanis,” a reference to supporters of the fringe separatist movement for an independent Sikh homeland in India’s Punjab state.
Relations between Canada and India have nosedived after Ottawa accused the Indian government of orchestrating the 2023 killing in Vancouver of 45-year-old naturalized Canadian citizen Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a prominent Khalistan activist.
Beyond Nijjar’s killing, Canada has accused India of directing a broad campaign targeting Sikh activists on Canadian soil, which Ottawa says has included intimidation, threats and violence.
“A red line has been crossed by Canadian Khalistani extremists today,” Arya, who is Hindu, posted on X.
“The attack by Khalistanis on the Hindu-Canadian devotees inside the premises of the Hindu Sabha temple in Brampton shows how deep and brazen has Khalistani violent extremism has become in Canada,” he said.
Video circulating on social media appears to show individuals carrying yellow Khalistan flags clashing with a rival group, including people holding Indian flags. There were also isolated fist fights, videos show.
Trudeau charged the government of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi with violating Canadian sovereignty.
India has rejected the allegations.
Delhi and Ottawa earlier this month each expelled the other’s ambassador and other senior diplomats.
