Latest news with #socialinequality
News.com.au
16-07-2025
- Business
- News.com.au
Cuban president addresses anger over 'there are no beggars' claim
Cuba's president was forced to step in Tuesday after a minister's assertion that "there are no beggars" caused an uproar on the economic crisis-stricken island. Labor Minister Marta Elena Feito on Monday told a parliamentary committee meeting about measures to address poverty that people rummaging for food in garbage bins are in fact "disguised as beggars." "When you look at their hands, when you look at the clothes those people are wearing, they are disguised as beggars, they are not beggars. In Cuba, there are no beggars," she said in statements broadcast live on state television. Social media users in the communist nation reacted with outrage, posting photos of people eating out of trash cans, while economist Pedro Monreal commented on X that there are "people disguised as 'ministers'" in Cuba. President Miguel Diaz-Canel entered the fray on X Tuesday to lambast Feito's "lack of sensitivity." He later told a parliamentary session that "none of us can act with arrogance, act with pretense, disconnected from the realities we live in." Beggars, added Diaz-Canel, are "concrete expressions of social inequalities and the problems" Cuba faces. Poverty levels have increased sharply as the Caribbean country reckons with its worst economic crisis in three decades, marked by shortages of food, medicine and fuel and daily power blackouts. Observers blame a combination of US sanctions, domestic mismanagement of the economy, and the Covid-19 pandemic tanking the nation's vital tourist industry. Last year, the government said there were 189,000 families and 350,000 individuals out of a population of 9.7 million living in "vulnerable" conditions and benefiting from social assistance programs. AFP has observed a marked increase in the last two years of homeless people and beggars on the streets of a country where the average monthly salary is less than $20 at the unofficial exchange rate. Cuba's economy shrunk for the second consecutive year in 2024, contracting 1.1 percent compared to 1.9 percent in 2023.
Yahoo
16-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Cuban president addresses anger over 'there are no beggars' claim
Cuba's president was forced to step in Tuesday after a minister's assertion that "there are no beggars" caused an uproar on the economic crisis-stricken island. Labor Minister Marta Elena Feito on Monday told a parliamentary committee meeting about measures to address poverty that people rummaging for food in garbage bins are in fact "disguised as beggars." "When you look at their hands, when you look at the clothes those people are wearing, they are disguised as beggars, they are not beggars. In Cuba, there are no beggars," she said in statements broadcast live on state television. Social media users in the communist nation reacted with outrage, posting photos of people eating out of trash cans, while economist Pedro Monreal commented on X that there are "people disguised as 'ministers'" in Cuba. President Miguel Diaz-Canel entered the fray on X Tuesday to lambast Feito's "lack of sensitivity." He later told a parliamentary session that "none of us can act with arrogance, act with pretense, disconnected from the realities we live in." Beggars, added Diaz-Canel, are "concrete expressions of social inequalities and the problems" Cuba faces. Poverty levels have increased sharply as the Caribbean country reckons with its worst economic crisis in three decades, marked by shortages of food, medicine and fuel and daily power blackouts. Observers blame a combination of US sanctions, domestic mismanagement of the economy, and the Covid-19 pandemic tanking the nation's vital tourist industry. Last year, the government said there were 189,000 families and 350,000 individuals out of a population of 9.7 million living in "vulnerable" conditions and benefiting from social assistance programs. AFP has observed a marked increase in the last two years of homeless people and beggars on the streets of a country where the average monthly salary is less than $20 at the unofficial exchange rate. Cuba's economy shrunk for the second consecutive year in 2024, contracting 1.1 percent compared to 1.9 percent in 2023. lp/val/mlr/jgc
Yahoo
09-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
AI Brings Neurological Problems in Near-Future Brazil in ‘Future Future' (Exclusive Karlovy Vary Teaser)
Something is wrong in Brazilian filmmaker Davi Pretto's fourth feature, Future Future, which world premieres in the Proxima Competition program of the 59th edition of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (KVIFF) on Wednesday, July 9. The title is a nod to the setting: a rainy near-future Brazil where AI advances coincide with a new neurological syndrome. 'A 40-year-old amnesic man named K is taken in by a 60-year-old lonely clickworker on the poor side of a rainy Brazilian city,' reads a synopsis for the movie. 'After using an addictive AI device in a course for people with the strange [neurological] syndrome, K embarks on a tragic and absurd journey to find where he truly belongs.' AI threats, social inequality, and cognitive disruption are dissected through this sci-fi lens. More from The Hollywood Reporter 'When a River Becomes the Sea': An Archaeologist Digs Deep to Uncover and Confront Sexual Trauma Agnieszka Holland on Her Kafka Film 'Franz' and Its Themes, Such as "Dangers of Totalitarian Society" Jodie Whittaker, Jason Watkins Added to BBC Cast for 'Dear England' Described as 'an unconventional political lo-fi sci-fi shot in guerrilla style for 16 days' on a tiny budget, the independent Brazilian production survived the country's worst flood in over 80 years, which displaced half a million people and put cities underwater for almost two months. As such, the dystopian drama survived a real-life drama. 'After the flood destroyed our locations, Davi radically incorporated AI imagery that he created himself, both as a dystopian element previously imagined for the story and as an ironic and provocative solution to finish the film, exploring the poetic potential in the stupidity and absurdity of AI images, a cinematic and philosophical debate that the film addresses,' says producer Paola Wink. Pretto's previous features were Castanha (2014), Rifle (2017), and Continent (2024). 'Influenced by the exponential growth of luxury private neighborhoods that emulate foreign countries for the privileged few in the city I live, Porto Alegre, I wrote this film thinking about how Brazilian division and inequality persist, both as urban geography and as social concept – selling this 'other country' as an attainable consumer desire,' the filmmaker explains. 'In this context, artificial intelligence doubles as the virtual false image of an emulated city and as a tool that promises that these private spaces for the elite will function without the need for servants, finally separating these enclaves from the surrounding city,' Pretto says. 'The story reflects on the cognitive and political dangers of advances in artificial intelligence, a technology that has changed the world of work, social relations, and altered our perception of what is real and what is not.' THR can exclusively reveal a first teaser for Future Future below, which features recurring red and recurring lines. 'Try to visualize it,' a voice is heard saying repeatedly, for example. So, take a look into the Future Future, but remember: 'Something is wrong.' Best of The Hollywood Reporter The 40 Best Films About the Immigrant Experience Wes Anderson's Movies Ranked From Worst to Best 13 of Tom Cruise's Most Jaw-Dropping Stunts
Bloomberg
28-06-2025
- Climate
- Bloomberg
China Steps Up Flood Aid as Threat of Extreme Rains Loom
China rolled out new measures to better compensate residents affected by flood diversion efforts, as a warming climate heightens the threat of extreme rains and devastating deluges. A key tool in China's flood management strategy is the diversion of floodwaters away from industrial hubs and densely populated urban areas. But that approach disproportionately hits poorer rural populations and agricultural land, exacerbating already stark social inequality and at times sparking public anger.
CNA
27-06-2025
- Politics
- CNA
Hong Kong opposition party says it will disband
HONG KONG: Hong Kong's League of Social Democrats, one of the city's last remaining opposition parties after a five-year political crackdown by Beijing, said on Friday (Jun 27) that it will disband. The party was founded in 2006 and was once considered the radical faction in Hong Kong's pro-democracy camp. It was known for its boisterous street-level campaigning, often spearheaded by the now-jailed activist "Long Hair" Leung Kwok-hung. "Next year marks the 20th anniversary of the League of Social Democrats. However, we will not survive to see that day and will announce our disbandment," the LSD said in a message to reporters, adding that more details will be announced Sunday. It consistently called for greater democracy in Hong Kong and advocated for grassroots causes, criticising social and economic inequalities in a city with one of the world's largest wealth gaps. "When the system cannot faithfully represent the people's demands and becomes a tool for the ruling classes, we must rely on a movement of the masses outside the system to put pressure on those in power," LSD wrote on its website. The party held three seats in Hong Kong's legislature at its height. However, its decline began after Beijing imposed a national security law in Hong Kong in 2020 in the wake of massive and sometimes violent pro-democracy protests the year before. China and Hong Kong say the law was needed to curb political unrest, while critics say it has quelled dissent and curbed rights. LSD figurehead Leung was arrested in 2021 and jailed last year as part of a sprawling subversion case involving 47 opposition figures. The party has held small public protests in recent years, often under heavy police surveillance. Four members, including current leader Chan Po-ying, were fined this month for displaying a black cloth and raising money "without permits" in street campaigns.
