Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade, the United States’ Simone Biles, and South Korea’s Yeo Seo-jeong celebrate after the women’s vault final during the Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Antwerp, Belgium, on Oct. 7.Lionel Bonaventure/AFP via Getty Images
A match for Simone Biles. Brazil’s 24-year-old Rebeca Andrade won gold on the vault Saturday at the Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Antwerp, Belgium. Her five-medal haul was the most of any Brazilian at a single global gymnastics competition in history. In addition to the hardware she will bring home, Andrade captivated viewers in Brazil with a floor routine set to the tune of Brazilian funk music.
Andrade’s performance at the competition put her in direct competition with another gymnastics star, the United States’ Simone Biles. But the athletes were friendly to each other, and Brazilians on social media shared images of them dancing together at a post-meet party.
“I think people create this type of battle and rivalry,” Andrade told GloboEsporte. “She’s so inspirational. It’s incredible to have her at a competition.”
Brazilian Finance Minister Fernando Haddad is of Middle Eastern descent. Where are his ancestors from?
Palestine
Lebanon
Jordan
Syria
Brazil’s Lebanese population is one of its most visible diasporas. Members also include former President Michel Temer.
People attend the Belt and Road Summit in Hong Kong on Aug. 31, 2022.
People attend the Belt and Road Summit in Hong Kong on Aug. 31, 2022.Isaac Lawrence/AFP via Getty Images
Many Latin American leaders and envoys, including Boric, are among those headed to China this weekend for a summit that marks 10 years of Beijing’s infrastructure lending program geared toward developing countries, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). According to the Boston University Global Development Policy Center, Chinese development finance institutions lent more than $331 billion between the BRI period of 2013 and 2021, often strengthening China’s political and trade relations with them in the process.
To mark the occasion, the Chinese government released a lengthy white paper taking stock of the program. The researchers at BU also published their own report.
Beijing’s paper celebrates the fact that the BRI—in its view—has strengthened Chinese influence in partner countries while also providing them with improved infrastructure. It also listed a series of operating principles for the program that appear to respond to some international criticism of its projects, such as the arguments that they lack transparency and harm the environment. The paper listed a commitment to green development and “zero tolerance for corruption.”
BU’s independent analysts found that the BRI had significant benefits for borrowing countries as well as risks that should be addressed going forward.
On the upside, BRI infrastructure projects appear to be on track with a previous World Bank projection that, if the projects announced up to 2019 were fully completed, they could lead to an increase in global trade between 1.7 percent and 6.2 percent, boosting global economic growth by between 0.7 percent to 2.9 percent, the researchers wrote.
Moreover, BRI projects are often more focused on infrastructure (such as creating a port or an electric grid) than World Bank lending, which supports a wide range of projects that can include education, health, and agriculture. This means that “Chinese finance is thus more associated with economic growth, addressing infrastructure bottlenecks and increased energy access than World Bank lending,” according to the BU report.
The BU researchers noted that the risks of BRI funding include debt distress, higher risks to biodiversity and Indigenous lands, and increased carbon emissions, due to an initial favoring of financing fossil fuel-powered plants over sources of clean energy. Although Western diplomats have often tried to warn developing countries away from Chinese loans by saying that China is engaging in harmful “debt trap diplomacy” whereby sovereign assets might be seized, the researchers rejected the term. Still, they acknowledged that many countries are experiencing debt crises in which Chinese debt is one ingredient.
Both China and borrower countries can take clear steps to make the BRI program better for both sides going forward, they stressed.
Source link : https://foreignpolicy.com/2023/10/13/israel-palestine-hamas-gaza-war-latin-america-chile-diaspora/
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Publish date : 2023-10-13 03:00:00
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