Rising poverty has been accompanied by an assault on brazil's much admired social safety net. The number of families admitted to bosofamilia has dropped from about 275 thousand a month to fewer than 25 hundred. And the total number of people in the programme has fallen by more than a million families. But i met dozens of people who have had their benefits cut for unexplained reasons, and really need the money.
Hong Kong’s GDP report released today reflects the squeeze that enormous protests at home and economic headwinds on the mainland have put on the territory—and that was before the coronavirus outbreak. Inequality in Brazil is bad and getting worse; we ask why the government is chipping away at a much-praised social safety-net. And a look at the self-help craze gripping Ethiopia. For full access to print, digital and audio editions of
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