China, Australia see 'positive changes' in bilateral ties

The bilateral relations between China and Australia have seen "positive changes" in the recent past, the top diplomats from the two countries viewed during a phone call on Tuesday.

This comes ahead of the G20 summit in Indonesia later this month where President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will come face to face. A readout from China's Foreign Ministry said Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong said Australia and China have "maintained effective communication and contact."

It was their third call in the past five months. "Through unremitting efforts, the relations between the two countries have seen positive changes," the readout quoting Wong said, adding that Canberra asserted its "one-China policy" to "develop a more stable and mutually beneficial relationship with China on the basis of mutual respect." Wang Yi, China's top diplomat said, the "common interests" of China and Australia "far outweigh the differences."

Laos recorded the highest year-on-year inflation rate at 36.75pc in October, up from 34 percent in September, according to the latest report from the Lao Statistics Bureau. These figures represent a significant increase since the beginning of 2022, with rising prices continuing to inflict hardship on people struggling to earn a living.

According to the report released on

Saturday from the Lao Statistics Bureau website, the price of food and non-alcoholic beverages has surged by 38.8 percent year on year, driven by the rising price of rice and other daily food items such as pork, poultry, fish, seafood, eggs, vegetable oil, fruit, and vegetables.

Commercial transport and delivery charges rose by 58.1 percent compared to the previous month, especially for fuel, which was recorded at 95 percent in October.

The cost of other consumer goods and many other products also rose, including clothing, footwear, construction materials, household items, medical equipment, and medicines.

US income inequality grew in 2021 for the first time in a decade, according to data the

Census Bureau released in September 2022.

That might sound surprising, since the most accurate measure of the poverty rate declined during the same time span.

But for development experts like me, this apparent contradiction makes perfect sense. That's because what's been driving income inequality in the United States - and around the world for years - is that the very rich are getting even richer, rather than the poor getting poorer.

In every major region of the world outside of Europe, extreme wealth is becoming concentrated in just a handful of people.

Economists and other experts track the gap between the rich and the poor with what's known as the Gini index or coefficient. This common measure of income inequality is calculated by assessing the relative share of national income received by proportions of the population.

In a society with perfect equality - meaning everyone receives an equal share of the pie - the Gini coefficient would be 0. In the most unequal society conceivably possible, where a single person hoarded every penny of that nation's wealth, the Gini coefficient would be 1.

The Gini index rose by 1.2% in the US in 2021 to 0.494 from 0.488 a year earlier, the Census found. In many other countries, by contrast, the Gini has been declining even as the Covid-19 pandemic - and the deep recession and weak economic recovery it triggered worsened global income inequality.