High levels of inflation and increased costs of living are contributing to worldwide hunger, according to a survey of 16 countries commissioned by the humanitarian group World Vision International.

The survey, which comes ahead of World Food Day on Monday, found that 59% of parents surveyed were very concerned about child hunger and malnutrition in their families, with 46% worried about finding the money to buy food.

It also found that 37% of parents said their children fail to receive proper nutrition each day and 21% said their children have gone hungry in the last month.

The percentage of children going to bed hungry rises to 38% in low-income countries. In the United States, 18% of respondents said a child has gone to bed hungry in their home.

“Hunger is a global problem, and it isn’t limited to any one country or part of the globe,” Andrew Morley, the president of World Vision International, said in a statement.

The survey, conducted by Ipsos, polled more than 14,000 people of all income levels.

Among respondents who said their children went to sleep hungry, 46% cited inflation and the cost of living as the main reason. The next two most common reasons cited were low household income (39%) and not enough government focus on ending hunger (25%).

Surging prices have affected economies around the globe due to factors including pandemic-related disruptions to global supply chains and the effects of Russia’s war in Ukraine. Persistently high inflation was the biggest economic concern of economists this year, according to Reuters polls.

The 16 countries included Australia, Bangladesh, Brazil, Britain, Canada, Germany, Japan, Mexico, Peru, the Philippines, South Korea and the United States where Ipsos surveyed about 1,000 adults in each nation. In Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Iraq and Malawi, it surveyed about 500 people in each country.

Inflation and increased cost of living was the most-cited cause of child hunger in 11 of the 16 countries, reaching a high of 70% in Bangladesh. But wealthy countries such as Canada (68%), Australia (66%) and Britain (66%) also cited higher prices as the main cause. — Reuters

United States law enforcement agencies have escalated security measures to safeguard Jewish and Muslim communities ahead of global pro-Palestinian protests expected on Friday but urged members of the public to go about their daily routines.

Police in the two most populous U.S. cities – New York and Los Angeles – said they would step up patrols, especially around synagogues and Jewish community centers, though authorities insisted they were unaware of any specific, or credible threats.

“There’s no reason to feel afraid. No one should feel they have to alter their normal lives,” New York Governor Kathy Hochul said at a news briefing on Thursday.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams said his office had directed city police to “surge additional resources to schools and houses of worship to ensure they are safe and that our city remains a place of peace.”

Adams said extra police patrols were being deployed in Jewish and Muslim communities alike.

Heightened U.S. security concerns, particularly over a possible flare-up of antisemitic and Islamophobic violence, were spurred by the recent wave of bloodshed after Hamas gunmen from the Gaza Strip on Saturday rampaged through parts of southern Israel in the deadliest Palestinian attack in Israel’s history. More than 1,300 Israelis were killed and scores were taken captive.

Heavy aerial bombardment of Gaza by Israeli armed forces in response has killed at least 1,500 people and injured 6,600 others in the crowded Palestinian coastal enclave, according to health officials there.

Former Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal called for protests across the Muslim world on Friday in support of Palestinians, a message amplified on social media by calls for a day of resistance on behalf of the people of Gaza.

TIMES SQUARE PROTEST EXPECTED

New York City officials said they were bracing for at least one major demonstration planned for Times Square on Friday.

“Every member of the New York Police Department will be ready and be in uniform tomorrow,” NYPD Chief of Patrol John Chell told reporters. “We will not tolerate any hate, any acts of disorder, it will be quelled quickly and we will be ready.”

Hochul said the New York National Guard had already been ordered to patrol vital transportation hubs.

Across the country, the Los Angeles Police Department issued a statement saying its officers would assume a higher profile around Jewish and Muslim communities “during this unimaginable time.”

Federal law enforcement agencies were also on alert.

“The FBI is aware of open-source reports about calls for global action on Friday, October 13th, that may lead to demonstrations in communities throughout the United States,” the agency said in a statement. “The FBI encourages members of the public to remain vigilant.”

At least one Arab-American advocacy group pointed to a more hostile posture taken by U.S. law enforcement toward Muslim groups than Jews.

The Arab American Anti-Discrimination Committee said on Thursday that FBI agents had paid visits to a number of mosques in different states and individual U.S. residents with Palestinian roots, calling it a “troubling trend.”

“We have received multiple calls today regarding Palestinian nationals detained by ICE, and/or visited by the FBI,” the national executive director of organization, Abed Ayoub, said on X, formerly called Twitter.

Rabbi Yoni Fein, who heads a large Jewish day school in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, the Brauser Maimonides Academy, said “higher alerts of operations are definitely in place” in anticipation of global protests on Friday.

He said the FBI, U.S. homeland security officials and other federal authorities had held online security “webinars” with Jewish institutions around the country.

But Fein said the school was seeking to reassure students they are safe and to go about with their lives.

Rather than give in to the heightened anxiety Fein acknowledged was gripping the Jewish community, he said the academy’s message to its students and their families was to reassure them that “their homes are safe, their schools are safe and that their trusted adults are keeping them safe.” — Reuters

Japan’s government is set to decide to extend gasoline, natural gas and power subsidies to the end of March that were set to expire at the end of 2023, five government and ruling party sources with knowledge of the matter said this week.

The extension of the subsidies, which were previously extended to the end of 2023 in August, will be featured in an economic package Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s cabinet plans to compile later this month, the sources said.

Kishida has urged his government to compile a supplementary budget to fund the package while the government tries to scrape together financial sources to fund it, raising concerns about adding to the industrial world’s heaviest debt pile.

Kishida is hoping the new economic package shores up flagging support for his cabinet.

Some ruling party lawmakers have called for an overall economic package worth around 15 trillion to 20 trillion yen ($100 billion-$134 billion), which may jeopardize the government’s aim of balancing the primary budget, excluding new bond sales and debt servicing costs, by the fiscal year-end in March 2026.

The subsidies for gasoline, electricity, and gas utilities were seen as urgent because the government wants to reduce the burden on Japanese firms to keep alive the momentum towards wage hikes at the annual labor talks in March, the sources said on condition of anonymity as they are not authorized to speak to media.

The government would decide later on whether to continue the subsidies beyond March, taking energy prices and currency moves into account, they said.

The government decided in August to extend the subsidies to the end of the year amid rising energy prices and as the yen weakened, which boosted the import costs of fuel for resource-deficient Japan.

The Prime Minister’s office did not immediately reply to a request for comment. — Reuters

WELLINGTON – New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins on Friday urged voters to get out and re-elect Labour in Saturday’s national election, as polls indicate a change in government after six years of left-wing rule.

Mr. Hipkins, who took over as prime minister in January when Jacinda Ardern made the surprise decision to step down, has struggled to win back swing voters disenfranchised with the Labour Party, which they blame for long COVID-19 lockdowns and a huge rise in the cost of living.

However, Mr. Hipkins, 45 said Labour was starting to see momentum build in the final hours of campaigning.

“We are expecting a really huge turnout … and we’re expecting a really strong result tomorrow night,” Mr. Hipkins, 45, told reporters.

The opposition centre-right National Party is ahead in the polls but is very unlikely to get a majority even with the support of its preferred coalition partner, the libertarian ACT Party.

Polls predict that the nationalist New Zealand First Party will hold the balance of power. The party was Labour’s coalition partner in 2017 but has said it will not work with Labour again.

National Party leader Christopher Luxon said on Friday there was a “very big mood for change” in the country.

“MMP (mixed member proportional) elections are always close. If you want change, you can’t rely on other people to do it, you’ve got to vote for it,” Mr. Luxon, 53, told media.

Both leaders organised walkabouts on Friday to woo an undecided voter bloc of about 9%. Hipkins even got on stage for a dance.

Over a million New Zealanders have already voted in advanced voting with nearly two million still expected to cast their ballots before voting closes at 7 p.m. (0600 GMT) Saturday.

Although a provisional result will likely be available on Saturday night, it is unlikely the next government will be known as coalition deals will need to be negotiated.

“Polls tend to suggest we are looking at a centre-right coalition but the increasing degree of support for some of the smaller third parties introduce a little bit more uncertainty about that,” said Westpac Chief Economist Kelly Eckhold.

“Thinking about the election, markets are particularly focused on the extent to which we get a clean result as opposed to potentially protracted coalition negotiations.” — Reuters

Dozens of Filipino workers who helped build stadiums that hosted the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar filed a lawsuit on Thursday claiming US construction firm Jacobs Solutions, Inc. subjected them to dangerous and inhumane conditions.

The nearly 40 plaintiffs in a complaint filed in federal court in Denver, Colorado, said Jacobs and several subsidiaries that oversaw the construction projects forced workers to live in cramped, dirty barracks and work up to 72 hours straight in blistering heat without food and water.

The plaintiffs also claim they were not paid all of their wages and had their passports confiscated, barring them from finding new jobs or returning home to the Philippines.

Dallas, Texas-based Jacobs did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Qatar has faced intense criticism from human rights groups over its treatment of migrant workers, who along with other foreigners comprise the bulk of the country’s population. The scrutiny intensified in the years leading up to the 2022 World Cup, when hundreds of workers were reportedly killed and thousands injured during construction projects.

The government of Qatar has said that far fewer workers were killed or injured, and in 2020 raised the country’s minimum wage and applied it to foreign workers for the first time.

The plaintiffs in Thursday’s lawsuit claim Jacobs knew or should have known about human rights abuses in Qatar and chose to knowingly exploit workers.

Jacobs and its subsidiaries are accused of violating a US law that prohibits trafficked or forced labor even when the alleged conduct occurs outside the United States. The plaintiffs also accused Jacobs of negligence and unjust enrichment, among other claims. They are seeking unspecified damages. — Reuters