Hindu devotees line up to take a holy bath in the Ganges River during the Kumbha Mela festival in Haridwar, India on April 15, 2010. The United Nations said India should overtake China as the most populous country in the world by 2024. File Photo by Maryam Rahmanian/UPI
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June 22 (UPI) -- A United Nations report says the world population will increase to 9.8 billion people by 2050 despite a nearly global decrease in fertility rates.
The global population increased from 7.4 billion in 2015 to where it stands currently at 7.6 billion, the United Nations said on Wednesday.
"With roughly 83 million people being added to the world's population every year, the upward trend in population size is expected to continue, even assuming that fertility levels will continue to decline," the World Population Prospects: The 2017 Revision report by the U.N.'s Department of Economic and Social Affairs said.
At the current rate, the world population will increase to 8.6 billion by 2030, 9.8 billion by 2050 and 11.2 billion by 2100.
India, with a current population of 1.3 billion will surpass China, with a current population of 1.4 billion, as the most populous country in the world by 2024. By 2050, Nigeria, currently ranked seventh, will surpass the United States as the third most-populous country.
Part of the growth is expected to come from the 47 least developed countries, where the fertility rate is about 4.3 births per woman. The population of those countries is expected to increase from the current 1 billion to 1.9 billion by 2050.
The population of 26 African countries will likely at least double by 2050, the report indicates.
Nearly all regions of the world have experienced decreased fertility rates, including in Africa where fertility rates decreased from 5.1 births per woman in 2000-05 to 4.7 births in 2010-15. Europe did not follow the same trend; the birth rate there increased from 1.4 births per woman up to 1.6 births during the same periods.
"Even assuming a continued decline in fertility, given this relatively high starting point, we should anticipate a continued rapid growth of the African population, which will roughly double in size between now and 2050," John Wilmoth, director of the U.N.'s Population Division said during a presentation. "Fertility levels in the other world regions are in an intermediate range between those of Africa and Europe."
Sir Martin Sorrell’s GroupM, which buys more than $75bn (£60bn) of advertising space on behalf of clients globally, has slashed its growth prediction for UK digital advertising and has blamed some of the adjustment on an advertiser backlashover the inability of Silicon Valley giants to stop ads appearing around inappropriate content.
The latest forecast says that spend on major digital platforms like Google, Facebook and YouTube in the UK – or “pure play” internet advertising, in the industry jargon – will grow by 11% to nearly £10.5bn this year, a reduction on an earlier forecast of 15%.
“Effectively, since March we have seen a surprisingly general effect of clients either stopping spend altogether, or pausing spend in this area. It has been widespread,” said Adam Smith, a director at GroupM. “It has been much more persistent in that if you thought it was something that was a seven-day wonder, it isn’t. There is still a substantial number of advertisers yet to return to their prior weight of ad investment.”
In March, it emerged that major brands’ content was appearing next to videos on YouTube, which is owned by Google, promoting extremist views or hate speech, with a cut of the advertising spend going to the creators. The inappropriate content included YouTube videos of American white nationalists, a hate preacher banned in the UK and a controversial Islamist preacher.
Facebook, which relies upon advertising, has come in for criticism and pressure to clean up its act over a number of issues including distributing “fake news”.
It has faced an advertising boycott by major companies including Havas – the world’s sixth largest advertising group with UK clients including O2, EDF and Royal Mail – which pulled its entire £175m UK digital ad spend.
Earlier this month Vodafone, which spends about £400m a year on digital advertising, introduced a tough new global policy limiting its adverts to sites on a “whitelist”.
GroupM said the downgrade will mean that pure play UK internet ad spend – which does not include ad spend on publishers’ websites or TV companies’ digital services – will grow at the slowest rate since 2011.
It is estimated that the cut in forecast spend equates to hundreds of millions of pounds of ad spend being held back from Google and Facebook.
“I think trust in digital advertising is one of the most important industry issues of our time,” said Keith Weed, marketing chief at Unilever, the world’s second biggest advertiser, which owns brands including Dove and Lynx and spends €7.5bn (£6.6bn) globally.
“It is absolutely central to people’s confidence in advertising and brands, and our continued use of these channels. Therefore partners need to have greater accountability to aim for a brand-safe environment. We continue, through tough and difficult conversations with media partners, to accelerate plans that address these challenges.”
Despite the advertiser pullback, traditional media owners offering so-called “brand-safe” environments, such as the websites of newspaper and magazine publishers and on TV companies’ digital services, are not forecast by GroupM to see a major boost in ad spend.
“No traditional media owner has made as much of this as they should have done,” said Smith. “They haven’t seen the message that they were a safer environment for online content translate commercially. Nevertheless, the issue remains an important theme for 2017.”
The forecast for national newspaper advertising, digital and print remains almost unchanged, with a decline of 10.8% to £835m predicted for this year.
GroupM has also downgraded the forecast for the £4.4bn TV ad market this year from flat to a fall of 3%.
The slower rate of growth of pure-play digital ad spend – and the reduced outlook for TV advertising – has led GroupM to forecast the slowest rate of growth for the overall UK ad market since 2012.
In November, GroupM forecast that the UK ad market would grow 7% this year, it now predicts 4.1% growth to £18.6bn. This is the lowest level since 3.8% growth reported in 2012.
VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Latest on European migration issues (all times local): 5 p.m. The leader of Libya's unity government is appealing for European Union funds to help cope with thousands of migrants flooding into his conflict-ravaged country in hope of reaching Europe.
(1 of 7) Emma Butterfleld, doctor at Proactiva Open Arms NGO, comforts Ahmat Arbab Hamat, 22, from Sudan, as he arrives sick at the Golfo Azzurro rescue vessel, after being rescued in the Mediterranean Sea, 13 miles north of Sabratha, Libya, on Tuesday, June 20, 2017.
Fayez Sarraj said in Brussels on Thursday that "as the number of migrants rises, the economic and social fabric of southern Libya is placed under very significant strain." He said Libya has some 4,000 kilometers (2,500 miles) of southern borderline and "doesn't have the resources to manage significant flows of people."
Sarraj said "financial contributions are necessary to bolster that southern border" and that "we seek the European union's support in that endeavor." EU leaders meet in Brussels on Thursday and are expected to agree to step up funding to the country's coast guard to help prevent migrants leaving Libyan waters.
1:55 p.m.
A Norwegian official has asked Russia how come six asylum-seekers from Armenia were able to enter Norway via a remote Arctic border post despite a bilateral border agreement that doesn't allow them to cross there.
The police chief at Norway's Storskog checkpoint says the would-be refugees, aged between 4 and 58, entered the Scandinavian country by car on Tuesday.
Ellen Katrine Haetta told The Associated Press she had asked Russian authorities why they were let through without proper visas.
It was the first time asylum-seekers had crossed the border since Oct. 30, 2015. The crossing became famous when a few thousand people from Syria and the Mediterranean region found an unlikely route via Russia with many bicycling across the Arctic border, which is not open to pedestrians.
1:45 p.m.
A trial has started in Hungary of 11 men indicted in the case of 71 migrants who suffocated to death in the back of a refrigerated truck in 2015.
Prosecutors in the trial, which started Wednesday, have asked for life sentences for the four alleged human smugglers who are facing murder charges. The other defendants are facing shorter prison terms and expulsion from Hungary.
Migrants from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan were among the victims found in the back of a refrigerated truck with Hungarian license plates abandoned in the emergency lane of the A4 highway near Parndorf, Austria, not far from the Hungarian border, on Aug. 27, 2015.
The victims, who died while the truck was still in Hungary, included 59 men, eight women and four children.
11:45 a.m.
Pope Francis has thrown his support behind proposed legislation aimed at better integrating migrants into Italian society and the workforce, intervening in a broader debate over immigration and citizenship that has consumed national politics in recent weeks.
Francis noted Wednesday that he had met with some refugees this week as the U.N. marked world refugee day. The pope, who has prioritized the plight of refugees in his four-year papacy, said he wanted to voice his appreciation for a campaign backed by Italy's Radical Party to overhaul the country's restrictive migration policy and regularize those who are here illegally.
Francis stopped short, however, of backing a separate, government-backed proposal to give citizenship to children of migrants born or educated here. Currently, these children can apply for citizenship only at age 18.
MOSCOW (AP) — The leaders of Russia and Brazil have agreed to enhance coordination of their foreign policy moves. Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Brazilian counterpart Michel Temer signed a statement on "strengthening a strategic dialogue on foreign policy issues" following talks at the Kremlin on Wednesday.
(1 of 11) Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, shakes hands with his Brazilian counterpart Michel Temer at the Kremlin, in Moscow, Russia, Wednesday, June 21, 2017. (Sergei Karpukhin/Pool photo via AP)
The document contains a pledge to take efforts to contribute to "more fair, democratic and multi-polar international relations based on a central role of the United Nations, the primacy of international law and collective action."
Putin said after the talks that Russian energy and transport companies hope to increase their operations in Brazil. Brazil has several ground stations of Russia's GLONASS satellite navigation system, a rival to the U.S. GPS system, and Temer said that his country could host more of them.
ISLAMABAD, June 20 (APP): Federal Minister for Inter-Provincial Coordination (IPC) Mian Riaz Hussain Pirzada Tuesday said Pak-India series should be held frequently and Indian government should avoid politics from sports. Speaking to media at Parliament House, he said Pak-India cricket matches are played and seen with full passion and zeal therefore Pak-India series is a must show. “It is the right of the people of both the countries to witness Pak-India matches and one should not take it away from them,” he said. Expressing his views on the Champions Trophy final, he said Muhammad Amir’s four balls proved as a game changer in Indian batting. It may be mentioned here that Amir got Rohit Sharma lbw on a duck in the first over of the CT final then dismissed Indian skipper Virat Kohli on 5 runs in his second over whose catch was taken by Shadab Khan. In the same over, a ball earlier Kohli was also dropped by Azhar Ali on first slip. The minister said Pakistani bowlers bold the whole English and Indian teams in the semi final and final which shows the class of our bowlers. “Our bowlers had destroyed the strongest batting line up in the final,” he said. However the minister expressed disappointment on Pakistan’s hockey team poor show in World Cup Hockey qualifiers in England. Currently, Pakistan hockey team had only won their last group match against Scotland by 3-1in the World Cup Hockey qualifiers while in the first match Netherlands defeated Pakistan by 4-0. In the second match Canada beat Pakistan 6-0 and Pakistan lost to India by 7-1 in its third match. “Pakistan hockey team has not come up to the expectations,” he said. “We had decided to shift Pakistan Hockey Federation’s (PHF) headquarter in Islamabad as to provide the players with all sort of best facilities here,” he said.
ISLAMABAD June 20 (APP): Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif has announced Rs 10 million for each player of Pakistan cricket team, for their magnificent and historic performance in the Champions Trophy tournament. This was stated by Minister for Information, Broadcasting and National Heritage Marriyum Aurangzeb here on Tuesday. The Pakistani team made the nation proud by becoming cricket champions, she said. The national cricket team showed excellent performance while batting, bowling and fielding in the tournament and it fully deserved the appreciation and patronage of the nation and the government, she said. Encouragement of young players would help in promotion of sports in the country, she added.
