Month: April 2023

When exactly will India surpass China as most populous?

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Read time : 3 mins

Level : Advanced

FILE – People crowd a market area outside a train station in Mumbai, India, Saturday, March 12, 2022. Demographers are unsure exactly when India will take the title as the most populous nation in the world because they’re relying on estimates to make their best guess. (AP Photo/Rajanish Kakade, File)

By MIKE SCHNEIDER and SIBI ARASU Associated Press

India will surpass China’s population this month. Or maybe in July. Or, perhaps it’s happened already?

Demographers are unsure exactly when India will take the title as the most populous nation in the world because they’re relying on estimates to make their best guess. But they know it’s going to happen soon, if it hasn’t occurred by now.

China has had the most people in the world since at least 1950, the year United Nations population data began. Both China and India have more than 1.4 billion people, and combined they make up more than a third of the world’s 8 billion people.

“Actually, there is no way we can know exactly when India will surpass China,” said Bruno Schoumaker, a demographer at Université catholique de Louvain in Belgium. “There is some uncertainty, not only about India’s population, but also China’s population.” Continue reading

Bank survey shows Japan’s businesses turning pessimistic

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Read time : 2 mins

Level : Intermediate

People walk at a pedestrian crossing in Ginza shopping district Friday, March 31, 2023, in Tokyo. Business sentiment among big Japanese manufacturers worsened in the first quarter of this year, marking the fifth straight decline, according to a closely watched central bank survey of business sentiments called “tankan.” (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

By YURI KAGEYAMA AP Business Writer

TOKYO (AP) — Business sentiment among big Japanese manufacturers worsened in the first quarter of this year in the fifth straight decline, according to a central bank survey released Monday.

The headline measure in the Bank of Japan quarterly survey called “tankan” found such sentiments stood at plus 1, down from plus 7 in December. It’s the worst quarterly result since December 2020.

Sentiments among major non-manufacturers rose one point to plus 20, its the fourth straight quarter of improvement.

The Japanese economy has tended to stagnate in recent years, with slow wage increases, and has recently been hit by inflationary pressures, even as some parts of the nation’s economy continue to experince deflation, the opposite trend in which prices continually decrease. Continue reading

The US leads the world in weather catastrophes. Here’s why

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Read time : 3 mins

Level : Advanced

FILE – People walk through damage from a late-night tornado in Sullivan, Ind., April 1, 2023. (AP Photo/Doug McSchooler, File)

By SETH BORENSTEIN AP Science Writer

The United States is Earth’s punching bag for nasty weather.

Blame geography for the U.S. getting hit by stronger, costlier, more varied and frequent extreme weather than anywhere on the planet, several experts said. Two oceans, the Gulf of Mexico, the Rocky Mountains, jutting peninsulas like Florida, clashing storm fronts and the jet stream combine to naturally brew the nastiest of weather.

That’s only part of it. Nature dealt the United States a bad hand, but people have made it much worse by what, where and how we build, several experts told The Associated Press.

Then add climate change, and “buckle up. More extreme events are expected,” said Rick Spinrad, head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Continue reading