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HARD NUMBERS

90: The World Health Organization has found that more than 90 percent of the world’s young people, around 1.8 billion children, are exposed to toxic air pollution today. That’s a time bomb for health implications in many countries around the world.


 

70: A large majority (70 percent) of Mexicans who participated in a referendum on whether to continue building a new international airport voted to scrap the project. The only problem: just one percent of Mexico’s electorate participated in the vote, which was backed by President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador but not officially sanctioned by the government.

 

1.25: Today, Uganda is home to 1.25 million refugees, or about 3 percent of its total population, making it one of the world’s most welcoming countries. Rural Ugandans, whose experience of displacement after a brutal civil war in the 80s, have been remarkably accepting of those fleeing violence in neighboring South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Kongo, and Burundi.

 

1: Around 70 percent of U.S. firms operating in southern China are considering either delaying or ending investments there as trade tensions between Washington and Beijing grow, according to a new American Chamber of Commerce survey. Of these firms, only 1 percent say they have plans to establish new manufacturing bases in North America.

 

2/3: Since 1990, China has accounted for two-thirds of those lifted out of poverty globally.  It has also contributed just under two-thirds to the global increase in military spending over the same period.

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