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World Headlines: Immigrants A Net Boost To U.K., Study Says

Border Control at London's Heathrow Airport.
Steve Parsons
/
PA Photos /Landov
Border Control at London's Heathrow Airport.

Britain, The Guardian

We begin with a hot-button issue in Britain – and elsewhere: immigration.

Migrants to Britain since 2000 are less likely to receive benefits or use government housing than those people already in the country. That's according to a new study by the University of London's migration research unit.

The study released Tuesday found that these migrants made a net contribution of nearly $40 billion to public finances. Migrants from the European Economic Area were most likely to make a positive contribution. They paid about 34 percent more in taxes than they received. For immigrants from other parts of the world, the figure was 2 percent.

But when the study examined migrants from non-EEA countries coming to Britain since 1995, it found they claimed more in benefits than they paid in taxes.

The findings come amid a public debate in Britain over immigration.

Venezuela, El Universal

Next to Venezuela, whose economy is struggling with inflation as well as a devalued currency.

The devalued bolivar has increased the prices of imported goods and are hurting Venezuelan families.

The country's central bank said the wholesale price of imported goods rose 42.5 percent in the first seven months of the year; that's about six times the 7.2 percent increase during the same period last year.

The bolivar has dropped more than 30 percent against the dollar since the start of the year.

China, Xinhua

Finally to China, where a popular Olympian is in trouble with the law – and his fans.

Sun Yang, an Olympic swimming gold medalist, has been detained for seven days and fined about $330 after driving a Porsche SUV without a license and being involved in a crash.

Sun, who was uninjured in the incident in Hangzhou, was rear-ended by a bus. He says he'd borrowed the SUV from a relative. The 21-year-old said he didn't have a license.

"I should have been a role model, as an athlete and a public figure, but I failed in my responsibility," he told his 20 million followers on the social media site Sina Weibo.

In another story on the incident, Xinhua noted that this isn't the first time Sun " was in negative exposure."

At the 2012 Olympics in London, Sun became the first Chinese man to win a swimming gold medal and he's considered one of China's top sportsmen.

Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Krishnadev Calamur is NPR's deputy Washington editor. In this role, he helps oversee planning of the Washington desk's news coverage. He also edits NPR's Supreme Court coverage. Previously, Calamur was an editor and staff writer at The Atlantic. This is his second stint at NPR, having previously worked on NPR's website from 2008-15. Calamur received an M.A. in journalism from the University of Missouri.