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Vox Deletes Tweet Saying Africa’s Population Growth Is One Of The World’s Worst Problems

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Mike Brest Reporter
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Vox Media deleted a tweet posted on Saturday promoting Ezra Klein’s podcast, in which Klein interviews Bill Gates, because it stated that “one of the biggest problems the world is facing” is “rapid population growth in Africa.”

The tweet also teased the interview, which was released on Monday.

Despite the deleted tweet, the podcast and a transcript of the interview are still available on Vox’s website.

In the interview, they discuss the rapid population growth in Africa and how the continent’s development had been stunted through a variety of different ways. Gates and Klein also go on to talk about how economic growth and political freedom has an effect on the development of Africa, as well as how the population increase effects of food supply.

The interview with Gates centered on the results of Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’ annual Goalkeepers Report.

One of the conclusions of the report is that by the year 2050, the number of people living in “extreme poverty,” which is defined by them as making less than $1.90 a day, will be overwhelmingly large on the continent of Africa.

“Africa as a whole is projected to nearly double in size by 2050, which means that even if the percentage of poor people on the continent is cut in half, the number of poor people stays the same,” they wrote. “Even so, for most African countries, the outlook is positive. For example, Ethiopia, once the global poster child for famine, is projected to almost eliminate extreme poverty by 2050.”

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