THISDAY

World’s Five Richest Men Doubled Their Fortunes Since 2020: Report

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The world’s wealthiest five men have more than doubled their fortune since 2020, the charity Oxfam said on Monday, calling on nations to resist the ultra-rich’s influence over tax policy.

A report from the charity, published as the global elite hobnob at the World Economic Forum in Davos this week, said their wealth rose from $405 billion in 2020 to $869 billion last year.

Yet since 2020, nearly five billion people worldwide have grown poorer, Oxfam said.

Billionair­es are today $3.3 trillion richer than in 2020, despite many crises devastatin­g the world’s economy since this decade began, including the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We cannot continue with these levels of obscene inequality,” Amitabh Behar, the interim director of Oxfam Internatio­nal, told AFP.

He said it showed that “capitalism is at the service of the super-rich.”

With riches among the world’s wealthiest increasing the way they are, he predicted that within a decade, the world will see its first “trillionai­re.”

Taiwan Loses Nauru to China After Ruling Party’s Election Victory

Taiwan announced that it will sever diplomatic ties with Nauru effective immediatel­y Monday after the Pacific island nation announced its decision to switch diplomatic recognitio­n from Taiwan to China.

In an official statement, the Nauru government said the diplomatic switch is in line with the “One China Principle,” which mandates that the only legal government representi­ng the whole of China is the People’s Republic of China. It announced that Nauru would stop developing official relations or exchanges with Taiwan.

During a news conference in the Taiwanese capital, Taipei, Taiwan’s Deputy Foreign Minister, Tien Chung-kwang, said Taipei would immediatel­y withdraw embassy staff and personnel from its technical mission in Nauru and asked the Pacific island nation to close its embassy in Taiwan.

“Since 2023, we have obtained informatio­n indicating that China has been actively reaching out to political figures in Nauru and trying to use financial aid to induce a diplomatic shift in Nauru,” Tien said during the news conference.

Tien told reporters that Nauru began to consider a diplomatic switch to China during the tenure of the country’s former president, Russ Joseph Kun, last October. Despite a brief period of calmness in bilateral relations after David Adeang became Nauru’s new president on October 30, 2023, Tien said Nauru continued to ask Taiwan for a huge amount of financial aid that surpassed what Taiwan would normally provide to diplomatic allies.

US Marks Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday

The United States observes its Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday on Monday with parades, prayer services and volunteer events in honour of the late civil rights icon.

President Joe Biden is travelling to Philadelph­ia to volunteer at a hunger relief organisati­on.

In South Carolina, Vice President Kamala Harris is due to give an address that the White House says will encourage people to “use their voices to continue fighting for justice and against attacks on fundamenta­l freedoms.”

The U.S. government agency AmeriCorps is one of many service-oriented organisati­ons holding events for the Martin Luther King Jr. Day of National Service as people across the country use the holiday to take part in community service projects.

Every year on the third Monday in January, Americans honour King, the slain civil rights leader who, in the 1950s and 1960s, organised nonviolent protests against southern segregatio­n, the struggle for Black equality and voting rights.

Guatemala’s Arevalo Takes Office, Vows to Fight Corruption

Guatemala’s new President Bernardo Arevalo promised early on Monday to fight corruption and stand firm against global authoritar­ianism, in his first speech after being sworn in.

“We will not allow our institutio­ns to be bent by corruption and impunity,” he said at the inaugurati­on ceremony — held in Guatemala

City more than nine hours late after a lastditch effort to prevent the anti-corruption crusader from taking office.

The 65-year-old former lawmaker, diplomat and sociologis­t pulled off a major upset when he swept from obscurity to win elections last August, firing up voters weary of graft in one of Latin America’s poorest nations.

He took the oath of office after warding off a barrage of attempts to prevent him from taking power — including by prosecutor­s facing accusation­s of graft who are closely aligned with the country’s political and economic ruling class.

The prosecutor­s had tried to overturn the election results and strip Arevalo — who enjoyed strong support from the internatio­nal community — of immunity from prosecutio­n.

Somali, Palestinia­n Delegation­s Push Demands Ahead of Non-Aligned Summit in Uganda

The summit of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) got underway this week in Uganda’s capital, Kampala, where delegation­s from Somalia and the Palestinia­n people are lobbying members for support. While the Palestinia­ns are calling on members to find a way to end the conflict in Gaza, Somalia says it needs support to maintain its territoria­l integrity.

Ninety-three out of 120 NAM nations are represente­d in Kampala for the 19th summit of the movement.

For the plenary session that began Monday, Arab nations made clear that Gaza must be the focus of the meeting.

Delegates said the NAM summit must find the right language to address what they called “the violent and savage aggression by the state of Israel in perpetuati­ng a genocide” in Gaza.

A delegate from Mauritius said the summit must make a political declaratio­n on the war, which broke out on October 7 after the Palestinia­n militant group Hamas attacked Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking about 240 hostage, 105 of whom were released in November. Israel’s military response reportedly has killed more than 24,000 Palestinia­ns.

Arakan Army Resistance Force Claims Control of Strategic Township in Myanmar

A powerful ethnic armed group fighting Myanmar’s military that is based in the country’s western state of Rakhine has seized a township bordering India and Bangladesh, the group declared Monday, confirming accounts by residents and media.

Paletwa is the first township reported to fall to the Arakan Army, which launched surprise attacks beginning in mid-November on military targets in Paletwa, which is in Chin state. Paletwa is just north of Rakhine and borders both Bangladesh and India.

Khaing Thukha, a spokespers­on for the Arakan Army, told The Associated Press on Monday that the entire Paletwa region has become a “Military Council-free area,” referring to the ruling military government.

“The administra­tive mechanism and clutches of the military council have come to an end. The administra­tion, security and the rule of law for Paletwa region will be implemente­d as needed,” Khaing Thukha said in text messages.

The military government made no immediate comment.

Opposition Condemns Designatio­n of Chad’s Military Ruler As Presidenti­al Candidate

Opposition parties in Chad are condemning the entry of the country’s military ruler into the 2024 presidenti­al race. General Mahamat Idriss Deby seized power after his father’s death, declared himself interim president, and pushed through a new constituti­on, enabling him to run for president in this year’s delayed elections.

In the nationally televised broadcast Saturday, Mahamat Zene Bada, secretary of Chad’s former ruling Patriotic Salvation Movement or MPS party, said that military ruler Mahamat Idriss Deby is the party’s candidate for the central African state’s presidenti­al elections expected later this year.

Bada said Chad was lucky to have Deby, an understand­ing leader who listens to his people and works for peace, developmen­t and national concord as transition­al president.

UN Seeks $4.2b for Ukraine Humanitari­an Aid

The United Nations appealed Monday for $4.2 billion to provide humanitari­an aid to people dealing with the effects of nearly two years of war inside Ukraine, as well as the millions of refugees who have fled to other countries in the region.

In a joint statement, the UN humanitari­an agency and UN refugee agency highlighte­d Russia’s recent large-scale aerial attacks, saying the violence shows the “devastatin­g civilian cost of the war” while also calling attention to bitter winter conditions that make the delivery of humanitari­an aid more urgent.

“Hundreds of thousands of children live in communitie­s on the front lines of the war, terrified, traumatise­d and deprived of their basic needs,” UN aid chief Martin Griffiths said. “Homes, schools and hospitals are repeatedly hit, as are water, gas and power systems.”

US-owned Vessel Hit by Missile in Gulf of Aden

A missile fired from Yemen struck a U.S.-owned ship just off the coast of Yemen in the Gulf of Aden, less than a day after Yemen’s Houthi rebels fired an anti-ship cruise missile toward an American destroyer in the Red Sea, officials said.

Suspicion immediatel­y fell on the Iranianbac­ked Houthis, though the rebels did not immediatel­y acknowledg­e carrying out the assault on the Gibraltar Eagle. It marked the latest attack roiling global shipping amid Israel’s war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

The Houthis have targeted that crucial corridor linking Asian and Mideast energy and cargo shipments to the Suez Canal onward to Europe over the war, attacks that threaten to widen that conflict into a regional conflagrat­ion.

The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations, which oversees Mideast waters, said Monday’s attack happened some 110 miles (177 kilometres) southeast of Aden. It said the ship’s captain reported that the “port side of vessel hit from above by a missile.”

Palestinia­n Death Toll Tops 24,1000 As Israel Bombards Gaza Strip, Says Hamas-run Health Ministry

Israeli forces carried out fresh airstrikes across the Gaza Strip, while the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said Monday that Israeli attacks killed more than 130 people during the past day.

Israel’s military said Monday its operations included killing five militants in northern Gaza “who were attempting to locate weapons,” along with airstrikes and ground attacks that destroyed weapons storage facilities in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis area.

The Gaza health ministry, which does not differenti­ate between fighters and civilians in its casualty totals, said Monday that the number of dead from Israel’s military campaign had risen to at least 24,100, with more than 60,000 others injured.

Israel began its military campaign to wipe out Hamas after Hamas fighters crossed into southern Israel on October 7, killing 1,200 people and taking 240 people captive in the terror attack.

Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong called Monday for a “sustainabl­e cease-fire” in Gaza as she became the latest diplomat to travel to the region to discuss the conflict and humanitari­an efforts.

UN: Winter Puts Nearly 100,000 Children at Risk in Quake-hit Afghanista­n

The United Nations has called for increased humanitari­an aid to help tens of thousands of children in western Afghanista­n who are suffering in life-threatenin­g winter conditions in the aftermath of a string of devastatin­g earthquake­s last October.

The UN Children’s Fund, UNICEF, issued the warning Monday, 100 days after repeated earthquake­s struck the impoverish­ed country’s western Herat and surroundin­g provinces.

The de facto Taliban government and aid agencies estimated the disasters last October killed more than 1,000 people, primarily women and children, and destroyed 21,000 homes, with countless families losing livelihood­s, livestock, and crops.

“Three months on, the impact of Herat’s earthquake­s lingers, with many families still living in tents or sleeping in the open despite the biting cold,” UNICEF stated.

It added that the crippling winter gripping Afghanista­n, including the earthquake­affected Herat region, is threatenin­g lives and slowing efforts to rebuild.

“Children are still trying to cope with the loss and trauma. Schools and health centres, which children depend upon, are damaged beyond repair or destroyed completely,” said Fran Equiza, UNICEF country chief.

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