Retired child and adolescent psychiatrist and American expatriate in New Zealand. In 2002, I made the difficult decision to close my 25-year Seattle practice after 15 years of covert FBI harassment. I describe the unrelenting phone harassment, illegal break-ins and six attempts on my life in my 2010 book The Most Revolutionary Act: Memoir of an American Refugee.
Iran has threatened to block the Strait of Hormuz over the US strikes, while the Houthis previously targeted Western ships in the region
Ships traveling near the Red Sea and Persian Gulf have begun transmitting false Russian and Chinese affiliations to avoid potential attacks, Reuters reported on Thursday, citing maritime risk analytics firm Windward and vessel tracking data.
Tehran, which controls the Strait of Hormuz – a key route for global oil – threatened to close it if the US joined Israeli strikes on its nuclear sites. Iran’s parliament reportedly approved the move on Sunday, though the final decision lies with the Supreme National Security Council.
Meanwhile, the Iran-backed Houthis have attacked ships in the Red Sea since late 2023, citing solidarity with the Palestinians during the Gaza conflict. While US President Donald Trump brokered a deal in May to halt the attacks in exchange for a pause in Western airstrikes, the group has since warned that it would target US ships if Washington backed Israeli attacks on Iran.
Although a ceasefire was reached between Israel and Iran earlier this week, Ami Daniel, the CEO of Windward, said shipping companies remain skeptical about vessel safety in the area.
“The perception among shipowners is that due to the convoluted nature of shipping it’s hard to know or ascertain clearly a chain of ownership to nationalities which may be under higher threat in shipping, namely the UK, US and Israel,” Daniel told Reuters.
Windward said 55 vessels sent a total of 101 atypical ID messages, such as “China owned” or “Russian crude,” between June 12 and 24 in the Persian Gulf and Red Sea. The firm said these were likely used to reduce the risk of being mistaken for Western or Israel-linked ships. A Panama-flagged ship en route to Pakistan signaled “PKKHI all Chinese,” while a Singapore-flagged vessel transmitted “Vsl no link Israel.”
Daniel added that under normal circumstances vessels transmit destinations or neutral terms such as “For Orders,” while some use “Armed Guards on Board” in high-risk zones. But after Israel’s strikes on Iran, the use of non-standard messages spiked and spread from the Red Sea into the Persian Gulf.
Corporate insolvencies have hit their highest level in a decade, a new study indicates
Germany endured the highest wave of corporate bankruptcies in a decade in the first half of this year, a study by economic tracking agency Creditreform has suggested.
The first six months of this year saw some 11,900 German companies go bust, the study released on Thursday indicates. The figure represented a 9.4% increase over the same period last year, according to the agency. Some 141,000 employees worked at the companies affected.
“Despite some signs of hope, Germany remains mired in a deep economic and structural crisis. Companies are struggling with weak demand, rising costs, and persistent uncertainty,” Creditreform chief economist Patrik-Ludwig Hantzsch said.
The situation is expected to remain difficult as Germany continues to struggle with a recession that has dragged on for two years already. The wave of bankruptcies might ultimately increase in the next six months, given that the “persistently high level of insolvencies is increasingly triggering chain reactions,” Hantzsch warned.
While German GDP grew by a slight 0.2% in the first quarter of 2025, weak global demand and uncertainty in trade policies continue to take a toll on its economy. According to a new survey conducted by the Ifo economic institute released this week, expectations have worsened among German exporters this month over uncertainty regarding a potential trade war with Washington. The US was Germany’s top trading partner in 2024, with bilateral trade in goods totaling €253 billion (around $280 billion), according to official data.
Earlier this year, US President Donald Trump imposed 20% tariffs on all EU goods, with 25% on steel, aluminum, and cars. When Brussels signaled its readiness to retaliate, most of the levies were put on hold for 90 days to allow for negotiations. A 10% base tariff and the 25% targeted duties remained unchanged.
“The tariff threats from the US are still on the table. An agreement between the EU and the US has yet to be reached,” Klaus Wohlrabe, head of Ifo surveys, said, adding that the uncertainty has lowered exporters’ expectations, with the respective index falling to -7.4 points in June from -5.0 in May. The index measures how optimistic or pessimistic German manufacturing companies are about their prospects for selling abroad over the next three months.
Hamas officials on Thursday said there is ‘no breakthrough’ in ceasefire talks, as Israeli forces continue to kill starving Palestinians seeking aid
US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have reached a preliminary agreement on a new strategic vision for West Asia, according to a report by Israel Hayom published on 27 June. The proposal includes a roadmap to end the war in Gaza within two weeks, broaden the Abraham Accords to include Saudi Arabia and Syria, and lay the groundwork for a conditional two-state solution.
The agreement reportedly emerged from a high-level call involving Trump, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Netanyahu, and Israel’s Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer. Sources familiar with the conversation described a mood of “euphoria” among the leaders, driven by what they say was a successful US strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities and enthusiasm for what they say is a transformative peace initiative.
The plan calls for a ceasefire in Gaza, followed by the international administration of the territory.
Four Arab states – reportedly including Egypt and the UAE – would oversee governance of the strip, replacing Hamas. The remaining Hamas leaders would be exiled, and hostages currently held in Gaza would be released.
The reconstruction burden is expected to fall heavily on international donors, while emigration options would be provided for displaced Palestinians.
Trump and Netanyahu also agreed in principle to expand the Abraham Accords.
The next phase would seek normalization between Israel and countries that have so far resisted such moves, including Saudi Arabia and Syria.
Diplomatic recognition from additional Muslim-majority nations is expected as part of the broader push.
On the Palestinian front, the proposal includes a statement of Israeli readiness to engage in a future “two-state solution,” though heavily conditioned.
Any such move would require significant reforms to the Palestinian Authority (PA). In return, the US would recognize Israeli annexation, or “sovereignty,” over parts of the occupied West Bank.
Despite this forward momentum, diplomatic sources indicated that President Trump had applied heavy pressure on Netanyahu to wrap up military operations in Gaza – a pressure that began even before Israel’s attack on Iran and resumed immediately after.
Tensions reportedly flared when Israeli strikes on Iran continued following Trump’s public ceasefire announcement on 24 June. Trump appeared to be furious that Netanyahu authorized a new wave of airstrikes, risking the ceasefire, after a “minor Iranian missile” was allegedly launched at Israel.
Hamas sources cited in Arab media on Wednesday said efforts to resume negotiations for a ceasefire in Gaza are progressing “more effectively” than during the 12-day Israel–Iran war.
However, the sources, who spoke with Asharq al-Awsat, said “there is no real breakthrough to speak of at the present time,” while stressing that Hamas continues to insist on a full withdrawal and permanent ceasefire, as well as reject disarmament.
The sources also said Hamas is willing to show “flexibility.”
“A new round of indirect negotiations will be held within a few days, either in Cairo or Doha,” the sources went on to say. They added that mediators have resumed efforts to kickstart talks and that “some parties communicating with the US have also contacted the Hamas leadership again to make mutually agreed-upon arrangements.”
On Tuesday, sources close to Hamas allegedly toldReuters the resistance movement was open to discussing any offers that would “end the war and secure Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza.”
Meanwhile, Israel continues to kill Palestinians, including starving civilians seeking aid distributed by the US and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Fund (GHF).
Medical sources in Gaza toldAl Jazeera on Friday that at least 72 people have been killed in Israeli attacks across the strip over the past 24 hours.
Gaza’s Government Media Office reported that in the past month, at least 549 Palestinians were killed and 4,066 injured by Israeli forces while trying to access humanitarian supplies distributed by GHF, Al Jazeera added.
Senator Mike Lee introduced a bill to remove the US from the North Atlantic Alliance, arguing that the collective defence pact is not within US national security interests.
The legislation titled the ‘Not A Trusted Organization Act’ or the ‘NATO Act’ argues NATO expansion led to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. “The dissolution of both the Warsaw Pact and the Soviet Union fundamentally altered the security environment in Europe and rendered NATO’s founding collective defense mission irrelevant,” the bill states. “Despite its waning relevance and prior assurances to the contrary, NATO began a profound eastward expansion in 1999, which, as of 2025, culminated in a land border with the Russian Federation that exceeds 1,500 miles and encircles the Baltic Sea.”
It adds, “The invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation in 2022 demonstrates the Russian Federation’s willingness to employ military action in response to perceived security threats.”
In 2007, Russian President Vladimir Putin warned that Ukraine’s ascension into NATO would be a major national security risk for Moscow. Over the next decade and a half, the bloc would increasingly treat Kiev as a member, even if it would not grant Ukraine official membership in the alliance.
In 2021, the Kremlin sent a proposal to the White House that would have averted the war if NATO had agreed that Ukraine would not become a member. However, the Biden administration never seriously considered the offer, and NATO continued to express that the door to membership was open to Kiev.
In addition to starting a major war in Europe, Lee says membership in NATO is causing the US to pay for Europe’s defense. “Since the founding of NATO, the United States has shouldered the burden of what was characterized as a ‘collective’ security alliance, as the largest financial and hard power contributor,” the bill explains.
President Donald Trump is attempting to address the issue by mandating all alliance members to spend 5% of GDP on defense. However, Lee notes in the bill that nearly one-third of the bloc currently does not meet the current 2% minimum.
Lee argues that the current issues of the alliance create a situation where “Membership of the United States in NATO is inconsistent with the national security interests of the United States.”
Whereas the general modus operandi in legacy media is to smear RFK Jr. as an “anti-vaxxer” within the first sentence, the Washington Post courteously waited until the second paragraph to label RFK Jr. a “vaccine misinformation” spreader on its way to condemning him for cutting federal funding to Bill Gates’ global “vaccine alliance,” GAVI.
The United States will halt its contributions to Gavi, the global alliance that works to expand access to vaccines for children in some of the world’s poorest countries, said Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Wednesday — a move that public health experts said would have deadly consequences.
Kennedy, who has a history of spreading vaccine misinformation, announced the decision in video remarks made to a Gavi summit in Brussels, during which he accused the group of neglecting “the key issue of vaccine safety.”…
In his remarks, Kennedy cited a study linking the DTP vaccine — for diphtheria, a highly contagious bacterial infection that kills 5 to 10 percent of those affected, as well as tetanus and pertussis — to increased child mortality. Kennedy also said Gavi should “consider the best science available,” and “re-earn the public trust.”
The Bezos paper didn’t actually cite or quote the DTP study referenced by Kennedy, so I went and found it.
In the 1980s, the suburb Bandim in the capital of Guinea-Bissau was followed with demographic surveillance and tri-monthly weighing sessions for children under 3 years of age. From June 1981, routine vaccinations were offered at the weighing sessions. We calculated mortality hazard ratio (HR) for DTP-vaccinated and DTP-unvaccinated children aged 6–35 months…
Though lower mortality compared with not being DTP-vaccinated was… expected, DTP vaccination was associated with a non-significant trend in the opposite direction…
Although having better nutritional status and being protected against three infections, 6–35 months old DTP-vaccinated children tended to have higher mortality than DTP-unvaccinated children. All studies of the introduction of DTP have found increased overall mortality.
“That’s a shocking conclusion. If it’s true the DTP vaccine results in greater death in children, not less, then why haven’t these findings been replicated in the U.S.?” is the rational follow-up question.
Furthermore, credible estimates suggest that “fewer than 1% of vaccine adverse events are reported” to the clunky and intentionally labyrinthine VAERS system, the mechanism by which the government measures vaccine injuries.
Although 25% of ambulatory patients experience an adverse drug event, less than 0.3% of all adverse drug events and 1-13% of serious events are reported to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Likewise, fewer than 1% of vaccine adverse events are reported. Low reporting rates preclude or slow the identification of “problem” drugs and vaccines that endanger public health. New surveillance methods for drug and vaccine adverse effects are needed.
For the record, far from a purely humanitarian organization delivering medicine to the Global South, GAVI is also quietly central to the construction of the global biomedical monitoring regime — AKA the “vaccine passport.”
Ghana has been leading the way in the adoption of new tools like biometrics to improve patient identification. The Ghana Health Service (GHS) has collaborated with Simprints to use privacy-first biometric ID within its digital health registries to track the delivery of routine immunizations and boost coverage rates.
Gavi, The Vaccine Alliance is a public-private global health partnership that aims to increase access to immunization in low income countries. Simprints CEO Toby Norman said it was an honor to welcome Dr. Nishtar to see their technology in action in clinics.
“In partnership with Ghana’s Ministry of Health, we’re deploying Simprints privacy-first biometric ID to trace the delivery of malaria and routine immunisations to rapidly identify dropouts or zero-dose children,” he said…
Gavi CEO Dr. Nishtar was shown the Simprints ID app at the Ominako Community-based Health Planning and Services (CHPS) facility in the Eastern Region of Ghana by a Community Health Worker (CHW). Using the app, CHWs can effectively monitor vaccine delivery, allowing for rapid identification and intervention for those who may drop out of routine immunization programs.
The launch of a new smartphone has raised questions after experts noted similarities to Chinese devices and doubted US production capabilities
Trump Mobile has removed the ‘Made in the USA’ label for an upcoming smartphone from its website, sparking renewed speculation over whether the $499 T1 device is a rebranded Chinese model. Launched by the Trump Organization on June 16, the company now says the T1 phone is “designed with American values in mind.”
The change was first flagged by The Verge on Wednesday and confirmed through archived captures. The T1 8002 is currently described as “brought to life right here in the USA,” replacing earlier claims of domestic manufacturing. The phone’s specifications were also changed, including a screen size drop, and the September 2025 shipping date has also been removed.
The changes appear to have been made after industry analysts questioned whether the US has the capacity to produce the device. Todd Weaver, the CEO of US-based smartphone manufacturer Purism, told CNN last week that building a secure, scalable phone production line in the US would take years, and that even his company, which sells a $1,999 ‘Made in the USA’ phone, sources some components from abroad.
“Unless the Trump family secretly built out a secure, onshore or nearshore operation… it’s simply not possible. There are areas where you’re going to still need a global supply chain,” he said, citing a crystal in Purism’s GPS chip that is made in China.
Max Weinbach of Creative Strategies noted similarities between the T1 and the Revvl 7 Pro 5G, a $169 phone made by China’s Wingtech. “There are only four or five smartphone ODMs that could manufacture this – and they’re all in China,” he said, referring to ‘original device manufacturers’ – companies that design and make products based on the specifications of another company.
“It is likely that this device will be initially produced by a Chinese ODM,” Blake Przesmicki, an analyst at Counterpoint Research, told CNBC.
Eric Trump – who now co-leads the Trump Organization – effectively acknowledged that the phones are not currently made in the US. In an interview last week, he said, “eventually all the [Trump] phones will be built in the USA,” while avoiding any direct claim of domestic production.
Company spokesman Chris Walker, however, told USA Today on Wednesday that “the T1 phones are proudly being made in America,” and dismissed speculation to the contrary as “simply inaccurate.”
The news comes amid President Donald Trump’s push to boost domestic manufacturing. Trump imposed sweeping tariffs on trading partners earlier this year, citing unfair trade imbalances and saying the move would provide an “incentive for re-shoring production to the US.” China was hit hardest, and the two sides engaged in a tit-for-tat tariff war that paused after a preliminary deal earlier this month until a final trade agreement, which is expected by August 10.
This fascinating book summarizes all the most recent DNA evidence, isotope dating and high tech archeological layering to create a complex portrait of Neanderthal life. Sykes’ main premise is that Neanderthals were every bit as human as our own Homo sapiens species.
The Evolution of the Homo Species and Stone Tools
Homo erectus split off as a distinct hominin species 2-3 million year ago. The earliest evidence of stone tools dates from 3.3 million year ago. 2.5 million years ago. The first australopithecene* individuals acquired a knowledge of geometry necessary for flaking technology 2.5 million years ago. The earliest mass migration of Homo eretcus species from Africa to Eurasia occurred two million years ago.
The best available evidence indicates that Neanderthals became a distinct species between 400 and 450 thousands years ago. The absence of any remains after 40,000 BC suggests they became extinct after this date. Neanderthal remains are found as far north a the UK, as far south as the Middle East and as far east as Siberia. Neanderthals arrived in Europe around 45,000 year ago.
Diet
Neanderthals were much squatter and heavier than modern humans. Owing to the massive number of calories (3,000-7,000 per day) they required to maintain their weight, they had a preference for megafauna (mammoth, massive prehistoric horses, rhinoceros,** musk ox and aurochs***) when it was available. They also ate predators (especially hibernating bears), fish, birds, shellfish, rabbit, crab, tortoise, eel, dolphin, insect, a well as vegetables (sorrel, dock berries, fungi, roots, tuber, lichen, fruits, nuts, lentil, peas and bulbous barley). They carved digging sticks to harvest root vegetables. Both meat and vegetable required extensive processing and cooking, chores they shared among nomadic bands of 25 that followed migrating animals. The animal remains found with them indicate they used spears as their primary weapon, as well as cooperative effort to exhaust their prey.
Technology
Neanderthal teeth show a distinct pattern of wear suggesting both men and women used them extensively to process hides. They were also extremely skilled at producing specialized stone tools by hammering and flaking them. They also developed the technology to resharpen tools when they became dull. Their stone tools included axes, hammers and blades for butchering meat and processing skin for clothing and primitive shelters. They also carved tools from wood and bone and used sinews, tendons and plant fibers to fasten their blades to handles. Birch tar or pine resin fortified with bees wax was used as adhesive.
Interbreeding with Homo Sapiens
Existing remains suggest most lived into their forties, with some living to age 60. DNA studies indicate there was some in-breeding during periods of intense glaciation.
There is also clear evidence they interbred with Homo sapiens, which co-existed with Neanderthals between 100,000 and 40,000 years ago. Except in sub-Sarahan Africa where none is found, 1.8 – 2.6% of modern humans have some distinctively Neanderthal DNA. Indigenous Americans, Asians and Oceanians (including Australian aborigines) have one-fifth more Neanderthal DNA than other ethnic groups). Neanderthanls arived in Europe around 45,000 year ago.
It’s believed cimate stress and loss of animal food sources during a severe glacial period (45,000-11,700 BC) led to their ultimate demise
*Belonging to the species Australopithecus, one of the oldest primate species to walk upright.
**During the last 400,000 years, Europe experienced a tropical climate at least once during its interglacial periods.
Like the Marvel franchise, with its unlimited instalments and spin-offs, a new Covid scare campaign is underway in Australia.
Like the Marvel franchise, the entertainment content exists largely to create demand for merchandise.
Unlike most Marvel films, this latest virus fear-mongering drive is turning out to be a massive flop.
The hook: There’s a new “highly contagious” Covid Omicron subvariant in town, catchily named NB.1.8.1.
Sticking with time-tested tradition, health authorities, experts, and media are playing the ‘cases, cases, cases’ angle, as the latest variant “sweeps the nation” with what I calculate to be Australia’s twelfth Covid wave since the pandemic scare series kicked off in 2020.
Exposition: “According to Griffith University, the NB.1.8.1 variant makes up more than 40 per cent of total COVID cases tested in Victoria, around 25 per cent in Western Australia and New South Wales, around 20 per cent in Queensland and less than 10 per cent in South Australia,” reports ABC.
“There are hundreds of different strains of Omicron, and the new subvariant NB.1.8.1 is driving up infections and hospitalisations, particularly in Asia and Western Australia,” reports the Daily Mail.
Narrator’s aside: Case counts and hospitalisations are well within the normal range in Western Australia (WA), and no one has been admitted to ICU with Covid for months, according to the latest WA Health reporting.
However, we mustn’t let this contextualising information get in the way of the narrative arc.
Climactic buildup: Back to cases, cases, cases. It’s “pretty much everywhere,” according to ABC. “Doctors are expecting a further spike in cases,” so “experts are urging people to get their COVID booster jab.”
Climactic escalation: But experts are furious that Australians are not vaccinating enough. You naughty, naughty Australians. In the past six months, only 6.6% of adults have received a Covid vaccine, according to recent federal figures, despite the vaccines being “free,” i.e., already paid for with your taxes.
Crisis response: Our protagonist takes action to meet the threat head-on. After all, the government has product to shift, so the vaccine advertorial must keep pumping.
Health Minister Mark Butler bravely does the media rounds, imploring anyone who can get a booster to “have a serious think” about following through.
Hero falters: Unfortunately for Butler, boosters aren’t recommended for many cohorts in Australia anymore, because the risk-benefit profile is not favourable for most people.
Current Australian guidelines suggest adults aged over 75 should get a booster every six months, while those aged between 65 and 74, along with severely immunocompromised adults over 18 years of age, should get one every year. Outside of this, boosters are not recommended but are available to all Australian adults and to children who are severely immunocompromised.
Plot twist: Experts admit that the reason everyone needs another booster is that vaccinating against a fast-mutating coronavirus doesn’t work super well.
“The virus gradually evolves so that some of its proteins are a little bit different so that it can avoid the antibodies that we’ve now got present at population level,” says one.
“In this case, we’ve got mutations in the spike protein that seems to be making it easier for this virus to attach to our cells and it seems to be making this virus evade our antibodies better,“ says another.
Slow roll a peer-reviewed article co-authored by Dr Anthony Fauci concluding that, “Durably protective vaccines against non-systemic mucosal respiratory viruses with high mortality rates have thus far eluded vaccine development efforts.”
Comic relief: Like the good lackeys they are, media outlets are beating up the BREAKING new variant story, to which the general public response has been LMAO.
Denouement: Collective apathy. The failure of this latest scare campaign is unlikely to preclude a thirteenth scare campaign, as the government is generally unresponsive to market feedback, and it has mRNA investments and purchase commitments driving its decision-making.
Its inter-agency members sought to sabotage the Russian-US rapprochement.
Reuters reported in mid-June that the Trump Administration had recently disbanded a secret inter-agency working group overseen by now-dismissed National Security Council members tasked with formulating strategies for coercing Russia into concessions to Ukraine. According to their three unnamed US official sources, Trump’s hitherto refusal to escalate American involvement in the conflict led to this initiative losing steam, though he could still potentially reverse gears in the future.
At any rate, what’s most significant about Reuters’ report is that it confirms that a secret group of officials from the US’ permanent military, intelligence, and diplomatic bureaucracies (“deep state”) was set up to manipulate Trump into pressuring Russia, which could have worsened tensions had it succeeded. Just as significantly, however, was its failure to do so thus far. Nevertheless, the plans that they devised could still be implemented by subversive deep state elements and therein lies the problem.
According to Reuters, “Ideas ranged from tailored economic deals designed to peel some countries out of Russia’s geopolitical orbit to covert special operations efforts”, the first scenario of which included a proposal to “incentivize” Kazakhstan into cracking down on Russia’s evasion of Western sanctions. That country has been drifting Westward for some time already, which could pose challenges for Russia and China as explained here in summer 2023, but it doesn’t appear that anything came from that scheme.
The second scenario, however, might have speculatively been connected to Ukraine’s strategic drone strikes against Russia in early June. No one can say for certain whether or not Trump knew about this in advance, but Reuters’ revelation about the existence of this previously unreported “deep state” working group lends credence to those of his supporters who claimed that he didn’t. After all, it’s entirely possible that this was orchestrated by them without his knowledge, which he might have told Putin.
There’s also the possibility that these “covert special operations efforts” included the two false flag plots in the Baltic Sea that Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service recently warned about. Although they claimed that these are joint British-Ukrainian efforts, it can’t be ruled out that the aforementioned subversive “deep state” elements within that working group could have either played a role in their planning and/or might have had a detailed plan ready for pressuring Trump into escalating against Russia afterwards.
This secret “deep state” inter-agency working group’s disbandment therefore raises hopes of peace with Russia and might partially account for the Trump Administration’s latest pragmatism towards it.
The Secretary of Defense recently announced that aid for Ukraine will be slashed in the next budget while the Secretary of the Treasury warned against new anti-Russian sanctions. Trump then opposed more such sanctions at the G7, blocked efforts to lower the Russian oil price cap, and stood up Zelensky.
While it’s premature to celebrate the preceding moves since Trump could always flip-flop on his own or be manipulated into escalating, they’re nevertheless positive developments for peace. It remains to be seen whether he’ll stay the course, but what’s important is that he’s back to his pragmatic approach that was briefly disrupted by a period of angry posts about Putin. The best-case scenario is that he proudly defies the “deep state” by finally coercing Ukraine into Russia’s demanded concessions for peace.
The richest 1% of the people on Earth have gained over $33.9 trillion in real terms since 2015, according to a new report by UK-based anti-poverty group Oxfam.
The amount is enough to end extreme poverty 22 times over, based on the World Bank’s highest income threshold of $8.30 per person per day.
Approximately 3,000 billionaires worldwide have collectively increased their wealth by $6.5 trillion over the past decade, bringing their total net worth to 14.6% of global GDP, the report claims.
Oxfam argues that while personal wealth has skyrocketed, efforts to reduce poverty have significantly stalled.
According to the report, wealthy nations are making the steepest cuts to life-saving development assistance since 1960.
Oxfam projects that G7 countries, responsible for approximately 75% of all official aid, will reduce their contributions by 28% in 2026 compared to 2024. The UK alone is expected to decrease its spending on aid by 40% by 2027
The report also highlights the growing gap between private and public wealth. From 1995 to 2023, global private wealth soared by $342 trillion, while public wealth in the same period rose by only $44 trillion.
Over half of the world’s poorest countries are now on the brink of a debt crisis, the report warns. Many are being forced to spend more on servicing debt than on healthcare or education.
The report singles out private creditors, who hold over half of the external debt of low-income countries, for refusing to restructure loans and imposing punitive repayment terms.
According to a global public opinion survey cited by Oxfam, 90% of respondents support taxing the super-rich to fund public services and climate action.
(Photo credit: AP Photo/Oded Balilty)
The Most Revolutionary Act 