SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
oxfam
Wealth of Global Billionaires Surged by $10 Billion Per Day in January
"Failure to act enables more unchecked greed and deepening disparities, allowing oligarchs to expand their vast fortunes and further extend their power over the rest of the world," said economist Jayati Ghosh.
Feb 25, 2025
The collective fortune of the world's billionaires grew by roughly $10 billion per day during the first month of 2025 as billionaire Donald Trump took office in the United States, ushering in an administration that includes the world's richest man and other elites hellbent on eviscerating government and delivering fresh tax breaks to the ultra-wealthy.
The new analysis of billionaire wealth was published Monday by the global #TaxTheSuperRich Movement, an alliance that is pressuring G20 nations to tax the mega-rich in order to stem destructive inequality and fund critical priorities, including badly needed climate action.
According to the analysis, global billionaire wealth surged by $314 billion total in January, which is "more than the combined wealth of the 2.8 billion people who make up the poorest third of humanity."
The research, based on Forbesdata, estimates that it would take a combined 15 million workers earning the average global income a full year to earn the same amount of money that around 2,800 billionaires added to their collective net worth last month alone.
"Extreme wealth isn't just growing—it's accelerating at breakneck speed, putting more and more power into the hands of a tiny few," said economist Jayati Ghosh, a member of the Independent Commission for the Reform of International Corporate Taxation. "Failure to act enables more unchecked greed and deepening disparities, allowing oligarchs to expand their vast fortunes and further extend their power over the rest of the world."
"Rising and extreme inequality threatens everything we hold dear: our democracies, our economies, our planet, and our broader society."
The #TaxTheSuperRich Movement includes dozens of advocacy organizations—from Oxfam to Amnesty International to the U.S.-based Patriotic Millionaires—that are calling on governments around the world to reach a global agreement to "tax the super-rich at rates high enough to reduce inequality, as well as mechanisms to end tax avoidance."
The new analysis was released as G20 finance ministers gathered for a round of meetings in South Africa, which currently holds the G20 presidency.
Shortly after taking office, Trump moved to withdraw the U.S.—home to more billionaires than any other nation—from global tax deals and negotiations, including an OECD agreement calling for a minimum effective tax rate of 15% on the profits of multinational corporations.
Morris Pearl, chair of the Patriotic Millionaires, said Monday that "rising and extreme inequality threatens everything we hold dear: our democracies, our economies, our planet, and our broader society."
"In our increasingly connected world, it is a global problem that requires global solutions," Pearl added. "That's why my group, Patriotic Millionaires, is proud to partner with over 50 international organizations in calling on G20 leaders to follow through with their commitment to cooperate in taxing the super-rich more effectively."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Gaza Aid Survey Details Israel's 'Disregard of International Law'
"Without accountability and a commitment to protecting humanitarian operations, we risk repeating the same cycles of impunity and neglect," said one campaigner.
Jan 28, 2025
A survey published Tuesday of 35 organizations working in Gaza found that Israel has failed to improve access to lifesaving humanitarian aid in the embattled Palestinian enclave—despite three separate orders from the International Court of Justice to do so over the past year.
The first of those ICJ directives, issued on January 26, 2024, ordered Israel to prevent genocidal acts in Gaza and provide basic services and humanitarian assistance to its approximately 2.3 million people. The overwhelming majority of Gazans have been forcibly displaced—often multiple times—sickened, or starved, their suffering exacerbated by Israel's "complete siege." According to Gaza officials, Israel's 15-month assault has left around 170,000 Palestinians dead, maimed, or missing.
"As the survey shows, Israel completely failed to improve humanitarian conditions."
Groups participating in the survey—including Oxfam, Islamic Relief, Médecins du Monde, ActionAid, American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), and the Norwegian Refugee Council—found that Israel has "systematically denied and restricted aid, supplies, and services both into and within Gaza" since the ICJ's January 2024 order. This tracks with previous reporting from human rights groups warning that Israel has flouted all three ICJ directives, which were also issued in March and May.
Among the survey's findings:
- 89% of respondents said that Israeli actions regarding the provision of aid had worsened since the ICJ's ruling;
- 93% said the humanitarian situation for the people receiving their aid and services had deteriorated;
- 100% of surveyed agencies importing humanitarian supplies into Gaza said Israeli procedures for aid entry were either ineffective, had systematically impeded the humanitarian response, or were insufficient to meet the huge needs;
- 95% of agencies who imported aid supplies inside the Gaza Strip said they regularly encountered delays, some of them lasting two months or longer; and
- Agencies reported essential items like personal protective equipment (PPE), tarpaulins, winterization supplies, mobile kitchens, hygiene kits, food, and educational materials being denied due to the "dual use" procedure—because Israel deemed there was potential for them to be utilized for military use.
The survey results came a week into a fragile cease-fire between Hamas and Israel—which has already been accused of breaking the truce, including by killing civilians, a 5-year-old girl among them, and firing on medical workers.
"Given the volume of aid now entering Gaza, it is clear how much Israel has been obstructing the humanitarian response for the last 15 months," Oxfam policy lead Bushra Khalidi said in a statement. "As the survey shows, Israel completely failed to improve humanitarian conditions, in disregard of international law, while systematically preventing lifesaving aid from getting in."
"It is vital to assess past failures, even amid a cease-fire," Khalidi added. "Without accountability and a commitment to protecting humanitarian operations, we risk repeating the same cycles of impunity and neglect, leaving millions without hope of a better future."
The survey also coincides with hundreds of thousands of Gazans trying to return to their obliterated neighborhoods. Returning refugees report being blocked by both rubble and Israeli troops, who are sometimes using deadly force. More—but nowhere near enough—aid is finally reaching Gazans following the cease-fire.
"Now that aid is getting into Gaza, the next weeks will be critical but challenging, given the level of destruction Israel has rained down upon Gaza and its near-total decimation of the humanitarian infrastructure and operational capacity," Médecins du Monde president Dr. Jean-François Corty said on Tuesday.
The agencies that produced the survey are calling for continued and unimpeded access to humanitarian aid in Gaza, as well as for Israel to be held accountable for alleged war crimes, and crimes against humanity. The ICJ is currently weighing a South Africa-led genocide case against Israel. Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and Hamas leader Mohammed Diab Ibrahim Al-Masri.
"The international community must abide by its obligations under international law and ensure that the cease-fire becomes permanent, so Palestinians in Gaza have access to everything they need to survive without conditions and rebuild their lives equally as every human being deserves," AFSC Palestine/Israel country representative Hanady Muhiar stressed.
"Without meaningful accountability, the suffering will only deepen, and the path to justice and peace will remain blocked."
The communication and advocacy coordinator at ActionAid, Occupied Palestinian Territories, Riham Jafari, asserted that "it is essential that humanitarian access is not only immediate but sustained and unimpeded."
"The rights of Palestinians in Gaza must be protected from acts of genocide, and Israel must be held to account for its continued violations of international law," Jafari added. "Without meaningful accountability, the suffering will only deepen, and the path to justice and peace will remain blocked."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Climate Movement Alarmed by Trump Declaring Energy Emergency to 'Drill, Baby, Drill'
Green groups vowed to fight against "all attempts by Trump and his allies in Congress to weaken commonsense environmental rules and put polluter profits over the health, safety, and well-being of people and the planet."
Jan 20, 2025
U.S. President Donald Trump said during his Monday inaugural address that he would declare a "national energy emergency," intended to help deliver on his campaign pledge to "drill, baby, drill" for climate-heating fossil fuels—one of the Republican's various planned actions that have alarmed green groups in recent days.
Other plans—some confirmed by the Trump administration's White House website—include withdrawing from the Paris climate agreement again, lifting a pause on new liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports, and attacking efforts to limit planet-heating emissions with actions targeting clean energy and automobile rules.
"These actions are an unprecedented handout to billionaires," said Aru Shiney-Ajay, executive director of the youth-led Sunrise Movement. "They will make a small handful of rich men unimaginably richer while killing good-paying jobs and threatening our health and homes. As wildfires rage across California, families flee their homes, and workers struggle to make ends meet, Trump's actions make it clear whose side he's on: the billionaires and powerful corporations who bankrolled his campaign."
The combined wealth of the world's billionaires surged by $2 trillion last year, Oxfam revealed Monday, as some of them joined Trump for his inauguration—an event decried as "a coronation of our country's descent into oligarchy." The president has also nominated billionaires, climate science deniers, and fossil fuel backers to Cabinet posts and other key positions.
"We are organizing in every corner of the country to make sure the American people see these actions for what they are: handouts to billionaires at our expense," said Shiney-Ajay. "Democrats must take off the gloves and do everything in their power to expose this blatant corruption and stand against Donald Trump's agenda."
While the fossil fuel industry applauded what American Gas Association president and CEO Karen Harbert called "President Trump's decisive action to maximize the benefits from our nation's abundant and essential energy and to protect consumer choice," Oil Change International executive director Elizabeth Bast joined Shiney-Ajay in emphasizing the importance of organizing during his second term.
"The fossil fuel industry invested $75 million to secure Trump's victory, and now they're expecting a return on that investment. By appointing fossil fuel CEOs to key Cabinet positions and planning to dismantle critical environmental protections, Trump is handing these companies a blank check to expand their operations at precisely the moment we need to end fossil fuel extraction," Bast said. "But the greed of fossil fuel billionaires and their political allies cannot overcome the power of our movements. In communities across America and around the world, we're standing up not just to toxic fossil fuel projects, but to the bigotry, hatred, and division that props up corporate power."
John Noel, deputy climate program director at Greenpeace USA, similarly highlighted that "during his campaign, Trump openly requested $1 billion from Big Oil. Executive orders like declaring a 'national energy emergency' and rubber-stamping more LNG exports are the prize—a quid pro quo—rewarding those who financed his political rise."
"The latest science and economic analysis from the Department of Energy concludes that unfettered LNG exports are not in the US public interest," Noel noted. "LNG exports have already driven up U.S. energy prices. Rubber-stamping new export authorizations will only exacerbate the cost of living crisis for working people."
Nodding to Trump's previous withdrawal from the Paris agreement, which former President Joe Biden reversed, Oxfam America president and CEO Abby Maxman said that ditching the deal again "is more than reckless—it's economic self-sabotage and a betrayal of every community, both in the U.S. and globally, already facing catastrophic storms, heatwaves, and rising seas."
"While we will have a climate denier in the White House, any predictions that this is 'game over' for climate ambition are wrong," she added. "Most Americans support climate action, and communities, cities, and states across the country are stepping up to work for a sustainable future. The struggle to protect our planet isn't over—and together, we can still win."
Rachel Cleetus, policy director and lead economist for the Union of Concerned Scientists' Climate and Energy Program, similarly called the Paris withdrawal "a travesty" that "is in clear defiance of scientific realities and shows an administration cruelly indifferent to the harsh climate change impacts that people in the United States and around the world are experiencing."
"Last year was the first time global average temperatures exceeded 1.5°C above preindustrial levels for an entire year. Unless world leaders act quickly, the planet is on track for up to a 3.1°C increase, which would be catastrophic," she stressed. "As the largest historical emitter of heat-trapping emissions, the United States has a responsibility to do its fair share to stave off the increasingly dire consequences of the climate crisis."
"His disgraceful and destructive decision is an ominous harbinger of what people in the United States should expect from him and his anti-science Cabinet hell-bent on boosting fossil fuel industry profits at the expense of people and the planet," Cleetus added, pushing for "urgent actions from U.S. and global policymakers" to tackle the fossil fuel-drive climate emergency.
Green groups vowed to spend the next four years fighting against what Food & Water Watch executive director Wenonah Hauter called "Trump's filthy fossil fuel agenda," which she said "may benefit billionaires invested in the oil and gas industry, but it will hammer everyday Americans."
"Trump's declaration of a national energy emergency leverages a false premise to encourage expanded fossil fuel production at a time when the United States is already the top oil and gas producer in the world," said Hauter. "Though Trump claims he is acting to reduce costs for consumers, his actions will only increase expenses for everyone, through higher utility bills, greater pollution impacts, and the overwhelming costs of climate change-supercharged disasters—all falling disproportionately on low-income families and communities of color."
"We will vigorously fight back against any and all attempts by Trump and his allies in Congress to weaken commonsense environmental rules and put polluter profits over the health, safety, and well-being of people and the planet," she pledged.
Kierán Suckling, executive director at the Center for Biological Diversity, declared that "no one in American history has shown more disdain for the environment than Donald Trump. His reckless contempt for our nation's natural heritage and people's health will only get worse, but we'll fight him at every step."
"The United States has some of the strongest environmental laws in the world, and no matter how petulantly Trump behaves, these laws don't bend before the whims of a wannabe dictator," he continued. "The use of emergency powers doesn't allow a president to bypass our environmental safeguards just to enrich himself and his cronies. We'll see Trump in court to challenge each of these horrific, senseless attacks on wildlife, public lands, and our health."
The Center for International Environmental Law said that "our vision remains clear: Justice, democracy, and a sustainable future are not aspirations—they are the foundation of our work and the promise we strive to fulfill every day. With communities and allies around the globe, we stand firmly and unapologetically for a world where these principles thrive, building a future rooted in hope, courage, and collective action."
"It is repugnant that these remarks occur from the highest U.S. office on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day," the group added. "Today, and every day, we channel Dr. King's call to action: 'Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle.' Together and through collective, continuous action, we will bend the arc of history towards justice."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular