1 Top 62 billionaires as wealthy as half the world population
(Larry Elliott in The Guardian) The vast and growing gap between rich and poor
has been laid bare in a new Oxfam report showing that the 62 richest
billionaires own as much wealth as the poorer half of the world’s population.
Timed to coincide with this week’s gathering of many
of the super-rich at the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, the report calls
for urgent action to deal with a trend showing that 1% of people own more
wealth than the other 99% combined.
Oxfam said that the wealth of the poorest 50%
dropped by 41% between 2010 and 2015, despite an increase in the global
population of 400m. In the same period, the wealth of the richest 62 people
increased by $500bn to $1.76tn. The charity said that, in 2010, the 388 richest
people owned the same wealth as the poorest 50%. This dropped to 80 in 2014
before falling again in 2015.
Leading figures from Pope Francis to Christine
Lagarde, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund, have called
for action to reverse the trend in inequality, but Oxfam said words had not
been translated into action. Its prediction that the richest 1% would own the
same wealth as the poorest 50% by 2016 had come true a year earlier than
expected.
Oxfam said a three-pronged approach was needed: a
crackdown on tax dodging; higher investment in public services; and higher
wages for the low paid. It said a priority should be to close down tax havens,
increasingly used by rich individuals and companies to avoid paying tax and
which had deprived governments of the resources needed to tackle poverty and
inequality.
Oxfam cited estimates that rich individuals have
placed a total of $7.6tn in offshore accounts, adding that if tax were paid on
the income that this wealth generates, an extra $190bn would be available to
governments every year. The charity said as much as 30% of all African
financial wealth was thought to be held offshore.
2 As sanctions go, Iran’s foes fear the worst (San
Francisco Chronicle) As the nuclear deal with Tehran goes into effect, many
Middle Eastern countries fear a newly emboldened Iran, flush with cash and
international recognition, will grow more aggressive with what they see as
meddling in conflicts across the region.
The deal forced Iran to dismantle most of its
nuclear program, a step that proponents say will prevent it from gaining the
capability to make a bomb for well over a decade. The International Atomic
Energy Agency has certified that Iran had met its obligations, paving the way
for Western sanctions to be lifted and giving Iran access to $100 billion in
frozen assets.
While the US, which led the negotiations, has tried
to promote the deal as the beginning of a new chapter in relations with the
Islamic Republic, the agreement has been greeted with suspicion and trepidation
across much of the Middle East. For Israel and Sunni states such as Saudi
Arabia, Shiite Iran is seen as a destabilizing force.
On the other hand, Iran's hostility to the Islamic
State group has since 2014 put it in effect on the same side as the US-led
coalition battling the group in Iraq, where Iranian-backed Shiite militias have
proven to be effective ground forces against the Sunni extremists. Improved
relations between Washington and Tehran could allow for greater coordination.
Iraq's Shiite-led government has welcomed the nuclear deal, suggesting it could
help resolve the region's many conflicts.
3 Tennis match-fixing evidence revealed (Simon Cox
on BBC) Secret files exposing evidence of widespread suspected match fixing at
the top level of world tennis, including at Wimbledon, can be revealed by the
BBC and BuzzFeed News.
Over the last decade 16 players who have ranked in
the top 50 have been repeatedly flagged to the tennis integrity unit over
suspicions they have thrown matches. All of the players, including winners of
Grand Slam titles, were allowed to continue competing.
The Tennis Integrity Unit - set up to police the
sport - said it had a zero-tolerance approach to betting-related corruption. The
cache of documents include the findings of an investigation set up in 2007 by
the organising body, the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP).
Its job was to look into suspicious betting activity
after a game involving Nikolay Davydenko and Martin Vassallo Arguello. The two
players were cleared of violating any rules but the investigation developed
into a much wider enquiry looking into a web of gamblers linked to top-level
players.
The documents we have obtained show the enquiry
found betting syndicates in Russia, northern Italy and Sicily making hundreds
of thousands of pounds betting on games investigators thought to be fixed.
Three of these games were at Wimbledon.
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