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Billionaires have more money and political power than ever, Oxfam says

The global financial community’s annual report, Oxfam, expresses concern that billionaires are securing more control over politics, media, and social media than ever, while also expressing concern about rising inequality.

In a world where conflicts and protests are pervasive, the report released on Sunday also highlighted the growing divide between the haves and have-nots.

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According to Oxfam’s analysis, billionaires’ combined wealth increased by $2.5 trillion in 2025, almost equal to the total wealth held by 4.1 billion people, or $2.5 trillion overall.

Elon Musk, the world’s richest person, had more than $ 30 trillion dollars for the first time in 2012, and there were more than 3 000 billionaires in the world for the first time last year.

The World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, which brings together close to 1, 000 of the world’s richest people with political leaders, along with a few invited activists each year, was the occasion of the release of the charity’s annual report on rising inequality.

A Spirit of Dialogue is the theme of the meeting this year. However, Oxfam claimed in its annual report that the superrich are increasingly in charge of all forms of media, including the more recent and traditional.

It gave examples of far-right billionaire Vincent Bollore owning France’s CNews, Amazon’s billionaire Jeff Bezos, buying The Washington Post, Musk acquiring Twitter/X, and Patrick Soon-Shiong acquiring the Los Angeles Times newspaper.

Amitabh Behar, executive director of Oxfam International, said the “extraordinary influence” the superrich have had on our politicians, economies, and media has “deepened inequality” and “manually trampled our efforts to combat poverty.”

Behar remarked that “governments should be listening to the needs of the people regarding things like quality healthcare, action on climate change, and tax fairness.”

According to a World Values Survey of 66 countries, almost half of respondents said the rich frequently buy elections in their country, while billionaires are 4, 000 times more likely than ordinary citizens.

The growing inequality between the rich and the poor is, according to Behar, creating a political deficit that is both dangerous and unsustainable.

On September 30, 2025, demonstrators confront riot police in Antananarivo, Madagascar.

“Lives are becoming incomprehensible and intolerable.”

In addition, according to Oxfam, 142 significant antigovernment protests occurred in 68 countries last year, which they claimed were typically met with violence.

Behar argued that “governments are making wrong decisions in their efforts to pander to the elite and protect wealth while suppressing people’s rights and anger over how many of their lives are becoming unaffordable and intolerable.”

The WEF estimates that “nearly 850 of the world’s top CEOs and chairpersons” will be present at this year’s Davos meeting along with political figures like US President Donald Trump, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, and Vice Premier He Lifeng, China’s vice president.

Oxfam is an aid organization that provides humanitarian assistance to nations all over the world in addition to its political advocacy.

Carrick gave fans ‘taste’ of Ferguson era – Rooney

Images courtesy of Getty
Wayne Rooney hopes that the 2-0 victory over Manchester City will give young Manchester United fans a taste of what it was like under Michael Carrick.

Ruben Amorim was fired, but Carrick, 44, was appointed as United’s interim head coach on Tuesday until the end of the season.

At Old Trafford, Bryan Mbeumo and Patrick Dorgu scored the winning goal on Saturday, earning them a deserved victory.

Rooney, who won five Premier League titles while playing for United alongside Carrick, believes that under the leadership of his former team-mate, a significant change occurred in the home crowd.

Did you notice the difference between the BBC studios and the stadium when I wasn’t there? On the most recent episode of the BBC podcast The Wayne Rooney Show, Rooney remarked, “Even when he]Michael Carrick] walked out before the game and he’s trying to pump the crowd up.”

“I believe the fans felt something yesterday,” he said. Under Sir Alex Ferguson, they experienced what it was like. Some of the younger fans have endured terrible experiences since Fergie left, in actuality over the past ten and thirteen years.

They haven’t witnessed a team’s outstanding performance. I’ve also played for some of those teams. Some of them I’ve participated in.

They haven’t seen a team that play that well, with that enthusiasm and conviction for both fighting and being brave with the ball as well as being resilient and difficult to play against.

“Best Man Utd performance in a long time”

Mbeumo, a Cameroon international who had just returned from Africa Cup of Nations duty, scored the winner in the first half, with Dorgu doubled the lead 11 minutes later.

Rooney described it as “the best performance” he had come across from United in a long time.

“I don’t believe what Michael has done for the team was rocket science.” The former England striker described it as a straightforward change to his formation strategy.

“I believe everyone has been talking a lot about Ruben Amorim’s back three formation and how it worked for Man United.”

He changed that, so he changed it, but remember when I discussed United’s needs in the previous podcast, it’s really simple: run and work hard. The players did that, which was so encouraging.

I thought Amad and Dorgu on the wings were excellent, the full-backs were helped out, and they formed a compact shape, which I mentioned, and they hit Man City on the break.

Rooney claimed that United’s win over City was “night and day from what we’ve been seeing”under the Portuguese and that Amorim was dismissed on January 5th.

Rooney continued, “You can feel it from the fans as well, the difference in team energy, the confidence, the belief, the composure on the ball at the right times.”

“From what we’ve been seeing, it was a great day because it was both night and day.” When we discuss Man United’s DNA, it made me think that…

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Jones left in tears as players battle injuries & cramp in Melbourne

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Francesca Jones, a Brit, sobbed loudly on the court as her injury sapped her chances of winning the Australian Open’s main draw for the first time.

On day two of Melbourne, men’s eighth seed Felix Auger-Aliassime and qualifier Marina Stakusic, who were both taken off court in a wheelchair, were both forced to retire due to cramps.

From the beginning of her first-round match against Polish qualifier Linda Klimovicova on Monday, the British number three struggled to get through.

The distraught 25-year-old valiantly attempted to continue, but came out on top with a 2 2 2 3 advantage.

Jones missed a game at last week’s Auckland International due to a groin injury, but it was because of her glute problem, which caused her to withdraw from Klimovicova.

At the conclusion of the first set, she took a medical timeout, and the physio followed her through the third and fifth games of the second set.

In the fifth game, the world number 71 broke his heart and was sobbing as he was being treated.

    • 17 hours ago

As Jones limped off with a towel over her head, the crowd applauded sympathetically on the court.

Jones has defied the odds to compete against the best, thanks to a rare genetic condition that causes her to have a modified grip.

After a challenging 2024, when she discovered herself outside the top 150 of the world, Jones intended to retire in 2025.

Instead, she had a transformative season that gave her newfound vigor.

Auger-Aliassime stifled by cramp, “I don’t have answers.”

Felix Auger-Aliassime walks off court at the Australian OpenImages courtesy of Getty
Although it was common for players to compete in much higher temperatures, the temperature in Melbourne was 30C. The Australian Open’s heat stress scale indicates that 1.4 out of five games are considered “temperature playing conditions.”

The group that included Canada’s Auger-Aliassime in the Australian Open was confident that Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz would challenge for the men’s title.

After finishing last season in style, including a run to the US Open semi-finals, the 25-year-old rose into the top five.

Despite facing Portugal’s Nuno Borges in the opening set, he fell at the first hurdle in Melbourne.

After quitting with a score of 3-6 6-4 6-4, Auger-Aliassime said, “I can’t recall ever in my life that this]happening this], this early in a tournament, this match.”

The dramatic Stakusic-related dramatic scenes were driven by ramping.

The 127-year-old world number lost to Priscilla Hon in the third set of her first-round match against Canada.

Stakusic’s leg spasm, which she had to stop when she was trailing 1-6, 6-4, 5-3, did not improve with an ice rubdown.

Marina Stakusic is wheeled off court at the Australian OpenImages courtesy of Getty

Australian Open 2026

18 January – 1 February

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    • 16 August 2025
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Guatemala’s president declares 30-day state of emergency after prison riots

Following a weekend of violent behavior in which gang members claimed the lives of dozens of hostages across three prisons and apparently killed at least seven police officers in the capital, the country’s president has declared a state of emergency.

A 30-day order was issued on Sunday by President Bernardo Arevalo that restricted civil liberties and made it illegal for security personnel to question or arrest people without getting permission from the court. The legislature of Guatemala still needs to approve the emergency order, but it comes into effect right away.

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“These murders were committed with the intention of terrorizing the security forces and the populace,” according to the statement. But they’ll fail, Arevalo declared in a speech delivered across the country.

Following the attacks, the president declared three days of state mourning and said all hostages had been freed.

The gang leaders, including Aldo Duppie, the imprisoned leader of Guatemala’s Barrio 18, were enraged on Saturday when the administrators decided to impose restrictions on their privileges.

Barrio 18 and its rival Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13), both of which were referred to as “foreign terrorist organizations” by the administration of US President Donald Trump in September, was followed by the Congress of Guatemala one month later.

On Saturday, gang-affiliated inmates held 46 prison guards and staff hostage in three prisons in and around Guatemala City, including Duppie, who is better known by his moniker El Lobo or The Wolf, in a maximum-security facility known as El Lobo or The Wolf.

Law enforcement officers escort the leader of the Guatemala branch of Barrio 18 (M-18) gang Aldo Dupie Ochoa Mejia, alias
After regaining control of the prison where inmates rioted, law enforcement officers accompany Aldo Duppie, the imprisoned leader of Guatemala’s Barrio 18, in this handout image [Handout/National Civil Police via Reuters].

Police and the military conducted a lightning strike at El Lobo’s prison early on Sunday morning, followed by subsequent raids on two more prisons the same day. The Barrio 18 leader was spotted posing with security personnel and sporting a bloody shirt.

Retaliatory attacks on police officers broke out shortly after the raids, according to authorities, killing at least seven and injuring ten. Eight police officers and one suspected gang member were among the deaths reported in some media reports.

Prior to this week’s release, Interior Minister Marco Antonio Villeda had previously attributed the police officers’ deaths to gang reprisals “in response to the actions the Guatemalan state is taking against them.”

According to Defense Minister Henry Saenz, the army will “remain on the streets” of Guatemala to continue its crackdown on gang members.

DOJ says won’t investigate ICE agent’s fatal shooting of Renee Good

The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent who killed Renee Nicole Macklin Good has been identified as the Deputy Attorney General of the United States, Todd Blanche said, as well as confirming reports that it is looking into charges against top Minnesota officials for promoting protests.

Blanche told Fox News on Sunday night that the Justice Department’s civil rights unit would not rebuff requests to look into the shooting death of Minneapolis resident and mother Good, 37, earlier this month.

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“We don’t just go out and look every time an officer is compelled to defend himself against someone,” Blanche said. When necessary, we take action.

“No, we are not looking into,” we replied. And we will do so if there is a need, Blanche continued.

Since Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, was fatally shot behind the wheel of her car on January 7 while protesting against ICE officer Jonathan Ross, there have been increasingly heated exchanges between residents and federal officers in Minneapolis.

Blanche added that the death of Good has already been “reviewed by millions and millions of Americans because it was recorded on phones at the time of its tragic death.”

However, according to analysis conducted by Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) and APM Reports, questions remain regarding the shooting, including why it allegedly took more than ten minutes after Good was shot before she was administered CPR.

According to the MPR and APM reports, ICE agents “turned away a man identifying himself as a doctor who offered to help” and left Good “bleeding and alone in the car for almost three minutes.”

According to the president’s administration, Ross, the ICE agent who shot Good four times, was acting in self-defense.

ICE officers have “absolute immunity” for their immigration enforcement actions, according to top Trump figures, including Vice President JD Vance and White House adviser Stephen Miller.

Good’s family’s attorneys announced last week that they had launched their own “civil investigation” into her death.

Lawyer Antonio Romanucci said in a statement that “people in Minneapolis and across this country truly, truly care about what happened on January 7, 2026, and are committed to understanding how she could have died on the street after dropping her child off at school.

Top Minnesota Democrats under investigation

Additionally, Blanche separately confirmed reports that the DOJ is looking into former vice presidential candidate Jacob Frey and governor of Minnesota Tim Walz, alleging that the two Democratic leaders were “encouraging criminals to go out on the street and impede ICE.”

The Trump administration’s first official confirmation of Walz and Frey’s status has been through Blanche’s comments.

No matter who you are, whether you’re a governor, mayor, or someone assaulting ice on the streets, you can’t, under federal law, impede a federal officer from carrying out their duties, Blanche said.

Frey said he would “not be intimidated” in response to earlier media reports that the DOJ had begun its investigation.

In a post on X, Frey wrote, “This is an obvious attempt to intimidate me because I support Minneapolis, local law enforcement, and residents against the chaos and danger this Administration has brought to our city.”

Walz, on the other hand, indirectly responded to the reports, saying in a statement that “weaponizing the justice system and threatening political opponents is a dangerous, authoritarian tactic.”