 Left to Right: Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, and Bill Gates A report by Oxfam found that the ten richest men in the world doubled their wealth during the pandemic. The incomes of 99% of people dropped and 160 million people were pushed into poverty due to COVID-related economic damage, the report found. More: - The ten richest men in the world are Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Bernard Arnault, Bill Gates, Larry Ellison, Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Ballmer, and Warren Buffet.
- Their collective wealth grew from $700B to $1.5T between March 2020 and November 2021.
- Musk's wealth rose ~1,000% due to a surge in Tesla's stock.
- Oxfam International Executive Director Gabriela Bucher wrote:
- "Billionaires have had a terrific pandemic. Central banks pumped trillions of dollars into financial markets to save the economy, yet much of that has ended up lining the pockets of billionaires riding a stock market boom."
- Oxfam has advocated for a global tax on billionaires to combat economic inequality.
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Four inmates are suing their prison, its doctor, and the state of Arkansas over claims that they were unknowingly given Ivermectin as a treatment for COVID-19. The men said that last August they were given Ivermectin — an antiparasitic drug popular in anti-vaccine circles — by the prison's doctor, who told them that they were receiving a mix of vitamins, antibiotics, and steroids. More: - The lawsuit claims the men "ingested incredibly high doses" of Ivermectin while sick with COVID-19, causing some of them to experience diarrhea, vision issues, and other symptoms.
- The lawsuit is being filed with the help of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
- When the ACLU began investigating the matter, the jail asked the inmates to sign forms giving retroactive consent to the treatment.
- The prison's doctor, Dr. Robert Karas, said he treated himself, as well as COVID patients in his private practice, with Ivermectin.
- The FDA says Ivermectin, an antiparasitic drug that is typically used to treat intestinal worms or lice, "has not been shown to be safe or effective" COVID-19 treatment.
- The CDC has also warned people against using Ivermectin to treat COVID-19.
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Efforts to help Tonga recover from a volcanic eruption and subsequent tsunami were stymied by an ash-covered runway. New Zealand's airborne aid was delayed at least a day by the ash that has covered much of the country since Saturday's eruption. The island nation has emerged from the natural disaster relatively unscathed, with substantial damage to homes and other infrastructure but only three reported deaths. More: - On the Tongan island of Mango, ~43 miles from the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai, where the eruption occurred, every home was destroyed and three people were killed.
- Reports of further deaths in Tonga may be delayed, as communications networks are still down.
- A military ship bearing supplies from New Zealand is en route to Tonga, and the Australian government has mobilized a ship to send additional supplies.
- Two more deaths were reported in Peru, where waves from the tsunami hit an oil refinery, causing an oil spill.
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 The Noori and Breedlove families GOOD NEWS: Afghan refugee Romal Noori and his family of five were welcomed with warm arms in Mississippi by Tommy Breedlove, who spent years in Afghanistan as a private military contractor. Breedlove co-founded Project Exodus, a nonprofit that helps Americans and their allies escape Afghanistan following the U.S. withdrawal last August. More: - Breedlove teamed up with his former translator to help dozens of Afghans who had worked with U.S. military personnel leave the country.
- He personally sponsored the Noori family, who are staying in his family home in Ozark, Missouri.
- Breedlove is set to travel to Pakistan later this month to help ~130 Afghan nationals get to the U.S. or another safe country.
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 Far-right French politician Eric Zemmour was fined €10,000 ($11,400) over comments about immigrant children that were deemed to be hate speech by a French court. Zemmour has been convicted of hate speech or religious incitement three times and has been acquitted on similar charges more than five times. More: - While working as a television pundit, Zemmour responded to a question about a knife attack by a radicalized Pakistani immigrant by calling unaccompanied migrant children "thieves," "rapists," and "murderers."
- Zemmour responded to his conviction by saying that his freedom of speech was being limited by "ideological" courts. He said he plans to appeal.
- Zemmour, a French media personality who has become notorious as a critic of Islam and immigration, has emerged as a dark-horse candidate for the French presidency in April.
- Polls show him winning ~12% of the vote, placing him fourth, behind Emmanuel Macron, Marine Le Pen, and a center-right candidate.
- Zemmour said he plans to run but has not completed the official registration.
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 A 4-billion-year-old meteorite from Mars that landed on Earth thousands of years ago did not contain any remnants of Martian life, a study says. The 4-pound meteorite, which was found in Antarctica in 1984, contained small carbon-bearing compounds that could have hinted at life on Mars. More: - A 1996 study led by NASA scientists said the organic compounds appeared to have been left by living organisms from Mars.
- However, the latest study found that the compounds came from flowing water on Mars, rather than from contact with a hypothetical Martian life form.
- Lead author Andrew Steele, of the Carnegie Institute for Science, said that the only way to know if life once existed on Mars is to recover ground samples from the Red Planet.
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- Russia has begun to empty its embassy in Kyiv, Ukraine, of diplomatic personnel and their families as Russian troops gather on the Russia-Ukraine border.
- Deauville Beach Resort, a hotel in Miami Beach that hosted The Beatles, Frank Sinatra, and President John F. Kennedy, is likely to be demolished despite efforts from locals to preserve it.
- The United Arab Emirates has pledged reprisal attacks against Yemen's Houthi rebels after the group claimed responsibility for a drone attack that blew up a fuel tank, killing three people.
- The Mexican Football Federation is instituting five-year bans for fans who join in anti-gay chants during games, notably a chant that is often heard when an opposing goalkeeper takes a goal kick.
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 Self Portrait with Curly Hair by Frida Kahlo. 1935
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 |  | Daniel Smith is an Inside Analyst who currently resides in Miami, Florida. A native of Brooklyn, New York, Daniel spent the last four years as a PhD candidate in Politics and International Studies at Cambridge University in the United Kingdom. He is fascinated by tech, business, politics, venture capital, and everything in between. When he’s not writing for Inside he can be found kicking a ball on the nearest rugby pitch. Follow him on Twitter @DanSmithInside. |  | | Editor | Eduardo Garcia is a writer and editor based in New York. He is writing an illustrated book about climate change that will be published by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of Penguin Random House. Bylines in The New York Times, The Guardian, Slate, Scientific American, and others. In one of his previous lives, Eduardo worked as a Reuters correspondent in Latin America for nearly a decade. | |
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