Brazil-backed G20 report calls for global, wealth-based income tax

A global tax on the super-rich is proposed in a new report that Brazil commissioned for its current presidency of the leading 20 rich and developing nations.

Individuals with more than $1 billion in total assets would be required to pay the equivalent of 2% of their wealth in income tax, according to the proposal in the report by Gabriel Zucman, a French economist who teaches at the Paris School of Economics.

The report says global billionaires currently pay the equivalent of 0.3% of their wealth in taxes. It said a 2% tax would raise $200 billion to $250 billion per year globally from about 3,000 individuals — money that could fund public services such as education and healthcare as well as the fight against climate change.

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"The super-rich pay proportionately less in taxes than other socioeconomic groups," Zucman told journalists, adding that the practice fuels inequality. He called a progressive tax system a "key pillar of our democratic societies," essential for strengthening social cohesion and trust in governments.

In wealth, billionaires currently own the equivalent of 13% of the world’s GDP, up from 3% in 1987, according to the new report.

The proposed tax would target billionaires who do not already pay the equivalent of 2% of their wealth in income tax, the report said. Most global billionaires probably pay below 2% but it is difficult to be more precise, Zucman said.

New G20 member the African Union has expressed interest in the proposal, as well as Belgium, Colombia, France and Spain, he said.

The issue of inequality is a priority for Brazil in its G20 presidency, along with the reduction of hunger, the promotion of sustainable development and reforms of global governance.

A global minimum tax on billionaires is one way of raising funds to make progress on those agendas, Felipe Antunes de Oliveira with Brazil’s Finance Ministry told journalists.

He acknowledged that the way ahead would be far from smooth.

"We can expect the negotiations to be long," Oliveira said, echoing similar remarks by Finance Minister Fernando Haddad in February when the proposal was first discussed in São Paulo.

The gap between the super-rich and the bulk of the global population has grown since the coronavirus pandemic, according to anti-poverty organization Oxfam International, which praised the new report.

"This is a sensible and serious proposal that is in every government’s strategic economic interest," interim executive director Amitabh Behar said in a statement.

According to a 2023 study by advocacy group Tax Justice Network, countries around the world could lose up to $4.8 trillion in tax revenue over the next decade due to the use of tax havens by individuals and businesses.

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Kenyan police depart for Haiti to tackle rampant gang violence

The first Kenyan police officers assigned to tackle rampant gang violence in Haiti are leaving Kenya on Tuesday and are set to arrive this week, the U.S. State Department said on Monday.

"We hope to see further measurable improvements in security, particularly with respect to access to humanitarian aid and core economic activity," State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters.

Kenya volunteered in July 2023 to lead an international force to tackle violence in the Caribbean nation, where gangs control most of the capital Port-au-Prince and have carried out widespread killings, kidnappings and sexual violence.

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The deployment has been repeatedly delayed by court challenges and a deterioration of security in Haiti, which in March forced former Prime Minister Ariel Henry to resign.

Four officers, who asked not to be named because they were not authorized to speak publicly, said their weapons and personal belongings had been collected Sunday evening to be loaded onto the plane.

Kenya's government spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.

Kenyan President William Ruto on Monday held a departure ceremony for 400 officers who will be the first contingent to deploy to Haiti.

"This mission is one of the most urgent, important and historic in the history of global solidarity. It is a mission to affirm the universal values of the community of nations, a mission to take a stand for humanity," Ruto said.

Another group of around 600 officers will join the first contingent later, the four officers said. They said they expected to stop in a third country before reaching Haiti.

In addition to Kenya, Jamaica, the Bahamas, Barbados, Chad and Bangladesh have pledged personnel to the 2,500-strong mission, which is being funded primarily by the United States.

Haiti's Prime Minister Garry Conille - sworn in earlier this month after Henry was forced to resign while traveling abroad - welcomed Kenya's support.

"The government and the Haitian people hope this multinational mission will be the last one to help the county stabilize so it can renew its political personnel and return to an effective democracy," Conille said on X.

Previous missions have left behind many dead civilians, a cholera outbreak and a sexual abuse scandal, but supporters hope this deployment can re-establish security so Haiti is able to hold its first elections since 2016.

Henry first called for international security support in 2022 as gangs took over Haiti's main fuel terminal.

The ongoing conflict, which has paralyzed the economy, shuttered hospitals and blocked supply routes, has caused over half a million Haitians to be internally displaced and around half the country to struggle to put food on the table.

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South Korea slams North Korea's trash balloon tactics, threatens return of loudspeaker broadcasts

South Korea threatened Tuesday to restart anti-Pyongyang frontline propaganda broadcasts in the latest bout of Cold War-style campaigns between the rivals after North Korea resumed its trash-carrying balloon launches.

On Monday night, North Korea floated huge balloons carrying plastic bags of rubbish across the border in its fifth such campaign since late May — an apparent response to South Korean activists flying political leaflets via balloons.

In a Tuesday speech marking a Korean War anniversary, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol called North Korea’s balloon activities "a despicable and irrational provocation." He said South Korea will maintain a firm military readiness to repel any provocations by North Korea.

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Later Tuesday, Yoon boarded a visiting U.S. aircraft carrier docked at a southeastern port and told American and South Korean troops there that the two countries' alliance is the world's greatest and can defeat any enemy. Yoon became the first sitting South Korean president to board a U.S. aircraft carrier since 1994.

South Korea’s military said North Korea floated about 350 balloons in its latest campaign, and about 100 of them eventually landed on South Korean soil, mostly in Seoul and nearby areas. Seoul is about 25–30 miles away from the border. The military said the trash carried by the North Korean balloons was mostly paper and that no hazardous items were found.

In its earlier balloon launches, North Korea dropped manure, cigarette butts and waste batteries along with cloth scraps and waste paper in various parts of South Korea. No major damage was reported. In response, South Korea redeployed gigantic loudspeakers on June 9 along the border for the first time in six years and briefly resumed anti-North Korean propaganda broadcasts.

Joint Chiefs of Staff spokesperson Lee Sung Joon told reporters Tuesday that the South Korean military is ready to turn on its border loudspeakers again. A written Joint Chief of Staff statement said officials would examine unspecified strategic and operational circumstances and that the broadcasts’ resumption would depend on how North Korea acts.

Balloon launches and loudspeaker broadcasts were among the psychological campaigns that the two Koreas specialized in during the Cold War. The rivals have agreed to halt such activities in recent years, but occasionally resumed them when animosities are rekindled.

North Korea is highly sensitive to South Korean border broadcasts and civilian leafletting campaigns as it bans most of its 26 million people official access to foreign news.

South Korean leafleting campaigns by civilian activists, mostly North Korean defectors, include leaflets critical of North Korea’s human rights violations and USB sticks containing South Korean TV dramas, while the past South Korean border broadcasts included K-pop songs, weather forecasts and outside news. In a statement Friday, Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, called them "human scum" and "disgusting defectors."

South Korean officials maintain they don’t restrict activists from flying leaflets to North Korea, in line with a 2023 constitutional court ruling that struck down a law criminalizing such leafleting, calling it a violation of free speech.

Many experts say the North Korean balloon campaign is also likely designed to deepen a debate in South Korea over civilian leafleting and trigger a broader internal divide.

Worries about North Korea intensified in mid-June, when North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a deal requiring each country to provide aid if attacked and vowed to boost other cooperation. Observers say the accord represents the strongest connection between the two countries since the end of the Cold War.

The United States and its partners believe North Korea has been providing Russia with much-needed conventional arms for its war in Ukraine in return for military and economic assistance.

In his Korean War speech, Yoon described the Kim-Putin deal as "anachronistic." South Korea, the U.S. and Japan issued a joint statement Monday strongly condemning expanding military cooperation between Russia and North Korea.

The USS Theodore Roosevelt carrier and its strike group's arrival is meant to cope with North Korea's nuclear threats and its advancing military partnerships with Russia, South Korean officials said. Their deployment is also part of a 2023 South Korea-U.S. deal meant to enhance "regular visibility" of U.S. strategic assets on the Korean Peninsula.

Yoon said the U.S. carrier is to leave the South Korean port Wednesday for a new trilateral South Korea-U.S.-Japan drill. The new multidomain "Freedom Edge" exercise is aimed at sharpening the countries’ combined response in various areas of operation, including air, sea and cyberspace.

North Korea has previously reacted to such major U.S.-led drills with missile tests. On Monday, Kim Kang Il, the North's vice defense minister, called the USS Theodore Roosevelt's deployment "the reckless option and action of the U.S."

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Israel's Supreme Court rules ultra-Orthodox men must serve in military in unanimous decision

Israel's Supreme Court ruled Tuesday in a unanimous decision that ultra-Orthodox men must be drafted for military service.

The court said without a law that distinguishes between Jewish seminary students and other draftees, Israel's compulsory military service system applies to the ultra-Orthodox, as it does with other citizens, according to The Associated Press.

Ultra-Orthodox men have long been exempt from the draft, which is compulsory for most Jewish men and women. 

The exemptions have sparked anger among the secular public and led to more division amid Israel's ongoing war against Hamas terrorists, as the military has called up tens of thousands of soldiers for its conflict in Gaza. More than 600 soldiers have been killed in the eight-month-long war.

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Politically powerful ultra-Orthodox parties, which are key partners in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's governing coalition, do not support any change to the current system. If the exemptions end, the governing coalition could collapse and prompt new elections.

Government lawyers told the court that forcing ultra-Orthodox men to enlist in the military would "tear Israeli society apart."

The court said the state was carrying out "invalid selective enforcement, which represents a serious violation of the rule of law, and the principle according to which all individuals are equal before the law."

Ultra-Orthodox men attend special seminaries that center on religious studies, while they largely refrain from secular topics like math, English or science. Critics have said these men are not prepared to serve in the military or enter the secular work force.

Cabinet minister Yitzhak Goldknopf, who heads one of the ultra-Orthodox parties in the coalition, said on X that the ruling is "very unfortunate and disappointing."

"The state of Israel was established in order to be a home for the Jewish people whose Torah is the bedrock of its existence," he wrote. "The Holy Torah will prevail."

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Ultra-Orthodox lawmakers are now expected to face intense pressure from religious leaders and their constituents, and may have to decide whether it is worth it to remain in the government.

The exemptions have faced years of legal challenges, and several court decisions have found the system unjust. Israeli leaders, however, have repeatedly stalled amid pressure from ultra-Orthodox parties.

It remains unclear whether Netanyahu will be able to continue to stall.

Netanyahu has attempted to follow the court's rulings while at the same time making efforts to preserve his coalition. Now with a slim majority of 64 seats in the 120-member parliament, Netanyahu is often beholden to the issues of smaller parties.

The ultra-Orthodox view their full-time religious studies as doing their part in protecting Israel.

Netanyahu has been pushing a bill tabled by a previous government in 2022 that attempted to address the issue of ultra-Orthodox enlistment.

Critics, however, say the bill was proposed before the war and does not do enough to address the shortage of forces as the army attempts to maintain its troops in the Gaza Strip while also preparing for potential war with Hezbollah in Lebanon.

The ultra-Orthodox community is the fastest-growing segment of the population. Each year, about 13,000 ultra-Orthodox males reach the conscription age of 18, although less than 10% enlist, according to the Israeli parliament's State Control Committee.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Top US general says Islamic jihadist terrorism in Africa has soared tenfold over 26 years

FIRST ON FOX - The number of Islamic jihadist terrorists in Africa has increased tenfold, the head of U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) has told Fox News Digital. U.S. Marine Corps Gen. Michael Langley, commander of AFRICOM, sat down on Sunday for an exclusive virtual interview with Fox News Digital ahead of this week’s African Chiefs of Defense Conference in Gaborone, Botswana.  

Langley covered, in a wide-ranging interview, the threats from China, Russia, and Iran, and gave insight into an apparent shift in U.S. military policy, particularly in West Africa, following Niger’s order that 1,000 U.S. personnel must leave.

On Islamic terror, the general said, "we've been monitoring and identifying indications and warnings for a number of years. Just for statistics, back in 2008 Islamic jihadists on the global scene, only 4% was on the African continent. Now that number is up to 40%. So, in executing AFRICOM's mission of being able to provide indications and warnings, monitor and respond, is all for protection of the homeland."

He said that AFRICOM "is charged with executing our mission, which expands from deterring threats on the African continent, gaining access and influence and being able to respond to crises."

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Langley told Fox News Digital of the specific concern over Chinese operations in Africa. "We look at the threat of the People's Republic of China, we know that they are exploitative for possible and coercive when necessary, when they engage across the continent through the Belt and Road Initiative first." 

"But sometimes they have aspirations of military capacity and capability. They already have a base at Doraleh in Djibouti. Time will tell what their overall aspirations are. Will it be power projection, or will it be air denial in defense? We don't know. Right now, they say it's for counter piracy. So we are monitoring all the time what the PRC's overall global intentions are in the strategic realm."

AFRICOM’s commander shifted his attention next to Russia. "Yes, in the last few years, we saw the activities of Wagner encroaching upon a number of African countries and then sowing the seeds of disinformation, trying to get to be the security partner of choice in a number of these countries across the Sahel, all the way down to the Central African Republic, and as far north as Libya."

"So through their disinformation campaigns," the general continued, "it has evolved into the sponsorship of the Russian MOD (Ministry of Defense) after the demise of Yevgeny Prigozhin. So we're seeing that, and we monitor that on a full basis, to identify what the overall strategic imperatives or aspirations of the Russian Federation."

He believes Russia is strongly using disinformation in the African theater of operations to strengthen their position on the continent, and this needs, he says, to be countered. "What the U.S. needs to do, we need to increase our information operations. We need to be able to match what our assurance actions are, especially ‘a whole government’ approach, in being able to partner with our African partners, addressing some of their challenges, challenges that extend from climate change to violent extremist organizations, that we have the overall value proposition, by being able to harvest our shared values, and shared objectives of stability and security."

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"I think that our assurance actions and what we offer holistically, across State Department and diplomacy, across the USAID and development, across the Department of Defense and building partnership and capacity with other security forces, is the whole enduring solution, especially when we're talking about extremist organizations."

When pressed on Iran, which is reported to be active, particularly in mining, in countries as diverse as Niger and Sudan, Langley would only say "we're closely monitoring activities by Iran." Recently, sources claimed Iran is exporting, or arranging to export, uranium from Niger. Uranium can be used for the production of peaceful nuclear power, but it is better known as a vital ingredient in the production of nuclear weapons.

U.S. forces were told by Niger’s Russian-leaning military junta earlier this year to remove some 1,000 personnel from the country. The U.S. has two air bases in the country, where manned and unmanned aircraft have been launching missions against terror groups such as Nigeria’s Boko Haram. 

After months of reportedly sometimes heated negotiations, the Pentagon has agreed that all U.S. personnel in the country will leave. "About Niger, and about our repositioning and moving of our equipment and assets out of there this year, we're on pace," Langley stated, "I'm sure that we're going to keep reaching those benchmarks."

A Department of Defense (DOD) official has confirmed to Fox News Digital that all U.S. personnel will be off Base 101, on the outskirts of Niger’s capital, Niamey, by mid-July. The official added that all Americans will have left the larger base 201 at Agadez by Sept. 15.

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In Niger, he stressed that "the safety of our troops is first and foremost." Langley is also expecting "a responsible, orderly withdrawal that's agreed by both the U.S. government and the transitional government of the CNSP (Niger’s military junta)." 

On May 19, the DOD confirmed in a statement that both the U.S. and Niger "established procedures to facilitate the entry and exit of U.S. personnel, including overflight and landing clearances for military flights."  

When asked where U.S. personnel and their manned aircraft and drones will move to from Niger, he appeared to stress a change in policy. "As far as what we had in air base 201, or 101, you know, that was based on the needs in the last decade." 

"Where we're going now, as far as what our strategy calls for, is to double down in security cooperation activities such as security force assistance brigades, such as state partnership programs, or all the exercises that we do to be able to build partnership and capacity."

Giving apparent new details on U.S. military strategy in Africa moving forward, Langley added "as far as our overall adjustment of our strategy, our strategy is going to be holistically across Sahel, extending into West Africa, namely because it's informed by the threat. We all know this is going to be African-led, so they're specified."

This week Langley is in Botswana at the Africa Chiefs of Defense Conference. With some 35 countries taking part, the U.S. is co-hosting the event with Botswana. He added it "shows that it's going to be African led, and U.S. enabled, as we address the major challenges and security challenges across the continent, not just across the Sahel, but other places across the continent. I'm on a listening tour, but they're going to be giving their recommendations and tabling them for discussion."

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Study debunks popular climate myth about Easter Island 'ecocide'

A recently-published study challenges the popular myth that Easter Islanders' ancient rock gardening practices caused their own downfall.

The journal article, which is titled "Island-wide characterization of agricultural production challenges the demographic collapse hypothesis for Rapa Nui," was published in Science Advances on Friday. The study explains that Rapa Nui, also known as Easter Island, "is often used as an example of how overexploitation of limited resources resulted in a catastrophic population collapse."

Hundreds of years ago, farmers on the island – located in the South Pacific – practiced "slash and burn" agriculture by tearing down palm trees and setting them on fire. Farmers would then practice rock gardening to help enrich their soil.

According to a popular myth, islanders were so focused on their rock farming – and erecting hundreds of gigantic stone statues – that their civilization collapsed. When Europeans discovered Easter Island in 1722, the island's population was allegedly smaller than it once was.

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"A vital component of this narrative is that the rapid rise and fall of pre-contact Rapanui population growth rates was driven by the construction and overexploitation of once extensive rock gardens," the article's abstract section explains. "However, the extent of island-wide rock gardening, while key for understanding food systems and demography, must be better understood."

Contrary to popular belief that rock gardening was bad for soil, the study says that the practice "enhanced plant productivity by increasing available soil nutrients and maintaining soil moisture."

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"Given the benefits rock gardening has for increasing soil productivity and, thus, plant growth, its practice was a vital part of pre-contact Rapanui subsistence," the article states. "Nearly half of the Rapanui diet consisted of terrestrial foods."

"In this regard, measuring the extent of rock gardens is critical for understanding the island’s pre-contact environmental carrying capacity."

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Researchers also used shortwave infrared (SWIR) satellite imagery and machine learning to determine that Easter Island's population was likely smaller than previously claimed – challenging the myth that the island's 1722 population was substantially smaller than it was hundreds of years earlier.

"Our estimates suggest that the maximum population supported by rock gardening is not ~17,000 as claimed through Ladefoged et al.’s rock gardening calculations but just 3901 using our measurements," the study states.

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Despite research suggesting otherwise, the study's authors acknowledge that the myth still remains popular outside of academia. 

"Despite recent archaeological literature debunking ideas about Malthusian population overshoot, the premise that Rapanui society caused its own demise from unsustainable resource use and uncontrolled population increases has been widely popularized," the article states. 

"While many researchers working on the island have shifted their narratives away from the assumptions of a pre-European collapse, the story remains prominent in disciplines such as ecology, paleoecology, and mathematics."

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Russia blames US after Ukrainian attack on Crimea leaves several dead, wounded

Russian authorities say the U.S. is responsible for a deadly Ukrainian attack on the Crimean Peninsula on Sunday.

At least four people died, including two children, and about 150 were injured after they were hit by falling debris from missiles that were shot down by air defense systems.

The Russian Defense Ministry said four Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) missiles, which the U.S. supplied to Ukraine, were equipped with cluster warheads. The missiles were shot down by air defense systems, the ministry said, while a fifth missile was detonated midair.

Reuters reported that Russian state television aired footage of the catastrophe, which showed some people running from a beach and others being carried off on sun loungers.

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Authorities in Crimea, who were put in place by Russia, said fragments from the missiles fell near a beach in Sevastopol just after noon.

The defense ministry accused U.S. specialists of setting up the flight coordinates for the missiles on the basis of information acquired from U.S. spy satellites, pointing the finger at Washington officials for being responsible.

"Responsibility for the deliberate missile attack on the civilians of Sevastopol is borne above all by Washington, which supplied these weapons to Ukraine, and by the Kyiv regime, from whose territory this strike was carried out," the ministry said, according to Reuters.

Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 and considers the peninsula its own territory.

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Mikhail Razvozhayev, the Moscow-installed governor of the city of Sevastopol, said 151 people were wounded in the incident.

Ria Novosti, a Russian state-owned news agency, reported that 82 of the 151 people were hospitalized, including 55 adults and 27 children.

Fox News Digital reached out to the Pentagon for a statement on Russia’s claims.

All public events in Sevastopol were canceled on Monday after Razvozhayev declared a day of mourning.

Earlier this year, the U.S. started supplying Ukraine with ATACMS missiles, giving the country the ability to strike targets within a 186-mile range.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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