Richest 1% bag two-thirds of $42 trillion in new wealth: Oxfam

Rescuers in Nepal have resumed searching for four people still missing after the Himalayan nation’s deadliest plane crash in 30 years, as the Himalayan nation observes a day of mourning.

Rescuers recovered 68 bodies out of the 72 people on board the ATR 72 aircraft operated by Yeti Airlines that crashed in the tourist city of Pokhara minutes before landing on Sunday in clear weather.

The plane, on a scheduled 27-minute flight from Kathmandu to Pokhara, gateway to the scenic Annapurna mountain range, was carrying 57 Nepalis, five Indians, four Russians, two South Koreans, and one person each from Argentina, Ireland, Australia and France.

Rescuers were battling cloudy weather and poor visibility as they scoured the the 300-metre (1,000-foot) deep river gorge for passengers who were unaccounted for, more than 24 hours after the crash.

Debris from the airliner was strewn across the crash site, including the mangled remains of passenger seats and the plane’s white-coloured fuselage.

Hopes of survivors ‘nil’

Soldiers used ropes and stretchers to retrieve bodies from the ravine late into the night, with recovery efforts resuming on Monday.

“We have collected 68 bodies so far. We are searching for four more bodies. We should continue until we get the bodies,” senior local official Tek Bahadur KC told AFP.

“We pray for a miracle. But the hope of finding anyone alive is nil,” he said.

The cause of the crash was not yet known but a video on social media – verified by AFP and The Associated Press news agencies – showed the twin-propeller aircraft banking suddenly and sharply to the left as it approached Pokhara airport. A loud explosion followed.

At least one witness reported hearing cries for help from within the fiery wreck, said the AP report.

Local resident Bishnu Tiwari, who rushed to the crash site near the Seti River to help search for bodies, said the rescue efforts were hampered by thick smoke and a raging fire.

“The flames were so hot that we couldn’t go near the wreckage. I heard a man crying for help, but because of the flames and smoke we couldn’t help him,” Tiwari said.

Searchers find black boxes

Searchers on Monday found both the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder from the flight. The data on the The world’s top 1 percent grabbed nearly two-thirds of the $42 trillion in new wealth created since 2020, Oxfam says in a new report released to coincide with the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

The share was almost twice as much money as the amount obtained by the bottom 99 percent of the world’s population, according to Oxfam’s “Survival of the Richest” report released on Monday.

Billionaire fortunes are increasing by $2.7bn a day, while at least 1.7 billion workers now live in countries where inflation is outpacing wages, the report said.

At the same time, half of the world’s billionaires live in countries with no inheritance tax for direct descendants, Oxfam said, putting them on track to pass on $5 trillion to their heirs, more than the gross domestic product (GDP) of Africa.

Oxfam said a 5 percent tax on the world’s multi-millionaires and billionaires could raise $1.7 trillion a year, enough to lift 2 billion people out of poverty.

“While ordinary people are making daily sacrifices on essentials like food, the super-rich have outdone even their wildest dreams. Just two years in, this decade is shaping up to be the best yet for billionaires — a roaring ‘20s boom for the world’s richest,” said Gabriela Bucher, executive director of Oxfam International.

“Taxing the super-rich and big corporations is the door out of today’s overlapping crises. It’s time we demolish the convenient myth that tax cuts for the richest result in their wealth somehow ‘trickling down’ to everyone else. Forty years of tax cuts for the super-rich have shown that a rising tide doesn’t lift all ships — just the superyachts.”

The annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, brings together global business and political leaders to discuss political and economic issues of global concern.

The summit, which takes place from Monday to Friday, will be attended by 52 heads of state and nearly 600 CEOs.

Source: Al Jazeera