The "inequality emergency" is leaving billions hungry and could worsen under the United States' "law of the jungle" approach to trade under President Donald Trump, a committee led by Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz said in a new report.
The proposed panel on inequality was inspired by the UN's expert Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that analyses the risks and impact of global warming and proposes solutions.
"One in four people worldwide now regularly skip meals, whilst billionaire wealth has now hit the highest level in history," said the report, which was commissioned for the Johannesburg summit of the world's top economies in the Group of 20 (G20).
Between 2000 and 2024, one percent of the world's population captured 41 percent of all new wealth, of which just one percent went to the poorest 50 percent, it said.
While income inequality between individuals declined in recent decades, largely due to economic development in China, there had been a major increase in inherited wealth, with $70 trillion expected to be handed down to heirs in the coming 10 years, it said.
"The world understands that we have a climate emergency; it's time we recognise that we face an inequality emergency too," Stiglitz said in a statement.
"It isn't just unfair and undermining societal cohesion -- it's a problem for our economy and our politics too," he said.
- 'Law of the jungle' -
The report warned that US policies, including the imposition of tariffs on trading partners, risked increasing inequality.
"This new world, in which the powerful break rules with impunity and we move away from a rules-based international order towards a 'law of the jungle', could entrench unequal exchange, investment and technology patterns," it said.
The report -- commissioned by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, whose own country one of the most unequal in the world, based on World Bank calculations -- said economic inequality undermined democracy and led to increasing authoritarianism.
"Inequality erodes trust in institutions, fuels political polarisation, can reduce participation among poorer citizens and residents, and creates social tensions of different kinds," it said.
More than 80 percent of countries experienced "high inequality", based on the World Bank definition, and these nations were seven times more likely to experience democratic decline.
- Target tax, monopolies -
The six-person committee said the proposed International Panel on Inequality would analyse all aspects of inequality -- from land ownership to tax avoidance -- and inform policymaking.
Measures to tackle the problem included fair taxation of multinational corporations and the very wealthy, breaking up monopolies, stabilising prices and restructuring the debt of highly indebted countries.
South Africa is the first African nation to hold the presidency of the G20 grouping of 19 countries, alongside the African Union and the European Union.
Together they represent 85 percent of global GDP, 75 percent of international trade and two-thirds of the world's population.
Trump has indicated that he would not attend the November 22-23 summit.
Stiglitz told reporters he did not expect Washington, the next G20 president, to back the proposal for an equality panel but "hopefully a majority of countries would eventually join in".
Ramaphosa said the report was "a blueprint for greater equality", which South Africa wanted to put on the international agenda through its G20 presidency.
"Addressing inequality is our inescapable generational challenge. This report lays out prudent and pragmatic steps we can take to reduce it," he said in a statement.
US judge extends order blocking Portland Guard deployment
Washington (AFP) Nov 3, 2025 -
A US federal judge extended on Sunday an order blocking President Donald Trump from deploying National Guard troops in Portland, Oregon, for five days pending a final ruling.
The Republican president has sent the National Guard to three Democratic-led cities this year -- Los Angeles, Washington and Memphis -- but his efforts to deploy soldiers in Portland and Chicago have been tied up in the courts.
Trump has repeatedly called the Oregon city "war-ravaged" and riddled with violent crime to justify sending forces there.
In a 16-page order issued late Sunday and seen by AFP, Judge Karin Immergut said there was "no credible evidence" showing that protests in the months before the president took control of Oregon's National Guard were "out of control" or made ICE agents "unable to execute immigration laws."
Protests sparked by a spike in immigration raids have caused unrest across the country, as Trump has pushed for a massive wave of deportations -- a hallmark of his 2024 presidential campaign.
In her order, Immergut said she had not seen enough evidence to suggest that protests "involved more than isolated and sporadic instances of violent conduct," noting "no serious injuries to federal personnel" and no "significant damage to the ICE facility" in Oregon.
Much of the violence that did occur "involved... protesters and counterprotesters" and was generally not directed at federal officers or ICE facilities, she added.
Immergut, nominated by Trump to the federal bench in 2018, said she needed more time to review the "voluminous" evidence in the case.
She also said there was no evidence that the "episodes of violence were perpetrated by an organized group engaged in armed hostilities for the purpose of overtaking an instrumentality of government by unlawful or antidemocratic means."
Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield welcomed the ruling, saying in a statement that "from the beginning, this case has been about making sure the facts -- not the president's political whims -- guide how the law is applied."
Democratic Governor Tina Kotek, who last month said on social media there was "no need for military intervention in Oregon," has also welcomed the decision.
Kotek told local media that the extension is "further affirmation of our democracy and the right to govern ourselves."
The state "stands united against this unwanted, unneeded, unconstitutional military intervention," she said.
The judge is expected to issue a final ruling by Friday.
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