Today’s Big Story

The U.S. Abandons the WHO

In a first, the U.S. skips the World Health Organization’s annual assembly. What's the impact?

It’s the largest global health summit of the year. And the United States won’t be taking a seat at the table. It’s not that America wasn’t invited to the World Health Assembly, an annual gathering of World Health Organization member state delegations. It’s that U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. simply didn’t attend.

The representatives from 194 nations are meeting in Geneva to discuss and vote on policies that will shape global health in the years and decades to come. The topics will range from preparing for the next pandemic to preventing lung cancer by cutting air pollution. On Tuesday, after three years of intensive negotiations, the WHO adopted the world’s first agreement on how to cooperate and respond to future pandemics.

The United States, long the WHO’s largest single donor, was notably absent from the vote. Our delegation dissolved after President Donald Trump withdrew the country from the organization on his Inauguration Day. Trump accused the WHO of “mishandling” the coronavirus pandemic, and claimed the organization was subject to “inappropriate political influence” when he pulled back from continuing to fund it.

That glaring absence of both people and money will affect both WHO's ability to address health crises that don't care about borders—as well as the ability of the U.S. to collaborate with the rest of the world to solve them, say global health specialists interviewed by NPR.

According to the Washington Post, China will replace the United States as the organization’s top state donor, expanding its influence as the U.S. retreats from international cooperation. Beijing has pledged half a billion dollars, making the contribution to oppose “unilateralism,” a trait China often ascribes to Washington as relations between the two powers deteriorate. “The world is now facing the impacts of unilateralism and power politics, bringing major challenges to global health security,” Chinese Vice Premier Liu Guozhong said this week in Geneva. “China strongly believes that only with solidarity and mutual assistance can we create a healthy world together.”

The Ultra Rich Just Got Richer

America’s 10 wealthiest people collectively made $1 billion every day last year

Despite a brief market scare, the richest 10 Americans got $365 billion richer over the past year, according to a new analysis from Oxfam. The stunning increase in wealth amounts to a gain of roughly $1 billion per day for those billionaires. To put that into some perspective, it would take 10 average American full-time workers about 726,000 years to earn the same amount.

The analysis, based on data from Forbes, puts sharp attention on inequality in the U.S. and President Donald Trump‘s “one big, beautiful bill” which stands to make the richest richer still. The much-debated bill would extend expiring tax cuts, create new ones, and increase spending for border security and defense. Food stamps, green energy tax breaks and Medicaid coverage are among the supports for average Americans set to be rolled back by the bill to facilitate the tax breaks, the Washington Post reported. But House Republicans are still finalizing changes to the bill to appease warring party wings.

But the findings definitely put an exclamation point on the nation’s wealth inequality. “Billionaire wealth has increased astronomically while so many ordinary people struggle to make ends meet,” Rebecca Riddell, senior policy lead for economic and racial justice at Oxfam America, said in the report. Elon Musk, the world’s richest person, accounts for just over half of the total wealth gains, with his net worth spiking by $186.1 billion last year. CNN reports that a recent analysis found that Musk is now on track to become the world’s first trillionaire.

Former Apple Design Guru Jony Ive Joins OpenAI

Sam Altman’s OpenAI acquired Ive’s startup in $6.5 billion deal to build new generation of devices

The man behind the ubiquitous iPhone has just teamed up with the company behind ChatGPT. To say something big is coming would be an understatement. Or, as one clever poster on X put it, “This is like when Lebron joined the Lakers, but for nerds.” But officially, OpenAI will acquire the AI device startup co-founded by Apple veteran Jony Ive in a nearly $6.5 billion all-stock deal.

The goal, the two said in a statement, is to join forces in a push into hardware. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Ive’s design firm, LoveFrom, had already been working on a new device that will move consumers beyond screens, according to sources who spoke to the Wall Street Journal. They have been collaborating for two years on a closely guarded project, considering options including headphones and other devices with cameras.

The two are calling this lineup of tech a “new family of products” for the age of artificial general intelligence, or A.G.I., which is shorthand for a future technology that achieves human-level intelligence. “We’ve been waiting for the next big thing for 20 years,” Altman told the New York Times. “We want to bring people something beyond the legacy products we’ve been using for so long.”

Gilgeous-Alexander Is the NBA’s MVP

The announcement continues the run of international players winning the award

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was just announced as the NBA’s 2024-25 MVP. The 26-year-old, who led the Oklahoma City Thunder to a 68-win season, beat out fellow finalists Jokic of the Denver Nuggets and Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Milwaukee Bucks. But the case for the Canadian-born Gilgeous-Alexander was simple. He’s the best player on a Thunder team that had the best record this season and set a league mark for margin of victory. If that wasn’t enough, he also won the scoring title.

According to the Associated Press, it’s now seven straight years that a player born outside the U.S. won MVP, extending the longest such streak in league history. And Gilgeous-Alexander’s first MVP award is going to make him a very rich man. Because he’s now eligible to sign the largest contract in the history of the NBA at five years, $380 million. The one catch is he will have to wait until the 2026 offseason to sign it.

That contract, which Gilgeous-Alexander can get no matter what happens next season, would pay him $76 million annually, which would exceed even Shohei Ohtani's average annual value (even counting the Los Angeles Dodgers star's deferral money). Even better, because he split with his agent a few months ago, none of that money will be going to agent fees. Speaking to reporters after the announcement, he said, “You try so hard throughout the season to not think about [winning MVP] and just worry about playing basketball and getting better and trying to win games … But as a competitor and as a kid dreaming about the game, it’s always in the back of your mind.”

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