The wealth of the world's billionaires rose by $1.4 trillion in 2017, the largest annual increase ever.
The details: Nearly all of that increase was driven by the Asia-Pacific region, and specifically China, where billionaire wealth rose 39%. The region minted three new billionaires a week over the course of the year. 701 billionaires are over the age of 70, accounting for nearly 40% of the wealth in the chart above.
With U.S. sanctions on Iranian oil set to kick in Sunday at midnight, Iran's foreign minister has reached out to a number of key European leaders to reaffirm their countries' support for the 2015 nuclear deal, Politico reports.
Why it matters: The European Union has been vocal in its disapproval of President Trump's unilateral withdrawal from the Iran deal. The first round of U.S. sanctions, which went into effect in August, has already taken a significant toll on Iran's economy, but it's the second round — which targets Iran's critical oil exports — that could threaten total collapse. Iran's ability to preserve trade ties with the EU would undermine the Trump administration's "maximum pressure" approach to sanctions.
North Korea threatened on Friday evening to revive nuclear development if the U.S. doesn't lift economic sanctions against the country, the Associated Press reports.
The big picture: North Korea did not threaten to walk away from ongoing negotiations with the U.S., but the Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the "improvement of the relations and sanctions is incompatible," per the AP. A professor of North Korea studies at Dongguk University in Seoul, Dr. Koh Yu Whan, told the AP that the threats aren't serious yet, and that North Korea wants "to vent their complaints out loud."
