A person holds United States dollar banknotes in this illustration photo taken in Poland on December 26, 2022.

(Photo by Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

• Households need an annual gross income of $597,815 to be considered the highest-earning 1% in the US.
• The threshold to make the 1% of top earners varies drastically by state.
• Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New York lead the list of the highest thresholds.

If you want to be a part of the 1% top earners in the US, you’ll need an annual income of more than half a million dollars. 

American households need an annual gross income of $597,815 to be considered the highest-earning 1% in the country, a January 13 analysis by personal finance website SmartAsset found. However, this number varies widely from state to state.

Using data from the IRS and the Bureau of Labor Statistics from 2018 and updating it with the 2022 Consumer Price Index, the study has deduced which states have the highest and lowest thresholds for being considered ultra rich. The study found that eight of the 10 states with the highest 1% thresholds are located along the eastern and western coasts. 

Here’s a roundup of the states with the highest and lowest income thresholds, respectively, needed to be the cream of the crop.

The top five states with the highest thresholds to be in the top 1% of earners, according to SmartAsset: 

1. Connecticut: $896,490
2. Massachusetts: $810,256
3. New York: $777,126
4. New Jersey: $760,462
5. California: $760,462

These are the five states with the lowest thresholds to be in the top 1% of earners: 

1. West Virginia: $350,212
2. Mississippi: $361,462
3. New Mexico: $384,427
4. Arkansas: $411,633
5. Kentucky: $412,836

Households need a much lower salary to be considered in the top 5% income bracket nationwide. The average income needed to be in the top 5% is $240,712, per SmartAsset.

Even so, the rich are getting richer.

America’s 1% added $6.5 trillion to their collective fortunes in 2021, CNBC reported, citing the Federal Reserve. They owned 31.1% of the country’s total wealth in the second quarter of 2022. In comparison, the lowest-earning 50% of the US population only possessed 3.2% of the country’s wealth, according to Statistica Research Department. 

Income inequality is on the rise in the country. A report by the US Census Bureau published in 2022 says that the Gini index, which measures income distribution in a country, increased by 1.2% between 2020 and 2021, indicating a greater level of income inequality.

President Joe Biden will use a speech at a steamfitters union hall on Thursday to launch an attack against Republicans who control the U.S. House of Representatives, saying that some of their proposals are dangerous for the U.S. economy.

Biden, believed to be laying the groundwork for a bid for re-election in 2024, will visit the union hall in Springfield, Virginia, a Washington suburb.

Republicans seized control of the House by a narrow margin in last November’s midterm elections and in the weeks since they took power Biden has sought to portray them as out of step with the concerns of Americans.

A White House official said Biden will seek to tie House Republicans to former President Donald Trump, the Republican who Biden ousted in the 2020 election. Biden will refer to them as beholden to Trump, who used a “Make America Great Again” slogan.

“The president will outline the biggest threat to our economic progress: House Republicans’ MAGA economic plan,” the official said.

Biden has already warned he would veto Republican proposals on the strategic petroleum reserves, cutting taxes on corporations and a national sales tax should they reach his desk. Biden’s Democrats control the Senate.

It will be Biden’s first major economic speech of the year and he will use it promote his record on the U.S. economy, including the creation of more manufacturing jobs and a low unemployment rate.

The economy under Biden has been gripped by inflation but that may now be ebbing.

Biden will say his policies “are laying the foundation for strong and stable growth,” the White House official said.

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Russian warplanes carried out new missile strikes on Ukraine during the morning rush hour on Thursday, the day after Kyiv secured Western pledges of dozens of modern battlefield tanks to try to push back the Russian invasion.

* At least one person was killed in the latest Russian missile strikes, and critical infrastructure was damaged in the Black Sea region of Odesa, Ukrainian officials said.

* Ukrainian air defences shot down all the more than 15 Russian missiles fired towards the capital during the latest round of air strikes, an air force spokesperson said.

* The missile strikes followed an overnight drone attack in which Ukrainian forces destroyed 24 drones, including 15 over Kyiv, the Ukrainian military said.

* The United States and Germany have announced plans to arm Ukraine with modern battle tanks in its fight against Russia, which denounced the decisions as an “extremely dangerous” step.

* The key to providing tanks was speed and sufficient numbers, President Zelenskiy said. He’s also spoken to NATO and called for supplies of long-range missiles and aircraft to add to the commitment of tanks by the United States and Germany.

* Germany’s decision paves the way for other countries such as Poland, Spain, Finland, the Netherlands and Norway to supply some of their Leopard tanks to Ukraine.

* It may take many months for the powerful U.S. tanks that President Biden agreed to send to Ukraine to reach their destination, the White House said.

* Poland’s army will receive its first Abrams tanks from the United States in spring, the defence minister said.

* Germany’s defence minister said on Thursday he would start talks with the defence industry as early as next week to speed up arms procurement and ramp up ammunitions supplies.

* Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the promised delivery of Western tanks was evidence of direct and growing U.S. and European involvement in the conflict.

* The secretary of Russia’s powerful Security Council said the United States and NATO were seeking to drag out the fighting, the TASS news agency reported.

“We must form such a tank force, such a freedom force that after it strikes, tyranny will never again rise up” – Zelenskiy.

“We categorically disagree with this, and in Moscow, everything that the alliance and the capitals I mentioned are doing is seen as direct involvement in the conflict. We see that this is growing,” Peskov said of NATO and Western countries providing Ukraine with weapons.

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European Union migration ministers meet on Thursday to discuss visa restrictions and better coordination inside the bloc to be able to send more people with no right to asylum in Europe back to their home countries including Iraq.

Three years after the 27-nation EU agreed to restrict visas for countries deemed failing to cooperate on taking their people back, only Gambia has been formally punished.

The EU’s executive European Commission proposed similar steps vis-a-vis Iraq, Senegal and Bangladesh, though two EU officials said cooperation with Dhaka on returning people has since improved.

Still, the EU’s overall rate of effective returns stood at 21% in 2021, according to Eurostat data, the latest available.

“That is a level that member states consider unacceptably low,” said one of the EU officials.

Immigration is a highly politically sensitive topic in the bloc where member countries would much rather discuss stepping up returns, as well as reducing irregular immigration in the first place, than revive their bitter feuds over how to share out the task of caring for those who make it to Europe and win the right to stay.

“Establishing an effective and common EU system for returns is a central pillar of well-functioning and credible migration and asylum systems,” the Commission said in a discussion paper for the ministers, which was seen by Reuters.

Some 160,000 people made it across the Mediterranean in 2022, according to U.N. data, the main route to Europe for people fleeing wars and poverty in the Middle East, Africa and Southeast Asia. On top of that, nearly 8 million Ukrainian refugees were also registered across Europe.

The ministers meet two weeks before the 27 EU national leaders gather in Brussels to discuss migration, and are also expected to call to send more people away.

“Swift action is needed to ensure effective returns from the European Union to countries of origin using as leverage all relevant EU policies,” read a draft of their joint statement, which was also seen by Reuters.

Inside the EU, however, there is insufficient resources and coordination between different parts of government to ensure each a person with no right to stay is effectively returned or deported, according to the Commission.

“Insufficient cooperation of countries of origin is an additional challenge,” it added, naming problems including recognising and issuing identity and travel documents.

But pressure from migration chiefs to punish some third countries with visa restrictions has in the past run against the EU’s own foreign and development ministers, or failed due to conflicting agendas of various EU countries.

There has therefore not been enough majority among EU countries so far to punish another country apart from Gambia, where people can no longer get multiple entry visas to the bloc and face a longer wait.

While EU countries including Austria and Hungary loudly protest against the mainly-Muslim, irregular immigration from the Middle East and North Africa, Germany is among those seeking to open up their job market to much-needed workers from outside the bloc.

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Quando foi resgatada, em 2005, a onça Gavião pesava 100 quilos. Passou 11 anos de sua vida amarrada como um cachorro em um cabo de aço de 20 metros. Teve suas garras cortadas. Com ela, os policiais encontraram uma grande quantidade de armas. Naquele dia, a força-tarefa com Ibama, Ministério Público Federal e a Polícia Federal buscavam caçadores de onças na fazenda São Jorge, em Lambari do Oeste, no Mato Grosso.

Um vídeo com cenas de matança durante a caça de três onças havia sido vazado para o programa do Ratinho. A força tarefa foi atrás dos caçadores ilegais, mas não encontrou ninguém na fazenda – além de Gavião e das armas. A onça foi levada a um abrigo. Um veterinário chamado Éderson Viaro, conhecido como Dersão, foi apontado como o responsável pelos maus-tratos e pela caça ilegal.

Quase duas décadas depois, foi na fazenda de Viaro que encontramos o Clube de Caça e Tiro Esportivo do Estado de Mato Grosso.

Já mostramos no Intercept que os estados da Amazônia Legal tiveram uma explosão de clubes de tiro nos últimos anos. A expansão desse tipo de estabelecimento seguiu a rota do agronegócio e explodiu sob Bolsonaro. Os clubes cercam indígenas, municiam agromilícias e ajudam a explicar a violência acima da média da região. Agora, um novo levantamento feito com base em dados fundiários, cruzados com os registros de clubes de tiro do Exército, traz uma nova camada de informação: a maioria desses clubes fica em zonas rurais – e muitos dentro de fazendas, algumas com histórico comprometedor.

Encontramos, por exemplo, clubes de tiro em fazendas ligadas a sojeiros, políticos e acusados de diversos crimes, como lavagem de dinheiro e invasão de terras indígenas – além da caça ilegal.

Em 2004, um caçador preso em Cáceres apontou Dersão, dono da Fazenda São Jorge, como seu patrão. O fazendeiro teria conseguido escapar do flagrante da Fundação Estadual do Meio Ambiente no Parque Estadual do Guirá, região do Pantanal. Na ocasião foi informado que Dersão era considerado um caçador experiente e tinha autorização do Exército para transportar armas, sob a justificativa de fazer parte de clube de tiro, podendo conduzir o armamento para participar de competições.

Dersão também foi acusado de maus tratos contra animais silvestres depois da divulgação da notícia que a onça Gavião foi mantida em cativeiro em sua propriedade por pelo menos 11 anos. Vídeos divulgados na época mostravam até a participação de estrangeiros nos safáris organizados por ele e o uso de cachorros para auxiliar na caça.

O Clube de Caça e Tiro Esportivo Mato Grosso foi fundado poucos anos depois das denúncias, em 2010. É presidido pelo advogado Marcelo Barroso Viaro, filho de Dersão. Em 2022, Dersão chegou a assinar um Termo de Ajustamento de Conduta com o MPF em 2022 em que se compromete a parar de caçar animais silvestres e realizar safáris.

A página do clube está desatualizada e o site, fora do ar. O advogado Marcelo Barroso Viaro foi procurado no número que consta em seu cadastro no Conselho Nacional da Ordem dos Advogados do Brasil, mesmo telefone que consta no site do clube de tiro. Em contato pelo Whatsapp, informaram que o celular não era dele.

Outro histórico preocupante no Mato Grosso é o clube Associação de Tiro de Alta Floresta, fundado em 2018, que fica na zona rural da cidade mato-grossense de mesmo nome. Seu presidente, André Bianchini Serafin, é também sócio da Brasil Tropical Pisos, uma fabricante que, segundo seu site, exporta pisos e decks de madeira maciça “para mais de 35 países”. O clube está localizado em um lote rural em nome da empresa.

A Brasil Tropical Pisos é ré em uma ação civil pública em que o Ministério Público Federal a acusa de fazer parte de um grupo que invadiu o Parque Nacional do Juruena. O espaço, criado em 2006, fica em uma área próxima à divisa do Mato Grosso com o Amazonas, em pleno arco do desmatamento.

A região ainda está em vias de ser delimitada como território indígena. Um despacho da Fundação Nacional do Índio, de 2011, aprovou as conclusões para reconhecer os estudos de identificação e delimitação da Terra Indígena Apiaká do Pontal e Isolados, onde moram indígenas das etnias Apiaká, Munduruku e por um grupo de indígenas isolados “cuja filiação étnica resta desconhecida”.

A Brasil Tropical Pisos foi condenada em primeira instância a deixar a área do parque em que se localiza a Fazenda Soberana, de 18 mil hectares, e não fazer novas ocupações na área. Em um recurso em abril deste ano, a empresa alega que o decreto de criação do parque caducou, sob o argumento que o processo não foi concluído, com o pagamento de indenizações aos antigos proprietários das terras. A Brasil Tropical afirma ainda que já deixou o local, além de ter ingressado com um processo de desapropriação indireta para receber pela área.

O presidente André Serafin não foi incluído na ação, sob o argumento que a empresa tinha patrimônio próprio para responder na justiça. O Intercept tentou falar com Serafin no telefone do clube de tiro, mas não houve retorno do contato.

Clube de um, fazenda do outro

O levantamento feito pelo Intercept também encontrou um clube de tiro funcionando dentro da Fazenda Santa Bárbara, uma produtora de soja que nos registros do Incra consta como pertencente à Amaggi, empresa da família do ex-governador do estado e ex-ministro da Agricultura Blairo Maggi.

Ao Intercept, a Amaggi afirmou que “foi compromissada” a venda da Fazenda Santa Bárbara em junho de 2018 e “desde então transmitida a posse” e que as atividades econômicas na área “vêm sendo realizadas pelo comprador” – razão pela qual afirmam não ter “nenhuma relação com o referido clube de tiro”. O Cadastro Ambiental Rural do imóvel foi cancelado, mas nele consta o nome da Rotta Agropecuária, uma produtora de soja, algodão e gado.

Localizado em Sapezal, no Mato Grosso, o Clube de Tiro e Caça Patriotas foi fundado em outubro de 2021, em meio ao boom de estabelecimentos do tipo no governo Bolsonaro. O clube de tiro não tem relação direta com os sócios da Rotta e nem da Amaggi – ele é presidido pelo empresário Henrique Caceres Ribas, dono de uma construtora no município de Sapezal.

Só no Mato Grosso, ainda encontramos outros cinco clubes de tiro dentro de fazendas – em quatro deles, os presidentes dos clubes são diferentes dos administradores das propriedades rurais.

A mesma situação acontece em Roraima. Lá, o clube de tiro Associação Desportiva Hubertus é presidido por Luiz Antonio Araujo de Souza e fica em uma área da Wilt Empreendimentos. A empresa está em nome da família do médico Jan Roman Wilt, morto em outubro deste ano. Ele foi preso durante a Operação Exodus da Polícia Federal em 2006, ao lado de outros seis empresários e de José Evandro Moreira, à época presidente da Companhia de Água e Esgoto de Roraima, e cunhado do então governador Ottomar Pinto, morto em 2007.

Wilt é apontado também como dono de hospital e hotel. Assim como outros presos na ação, foi acusado de crime contra o sistema financeiro, lavagem de dinheiro, evasão de divisa e formação de quadrilha, com a movimentação de dinheiro não declarado em offshores. A suspeita era de que o dinheiro teria se originado de desvio de recursos públicos e contrabando de diamantes, segundo a imprensa noticiou na época. O médico era um atirador premiado, com participação em diversos campeonatos nacionais.

A Wilt Empreendimentos e a Associação Desportiva Hubertus foram procuradas no telefone que consta em seus cadastros. O número, no entanto, pertence a um escritório de contabilidade onde não souberam informar o contato dos responsáveis por ambas.

Clubes em unidades de conservação

O levantamento do Intercept, feito pelo geógrafo Eduardo Carlini, especializado em cartografia, aponta que aproximadamente seis em cada dez novos estabelecimentos abertos entre 2019 e 2021 na região Amazônica ficam em áreas rurais, e não em cidades, onde há mais concentração populacional.

O número de novos clubes abertos em áreas rurais não é preciso porque a definição do que é área urbana e área rural em cada município é definido por legislação municipal, explica Carlini. A estimativa leva em conta a interpretação das imagens de satélite das regiões e o fato de alguns desses clubes estarem localizados em áreas identificadas como pertencentes a imóveis rurais, de acordo com o Instituto Nacional de Colonização e Reforma Agrária, o Incra.

Nem todos os clubes de tiro rurais apontados na pesquisa são abertos ao público.

A análise aponta ainda que existem seis clubes construídos dentro de unidades de conservação: três deles no Amazonas, dois em Rondônia e um no Acre, algumas delas em áreas públicas. São os casos da Área de Proteção Ambiental Lago do Amapá, no Acre, da Floresta Estadual de Rendimento Sustentável Periquito e do Rio São Domingos, em Rondônia, e das áreas de proteção ambiental da Margem Direita do Rio Negro – Setor Panuari-Solimões, Tarumã/Ponte Negra e Presidente Figueiredo/Caverna do Maroaga, no Amazonas.

Também existem 17 clubes de tiro dentro de antigos assentamentos. Em geral, aponta o geógrafo, não são os assentamentos de reforma agrária, mas sim antigos instrumentos de colonização usados pela ditadura brasileira, como o Projeto de Assentamento Rápido, o Projeto Integrado de Colonização e o Projeto de Assentamento Dirigido. Foram seis casos constatados no Mato Grosso, seis em Rondônia, três no Pará, um no Acre e outro em Roraima.

Nem todos os clubes de tiro rurais apontados na pesquisa são abertos ao público. Em agosto de 2021, tentei visitar dois deles em Rondônia. Para tentar chegar, usei aplicativos como o Google Maps, mas o acesso terminava em porteiras fechadas, sem qualquer informação na entrada. Nem mesmo os vizinhos sabiam da existência desse tipo de atividade no local. Rondônia, como o Intercept já mostrou, é o estado em que mais clubes foram abertos no governo Bolsonaro e também onde mais houve assassinatos de camponeses em 2021.

The post Encontramos clubes de tiro na Amazônia em fazendas de acusados de invadir terras indígenas, lavar dinheiro e até caçar onças appeared first on The Intercept.

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Russia pounded Ukraine with missiles during the morning rush hour on Thursday, killing at least one person in Kyiv and damaging critical infrastructure in the Black Sea region of Odesa, officials said.

Crowds of people took cover in the capital’s metro stations during a nationwide air alert before Russia unleashed the latest in a series of air attacks on the power grid since October that have caused sweeping outages during winter.

The missile strikes followed a drone attack overnight, one day after Ukraine secured pledges of supplies of main battle tanks from Germany and the United States to beef up its troops -a move that infuriated Russian officials.

Air force spokesperson Yuriy Ihnat said as many six Tu-95 warplanes had taken off from the Arctic region of Murmansk in northern Russia and launched long-range missiles.

He said he expected a volley of more than 30 missiles and that air defence forces were trying to shoot them down.

Kyiv authorities said their air defences had taken down all the more than 15 Russian missiles fired at the capital, but that the threat remained and residents should not leave shelters.

Minutes later, loud explosions rocked two districts of Kyiv. City officials said a 55-year-old man had been killed and two other people wounded when non-residential buildings in the south of the city were struck.

Impacts were also reported in the central region of Vynnitsia and elsewhere.

“There is already information about the damage to two critical energy infrastructure facilities in Odesa region,” the Odesa District Military Administration wrote on Telegram, adding that there were no casualties in those attacks.

At the beginning of the attack, a Reuters reporter heard the sound of a missile flying overhead at a low altitude, about 30 km (19 miles) from Kyiv.

Iryna, an accountant in her fifties, was sat on a bench among the crowds sheltering in the Universitet metro station said she was worried about her husband.

“He was planning to go to a post office in the morning and now he is not answering his phone,” she said.

DTEK, Ukraine’s largest private energy producer, said it was conducting emergency power shutdowns in Kyiv, the surrounding region and also the regions of Odesa and Dnipropetrovsk because of the danger of missile attacks.

Other power producers said they were conducting emergency power shutdowns in other parts of Ukraine.

Overnight, the military said its anti-aircraft defences had shot down all 24 drones sent by Russia.

Fifteen of the drones were downed around the capital Kyiv where there were no reports of any damage.

Russia launched a rush-hour barrage of missiles towards Ukraine on Thursday, killing at least one person, the day after Kyiv secured Western pledges of dozens of modern battlefield tanks to try to push back the Russian invasion.

Moscow reacted with fury to the German and American announcements, and has in the past responded to apparent Ukrainian successes with air strikes that have left millions without light, heat or water.

The Ukrainian military said it had shot down all 24 drones sent overnight by Russia, including 15 around the capital, with no damage reported.

But soon afterwards, air raid alarms sounded across Ukraine as people were heading to work, and senior officials said air defences were shooting down incoming missiles.

The Kremlin said on Thursday it saw the promised delivery of Western tanks to Ukraine as “direct involvement” of the United States and Europe in the 11-month-old conflict, something both deny.

In the capital, crowds of people took cover in underground metro stations. Mayor Vitali Klitschko said one person had been killed and two wounded when a missile hit non-residential buildings in the south of the city.

Kyiv’s military administration said more than 15 missiles fired at Kyiv had been shot down, but urged people to remain on shelters.

DTEK, Ukraine’s largest private energy producer, said it was conducting emergency power shutdowns in Kyiv, the surrounding region and also the regions of Odesa and Dnipropetrovsk because of the imminent danger.

In Odesa, the Black Sea port designated a “World Heritage in Danger” site on Wednesday by the U.N. cultural agency UNESCO, Russian missile strikes damaged energy infrastructure, the district military administration said.

Western analysts say the attacks on Ukraine’s cities are more an attempt to break morale than a strategic campaign.

Both sides are expected to mount new ground offensives come the spring, and Ukraine has been seeking hundreds of modern tanks in the hope of using them to break Russian defensive lines and recapture occupied territory in the south and east.

Both Ukraine and Russia have so far relied primarily on Soviet-era T-72 tanks.

“The key now is speed and volumes. Speed in training our forces, speed in supplying tanks to Ukraine. The numbers in tank support,” President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address on Wednesday.

“We have to form such a ‘tank fist’, such a ‘fist of freedom’.”

Maintaining Kyiv’s drumbeat of requests, Zelenskiy said he had spoken to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and asked for long-range missiles and aircraft.

Ukraine’s allies have already provided billions of dollars worth of military support, including sophisticated U.S. missile systems that have helped turn the tide of the war in the last six months.

The United States has been wary of deploying the difficult-to-maintain Abrams but had to change tack to persuade Germany to send to Ukraine its more easily operated German-built Leopards.

Germany will send an initial company of 14 tanks from its stocks, which it said could be operational in three or four months, and approve shipments by allied European states with the aim of equipping two battalions – in the region of 100 tanks.

The Leopard is a system that any NATO member can service, and crews and mechanics can be trained together on a single model, Ukrainian military expert Viktor Kevlyuk told Espreso TV.

“If we have been brought into this club by providing us with these vehicles, I would say our prospects look good.”

U.S. President Joe Biden said the 31 M1 Abrams tanks that Washington will provide posed “no offensive threat” to Russia.

But Sergei Nechayev, Russia’s ambassador to Germany, on Wednesday called Berlin’s decision “extremely dangerous”, saying that it “takes the conflict to a new level of confrontation”.

Since invading Ukraine on Feb. 24 last year, Russia has shifted its publicly stated goals from “denazifying” and “demilitarising” its neighbour to confronting a purportedly aggressive and expansionist U.S.-led NATO alliance.

The Russian invasion has killed thousands of civilians, forced millions from their homes and reduced entire cities to rubble.

The heaviest fighting for now is around Bakhmut, a town in eastern Ukraine with a pre-war population of 70,000 that has seen some of the most brutal combat of the war.

Ukraine’s military said Russia was attacking “with the aim of capturing the entire Donetsk region and regardless of its own casualties”.

The Russian-installed governor of Donetsk said on Wednesday that units of Russia’s Wagner contract militia were moving forward inside Bakhmut, with fighting on the outskirts and in neighbourhoods recently held by Ukraine.

Reuters could not verify the battlefield reports.

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