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World leaders are returning home from the annual G7 summit, having failed to address issues such as income inequality, climate change and territorial conflict, while entertaining the wealthy executives of the artificial intelligence and fossil fuel industries. Oxfam International Executive Director Amitabh Behar calls the G7 “a club of the super-rich super-elites” and slams the summit’s focus on business, and business as usual, at the expense of humanitarian efforts and improving the lives of “the common people.”

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org. I’m Amy Goodman, with Nermeen Shaikh.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: The G7 summit has wrapped up in the French Alps. On the summit’s final day, the heads of the world’s leading AI companies joined G7 leaders for a working lunch to discuss artificial intelligence. Attendees included the CEOs of OpenAI, Anthropic and Google DeepMind. Just days earlier, the U.S. had ordered Anthropic to disable access to its most advanced AI models from foreign nationals, citing national security concerns. Their attendance at the G7 also signaled the growing geopolitical power of the world’s wealthiest individuals.

Ahead of the summit, an estimated 20,000 people protested the G7 in Geneva. One sign read, “Your enemies don’t arrive by boat. They arrive by private jet. No G7!!!” This is Pippa Saugy, who attended the protest.

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PIPPA SAUGY: [translated] The G7, for me, is a meeting of the rich to further illustrate how the rich can get richer while the poor are left behind. And I think we women need to protest against these rich people even more. Even though there are two women at the G7, it’s still very much about representing the patriarchy. So, there you have it.

PIPPA SAUGY: [translated] The G7, for me, is a meeting of the rich to further illustrate how the rich can get richer while the poor are left behind. And I think we women need to protest against these rich people even more. Even though there are two women at the G7, it’s still very much about representing the patriarchy. So, there you have it.

AMY GOODMAN: For more, we’re joined now by the executive director of Oxfam........

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