It’s hard to discuss what’s been going on in the US this week without using analogies to bodily functions – actually one in particular. From congressional constipation to the largest document dump in history, it’s been a post-Thanksgiving rectal crisis of epic proportions.
Source: Yes Magazine
On Tuesday, as U.N. negotiations on climate change geared up in the Caribbean beach resort of Cancún, thousands of people marched through the streets of Mexico City to demand grassroots solutions to global warming —and to the slew of other crises they face.
“I’m here because I’m worried about the planet and also because I’m worried about our country,” a middle-aged woman from the grassroots coalition National Dialogue tells me as the march sets off toward Mexico City’s central plaza, the Zócalo.
Last week's release of 900 pages of U.S. government documents dealing with the implementation of the nation's primary surveillance law suggests that the government has been systematically violating the privacy rights of U.S. citizens.
Source: Le Monde Diplomatique
SABMiller is one of the world’s leading beverage companies and a new report by ActionAid makes its history in apartheid South Africa of particular interest.
Among the strategies deployed by SABMiller during sanctions imposed on apartheid South Africa were ‘relocating’ intangible assets, such as the company’s many trademarks, to the Netherlands, a ‘conduit’ country used extensively for shifting corporate profits.
Not only did this allow SABMiller to bypass sanctions, but it also made it easier to expand into foreign markets – without the associated stigma of being an apartheid South African company – and avoid taxation through transfer (mis)pricing. The benefits of Dutch holding companies mean there is no requirement to have local economic substance, little or no taxation on repatriated profits, and full tax exemption on capital gains and dividends received from qualifying subsidiaries. And as ActionAid reports, according to Dutch law, the costs of acquired trademarks can be set against taxable income.
As the Wikileaks scandal drags on a portrait is emerging of Brazil, and suffice it to say it is not too flattering. A rising power with global aspirations, Brazil has a lot more political and economic muscle than, say Venezuela or Bolivia. Yet, time and again the Lula administration takes a very meek approach toward the United States or, even worse, goes along with Washington’s geopolitical machinations.
At NATO’s recent summit in Lisbon, President Obama promoted the missile defense shield that will someday cover all of Europe, including Russia. Critics of missile defense say a European shield is a ruse that’s keeping the West’s true intentions for Russia under wraps.
Copyright Toward Freedom 2019