SYDNEY and KUALA LUMPUR, Sep 3 2019 (IPS)* – Large transnational corporations (TNCs) are widely believed to be paying little tax. The ease with which they avoid tax and the declining corporate tax rates over the decades have deprived developing countries of much needed revenues besides undermining public faith in the tax system.
Anis Chowdhury
The rise of digital giants, such as Google, Facebook, Amazon and Apple, is an additional concern for all countries. Digitalization makes it hard to establish where ‘production’ takes place. Hence, digital tech TNCs’ revenues typically bear little relation to reported profits and tax bills.
Corporate tax rules favour rich countries
Through the OECD, developed economies have long set corporate tax rules, without much consideration for the effects on developing countries’ revenues.
By OXFAM* — The expansion of large scale mining activities and agribusiness in Latin America has greatly increased territorial disputes and resulted in an alarming rise in violence suffered by individuals who defend water, land, forests and the rights of women, afro-descendants, indigenous and farming communities.
Janeth Pareja Ortiz with Angélica Ortiz, of the Ipuana clan, in the middle of the Aguas Blancas stream, Colombia. They are defenders of human, territorial and environmental rights. Photo: Pablo Tosco / Oxfam
Threats, bullying, judicial harassment, illegal surveillance, forced disappearances, blackmail, sexual assault and murder are common practice.
48h after the Brazilian government issued burning ban almost 4,000 new fires have been recorded.
In August the Amazon was hit by burning so intense and so vast, it could be observed from space. | Photo: Reuters (Photo posted here from teleSUR).
3 September 2019 (teleSUR)* — Around 2,000 new fires have been recorded in the Amazon despite the Brazilian government’s 60-day burning ban issued on Aug. 29.
The Brazilian National Space Research Institute (INPE) released satellite data showing that two days after the government decided to issue its ban on burning lands, almost 4,000 new fires started, with more than half of them taking place in the Amazon.
“Today we have only one enemy: Brazil’s government, Brazil’s president,” Mudjire Kayapo, an indigenous leader said.
Aerial view of a burned tract of Amazon jungle cleared by loggers near Porto Velho, Brazil, August 29, 2019. | Photo: Reuters (Photo posted here fromteleSUR).
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3 September 2019 (teleSUR)* — Brazil’s Attorney General’s Office urged the Army to begin an “urgent operation” on Monday [2 September 2019] to prevent illegal loggers from invading and attacking the Alto Rio Guama Reserve, which is located in the state of Para and belongs to the Tembe people.
Somalia’s 2019 cereal harvest is the poorest the country has seen since 2011, when famine strained already scarce resources, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), announced on Tuesday [3 September 2019], blaming unreliable weather patterns and “climatic shocks”.
September will be a month of action, packed with moments that will be pivotal in our efforts to take on the climate emergency. There’s something every one of us can do.
3 September 2019 (UN Environment)* — The cautionary tale of the boiling frog describes how a frog that jumps into boiling water will save itself by jumping straight out, but the frog that sits in the water while it gradually gets hotter and hotter will boil to death.
Photo by Wikimedia
This summer, Europe has sweltered in its hottest ever July since records began, causing multiple deaths, closed offices and disruptions to flights and vital services.
Wildfires broke out in the Arctic, with smoke-filled air swirling across an unprecedented area of Arctic wilderness.
2 September 2019 — Lise Grande, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Yemen, described Sunday’s deadly airstrikes in Dhamar City as a “horrific incident”, and the scale of the casualties, as “staggering”. “These are very dark times for Yemen,” said Ms. Grande. “There have been days of fighting and strikes in the south and hundreds of casualties”.
UN Photo/Isaac Billy | UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Yemen, Lise Grande at a press conference. (file)
The strikes hit a former community college compound on the northern outskirts of Dhamar City. According to sources on the ground, as many as 170 prisoners were being held in a detention facility within the compound.
The Yemen UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights has confirmed that 52 detainees are among the dead. At least 68 detainees are still missing. Casualties are most likely to increase as rescue efforts are still on going.
UNITED NATIONS, Sep 2 2019 (IPS)* – The world’s high seas, which extend beyond 200 nautical miles, are deemed “international waters” to be shared globally– but they remain largely ungoverned.
Scientific expeditions in recent years have revealed that the high seas, 200 nautical miles from coastal shores, harbor an incredible array of species that provide essential services for life on Earth. Credit: The Pew Charitable Trusts
“It’s a jungle out there”, remarks one diplomat, describing a virtually lawless wide-open ocean which has steadily undergone environmental destruction, including illegal fishing and overfishing, plastics pollutions, indiscriminate sea bed mining and degradation of marine eco systems.
30 August 2019, Yokohama (FAO)* – Agriculture is crucial to Africa’s development but needs increased mechanization to boost economic productivity, reduce harvest and post-harvest losses and meet growing demand for food.
