Global Fact7 Virtual

TWO COUNTRIES, ONE SYSTEM: China Imposes ‘Security Law’ on Hong Kong, Bringing in CCP ‘Reign of Terror’ With ‘Secret Police.’

Nice toys but where are the soldiers?

The government is spending $270 billion on new capability, skewing the budget away from spending on servicemen and women.

It is a big number, but the Morrison government's $270 billion commitment over 10 years to build up military capability tells only part of the story.

What the 2020 Defence Force Structure Plan is largely silent on is where the soldiers, sailors and pilots are going to come from to fire these shiny new weapons.

NSW blows whistle on tax failings - Financial Review

REvil Ransomware Gang Adds Auction Feature for Stolen Data ThreatPost 

Samuel Singer (University of Ottawa), Rethinking Privilege for Tax Professionals: A Tax Policy Perspective:

In Canada, information exchanged between an accountant and a client, while confidential under professional codes of conduct, is not privileged unless it falls within limited common law exceptions. Some countries have legislated to extend limited privilege to accountants, but Canada has not yet done so. This paper uses tax policy principles to critically evaluate the differential treatment of lawyer-client and accountant-client relationships under the rules of privilege in Canada. 

Nearly 11% of the workforce is out of work with zero chance of getting called back to a prior job Economic Policy Institute

This year’s Global Fact conference will be the largest worldwide gathering of fact-checkers. More than 150 speakers from more than 40 different countries will discuss the state and the future of fact-checking. The week-long virtual gathering kicks off Monday, June 22, 2020 Global Fact 7, an annual conference organized by the International Fact-Checking Network, will be held virtually because of the COVID-19 pandemic. It was originally scheduled to be held in person between June 24-27 in Oslo, Norway after being held in London, Buenos Aires, Madrid, Rome, and Cape Town since 2014 Its pivot to a virtual gathering may have been a blessing in disguise. Join us this year and be a part of the discussion at Global Fact 7 (virtual)!”

Read more about Global Fact 7 (virtual)

Audit office slams Attorney-General’s Department for lobbying code of conduct inaction

PRIORITIES? The Attorney-General’s Department has made little effort to implement past recommendations related to the government’s lobbying code of conduct, the national auditor-general has found.l Saturday’s good reading and listening for the weekend By IAN MCAULEY | On 27 June 2020 What people in other forums are saying about public policyContinue reading → New York Times op-ed:  Tax the Rich and Their Heirs, by Lily Batchelder (NYU): A massive transfer of wealth is underway and will accelerate in the coming years. Baby boomers and the generation that preceded them currently own $84 trillion, or 81 percent of all U.S. household wealth — wealth that will before long be inherited by their children and other beneficiaries. Umut Turksen (Coventry) presents The Role of Human Factors in Tax Compliance and Countering Tax Crime today as part of the Indiana/Leeds Summer Zoom Tax Workshop Series hosted by Leandra Lederman (Indiana) and Leopoldo Parada (Leeds): The term ‘human factors’ covers extra-legal, social, psychological, institutional and organisational aspects affecting the behaviour of tax payers and the enforcement of tax laws, including the fight against tax crime by competent authorities. While legal analysis can proceed along abstract criteria, considering consistency, coherence, clarity of legal regulations, research on human factors has to look at empirical evidence of real-world behavior of citizens as tax payers. When investigating tax crimes, the problem is, that no reliable data exist about tax evasion, tax fraud or asset recovery from such crimes. University of Michigan employees can form bargaining units without formal elections, regents decide Michigan Live  California City Bans Predictive Policing In US First Reuters Mobilewalla Used Cellphone Data To Estimate the Demographics of ProtestersBuzzFeed Facial Recognition Bill Would Ban Use By Federal Law Enforcement NBC “Free Speech” In The US Empire Is As Illusory As “Free-Range” Eggs Caitlin Johnstone  As Advertisers Revolt, Facebook Commits To Flagging ‘Newsworthy’ Political Speech That Violates PolicyTechCrunch Now I KNOW When It’s OK to Lose Your Head The High Price of Cheap Meat Der Spiegel   The Sickness in Our Food Supply New York Review of Books. Michael Pollan.   Why the American Consumer Has Fewer Choices—Maybe for Good WSJ MALTESE SECRETS Malta’s former deputy prime minister, Konrad Mizzi, was voted out of his party last week because of his Panama Papers connections. Our 2016 investigation revealed he incorporated undeclared shell companies shortly after taking office (explore the connection here.) His expulsion came after he refused to step down. For more on how our members, Jacob Borg in Malta and Stephen Grey in the U.K., have worked tirelessly to expose the truth listen to the Times of Malta’s chat with Jacob. ‘TOOTHLESS’ BANS Poland, France, Belgium and Denmark are among the European nations that want to stop companies that use tax havens from getting coronavirus-related relief funds. But tax reformers argue the laws are “toothless,” don't go far enough and leave too much wiggle room for companies. “What we really need to be asking are specifics like: ‘Give us beneficial ownership. Give us country-by-country reporting. Comply or explain,'" said tax expert Professor Richard Murphy. 'DENIED JUSTICE' Angolan billionaire Isabel dos Santos claims she has been “denied justice” by the country’s “rigged” legal system. A Luanda court threw out an appeal to unfreeze personal and corporate bank accounts belonging to dos Santos, her husband and her senior business managers. The assets were frozen in December, just weeks before Luanda Leaks was published. Angolan prosecutors say her claim is “unfounded." TAX COMMITTEE The European Union has established yet another tax committee – albeit this time a permanent one to focus on tax avoidance in the region. The subcommittee will focus on industrial-scale corporate tax avoidance by global tech companies, and the lack of transparency around multinationals’ tax information. But the new body will have limited powers, and won’t tackle money laundering. From the Archives: Liquid Memories: When caterpillars turn into butterflies, they turn into goo along the way. And then they remember their pre-goo experiences. Bonus fact: The guillotine is generally seen as an instrument from the French Revolution, but it has been used in France more recently. France used the guillotine for three executions in the 1970s, and only officially dropped the use of the guillotine when it outlawed the death penalty altogether in 1981.