World & Politics
G7 countries agree to launch an alternative to China's Silk Road - 06/14/2021
G7 countries have agreed to launch an initiative aimed at building infrastructure in developing countries. It will be a Western competitor to China's One Belt, One Road project, the FT says. The G7 countries have agreed to launch an international initiative Build Back Better World in order to create infrastructure in developing countries, the need for which is estimated at more than $40 trillion,...
China arrests 1,100 people on suspicion of money laundering through cryptocurrency transactions - 06/11/2021
Chinese police have arrested 1,100 people suspected of using cryptocurrency transactions to launder money derived from criminal activity. The money in question is mostly from phone and internet fraud. According to Chinese police, members of more than 170 criminal groups have been arrested, whose members were transferring illegally obtained money into cryptocurrency through cryptocurrency...
European Parliament approves introduction of COVID certificates - 06/10/2021
The European Parliament approved the introduction of COVID certificates in a plenary session, the parliament's website reports. The initiative received 546 votes in favour, 93 against and 51 abstentions. The system has already been launched in test mode. On July 1 it will officially start operating. The proposal to create a "digital green certificate" was put forward by the European...
Analysts: Solidarity with G7 will cost UK hundreds of millions of dollars - 06/09/2021
A new G7 plan backed by London to tax international companies would allow US IT giants Google, Amazon and Facebook to pay less tax in Britain than they do now, says activist group TaxWatch, cited by The Guardian. The study found that the changes could cost the UK’s coffers about 230 million pounds (around $325 million) a year from four major American IT firms. Facebook, Google, eBay and Amazon...
ProPublica: the richest US citizens paid almost no taxes - 06/09/2021
The 25 richest Americans, including Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett, former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg, Amazon and Tesla heads Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk, paid significantly less income tax than they should have under general rules, according to a ProPublica investigation into confidential US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) data. With a combined wealth growth of $401bn between 2014 and...
US DOJ returns $2.3m from Colonial Pipeline ransom to hackers - 06/08/2021
The US Department of Justice was able to recover $2.3 million paid to cryptocurrency hackers following an attack on the operator of the US Colonial Pipeline. In May, hackers from DarkSide encrypted a significant amount of the pipeline operator's commercial data and demanded a ransom for decryption. "The Department of Justice seized 63.7 bitcoins, valued at approximately $2.3 million, believed...
G7 countries approve corporate tax of at least 15% - 06/07/2021
G7 finance ministers are in favour of introducing a corporate tax of at least 15 per cent on profits of large corporations. The ministers reached an agreement on this issue following a meeting in London, British Finance Minister Rishi Sunak said. The introduction of this tax was earlier initiated by the US. "After years of discussions, G7 finance ministers have reached a historic agreement to...
Biden prohibits investing in 59 Chinese companies - 06/04/2021
US President Joe Biden has signed an executive order to blacklist 59 Chinese companies. Among them is one of the world's largest telecommunications companies, Huawei. "The executive order allows the US to prohibit investments in Chinese companies that undermine the security or democratic values of the US and our allies. <...> The executive order prevents US investments from supporting the...
UN agency forecasts new timeline for labour market recovery after pandemic - 06/03/2021
The UN International Labour Organisation has concluded that the global employment market will not recover until 2023. According to the agency, there will be 205 million unemployed worldwide next year. The International Labour Organisation (ILO) has warned that the rate of job creation will not catch up with the pandemic job cuts until at least 2023. The UN agency stated this in its new...
OECD updates its macro forecast for 2021-2022 - 06/01/2021
The rate of global economic growth over the next two years may be slightly higher than recently expected. The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development's (OECD) May report improved its forecast for global GDP growth to 5.8% in 2021 and to 4.4% in 2022. The OECD predicts a marked improvement in global economic indicators and a return of most countries to pre-crisis levels by the end...
