6, November 2017
Queen Elizabeth has millions stashed in offshore tax havens 0
Newly-leaked documents reveal the private estate of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth has invested millions of pounds in the British Caribbean tax havens of the Cayman Islands and Bermuda.
According to documents obtained by the International Consortium of Journalists, around 10 million pounds (13 million dollars) of the queen’s private cash is said to have been tied up in offshore portfolios.
The leak, dubbed the Paradise Papers, contains 13.4 million documents, mostly from one leading firm in offshore finance. Nearly 100 media groups are investigating the leaked papers.
The core of the leak, totaling more than 13.4 million documents, focuses on the Bermudan law firm Appleby, a 119-year-old company, whose clients are corporations and very wealthy people. Appleby helps clients reduce their tax burden; obscure their ownership of assets like companies, private aircraft, real estate and yachts; and set up huge offshore trusts that in some cases hold billions of dollars.
Many of the leaked documents reveal how politicians, multinationals, celebrities and high-net-worth individuals use complex structures of trusts, foundations and shell companies to protect their cash from tax officials or hide their dealings behind a veil of secrecy.
The files show the offshore empire is bigger and more complicated than many had imagined.
What are the offshore tax havens?
Essentially the tax havens are places outside a country’s regulations, to which companies or individuals can redirect money, assets or profits to take advantage of lower taxes rates than their own country.
These jurisdictions are known as offshore tax havens, to use the more technical jargon, offshore financial centers (OFCs). They are generally stable, secretive and reliable, often small islands but not exclusively so, and can vary on how rigorously they carry out checks on wrongdoing.
Britain has a big role in the flourishing of these entities, not simply because so many of its overseas territories and crown dependencies are OFCs, but many of the lawyers, accountants and bankers working in the offshore industry operate out of the city of London.
Who hides the cash?
Wealthy individuals and large companies have one thing in common: enormous amounts of money they want to hide from taxing.
Some of the world’s biggest multinationals feature in the leak, including Apple, Nike and Facebook, as well as some of the richest people in the world, from the British monarch to Bono, and from the stars of British sitcoms to the stars of Hollywood.

Brooke Harrington, renowned author of Capital Without Borders: Wealth Managers and the One Percent, said offshore finance is not for the 1 percent but the .001 percent.
Source: Presstv




















6, November 2017
Texas Mass Shooting: Democrats blame Republicans for loose gun control laws 0
The deadly mass shooting in a Texas church that killed over two dozen people on Sunday has once again sparked gun control debates in the US, with former President Barack Obama and other figures weighing in on the issue.
“May God also grant all of us the wisdom to ask what concrete steps we can take to reduce the violence and weaponry in our midst,” Obama wrote in a tweet on Sunday night, after a former US Air Force serviceman killed 27 people at the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs, Texas.
Former vice president Joe Biden also reacted by urging Americans not to give in to “hopelessness” and “persist in our efforts to prevent gun violence.”
The shooting came a little more than a month after the deadliest mass shooting in modern US history in Las Vegas, which killed over 50 people and injured hundreds more at a concert.
Following in footsteps of the former Democrat president, Democratic Senators Bob Casey Jr., Dick Durbin and Kamala Harris also voiced concern and urged the Republican-dominated Congress to act in response to the latest deadly shooting.
“The shooter turned his gun on people — kids — in a place of worship. America is in the grips of a gun violence crisis. Congress must act,” Durbin wrote in a tweet.
Harris, a possible 2020 presidential contender, condemned “senseless gun violence” after the incident.
Senator Richard Blumenthal, another Democrat, went one step further and accused Congress of “complicity.”
“Enough is enough. Now is the time for commonsense gun violence prevention steps. Congressional complicity must end,” he wrote on Twitter.
Other Democratic heavyweights like Senators Dianne Feinstein and Elizabeth Warren also commented on the issue. While Feinstein called for immediate action, Warren pointed the finger at Republicans.
“Thoughts & prayers are not enough, GOP. We must end this violence. We must stop these tragedies. People are dying while you wait,” she wrote in a tweet.
Republican reaction
The issue of gun violence has provoked a lot heated debates under Republican President Donald Trump, one of the most pro-gun US heads of state.
Once a strict supporter of banning assault weapons, Trump’s views on gun control have shifted so much he now takes pride in defending the constitutional right to own arms and refuses to tighten up gun regulations.
Facing questions in the wake of the Las Vegas shooting, Trump reluctantly said the US will “be talking about gun laws as time goes by.”
There was no hints towards a possible change of views in his response to the recent church shooting either.
“May God be w/ the people of Sutherland Springs, Texas. The FBI & law enforcement are on the scene. I am monitoring the situation from Japan,” wrote the president, who is on a 12-day trip to Asia.
The lackluster Republican response to the issue continued after Representative Steve Scalise, a victim of a shooting himself, called the shooting “devastating” in a tweet. House Speaker Paul Ryan also said the shooting was “devastating.”
Source: Presstv