Tax havens are an unfortunate feature of the global financial system. They enable multinational companies to avoid paying billions in taxes, money which would otherwise pay for important public services like roads, schools and hospitals. In fact, around US$420 billion in corporate profits is shifted out of 79 countries every year according to new research by Miroslav Palansky. He explains how this happens and how it contributes to rising inequality both within countries and across the world.
Since 2013, when the Belt and Road Initiative was launched, China has invested US$90 billion in the partner countries. The Chinese initiative aims to develop infrastructure in 126 countries, and to boost trade in Indonesia, Western Europe, the Middle East, and East Africa. This could help raise living standards, but it could also come with an increase in greenhouse gas emissions. New research published by Kathryn G Logan, Shi Chen, and Xi Lu, shows that the BRI region has huge potential for generating solar power, and this could allow for economic growth without increasing carbon emissions.
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Miroslav Palanský, Charles University
Governments around the world lose about US$125 billion in revenues every year because of profit shifting to tax havens.
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Kathryn G Logan, University of Aberdeen; Shi Chen, Tsinghua University; Xi Lu, Tsinghua University
Tapping just 3.7% of solar potential in countries in China's intercontinental infrastructure programme could power the entire region.
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Environment + Energy
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Matthew Ross, Colorado State University
The Trump administration is supporting new mines in Alaska and Minnesota that many opponents say could devastate sensitive areas around them.
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Elisa Palazzo, UNSW
A call to make our cities more resilient to climate change could drive one of the largest new infrastructure builds in history.
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Politics + Society
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Luthfi T. Dzulfikar, The Conversation
Scholars propose a new education system centred on human development to end hazing rituals in Indonesian universities.
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Monica Duffy Toft, Tufts University
Data show that the US intervenes more in other countries' affairs than it did in the past. It also currently hires fewer career professionals for ambassadorial or foreign affairs positions.
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Health + Medicine
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Catherine Waldby, Australian National University
The story of how human eggs became an integral part of a multi-billion dollar global fertility industry starts in a unlikely place: the sex lives of farm animals.
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