Category: Business

Ethiopian forces carried out an airstrike Thursday on Mekelle, their third on the Tigray regional capital this week, as the government attempts to weaken the Tigrayan forces they’ve been fighting for almost a year.

Spokesman Legesse Tulu told reporters the airstrike targeted a training center for Tigrayan forces. He said the base previously was used by Ethiopian forces in the area.

There was no immediate word on casualties.

War erupted nearly a year ago between Ethiopian troops and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, which governed Ethiopia for three decades but now rules only the northern Tigray region.

Mekelle has not seen large-scale fighting since June, when Ethiopian forces withdrew from the area and Tigray forces retook control of most of the region. Following that, the conflict continued to spill into the neighboring regions of Amhara and Afar.

Last week, Tigray forces said the Ethiopian military had launched a ground offensive to push them out of Amhara and to recapture territory lost to them several months ago.

U.N. spokesman Farhan Haq told reporters Tuesday that U.N. colleagues “are alarmed at the intensification of the conflict and once again reminded all parties to the conflict of their obligations under international humanitarian law to protect civilians and civilian infrastructure.”

Source: Voice of America

WASHINGTON —

Here’s a look at what U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and other top diplomats have been doing this week:

US-South America

Promoting democracy and managing migration are the focus of Blinken’s first trip to Ecuador and Colombia from October 19 to 21 as top U.S. diplomat. During a speech Wednesday in Quito, Blinken outlined challenges facing democracies in the Western Hemisphere but said he was optimistic they could be overcome.

Venezuela also looms large as the U.S. calls for political talks to resume between the Venezuelan government and the country’s opposition. U.S. officials this week discussed ways to tackle irregular migration, as Colombia hosts nearly 2 million Venezuelan migrants, and Ecuador also hosts a large number of migrants from Venezuela.

China also came up during Blinken’s South American trip. Ecuadorian officials described Beijing as “a commercial partner,” with Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso saying he wanted to secure a trade deal with China. Blinken told his Ecuadorian counterpart the U.S. was not asking countries to choose between Washington and Beijing, but he warned of risks of doing business with Chinese companies, saying “there really is no division between purportedly private enterprises and the state.”

US ‘One China’ Policy

Nicholas Burns, President Joe Biden’s nominee to be the next U.S. ambassador to China, took a tough line on dealings with China during his Senate confirmation hearing Wednesday. Burns said the U.S. was right to continue its “one-China policy” but that Washington was also right to oppose China’s unilateral actions that undermine the status quo and undermine the stability of the region. Noticeably, Burns used the wordings of Washington’s so-called one-China “policy,” which is different from Beijing’s one-China “principle.” The U.S. has “acknowledged” but has never endorsed the Chinese Communist Party’s claim of sovereignty over Taiwan.

Colin Powell’s legacy

Colin Powell, the first Black U.S. secretary of state and a top military officer, died Monday at age 84 from complications due to COVID-19 while battling multiple myeloma.

He is being remembered by America’s foreign service work force, who say Powell was devoted to ensuring the State Department was properly resourced, consulted and respected.

Powell, who shaped lasting U.S. policies toward Africa, also is being remembered on the continent for peacemaking, supporting the fight against AIDS and sounding the alarm against war abuses.

US-Haiti

Haitian protesters took to the streets this week to demand the release of 17 missionaries — 16 Americans and 1 Canadian — kidnapped on October 16 by the 400 Mawozo gang. An interagency team dispatched by the U.S. government is working closely with Haitian authorities to try to recover the missionaries. The State Department has raised its travel advisory for Haiti to Level 4: Do Not Travel.

Top US envoy to afghanistan steps down

The U.S. special envoy to Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, stepped down from his post this week, less than two months after the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. Blinken announced Khalilzad’s departure in a statement Monday, saying the envoy would be replaced by his deputy, Thomas West. Talk of Khalilzad’s resignation had emerged since August after the Afghan Security Forces collapsed and the Taliban rapidly took control over the war-torn country.

Tigray violence

The U.S. remains gravely concerned by escalating violence in Tigray.

Forces in Ethiopia’s Tigray region said Monday that the Ethiopian government had launched airstrikes on the regional capital, Mekelle. The United States also was looking into the reported attack, with State Department spokesperson Ned Price saying the U.S. remained “gravely concerned by what has been escalating violence in Tigray for some time.”

China missile test

Top U.S. officials said Washington was paying close attention to China’s efforts to build up its military arsenal, amid reports Beijing took a major step forward two months ago by testing a hypersonic missile. Monday, the State Department said the U.S. was “deeply concerned” about the rapid expansion of China’s nuclear capabilities, which is deviating from Beijing’s decades-long nuclear strategy based on minimum deterrence.

Iran nuclear deal

Efforts to get Tehran to return to the terms of the Iran nuclear deal are in danger of falling short, forcing the United States and its allies to consider nondiplomatic options to contain the threat, according to top U.S. officials.

Jerusalem consulate

The United States will move ahead with its plan to reopen the U.S. consulate in Jerusalem as Washington restores ties with the Palestinians and commits to a two-state solution. “As I said in May, we’ll be moving forward with the process of opening a consulate as part of deepening those ties with the Palestinians,” Blinken said during a Wednesday press conference. But he stopped short of providing a timeline.

Source: Voice of America

OMAHA, NEBRASKA —

A federal grand jury on Tuesday indicted U.S. Representative Jeff Fortenberry of Nebraska, accusing him of lying to the FBI and concealing information from federal agents who were investigating campaign contributions funneled to him from a Nigerian billionaire.

The U.S. attorney’s office announced that the grand jury in Los Angeles had indicted the nine-term Republican on one charge of scheming to falsify and conceal material facts and two counts of making false statements to federal investigators. Fortenberry is expected to appear for an arraignment Wednesday afternoon in federal court in Los Angeles.

The indictment stems from an FBI investigation into $180,000 in illegal campaign contributions from Gilbert Chagoury, a Nigerian billionaire of Lebanese descent.

The contributions were funneled through a group of Californians from 2012 through 2016 and went to four U.S. politicians, including $30,200 to Fortenberry in 2016. Using an analysis of federal election records, Politico has identified the other three Republican recipients as former U.S. Representative Lee Terry of Nebraska in 2014; Representative Darrell Issa of California in 2014; and Senator Mitt Romney during his 2012 presidential campaign.

Federal authorities haven’t alleged that any of the other three campaigns or candidates were aware that the donations originated with Chagoury.

Allegations

Chagoury, who lives in Paris, admitted to the crime in 2019, agreed to pay a $1.8 million fine and is cooperating with federal authorities. Prosecutors have said Chagoury made some of the illegal contributions to politicians from smaller states because he thought the amounts would be more noticeable and give him better access. He also drew attention years ago for giving more than $1 million to the Clinton Foundation.

The indictment alleges that a co-host of the 2016 fundraiser in Los Angeles told Fortenberry that the donations probably did come from Chagoury, but Fortenberry never filed an amended campaign report with the Federal Election Commission as required. It says he later “made false and misleading statements” to federal investigators during a March 23, 2019, interview at his home in Lincoln.

According to the indictment, Fortenberry falsely told investigators he wasn’t aware of an associate of Chagoury being involved in illegal contributions. He also allegedly said that his donors were publicly disclosed, and he wasn’t aware of any contributions from a foreign national, which is illegal.

In a second interview in Washington in July 2019, the indictment says Fortenberry denied that he was aware of any illicit donation made during the 2016 fundraiser.

‘Shocked’ and ‘stunned’

In a YouTube video posted Monday night, Fortenberry said he was “shocked” and “stunned” by the allegations and asked his supporters to rally behind him. Knowingly making false statements to a federal agent is a felony, punishable by up to five years in prison.

“We will fight these charges,” he said in the video, filmed inside a 1963 pickup truck with his wife, Celeste, and their dog, against a backdrop of corn. “I did not lie to them. I told them what I knew. But we need your help.”

Fortenberry’s campaign has insisted that he didn’t know the donations, which the campaign received during a fundraiser in Los Angeles, originated with Chagoury.

Fortenberry said FBI agents from California came to his home after he had been out dealing with a major storm that had just hit Nebraska. He said they questioned him about the contributions then and in a follow-up interview.

“I told them what I knew and what I understood,” he said.

Fortenberry represents the state’s 1st Congressional District, a heavily Republican area that includes Lincoln and parts of several Omaha suburbs, as well as surrounding farmland and small towns in eastern Nebraska.

According to the Nebraska secretary of state’s office, no other Nebraska congressman or U.S. senator has been indicted since at least 1901.

Fortenberry was first elected to the seat in 2004. He won his last election in 2020 with 60% of the vote and has generally defeated Democratic challengers by lopsided margins.

His statement that he expected to be indicted was first reported by the Omaha World-Herald.

Celeste Fortenberry said her husband spoke with the agents voluntarily, without a lawyer, because he was under the impression that the agents needed his help to get to the bottom of the case.

She said he later called his friend, attorney and former congressman Trey Gowdy, for legal representation. She said her husband sat for another interview with agents in Washington and was repeatedly assured that he was not a target of the investigation.

Source: Voice of America

KAMPALA, UGANDA —

As climate change continues to hit farmers because of erratic weather conditions, researchers believe there is a need to not only improve agricultural innovation but seek farmers’ opinions before introducing new farming methods.

Hadijah Naigaga has been a banana farmer for over 10 years. With Uganda experiencing erratic rainfall in some parts of the country and prolonged dry seasons, Naigaga says her garden was not spared.

She says there used to be huge banana plantations but they have collapsed. First, we had a prolonged dry spell and the plantation dried up, she says. Then, the rain was so heavy and the trees fell down. I had calculated that I would make a profit of between $3 and $6. But you realize that where you calculated $6, you have nothing. The trees are gone, she says.

Antonio Querido, the Food and Agriculture Organization representative in Uganda, says in order to have better production, nutrition, environment and life, there’s a need to transform agri-food systems. That would ensure that everyone has access to enough affordable, safe and nutritious food to lead an active and healthy life. According to the FAO, 690 million people suffer from hunger worldwide and that number has increased due to the coronavirus pandemic.

However, Querido said the agri-food systems are also contributing to climate change and that calls for better ways in the long term to produce safe and nutritious food.

“We need to invest more in research and development, to make farming more technology-advanced. We need innovation in digital agriculture to improve literacy rates among women. Because these can only go a long way in reducing hunger,” Querido said.

Ambrose Agona, the director general of the National Agricultural and Research Organization, says that while Uganda is considered a food basket for the Eastern African region, the question now is on the quality of food.

He says to ensure farmers grow quality of food, researchers need to talk with farmers, who often apply indigenous methods to raising crops.

“So, for instance, you’re talking about adaptation maybe to climate change. They have, for instance, certain crops, sorghum, finger millet, ground nuts, pigeon peas. They have been actually drought tolerant. But now, the farmers will be saying, if this newly improved variety is actually tolerant to climate change, how does it compare to ours,” Agona said.

According to the FAO, $40 to $50 billion must be invested worldwide to end hunger by 2030.

In Uganda, efforts are focused on training farmers and improving methods to produce information that leads to early warning systems to help them plan and anticipate the impacts of climate change.

That would be in addition to supporting post-harvest management and collective marketing to drive economic success and reduce poverty among farmers.

Source: Voice of America

WASHINGTON —

Facebook was used to spread disinformation about the Rohingya, the Muslim ethnic minority in Myanmar, and in 2018 the company began to delete posts, accounts and other content it determined were part of a campaign to incite violence.

That deleted but stored data is at issue in a case in the United States over whether Facebook should release the information as part of a claim in international court.

Facebook this week objected to part of a U.S. magistrate judge’s order that could have an impact on how much data internet companies must turn over to investigators examining the role social media played in a variety of international incidents, from the 2017 Rohingya genocide in Myanmar to the 2021 Capitol riot in Washington.

The judge ruled last month that Facebook had to give information about these deleted accounts to Gambia, the West African nation, which is pursuing a case in the International Court of Justice against Myanmar, seeking to hold the Asian nation responsible for the crime of genocide against the Rohingya.

But in its filing Wednesday, Facebook said the judge’s order “creates grave human rights concerns of its own, leaving internet users’ private content unprotected and thereby susceptible to disclosure — at a provider’s whim — to private litigants, foreign governments, law enforcement, or anyone else.”

The company said it was not challenging the order when it comes to public information from the accounts, groups and pages it has preserved. It objects to providing “non-public information.” If the order is allowed to stand, it would “impair critical privacy and freedom of expression rights for internet users — not just Facebook users — worldwide, including Americans,” the company said.

Facebook has argued that providing the deleted posts is in violation of U.S. privacy, citing the Stored Communications Act, the 35-year-old law that established privacy protections in electronic communication.

Deleted content protected?

In his September decision, U.S. Magistrate Judge Zia M. Faruqui said that once content is deleted from an online service, it is no longer protected.

Paul Reichler, a lawyer for Gambia, told VOA that Facebook’s concern about privacy is misplaced.

“Would Hitler have privacy rights that should be protected?” Reichler said in an interview with VOA. “The generals in Myanmar ordered the destruction of a race of people. Should Facebook’s business interests in holding itself out as protecting the privacy rights of these Hitlers prevail over the pursuit of justice?”

But Orin Kerr, a law professor at the University of California at Berkeley, said on Twitter that the judge’s ruling erred and that the implication of the ruling is that “if a provider moderates contents, all private messages and emails deleted can be freely disclosed and are no longer private.”

The 2017 military crackdown on the Rohingya resulted in more than 700,000 people fleeing their homes to escape mass killings and rapes, a crisis that the United States has called “ethnic cleansing.”

‘Coordinated inauthentic behavior’

Human rights advocates say Facebook had been used for years by Myanmar officials to set the stage for the crimes against the Rohingya.

Frances Haugen, the former Facebook employee who testified about the company in Congress last week, said Facebook’s focus on keeping users engaged on its site contributed to “literally fanning ethnic violence” in countries.

In 2018, Facebook deleted and banned accounts of key individuals, including the commander in chief of Myanmar’s armed forces and the military’s television network, as well as 438 pages, 17 groups and 160 Facebook and Instagram accounts — what the company called “coordinated inauthentic behavior.” The company estimated 12 million people in Myanmar, a nation of 54 million, followed these accounts.

Facebook commissioned an independent human rights study of its role that concluded that prior to 2018, it indeed failed to prevent its service “from being used to foment division and incite offline violence.”

Facebook kept the data on what it deleted for its own forensic analysis, the company told the court.

The case comes at a time when law enforcement and governments worldwide increasingly seek information from technology companies about the vast amount of data they collect on users.

Companies have long cited privacy concerns to protect themselves, said Ari Waldman, a professor of law and computer science at Northeastern University. What’s new is the vast quantity of data that companies now collect, a treasure trove for investigators, law enforcement and government.

“Private companies have untold amounts of data based on the commodification of what we do,” Waldman said.

Privacy rights should always be balanced with other laws and concerns, such as the pursuit of justice, he added.

Facebook working with the IIMM

In August 2020, Facebook confirmed that it was working with the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar (IIMM), a United Nations-backed group that is investigating Myanmar. The U.N. Human Rights Council established the IIMM, or “Myanmar Mechanism,” in September 2018 to collect evidence of the country’s most serious international crimes.

Recently, IIMM told VOA it has been meeting regularly with Facebook employees to gain access to information on the social media network related to its ongoing investigations in the country.

A spokesperson for IIMM told VOA’s Burmese Service that Facebook “has agreed to voluntarily provide some, but not all, of the material the Mechanism has requested.”

IIMM head Nicholas Koumjian wrote to VOA that the group is seeking material from Facebook “that we believe is relevant to proving criminal responsibility for serious international crimes committed in Myanmar that fall within our mandate.”

Facebook told VOA in an email it is cooperating with the U.N. Myanmar investigators.

“We’ve committed to disclose relevant information to authorities, and over the past year we’ve made voluntary, lawful disclosures to the IIMM and will continue to do so as the case against Myanmar proceeds,” the spokesperson wrote. The company has made what it calls “12 lawful data disclosures” to the IIMM but didn’t provide details.

Human rights activists are frustrated that Facebook is not doing more to crack down on bad actors who are spreading hate and disinformation on the site.

“Look, I think there are many people at Facebook who want to do the right thing here, and they are working pretty hard,” said Phil Robertson, who covers Asia for Human Rights Watch. “But the reality is, they still need to escalate their efforts. I think that Facebook is more aware of the problems, but it’s also in part because so many people are telling them that they need to do better.”

Matthew Smith of the human rights organization Fortify Rights, which closely tracked the ethnic cleansing campaign in Myanmar, said the company’s business success indicates it could do a better job of identifying harmful content.

“Given the company’s own business model of having this massive capacity to deal with massive amounts of data in a coherent and productive way, it stands to reason that the company would absolutely be able to understand and sift through the data points that could be actionable,” Smith said.

Gambia has until later this month to respond to Facebook’s objections.

Source: Voice of America

Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield returned to public service earlier this year when President Joe Biden nominated her to be the representative of the United States to the United Nations.

The veteran diplomat had a 35-year career with the U.S. foreign service that included major roles in U.S. policy toward sub-Saharan Africa as well as management leadership positions within the State Department. She also served as ambassador to Liberia and had foreign postings in Kenya, Gambia and Nigeria.

Thomas-Greenfield spoke with Hayde Adams, the host of VOA’s Straight Talk Africa, during the U.S.-Africa Business Summit about U.S. policy toward Africa, how countries in the region are recovering from the pandemic, and why women should play a central role in that effort.

The following interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.

VOA: Earlier this year, you acknowledged that Africa has many challenges: COVID-19, of course, poverty, terrorism, amongst many others. But you also said that the Biden administration understands that it needs to focus on the opportunities on the continent and not just the challenges. What are the greatest opportunities that the United States sees on the African continent today?

Linda Thomas-Greenfield: Before COVID-19 hit Africa, African economies were some of the fastest-growing economies in the world. And somewhere between six out of 10 of the top fastest-growing countries were on the continent of Africa. I see many opportunities for these countries now to build back better, as we have said here in the United States, and they can build back better with more equitable growth, with more diversity, with more market-based transparent practices and with a focus on climate smart futures. And also, I have to add, with a focus on equity for women who have been key players in the marketplace on the continent of Africa.

So let me start with climate change. Climate change is a challenge for all of us all over the globe. But it also presents a tremendous opportunity to create well-paying jobs on the continent of Africa as the world transitions to renewable energies and develops transformational technologies that can help countries reduce emissions and also adapt to climate change. We’re committed to making sure, for example that developing countries can build back greener through public climate financing. Africa, with a population of 1.3 billion people with a median age of 19 … Africa’s youth are probably one of its greatest resources. There’s a tendency to see youth, for example as a problem. But for the continent of Africa, youth are an opportunity, and they are an opportunity that the continent needs to take advantage of.

VOA: Many African nations are currently experiencing their worst surge in COVID-19 cases and deaths since this pandemic began and it’s all largely driven by the delta variant. What are the most worrying pandemic trends that you are seeing on the continent right now? And what is your assessment of the way African governments have responded to these twin health and economic crises?

Thomas-Greenfield: This pandemic has really had a devastating impact on the economies of African countries, and as we reflect back on the last 18 months, I have to say that many of the actions that were taken by African leaders to confront COVID-19 early on have saved countless lives. Many of these countries shut down. Many of them had already had experiences dealing with pandemic-like conditions when some of them had to deal with Ebola.

But the situation continued to get worse and particularly as African countries were not able to access the COVID vaccines once these vaccines came on board. And they were not prepared, for example, with the challenges to their very weak health care systems, the countries began to falter. And with this new delta variant out there, I think the situation is going to get even worse. You may know President (Joe) Biden has just announced and pledged that the United States will be the world’s arsenal of vaccines. I love that phrase. And we’re working as fast as we can to get shots in arms, not just here in the United States but through COVAX (a worldwide initiative aimed at equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines directed by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations and the World Health Organization) to get as many vaccines out to the continent of Africa as possible, as well as through bilateral donations of vaccines. And so we see that we’re not just fighting the disease, we’re fighting to secure decades of development progress that the pandemic could unwind.

VOA: Given the opportunities for the U.S. on the African continent and beyond the COVAX commitments, what is America willing to do to ensure that Africa is not left behind as economies all over the world try to recover?

Thomas-Greenfield: We have tremendous programs that work with young people, that are working with women, that are working with finance ministries to support their development agendas through not just USAID (the U.S. Agency for International Development), but also through DFC (the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation), through our engagements with the World Bank and the IMF (International Monetary Fund) to ensure that these countries get the injections into their economy.

VOA: International institutions and civil society organizations are sounding the alarm that all the hard-won progress on gender equality and women’s empowerment is now at risk of being eviscerated. Can you help us understand what is at risk for women right now, especially those on the African continent? And do you think that any setbacks that we encounter now can be overcome in our lifetime?

Thomas-Greenfield: We have to do everything possible to ensure that whatever experiences women have right now in Africa, that we find a way to turn those around. There’s a lot at risk, but it’s not just for women and girls, it’s for their entire families because we know that when women are empowered, they empower their families, they empower their communities, they empower their countries.

We have to work with these countries to ensure that the pandemic and the alarming numbers of women worldwide who have been forced to choose between their jobs and their family and their health and their businesses, that they have adequate support to move forward. But what we’ve seen, and I think what has been so devastating is the impact. Early on, I saw statistics that indicated that child marriages are going up, that the rape of girls … sexual exploitation of girls … school-age girls, because they’re not in school, that those numbers have gone up significantly, that people are taking advantage of women and girls in these circumstances. … We’ve seen that COVID-19 does seem to be reversing decades of hard-won gains for girls, including access to education. … And so that is something that we have to work to address, to not only get vaccines out but to get girls back into the classroom.

VOA: The safety of women and education of girls probably (are) among the most heartbreaking consequences and heartbreaking stories of the groups that have been affected by this pandemic. The United Nations policy brief on the impact of COVID-19 on women says across the globe, women earn less, they save less, they hold less-secure jobs, and are more likely to be employed in the informal sector. And in some African countries, there are no fiscal relief packages or social safety nets like we see in the United States and in other countries in the West or any other sort of benefits to help mitigate the devastating impacts of this pandemic on women’s lives and their livelihoods. In your view what do African governments stand to gain by including women in their economic recovery strategies, and what do they stand to lose if they don’t?

Thomas-Greenfield: I think countries are now, leaders are now more conscious of the importance of having women engage in their country’s development plan. Because again, and I say this over and over and over again, when we invest in women they invest back in their families, they invest in their communities, and they invest in their countries. And in many of these countries, they represent 50% of the population. You cannot ignore 50% of your nation and think that your country is going to grow. So these countries are losing significantly if they don’t include women in their development plans, if they don’t include women in their investment efforts. They’re losing out on what these women might contribute to their countries. We’ve seen all across the continent of Africa, successful, women-run businesses. And we see the success that women have had in building their communities through civil society activity. But we’ve also seen that they’ve been impacted by the virus much more than other parts of the population and we need, for that reason, to make sure we give them more attention than we might have otherwise given women, as we start to build these economies.

VOA: You’re a longtime champion of gender equality. … There’s a generation in Africa of well-educated but unemployed youth. They’re struggling through unprecedented and uncertain times. They’ve been called the “Pandemic Generation.” What immediate investments can governments, business and the international community at large make in Africa’s youth, especially its girls? What kind of investments can be made today that will prepare them and build resilience for whatever crisis might come next?

Thomas-Greenfield: When you consider the fact that the median age on the continent of Africa is 19, we started with that. And then you have countries like Niger, where the median age is 15. If we don’t focus on young people, we’re ignoring a country. Half of the population under the age of 19, so it was for that reason I am most proud of the work that I did, and the (U.S. President Barack) Obama administration did on supporting young people across the continent of Africa.

The Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI) will be paying dividends on the continent of Africa long after I’m gone from here. And it is something that we all have to make sure that we continue to invest in. Invest in mentoring young people, encouraging young people, supporting the leadership of young people in government, in business, in civil society, in education. … We want them to be leaders in their community. We want them to be leaders in their businesses. We want to be leaders in their churches, in their schools. And they will start building the next generation of leaders on the continent. And that’s where Africa’s future is.

VOA: Madam Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the United States Ambassador to the United Nations, thank you so much for your time and for being here with me I really, really do appreciate it.

Thomas-Greenfield: Well thank you very much. And again, I know Africa’s future is bright because I know that there are so many young people out there who are building that future one brick at a time. And we’re going to see the results of their work in the future.

Source: Voice of America

More than 130 countries have agreed on sweeping changes to how big global companies are taxed, including a 15% minimum corporate rate designed to deter multinationals from stashing profits in low-tax countries.

The deal announced Friday is an attempt to address the ways globalization and digitalization have changed the world economy. It would allow countries to tax some of the earnings of companies located elsewhere that make money through online retailing, web advertising and other activities.

U.S. President Joe Biden has been one of the driving forces behind the agreement as governments around the world seek to boost revenue following the COVID-19 pandemic.

The agreement among 136 countries representing 90% of the global economy was announced by the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, which hosted the talks that led to it. The OECD said that the minimum tax would reap some $150 billion for governments.

Today’s agreement represents a once-in-a-generation accomplishment for economic diplomacy,” U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in a statement. She said it would end a “race to the bottom” in which countries outbid each other with lower tax rates.

“Rather than competing on our ability to offer low corporate rates,” she said, “America will now compete on the skills of our workers and our capacity to innovate, which is a race we can win.”

The deal faces several hurdles before it can take effect. U.S. approval of related tax legislation proposed by Biden will be key, especially since the U.S. is home to many of the biggest multinational companies. A rejection by Congress would cast uncertainty over the entire project.

Big U.S. tech companies such as Google and Amazon have supported the OECD negotiations. One reason is that countries would agree to withdraw individual digital services taxes they have imposed on the companies in return for the right to tax part of their earnings under the global scheme.

That means the companies would deal with just the one international tax regime, not a multitude of different ones depending on the country.

“This accord opens the way to a true tax revolution for the 21st century,” said French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire. “Finally, the digital giants will pay their just share in taxes in the countries — including France — where they produce.”

On Thursday, Ireland announced that it would join the agreement, ditching a low-tax policy that has led companies such as Google and Facebook to base their European operations there.

Although the Irish agreement was a step forward for the deal, developing countries have raised objections, and Nigeria, Kenya, Pakistan and Sri Lanka have indicated they will not sign up.

Anti-poverty and tax fairness advocates have said the bulk of new revenue would go to wealthier countries and offer less to developing countries that are more dependent on corporate taxes. The Group of 24 developing countries said that without a bigger share of revenue from reallocated profits, the deal would be “suboptimal” and “not sustainable even in the short run.”

The deal will be taken up by the Group of 20 finance ministers next week and then by G-20 leaders for final approval at a summit in Rome at the end of October.

Countries would sign on to a diplomatic agreement to implement the tax on companies that have no physical presence in a country but earn profits there, such as through digital services. That provision would affect around 100 global firms.

The second part of the deal, the global minimum of at least 15%, would apply to companies with more than 750 million euros ($864 million) in revenue and be passed into domestic law by countries according to model rules developed at the OECD. A top-up provision would mean tax avoided overseas would have to be paid at home. So long as at least the major headquarters countries implement the minimum tax, the deal would have most of its desired effect.

Source: Voice of America

IBADAN, NIGERIA. —

In Nigeria, a country heavily reliant on revenues from its oil exports, entrepreneur Ifedolapo Runsewe has identified another type of black gold: used car tires.

She has set up Freetown Waste Management Recycle, an industrial plant dedicated to transforming old tires into paving bricks, floor tiles and other goods that are in high demand in Africa’s most populous nation.

“Creating something new from something that will otherwise be lying somewhere as waste was part of the motivation,” Runsewe told Reuters at her factory in the city of Ibadan in southwest Nigeria.

“We are able to create an entire value chain around the tires,” she said, holding a paving brick that is one of the company’s best-selling products.

Waste management in Nigeria is patchy at best. In villages, towns and cities, piles of waste are a common sight, and residents often burn them at night for lack of a safer method of disposal. Tires are routinely dumped and abandoned.

Freetown relies on scavengers who collect old tires from dumping grounds. They are paid 70 to 100 naira ($0.17-$0.24) per tire.

Some tires are also supplied directly by mechanics, like Akeem Rasaq, who is delighted to have found a place where he can make some money from old tires.

“Most of the tires end up in public drainage clogging up the drain, but things have changed,” he said at his roadside workshop.

Freetown started operations in 2020 with just four employees, and growth has been so rapid the workforce has jumped to 128. So far, more than 100,000 tires have been recycled into everything from speed bumps to soft paving for playgrounds.

“It is important to support anybody that recycles in our country,” said Houssam Azem, founder of the Lagos Jet Ski Riders Club, which has purchased paving bricks from Freetown for a children’s play area.

“Taking tires, which is an environmental nuisance, and turning them into what children can play on, I think it is a win-win for everybody.”

Source: Voice of America