Taxes paid by companies remain a key source of government revenues, especially in developing countries, despite the worldwide trend of falling corporate tax rates over the past two decades, according to a new report from the OECD.

Mayors from cities across the United States, Asia, Europe, Africa and Latin America gathered in New York to launch a global campaign to address rising inequalities and foster inclusive growth in their cities, in their countries and worldwide.

The 28-year-old donated just over £750,000 to humanitarian agency UNICEF and to a solidarity fund that had been set up by other celebrities to help fight coronavirus.

Despite global recalls, brand-name Zantac is sold by a different company - Sanofi - in the US, and neither the drug maker or the FDA have issued a recall of the popular heartburn medication.

On Thursday, Disney's live-action 'reimagining' Aladdin crossed the $1 billion mark at the global box office, making it the biggest film in the careers of everyone involved.

While the project is still in the early stages of development, Variety says producers hope stars Will Smith, Mena Massoud and Naomi Scott will also get on board.

Out of 11,086 entries from photographers around the world, judges went about selecting 50 finalists for a nature-themed contest run by photo app Agora. The winner will be announced March 4.

Cases of the highly contagious virus now exceed 203,000, according to the US-based John Hopkins University. Infections have doubled since March 7, when the toll first hit six figures.

For almost a decade many of us have suspected, or known, that the hosting rights for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups to Russia and Qatar were awarded after a corrupt process - and bribery.

ALISON BOSHOFF: While some contemporaries such as Adele went on to enormous global successes, Duffy simply disappeared. Her second album, Endlessly, flopped in 2010 and that was that.

A study by the United Nations World Tourism Organisation also found that 83 per cent of destinations around the world have had restrictions in place for four weeks or more.

Eileen Naughton had faced a mass walkout of some 20,000 staff around the world in 2018 over huge severance packages going to Google executives implicated in sexual misconduct claims.

Apple revealed in March that its Worldwide Developers Conference would be hosted online, but has announced the official date - June 22. The event will be free to the public this year.

Locking up healthy people in their homes and putting wholesale populations under house arrest is perverse. Coronavirus panic merchants and fearmongers have wrecked entire economies based on flimsy evidence and with little public scrutiny. Lockdowns...

Tesla Inc. suspended production at its plant on the outskirts of Shanghai, according to people familiar with the matter, bringing to a halt all of the company’s vehicle manufacturing globally.

In April, players spent over 3.2 billion hours in-game which is also a record.

In just three days, Saaho reportedly dethroned Mahesh Babu's Maharshi to become the top-grossing title of 2019 in Telugu cinema.

Migrant camps were "very prone" to spreading the disease, IOM Director General Antonio Vitorino told reporters in an online briefing.

Infections have been reported in more than 210 countries and territories since the first cases were identified in China in December 2019.

More than 3.95 million people have been reported to be infected by the novel coronavirus globally and 273,805 have died, according to a Reuters tally, as of 0214 GMT on Saturday.

More than 3.96 million people have been reported to be infected by the novel coronavirus globally and 273,974 have died, according to a Reuters tally. Infections have been reported in more than 210 countries and territories since the first cases were identified in China in December 2019.

London : Palgrave Macmillan, 2019.

As the coronavirus pandemic sweeps the world, more and more governments are imposing lockdowns on their citizens. As a result, reliance on digital tools has increased significantly to maintain social and professional relationships. Notably, usage of video conferencing app Zoom has spiked, and not just for professional purposes.

But what about the social media tools we were already using to connect with people on a daily basis? How has their popularity changed so far in these trying times?

complete article

USCIRF chair Tony Perkins gives CT a behind-the-scenes look at today’s annual report on “systematic, ongoing, and egregious” violations.

A new report aims to “unflinchingly criticize the records of US allies and adversaries alike” on religious freedom.

And there’s a lot to report, with more headlines each month confirming the Pew Research Center’s 10-year analysis that government restrictions and social hostilities involving religion have reached record levels worldwide.

Today’s 21st annual report by the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) identifies significant problems in 29 countries—but sees “an upward trajectory overall.”

“Our awareness is going to grow greater, and the problem will appear more pronounced,” USCIRF chair Tony Perkins told CT. “But as we continue to work on it, I think we will see tremendous progress in the next few years if we stay the present course.”

Created as an independent, bipartisan federal commission by the 1998 International Religious Freedom Act, USCIRF casts a wider net than the US State Department, which annually designates Countries of Particular Concern (CPC) for such nations’ violations of religious freedom, or places them on a Special Watch List (SWL) if less severe.

Last December, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced CPC status for Burma, China, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan.

USCIRF now recommends adding India, Nigeria, Russia, Syria, and Vietnam.

And where the State Department put only Cuba, Nicaragua, Sudan, and Uzbekistan on the watch list, USCIRF recommends also including Afghanistan, Algeria, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Central African Republic, Egypt, Indonesia, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, and Turkey.

USCIRF’s mandate is to provide oversight and advice to the State Department. ...

Continue reading...

Online Resource

Earthworms are easy … to find. But despite their prevalence and importance to ecosystems around the world, there hasn’t been a comprehensive survey of earthworm diversity or population size. This week in Science, Helen Philips, a postdoctoral fellow at the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research and the Institute of Biology at Leipzig University, and colleagues published the results of their worldwide earthworm study, composed of data sets from many worm researchers around the globe. Host Sarah Crespi gets the lowdown from Philips on earthworm myths, collaborating with worm researchers, and links between worm populations and climate. Read a related commentary here.  Sarah also talks with Ziad Obermeyer, a professor in the School of Public Health at the University of California, Berkeley, about dissecting out bias in an algorithm used by health care systems in the United States to recommend patients for additional health services. With unusual access to a proprietary algorithm, inputs, and outputs, Obermeyer and his colleagues found that the low amount of health care dollars spent on black patients in the past caused the algorithm to underestimate their risk for poor health in the future. Obermeyer and Sarah discuss how this happened and remedies that are already in progress. Read a related commentary here.  Finally, in the monthly books segment, books host Kiki Sanford interviews author Alice Gorman about her book Dr. Space Junk vs The Universe: Archaeology and the Future. Listen to more book segments on the Science books blog: Books, et al. This week’s episode was edited by Podigy. Ads on this week’s show: The Tangled Tree: A Radical New History of Life by David Quanmen; MEL Science Download the transcript (PDF) Listen to previous podcasts. About the Science Podcast [Image: Public domain; Music: Jeffrey Cook]

Dewey Library - K3250.H49 2020

Poignant when set against India's orchestrated applause for health-workers, are from a poem in Chinese that has been translated into English as "Please Don't Disturb"