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Anti-Empire

Anti-Empire

offsite link North Korea Increases Aid to Russia, Mos... Tue Nov 19, 2024 12:29 | Marko Marjanovi?

offsite link Trump Assembles a War Cabinet Sat Nov 16, 2024 10:29 | Marko Marjanovi?

offsite link Slavgrinder Ramps Up Into Overdrive Tue Nov 12, 2024 10:29 | Marko Marjanovi?

offsite link ?Existential? Culling to Continue on Com... Mon Nov 11, 2024 10:28 | Marko Marjanovi?

offsite link US to Deploy Military Contractors to Ukr... Sun Nov 10, 2024 02:37 | Field Empty

Anti-Empire >>

The Saker

Indymedia ireland

Indymedia Ireland is a volunteer-run non-commercial open publishing website for local and international news, opinion & analysis, press releases and events. Its main objective is to enable the public to participate in reporting and analysis of the news and other important events and aspects of our daily lives and thereby give a voice to people.

offsite link Fraud and mismanagement at University College Cork Thu Aug 28, 2025 18:30 | Calli Morganite
UCC has paid huge sums to a criminal professor
This story is not for republication. I bear responsibility for the things I write. I have read the guidelines and understand that I must not write anything untrue, and I won't.
This is a public interest story about a complete failure of governance and management at UCC.

offsite link Deliberate Design Flaw In ChatGPT-5 Sun Aug 17, 2025 08:04 | Mind Agent
Socratic Dialog Between ChatGPT-5 and Mind Agent Reveals Fatal and Deliberate 'Design by Construction' Flaw
This design flaw in ChatGPT-5's default epistemic mode subverts what the much touted ChatGPT-5 can do... so long as the flaw is not tickled, any usage should be fine---The epistemological question is: how would anyone in the public, includes you reading this (since no one is all knowing), in an unfamiliar domain know whether or not the flaw has been tickled when seeking information or understanding of a domain without prior knowledge of that domain???!

This analysis is a pretty unique and significant contribution to the space of empirical evaluation of LLMs that exist in AI public world... at least thus far, as far as I am aware! For what it's worth--as if anyone in the ChatGPT universe cares as they pile up on using the "PhD level scholar in your pocket".

According to GPT-5, and according to my tests, this flaw exists in all LLMs... What is revealing is the deduction GPT-5 made: Why ?design choice? starts looking like ?deliberate flaw?.

People are paying $200 a month to not just ChatGPT, but all major LLMs have similar Pro pricing! I bet they, like the normal user of free ChatGPT, stay in LLM's default mode where the flaw manifests itself. As it did in this evaluation.

offsite link AI Reach: Gemini Reasoning Question of God Sat Aug 02, 2025 20:00 | Mind Agent
Evaluating Semantic Reasoning Capability of AI Chatbot on Ontologically Deep Abstract (bias neutral) Thought
I have been evaluating AI Chatbot agents for their epistemic limits over the past two months, and have tested all major AI Agents, ChatGPT, Grok, Claude, Perplexity, and DeepSeek, for their epistemic limits and their negative impact as information gate-keepers.... Today I decided to test for how AI could be the boon for humanity in other positive areas, such as in completely abstract realms, such as metaphysical thought. Meaning, I wanted to test the LLMs for Positives beyond what most researchers benchmark these for, or have expressed in the approx. 2500 Turing tests in Humanity?s Last Exam.. And I chose as my first candidate, Google DeepMind's Gemini as I had not evaluated it before on anything.

offsite link Israeli Human Rights Group B'Tselem finally Admits It is Genocide releasing Our Genocide report Fri Aug 01, 2025 23:54 | 1 of indy
We have all known it for over 2 years that it is a genocide in Gaza
Israeli human rights group B'Tselem has finally admitted what everyone else outside Israel has known for two years is that the Israeli state is carrying out a genocide in Gaza

Western governments like the USA are complicit in it as they have been supplying the huge bombs and missiles used by Israel and dropped on innocent civilians in Gaza. One phone call from the USA regime could have ended it at any point. However many other countries are complicity with their tacit approval and neighboring Arab countries have been pretty spinless too in their support

With the release of this report titled: Our Genocide -there is a good chance this will make it okay for more people within Israel itself to speak out and do something about it despite the fact that many there are actually in support of the Gaza

offsite link China?s CITY WIDE CASH SEIZURES Begin ? ATMs Frozen, Digital Yuan FORCED Overnight Wed Jul 30, 2025 21:40 | 1 of indy
This story is unverified but it is very instructive of what will happen when cash is removed
THIS STORY IS UNVERIFIED BUT PLEASE WATCH THE VIDEO OR READ THE TRANSCRIPT AS IT GIVES AN VERY GOOD IDEA OF WHAT A CASHLESS SOCIETY WILL LOOK LIKE. And it ain't pretty

A single video report has come out of China claiming China's biggest cities are now cashless, not by choice, but by force. The report goes on to claim ATMs have gone dark, vaults are being emptied. And overnight (July 20 into 21), the digital yuan is the only currency allowed.

The Saker >>

Lockdown Skeptics

The Daily Sceptic

offsite link News Round-Up Tue Sep 23, 2025 01:12 | Richard Eldred
A summary of the most interesting stories in the past 24 hours that challenge the prevailing orthodoxy about the ?climate emergency?, public health ?crises? and the supposed moral defects of Western civilisation.
The post News Round-Up appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Hamas Executes ?Israeli Collaborators? in Streets of Gaza Mon Sep 22, 2025 19:30 | Will Jones
Hamas?has executed three Palestinians accused of "collaborating" with Israel on the streets of Gaza, just hours after the UK, Australia and Canada announced their?recognition of a Palestinian state.
The post Hamas Executes “Israeli Collaborators” in Streets of Gaza appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link The Covid Response Was Not a Mistake ? It Was Just Wrong Mon Sep 22, 2025 17:35 | Dr David Bell
The Covid response was not an error, and it was not the result of rushing to counter an unknown pathogen. It was a lot of people, mostly professionals, systematically doing what they knew was wrong, says Dr David Bell.
The post The Covid Response Was Not a Mistake ? It Was Just Wrong appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link School Accused of ?Brainwashing? Children After 14 Year-Olds Told to Read Book ?Blaming Them for The... Mon Sep 22, 2025 15:11 | Will Jones
A parent has accused a secondary school of "brainwashing" after?he learned that 14 year-old pupils were told to read a book that "blames them for their white skin" ? and his daughter was forced to read it out loud.
The post School Accused of “Brainwashing” Children After 14 Year-Olds Told to Read Book “Blaming Them for Their White Skin” appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link No Benefits for Foreigners Under Reform, Says Nigel Farage: Stricter Visa Tests and Deportation for ... Mon Sep 22, 2025 13:00 | Will Jones
Nigel Farage?today vowed to block foreign nationals from getting benefits, slashing the welfare bill "by ?234bn", and to deport hundreds of thousands of migrants with 'settled status' by bringing in stricter visa tests.
The post No Benefits for Foreigners Under Reform, Says Nigel Farage: Stricter Visa Tests and Deportation for Those Who Fail Under Crackdown on ‘Settled Status’ Migrants appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

Lockdown Skeptics >>

Voltaire Network
Voltaire, international edition

offsite link Will intergovernmental institutions withstand the end of the "American Empire"?,... Sat Apr 05, 2025 07:15 | en

offsite link Voltaire, International Newsletter N?127 Sat Apr 05, 2025 06:38 | en

offsite link Disintegration of Western democracy begins in France Sat Apr 05, 2025 06:00 | en

offsite link Voltaire, International Newsletter N?126 Fri Mar 28, 2025 11:39 | en

offsite link The International Conference on Combating Anti-Semitism by Amichai Chikli and Na... Fri Mar 28, 2025 11:31 | en

Voltaire Network >>

Media Release: A year on from LuxLeaks Stop Tax Dodging report shows a long way to travel

category international | economics and finance | press release author Thursday November 12, 2015 23:40author by DDCI - Debt and Development Coalition Ireland Report this post to the editors

Press Release - 5 Nov 2015

One year after the LuxLeaks scandal, a new report Fifty Shades of Tax Dodging finds that most EU countries continue to uphold secretive tax systems that are riddled with loopholes. The 2015 Stop Tax Dodging report, released in Ireland on 4th November by Debt & Development Coalition Ireland (DDCI) scrutinises the role of the EU in the global tax crisis. The Irish chapter of the report details how Ireland announced a gradual phase-out of rules that allowed the controversial ‘Double Irish’ tax avoidance scheme, but continues to allow corporate structures operate systems for tax rulings, transfer pricing and intellectual property that allow multinational corporations to avoid taxes on an enormous scale.
luxleaks.jpg

DDCI coordinator Eilis Ryan said;

“The public has now waited a year for the EU to get its act together and put an end to a system that allowed hundreds of multinational corporations to dodge taxes.”

“Although a few loopholes like the ‘Double Irish’ have been closed, new ones have appeared – and schemes like Ireland introducing a new, low-tax ‘knowledge development box’ just increase the likelihood of multinationals using complex company structures and rules around the ownership of intellectual property to continue profit-shifting and aggressive tax avoidance. "


Last week, DDCI published a policy report on Ireland’s secret tax arrangements with Apple, which have allowed the company to pay an effective tax rate of around 2% in Ireland – costing the public purse billions in lost tax revenues. We have called for a Dáil debate after the European Commission’s state aid investigation into those arrangements, and for the Public Accounts Committee to undertake a full review of the operation and social cost-benefit of the tax rulings system operated by Revenue.

Ryan continued;

“Despite the LuxLeaks scandal and all the talk around EU and OECD initiatives to tackle corporate tax dodging, the 2015 Stop Tax Dodging report shows how inadequate the response has been so far. It’s clear that it is business as usual for multinational corporations who want to dodge the rules to lower their tax bills – and that has serious negative effects on citizens in some of the world’s poorest countries, as well as in the EU itself.”

For more information, contact Eilis Ryan, Coordinator of Debt and Development Coalition Ireland, the organisation which authored the Stop Tax Dodging report: 086 3108553 or eilis@debtireland.org.

ENDS

Download the report Fifty Shades of Tax Dodging
http://www.debtireland.org/download/pdf/50_shades_of_ta...g.pdf

Notes to Editors

- Debt and Development Coalition Ireland is the Irish partner in a European Union-funded project that produces an annual ‘Stop Tax Dodging’ report. The timing of the report launch marks the first anniversary of the LuxLeaks dossier (5 November), released by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. It detailed widespread and systematic tax avoidance by multinational corporations, including many headquartered or operating in Ireland.

- Information leaked by whistleblowers has become the key source of public information about tax dodging by multinational corporations, when what is needed is public country by country reporting of multinationals’ profits and tax deals, along with greatly increased transparency about company ownership, tax rulings and corporate tax incentives.

- The Stop Tax Dodging Report report recommends that EU Member States and Institutions should:

Ensure transparency, including by letting citizens get access to information about where multinational corporations do their business and how much tax they pay.

Dismantle secrecy structures that allow anonymous company ownership and provide opportunities for money laundering.

Give developing countries a seat at the table when global tax standards are negotiated, and refrain from lowering their tax rates through double tax treaties.

Fix the loopholes that allow multinational corporations to lower their tax rates to extremely low levels, and don’t create new loopholes.

Create real opportunities for developing countries to receive information from EU governments about tax dodgers who use the EU as a place to hide money from tax evasion.

A complementary DDCI policy paper, Corporate Tax Secrecy and the State: the Apple case in Ireland, released on Tuesday 27 October, is also available here. Preliminary findings from a European Commission investigation into Ireland’s tax arrangements with Apple support the view of very significant losses to Irish tax revenue, each year and ongoing, arising from Revenue’s tax rulings to company subsidiaries – which appear to the European Commission to be shaped more by political negotiations than by any rational economic argument.

- The European Commission’s ruling as to whether Ireland’s tax arrangements with Apple subsidiaries constitute ‘state aid’ of a type that contravenes EU competition rules is expected within weeks. The Irish government holds the bizarre position that if the European Commission investigation finds that it is entitled to billions more in tax revenues from Apple, then Ireland will contest that decision vigorously in the European courts. DDCI is calling for a Dail debate, before any government decision to launch a legal appeal, in the event that the European Commission returns a negative ruling against Ireland.

- Recent RedC research for Christian Aid Ireland has found that only 36% of Irish people trust the information multinationals provide about their tax payments in Ireland. 76% believe that greater transparency around the activities of multinationals would be useful in determining whether they are paying the correct amount of tax. These and other key findings of that poll are available at:http://www.christianaid.ie/pressoffice/pressreleases/se.../Vast

Related Link: http://www.debtireland.org/news/2015/11/05/media-release-a-year-on-from-luxleaks-stop-tax-dod/
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