European Commission Appeals Ruling In Apple’s $15 Billion Irish Tax Case

Ireland, which has one of the lowest corporate tax rates in the EU, has long sought investments by foreign companies

Vestager has spearheaded a campaign to form new tax laws for foreign tech firms like Apple

Dublin has always contended that it did not provide any tax breaks or state aid to Apple

The European Union said it will appeal a court ruling from July that found in favor of U.S.-based tech giant Apple (AAPL) in a 13 billion euro ($15 billion) Irish tax case.

The appeal will be heard in the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg.

The complex case involves allegations that the government of EU member Ireland provided unfair tax breaks to Apple. Initially, in 2016, the European Commission – the executive branch of the EU – ordered Apple to cough up 13 billion euros in back taxes that it claimed it owed to the Dublin government covering the period 2004 to 2014.

Although both Ireland and the smartphone maker appealed that ruling, Apple nonetheless paid the tax bill, but placed the money in escrow in 2018 while litigation continued back and forth.

In July of 2020, the European General Court – which is itself a constituent of the Court of Justice of the EU and which hears cases brought against the EU – determined that the European Commission "did not succeed in showing to the requisite legal standard" that Apple had taken advantage of Ireland's taxation laws.

That ruling overturned a prior order that Apple had to pay billions in taxes to Ireland.

"This case is very important because it will set a precedent for cases we want to fight going forward," an EU official told the Financial Times.

The European Commission has long claimed that Ireland illegally permitted Apple to attribute almost of its earnings derived in the EU to an Irish “head office” that did not physically exist, thereby allowing Apple to avoid paying taxes on revenues generated in the EU. Ireland, in fact, serves as Apple's base for its operations in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.

Ireland, which has one of the lowest corporate tax rates in the EU, has long sought investments by foreign companies. The Dublin government apparently is willing to forego the huge tax bill in order to promote Ireland as an attractive investment target for international firms.

Margrethe Vestager, executive vice president in charge of competition policy at EU, has spearheaded a campaign to form new tax laws for foreign tech firms like Apple that do extensive business in Europe.

https://www.ibtimes.com/european-commission-appeals-ruling-apples-15-billion-irish-tax-case-3051953

CBP Officers Seize Over 103 Pounds of Heroin, Fentanyl Pills at AZ-Mexico Border

On Wednesday, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers seized over 103 pounds of heroin and fentanyl pills at the Port of Nogales on the Arizona-Mexico border, according to a Thursday CBP press release.

The drugs, estimated to be worth $1 million, were discovered under the floor compartment of a 21-year-old U.S. citizen’s sedan Wednesday morning when he was attempting to enter the United States.

When he attempted to enter the U.S. through the checkpoint, CBP officers requested that the vehicle receive an additional inspection. During the more thorough secondary inspection of the sedan, officers discovered 68 drug packages under the floor compartment. Of the drugs seized, 102 pounds were heroin and 1.5 pounds were fentanyl, the CBP determined.

“Federal law allows officers to charge individuals by complaint, a method that allows the filing of charges for criminal activity without inferring guilt,” the press release clarifies. It adds that: “An individual is presumed innocent unless and until competent evidence is presented to a jury that establishes guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.”

After the inspection, the officers seized the narcotics and sedan, arrested the man, and then gave him to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations.

Over the past few years, the opioid epidemic has been garnering more attention as it wreaks havoc on many communities throughout the U.S. According to data 2018 data from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, an average of 128 people die from opioid overdoses every day.

The opioid epidemic is responsible for taking thousands of American lives each year and potent synthetic opioid drugs like fentanyl can cause overdoses in small amounts. Sara A. Carter produced the film “Not in Vein” in 2018 to highlight the dangerous trafficking of those drugs. Click here to watch the film.

https://saraacarter.com/cbp-officers-seize-over-103-pounds-of-heroin-fentanyl-pills-at-az-mexico-border/

Chinese National Denied US Entry, Likely Due to CCP Membership: Lawyer

NEW YORK—A Chinese national was recently turned away at a U.S. airport, in what could be the first known case of a visa ban due to the traveler’s status as a Chinese Communist Party member.

The person has a U.S. travel visa valid for 10 years. As the father of a U.S. citizen, he applied for a family-based immigration visa some months ago and had recently met with a Guangzhou consular officer for an interview, but was still awaiting a decision, according to his lawyer. Being advanced in years, the person did not withdraw from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) for fear of affecting his pension benefits.

On Sept. 17, he flew from China to the United States to visit his daughter. Customs authorities stopped him upon landing at the Detroit Metropolitan Airport and sent him on a next-day flight back to China, saying that he “does not meet the requirement for entering the United States,” according to Zheng Cunzhu, a U.S.-based immigration lawyer who consulted on the case. Due to client confidentiality, Zheng did not disclose the person’s name.

His travel visa was subsequently revoked. The daughter, who had been waiting at the airport to pick him up, later looked up his case online, which indicated that his visa application was denied.

According to Zheng, the daughter said her father recalled nothing “unusual” during the visa interview, other than that he mentioned being a Party member.

The case appears to be linked to a proposed U.S. visa ban targeting CCP members, which the administration reportedly considered in July as bilateral relations deteriorated. While deliberations are in its early stages, senior officials have circulated a draft of a possible presidential order that may deny visas to more than 90 million CCP members, Reuters reported, citing an insider source.

While the U.S. administration has previously announced visa restrictions on specific Chinese officials for their roles in perpetuating human rights abuses, “this is probably the first case” of someone being turned away at the airport for their Party membership, Zheng said in an interview.

Given his client’s experience, any CCP member could risk being barred from U.S. entry, regardless of whether they are visiting as immigrants, tourists, or to see family, Zheng added.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/chinese-national-denied-us-entry-likely-due-to-ccp-membership-lawyer_3514641.html

Taliban Increasingly Uses Night Vision Equipment To Gain Upper Hand In Clashes

On September 24th, a video was shared showing a fight between the Taliban and the Afghan Security Forces, recorded with thermal imaging equipment.

Until about 2019, the US military, as well the Afghan Security Forces could effectively damage the Taliban during their night raids, however the group has increasingly been using night vision in its defense and attacks.

The Afghan Security Forces (and if the US doesn’t really withdraw) are practically losing a very important advantage over the militants.

Although, on the other hand, it is extremely difficult to estimate the number of night vision devices and thermal imagers in Taliban possession, it’s possible that only the most elite units have such equipment.

And these “special forces” are extremely rare on the battlefield.

The initial reports of Taliban with night vision equipment surfaced exactly a year ago in a UN report.

Taliban Fighter with AN/PVS-7 Night Vision Goggles, and M16A4 equipped with ATN ThOR-HD 384 4.5-18x/640 2.5x-25x thermal optic.

Taliban are utilising both Ghanimah and Smuggled Optics to deadly effect. This isn't just propaganda either. pic.twitter.com/VdktRlAIXo

— Cᴀʟɪʙʀᴇ Oʙsᴄᴜʀᴀ (@CalibreObscura) February 22, 2019

Afghan officials cited in the report said the Taliban had at least one night vision device and sniper rifle “for each unit of 10 to 16 Taliban fighters,” the UN report reads.

“The type and origin of such equipment varies and suggests that a number of commercial and military stock items are being supplied in increasing numbers,” according to the report.

“The Taliban enjoy robust supplies of weapons, ammunition, funding and manpower, with 60,000 to 65,000 fighters and half that number or more of facilitators and other non-combatant members,” the report reads.

The night vision devices allow the Taliban to “effectively harass isolated Afghan National Defence and Security Forces checkpoints” and “has proven to be a successful tactic in both gaining and holding territory, as well as being a catalyst for demoralizing the Afghan Forces at such checkpoints,” the report detailed.

The monitoring team said it had also seen Soviet military 1PN night vision scopes.

“Equipment is normally rail mounted onto rifles and becomes most effective in combination with the Taliban’s use of Dragunov 7.62 x 54 mm sniper rifles, which allow effective targeting at up to or even above 800 meters,” the report reads.

Taliban fighters have also been known to acquire night vision goggles through attacks against Afghan commandos and special operations units supplied with U.S. night vision tech.

It is unlikely that the numbers of night vision equipment had gone down since 2019, rather it has most likely gone up.

https://southfront.org/taliban-increasingly-uses-night-vision-equipment-to-gain-upper-hand-in-clashes/

Is Steven Bannon Still Advising Trump? U.S. President Leads the Country Into Dangerous Waters With Latest Iran Move

Trump looks at the reporter and an opaque gaze of confusion and vulnerability takes over his face as he mutters that he didn’t know Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the U.S. Supreme Court’s iconic feminist, had passed away. Many of us were left wondering if anyone is actually advising The Donald on anything. Shouldn’t the U.S. president have smart people around him keeping him informed of current affairs? Or world affairs?

This is not the first time that Trump has been blind-sided by a seismic news event. But it gives us a reminder that if he had any advisers on policy when he took office, that we now have a president in the Oval Office who believes he has learnt the ropes and doesn’t listen to anyone in the White House, doesn’t read memos and whose only contact with the outside world is via Fox news.

Trump has, single-handedly destroyed relations with China, empowered the North Korean leader, brought much more war in a troubled Middle East which he has succeeded in dividing further, brought relations with Europe to an all-time low and has made America a Goon Show on the world stage – so much so that even old allies are refusing to share intel with a man whose startling obsession with his own re-election surpasses everything else.

The Trump period is marked by satire or black humour. And yet it is real. Is it not The Truman Show nor The Onion.

But as we put down another completely nuts news report of Trump claiming that he wanted to have Assad assassinated – ho ho ho – (which he blamed on General Mattis), we are lad to ask ourselves, now that he has built a team of sycophants in ill-fitting suits, is he doing foreign policy completely alone? Do we have a rogue president in the White House who is literally making up foreign policy on the whim, based on ignorance, his own foibles and insecurity and his naked, arch objective of being re-elected?

The stultifying logic of Trump is enough to make the gorillas on his own personal TV channel vote for Biden. He doesn’t even understand his own baloney and is not vexed when others don’t either. His obsession, is simply to be on television every day. If he has to put on a clown’s outfit, juggle oranges or just talk like a child on subjects he knows nothing about, so be it.

But his sanctions on Iran and the strategy of late beggars belief and leads me to wonder if Steven Bannon, a vagabond who was struggling to make the headlines this year until his own arrest for illegality relating to a wall funding program, put him in them, is advising Trump through a conduit.

https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2020/09/25/is-steven-bannon-still-advising-trump-us-president-leads-country-into-dangerous-waters-with-latest-iran-move/

TRUSTING GOD IN THE STORM

FINAL REPORT: ASSANGE HEARING DAY FOURTEEN—Baraitser Grants Defense 4 Weeks to Prepare for Final Argument, Citing US Election

Baraitser Grants Defense 4 Weeks to

Prepare Final Argument, Citing Election

5:49 am EDT: Judge Vanessa Baraitser has granted the defense four weeks to prepare it closing argument, saying that her decision would come after the Nov. 4 U.S. election one way or the other. She had been previously reluctant to give more than a week to the defense.

Baraitser set the date of final arguments for Nov. 16. Fitzgerald had told the judge that:

“It seems unlikely for you to make a judgement before Nov. 3 and you would have to bear in mind that the future is uncertain. Much of what we say about Trump is because this proceeding was initiated by Trump,….and some elements of the case would be worse if Trump were there [re-elected].”

Baraitser had raised the issue of the election and how it might impact the hearing. She said: “That’s one of the factors going into my decision.”

“I agree that one way or the other my decision will come after an election in the United States. For that reason I find no reason not to give you the four weeks,” she said.

Baraitser said she could not yet set a judgement day. “That means for your client there will be no decision until the new year, if he appreciates that.”

Reacting to her decision, Kristinn Hrafnsson, editor-in-chief of WikiLeaks, said: “District Judge Vanessa Baraitser has acknowledged what has been clear since even before the first indictment against Julian Assange was unsealed — that this is a politically motivated prosecution.”

5:28 am EDT: Defense attorney Mark Summers asked Judge Vanessa Baraitser to give defense witness Patrick Eller, chief executive of Metadata Forensics, an hour to read a prosecution bundle of statements sent to the defense at 11:30 pm on Thursday night.

Summers said that Eller’s written testimony was submitted nine months ago. Summers said it has two propositions: “that the alleged passcode hash conspiracy was impossible, but even if it were possible, it had no utility to what is attributed to it.”

The U.S. government has charged Assange with conspiracy to commit computer intrusion with Chelsea Manning, WikiLeaks’ source.

Summers said that U.S. Assistant Attorney Gordon Kromberg replied in his affidavit initially only to Eller’s first proposition, and only late at night on Thursday to the second.

Summers appealed for an hour for Eller to read the prosecution’s last minute submissions and Baraitser granted it.

Eller is described on his LinkedIn page as a digital forensic examiner, expert witness, principal consultant, adjunct professor, disabled veteran and retired special agent.

https://consortiumnews.com/2020/09/25/final-report-assange-hearing-day-fourteen-baraitser-grants-defense-4-weeks-to-prepare-for-final-argument-citing-us-election/

Anti-Terror Prosecutors Join Probe Into Stabbing Attack Near Charlie Hebdo’s Former HQ in Paris

The attack took place near the former offices of Charlie Hebdo magazine, which has recently republished cartoons of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad, which are believed to have angered jihadists and sparked the killings in 2015.

Two people have been injured in a stabbing attack on Boulevard Richard Lenoir in Paris near the former offices of Charlie Hebdo magazine, the police confirmed to Sputnik on Friday. French anti-terror prosecutors have ordered an investigation into the case of "attempted murder in connection with a terrorist organisation and a criminal terrorist community."

Earlier in the day, French media reported that a man, armed with either a machete or a large knife, went on a stabbing spree in the area.

He attacked male and female employees of the Premieres Lignes news agency as they were having a cigarette break, injuring them on the upper body, according to the founder and co-head of the company, Paul Moreira. One of the journalists received a wound to their head.

"A guy came out of nowhere and said nothing, started hitting them, they screamed and luckily they had enough energy to run away and escape their attacker," BFMTV quotes Moreira as saying.

The security forces arrested a man who corresponded to the description of the attacker given by victims and witnesses on the steps of the Bastille Opera. According to France's Radio Europe 1, the detainee was an 18-year-old man of Pakistani origin. He confessed his crime to the police, BFMTV said citing anonymous sources.

The police initially said they were not planning to conduct any further arrests, despite reports in French media suggesting that there was another suspect in the incident. However, minutes later the police arrested another suspect, French prosecutors confirmed. He is reported to be an ethnically Algerian 33-year-old man, according to a police source, cited by Reuters. While his role in the attack is still investigated, the suspect is said to have been spotted with the attacker in the metro.

Hours after the attack, BMF TV reported that five more people were detained in connection with the stabbing spree.

— BFMTV (@BFMTV) September 25, 2020

​Both the police and the French Prime Minister Jean Castex initially said there were four wounded in the incident, but they revised the number later to two injured, without providing the explanation for the discrepancy.

According to media reports, French President Emmanuel Macron is closely following updates on the attack.

Charlie Hebdo Attack

The incident took place near the Charlie Hebdo building that was the scene of a terrorist attack in 2015 in which twelve died. The terrorists, angered by the magazine's depiction of the Prophet Mohammed, also killed a police officer the next day and another four people in a Hypercacher store on 9 January.

The publisher has recently reprinted the cartoons on the eve of the trial of 14 suspects accused of helping carry out the attacks.

The trial kicked off at the beginning of September and is due to last two months, after having been postponed over the COVID-19 pandemic. The court is looking into the roles of 14 defendants, three of whom are being tried in absentia, in organising the three-day series of killings that rocked France back in January 2015.

https://sputniknews.com/europe/202009251080570265-several-injured-as-machete-wiedling-man-goes-on-stabbing-rampage-near-charlie-hedbos-former-hq/

Masonic Jewish Conspiracy - Last Moment of Lucidity Was 100 Years Ago

We can't even acknowledge the calamity that has befallen

mankind without being "politically incorrect," an old Communist Party term

now in mainstream use.

It makes us nostalgic for that brief shining moment a century ago

when the mainstream media could still mention the most pressing issue of all time.

In July 1920, the staid Tory newspaper, The Morning Post published a series of 18 articles saying there has long existed, "like a canker at the heart of our civilization, a secret revolutionary sect, mainly of Judaic origin, bent on the destruction of all Christian empires, altars, and thrones." They were

later published in booklet form under the title "The Cause of World Unrest" (1920) introduced by H.A.Gwynne. Nesta Webster was one of the contributors.

After the Bolshevik Revolution, Christian nations briefly stirred in their sleep and recognized that the "Jewish Conspiracy" was not the figment of a bigot's imagination but rather the key to understanding history, current events, and the human condition in general.

History is the product of a long-term occult plan by Cabalist (satanist) central bankers to subjugate the human race using war (genocide), "revolution," social engineering and financial collapse as their main instruments.

https://www.henrymakow.com/morning_post.html

America’s Broken Syria Project

A recent altercation between Russian forces and US occupiers in northeastern Syria helped highlight the increasingly tenuous position Washington holds not only in Syria but across the entire Middle East.

After attempting to block Russian military vehicles, US forces found themselves being literally ploughed out of the way with overwhelming Russian airpower hovering overhead.

After complaining that American troops were “injured” in the incident and condemning Russia for “unsafe and unprofessional actions,” the United States announced that it was deploying more troops and military equipment to bolster its illegal occupation of Syrian territory.

The US also claimed its continued presence in Syria officially seeks to confront and eliminate the self-proclaimed “Islamic State” (ISIS), but official accounts maintained by the US government and the US Department of Defense on an almost daily basis provide a wide and every-shifting number of excuses.

On September 20th “Inherent Resolve’s” Twitter account would announce:

The region the US occupies is also where the majority of Syria’s petroleum is extracted and America’s “protection” of these resources is part of a wider strategy – not to fight ISIS – but to deny the Syrian state which has eliminated ISIS from all territory it controls – both energy and revenue from its own natural resources.

In essence, the US is in Syria weakening the Syrian government who has led the fight against ISIS and provoking confrontations with Russia who has been key in aiding Damascus against ISIS, Al Nusra, and other affiliates of Al Qaeda.

The US had been in Syria a full year before Russia’s invitation by Damascus to aid in security operations against ISIS and Al Qaeda affiliates in 2015. The Russian military promptly began bombing supply lines feeding ISIS and other terrorist groups from across the Syrian border in Turkey. ISIS’ fighting capacity rapidly collapsed and remains isolated in pockets made inaccessible by America’s continued occupation of Syrian territory.

A Microcosm of America’s Wider MENA Failure

The confrontation with Russia and the decision to boost America’s military presence in Syria is but a microcosm of America’s wider struggle to maintain its invasive primacy over the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).

Despite beginning the 21st century with an overwhelming military presence in Afghanistan and Iraq and expanding its involvement in the region in 2011 through the US-engineered “Arab Spring” – US power and influence has visibly waned. Its attempts to control virtually every aspect of Iraq’s internal politics has faltered in the face of Iraqis seeking alternative ties with neighboring Iran.

https://21stcenturywire.com/2020/09/25/cartalucci-americas-broken-syria-project/

Celebrity Privilege

According to radical liberals, white people enjoy certain advantages over black people only because of the color of their skin. In their world colored by political correctness and liberal beliefs, white people live in wealthy, exclusively white neighborhoods and attend the best schools and blacks live in poorer neighborhoods and have fewer opportunities for success because systemic racism is the foundation of our society.

In this cartoon video attempting to define and explain systemic racism, stereotypical Kevin enjoys white privilege because he lives in an exclusive, wealthy neighborhood with a rich tax base that pays higher property taxes. His black friend Jamal is seen as being at a severe disadvantage because he lives in a poor neighborhood where less property tax is collected, and thus he doesn’t enjoy and equal opportunity to Kevin because his school wasn’t adequately funded by property taxes. According to the video, only white people live in the wealthy neighborhood, and only blacks live in the poor neighborhood only a few blocks away.

Is that true? Does the cartoon accurately reflect reality? No. Ben Shapiro completely destroys the cartoon video point-by-point in a response that is fully supported with statistics and factual data. The cartoon argument is superficial and appeals to our emotion – our human desire for fairness makes us naturally want to “level the playing field” for Jamal. As Shapiro noted, in the real world, the only reason that might prevent Jamal’s parents from buying a house in Kevin’s neighborhood is that they couldn’t afford the mortgage payment.

The very first act of rebellion from the British colonies in becoming the United States of America was the declaration of their independence with the proclamation that all men have been created equal with the right (among others) to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. If that declaration only applied to white men, the Civil War would never have been fought.

If America suffered from systemic racism, we would never have had a black Secretary of State or Supreme Court justice. Barack Obama would not have served two terms as President of the United States. If white privilege existed, the NBA would be dominated by short white people.

Yet by his own admission, retired superstar Shaquille O’Neal earned seven hundred million dollars from playing professional basketball and Papa John’s Pizza. Shaq could not only buy a house next to Kevin’s, he could probably buy the whole neighborhood if he wanted.

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2020/09/celebrity_privilege.html