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Political leaders from around the world are meeting this week at the United Nations in New York. And while there are a lot of important things on the official agenda, arguably the most interesting meetings take place on the sidelines, such as British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s meeting on Monday with Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
Bezos and his girlfriend, Lauren Sanchez, met Prime Minister Johnson on Monday at the British diplomatic residence, where the group reportedly discussed the billionaire’s recent pledge to donate $ 1 billion for environmental conservation.
Amazon’s tax evasion and shitty record on workers’ rights has also reportedly been on the agenda, and although Bezos is no longer CEO of the online company retail business giant, he is still on the board of directors. Amazon would have paid fair £ 492m (US $ 673m) in UK taxes in 2020 on revenue of £ 4.85bn (US $ 6.6bn).
“The Prime Minister raised the issue of taxation and hoped that progress could be made in implementing the G7 tax deal,” an anonymous Downing Street spokesperson said. Yahoo News United Kingdom.
The G7 tax agreement is an effort to put in place some sort of minimum corporate tax rate among the rich countries so that big companies are not looking for the best tax rates. Apple, for example, has its European headquarters in Ireland simply on paper to avoid taxes. Meanwhile, Ireland doesn’t even have an Apple Store.
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“The Prime Minister welcomed the Bezos Earth Fund’s commitment, announced tonight, to donate $ 1 billion to protect forests and remove carbon from the air. The Prime Minister and Mr Bezos have agreed to work together to see what more could be done in the run-up to and at COP26, ”the Downing Street spokesperson continued.
Nationally, the British press announced a few days ago that Johnson would demand that Amazon start paying its fair share of taxes. But even the conservative media could not ignore that Johnson was planning to “”congratulateBezos for his recent $ 1 billion commitment to climate change initiatives through his own charity, the Bezos Earth Fund. Bezos, which is worth around $200.6 billion and is the richest man in the world, can write off this kind of contributions on his taxes thanks to an incredible complex patterns.
In fact, even Johnson used the word “congratulate” on his trip to New York while discussing his agenda with the press. It was far from a hostile reunion, outward appearances no matter how the Johnson boosters wanted to play it.
Other interesting meetings taking place on the sidelines this week include Conservative Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s meeting with Rupert Murdoch, the head of News Corp., owner of Fox News, and other far-right media in the world. Morrison and Murdoch would have dined last night.
President Joe Biden is due to address the United Nations Assembly this morning at 10:00 a.m.ET and then meet with Prime Minister Morrison at noon. Biden is leaving New York to return to the White House at 2:15 p.m. ET, according to his official schedule.
But like we said, keep your eyes peeled for these sidelines. It doesn’t matter who’s in charge at any given time, this is where the really interesting things happen.
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