NEWS WRAP

Sending a message to organised crime

• Float like a butterfly, sting like AN0M | Hundreds have been arrested in a huge organised-crime sting involving an encrypted messaging app orchestrated by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) with the Australian Federal Police (AFP) and European police agencies. Over three years, Operation Ironside intercepted 27 million messages across 12,000 devices which led to the arrest of more than 800 people in 18 countries, including 200 members of Australia's criminal underworld. READ MORE HERE
   
• Presidential pot shots | Former presidents Obama and Trump made public statements this week criticising their opposing parties – a turn from the normal apolitical role of former US heads of state. Obama told CNN that Republicans have been “cowed into accepting” ideas that would have been unthinkable previously. Trump returned to the spotlight at a Republican rally and said the country was “being destroyed before our very own eyes.” READ MORE HERE
   
• Manchin opposition For the People? | Democrats’ hopes of passing comprehensive voting rights protections have been dealt a serious blow after Senator Joe Manchin said he would not support his party’s flagship bill. The West Virginia senator refuses to support the For The People Act, citing Republican opposition for the bill as he criticised partisan voting legislation, arguing it will “destroy the already weakening binds of our democracy”. Manchin is considered a crucial vote to pass HR1 in an evenly split Senate. READ MORE HERE
   
• Holding China accountable | Secretary of State Antony Blinken drew a hard line on China in an interview with Axios. He criticised China’s lack of transparency saying the administration will “get to the bottom” of the source of COVID-19. READ MORE HERE
   
• Potential migrants warned | In the same week that the US Supreme Court unanimously ruled migrants who entered the country illegally were not eligible for a Green Card, Kamala Harris tackled immigration on the world stage. In her first international trip as vice president, she discouraged would-be migrants from Guatemala saying, “do not come, do not come.” However, she backed this up with a US commitment to help alleviate the issues in Guatemala driving many to leave. READ MORE HERE

WEBINAR | 17 JUNE

Key players in the Biden administration

How does Antony Blinken’s upbringing by refugees inform the Biden administration's Middle East policy? Why is John Kerry seemingly the only household name of the president’s many advisors? Which names does Australia need to know?

Join the United States Studies Centre Non-Resident Senior Fellow Bruce Wolpe and author of Key players in the Biden administration, Research Associate Victoria Cooper, to discuss these questions and more, as we use these players to read the tea leaves of Biden’s presidential future.

Download Key players at a glance (PDF)

WHEN:
Thursday 17 June, 11am AEST (Sydney) 9am AWST (Perth)
Wednesday 16 June, 9pm EDT (Washington, DC)

COST:
Free but registration is essential.

You can also subscribe to have event invitations and reminders sent straight to your inbox, so you never have to miss an event!

ANALYSIS

G7 tax deal is a threat to reformers

Dr Stephen Kirchner
Director of Trade and Investment

The finance ministers of the G7 countries have reached in-principle agreement on a global minimum corporate tax rate of at least 15 per cent, as well as taxing more of the income of multinational companies in the locations where it is generated.

While yet to be formally agreed and implemented, the proposals threaten to cartelise the international tax system in favour of high-tax and relatively closed economies at the expense of more reform-oriented small open economies.

The latest push for a global minimum tax has been led by the United States under the Biden administration. It is part of a broader US effort to signal a return to global leadership and a renewed commitment to multilateralism.

The Biden administration originally proposed a 21 per cent minimum, but this has been trimmed to 15 per cent in an effort to win broader agreement.

The next hurdle is endorsement by the G20 countries at their meeting in Venice next month. The aim to is multilateralise the new tax arrangements under the auspices of the OECD.

The US interest in a global minimum tax is partly driven by the Biden administration’s commitment to raise the US corporate tax to 28 per cent. When combined with state taxes, this would give the United States a combined statutory rate of more than 32 per cent, the least competitive in the OECD.

This compares with a current combined federal and state average rate of less than 26 per cent put in place under former president Donald Trump’s Tax Reform and Jobs Act of 2017.

The higher tax rate would otherwise penalise US companies relative to foreign competitors and reduce investment and incentives to produce in the United States relative to the rest of the world.

This is an excerpt from an article by Dr Stephen Kirchner published in the Australian Financial Review. Click below to read the full publication.

BY THE NUMBERS

Vaccine diplomacy

Where the United States is sending its first 25 million shots

Sarah Hamilton
Research Associate for Data Insights

As the United States surpasses a total of 300 million vaccines administrated, and with 53 per cent of American adults being fully vaccinated, US efforts are turning global to assist in vaccinating the world against COVID-19. Last week President Biden announced the details of the first 25 million doses, of the 80 million doses the United States will share globally:

• 7 million doses to Asian nations – including 750,000 for Taiwan to deal with their current outbreak
• 6 million doses to Central and South America
• 5 million doses to Africa
• 6 million to targeted partners and priority regions – including Canada, Kosovo, and Palestine

As controversies loom over Australia's own vaccine rollout and with just 2.5 per cent of Australian adults being fully vaccinated, the country’s own pledge to donate $500 million worth of vaccines to neighbours in Southeast Asia and the Pacific, appears to be a long way off.

VIDEO | NATO EXPERT TALKS

The global challenge: Building resilient citizens in an age of disinformation

Did you miss the first panel in our NATO Expert Talks series on building resilient citizens in an age of disinformation? Brought to you by the USSC and NATO's Public Diplomacy Division, this discussion explored the growing threat of disinformation and how NATO and Australia can face the challenge by building societal resilience. The event was moderated by Dr Gorana Grgic, USSC Lecturer and NATO Defense College Partners Across the Globe Fellow, and featured guests NATO Assistant Secretary-General for Public Diplomacy Ambassador Baiba Braže and USSC Non-Resident Fellow Dr Jennifer Hunt.

Watch the full event HERE.

Subscribe to USSC Event updates to get notified about the next instalment in our NATO Expert Talks event series.

THE WEEK IN TWEETS

#OnTheBorderline