340 companies around the world have secret tax agreements approved by Luxembourg authorities
Almost 28,000 pages of leaked tax agreements, returns and other sensitive papers relating to over 1,000 businesses show that Luxembourg is quietly rubber-stamping tax avoidance on an industrial scale. Some 340 companies have specially-designed corporate structures, some of which are used to avoid tax.
Three million News International emails are ‘missing’
Three million emails at News International, the media organisation, are “missing” after Rebekah Brooks changed the company’s email deletion policy. Brooks ordered the change in June 2010, which resulted in a large quantity of emails being deleted, including those “covering her entire period as editor of the Sun”, Kingston crown court was told at a trial of six other current or former Sun journalists.
The world’s first solar cycle lane is opening in the Netherlands
From 12 November, the 70m long Krommenie’s cycle path near Amsterdam will become the world’s first public road with embedded solar panels. It could generate enough electricity to power three houses.
Private landlords will own £1tn of property by 2015
Private landlords in Britain are set to own £1tn worth of homes by late spring 2015, and official figures show that since 2001, nearly 2 million households have been added to the booming buy-to-let sector.
A porcupine can fighta pride of 17 lions
A porcupine fought off a pride of 17 lions by shaking its tail and running backwards towards the predators. The porcupine, in the Londolozi reserve in South Africa, survived after defending itself against the lions who eventually lost interest.
The Republicans have won control of the Senate
The Republicans this week gained a majority in the US Senate, winning 52 seats, taking control of both houses of Congress for the final two years of Barack Obama’s presidency. The GOP won key seats in Arkansas, Colorado, Iowa, Montana, North Carolina, South Dakota and West Virginia.
The new Star Wars film will be called The Force Awakens
The new Star Wars film, directed by JJ Abrams and with a cast including Harrison Ford, Lupita Nyong’o, and Max von Sydow, started shooting at the UK’s Pinewood studios in May 2014. The action in The Force Awakens will be set 35 years on from The Return of the Jedi, and is planned for release late in 2015.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens has completed principal photography. #StarWarsVII #TheForceAwakens pic.twitter.com/mFTP9YbKNN
— Star Wars (@starwars) November 6, 2014
300,000 more people live in poverty than previously thought
Poorer households are facing a higher cost of living that the well off: in the six years from early 2008 to early 2014, the cost of energy had risen by 67% and the cost of food by 32%. Some 300,000 more people live in dire poverty than previously thought, according to a report.
A two metre-long giant tortoise lived in Europe 2m years ago
A giant tortoise used to roam Madrid millions of years ago, according to scientists. After the conclusion of a 10-year study, researchers describe a genus of giant tortoises – the Titanochelon– previously unknown to science, that lived in Europe and western Asia, between 20 million and two million years ago and was two metres-long.
There would be 19.5m poppies flowing out of the Tower of London if global war dead were represented
The Tower of London art installation Blood Swept Lands and Sea of Red by Paul Cummins and Tom Piper features 888,246 ceramic poppies, marking each of the British fatalities of the first world war. The Quakers have created a map to show how the installation would look if there were poppies for the total number of people from every country killed in the war.
