Tax Systems - money is not determinating factor: The happiest countries in the world also pay a lot in taxes

The US Tax System needs an overhaul

The happiest countries in the world in 2017 are prosperous Western-style liberal democracies.

Their populations are, in many cases, largely homogeneous. And they also have something else in common: They each pay a lot in taxes.

According to the United Nations' latest World Happiness Report, as covered by CBS News, the top 10 happiest countries are:
1. Norway
2. Denmark
3. Iceland
4. Switzerland
5. Finland
6. Netherlands
7. Canada
8. New Zealand
9. Australia
10. Sweden

Report co-author Jeffrey Sachs, who is also the director of the Sustainable Development Solutions Network, tells CBS that "happiness is a result of creating strong social foundations," and that if other nations prioritized "social trust" and "healthy lives," they could also find that their citizens become more content.

The top three happiest countries, Norway, Denmark and Iceland, are all among the highest taxed countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), in terms of total tax revenue as a percentage of GDP. The widely enjoyed social benefits residents get in exchange for their taxes, such as universal health care, access to education and subsidized parental leave, could have something to do with the "strong social foundations" touted by Sachs.

Note EU-Digest: These countries are happy, mainly for all the services they are getting in exchange for paying high taxes. Specially in the area of healthcare and low pharmaceutical costs, obviously also by enjoying great infrastructural advantages and obviously modern public transportation systems. In America right-wing politicians (mainly Republicans) have figured out that by telling the taxpayers they pay the lowest taxes in the world, it will make  corrupt practices by them easier. Unfortunately over time this made the US taxpayer the big loser.

Read more: The happiest countries in the world also pay a lot in taxes

Israel: Plans to shut down Al Jazeera an attack on media freedom

In response to the announcement by Israel’s communications minister, Ayoub Kara, that the Israeli government has decided to close Al Jazeera’ s office in Jerusalem and take the channel off air,

Amnesty International’s Deputy Middle East and North Africa Director, Magdalena Mughrabi said:

“This is a brazen attack on media freedom in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories. The move sends a chilling message that the Israeli authorities will not tolerate critical coverage.

“By acting to suppress Al Jazeera the Israeli government joins a host of other countries in the region, including Saudi Arabia, which have demanded the channel’s closure in the wake of the dispute between Gulf countries and Qatar.

“All journalists should be free to carry out their work without facing harassment or intimidation.

Instead of initiating a repressive clampdown on freedom of expression the Israeli authorities must halt any attempt to silence critical media.”

Read more: Israel: Plans to shut down Al Jazeera an attack on media freedom | Amnesty International

Islam: The Berlin mosque breaking Islamic taboos - by Damien McGuinness

With its red-brick spire and stained-glass windows, St Johannes looks like any other 19th-Century Protestant church.

Go around the back, however, head up a few flights of stairs and you come to a simple white room, with shoes neatly laid out at the entrance and patterned prayer rugs folded away in a corner. That is because this is a mosque.

The room is being rented from the parish, while the church remains active.

But the mosque is not unusual because of its location. Rather, because of the people who come here.

At Berlin's newest mosque, men and women pray together, women are allowed to lead Friday prayers, and gay, lesbian and transgender people are welcome.

"Our mosque is open for everybody," says mosque founder Seyran Ates, a German Turkish-born lawyer and women's rights activist.

"And we mean that really seriously: everybody, every lifestyle. We are not God. We don't decide who's a good or a bad Muslim. Anybody can come through this door - whether you are heterosexual or homosexual, we don't care, it's not our right to ask."

Read more: The Berlin mosque breaking Islamic taboos - BBC News

Soccer: Holland beat Denmark 4-2 to win Euro 2017 final – video highlights

Hosts Holland won Euro 2017 after coming from behind to beat Denmark 4-2 in the final on Sunday evening. Two goals from Vivianne Miedema and strikes from Lieke Martens and Sherida Spitse secured the victory and the first major trophy for the Dutch women’s side

Read and see video: Holland beat Denmark 4-2 to win Euro 2017 final – video highlights | Football | The Guardian

Alternative energy Supplies: Desert solar project could power 5 million EU homes - by Sam Morgan

A consortium of clean energy developers has applied for permission to build a gigantic solar power plant on the edge of the Sahara desert, which will be linked to Europe by a number of undersea cables and could power over 5 million homes.

TuNur’s planned project in Tunisia hopes to tap into the Sahara desert’s vast potential to provide solar power. Its request to the Tunisian energy ministry envisages a facility in the southwest of the country that will produce 4.5GW of power.

Chief Executive Kevin Sara claimed that an initial 250MW could be up and running, powering Europe via an interconnector with Malta, by 2020. It would mean an extra 1,000GWh of clean power a year being made available to the European grid.

Italy and Malta’s energy grids are already connected via a 95km link that came online in 2015.

Read more: Desert solar project could power 5 million EU homes

US-Dutch Relations: Dutch Wary of Trump’s Ambassador to Holland, Who Imagines “No-Go Zones” in Netherlands

Pete Hoekstra US Ambassador to the Netherlands and Donald Trump

Donald Trump's choice of Pete Hoekstra to represent the United States as ambassador to the Netherlands has alarmed Dutch observers familiar with the former congressman’s bizarre and entirely false claim that parts of their country have been surrendered to Islamist radicals, creating “no-go zones” for non-Muslims.

Hoekstra, who was born in the Netherlands but raised in Michigan as a staunch social conservative, might find himself largely unwelcome in his parents’ homeland, where even opponents of Muslim immigration, like the opposition leader Geert Wilders, typically cast themselves as defenders of liberal social values, like support for gay rights and abortion.

News of Hoekstra’s nomination prompted stunned reports in Dutch publications about the shockingly racist, anti-Chinese campaign ad he ran in 2012, his repeated efforts, during an 18-year career in Congress, to deny gay couples the right to marry or adopt children, and his leading role in the fight against government-funded health insurance.

Most baffling of all, though, was Hoekstra’s absurd claim, just two years ago, that the Dutch government had ceded control of sections of their country to Islamist radicals.

Martijn de Koning, an anthropologist at the University of Amsterdam whose research focuses on the Dutch debate over Islam, drew attention to video of comments Hoekstra made in 2015 at a conference sponsored by the David Horowitz Freedom Center.

Hoekstra’s contribution to a panel discussion of Muslim migration to Europe was to claim that a “stealth jihad” was underway which had plunged the Netherlands into such “chaos” that “there are cars being burned, there are politicians that are being burned, … and yes, there are no-go zones in the Netherlands.”

The former member of Congress went on to tell the conference that he and his wife had narrowly escaped from Budapest that summer, one day before thousands of Muslims seeking refuge from the war in Syria arrived in the Hungarian capital. “The little railroad station that we went through in Budapest,”

Hoekstra recalled, “the next day it was surrounded by 10,000 invaders, or refugees.”

What should make Hoekstra’s nomination to represent the United States in Europe alarming to Americans is that he is part of a far-right movement against the imaginary threat of Islamic Shariah law that uses the fear of terrorism to stoke hatred of Muslims.

Read complete report and watch video : Dutch Wary of Trump’s Ambassador, Who Imagines “No-Go Zones” in Netherlands

Poland - WWII: Poland to open new front in EU clash - by Andrew Rettman

The Polish government is preparing to claim World War II reparations from Germany, opening a new front in its clash with the EU establishment.

Arkadiusz Mularczyk, an MP from Poland’s ruling Law and Justice party, announced the move on Wednesday (2 August) amid commemorations of the Warsaw uprising.

He told the Polish news agency, Pap, that parliament would conclude a legal analysis of the claim by 11 August, describing the initiative as a “moral duty”.

Ryszard Czarnecki, a Law and Justice MEP, said: “If Jews have gotten compensation - and rightly so - for loss of property, why shouldn't we also make claims?”.

The former Communist regime in Poland waived WWII claims from Germany in 1953, but Antoni Macierewicz, the Polish defence minister, said on Tuesday that this commitment was invalid because it was made by a “Soviet puppet state.”

Note EU-Digest: The Polish government is not acting in a mature and professional way. Today they also have very little support from within their own voters base and they better watch out what will happen in the next general elections. This is also seems to be one of the main reasons they want to take control of the judicial system in Poland.
 
Read more: WWII: Poland to open new front in EU clash