NEW YORK: New York prosecutors are expected to announce the first criminal indictment Thursday in a two-year investigation into Donald Trump’s business practices, accusing his namesake company and its longtime finance chief of tax crimes related to fringe benefits for employees.

The charges against the Trump Organization and its chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, remained sealed Wednesday night but were to be unveiled ahead of an afternoon arraignment at a state court in Manhattan, according to two people familiar with the matter.

The people were not authorized to speak about an ongoing investigation and did so on condition of anonymity.

There was no indication Trump himself would be charged at this stage of the investigation, jointly pursued by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. and New York Attorney General Letitia James, both Democrats.

Trump did not respond to reporters’ shouted questions about the New York case as he visited Texas on Wednesday, but earlier in the week, the Republican had blasted the New York prosecutors as “rude, nasty, and totally biased” and said his company’s actions were “standard practice throughout the U.S. business community, and in no way a crime.”

The planned charges were said to b e linked to benefits the company gave to top executives, like the use of apartments, cars and school tuition, the people familiar with the matter told the AP.

Messages seeking comment were left with a spokesperson and lawyers for the Trump Organization. Weisselberg’s lawyer, Mary Mulligan, declined to comment. The Manhattan district attorney’s office declined to comment.

Vance, who leaves office at the end of the year, has been conducting a wide-ranging investigation into a variety of matters involving Trump and the Trump Organization.

His office has looked into hush-money payments paid to women on Trump’s behalf and truthfulness in the company’s property valuations and tax assessments, among other matters.

Vance fought a long battle to get Trump’s tax records and has been subpoenaing documents and interviewing company executives and other Trump insiders.

James assigned two lawyers from her office to work with Vance’s team after her office found evidence of possible criminal wrongdoing while conducting a separate civil investigation of Trump.

Weisselberg, 73, had come under scrutiny, in part, because of questions about his son’s use of a Trump apartment at little or no cost.

Barry Weisselberg, who managed a Trump-operated ice rink in Central Park, testified in a 2018 divorce deposition that Trump Parc East apartment was a “corporate apartment, so we didn’t have rent.”

Barry’s ex-wife, Jen Weisselberg, has been cooperating with both inquiries and given investigators reams of tax records and other documents.

The case against Allen Weisselberg — a loyal lieutenant to Trump and his real estate-developer father, Fred — could give prosecutors the means to pressure the executive into cooperating and telling them what he knows about Trump’s business dealings.

The Trump Organization is the business entity through which the former president manages his many entrepreneurial affairs, including his investments in office towers, hotels and golf courses, his many marketing deals and his television pursuits. Trump sons, Donald Jr. and Eric, have been in charge of the company’s day-to-day operations since he became president.

Although Trump isn’t expected to be charged Thursday, allegations against the company bearing his name raise questions about his knowledge of — or involvement in — business that practices prosecutors suspect were illegal.

James Repetti, a tax lawyer and professor at Boston College Law School, said a company like the Trump Organization would generally have a responsibility to withhold taxes not just on salary, but other forms of compensation — like the use of an apartment or automobile.

Such perks wouldn’t be considered taxable income if they were required as a condition of employment, Repetti said, such as providing an apartment for the convenience of an employee who is required to be at the office or worksite at odd or frequent hours, or allowing the use of a car for business purposes.

Another prominent New York City real estate figure, the late Leona Helmsley, was convicted of tax fraud in a federal case that arose from her company paying to remodel her home without her reporting that as income.

The Trump Organization case involves possible violations of New York state tax laws.

“The IRS routinely looks for abuse of fringe benefits when auditing closely held businesses,” Repetti said. “The temptation for the business is that it claims a tax deduction for the expense, while the recipient does not report it in income.”

LAHORE: A Christian man in Pakistan was on Monday sentenced to 22 years imprisonment and fined Rs three lakh by a special court for raping and kidnapping a woman.

A special court in Lahore for gender-based violence awarded a collective imprisonment of 22 years to Samson Masih for raping and kidnapping a 25-year-old woman of his locality.

The police had registered a case against Masih last year on the complaint of the woman’s family that he abducted her outside her house and kept her at an unknown place for a month and subjected her to sexual assault.

The police traced the suspect through the location of his mobile phone and rescued the woman. The prosecution presented 10 witnesses in the case.

Judge Jamshed Mubarak handed down a 15-year imprisonment for rape and seven-year jail term for kidnapping. A fine of Rs 300,000 (USD 1,896) has also been imposed on the suspect. The sentence will run concurrently.

LONDON: The number of Delta variant cases of COVID-19 in the UK have risen by 35,204 since last week to a total of 111,157, representing a 46 per cent increase, health officials said in the weekly report released on Friday.

Public Health England (PHE) said of the total Delta variant of concern (VOC) – first identified in India – 42 belong to the Delta AY.

1 sub lineage, dubbed as Delta plus in some quarters over fears of its even greater transmissibility.

While the Delta variant now accounts for approximately 95 per cent of cases that are sequenced across the UK, PHE said the both doses of a COVID-19 vaccine continue to provide good protection against hospitalisations.

“Through the success of our vaccination programme, data suggest we have begun to break the link between cases and hospitalisations,” said Dr Jenny Harries, Chief Executive of the UK Health Security Agency.

“This is hugely encouraging news, but we cannot become complacent. Two doses of vaccine are far more effective against COVID-19 than a single dose, so please make sure that you come forward to get your second dose as soon as you are invited,” she said.

“Whilst vaccines provide excellent protection, they do not provide total protection, so it is still as important as ever that we continue to exercise caution,” she added.

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Meanwhile, PHE said it added another variant, Lambda (C.37) to its list of variants under investigation (VUI) on Wednesday due to international expansion and several notable mutations, including L452Q and F490S.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) classified Lambda as a “Variant of Interest” on June 14.

Six cases of Lambda have been identified across the country to date, all have been linked to overseas travel.

The earliest documented sample was reported in Peru and Lambda has been sequenced in 26 countries to date.

According to UK health officials, there is currently no evidence that this variant causes more severe disease or renders the vaccines currently deployed any less effective.

But PHE said it is carrying out laboratory testing to better understand the impact of mutations on the behaviour of the virus.

The latest figures show that an additional 514 people were admitted to hospital in England with a diagnosis of COVID-19 in the week up to June 21 and of these 304 were unvaccinated, coinciding with the health service messaging in favour of vaccinations.

There have now been a total of 117 deaths in England of people confirmed as having the Delta variant – eight of which were people under the age of 50.

Six of these eight people were unvaccinated, while two died after more than 21 days of receiving a first dose of a coronavirus vaccine.

ISLAMABAD: Angry women Opposition parliamentarians in Pakistan have criticised Prime Minister Imran Khan over his controversial statement on women’s dressing, amidst growing cases of rapes in the country.

Apparently stunned by Khan’s response, interviewer Jonathan Swan rephrased his question, “But is it really going to provoke acts of sexual violence?” Maintaining his stance, the 68-year-old flamboyant cricketer-turned-politician went on to elaborate, “It depends on which society you live in.”

He added that: “If in a society people haven’t seen that sort of thing, it will have an impact [on them]. Growing up in a society like yours, maybe it won’t impact you. This cultural imperialism… Whatever is in our culture must be acceptable to everyone else.”

Criticising the Khan’s controversial remarks, Opposition Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Senator Sherry Rehman tweeted that, “Whether it’s our laws or even our religion, which is very clear that respect for women is the responsibility of the beholder, no man has the right to blame women or how they dress, for violence, rape and crimes against women. Shocked that our PM is doing this.”

“Does IK [Imran Khan] not know that by saying women should dress a certain way, he is giving oppressors and criminals against women a new narrative to justify their behaviour. There is NO justification for a prime minister to talk this way. Highly irresponsible and condemnable,” she said in another tweet.

Sindh Minister for Women Development Shehla Raza said Prime Minister Khan should focus on the issues being faced by the country instead of “keeping an eye on the women”.

The provincial minister said Khan should not have said this while sitting on the seat of the prime minister of the country, the Dawn newspaper reported.

“The world got an insight into a mindset of a sick, misogynistic, degenerate & derelict IK. It’s not women’s choices that lead to sexual assault rather the choices of men who choose to engage in this despicable and vile CRIME,” Pakistan Muslim League-(Nawaz) spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb in a tweet.

“Maybe the misogynist, degenerate can defend paedophiles and murderers, as he advocates for rapist, after all men cannot be expected to control temptation. Just FYI Mr degenerate, self-control is a little thing upon which Allah places a great premium,” she added.

Stung by the angry reaction to Khan’s controversial comments, the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) fielded prominent party women leaders to defend the prime minister.

Minister of State for Climate Change Zartaj Gul and PTI lawmakers Maleeka Ali Bokhari and Kanwal Shauzab held a press conference on Tuesday to tell everyone they misinterpreted Khan’s comments.

The PTI-led government mobilised women for the first time in Pakistan, she was quoted as saying by Geo News.

“A woman like me became a member of Parliament from a tribal area,” she said, adding that there are five women in the Cabinet for the first time.

She described Khan as a “symbol of women’s empowerment”.

“We are strong women and we have been strengthened by our leader Imran Khan,” Bokhari said.

Shauzab said she believes that if you are among those who are “fighting” against the premier’s statement in his interview, then you are “disagreeing with the orders of Allah”.

She went on to say that Prime Minister Khan explained the commands of Allah regarding women.

During the HBO interview, Khan was also asked about his earlier comments about temptation, women’s dressing and men’s “willpower” — and how he was accused of rape victim blaming.

Khan, brushing it off as nonsense, said the concept of purdah is to avoid temptation in society.

“We don’t have discos here, we don’t have nightclubs, so it is a completely different society, way of life here, so if you raise temptation in society to the point and all these young guys have nowhere to go, it has consequences in the society,” Khan said.

There are at least 11 rape cases reported in Pakistan every day with over 22,000 rape cases reported to police across the country in the last six years, according to official statistics reported by the Pakistani media.

However, only 77 accused have been convicted which comprise 0.3 per cent of the total figure, The News International reported in November last year.

LONDON: Five years ago Wednesday, Britons voted in a referendum that was meant to bring certainty to the UK’s unsettled relationship with its European neighbors. Fat chance.

It took over four years to actually make the break and the former partners are still bickering, like many divorced couples, over money and trust.

And five years after a fractious referendum campaign that sparked family arguments and neighbourhood disputes, Britain is still as split over Europe as ever.

“Britain is still significantly divided over the merits of Brexit,” said polling expert John Curtice of the University of Strathclyde.

He says voters are split almost exactly 50-50 between “remain” and “leave” supporters, and relatively few have changed their minds since 2016.

“Over four in five people still say that they would vote exactly in the same way as they did five years ago,” Curtice said.

The country is also split on whether Brexit has been a success.

In 2016, Brexit campaigners claimed leaving the EU would not only restore British sovereignty, but save the country money.

Notoriously, campaigners emblazoned a double-decker bus with the claim that Brexit would give the U.K. an extra 350 million pounds ($486 million) a week to spend on its beloved national health service.

The U.K.’s net contribution to the EU was actually about half that much.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservative government insists that Brexit is bringing new economic opportunities.

Britain recently signed its first full post-Brexit trade deal, with Australia, and has applied to join a trade partnership of Pacific-rim countries.

But Britain’s trade with the EU, which before Brexit accounted for about half of all imports and exports, plummeted by 20% after the U.K. made a full economic break at the end of 2020, although the disruption from the coronavirus pandemic makes it hard to tell how much of that impact is from Brexit.

Jonathan Portes, professor of economics at King’s College London, said Brexit will be “a significant but not catastrophic” drag on U.K. economic growth for many years.

“Not a blowout, but a slow puncture,” he said.

The referendum ended the career of then-Prime Minister David Cameron, who had championed staying in the EU and quit soon after.

His successor, Theresa May, tried and failed to strike a divorce deal that both the EU and Britain’s Parliament would accept and resigned in 2019.

The two most prominent Brexit champions have had mixed fortunes.

Former U.K. Independence Party leader Nigel Farage arguably did more than anyone to make Brexit happen, but never won a seat in Parliament despite repeated attempts.

He founded, and then left, the Brexit Party, and remained in the public eye as Britain’s most vocal supporter of Donald Trump.

He is currently out of frontline politics.

Johnson, who led the official “Vote Leave” campaign, became prime minister in 2019 by promising to “get Brexit done” after years of wrangling.

He succeeded in leading Britain out of the EU — and straight into another crisis, the coronavirus pandemic.

He leads a nation divided over more than just Brexit.

Far from bringing the U.K. together, Brexit has frayed the bonds between the different parts of the United Kingdom.

It has increased support for independence in Scotland, which voted in 2016 to remain in the EU but had to leave the bloc when the rest of the U.K did.

It also has destabilized Northern Ireland, which borders EU member Ireland, by imposing new trade barriers between it and the rest of the U.K. that have angered Northern Ireland’s pro-British unionist community.

As for the divorced couple itself, Britain and the EU are squabbling, with Britain urging the bloc to show flexibility and the EU threatening legal action unless the U.K. sticks to the Brexit agreement.

British Brexit minister David Frost, who led negotiations for the U.K. side, said Tuesday that many Brexit supporters like him were surprised at how rocky the relationship had become.

“It’s not something that we want,” he said.

“The sooner we can move beyond the settling-down process the better.”

With the previous allocation of 25 million, the Biden-Harris Administration has so far announced to distribute 80 million doses of America’s own vaccine supply which President Joe Biden had pledged to allocate by the end of June in service of ending the pandemic globally.

“As we continue to fight the COVID-19 pandemic at home and work to end the pandemic worldwide, President Biden has promised that the United States will be an arsenal of vaccines for the world.

Part of that plan is donating vaccines from our domestic supply, and the President has pledged 80 million doses to be allocated by the end of June,” the White House said.

Earlier this month, the administration announced the plan for the first 25 million doses that the US has already begun shipping.

For these 80 million doses, the US will share 75 per cent through COVAX and 25 per cent will be targeted to help deal with surges around the world.

“Our goals are to increase global COVID-19 vaccination coverage, prepare for surges and prioritise healthcare workers and other vulnerable populations based on public health data and acknowledged best practice, and help our neighbours and other countries in need,” the White House said.

The Biden-Harris Administration will not use its vaccines to secure favours from other countries, it asserted.

Of the 41 million to be shared through COVAX, 14 million will go to Latin America and the Caribbean nations and 16 million to Asia.

Among the Asian countries include India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Maldives, Bhutan, Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Laos, Papua New Guinea, Taiwan, Cambodia, and the Pacific Islands.

Another 10 million will be shared with African nations.

The White House said approximately 14 million – or 25 per cent of these 55 million vaccines – will be shared with regional priorities and other recipients, such as: Colombia, Argentina, Haiti, other CARICOM countries, Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Panama, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, Cabo Verde, Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, Yemen, Tunisia, Oman, West Bank and Gaza, Ukraine, Kosovo, Georgia, Moldova, and Bosnia.

The White House said, in addition to sharing doses from its own vaccine supply, the Biden-Harris Administration is also committed to working with US manufacturers to produce more vaccines to share with the world.

To that end, ahead of the G7, Biden announced that the US will purchase half a billion Pfizer doses and donate them to 92 low- and lower middle-income countries and members of the African Union.

In total, the G7+ agreed to provide an additional more than 1 billion doses starting summer 2021, it said.

“In addition, the US is committed to expanding local production of vaccines, and through our Quad partnership and the International Development Finance Corporation’s support for vaccine manufacturing, more than 1 billion doses will be produced in Africa and India in 2021 and 2022,” the White House said.

“This vaccine strategy is a vital component of our overall global effort to lead the world in the fight to defeat COVID-19 and to achieve global health security,” it said.

NEW DELHI: A magistrate court in Dominica on Thursday sent businessman Mehul Choksi to a state prison, his lawyer in India said, but added that he would continue to remain in hospital as his medical condition “deteriorated”.

The diamond trader was earlier in police custody.

“Yes, police custody has been changed to prison custody but he shall remain in hospital as his medical condition has deteriorated,” lawyer Vijay Aggarwal said.

The development is being seen as a ray of hope for India which has approached the Dominica High Court seeking to be impleaded as a party in the case filed by lawyers of Choksi whose bail plea was earlier rejected.

Choksi is wanted in India in a case of loan fraud worth about Rs 13,500 crore in the state-run Punjab National Bank.

British scientists and doctors urged the prime minister to err on the side of caution and postpone implementing the fourth stage of his government’s four-step unlocking plan for England.

LONDON: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is expected to confirm Monday that the next planned relaxation of coronavirus restrictions in England will be delayed as a result of the spread of the delta variant first identified in India.

“Clearly, what you’ve got is a race between the vaccines and the virus, and the vaccines are going to win,” he told the BBC. “It’s just a question of pace.”

With the delta variant estimated by some health experts to be at least 60% more contagious than the previous dominant strain, British scientists and doctors urged the prime minister to err on the side of caution and postpone implementing the fourth stage of his government’s four-step unlocking plan for England. 

Under his government’s road map, nightclubs were set to reopen for the first time since the pandemic struck in March 2020 and all other legal limits on social contact were due to be scrapped by June 21 at the earliest, if coronavirus trends supported the moves. 

Professor Andrew Hayward, an epidemiologist from University College London who is a member of a group advising the government, said that removing remaining restrictions could “fan the flames” of rising infections. He compared the process to driving a car around a bend without knowing what was around the corner.

“I think it’s clear we will have a substantial third wave of infections, the really big question is how much that wave of infections is going to translate into hospitalizations,” Hayward told the BBC.

On Sunday, the British government reported 7,490 new confirmed cases, one of the highest daily numbers since the end of February. While daily infections have increased threefold over the past few weeks, they are still way down from the nearly 70,000 cases recorded in January at the peak of the pandemic’s second wave.

Still, the speed at which cases have been rising put pressure on Johnson to delay, potentially for four weeks or longer, so more people can get vaccinated before what has been dubbed by sections of the British media as “Freedom Day.” 

The U.K.’s vaccine rollout has won plaudits as one of the world’s speediest and most coherent. As of Sunday, around 62% of the British population had received one shot, while about 44% had gotten the two needed to produce what health experts consider an acceptable level of immunity. 

The government’s aim is to have offered every adult in the U.K. one vaccine dose by the end of July. The devolved administration in Wales said it will have offered one jab to every adult by Monday, six weeks ahead of schedule.

The rapid rollout of vaccines and a strict months-long lockdown helped drive down the number of virus-related deaths in the U.K. in recent months. Despite that, the country has recorded nearly 128,000 deaths in the pandemic, more than any other nation in Europe. 

The improved backdrop led to the loosening of lockdown restrictions, with stores, theaters, gyms and most sectors of the economy operating within social distancing guidelines. The four nations of the U.K. — England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland — have lifted restrictions at different paces but generally pursued similar plans. 

NEW DELHI: Central Bureau of Investigation, which is probing the PNB bank fraud case against fugitive businessman Mehul Choksi, filed an affidavit in Dominica High Court opposing his bail petition and said he “is and remains an international fugitive who continues to evade law enforcement in India”.

The affidavit stated that Choksi was the mastermind behind a series of companies, and he and others conspired with officials of the bank to unauthorizedly raise credit by abusing the procedures. On the complaint made by Indian government, a “red notice” has been issued against Choksi by the Interpol, CBI told the Dominica Court.

“Mehul Choksi is fully aware of proceedings in India. He has appointed lawyers in India and one of them recently gave a press interview about the happenings in Dominica supporting the version being advanced by Choksi. It is unfortunate that Choksi has suppressed all this from the court and has instead suggested that there are no proceedings against him in India,” Indian probe agencies told the Dominica court.

After taking note of the facts of the case, the Dominica High Court dismissed Choksi’s bail petition and noted that he is “flight risk”. Choksi’s counsel argued for bail citing medical grounds. However, Counsel for the State opposed the bail and told the court that Mehul Choksi is “flight risk” and has an Interpol red notice issued against him.

The 62-year-old fugitive businessman, who fled to Antigua and Barbuda, is wanted by the Indian probe agencies for allegedly cheating the Punjab National Bank of over Rs 13000 crore rupees, one of the largest bank frauds in the country.

SAO PAULO: Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro led a throng of motorcyclist supporters through the streets of Sao Paulo on Saturday – and got hit with a fine for failure to wear a mask, in violation of local pandemic restrictions.

The conservative president waved to the crowd from his motorcycle and later from atop a sound truck, where helmeted but largely maskless backers cheered and chanted as he insisted that masks were useless for those already vaccinated – an assertion disputed by most public health experts.

Sao Paulo’s state government press office said a fine – equivalent to about USD 110 – would be imposed for violation of a rule that has required masks in public places since May 2020. Bolsonaro’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The procession of cyclists wound out of the city and back, arriving at Ibirapuera Park, where the president clambered atop a car to defend his denunciation of masks for the vaccinated. “Whoever is against this proposal is because they don’t believe in science, because if they are vaccinated, there is no way the virus can be transmitted,” he said.

Vaccines are designed chiefly to protect recipients from getting sick, not necessarily from being infected. While studies show many vaccines reduce viral load, and likely spread, not all varieties have been fully studied.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says, “The risk for SARS-CoV-2 infection in fully vaccinated people cannot be completely eliminated as long as there is continued community transmission of the virus.”

Less than 12 per cent of Brazil’s population so far has received both doses of a COVID-19 vaccine, according to the Ministry of Health, and many Brazilian experts say masks can only be abandoned after the majority of the population has been vaccinated.

Bolsonaro also was fined for failure to wear a mask during a rally with supporters in May in the northeastern state of Maranhao. Governors of that state and Sao Paulo have been feuding with Bolsonaro over their restrictive measures to stifle the spread of the coronavirus.