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Washington [US]: A New York jury found US former President Donald Trump’s two real estate companies guilty of tax fraud and falsifying business records connected to a 15-year scheme to defraud tax authorities, three weeks after he announced his bid for a presidential run.

According to CNN, Trump Organization’s Trump Corp and Trump Payroll Corp were found guilty on all charges they faced, however, the Trump family was not charged guilty.

Although he was not charged guilty, Trump’s name was repeatedly used during the trial by prosecutors about his connection to the benefits doled out to certain executives, including company-funded apartments, car leases and personal expenses.

According to CNN, the Trump Organization could face a maximum of USD 1.61 million in fines when sentenced in mid-January. The company is not at risk of being dismantled because there is no mechanism under New York law that would dissolve the company. However, a felony conviction could impact its ability to do business or obtain loans or contracts.

This verdict comes at a time when Trump is under scrutiny for the classified documents that were found in his Mar-a-Lago home and resort.

In August, the US government recovered over 300 documents marked as classified from former President Donald Trump’s residence in Mar-a-Lago, including material from the CIA, the National Security Agency and the FBI.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) raided Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home, a mansion with approximately 58 bedrooms and 33 bathrooms, on a 17-acre estate in Palm Beach, Florida on August 8.

He is also facing a USD 250 million civil lawsuit from the New York attorney general alleging he and his adult children were involved in a decade-long fraud, CNN reported.

The attorney general is seeking to permanently bar them from serving as an officer or director of a company in New York state, among other penalties. Trump Org. attorneys said they plan to appeal.

“This was a case about greed and cheating,” said Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. “The Trump Corporation and the Trump Payroll Corporation got away with a scheme that awarded high-level executives with lavish perks and compensation while intentionally concealing the benefits from the taxing authorities to avoid paying taxes. Today’s verdict holds these Trump companies accountable for their long-running criminal scheme.”

Meanwhile, Trump, on November 15, announced that he would seek the Republic Party nomination to contest in the 2024 presidential election.

“In order to make America great and glorious again I am tonight announcing my candidacy for President of the United States,” Trump said. (ANI)

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New Delhi: In what appears to be an astonishing revelation, a US-based scientist, who worked at a controversial research lab in China’s Wuhan, has said that COVID-19 was a “man-made virus” that leaked from the facility.

COVID was leaked from Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), a state-run and funded research facility, two years ago, the New York Post reported, quoting US-based researcher Andrew Huff’s statement in the British newspaper The Sun. In his latest book, “The Truth About Wuhan,” epidemiologist Huff claims that the pandemic was caused by the US government’s funding of coronaviruses in China. Excerpts of Huff’s book have been out in the UK-based tabloid The Sun.

According to the New York Post report, Huff is the former vice president of the EcoHealth Alliance, a non-profit organisation based in New York that studies infectious diseases.

Huff claims in his book that China’s gain-of-function experiments were conducted with inadequate security, resulting in a leak at the Wuhan lab, according to New York Post.

The Wuhan lab has been the centre of heated debates over the origins of COVID, with both Chinese government officials and lab workers denying that the virus originated there.

“Foreign laboratories did not have the adequate control measures in place for ensuring proper biosafety, biosecurity, and risk management, ultimately resulting in the lab leak at the Wuhan Institute of Virology,” Andrew Huff, said in his book.

For more than a decade, the organisation has been studying several coronaviruses in bats with funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and has forged close ties to the Wuhan lab.

The NIH is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research.

Huff, who worked at EcoHealth Alliance from 2014 to 2016, stated that the non-profit assisted the Wuhan lab for many years in developing the “best existing methods to engineer bat coronaviruses to attack other species”

“China knew from day one that this was a genetically engineered agent,” Huff wrote. “The US government is to blame for the transfer of dangerous biotechnology to the Chinese.

“I was terrified by what I saw,” he told The Sun, as per New York Post. “We were just handing them bioweapon technology.”

The Post also reports that according to a recent investigation published by ProPublica/Vanity Fair, the WIV is home to China’s riskiest coronavirus research.

This research institute has been under immense pressure from the ruling Chinese Communist Party to produce scientific breakthroughs to raise its global status despite the lack of resources.

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Tehran [Iran]: Iran has suspended its so-called morality police, which penalized women for not adhering to a stringent dress code, the Iranian prosecutor general said after the anti-hijab protest continued into the third month, triggered by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini after she was detained by the police force.

Iran’s Attorney General Mohammad Javad Montazeri said that the morality police “was abolished by the same authorities who installed it,” The New York Times reported.

He made this statement during the meeting where officials were discussing the unrest ignited by the death of the young woman, Mahsa Amini, 22, in September in the custody of the morality police. The unrest has amounted to one of the biggest challenges in decades to Iran’s system of authoritarian clerical rule.

However, Montazeri went on to suggest that the judiciary would still enforce restrictions on “social behavior.”

On Thursday, the attorney general said that the authorities were reviewing the law requiring women to cover their bodies in long, loose clothing and their hair with a head scarf or hijab and would issue a decision within 15 days. But it was not immediately clear whether the authorities were planning to relax the law, which remains in place, according to The New York Times.

The absence of any official government statement on disbanding the force left some to question where the policy stood exactly. But by late Sunday, the authorities had not issued a denial on state media outlets either, even after the attorney general’s remarks were widely reported by the international news media.

Abolishing the morality police would have a major impact on the state’s ability to control what women wear.

According to Norway’s Iran Human Rights group, 60 of the 448 verified fatalities were minors under 18, including nine girls. Another 29 victims were women. According to the report, security personnel have murdered 16 people in the past week alone, 12 of them were killed in Kurdish-populated areas where demonstrations have been particularly violent.

The number of fatalities has also increased since the deaths of those who were slain in prior weeks were confirmed and included, the rights group said adding that the death toll solely includes civilians murdered in the crackdown, not security personnel.

More than 300 individuals had been slain, according to Brigadier General Amirali Hajjizadeh of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps earlier on Tuesday. This was the first time the government had confirmed such a number, Arab News reported.

Earlier on Thursday, India abstained from voting on a United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) resolution to set up a fact-finding mission to investigate the alleged Human Rights violation committed on protesters in Iran that started on September 16.

Taking to Twitter, United Nations Human Right Council said, “At its 35th special session, the @UN Human Rights Council decided to create a new fact-finding mission to investigate “alleged #HumanRightsViolations in the Islamic Republic of #Iran related to the protests that began on 16 September 2022.”

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Paris [France]: As India assumed the G20 Presidency on December 1, French President Emmanuel Macron exuded confidence in India’s leadership.

Taking to his official Twitter handle, Macron stressed that he trusts his friend Prime Minister Narendra Modi to unite everyone to establish peace and a sustainable world.

Emmanuel Macron tweeted, “One Earth. One Family. One Future. India has taken over the presidency of #G20India! I trust my friend @NarendraModi to bring us together in order to build peace and a more sustainable world.”

Earlier on Friday, December 2, Maldives President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih congratulated Prime Minister Narendra Modi after India assumed the G20 Presidency. Ibrahim Mohamed Solih tweeted, “Congratulations to PM Narendra Modi, the government, and the people of India on India assuming the Presidency of G20. I have every confidence in India’s leadership to promote diplomacy and dialogue to build consensus and find enduring solutions to pressing issues in global affairs.”

Earlier on December 1, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese wished success to India on assuming the G20 presidency. Albanese tweeted, “Wishing every success to @narendramodi on India assuming the G20 presidency.”

Meanwhile, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida also congratulated PM Narendra Modi as India assumed the G20 Presidency. He looked forward to working with PM Modi in addressing various challenges faced by the international community.

“Congratulations, PM Modi @narendramodi, on assuming the G20 Presidency. Japan India As the G7 Presidency next year, I also look forward to working closely with you in addressing various challenges that the intentional community faces,” Fumio Kishida wrote on Twitter.

Notably, India formally assumed G20 Presidency from Indonesia on December 1. The G20 or Group of Twenty is an intergovernmental forum of the world’s 20 major developed and developing economies.

The theme of India’s G20 Presidency is “Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam – One Earth One Family One Future,” according to the press release issued by the Ministry of External Affairs. During its presidency, India will host more than 200 meetings in over 50 cities across 32 different workstreams.

In addition, India will have the opportunity to offer G20 delegates and guests a glimpse of India’s rich cultural heritage and provide them with a unique Indian experience. In November, PM Narendra Modi launched the G20 website and India took over the social media handles, including the Twitter handle from the previous Presidency.

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New Delhi: With the aim to modernize, diversify, and expand nuclear forces, China has accelerated its nuclear expansion and plans to field a stockpile of about 1500 warheads by its 2035 timeline.

In a report titled “Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China (PRC), Pentagon said Beijing probably accelerated its nuclear expansion last year, surpassing the operational 400 nuclear warheads stockpile.

“The Department of Defence estimates that the PRC’s operational nuclear warheads stockpile has surpassed 400,” the US Defense Department said in the report.

“The PLA (People’s Liberation Army) plans to basically complete modernization of its national defence and armed forces by 2035. If China continues the pace of its nuclear expansion, it will likely field a stockpile of about 1500 warheads by its 2035 timeline,” it adds.

According to Pentagon, the PRC aims to modernize, diversify, and expand its nuclear forces over the next decade. Compared to the PLA’s nuclear modernization efforts a decade ago, current efforts exceed previous modernization attempts in both scale and complexity, the report said.

“The PRC is investing in and expanding the number of its land-, sea-, and air-based nuclear delivery platforms and constructing the infrastructure necessary to support this major expansion of its nuclear forces,” it adds.

On the “operational structure and activities on china’s periphery,” the Pentagon report said the PRC continues to refine military reforms associated with the establishment of the Eastern, Southern, Western, Northern, and Central Theater Commands, based on its perception of peripheral threats.

The Western Theater Command, oriented toward India and counterterrorism missions along China’s Central Asia borders, is geographically the largest theater command within the PRC and is responsible for responding to conflict with India and terrorist threats in western China, the report said.

According to Pentagon, PLA units located within the Western Theater Command include 76th and 77th Group Armies and ground forces subordinate to Xinjiang and Xizang Military Districts; three PLAAF bases, one transportation division, and one flying academy; and one PLARF base.

“PAP units responsible for internal security operations are also likely under the control of the Western Theater Command. Within China, the Western Theater Command focuses on Xinjiang and Tibet Autonomous Regions, where the CCP perceives a high threat of separatism and terrorism, particularly among Uyghur populations in Xinjiang,” it adds.

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London [UK]: Top Chinese billionaire Jack Ma and founder of e-commerce giant Alibaba, has been living in central Tokyo for almost six months, according to a report by the British daily Financial Times.

Ma, who was once the richest business leader in China, shifted to neighbouring Japan, amid the Chinese government’s crackdown on the country’s technology sector and its most powerful businessmen, the report adds.

Ma vanished from the public eye after he slammed Beijing Chinese regulators in 2020, accusing the state banks of having a “pawnshop mentality”. He even called for the introduction of bold new players that could extend China’s credit to the collateral poor.

After the criticism, Ma’s Ant group and e-commerce giant Alibaba faced a series of regulatory hurdles.

According to the Financial Times report, Chinese regulators called off Ant’s blockbuster USD 37 billion initial public offering and fined Alibaba a record USD 2.8 billion for antitrust abuses last year.

In another report titled “CCP’s intimidating tactics against Technocrats and Big Businesses in China”, another publication Financial Post, said that the Chinese communist party in their quest to intimidate large-scale businesses and their founders.

The party-cum-state, has begun its long-awaited crackdown on big businesses that refused to endorse the Party’s repressive policies, the report adds.

It says the situation of Jack Ma is telling of the CCP’s tactics of intimidation through coercive means. According to the report, this has invariably caused fear amongst other business owners that had previously raised similar concerns.

Pursuing the same method, China recently initiated a revision of Chinese law deeming certain practices deployed by large platforms such as Alibaba, Tencent, amongst others as illegal.

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is reportedly in the process of imposing a USD 1 billion penalty on the degraded Chinese firm, making it the largest regulatory fine to ever be imposed, according to Financial Post.

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