Author: ANews

Sen. Bob Menendez to resign next month following conviction in federal corruption trial: Sources

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Staff members were informed of the senator’s decision Tuesday and the official resignation will be submitted to New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, who will select an interim replacement, according to the sources.

A Manhattan federal jury found the New Jersey Democrat guilty on all charges, including bribery, fraud, acting as a foreign agent and obstruction, on July 16 following a two-month-long trial. Federal prosecutors said he accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes in the form of cash, gold bars, mortgage payments and more in exchange for the senator’s political clout.

Menendez was not required to resign due to the conviction.

Following the guilty verdict, several political leaders called for Menendez’s immediate resignation, including Majority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.

“In light of this guilty verdict, Senator Menendez must now do what is right for his constituents, the Senate, and our country, and resign,” Schumer said at the time.

Sen. Cory Booker, Menendez’s New Jersey counterpart, and Murphy had also joined in the calls for his immediate resignation. Murphy said at the time that he would call on the U.S. Senate to expel him if the senator refused to resign and make a temporary appointment in the event of a vacancy.

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Digital tax talks in G20 spotlight as US tariff threat looms

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RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) – Talks over a global tax deal are continuing well past a June 30 deadline and governments are now looking to a Group of 20 finance leaders meeting this week for progress on a stalled plan to reallocate taxing rights on large multinational companies.

The so-called “Pillar 1” arrangement, part of a 2021 global two-part tax deal, aims to replace unilateral digital services taxes (DSTs) on U.S. tech giants including Alphabet’s Google, Amazon.com and Apple through a new mechanism to share taxing rights on a broader, global group of companies.

The stakes in the negotiations are high. A failure to reach agreement on final terms could prompt several countries to reinstate their taxes on U.S. tech giants and risk punitive duties on billions of dollars in exports to the U.S.

Standstill agreements under which Washington has suspended threatened trade retaliation against seven countries — Austria, Britain, France, India, Italy, Spain and Turkey — expired on June 30, but the U.S. has not taken steps to impose tariffs.

Discussions on the matter are continuing. An Italian government source said that European countries were seeking assurances that the U.S. tariffs on some $2 billion worth of annual imports from French Champagne to Italian handbags and optical lenses remained frozen while the talks continue, including at the G20 meeting in Rio de Janeiro.

TOP PRIORITY

A European Union document prepared for the G20 meeting lists finalizing the international tax deal as a “top priority.”

It said the G20 should urge countries and jurisdictions participating in the tax deal “to finalize discussions on all aspects of Pillar 1, with a view to signing the Multilateral Convention (MLC) by summer end and ratifying it as soon as possible.”

Meanwhile, Canada in July became the eighth country to impose a unilateral digital services tax, with Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland saying it was “simply not reasonable, not fair for Canada to indefinitely put our own measures on hold” after the June 30 deadline passed without a Pillar 1 agreement.

The U.S. maintains that such taxes are discriminatory because they specifically target the local revenues of U.S. technology firms that dominate the sector.

“Treasury continues to oppose all tax measures that discriminate against U.S. businesses,” a U.S. Treasury spokesperson said in response to Canada’s move. “We encourage all countries to finalize the work on the Pillar 1 agreement. We are in active discussions on next steps related to the existing DST joint statements.”

A spokesperson for the U.S. Trade Representative’s office added that the OECD/G20 negotiations “offer the best path to address challenges that digitalization of the economy poses to the international tax system.”

SMALLER FIRMS AFFECTED

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told Reuters at a G7 finance meeting in May that India and China were hindering agreement on the alternative transfer-pricing mechanism known as “Amount B.”

This mechanism would apply to thousands of companies below the $20 billion annual revenue threshold for “Amount A”, and is aimed at delivering tax certainty to these firms through an objective way of calculating tax liability, said Danielle Rolfes, head of KPMG’s Washington National Tax Practice.

“It’s in the interest of all the countries around the table to try to keep it alive,” Rolfes said.

At the G20 meeting in Rio de Janeiro, Yellen will also face questions from counterparts over the continuity of U.S. policy commitments in the wake of President Joe Biden’s decision to end his re-election bid and growing international angst over a potential return of Donald Trump to the White House.

(Reporting by David Lawder; Additional reporting by Giuseppe Fonte in Rome, Promit Mukherjee in Ottawa and Jan Strupczewski in Brussels; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)

Digital tax talks in G20 spotlight as US tariff threat looms

RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) – Talks over a global tax deal are continuing well past a June 30 deadline and governments are now looking to a Group of 20 finance leaders meeting this week for progress on a stalled plan to reallocate taxing rights on large multinational companies.

The so-called “Pillar 1” arrangement, part of a 2021 global two-part tax deal, aims to replace unilateral digital services taxes (DSTs) on U.S. tech giants including Alphabet’s Google, Amazon.com and Apple through a new mechanism to share taxing rights on a broader, global group of companies.

The stakes in the negotiations are high. A failure to reach agreement on final terms could prompt several countries to reinstate their taxes on U.S. tech giants and risk punitive duties on billions of dollars in exports to the U.S.

Standstill agreements under which Washington has suspended threatened trade retaliation against seven countries — Austria, Britain, France, India, Italy, Spain and Turkey — expired on June 30, but the U.S. has not taken steps to impose tariffs.

Discussions on the matter are continuing. An Italian government source said that European countries were seeking assurances that the U.S. tariffs on some $2 billion worth of annual imports from French Champagne to Italian handbags and optical lenses remained frozen while the talks continue, including at the G20 meeting in Rio de Janeiro.

TOP PRIORITY

A European Union document prepared for the G20 meeting lists finalizing the international tax deal as a “top priority.”

It said the G20 should urge countries and jurisdictions participating in the tax deal “to finalize discussions on all aspects of Pillar 1, with a view to signing the Multilateral Convention (MLC) by summer end and ratifying it as soon as possible.”

Meanwhile, Canada in July became the eighth country to impose a unilateral digital services tax, with Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland saying it was “simply not reasonable, not fair for Canada to indefinitely put our own measures on hold” after the June 30 deadline passed without a Pillar 1 agreement.

The U.S. maintains that such taxes are discriminatory because they specifically target the local revenues of U.S. technology firms that dominate the sector.

“Treasury continues to oppose all tax measures that discriminate against U.S. businesses,” a U.S. Treasury spokesperson said in response to Canada’s move. “We encourage all countries to finalize the work on the Pillar 1 agreement. We are in active discussions on next steps related to the existing DST joint statements.”

A spokesperson for the U.S. Trade Representative’s office added that the OECD/G20 negotiations “offer the best path to address challenges that digitalization of the economy poses to the international tax system.”

SMALLER FIRMS AFFECTED

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told Reuters at a G7 finance meeting in May that India and China were hindering agreement on the alternative transfer-pricing mechanism known as “Amount B.”

This mechanism would apply to thousands of companies below the $20 billion annual revenue threshold for “Amount A”, and is aimed at delivering tax certainty to these firms through an objective way of calculating tax liability, said Danielle Rolfes, head of KPMG’s Washington National Tax Practice.

“It’s in the interest of all the countries around the table to try to keep it alive,” Rolfes said.

At the G20 meeting in Rio de Janeiro, Yellen will also face questions from counterparts over the continuity of U.S. policy commitments in the wake of President Joe Biden’s decision to end his re-election bid and growing international angst over a potential return of Donald Trump to the White House.

(Reporting by David Lawder; Additional reporting by Giuseppe Fonte in Rome, Promit Mukherjee in Ottawa and Jan Strupczewski in Brussels; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)

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Attorneys for state of Utah ask parole board to keep death sentence for man convicted in 1998 murder

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Representatives of the 49-year-old victim, Claudia Benn, were scheduled to testify before both sides deliver their closing arguments during the commutation hearing at the Utah State Correctional Facility in Salt Lake City.

Inmate Taberon Dave Honie testified Monday that he wasn’t in his “right mind” when he killed his girlfriend’s mother in 1998 after a day of heavy drinking and drug use. He asked the five-member parole board to commute his sentence to life in prison.

Utah Board of Pardons & Parole Chairman Scott Stephenson said a decision would be made “as soon as practical” after the parole board hearing.

Honie told the Utah parole board that he never planned to kill Benn and doesn’t remember much about the killing, which happened when Benn’s three grandchildren — including Honie’s 2-year-old daughter — were in her home.

“I earned my place in prison. What I’m asking today for this board to consider is ‘Would you allow me to exist?’,” he said.

Attorneys for the state have urged the board to reject the request for a lesser sentence. They described his commutation petition as a “deflection of responsibility that never once acknowledges any of the savage acts he inflicted on Claudia or her granddaughters.”

The execution would be Utah’s first since Ronnie Lee Gardner was killed by firing squad in 2010, according to the state Department of Corrections.

Honie was convicted in 1999 of aggravated murder.

After decades of failed appeals, his execution warrant was signed last month despite defense objections to the planned lethal drug combination of the sedative ketamine, the anesthetic fentanyl and potassium chloride to stop his heart. Honie’s attorneys sued, and corrections officials agreed to switch to pentobarbital.

Attorneys for state of Utah ask parole board to keep death sentence for man convicted in 1998 murder

Representatives of the 49-year-old victim, Claudia Benn, were scheduled to testify before both sides deliver their closing arguments during the commutation hearing at the Utah State Correctional Facility in Salt Lake City.

Inmate Taberon Dave Honie testified Monday that he wasn’t in his “right mind” when he killed his girlfriend’s mother in 1998 after a day of heavy drinking and drug use. He asked the five-member parole board to commute his sentence to life in prison.

Utah Board of Pardons & Parole Chairman Scott Stephenson said a decision would be made “as soon as practical” after the parole board hearing.

Honie told the Utah parole board that he never planned to kill Benn and doesn’t remember much about the killing, which happened when Benn’s three grandchildren — including Honie’s 2-year-old daughter — were in her home.

“I earned my place in prison. What I’m asking today for this board to consider is ‘Would you allow me to exist?’,” he said.

Attorneys for the state have urged the board to reject the request for a lesser sentence. They described his commutation petition as a “deflection of responsibility that never once acknowledges any of the savage acts he inflicted on Claudia or her granddaughters.”

The execution would be Utah’s first since Ronnie Lee Gardner was killed by firing squad in 2010, according to the state Department of Corrections.

Honie was convicted in 1999 of aggravated murder.

After decades of failed appeals, his execution warrant was signed last month despite defense objections to the planned lethal drug combination of the sedative ketamine, the anesthetic fentanyl and potassium chloride to stop his heart. Honie’s attorneys sued, and corrections officials agreed to switch to pentobarbital.

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Israel shoots down a missile fired from Yemen hours after an Israeli strike on Houthi rebels

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Israel shoots down a missile fired from Yemen hours after an Israeli strike on Houthi rebelsJOSEF FEDERMAN and MICHAEL WAKINJuly 21, 2024 at 1:46 AMJERUSALEM (AP) — The Israeli military said it intercepted a missile fired from Yemen early Sunday, hours after Israeli warplanes struck several Houthi targets in the Arabian peninsula country.The Israeli airstrikes — in response to a deadly Houthi drone strike on Tel Aviv — were the first time Israel is known to have responded to repeated Houthi attacks throughout its nine-month war against Hamas. The burst of violence between the distant enemies has threatened to open…

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