President Donald Trump earlier this year in August announced several judicial and U.S. Marshal nominees, including Matthews.

Matthews, a partner at Jones Day in San Diego, is a former federal prosecutor who now helps companies conduct internal investigations and build, enhance and maintain effective corporate compliance programs. She regularly defends clients before a range of government agencies, including the DOJ, HHS-OIG, EPA and DOD, according to her Jones Day bio.

Neomi Rao is the most prominent judicial nominee of Trump, who named her to the federal appeals court in Washington to succeed Brett Kavanaugh, who was elevated to the Supreme Court.

Based in the nation’s capital, that appeals court is considered the most important one after the Supreme Court and a nominee of former President Barack Obama Sri Srinivasan also serves on it.

Amul Thapar was nominated by Trump to an appeals court in Ohio that has jurisdiction over four states. Rao and Thapar, along with federal court nominee J. Nicholas Ranjan received Senate confirmation. Two other nominees for federal judgeships, Diane Gujarati and Anuraag Singhal are awaiting Senate action.

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Under the GSP programme,  if the beneficiary developing countries meet the eligibility criteria established by Congress, nearly 2000 merchandise together with machine parts and textile materials will enter U.S. non-taxable.

India was the biggest beneficiary of the programme in 2017 with USD 5.7 billion in imports to the U.S. given non-taxable standing.

The GSP criteria include: respecting arbitrational awards in favour of U.S. citizens and companies, combating child labour, respecting internationally recognised employee rights, providing adequate and effective property protection, and providing the U.S. with just and affordable market access.

Countries may also be graduated from the GSP programme reckoning on factors associated with the country’s economic development.

The Trump administration argues that India has failed to assure America that it’ll give equitable and reasonable access to its markets. The U.S. has proclaimed the withdrawal of special duty edges under GSP on March 5 and was to return into force from the first week of May. However, Washington set to hold over the implementation of its call till May 23, When India gets a new government.

“I have determined that India has not assured the U.S. that it’ll give equitable and reasonable access to its markets. Hence, it’s applicable to terminate India as a beneficiary developing country effectively from June 5, 2019,” Trump aforesaid in a very proclamation on Friday, ignoring the plea created by many prime American lawmakers because it can cost American businesses over USD three hundred million in further tariffs each year.

Meanwhile, India had aforesaid that the US government’s move to withdraw duty concessions on certain merchandise below the GSP programme won’t have a major impact on exports to America.

Commerce Secretary Anup Wadhawan in March aforesaid despite the very fact that India was functioning on an “extensive and reasonable” trade package, the U.S. set to go ahead with its call to scrap the preferential trade benefit. The package was covering all issues associated with bilateral trade with the U.S. on sectors including medical devices, farm merchandise and agricultural product, he aforesaid adding that India couldn’t negotiate issues regarding interests of public health care.

Without GSP edges American small businesses face a replacement tax leading to job losses, off investments and cost will increase for customers. Thus, there’s no winner from this call of Donald Trump. American importers can pay a lot of, whereas some American exporters can still face current market access barriers in India and others, together with farmers, are very likely to be subject to a replacement retaliatory tariff.

Impact

The administration aforesaid that it would additionally, apply to India tariffs on solar panels and washers that were proclaimed last year, suspending an exemption it had granted to certain developing countries.

The bilateral trade between India and the US stood at $74.5 billion in 2017-18, up 15.5 per cent from $64.5 billion in the previous fiscal. However, the numbers are skewed in India’s favour. For instance, India reportedly imported items worth $26.3 billion from the US in FY19 (April-December) but posted a total export of $38.8 billion. Commerce Secretary Anup Wadhawan had earlier said that the GSP withdrawal would not have a significant impact on India’s exports to the US since the duty benefit, or savings on import tariffs amounted to only $190 million annually.

Moreover, Monideepa M Mukherjee, a spokeswoman for India’s commerce ministry, had also told Associated Press that GSP was in any case “meant for least-developed countries, and India has graduated out of that”. The Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) also believes that India’s exports to the US will remain unaffected by Trump’s latest move since it will only have a marginal impact on a few domestic sectors such as processed food, leather, plastic, building material and tiles, engineering goods, and hand tools, among others.

The measure can hit some Indian exporters of merchandise like textiles, jewellery, machine elements and agricultural merchandise.

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Jon Kotler applied for a personalized plate to celebrate the success of his favorite soccer team—the London-based Fulham Football Club. The team is known by its white jerseys, and Kotler’s proposed license plate read “COYW,” an abbreviation of the club’s commonly used slogan “Come on You Whites.”

To his surprise, the DMV rejected the plate, saying it was purportedly hostile, insulting, or racially degrading. A constitutional professor at the University of Southern California, Kotler felt the decision violated his First Amendment rights.

“You can’t allow bureaucrats to make decisions that are fundamental to what it means to be an American, and our free speech is one of those things,” Kotler said. “As I tell my students, ours is the only constitution in the world that protects its citizens against their own government. When the government starts to infringe on our rights, that’s when the individual citizen must speak up. If we don’t, we’ll get what we deserve and will have only ourselves to blame.”

“The First Amendment does not allow the DMV to serve as the arbiter of good taste,” said Pacific Legal Foundation attorney Wen Fa. “When government officials are given free rein to regulate free speech, they’ll come to conclusions that are biased, arbitrary, and, in this case, flat-out wrong.”

Pacific Legal Foundation represents Kotler free of charge. The case is Kotler v. Webb. More information is available at pacificlegal.org/DMV.

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Transcript of Russia President speech where he explains why his policy is important :

Dear Colleagues,

Let me now share some specifics on our objectives. I will begin with the key objective of preserving our nation, which means providing all-around support to families.

Family, childbirth, procreation and respect for the elderly have always served as a powerful moral framework for Russia.

We have been doing everything in our power to strengthen family values and are committed to doing so in the future.

In fact, our future is at stake.

This is a task shared by the state, civil society, religious organisations, political parties and the media.

Russia has entered an extremely challenging period in terms of demographics. As you know, the birth rate is declining.

As I have already said, this is caused by purely objective reasons,

which have to do with the immense human losses and birth dearth experienced by our country in the 20th century, during the Great Patriotic War

and the dramatic years following the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

This does not mean, however, that we must accept this situation or come to terms with it. Definitely, not.

We succeeded in overcoming the negative demographic trends in the early 2000s, when our country faced extreme challenges.

This seemed to be an impossible challenge at the time. Nevertheless, we succeeded, and I strongly believe that we can do it again by returning to natural population growth by late 2023 – early 2024.

Today, I wanted to talk about a new package of measures that has already been prepared to support families.

First, it is important that having children and bringing them up do not put families at the risk of poverty or undermine their wellbeing.

As you know, we have already provided for the payment of subsidies for the first two children until they reach 18 months.

Benefits for the first child are paid from the federal budget, and families can use the maternity capital subsidy for obtaining benefits for their second child.

The size of the subsidy depends on the regional subsistence level for a child.

It may vary from 8,000 rubles in Belgorod Region, for example, to 22,000 rubles in Chukotka Autonomous Area, with the national average of over 11,000 rubles a month per child.

Currently these allocations are reserved to families whose income does not exceed the subsistence wage multiplied by 1.5 per person.

It is time that we make the next step.

Starting January 1, 2020, I propose raising the bar to two subsistence wages per family member.

This is what people have requested and these requests come directly into the Executive Office. This measure will increase the number of families entitled to additional benefits by almost 50 percent.

Some 70 percent of families with one or two children will be able to benefit from help from the Government.

Second. At present, care-takers looking after children with disabilities and people disabled since childhood receive an allowance of only 5,500 rubles.

I suggest increasing this to 10,000 rubles, starting July 1. Of course, I understand that it is still a small amount.

However, it will be an additional measure of support for families with a child who needs special care.

Third. The income of Russian families must, of course, increase. This is a serious task that requires a comprehensive solution.

I will speak about this in greater detail later. But we need direct measures. First of all, the tax burden on families needs to be relieved.

The approach should be very simple: the more children there are, the lower the tax.

I propose increasing federal tax relief on real estate for families with many children.

I also propose lifting taxes on 5 square metres in a flat and 7 square metres in a house per each child.

What does this mean? If, for example, right now, 20 square metres in a flat are not subject to tax, the new measure will mean that for a family with three children, an extra 15 square metres will not be subject to tax.

Regarding plots of land that belong to families with many children, I propose that 600 square metres should be exempt from tax, and this means most plots of land will be free from taxation.

Let me remind you that this benefit is already available to pensioners and people of pre-retirement age.

Of course, in many Russian regions there are local tax benefits on land and property for large families. However, the benefit being imposed at the federal level guarantees that it will be available everywhere in the country.

I want to ask regional officials to propose additional tax measures to support families with children.

Fourth, the Government and the Central Bank need to consistently maintain the policy to lower mortgage rates to 9 percent,

and then to 8 percent or below, as stipulated in the May 2018 Executive Order.

At the same time, special measures of support should be provided for families with children, of course.

As a reminder, last year, a preferential mortgage programme was launched for families that have had their second or subsequent child.

The rate for them is 6 percent. Anything higher is subsidised by the state. However, only 4,500 families have used the benefit.

The question is why. It means that people are somehow dissatisfied with the proposed conditions.

But it is also clear why. A family making a decision to buy housing certainly makes plans for a long or at least medium term, a lasting investment.

But with this programme, they take out a loan, start paying the instalments, and the grace period ends. The interest is actually subsidised only for the first 3 or 5 years.

I propose extending the benefit for the entire term of the mortgage loan.

Yes, of course, it will require additional funding, and the cost will be rather high: 7.6 billion rubles in 2019, 21.7 billion rubles in 2020, and 30.6 billion rubles in 2021.

But the programme is estimated to reach as many as 600,000 families. We certainly need to find the money.

We know where to get it. We have it, and we just need to use it in the areas that are of major importance to us.

And one more direct action solution.

Considering the sustainability and stability of the macroeconomic situation in the country and the growth of the state’s revenues,

I consider it possible to introduce another measure of support for families having a third and subsequent children.

I suggest paying 450,000 rubles directly from the federal budget to cover this sum from their mortgage.

Importantly, I propose backdating this payment starting January 1, 2019, recalculating it and allocating relevant sums in this year’s budget.

Let us see what we have.

If we add this sum to the maternity capital, which can also be used for mortgage payments, we will get over 900,000 rubles.

In many regions, this is a substantial part of the cost of a flat.

I would like to draw the attention of the Government and the State Duma to this issue. If need be, the budget will have to be adjusted accordingly.

An additional 26.2 billion rubles will be required for this in 2019. The relevant figures for 2020 and 2021 are 28.6 billion rubles and 30.1 billion rubles, respectively.

These are huge funds but they should be allocated and used in what I have already described as a very important area.

It is necessary to give families an opportunity not only to buy ready-made housing but also to build their own housing on their land.

I would like to ask the Government to draft in cooperation with the Central Bank convenient and,

most importantly, affordable financial instruments for supporting private housing construction because it is not covered by mortgage loans today.

And, last but not least, the tax on land must be fair.

Obviously, the cadastral or market value of a land plot can change but tax rates must not go up and down unpredictably like roller coaster rides.

We have already limited to 10 percent the annual growth of the tax rates for residential property.

I suggest establishing the same limit for land plots.

Moving on, today, when construction companies build social facilities and transfer them to the state or municipalities, they have to pay profit tax and VAT.

We need to relieve construction companies of this burden (including our innovations in the construction sector).

This will serve as an impetus for the comprehensive development of cities and townships, ensuring that families have everything they need near their homes: clinics, schools and sports facilities.

By doing this, we will enable parents to work, study, live happily and enjoy parenthood.

We have come close to guaranteeing universal access to kindergartens,

but by the end of 2021, we will have to resolve the problem with nurseries by enabling them to accept 270,000 more children, including in the private sector, with 90,000 places to be created as early as this year.

The federal and regional budgets should allocate 147 billion rubles for this purpose, over a three-year period.

Let me add that enrolling in a nursery group, kindergarten, getting subsidies, benefits or the tax deductions that I have already mentioned

and, I hope, that we will come up with, together with you, all this should happen without any additional applications, excessive paperwork or having to visit various social services.

By the end of 2020, all the key government services must be provided in a proactive format where a person will only need to send in a request for a service that he or she needs, and the system will take care of all the rest independently and automatically.

I would like to emphasise that the package of measures to support families proposed today is not an exhaustive list of initiatives.

It sets the priorities. Considering the challenges posed by the state of Russia’s demographics, we will continue to channel more and more resources into this area.

I ask all of you, colleagues, including both the Government and the Federal Assembly, to think about it and suggest solutions.

Courtesy: Russia Insider

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Having joined the Court in 1982 as special assistant to the Registrar and Deputy-Registrar, Mr. Couvreur rose to the rank of Secretary, then First Secretary of the Court in the Department of Legal Matters, of which he became Principal Legal Secretary in 1995. He was elected Registrar of the Court on 10 February 2000, re-elected on 8 February 2007, and again on 3 February 2014 making him the longest-serving Registrar in the history of the Court. During his three mandates, he has exercised his duties with consummate professionalism, skilfully discharging the multiple and wide-ranging responsibilities attached to the role of Registrar in particular, in terms of providing judicial, diplomatic and administrative support to the Court. Since he joined the Court, Mr. Couvreur has actively participated in the handling of no less than 90 contentious cases and advisory opinions.

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CNN has filed a lawsuit against President Trump and several of his aides, seeking the immediate restoration of chief White House correspondent Jim Acosta’s access to the White House.

The day after the Nov. 6 congressional elections, Trump erupted into anger during a news conference when Acosta questioned him about the Russia probe and a migrant caravan travelling through Mexico.

“That’s enough, that’s enough,” Trump told Acosta last Wednesday, as a White House intern attempted to take the microphone away from the correspondent. “You are a rude, terrible person.”

The White House suspended his credentials later that day, with Sanders alleging that Acosta had put his hands on the intern who was trying to take the microphone from him. Videos of the encounter show Acosta pulling back as the intern moved to take the microphone..

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President Donald Trump on Wednesday asked Attorney General Jeff Sessions to resign, effectively firing him.

Matthew Whitaker, who has served as Sessions’s chief of staff, will fill in as acting U.S. attorney general, President Donald Trump said in a tweet Wednesday

President Donald J. Trump
The White House
Washington, DC. 20500

Dear Mr. President,
At your request, I am submitting my resignation.

Since the day I was honored to be sworn in as Attorney General of the United States, I came
to work at the Department of Justice every day determined to do my duty and serve my country. I
have done so to the best of my ability, working to support the fundamental legal processes that are
the foundation of justice.

The team we assembled embraced your directive to be a law and order Department of
Justice. We prosecuted the largest number of violent offenders and ?rearm defendants in our
country?s history. We took on transnational gangs that are bringing violence and death across our
borders and protected national security. We did our part to restore immigration enforcement. We
targeted the opioid epidemic by prosecuting doctors, pharmacists, and anyone else who contributes
to this crisis with new law enforcement tools and determination. And we have seen results. After
two years of rising violent crime and homicides prior to this administration, those trends have
reversed?thanks to the hard work of our prosecutors and law enforcement around the country.

I am particularly grateful to the fabulous men and women in law enforcement all over this
country with whom I have served. I have had no greater honor than to serve alongside them. As I
have said many times, they have my thanks and I will always have their backs.

Most importantly. in my time as Attorney General we have restored and upheld the rule of
law?a glorious tradition that each of us has a responsibility to safeguard. We have operated with
integrity and have lawfully and aggressively advanced the policy agenda of this administration.

I have been honored to serve as Attorney General and have worked to implement the law
enforcement agenda based on the rule of law that formed a central part of your campaign for the

Presidency.

Thank you for the opportunity, Mr. President.



Jeff Sessions
Attorney General

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“Gemalto profusely regrets on its Breach Level Index Report 2018 and the subsequent press release issued in India on 15th October where it has by mistake taken into account an unverified news article about alleged Aadhaar data breach,” the company said in a statement.

The report issued on Monday had claimed that almost 1 billion records were compromised in Aadhaar breach incident, including name, address and other personally identified information.

Gemalto said that it has updated its Breach Level Index Report 2018 and wants to make it clear that it was an error in the above said report which has been corrected.

“…all concerned should take note of it that we have not been able to track any verified or substantiated data breach of Aadhaar database of UIDAI. As a result, Gemalto has withdrawn this alleged data from the Breach Level Index. Any inconvenience caused to UIDAI is deeply regretted,” the statement said.

In the report, Gemalto claimed that there were 945 data breaches led to 4.5 billion data records being compromised worldwide in the first half of 2018 out of which over 1 billion data records have been exposed in India.

The company issued correction saying that there were 944 data breaches that led to 3.2 billion data records being compromised worldwide in the first half of 2018.

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India will kick off the second round of oral arguments on February 20, from 3 pm to 4:30 pm, whereas Pakistan will conclude on February 21, from 3 pm to 4:30 pm.

Pakistan had submitted a 400-page reply in July this year as part of its rejoinder to India’s last reply of April 17.

India has said that Jadhav is innocent and has maintained that he was kidnapped from Iran where he had gone for handling his businesses after superannuation from the Indian Navy.

Pakistan claim that its security forces arrested Jadhav from its Balochistan province in March, 2016 after he reportedly entered from Iran. India denies all charges. India moved the ICJ in May last year against the verdict. A 10-member ICJ bench on May 18, 2017 restrained Pakistan from executing Jadhav till the case was adjudicated on.

In its written pleadings, India in September 2017 accused Pakistan of violating the Vienna Convention by not giving consular access to Jadhav.

A 11-judge bench of the International Court of Justice stayed the execution of Indian national Kulbhushan Jadhav by Pakistani military court until further notice, while observing that prima facie the Vienna Convention will apply in the Kulbhushan Jadhav case. “The decision to stay Jadhav’s execution pending ICS hearing is unanimous,” said ICJ President Ronny Abraham. The bench also observed that the 150-day period for clemency given by Pakistan, which ends in August suggests execution can happen immediately thereafter. The court further said, “It considers that the mere fact that Mr. Jadhav is under a death sentence and might therefore be executed is sufficient to demonstrate the existence of a risk of irreparable prejudice to the rights claimed by India.” The court pronounced its verdict on India’s plea seeking provisional measures restraining the execution of Jadhav by Pakistan. India had moved the court seeking immediate measures by the top court, in effect a stay, against the death sentence.

Official Notification of Hearing here:

[embeddoc url=”https://legaldesire.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/168-20181003-PRE-01-00-EN.pdf”]

To Know more about this Case, Read:

https://legaldesire.com/read-full-text-international-court-of-justice-stays-kulbhushan-jadhavs-death-sentence/

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On August 7, 2018, Musk tweeted to his 22 million Twitter followers that he could take Tesla private at $420 per share (a substantial premium to its trading price at the time), that funding for the transaction had been secured, and that the only remaining uncertainty was a shareholder vote.  The SEC’s complaint alleges that, in truth, Musk had not discussed specific deal terms with any potential financing partners, and he allegedly knew that the potential transaction was uncertain and subject to numerous contingencies. According to the SEC’s complaint, Musk’s tweets caused Tesla’s stock price to jump by over six percent on August 7, and led to significant market disruption.

The Real tweet was:

Am considering taking Tesla private at $420. Funding secured.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 7, 2018

The agency said Musk fabricated the claim in his August tweet, which sent Tesla shares higher.

“In truth and in fact, Musk had not even discussed, much less confirmed, key deal terms, including price, with any potential funding source,” the SEC said in complaint filed Thursday in Manhattan federal court, less than two months after Musk’s tweet.

The suit seeks an order from a judge barring Musk from serving as an officer or director of a public company, a request often made in SEC lawsuits, as well as unspecified monetary penalties.

Even before the tweets, the SEC was investigating issues at Tesla including its car sales projections. The Justice Department is also looking into whether Musk misled investors, Bloomberg News has reported.

“Musk made his false and misleading public statements about taking Tesla private using his mobile phone in the middle of the active trading day,” the SEC said. “He did not discuss the content of the statements with anyone else prior to publishing them to his over 22 million Twitter followers and anyone else with access to the Internet. He also did not inform Nasdaq that he intended to make this public announcement, as Nasdaq rules required.”

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