Trump Organization and senior executive charged with tax crimes

• Charges mark a severe blow to ex-president’s family business
• CFO Allen Weisselberg surrenders to authorities

The Trump Organization and its chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, have been charged with tax-related crimes, marking the first criminal charges against the former president’s company following a years-long investigation by New York prosecutors.

Related: Allen Weisselberg: half of the dynamic duo running Trump’s business empire

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Cosby’s prison release is a ‘battle cry’ for victim rights movement, advocates say

Procedural issue prompted release of a man more than 60 women have accused of rape or sexual assault

Sexual assault advocates and survivors said Bill Cosby’s release from prison should be a “battle cry” amid concerns the decision could have a chilling effect on survivors seeking to hold their abusers accountable.

Cosby was freed on Wednesday after the supreme court of Pennsylvania reversed his 2018 convictions on charges of drugging and sexually assaulting Andrea Constand. Pennsylvania’s highest court overturned the conviction because a previous district attorney had promised in 2005 that Cosby would not be charged.

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Fibromyalgia may be a condition of the immune system not the brain – study

New research challenges widely held view of the condition and could pave way for better treatment

Fibromyalgia – a poorly understood condition that causes widespread pain throughout the body and extreme tiredness – may be caused by be an autoimmune response that increases the activity of pain-sensing nerves throughout the body.

The findings, published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, challenge the widely held view that the condition originates in the brain, and could pave the way for more effective treatments for the millions of people affected.

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Ending furlough scheme too early could damage recovery, say trade unions

The government is now reducing its contribution to the scheme, with employers having pay 10% from July and 20% from August

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Ending the furlough scheme too early could damage the recovery and push unemployment higher, trade unions warned as official figures showed the number of workers on the scheme in May fell at a slower rate than expected to 2.4 million employees.

Without an extension of the furlough scheme or extra support for the hardest hit industries, the bounce back on economic activity could be choked off, unions said.

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French court orders government to act on climate in next nine months

Council of State says it will assess state’s actions after 31 March 2022, and could issue fines if needed

France’s top administrative court has ordered the government to take “all necessary additional steps” within the next nine months to enable it to reach its climate change target or face possible sanctions, including substantial fines.

The Council of State said in a final ruling published on Thursday, with no possibility for appeal by the government, that France was not currently on track to meet its goal of achieving a 40% cut in emissions from 1990 levels by 2030.

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‘Lytton is gone’: wildfire tears through village after record-breaking heat

Officials didn’t have time to issue evacuation orders while dry conditions make suppressing wildfires in Canada impossible

After three days of unrelenting heat, the people in the British Columbia village of Lytton were hoping for a modest respite.

Temperatures which had shattered longstanding national records – at one point reaching a blistering 49.6C (121.28F) – eased slightly on Wednesday, raising hopes that the worst was over.

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GPs fume at being left to shoulder AstraZeneca vaccine confusion after PM’s ‘unhelpful’ comments

Scott Morrison’s shift on eligibility for under-40s blamed for eroding vaccine confidence while being at odds with leading doctors’ advice

General practitioners say they are being “left to hold the mess” created by the confused and conflicting statements about the AstraZeneca vaccine, which is making it harder for them to obtain informed consent from patients.

The confused messaging around AstraZeneca continued on Wednesday after Christopher Blyth, the co-chair of the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (Atagi), said the vaccine should be considered for under-40s only in rare circumstances and Dr Jeannette Young, the Queensland chief health officer, continued to insist that under-40s in her state should not get AstraZeneca.

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Canada wildfires: ‘Let’s get out of here’

After days of a record breaking heat wave, wildfires have forced residents in a small British Columbia town to evacuate.

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Obituary: Donald Rumsfeld

Ruthless, resilient and divisive - he served as Secretary of Defense twice in a career spanning decades.

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Donald Rumsfeld, defense secretary for Bush and Ford, is dead at 88.

By BY ROBERT D. MCFADDEN from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/3618BL9