Latest news with #Memorandum
GMA Network
a day ago
- Climate
- GMA Network
Classes, gov't work suspended in NCR, Luzon provinces on July 23 —Palace
Work in government offices and classes at all levels in the National Capital Region and some provinces are suspended on Wednesday, July 23, 2025, due to inclement weather, Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin said on Tuesday. Through Memorandum Circular No. 90, Bersamin said the following provinces have no classes and government work as well upon the recommendation of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council due to the continuous heavy rainfall brought by the Southwest Monsoon (Habagat): Pangasinan, Zambales, Tarlac, Bataan, Pampanga, Bulacan, Cavite, Batangas, Rizal, Occidental Mindoro, Ilocos Norte, Ilocos Sur, La Union, Quezon, Oriental Mindoro, Marinduque, Romblon, Masbate, Sorsogon, Albay, Camarines Sur, Catanduanes, Palawan, Antique, Aklan, Capiz, Iloilo, Guimaras, Abra, Mountain Province, Ifugao, Benguet, Nueva Vizcaya, Nueva Ecija, Laguna, and Negros Occidental. However, agencies responsible for basic, vital and health services, preparedness and response duties must continue their operations to ensure continuity of essential government functions despite the declaration of work suspension. Meanwhile, non-vital government employees of subject agencies and all other government employees may be engaged under approved alternate work arrangements, subject to applicable laws, rules and regulations. The memorandum also indicated that the localized cancellation or suspension of classes and/or work in government offices in other regions may be implemented by their respective local chief executives, pursuant to relevant laws, rules and regulations. The suspension of work for private companies and offices is left to the discretion of their respective heads. —VAL, GMA Integrated News
Business Recorder
2 days ago
- Business
- Business Recorder
Jubilee Spinning & Weaving Mills says soon to receive NOC from NBP to change company name
Jubilee Spinning & Weaving Mills Limited announced on Monday that it was in the process of soon receiving No Objection Certificate (NOC) from the National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) in order to change the name of the company. The company shared the development to the Pakistan Stock Exchange today. It said that getting the NOC was the only remaining requirement for the approval of Form-26 related to change of company name. 'As soon as we receive the NOC from NBP, we will submit the same to the SECP and then apply for Certified True Copy of Memorandum of Association to the SECP.' Further progress report will be submitted to you within 15th day of every quarter ended as per requirement of the listing regulations of the Exchange, read the notice to the bourse. Jubilee Spinning & Weaving Mills Limited was incorporated in Pakistan as a public limited company on 12 December 1973 under the Companies Act, 1913 (Now the Companies Act, 2017). The principal objective of the company is to engage in the business of manufacturing and selling of yarn, buying, selling and otherwise dealing in yarn and raw cotton.
Roya News
4 days ago
- Politics
- Roya News
US progressive lawmaker AOC rejects cutting funding for 'Israel's' air defense system
US Democratic Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez voted against an amendment proposed by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene on Friday, that sought to cut USD 500 million in military aid for 'Israel's' air defense systems. By voting "no" on the amendment, Ocasio-Cortez effectively voted to maintain the funding. The amendment, to H.R.4016, aimed to eliminate $500 million allocated for "Israeli Cooperative Programs," which include systems like the Iron Dome. Rep. Greene argued that the US, facing a $37 trillion national debt, should cease providing foreign aid, stating that "nuclear-armed Israel" is capable of defending itself. She highlighted that the US already provides 'Israel' with $3.8 billion annually in foreign aid, with an additional $8.7 billion allocated in April 2024. The House of Representatives overwhelmingly rejected Greene's amendment with a vote of 6 in favor and 422 against (Roll Call No. 207). The six members who voted to cut the funding were Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), Thomas Massie (R-KY), Al Green (D-TX), Summer Lee (D-PA), Ilhan Omar (D-MN), and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.). Rep. Ocasio-Cortez was not among those who voted to cut the funding. Previously in April 2024, she cast a "PRESENT" vote on a separate $1 billion supplemental military funding bill for 'Israel's' Iron Dome. She had a controversial emotional reaction after the vote, where she was seen crying on the floor before voting. In a letter explaining her decision, she cited the 'rushed' legislative process, which, she said, 'created very real spillover effects.' 'Yes, I wept. I wept at the complete lack of care for the human beings that are impacted by these decisions, I wept at an institution choosing a path of maximum volatility and minimum consideration for its own political convenience,' the New York representative said. US support for 'Israel's' security has been a long-standing foreign policy, with over $130 billion in bilateral assistance provided since 1948. This includes an annual provision of $3.3 billion in Foreign Military Financing and $500 million for cooperative missile defense programs, formalized through a 10-year Memorandum of Understanding.
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump may not see the Epstein grand jury records for a while — if at all
President Donald Trump's call to make public a subset of grand jury records stemming from the prosecution of Jeffrey Epstein falls far short of the total release of documents his supporters have demanded. And unlike records assembled by the Justice Department and FBI, grand jury records cannot be released without the permission of the federal court responsible for overseeing the criminal case. As a result, Trump's demand leaves the potential disclosure of new information murky, at best, and subject to a byzantine legal analysis that could take months. That process will play out in courts in New York and Florida, where the Justice Department moved Friday to unseal grand jury records in Epstein's criminal sex trafficking case and his associate Ghislaine Maxwell's criminal case for acting as a co-conspirator. And already the Justice Department is teeing itself up to redact large swaths of information from the files. DOJ top brass told the courts it would 'make appropriate redactions of victim-related information and other personal identifying information prior to releasing the transcripts.' Attorney General Pam Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, who submitted the requests, did not specify what 'other' information the department would seek to shield. As a result, even if Trump and Bondi succeed, it's unclear whether the documents and transcripts will provide any new insight beyond what is already known about the case. That's unlikely to satisfy the swell of MAGA supporters who in recent days have pressured the pair to release investigation records. Trump's directive to Bondi to move to unseal the grand jury material — after days of stonewalling his supporters' demands — came after a bombshell Wall Street Journal report described evidence that Trump sent a racy letter to Epstein decades ago, which the president has denied. (POLITICO has not verified the authenticity of the letter, and Trump sued The Wall Street Journal Friday afternoon.) Here's a look at six key questions about Trump's push to unseal the material, what the documents are likely — and unlikely — to reveal and whether a judge might go along. DOJ's unsealing requests were written broadly, arguing the typical secrecy afforded to grand jury transcripts should yield to the 'extensive public interest' in the federal sex trafficking investigation into Epstein that was underway when he died by suicide in 2019. The filing references the Justice Department's recent memo concluding that 'no such evidence' exists to support criminal charges against 'uncharged third parties' connected to Epstein. Referencing the explosion of rage among Trump's supporters that followed this conclusion, Blanche noted 'there has been extensive public interest in the basis for the Memorandum's conclusions.' 'Since then, the public's interest in the Epstein matter has remained,' Blanche deadpanned. 'Given this longstanding and legitimate interest, the government now moves to unseal grand jury transcripts associated with Epstein.' Whether the grand jury material held by the courts will shed significant light on the memo's conclusions, however, is unclear. Grand juries in federal criminal cases hear witness testimony and review documents provided in response to subpoenas before they determine whether prosecutors have enough evidence to charge someone with a crime. All of that material is automatically considered grand jury material, and could be among the types of records released in the Epstein and Maxwell cases. But other evidence in an investigative file falls into a gray area. If someone was interviewed by law enforcement on a voluntary basis, without a subpoena, for example, that might not be considered grand jury material. But if that person were asked about documents that were produced as a result of a grand jury subpoena, their answers might be categorized by prosecutors as grand jury material, said Arlo Devlin-Brown, a former federal prosecutor who served as chief of the public corruption unit at the Manhattan U.S. Attorney's office. That unit prosecuted both Epstein and Maxwell stemming from investigations that began after Devlin-Brown's tenure. Prosecutors 'often take a very expansive protective view of what's grand jury material to keep it protected,' Devlin-Brown said. And in a large and sprawling case like Epstein's and Maxwell's, grand jury testimony is often limited to just that of a federal agent who has investigated the case and gives the grand jurors an overview of the evidence. The indictment of Epstein appears to be based largely on victim testimony, and prosecutors disclosed at the time of Epstein's arrest that multiple victims had provided information against him. If the victim accounts were conveyed to a grand jury by an agent, those accounts could be included as grand jury material, but only as described secondhand. Dan Stein, a former federal prosecutor who served as criminal division chief in the Manhattan U.S. Attorney's office, said the office virtually always took the approach of using an agent, or 'summary witness,' in the grand jury. So if the Justice Department sticks to Trump's pledge to seek the release of only grand jury testimony, Stein said, that could very well be limited to an agent's testimony. There is likely a wealth of evidence that isn't considered grand jury material. For example, in Epstein's case, the high-profile searches of his palatial Manhattan home, private island, Palm Beach residence and other properties took place after he was indicted, meaning they may not have been conducted as part of the grand jury investigation, which comes before an indictment is handed down by the grand jury. When agents searched Epstein's Upper East Side mansion on the night of his arrest in 2019, the search was executed pursuant to 'judicially-authorized warrants,' not grand jury warrants, prosecutors disclosed in court filings. Those searches produced, among other materials, items found in a locked safe that included compact discs with handwritten labels, the details of which prosecutors redacted in court filings as 'Young [Name] + [Name].' It's likely up to a New York-based federal judge, because that's where both the Epstein and Maxwell cases were investigated and charged. On Friday, the Justice Department filed three unsealing requests: one in the Epstein case, which was overseen by U.S. District Judge Richard Berman, a Clinton appointee; one in the Maxwell case, which was overseen by Alison Nathan, who was a district judge but now sits on the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals; and one in the Southern District of Florida, where some of the grand jury's work took place. Many legal experts, however, said they thought the requests in New York would be handled by what's known as the 'Part 1' judge on duty in the district, which rotates on a schedule, and it's unclear whether the requests could get transferred to such a judge. Until Saturday, that is U.S. District Judge Jeannette Vargas, a Biden appointee, and next week it's scheduled to be U.S. District Judge Ronnie Abrams, an Obama appointee. The fact that the Epstein investigation was based in New York may actually affect the outcome of Trump and Bondi's unsealing push because of the disparate ways courts handle grand jury material. Records of grand jury investigations are some of the most closely held secrets in government and rarely yield to public interest except in extraordinary circumstances. Courts say that secrecy is necessary to protect the integrity of criminal investigations, witnesses who may provide sensitive testimony, victims who may be identified and the grand jurors themselves. There are a handful of narrow exceptions written into federal rules allowing for their release. Courts have split, however, over whether judges have their own discretionary power to release grand jury material for reasons that aren't on the list — such as the historical significance of the secret records. For example, the federal appeals court in Washington, D.C. has concluded that judges do not have discretion to release material outside the written rules. But in New York federal courts, where the Epstein and Maxwell grand jury investigations and prosecutions took place, the guiding precedent is looser. Instead, judges are required to balance a slew of factors to determine whether grand jury material can be released: the historical significance of the records at issue, the amount of time that has elapsed since the investigation, whether the DOJ supports or opposes release, the specificity of the requested unsealing, whether any witnesses or victims are still alive and whether any of the material has previously been made public. Those factors, applied to the Epstein saga, appear muddled at best. Trump has called for 'pertinent' grand jury records to come out. And one of the arguments DOJ previously made against disclosures was that it could damage the purported victims of Epstein's alleged sex trafficking conspiracy, many of whom are still alive. In the guiding case that New York federal courts rely on, the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals agreed that a lower-court judge — U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin, a Clinton appointee — had properly denied a researcher's bid to access records of a McCarthy-era grand jury proceeding. Though the court agreed that district judges have broad discretion to order such releases, the judges pointed to Scheindlin's concern that 'the current disclosure would involve some witnesses who are still alive.' The panel emphasized that 'in some situations historical or public interest alone could justify the release of grand jury information,' but it cited the examples of grand jury investigations related to John Wilkes Booth or Aaron Burr, noting that the long-term public interest in those cases could 'overwhelm' the need for secrecy. In 2017, the celebrity and entertainment news website Radar Online sued for the FBI's files on its investigation into Epstein up to that point. The outlet won access to some information, but most was withheld on various grounds, primarily the then-ongoing criminal case against Maxwell. Last year, Assistant U.S. Attorney Maurene Comey, who prosecuted both the Epstein and Maxwell cases, filed a declaration in court arguing against disclosure of the records, saying such a step would likely interfere with Maxwell's appeal of her 2021 sex trafficking conviction. U.S. District Judge Paul Gardephe, a George W. Bush appointee, upheld the FBI's denial of access to the bulk of the records, based largely on Comey's declaration. On Wednesday, the Justice Department fired Comey, the daughter of former FBI Director James Comey, from the Manhattan U.S. Attorney's office. She wasn't provided with a reason for her termination. Notably, the Justice Department's Friday filing suggests that the unsealing should occur despite the pending appeal by Maxwell, due to 'the intense public scrutiny into this matter.' Solve the daily Crossword
CNBC
4 days ago
- Politics
- CNBC
Justice Department asks court to unseal Epstein, Maxwell grand jury transcripts
The Department of Justice on Friday asked federal judges to unseal grand jury transcripts in the criminal cases of notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and his convicted procurer of young girls, Ghislaine Maxwell. The formal requests came one day after President Donald Trump said he asked Attorney General Pam Bondi to "produce any and all pertinent Grand Jury testimony, subject to Court approval." Trump suggested he was taking that step in order to tamp down on the growing pressure from his own supporters to release the so-called Epstein files. "This SCAM, perpetuated by the Democrats, should end, right now!" he wrote in a Truth Social post at the time. Less than two weeks earlier, the Justice Department said in a memo that it would not disclose any more information related to Epstein's federal sex trafficking case after conducting an "exhaustive review." But since then, "there has been extensive public interest in the basis for the Memorandum's conclusions," Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche wrote in separate court filings in the Epstein and Maxwell cases in Manhattan federal court. "While the Department of Justice and Federal Bureau of Investigation continue to adhere to the conclusions reached in the Memorandum, transparency to the American public is of the utmost importance to this Administration," Blanche wrote. "Given the public interest in the investigative work conducted by the Department of Justice and Federal Bureau of Investigation into Epstein, the Department of Justice moves the Court to unseal the underlying grand jury transcripts," subject to appropriate redactions, he wrote. Those redactions encompass "victim-related and other personal identifying information," Blanche wrote. A footnote in the identical documents says that a similar request will be filed in federal court in southern Florida. Epstein pleaded guilty in 2008 in Florida to soliciting an underage prostitute. Epstein was arrested in 2019 and killed himself in prison weeks later. Maxwell, his longtime confidant, was convicted in 2021 of acting as a recruiter of young girls who would later be abused by Epstein. She is currently serving a 20-year sentence in a federal prison in Florida. Earlier Friday afternoon, Trump filed a defamation lawsuit against media giant Rupert Murdoch and multiple Wall Street Journal journalists, hours after they reported that a collection of birthday letter to Epstein in 2003 included a "bawdy" message signed by Trump. The president has denied penning the message.
