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Former US President Donald Trump’s company was fined around €1.5 million on Friday for a scheme in which the former president’s top executives dodged personal income taxes on lavish job perks.
It’s a symbolic, hardly crippling blow for an enterprise boasting billions of dollars in assets.
A fine was the only penalty a judge could impose on the Trump Organization after its conviction last month for 17 tax crimes, including conspiracy and falsifying business records.
The amount imposed by Judge Juan Manuel Merchan was the maximum allowed by law. It is double the taxes a small group of executives avoided on benefits including rent-free apartments in Trump buildings, luxury cars and private school tuition.
Trump himself was not on trial and denied any knowledge of his executives evading taxes illegally. In a statement released after sentencing, the Trump Organization said it has done nothing wrong and would appeal.
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A gas pipeline has exploded in Lithuania, according to officials, as the country marks a historic day in its struggle for independence from the USSR.
LRT, Lithuania's public broadcaster, reported that there were no injuries from the blast in the centre of the country, but that flames shot up 50 metres high.
Some 250 people from a nearby village were being evacuated from the village of Pasvalio Vienkiemiai, after the explosion at around 17:00 local time in the District of Pasvalys. Authorities said this was a precautionary measure.
Today, Lithuania marks the Day of Freedom Defenders to honour those who were killed by Soviet troops on 13 January 1991 in the capital Vilnius, as the country broke away from the USSR.
Fourteen people died and hundreds were injured defending the TV tower, as Russian troops tried to topple the new Lithuanian government that had declared independence the year before in 1990.
The blast occurred on a main Amber Grid gas pipeline.
“We immediately started to investigate the circumstances of the incident and ensure gas supply to consumers,” Nemunas Biknius, Amber Grid CEO said in a statement.
"According to the initial assessment, we do not see any malign cause, but the investigation will cover all possible options," he told a new conference.
Pasvalio rajone prie Valak？li？ sprogo auk？to sl？gio dujotiekis. Tai greta kelio Pasvalys - ？iauliai. Dirba specialiosios tarnybos.
Posted by Gintautas Geguzinskas on Friday, January 13, 2023
Gas supplies through the damaged pipeline, which serves northern Lithuania and Baltic neighbour Lativa, in the area were immediately halted.
Further disruptions to energy supplies are expected, though Latvia said it had not been affected so far.
“There were unexpected sounds, it seemed as if planes were flying somewhere low – a high-pressure gas pipeline exploded on the side of Valak？liai, on the Pasvalys-？iauliai road, a couple of kilometres from Pasvalys," said District Mayor Gintautas Gegu？inskas.
"The flames are shooting up to a high altitude," he added.
According to the Baltic News Service, the pipeline carries natural gas from Klaipeda in eastern Lithuania to Latvia. Klaipeda sits on the Baltic Sea and is the only major seaport in Lithuania.
Raimonds Cudars, the energy minister in neighbouring Latvia, said the explosion in Lithuania has not caused problems with natural gas supplies in Latvia.
Cudars had been informed that the reason for the explosion was a technical accident.
Lithuania, like war-torn Ukraine, borders Russia. It is situated on the Baltic Sea where the Russia-to-Germany Nord Stream gas pipelines were destroyed by explosions last year.
Firefighters rushed to the scene and flames lit up the dark Lithuanian sky and were visible several kilometres away as the gas remaining in the pipe continued to burn Friday evening.
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Polish lawmakers approved a new law on Friday that the government hopes will appease the European Union and release billions of euros in funding.
The law, which could unfreeze a 35 billion Covid recovery fund from Brussels, aims to improve accountability in the judiciary.
Brussels and Warsaw have been at loggerheads for years over the ruling Justice and Development party's (PiS) reforms of the judicial system, which the EU claims undermine the country's democracy, alongside its rollback of media freedoms.
Poland has been blocked from accessing EU aid by Brussels until it makes essential changes.
The right-wing coalition government says that the new law has been agreed on with officials in Brussels and should lead to the much-needed billion-euro pot being released.
Previous changes made by Poland did not go far enough for the EU.
But the justice minister, who introduced the measures to increase political control over judges, opposes the changes. He threatened the government's future, while President Andrzej Duda said he had not been consulted on the new law.
An upcoming general election in the autumn has given weight to the matter.
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Surveys suggest that the governing coalition might lose control of the parliament, meaning the government is seeking to obtain the EU funds, hoping to boost support from voters.
The lower house of parliament voted 203-52 to approve the legislation, with 189 abstentions, reflecting divisions inside the ruling coalition and the opposition's scepticism.
The head of an opposition party, W？adys？aw Kosiniak-Kamysz, was among those who abstained.
“This bill doesn't restore the rule of law," he said before the vote in parliament. "That will only be possible after we [the opposition] win the elections.”
“But if this bill is a chance for the unblocking of the European funds, it is really important,” Kosiniak-Kamysz added
It was not immediately clear if the EU would be satisfied with the changes, but a European Commission spokesman told Polish state news agency PAP that the law was an important step towards meeting EU criteria.
“We will continue to follow closely the next steps of the ongoing adoption process and then review the final law adopted,” Christian Wigand told PAP.