August 22nd, 2019

Jeffrey Epstein directed at least three separate marriages between women in his sex trafficking operation — as part of an attempt to keep non-citizen members of his entourage working for him, according to a new report. The allegations of fraudulent marriages come after a victim claimed in a lawsuit Tuesday that the wealthy pedophile coerced her into legally wedding one of his foreign-born female recruiters in exchange for him promising to cover her much-needed medical procedure. But there were at least two other arrangements of this nature that have not been previously reported, according to Business Insider...

After she was detained by Canadian officials back in December at the behest of US officials, Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou reportedly told a Canadian border agent that the Chinese company operates an office in Iran. Her answer came after the agent questioned her about whether Huawei sold products to companies it shouldn’t be doing business with — and after she answered “I don’t know” at first. This revelation comes via a new report from Bloomberg, which notes that the agent met Wanzhou’s initial answer with skepticism. Surely the CFO of a multibillion-dollar company would know such details, the agent pressed...

New Mexico's commissioner of public lands said she's on a mission for justice as details emerge about Jeffrey Epstein's alleged sex abuse at his ranch in the state. In an exclusive interview, she revealed her office is fully cooperating with investigators and has turned over 400 pages of Epstein's property records to investigators – documents that may contain names of his alleged co-conspirators... As investigators begin to interview women who said they were abused at Epstein's ranch, New Mexico Public Lands Commissioner Stephanie Garcia Richard told CBS News' Mola Lenghi she hopes taking this step will inspire more alleged victims to come forward because "there is a story to be told in New Mexico"...

Contractors working for Microsoft have listened to audio of Xbox users speaking in their homes in order to improve the console’s voice command features, Motherboard has learned. The audio was supposed to be captured following a voice command like “Xbox” or “Hey Cortana,” but contractors said that recordings were sometimes triggered and recorded by mistake... The former contractor said most of the voices they heard were of children... "As time went on, we got less apparently accidental stuff as the feature improved," the former contractor said. But it still had issues, with contractors hearing audio of Xbox users who had mistakenly triggered the device.

Bill Clinton and Vernon Jordan are more than just golfing buddies, though they have been known to enjoy a round or two of golf together on Martha’s Vineyard during their summer vacations... For a while now, the two men have also been celebrating their birthdays together, courtesy of their friends Sir Evelyn de Rothschild, of the imperial European banking family, and his wife, Lynn Forester de Rothschild, a former telecommunications executive. The latest party was held this past weekend on Martha’s Vineyard at Bagehot Backs, the Rothschilds’ tasteful estate in Edgartown—it has been featured in many a shelter magazine—and included quite an A-list cast of characters, including many Democratic party stalwarts.

Hillary Clinton was there with her husband, of course, as was John Kerry, the former Massachusetts senator and secretary of state who recently moved to the Vineyard from Nantucket. So too were Mark Warner, Democrat senator of Virginia, and Terry McAuliffe, the former governor. Billionaire Carlos Slim, the Mexican businessman who owns a large stake in the New York Times, made an appearance. Harvard professor Henry Louis “Skip” Gates Jr. was also in attendance, according to videos sent by a source, although another Harvard professor, Alan Dershowitz, who has attended the party in the past, was not.

Joining in the song and celebration this year was none other than Anthony Scaramucci, aka the Mooch, who was making his first appearance at the event...

Rodolfo Montoya, of Huntington Beach, California, was allegedly plotting to murder his Marriott co-workers. The 37-year-old hotel cook told a colleague about his deadly intentions who told his manager Imran Ahmed. Ahmed called the Long Beach Police Department who raided Montoya's home and found the weapons haul. Thousands of rounds of ammunition, shotgun cartridges, tactical gear and high-powered rifles were seized. With the stockpile of weapons, he was capable of carrying out a mass shooting akin to the Las Vegas attack. Montoya was charged with manufacturing and distributing assault weapons, possession of an assault weapon and making a criminal threat. He is currently being held on $500,000 bail at the Long Beach City Jail

Greece vowed Wednesday to refuse help to an Iranian ship that was recently detained in Gibraltar on suspicion of carrying oil bound for Syria days after the U.S. threatened sanctions on any country that offered aid to the tanker believed to be linked to an Iranian terrorist organization as it passed through Mediterranean waters, a report said.

Deputy foreign minister Miltiadis Varvitsiotis told broadcaster ANT1 Greece was “not willing to facilitate the course of this ship to Syria” and pointed out the tanker, which is carrying 2 million barrels of crude oil, is too large for any Greek port to accommodate, BBC News reported.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) gives her perspective on the electoral college in a video post on her Instagram feed of her driving through rural America: "The Electoral College has a racial injustice breakdown... Due to severe racial disparities in certain states, the Electoral College effectively weighs white voters over voters of color, as opposed to a 'one person, one vote' system where all our votes are counted equally."

there is ample reason to believe that faith in a higher power is associated with health, and in a positive way. For example, researchers at the Mayo Clinic concluded, “Most studies have shown that religious involvement and spirituality are associated with better health outcomes, including greater longevity, coping skills, and health-related quality of life (even during terminal illness) and less anxiety, depression, and suicide. Several studies have shown that addressing the spiritual needs of the patient may enhance recovery from illness.”

“I was enjoying our conversation, when Jeffrey insisted that I give Matt a foot massage throughout the duration of the short flight,” Giuffre alleges in the documents. “I never turned down a client but when I saw the shape of his feet, I nearly threw up at the thought of having to touch them.” “He had yellow crusty toenails that even someone with a chainsaw would’ve had troubles cutting through and then there was the fluffy balls of leftover pieces of sock wedged between the crevices of his sweaty toes, now that was the real icing on the cake for me, no way could I attempt this I thought,” she added. “Then I had an idea. I went to the back of the plane and rinsed a wash cloth in warm soapy water and returned for his dreaded foot massage but not before attempting to clean them first.”

Denmark spends $600 million each year on subsidies for food, fuel and transportation in Greenland. What if, in return for greater access for U.S. companies in infrastructure projects, Greenland gets more access to the financial system as well as a U.S. contribution to that Greenland subsidy?

That’s the view of Rod McIllree, chief executive of the London- and Frankfurt-listed mining exploration company, Bluejay Mining JAY, who has spent over a decade there and has partnered with mining giants including Rio Tinto RIO, and Anglo American AAL.

The Washington Post had reported that the subsidy was what the Trump team was thinking about taking over.
[...]
McIllree said the previous window for extraction of Greenland’s resources was July through mid-September. “With the warming that has come through here, that’s now the end of May through the back end of October,” he said. “Now you can spend far longer on your project, access to them logistically is much easier, because the sea ice is obviously the first victim in all of this.”...

A series of Special Forces military training exercises -- including gunfire with blanks -- is being staged across 21 North Carolina counties starting Aug. 30, and the Army is telling the public not to be alarmed at the suspicious-looking activity.

Known as Robin Sage training, the unconventional warfare exercises can be likened to live-action role playing in the extreme, with hostile engagement playing out between Special Forces students, volunteer civilians and soldiers out of Fort Bragg. It continues through Sept. 12, said a press release.

Migrants in Germany who return to Syria for holidays may lose their refugee status, according to German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer. "If somebody, a Syrian refugee, regularly takes holidays in Syria, he cannot honestly claim to be persecuted in Syria," Seehofer told Bild am Sonntag weekly, adding "We would strip him of his refugee status." If German officials learn that a migrant is on holiday in the nation they claim to have fled, a probe will be launched into their refugee status, Seehofer added.

The meme, which appeared as a block of text, went viral on Tuesday claiming Instagram is planning to roll out new changes to its privacy policy to let old messages and private photos be used in court cases against its users. "Everything you've ever posted becomes public from today," the post states. "Even messages that have been deleted." The message urges users to share the image, saying that it would "give notice to Instagram [that] it is strictly forbidden to disclose, copy, distribute, or take any other action" against anyone who reposted it... It's a similar hoax that has long made the rounds on Facebook that claims photos and other content will become property of the company unless users repost the message... But an Instagram spokesperson told CNN Business "there is no truth" to the viral meme.

The Pentagon said on Monday it had tested a conventionally configured cruise missile that hit its target after more than 500 km (310 miles) of flight, the first such test since the United States pulled out Cold War-era Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF).

U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper was asked in a Fox News Channel interview on Wednesday whether the test was aimed at sending a message to China, Russia or North Korea and indicated that the main concern was China...

If death is in the cards, it may also be in your blood...