>>78626 pb
Royal Saudi AF HZ-101 737 landed at Paris-Le Bourget Airport from Riyadh departure earlier today.
tyb
yep
BOXER47 USAF C-40C inbound to JBA from Ramstein AFB after an arrival on 0731 from JBA
>>78607 pb
SAM014 USAF G5 departed Peterson AFB after ground stop and on descent for Richmond Int'l Airport, VA
from 2017
Saudi Prince bin Salman 'was mystery buyer' of $320m house
Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman was the mystery buyer of a luxury French house, according to reporting by the New York Times.
The newspaper says a paper trail from a 2015 purchase leads back to him through several shell companies. The house, near Versailles, has a wine cellar, a cinema and a moat with koi, sturgeon and an underwater chamber. It cost €275m ($320m, £240m) and Fortune magazine called it the world's most expensive house. The buyer was unknown at the time. But the New York Times reports that documents showed the house was owned by an investment company managed by Prince Mohammed's personal foundation. The Saudi government has declined to comment on the report.
A spokeswoman for the Saudi embassy in Washington accused New York Times journalists of "subjective reporting" and serving a "personal agenda". In recent months, Prince Mohammed has been leading an unprecedented drive against corruption and abuse of power and privilege in Saudi Arabia. He has had dozens of prominent Saudi figures, including princes, ministers and billionaires, locked up in Riyadh's five-star Ritz-Carlton hotel.
From the exterior, the Chateau Louis XIV appears to be a 17th-Century chateau, constructed in a similar style to the nearby palace at Versailles. On closer inspection, however, this is not the case: it was built after developer Emad Khashoggi demolished a 19th-Century building that had previously stood on the 57-acre (23-hectare) site and is modern inside. According to reports, its fountains and air conditioning, as well as lights and music, can be controlled by smartphone.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-42393148
>it was built after developer Emad Khashoggi demolished a 19th-Century building
Not the "journalist".....
Who is Emad Khashoggi?
It is the CV of the super-rich: born in Lebanon and educated at the Institut le Rosey in Switzerland (annual fee: £80,000); lived in the US and settled in France, where he stepped into his father Adil Khashoggi’s footsteps of developing ridiculously expensive property. He keeps famous company, knows a good deal of dodgy Russians, and he has recently relocated to the UK, prompting speculations of tax evasion.
Really, Emad Khashoggi is just your average rich kid. Except he is 50, and except his uncle was the world’s most notorious arms dealer, Adnan Khashoggi, who was very discreet over the last years of his life and passed away in June 2017. Adnan allegedly left a fortune to his clan, including Emad, whom he was reportedly particularly close to. Emad works for Adnan’s company Triad, mainly its luxury property subsidiary Cogemad.
This is where your average rich kid becomes a shady intermediary. Emad is assumed to sell supposed prestigious French properties to undesirables at exorbitantly exaggerated prices. One such client is the family of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi-Arabia. Adnan’s father, Mohammed, was King Abdul Aziz Al Saud’s personal physician, and the family connections enabled Adnan to carve his niche as Saudi’s chief weapons dealer, which at his peak gave him a net worth of $4bn.
Cogemad develops exactly the kind of temples of gaud that appeal to Middle Easterners as well as reality-TV stars and the “nouveau riche”. Emad’s crowning project was a new-built castle in Louveciennes, near Versailles, which is modelled in the style of the famous chateau. The picturesque town some 25 kilometres away from Paris has in its past attracted painters such as Auguste Renoir and Camille Pissarro and is littered with smaller castles that Louis XIV built for courtesans and the like. Its residents were aghast at its new-found fame when Emad bought a plot of land there and spent three years on the construction of the externally traditional, but internally gaudy palace. Auction house Christie’s pronounced the $200m-development “the most expensive private residence in the world” thanks to features such as a lounge under a fish tank, a cinema, huge wine cellar and “more gold leaf than Les Invalides”, as Emad boasted. It was good enough to be considered as a potential venue for Kim Kardashian and Kanye West’s wedding – a gold-plated knighthood in the world of vacuous celebrity.
While the Louveriennes project remains Emad’s peak, the Cogemad website lists a number of properties in the South of France currently available. Emad Khashoggi claims to build or renovate luxurious homes, often inspired by French history, and sells them on, mostly to foreigners from China, Russia and the Middle East. He has been noted to keep company in particular of a group of “Russian troublemakers”, as a source describes, who are a little too prominent in the South of France.
A slow property market and dubious company may have contributed to Emad Khashoggi’s decision to relocate to the UK. Or it may be the tax rate. Sources claim Emad is under investigation for tax fraud in France, while the UK’s tax arrangements are famously favourable to the rich.
Stuck between Hollywood types, Russian and Saudi “personae non grata”, it is assuring to know that hype seller Emad has found a quiet corner to retire to. Up until recently, he lived in the Rose Palace of Vésinet in Paris region, an address that has previously been inhabited by the Count Robert de Montesquieu. A Paris Match article says Emad had renovated the home tastefully. The article also shows images of a pink-light bar. Just your average rich kid after all.
https://realestatestories.home.blog/2019/02/09/who-is-emad-khashoggi/
U.S. Treasury decreases third-quarter borrowing estimate
The U.S. Treasury said on Monday it plans to borrow $673 billion in the third quarter, less than the May estimate of $821 billion, due to having a higher balance at the beginning of the quarter and lower outlays. The third-quarter estimate assumes an end-Sept. cash balance of $750 billion, the Treasury said in a statement. The Treasury has been cutting issuance since February, when it slashed its borrowing projections for the first and second quarters as part of a plan to reduce its cash balance. The Treasury said it issued $319 billion in net debt in the second quarter, ending the three-month period with a cash balance of $852 billion.
It expects to borrow $703 billion in the Oct. to Dec. quarter, assuming an end-of-December cash balance of $800 billion.
https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-treasury-borrowing/u-s-treasury-decreases-q3-borrowing-estimate-idUSL1N2P91T1
HAPPENING NOW: Maricopa County’s response to the Arizona Senate.
https://twitter.com/christina_bobb/status/1422323054429065217
>>14253847
credit
>>78382 pb
SAM987 USAF G5 departed Ted Stevens Int'l Airport after an overnight
See above linky for wut it did prior to arriving at Anchorage from Hickam AFB depart
NATE07US Navy E-6B Mercury appears after a wide berth outta Pax River earlier heading nw and off-shore
RCH614T USAF C-17 Globemaster departed NTTR (Nevada Test and Training Range) after about 2 hours on da ground and en.
Inbound from Pax River ground stop earlier today.
Started out at Charleston Int'l dis morning.
Last week the Sec. of Defense went to Tonopah which is just north of the NTTR
>>75698 pb E-4B “Doomsday Plane” Just Made A Highly Unusual Visit To Secretive Tonopah Test Range Airport