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Anonymous ID: 64245f Sept. 28, 2020, 4:17 a.m. No.10819924   🗄️.is đź”—kun   >>9935

https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/australia/george-pell-to-fly-to-rome-as-a-friend-reveals-he-always-intended-to-return/ar-BB19uA3A

George Pell to fly to Rome as a friend reveals 'he always intended to return'

Cardinal George Pell is returning to Rome five months after a damning report was delivered by Australia’s child sexual abuse royal commission finding he was aware of children being sexually abused within the Catholic Church but failed to adequately act to prevent or stop it.

The Catholic News Agency reported Pell on Tuesday would fly to Rome where he formerly held the role as prefect of the Vatican’s Secretariat for the Economy, effectively making him the financial controller of the church. Pell has been living at the Archdiocese of Sydney since his acquittal by Australia’s high court in April on historical charges of sexual abuse.

“He always intended to return to Rome,” Katrina Lee, Pell’s close friend who is an executive adviser to the archdiocese, told Reuters. She confirmed a report in the Herald Sun on Monday which also said Pell would fly to Rome on Tuesday. Lee said she did not know how long he was going for or the aim of the trip.

A source in Rome told the Guardian that Pell could be visiting an educational institution in the city.

There were rumours Pell was to fly to Rome in April soon after his release from jail, but at the time Lee told Guardian Australia: “I don’t think anyone would choose to go to Italy for a holiday – or anything else – in the current Covid-19 crisis. Cardinal Pell is staying in Sydney.”

Pell was not removed from his position managing the Vatican’s finances after returning to Australia in 2017 to face child sexual abuse charges. But when his term expired on 24 February 2019 it was not renewed.

Pell had held the position since 2014 including when he was on trial. He stood aside from the role, however, while he faced the charges against him. He was acquitted of all charges in April 2020 and returned to Sydney after he was released from Barwon prison, located just outside of Melbourne, where he was incarcerated for 13 months.

Pell’s return to Rome follows the resignation on Friday of Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu following accusations of embezzlement, allegations he denies. In a statement to the Catholic News Agency, Pell praised the Pope and welcomed Beccui’s resignation, saying: “The Holy Father was elected to clean up Vatican finances. He plays a long game and is to be thanked and congratulated on recent developments.”

“I hope the cleaning of the stables continues in both the Vatican and Victoria,” Pell said.

Following his release from prison, Pell accused Victoria police of engaging in a witch-hunt against him during an interview with his friend, Andrew Bolt. According to a column written by Bolt for the Herald Sun on Monday: “Becciu last week vowed to prove his innocence, but now Pell returns, ostensibly to empty his Vatican apartment.”

According to Australian Border Force Covid-19 travel restrictions, international travel exemptions are being provided to those “providing critical skills in religious or theology fields”. Border force has been contacted for comment.

In May, more than 100 previously redacted pages of the findings from Australia’s child abuse royal commission inquiry relating to Pell and what he knew about child sexual abuse within the Catholic church were tabled to parliament. The tabling of the findings was delayed until Pell’s legal proceedings had ended so as not to prejudice the case.

The commission found Pell was aware of children being sexually abused within the Archdiocese of Ballarat by notorious paedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale and other priests, and that it was “implausible” that other senior church figures did not tell Pell abuse was occurring.

  • with Reuters

Anonymous ID: 64245f Sept. 28, 2020, 4:30 a.m. No.10819977   🗄️.is đź”—kun   >>9985 >>0158 >>0318

https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/otm/segments/rise-conspirituality-on-the-media

The Rise of "Conspirituality"

QAnon is a conspiracy theory stating that a shadowy cabal of politicians, billionaires, and celebrities is controlling the government in service of their pedophilic desires and harvesting a drug from children's fear — and that they're only stoppable by the heroism of Donald Trump. It's nonsense, and after it first appeared on 4chan messaging boards a few years ago, it mostly gained traction with denizens of the dark web and some evangelical Christians. But since the COVID lockdown began, it's started spreading to a new kind of believer — one that's more feminine and with a cleaner aesthetic, mostly brought in through Instagram. In this moment of growth, one community in particular has found itself prey to QAnon: the yoga, wellness, and spirituality world, where skepticism about vaccines has intersected with the rapid spread of disinformation online to create a toxic stew known as "conspirituality," a term popularized by a podcast of the same name that tracks the convergence of conspiracy theories and "faux-progressive wellness utopianism."

In this segment, OTM producer Leah Feder speaks with Travis View, host of the QAnon Anonymous podcast, who contextualizes this latest chapter in QAnon's spread, and Seane Corn, a yoga instructor and co-founder of Off the Mat, Into the World, about what she's been seeing in her community. She also speaks with Joseph Uscinski, professor of political science at the University of Miami, about why members of what appears to be a progressive community might be seduced by a seemingly right-wing conspiracy theory.

This is a segment from our September 25th, 2020 program, Spheres of Influence.

Anonymous ID: 64245f Sept. 28, 2020, 4:41 a.m. No.10820015   🗄️.is đź”—kun   >>0017 >>0093

>>10820000

nice digits

 

https://www.inquirer.com/news/christian-dunbar-philly-treasurer-arrest-charges-embezzlement-citizenship-fraud-20200925.html

Philly Treasurer Christian Dunbar fired after he is charged with faking marriage for citizenship, stealing money in prior job

Mayor Jim Kenney fired city Treasurer Christian Dunbar on Friday, minutes after federal authorities revealed he had been charged with fraudulently obtaining U.S. citizenship through a sham marriage and embezzling money from a prior job.

FBI agents arrested Dunbar, 40, earlier in the morning at the West Philadelphia home he shares with his wife, Fatoumata Ndiaye-Dunbar.

Federal prosecutors said that the couple secretly wed in a ceremony in Senegal in 2013, while Dunbar was legally married to another woman, a U.S. citizen he had met as a student at Temple University and had married seven years before.

The earlier spouse, who was not named, sponsored Dunbar, a Liberian immigrant, for a green card in 2009. They divorced shortly after he obtained citizenship in 2017.

Despite the seriousness of those allegations, U.S. Attorney William M. McSwain said Friday that Dunbar’s conduct in an earlier job as a financial adviser for Wells Fargo — where he had been accused of stealing $15,000 from two of his clients in 2016 — raised questions about his fitness to serve as city treasurer, a post Kenney appointed him to last year.

“It goes without saying that the duties [of Dunbar’s public role] require the treasurer to be a trustworthy public servant — someone who is honest beyond reproach,” McSwain said. “Unfortunately, the alleged conduct in this case reveals a pattern of dishonor, poor judgment and criminal behavior that spans many years.”

McSwain laid out those accusations at a news conference outside the federal courthouse in Philadelphia, just blocks away from Dunbar’s City Hall office, from which he oversaw the city’s $4 billion investment portfolio and managed city bank accounts, debt obligations, and the issuance of municipal bonds.

A spokesperson for the mayor said the city was not aware of the investigation at Wells Fargo when it offered Dunbar a job as a deputy treasurer in 2016. When confronted by the bank that year, Dunbar denied stealing anything, though prosecutors said Wells Fargo investigators substantiated the claims.

Dunbar remained in custody Friday evening, pending his first hearing next week. It was not clear from court records whether he had retained an attorney.

Anonymous ID: 64245f Sept. 28, 2020, 4:41 a.m. No.10820017   🗄️.is đź”—kun   >>0067 >>0099

>>10820015

News of his arrest triggered a swift downfall for a man who had escaped political turmoil and civil war in Liberia only to be named one of Philadelphia’s top financial officers and chairman of the board of a federally backed advisory firm aimed at increasing U.S. investment in Africa.

Dunbar has described himself as a descendant of Harriet Tubman and former Liberian President William V.S. Tubman. He shined at Temple, where he was the captain of the football team and vice president of the dance team before graduating in 2004.

It was there he met Fatoumata Ndiaye, a Senegalese national, who was also enrolled at the university.

“I knew I’d ask [her] to marry me within a day of meeting her,” he said in a profile highlighting his work in Africa earlier this year.

And yet, despite that apparent certainty, Dunbar married another Temple classmate — one with U.S. citizenship — two years after his graduation. Within days,Ndiaye wed one of Dunbar’s football teammates, allowing her to eventually apply for a green card as well. The same former Temple professor served as officiant for both weddings, according to the complaint filed in the case.

“The close timing of [both] marriage ceremonies, the fact that they were students at Temple University at the same time and the use of the same official to solemnize the marriage, suggests there was coordination among the parties," the filing said.

Though they were married to others, the Dunbars acted for years as man and wife, living at the same address on Sansom Street, signing their first child’s birth certificate as a married couple and listing each other as spouses on employment paperwork at their respective jobs, investigators said.

McSwain would not explain Friday why Ndiaye-Dunbar and the two others who had fraudulently married her and her husband had not been charged.

“The investigation is ongoing, as all of our investigations are,” he said. Ndiaye-Dunbar did not respond to calls to her residence.

Dunbar’s arrest makes him the second city treasurer to face federal criminal charges in recent years. Corey Kemp, who held the post under former Mayor John F. Street, went to prison for accepting bribes from a lawyer seeking business with the city.

But unlike in that case, Dunbar has not been accused of misconduct in his public role. And yet, two city offices have launched their own probes into his tenure as treasurer.

“I have asked Inspector General Alexander DeSantis to begin a thorough review of the City Treasurer’s Office during the time of Dunbar’s employment as both deputy treasurer and treasurer,” Kenney said in a statement Friday, hours after Dunbar’s arrest. “This review can help resolve any concerns about the office’s conduct and transactions during this period.”

Meanwhile, City Controller Rebecca Rhynhart had previously initiated a separate review into “financial matters” unrelated to the federal investigation, said a source familiar with that investigation who was not authorized to publicly discuss it.

If he is convicted of the federal charges, Dunbar could face up to 30 years in prison on the most serious count he faces.