Anonymous ID: 4166b4 March 10, 2020, 9:17 a.m. No.8368028   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>8268

https://apnews.com/a51a98b9c45fd54fa985d389675a57fa

 

Self-help guru requests new trial in sex-trafficking case

 

The leader of a cult-like self-improvement group that attracted heiresses and Hollywood actresses is requesting a new trial in his sex-trafficking case.

 

A jury convicted Keith Raniere in June on all counts of sex-trafficking and coercing women into sex. He and his lawyers filed a motion Monday in Brooklyn federal court for a new trial, arguing that two witnesses perjured themselves when they denied they were planning to sue him after the trial.

 

The two women who testified at Raniere’s trial are part of an 80-plaintiff lawsuit filed in January against Raniere and members of the group’s top leadership, according to the motion. Some plaintiffs claim they were recruited as sex slaves and were forced to have Raniere’s initials branded on their bodies.

 

NXIVM

 

Attorney Neil Glazer, who represents the two women, told the New York Post they did not initially intend to join the lawsuit but changed their minds after they saw how much evidence was revealed during the trial.

 

Raniere ran a once-thriving organization based in Albany, New York, called NXIVM, pronounced NEHK-see-uhm. Raniere was accused of turning his female devotees into his sex slaves through shame, punishment and nude blackmail photos.

 

His adherents included actress Allison Mack of TV’s “Smallville”; an heiress to the Seagram’s liquor fortune, Clare Bronfman; and a daughter of TV star Catherine Oxenberg of “Dynasty” fame.

 

Raniere is scheduled to be sentenced on April 16. He is set to receive a 15-year mandatory minimum sentence and could get up to life in prison.

Anonymous ID: 4166b4 March 10, 2020, 9:19 a.m. No.8368032   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>8082 >>8408 >>8493 >>8696 >>8721

https://apnews.com/ad7a3211dfc3b7454a8ba92058e1aa44

 

Dutch prosecutors: Russia wants to thwart MH17 investigation

 

SCHIPHOL, Netherlands (AP) — A Dutch prosecutor said Tuesday that there are “strong indications” Russia wants to undermine investigations into the downing of Malaysia Flight 17 and told judges at the trial of four suspects that many witnesses fear for their safety.

 

Prosecutor Thijs Berger made the statement on the second day of the trial of three Russians and a Ukrainian charged with the murder of all 298 passengers and crew killed when a missile shot down the Amsterdam-to-Kuala Lumpur flight on July 17, 2014. The suspects weren’t present.

 

Prosecutors allege that a Russian Buk missile shot down the flight from an agricultural field in a region of eastern Ukraine controlled by pro-Moscow rebel forces. Russia denies any involvement in the downing.

 

Prosecutors revealed that one witness in their case is a Russian volunteer with a separatist rebel group who was close to a crossroads in eastern Ukraine near where a Buk missile was fired on the day flight MH17 was downed.

 

The witness, identified only as M58, said that people present at the launch site were “initially pleased because they were told that a military transport plane had been shot down. However, when the first people returned from the crash site they said that it was a civilian aircraft,” prosecutor Dedy Woei-a-Tsoi said.

 

Berger told judges that there was evidence Russian intelligence agents attempted to hack into the computers of Malaysian and Dutch investigations into the downing of MH17.

 

“This information casts a dark shadow over these proceedings,” he said. “There are strong indications that the Russian government is very keen to thwart this investigation and that it is not averse to deploying the Russian security services to this end. These Russian security services have been accused of multiple murders in recent years committed in various European countries.”

 

Woei-a-Tsoi, told judges that “every effort will have to be made to hear witnesses safely.”

 

Prosecutors said Russian interference didn’t stop there and accused Moscow of attempting to hide the truth about what happened.

 

“The fate of flight MH17 has become known as a textbook example of a disinformation campaign by the Russian government,” Woei-a-Tsoi said. “It is clear we have not yet seen the end of it.”

 

In Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined comment on the trial, saying that Russia had not been involved in the international investigation.

 

Two days of hearings this week took stock of progress in the international investigation. The examination of evidence — likely including a visit to the wreckage of the plane that was pieced together in a hangar on a Dutch military base — could start later this year, or in 2021.

 

The case was adjourned Tuesday until March 23.

 

After years of investigations, an international team of investigators and prosecutors last year named four suspects: Russians Igor Girkin, Sergey Dubinskiy and Oleg Pulatov as well as Ukrainian Leonid Kharchenko. More suspects could face charges as the investigations continue.

 

None are attending the trial. Only Pulatov has Dutch lawyers representing him in court.

 

Pulatov’s lawyer Boudewijn van Eijck challenged the assertion that Russia could not be trusted.

 

“Now, if all that were to be true … I wonder why the Dutch authorities at the same time when it fits them ask for the cooperation of the Russian Federation,” he said.

 

About 20 family members were present in the courtroom for Tuesday’s hearings and more followed the case at a conference center near the central city of Utrecht via a video link.

 

Bryan and Lisa Clancy, flew from Australia to be present. Bryan lost his brother and sister-in-law in the downing of MH17.

 

“We’ve come here to try and make sure that justice is going to be followed and that the truth comes out as to what actually happened,” Bryan said.

Anonymous ID: 4166b4 March 10, 2020, 9:22 a.m. No.8368054   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>8100 >>8422 >>8493 >>8696 >>8721

https://apnews.com/65afea984ebc631c899a59bd004cb25b

 

US commander paints grim picture of Taliban peace deal

 

The top U.S. commander for the Middle East painted a grim picture of the peace process with the Taliban in Afghanistan, saying the current level of attacks is higher than allowed in the plan and he has no confidence the group will honor its commitments.

 

Marine Gen. Frank McKenzie told the House Armed Services Committee that he has plans to cut the number of troops to 8,600 by the summer, but so far the U.S. “has not developed military plans” for the full withdrawal in 14 months that is called for in the peace plan.

Anonymous ID: 4166b4 March 10, 2020, 9:23 a.m. No.8368061   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>8493 >>8696 >>8721

https://apnews.com/efadec98b12b2720ca83346279d8e565

 

White House confirms Trump not coming to Moscow for V-Day

 

MOSCOW (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump will not be coming to Moscow for Victory Day celebrations on May 9, the White House said Tuesday.

 

The White House confirmed that Trump has declined the Kremlin invitation to attend Russia’s Victory Day celebrations on the 75th anniversary of World War II victory — the nation’s most important holiday.

 

Trump said last year he appreciated the invitation, but wasn’t sure if he could go as the celebration falls “right in the middle of political season.”

 

The Kremlin confirmed receiving the White House note.

 

“Via diplomatic channels, we have received information that the (U.S.) president will not be coming,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Tuesday, adding that it remains unclear who will represent the U.S. on the Victory Day in Moscow.

Anonymous ID: 4166b4 March 10, 2020, 9:23 a.m. No.8368071   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>8078 >>8493 >>8696 >>8721

https://apnews.com/ac276854d2334219d9592e0eaac64df8

 

New Wells Fargo CEO: Issues will not resolve until 2021

 

The third chief executive of Wells Fargo in four years appeared in front of Congress on Tuesday, saying that there’s much the bank needs to do to fix its cultural problems, and isn’t expecting it to be done until 2021.

 

Charles Scharf took over the troubled bank late last year. He replaced Tim Sloan, who resigned in March only a couple of weeks after being lambasted by members of Congress in his own hearing.

 

Unlike Sloan, Scharf is an outsider, previously holding the jobs of CEO of Bank of New York Mellon and Visa. Since taking the job, Scharf has been candid that the bank still have much work to do and has been trying to resolve all of the bank’s legal problems.

 

“I am confident we can move this company in a significantly improved direction,” Scharf said.

 

Wells Fargo’s sales practices scandal is nearly four years old at this point, and the bank continues to remain mired in legal and regulatory trouble. The San Francisco-based company paid a $3 billion fine just last month for its illegal sales practices, on top of the roughly $1.2 billion in fines it had already paid. The bank remains under restrictions imposed by the Federal Reserve, not allowing Wells Fargo to grow any larger until its cultural problems are fixed.

 

Tuesday’s hearing is the first of two that Rep. Maxine Waters, chairwoman of the House Financial Services Committee, is holding this week. The hearing on Wednesday was supposed to involve two members of Wells Fargo’s board of directors, but those directors resigned on Sunday ahead of the scheduled hearing. Both Republicans and Democrats on the committee issued reports saying Wells’ board was too willing to look the other way as the sales practices problems continued to grow.

Anonymous ID: 4166b4 March 10, 2020, 9:29 a.m. No.8368111   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>8113 >>8564 >>8572

https://www.afp.com/en/news/15/london-man-second-patient-be-cured-hiv-doc-1pr3vt2

 

London man second patient to be cured of HIV

 

A second patient has been cured of HIV after undergoing stem cell transplant treatment, doctors said Tuesday, after finding no trace of infection 30 months after he stopped traditional treatment.

 

The so-called "London Patient", a cancer sufferer originally from Venezuela, made headlines last year when researchers at the University of Cambridge reported they had found no trace of the AIDS-causing virus in his blood for 18 months.

 

Ravindra Gupta, lead author of the study published in The Lancet HIV, said the new test results were "even more remarkable" and likely demonstrated the patient was cured.

 

"We've tested a sizeable set of sites that HIV likes to hide in and they are all pretty much negative for an active virus," Gupta told AFP.

 

The patient, who revealed his identity this week as Adam Castillejo, 40, was diagnosed with HIV in 2003 and had been on medication to keep the disease in check since 2012.

 

Later that year, he was diagnosed with advanced Hodgkin's Lymphoma, a deadly cancer.

 

In 2016 he underwent a bone marrow transplant to treat blood cancer, receiving stem cells from donors with a genetic mutation present in less than one percent of Europeans that prevents HIV from taking hold.

 

He becomes only the second person to be cured of HIV after American Timothy Brown, known as the "Berlin Patient", recovered from HIV in 2011 following similar treatment.

 

Viral tests of Castillejo's cerebral fluid, intestinal tissue and lymphoid tissue more than two years after stopping antiretroviral treatment showed no active infection.

 

Gupta said the tests uncovered HIV "fossils" – fragments of the virus that were now incapable of reproducing, and were therefore safe.

 

"We'd expect that," he said.

 

"It's quite hard to imagine that all trace of a virus that infects billions of cells was eliminated from the body."

Anonymous ID: 4166b4 March 10, 2020, 9:29 a.m. No.8368113   🗄️.is 🔗kun

>>8368111

ethical dilemma

 

Researchers cautioned that the breakthrough did not constitute a generalised cure for HIV, which leads to nearly one million deaths every year.

 

Castillejo's treatment was a "last resort" as his blood cancer would likely have killed him without intervention, according to Gupta.

 

The Cambridge doctor said that there were "several other" patients who had undergone similar treatment but who were less far along in their remission.

 

"There will probably be more but they will take time," he said.

 

Researchers are currently weighing up whether or not patients suffering from drug-resistant forms of HIV might be eligible for stem cell transplants in future, something Gupta said would require careful ethical consideration.

 

"You'd have to weigh up the fact that there's a 10-percent mortality rate from doing a stem-cell transplant against what the risk of death would be if we did nothing," he said.

 

Castillejo himself said that the experience had prompted him to come forward and identify himself in order to help spread awareness of HIV.

 

This is a unique position to be in, a unique and very humbling position,” he told The New York Times.

 

Sharon Lewin, an infectious disease expert at the University of Melbourne and member of the International AIDS Society, said Castillejo's case was "exciting".

 

"But we need to also place it in context – curing people of HIV via a bone marrow transplant is just not a viable option on any kind of scale," she said.

 

"We need to constantly reiterate the importance of, prevention, early testing and treatment adherence as the pillars of the current global response to HIV/AIDS."

Anonymous ID: 4166b4 March 10, 2020, 10:38 a.m. No.8368580   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>8588 >>8600

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/gender-neutral-passports-uk-british-christie-elan-cane-court-a9389786.html

 

People cannot define themselves as gender neutral on passports, court rules

 

A campaigner who wants passports to include a category for those who do not identify as male or female has lost a Court of Appeal challenge over gender neutral passports.

 

Christie Elan-Cane, who wants passports to include an “X” category for such individuals, believes the current UK passport policy infringes the right to privacy.

 

But senior judges dismissed the appeal, a decision Elan-Cane described as “devastating”.

 

The campaigner, who has been fighting for legal and social recognition for non-gendered identity for more than 25 years, added: ”It is bad news for everyone who cannot obtain a passport without the requirement imposed by the UK government that they should collude in their own social invisibility.

 

“Non-gendered people are treated as though we have no rights.”

Anonymous ID: 4166b4 March 10, 2020, 10:50 a.m. No.8368674   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>8686

https://www.wsj.com/articles/split-verdict-for-cia-programmer-charged-in-massive-leak-11583774050

 

Split Verdict Given for CIA Programmer Charged in Massive Leak

 

Jury finds Joshua Schulte guilty of false statements and contempt of court but deadlocks on whether he actually gave information to WikiLeaks

 

A federal jury couldn’t reach a verdict on whether a former software engineer for the Central Intelligence Agency was responsible for leaking a trove of classified documents to WikiLeaks, convicting him instead on lesser charges stemming from the leak.

Anonymous ID: 4166b4 March 10, 2020, 10:53 a.m. No.8368699   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>8707 >>8721 >>8746

>>8368686

https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/486650-jury-fails-to-decide-whether-former-cia-engineer-leaked-secrets-in

 

Jury fails to decide whether former CIA engineer leaked secrets in WikiLeaks case

 

A Manhattan federal judge declared a mistrial Monday after a jury was unable to decide whether to convict computer engineer Joshua Schulte on charges of leaking CIA materials to WikiLeaks.

 

While the jury was hung on eight counts, including illegal gathering and transmission of national defense information, jurors convicted him on charges of contempt of court and making false statements to the FBI, The New York Times reported.

 

The jury reportedly deliberated for six days, with one juror replaced after researching the case against the judge’s orders. She was never replaced, leaving 11 people to determine the final verdict.

Anonymous ID: 4166b4 March 10, 2020, 10:54 a.m. No.8368707   🗄️.is 🔗kun

>>8368699

>The New York Times reported

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/09/nyregion/cia-wikileaks-joshua-schulte-verdict.html

 

Trial of Programmer Accused in C.I.A. Leak Ends in Hung Jury

 

The judge declared a mistrial on the most serious charges against Joshua Schulte, who was accused of giving secret documents to WikiLeaks.

Anonymous ID: 4166b4 March 10, 2020, 10:55 a.m. No.8368713   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>8726

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/03/09/minor-convictions-ex-cia-coder-124552

 

Minor convictions for ex-CIA coder in hacking tools case

 

A former CIA software engineer accused of stealing a massive trove of the agency’s hacking tools and handing it over to WikiLeaks was convicted of only minor charges Monday, after a jury deadlocked on the more serious espionage counts against him.

 

Joshua Schulte, who worked as a coder at the agency’s headquarters in Langley, Virginia, was convicted by a jury of contempt of court and making false statements after a four-week trial in Manhattan federal court that offered an unusual window into the CIA’s digital sleuthing and the team that designs computer code to spy on foreign adversaries.