Month: October 2019

(Adds details from FT interview, background) Oct 13 (Reuters) – Russian Economy Minister Maxim Oreshkin said the country is considering alternatives to the U.S. dollar for energy transactions and is exploring currency settlements in euros and roubles for energy exports to minimise U.S. exposure. “We have a very good currency, it’s stable. Why not use…

Kate Briquelet, Pilar MelendezOctober 12, 2019 Billionaire Bill Gates, who has repeatedly minimized his ties to Jeffrey Epstein, visited the convicted sex offender multiple times in the years after Epstein was released from prison, according to a New York Times investigation published Saturday. Gates, the Microsoft co-founder, and Epstein met repeatedly starting in 2011, including at least…

In 2000, Virginia Giuffre was a 16-year-old junior staffer at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida when her life changed forever. That year, she was recruited by Ghislaine Maxwell to work for Jeffrey Epstein, a multimillionaire with many celebrity and political friends. Guiffre says the pair groomed her and forced her to have sex with…

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images Since Jeffrey Epstein was arrested on charges of sex trafficking of minors and conspiracy in July, billionaire Bill Gates has downplayed his relationship with the late financier.  Now, contrary to Gates’ assertion last month that he and Epstein “didn’t have any business relationship or friendship,” The New York Times reports that the…

At least four national security officials flagged to a White House lawyer their concerns about the Trump administration’s political dealings with Ukraine – even before President Donald Trump’s July phone call with that country’s president, according to The Washington Post. Official warnings to National Security Council legal adviser John Eisenberg were issued earlier than what…

WASHINGTON – House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that President Donald Trump has become a “potty-mouth” during a conference call to Democratic lawmakers on Thursday that included talk about the impeachment inquiry, according to a congressional aide. “One thing, I do want to say is that, POTUS – you know, that’s the President – POTUS has become a potty-mouth…

Key point: Like the Soviet Union, Russia knows that aircraft carriers are force multipliers for the U.S. military. In the event of World War II, the Soviet Union planned to go after the U.S. Navy’s fleet of aircraft carriers in a big way. The carriers were a flexible and powerful weapon that could operate at…

(Bloomberg) — Vietnam’s economic expansion this year may exceed the higher end of an official estimate, President Nguyen Phu Trong said. Growth may be more than 6.8%, and gross domestic product may surpass $266 billion, Trong said in a government statement on Sunday. That compares with the official 6.6% to 6.8% range forecast. Vietnam’s 2019…

PELHAM, N.H. (AP) — The Latest on the shooting at a New Hampshire church (all times local): 7:05 p.m. The New Hampshire attorney general’s office says a man has been charged in a shooting that took place during a wedding ceremony. Thirty-seven-year-old Dale Holloway has been charged on Saturday with purposely and knowingly causing bodily…

In a partial reversal, video game giant Activision Blizzard reduced the suspension length of a professional gamer after he expressed support for Hong Kong pro-democracy protesters, and it has restored previously revoked winnings to the player. On Tuesday, the company suspended Chung Ng Wai for a year and revoked all his winnings — approximately $3,000…