After the giddy optimism and excitement of pre-season comes the second and much more fun staging post of a football season. The widespread mass jerking of the knee. In some cases, this involves doubling down on the optimism. That’s fine, but also quite boring really. Happy people are enormously dull…
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Memo to VP Shettima: Northern Nigeria has no reasons to be poor through agriculture By Baba El-Yakubu Dear Mr. Vice President, Kashim Shettima, I watched your recent interview granted to the BBC Hausa. Your response to the Hunger Protests appeared sincere, genuine, and frank. My most important takeaway is your fervent desire to urgently convoke […]
The post Memo to VP Shettima: Northern Nigeria has no reasons to be poor through agriculture By Baba El-Yakubu appeared first on Economic Confidential…
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Winning election wouldn’t save Trump from massive fraud, defamation judgments
Winning election wouldn’t save Trump from massive fraud, defamation judgments
Trump’s widespread fraud and repeated defamation may still catch up to him, despite a string of legal breaks
Published August 31, 2024 10:43AM (EDT)
Republican presidential nominee, former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during the 2024 Joyful Warriors National Summit on August 30, 2024, in Washington, DC. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
A new analysis shows that Donald Trump may still be on the hook for the half a billion dollars in judgments levied against him in his civil fraud and for defamation cases.
The sums — an estimated $475 million from a ruling that Trump illegally inflated his net worth on his taxes for decades, and $88 million from defaming writer E. Jean Caroll, who he was found to have sexually abused by a jury — will be due whether or not he wins the presidential election in November.
The analysis, conducted by The Washington Examiner, claims Trump could stand to lose 15% of his supposed $4.2 billion net worth through the judgments. The truth of Trump’s net worth is in doubt, however. Much of the former president’s net worth is tied up in shares of his Trump Media, the parent company of the Truth Social platform. That stock has rapidly shed value in recent months and Trump is prohibited from selling his shares before Sept. 25.
“It would be this kind of crazy thing unfolding with the lawyers collecting and trying to garner his real estate or, you know, take the classic sort of collection action against a president,” Case Western Reserve law professor Kevin McMunigal told the conservative newspaper.
Trump is currently appealing his civil fraud case in New York, having posted a massive bond of $175 million in April.
The appeals process makes a pre-election payment due date is unlikely. The Examiner notes that oral arguments are not expected in his fraud case until late September.
Once the epicenter of the formerly successful businessman’s real estate empire, New York has been one of the only municipalities to successfully hold Trump accountable for his crimes. In May, a Manhattan jury found Trump guilty of falsifying business records in an attempt to conceal hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels amid his first presidential campaign.
What’s the big mystery behind the Shroud of Turin?
For centuries, debate has raged over whether the Shroud of Turin is in fact the original burial shroud of Jesus Christ after his crucifixion about 2,000 years ago. While many believe it to be the real thing, others have dismissed it as a medieval fake.
One of the most researched artefacts in history, the shroud has fascinated historians in part because of the debate about its true age but mostly because of the unexplained image of a crucified man that appears to be imprinted upon it.
This week, the results of a new investigation into the age of the shroud, which seem to show strong evidence that it does date back to the time of Jesus Christ, have thrown the artefact into the headlines once again.
Here’s more about the Shroud of Turin and the mystery behind it:
What is the Shroud of Turin?
The shroud is a 4.3-by-1.2-metre (14-by-4ft) linen cloth, also called the Holy Shroud, bearing a faint image of a man. Many believe this to be an image of Jesus Christ after his execution and view the fabric as an important religious relic.
The first record of the shroud was in 1354 when the cloth was discovered in medieval France. It was presented to the dean of the church in Lirey in north-central France by a knight named Geoffroi de Charny, who claimed it was the shroud that was wrapped around Jesus after his crucifixion. There is no record of where or how de Charny acquired the shroud.
In 1389, however, the bishop of Troyes, Pierre d’Arcis, denounced the shroud as a forgery. The story goes that the bishop claimed an artist had confessed to its forgery so the bishop wrote to Pope Clement VII to denounce it. The pope’s response was to declare the shroud a man-made religious icon rather than a relic and permitted the church in Lirey to continue to display it.
In 1453, it is understood that the House of Savoy, an Italian royal family, acquired the shroud and moved it to a chapel in Chambery (now part of France), where it was damaged in a fire in 1532. The Savoy family moved it to their capital of Turin, Italy, in 1578.
Debate about the authenticity of the shroud has raged since. In the late 20th century, scientists found pollen on the fibres of the shroud that were consistent with pollen found in Jerusalem, according to Flora of the Shroud of Turin, the 1999 book by botanist Avinoam Danin. This was, until now, the most compelling evidence that it may have been the shroud of Jesus.
Where is the Shroud of Turin now?
The shroud has been in the Cathedral of St John the Baptist in Turin, Italy, for the past four centuries.
Where does the image of the man come from?
The markings on the shroud resembling a man have become the main focus of the mystery as scientists have tried for decades to determine how they may have been made.
There is no conclusive answer yet about the how the image came to be imprinted on the fabric, but there have been many theories:
- In 1978, an international team of experts tried and failed to work out how the image might have been formed. This investigation was carried out under the Shroud of Turin Research Project. The project did find that the image is not a painting because the team found no remnants of dye or pigment.
- Raymond Rogers of the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico suggested in 2002 that the image may have been formed as a result of a chemical reaction between the fabric and the body wrapped within it.
- In 2014, a research article speculated that the image was made on the shroud by radiation after an earthquake.
- Bloodstains on the shroud were tested and found to be the AB blood type, according to a research article by a team from the Spanish Centre of Sindonology published in 2015.
- Some people have speculated that the image is a kind of primitive photography because it resembles a negative.
What have scientists learned more recently about the shroud?
The latest study was conducted by Italian scientist Liberato De Caro, who began his research in 2019 and published his findings in a journal called Heritage in 2022. It is unclear why they have come to light internationally only now.
De Caro and his team from the Institute of Crystallography in Bari, Italy, part of the National Research Council, used a technique known as wide-angle X-ray scattering to analyse the shroud’s linen.
“The experimental results are compatible with the hypothesis that the Turin Shroud is a 2,000-year-old relic,” the study said.
However, further study and analysis are required to verify the precise date of origin of the shroud, and further X-ray analysis will be required, it concluded.
Why is the shroud so hard to date?
In 1989, scientists tried to determine the shroud’s age using radio carbon dating and estimated that the shroud dated back to between 1260 and 1390 AD, casting doubt over the authenticity of the artefact.
However, textiles such as the shroud have been exhibited in museums and churches for centuries and could have become contaminated, producing a wrong reading from the carbon dating, Giulio Fanti, professor of mechanical and thermal measurements in the Department of Industrial Engineering at Italy’s Padua University, wrote in an article published this year.
The Apprentice: Everything We Know About the New Donald Trump Movie
Well, folks, it happened: A movie about Donald Trump is imminent. I wish I was surprised, but I am absolutely not. The former president will get the silver-screen treatment in The Apprentice, which depicts his life in the ’80s (aka before he became the first person to run for president while being charged in four criminal cases). According to The Hollywood Reporter, the film is due out in theaters October 11—just before the election.
Written by longtime Vanity Fair political correspondent Gabriel Sherman, The Apprentice stars Sebastian Stan as Trump and Jeremy Strong as his mentor, Roy Cohn. The Apprentice premiered at the Cannes Film Festival this past May and received largely positive responses from critics. However, Dan Snyder, former owner of the Washington Commanders and a key investor via Kinematics, was not pleased.
Some context: Snyder is Trump’s friend—he donated $1.1 million to his 2016 campaign and $100,000 to his 2020 campaign. He also poured money into The Apprentice, thinking the movie would depict his buddy in a positive light. After seeing the film, lawyers from Kinematics briefly worked toward shutting it down—however, Kinematics president Emanuel Nuñez insisted the legal action doesn’t involve Snyder. “All creative and business decisions involving The Apprentice have always been and continue to be solely made by Kinematics,” he said. “Mark and I run our company without the involvement of any other third parties.”
Neither Snyder nor Kinematics was able to halt the film’s release. Kinematics’ financial interest in the film was eventually bought out by Briarcliff Entertainment, the home of several recent Liam Neeson films, including Memory, Marlowe, and Blacklight. Now The Apprentice is gearing up for a preelection awards push.While we wait to learn more, here’s everything we know about The Apprentice so far.
What Is The Apprentice About?
The film reportedly covers Trump’s 30s, including his relationship with Roy Cohn and marriage to his first wife, Ivana (played by Maria Bakalova). According to the logline, it is “a story about the origins of a system … featuring larger-than-life characters and set in a world of power and ambition.”
Additionally, The Apprentice “delves into a profound exploration of the ascent of an American dynasty. It meticulously charts the genesis of a zero-sum culture, one that accentuates the dichotomy between winners and losers, the dynamics between the mighty and the vulnerable, and the intricate psychology of persona.” Dramatic!
Why Is Dan Snyder Mad Again?
It’s not just because he lost his football team. Variety reports that Snyder read an early version of the screenplay and provided feedback on what he wanted to change. Surely those notes were ignored, because he was said to be furious after watching the first cut in February. Apparently, a key issue he has concerns a scene in which Trump assaults Ivana. An insider called the footage “violent” and “uncomfortable.” Ivana accused Trump of rape in 1989, but in 2015 she refuted the claims.
Has Donald Trump Seen The Apprentice?
It appears that Trump has not seen the film, but that hasn’t prevented his team from trying to get ahead of the press. His campaign representative Steven Cheung said the former president would file a lawsuit to address the “blatantly false assertions from these pretend filmmakers.” Yikes. “This garbage is pure fiction which sensationalizes lies that have long been debunked,” Cheung added.
Despite the pushback, director Ali Abbasi plans to offer Trump a private screening. Hopefully, he’ll have the former president’s comfort meal handy—that’s two Big Macs, two Filet-O-Fish, and a chocolate shake, in case you forgot. It sounds like he’s going to need it.
Netflix’s ‘Kaos’ Star Rakie Ayola: I’d Vote for Jill Stein over Kamala Harris
Netflix’s Kaos star Rakie Ayola said that while she hopes Vice President Kamala Harris wins the 2024 presidential election against former President Donald Trump, she would vote for Green Party candidate Jill Stein over Harris. The actress added that she has “a great issue” with the Biden-Harris administration, and that she doesn’t think the United States is “ready for a female president.”
“I’d say truthfully, no, I don’t think the U.S. is ready for a female president, but that doesn’t mean they won’t vote for one. That doesn’t mean that people won’t vote for [Harris],” Ayola, who is Welsh and can’t vote in the United States, told Newsweek.
The Pact actress went on to say that “Maybe new things, innovative things, progressive things only ever happen when we’re not ready for them,” but added, “Maybe by their very nature, they can’t — if we’re too comfortable, we just stick with what we have.”
“I hope that Kamala Harris wins over Trump. But, you know, I’m not there to vote. Is the U.S. ready for that to happen? Not at all,” Ayola said.
“But then the U.S. wasn’t ready for [Barack] Obama and the reaction to him was everything that’s happened since in terms of where politics has swung,” she added. “So I’d say I hope she wins, but then I’d also say, ‘Buckle up, everybody, because it’s going to be a bumpy ride.’”
Ayola also noted that if she were in the United States and able to vote, “I’d be voting for Jill Stein.”
Matt Perdie / Breitbart News
“But I’d also know that that would be a protest vote,” the No Offence actress said, adding that she has “a great issue with [Harris] and [Joe] Biden.”
Alana Mastrangelo is a reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on Facebook and X at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.
2024 Belt and Road Journalists Forum to Be Held in Chongqing, Business News
CHONGQING, China, Aug. 25, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — A news report from iChongqing. The monorail train passing through residential buildings is a hot spot in Chongqing. (Photo/cqnews.net) The 2024 Belt and Road Journalists Forum and media field trips will be held in Chongqing from August 26 to September 1. Since 2017, it has been held six
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