Jeffrey Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre fighting for her life after car accident

Virginia Giuffre — whose story about being trafficked by Jeffrey Epstein as a teenager put her at the center of one of the biggest sex scandals in history — is fighting for her life following a car accident in Australia.

Giuffre, 41, on Sunday posted a graphic photo of herself from her hospital bed covered in bruises on Instagram, where she wrote doctors said she has four days to live, according to the post, which was first published by the British media.

“I’ve gone into kidney renal failure,” she said. “They have given me four days to live, transferring me to a specialist in urology. I’m ready to go, just not until I see my babies one last time…”

She said she was struck by a speeding bus after she tried to swerve her car to avoid the collision. She did not say when or where the crash happened.

Giuffre was among the first and most outspoken victims of Jeffrey Epstein to speak out about her abuse by Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell, Prince Andrew and several other prominent men. She later formed a nonprofit to educate and advocate for sex trafficking victims.

When she was in grade school, the family moved from California to Florida. At age 7, she was first molested by a family friend.

She began running away from home and later began working at Mar-a-Lago, the Palm Beach country club owned by President Donald Trump where her father was a maintenance supervisor.

In 2000, when she was 16, she met Maxwell, Epstein’s partner, while working as a spa attendant at the club. Giuffre was introduced by Maxwell to Epstein.

Among the people she said she was forced to have sex with was Prince Andrew, whom she later sued. The suit was settled in 2022 for an undisclosed sum, said to be in the millions, though Andrew denied that he was ever involved with Giuffre.

—Miami Herald

North Carolina bill would make it a crime to have some books in school libraries

Newly filed legislation would allow North Carolina public school librarians to be criminally prosecuted on charges that they’re providing library books that are “harmful to minors.”

The legislation comes as groups such as the N.C. Values Coalition and Moms for Liberty have been seeking legislation to subject public schools to the state’s obscenity laws. In 2023, the Wake County chapter of Moms for Liberty unsuccessfully filed 189 challenges to have 20 books removed from Wake County school libraries.

“We’re talking ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ or word-by-word instructional manuals for every kind of fetish that you can imagine for kids in school,” Julie Page, the Wake County chapter chair of Moms for Liberty at the time, claimed in a 2023 interview.

The 20 books in House Bill 595 often make annual lists of most-banned books due to their content. Some speakers have regularly shown up at school board meetings to read excerpts from books they say are too sexually explicit to be in school libraries.

Wake County school librarians have spoken at multiple school board meetings saying that students need to see themselves represented in a diverse selection of library books.

The Wake County school system has rejected all 189 challenges from Moms for Liberty on the grounds that they were not filed by parents at those schools. But some challenges made their way to the school board.

—The Charlotte Observer

FAA closes investigation into Blue Origin New Glenn booster failure

The Federal Aviation Administration said Monday that it will allow Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket to fly again, following a review of the January mishap in which the rocket made a successful debut launch but crashed during landing.

As is standard in such events, the FAA had grounded the rocket immediately after the accident while the Jeff Bezos-owned company investigated.

“The final mishap report identified the proximate cause of the mishap as an inability of New Glenn’s first stage to restart the engines, preventing a reentry burn from occurring, and resulting in the loss of the stage,” the FAA stated in a press release.

New Glenn launched Jan. 16 on the NG-1 mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Launch Complex 36 carrying a payload to orbit. Similar to how SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket first stages land on droneships stationed in the Atlantic, Blue Origin’s heavy-lift rocket is designed to be reused.

However, the first stage, which was named “So You’re Telling Me There’s a Chance,” didn’t make it to Blue Origin’s landing ship, with the booster debris falling into the ocean.

“Our review confirmed that all debris landed in our designated hazard area with no threat to public safety,” Blue Origin said in a statement.

The investigation found seven corrective actions to be taken before another New Glenn launches.

“We expect to return to flight in late spring and will attempt to land the booster again,” Blue Origin stated.

The FAA indicated it would verify the corrective actions are taken before the NG-2 mission takes flight, but said the rocket is cleared to fly again.

Bezos has been trying to join competitors SpaceX and United Launch Alliance with its powerful rocket. While it took years to make its debut flight, New Glenn made history becoming the first rocket from a commercial company to reach orbit on the initial try.

Companies like SpaceX, Rocket Lab, Virgin Orbit, Astra Space and Relativity Space all failed in that endeavor.

—Orlando Sentinel

US military confirms 3 missing soldiers in Lithuania are dead

RIGA, Latvia — After recovering a tank that had sunk metres deep in mud, the U.S. military has confirmed the deaths of three of four soldiers missing in Lithuania.

The search for the fourth soldier at the Pabradė military training area continues, the U.S. Army's European Command Headquarters in the German city of Wiesbaden said in a statement on Monday.

The four U.S. soldiers have been missing since last Tuesday. They could no longer be found after an exercise in which, according to the U.S., they were conducting planned tactical training.

The Lithuanian military and police then launched a joint search operation with the U.S. military.

The M88 Hercules armored recovery vehicle was later discovered at a depth of about 16 feet in a swampy area of the training ground.

After days of search efforts, the rescue teams managed to recover the heavy military vehicle in the early hours of Monday.

"The Soldiers we have lost in this tragedy were not just Soldiers - they were a part of our family. Our hearts are heavy with a sorrow that echoes across the whole Marne Division, both forward and at home," said Major General Christopher Norrie, the 3rd Infantry Division commanding general.

—dpa