(NewsNation) — Alex Murdaugh is being charged with the murder of his wife and son, but the murders are just one element of a sprawling network of reported lies, fraud and mysterious deaths surrounding the family.

So, who are the major figures in the center of the case that shocked a small South Carolina town?

Alex Murdaugh

Formerly a prominent lawyer, Alex Murdaugh was part of the Murdaugh family which held a position of prominence and power in Hampton County, South Carolina after his ancestor established a law practice there in 1910. Alex Murdaugh served as a personal injury lawyer and a volunteer prosecutor until he was disbarred in 2022.

The 54-year-old and his family lived on a large estate and have been accused of receiving special treatment for incidents involving Alex Murdaugh and his sons.

The family has been connected to several mysterious deaths, and Alex Murdaugh has been charged with financial crimes including embezzlement, fraud, and tax evasion.

Alex Murdaugh faces 19 indictments and 99 financial charges related to crimes including money laundering, insurance fraud, forgeries and tax evasion. Trials for the financial crimes have been postponed due to the murder trial.

Alex Murdaugh is also accused of hiring a man to shoot him in the head as part of an insurance fraud scheme.

Alex Murdaugh is set to stand trial for the murder of his wife and son.

Maggie Murdaugh

Maggie Murdaugh met her husband at the University of South Carolina where she was part of a sorority. Friend and family remembered her as a happy and upbeat woman and the loving mother of her two sons, Buster and Paul.

Some sources said the Murdaughs were having a rough patch in their marriage prior to Maggie Murdaugh’s death and she was staying at the family’s beach house. Alex Murdaugh allegedly sent her a text message asking to meet at the family’s hunting lodge before her death.

On June 7, 2021 Maggie Murdaugh and her younger son Paul were found dead at that property. Recently released forensic reports say she was found face-down, having been shot five times. Two of the shots were reportedly fired while she was standing and the fatal shot was to her head.

Buster Murdaugh

Richard “Buster” Murdaugh is the oldest and only surviving son of Alex and Maggie Murdaugh.

Buster was accused of buying alcohol for his younger brother, Paul, before a fatal boating accident involving Mallory Beach.

Buster Murdaugh’s name has also been raised in connection with the mysterious death of Stephen Smith, a former high school classmate.

Buster Murdaugh has remained out of the public spotlight in the leadup to the trial.

Paul Murdaugh

Paul Murdaugh was 22-years-old when he was killed. The youngest Murdaugh son, he had previously been involved in a fatal boat crash that included underage drinking. Charges against him were officially dropped.

An ex-girlfriend said the Murdaughs knew Paul Murdaugh abused alcohol and even bought it for him while he was underage.

Paul Murdaugh had previous citations for underage drinking as well as a previous boating citation.

Forensic reports show Paul Murdaugh was shot twice with a shotgun, once through the chest and once through the head. He was found lying face-down in the basement of the family’s property along with his mother.

Stephen Smith

Stephen Smith was a nursing student found dead on the road in South Carolina in 2015. The incident was declared a hit and run though Stephen Smith’s family and some accident investigators believe it was a homicide.

Rumors circulated that Smith, who was gay, was having a secret relationship with Buster Murdaugh. Members of the Murdaugh family were allegedly among those first on scene after Stephen Smith’s body was found.

Stephen Smith’s death is still considered an open case and is under investigation, with renewed attention since Alex Murdaugh’s arrest.

Gloria Satterfield

Gloria Satterfield was a housekeeper and nanny for the Murdaugh family and had worked for them for more than 20 years, helping to raise the Murdaugh sons.

Satterfield died after an accident at the Murdaugh home in 2018. The family said she was at the top of the stairs when a dog jumped on her, causing her to trip and fall.

The case into her death was reopened after it was linked to an insurance fraud scheme run by Alex Murdaugh.

Her two sons settled with Alex Murdaugh after they failed to receive any money from a wrongful death lawsuit they filed. That case also led to a confession of judgement from Alex Murdaugh, which resulted in him being disbarred.

Mallory Beach

Mallory Beach was a teenager who died after an accident on the Murdaugh family’s boat. Underage drinking and high speeds were implicated when the boat crashed into a bridge and Beach went missing.

The 19-year-old’s body was found a week later.

Beach’s family sued the Murdaughs but the case was settled.

Curtis Smith

Curtis Smith (no known relation to Stephen Smith) was arrested in connection with an insurance fraud scheme involving Alex Murdaugh.

A few months after the deaths of Maggie and Paul Murdaugh, Alex Murdaugh was shot in the head while changing a tire on his vehicle.

The wound was superficial and Curtis Smith was arrested. Investigators said Alex Murdaugh provided Curtis Smith with the gun used and hired Curtis Smith to kill him, in an attempt to ensure his son would receive insurance benefits after his death.

Jury selection in the Murdaugh trial begins on Jan. 23.

We are all acquainted with the seven deadly sins. They are: Pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath and sloth. And Donald Trump has at various times displayed signs of possessing all of them. But as of late, it is one particular sin that he has displayed. And that is the sin of envy.

Out of all the seven sins, envy is at the heart of Trump’s nature, in my opinion. His mind seems that of a child who points at something in a store and says, “I want that!” The eternal envy of Donald Trump is unending and always will be. It has nowhere to go to stop its spillage; it cannot be reasoned with. It is ubiquitous and will always be so. That’s just the way it is.

And in Trump’s peripheral vision is the golden sun of all his frustrations and jealousies. This is the one who he obsesses about most, whom he covets, whom he perhaps curses because as Trump is as dark as Hades, this one in his vision is as Golden as Apollo’s sun.

It is former President Barack Obama. Obama is everything Trump always wished he could be but isn’t. Obama is a great man, a stunning orator, and incorruptible. And Trump has always coveted everything about Obama.

That might be why, in a stunning display of foolhardiness even by Trump standards, Trump reached out to get Jack Smith’s attention. Writing on truth social, Trump implored smith to turn the focus of his investigation to — Barack Obama.

See? See the glorious array of foolishness envy can cause. Even now, even while his FREEDOM is on the line — still, Trump cannot stop thinking about Obama. Trump actually asked to know why Jack Smith is not looking into Obama. The fact that there is no reason to look to Obama seems not to matter to him.

As envy scuttled out from its dark hiding place, it began to crawl up the insurrectionist, sinking its teeth into the man who, by this time, was ballooning with envy. Trump lost it entirely on truth social, demanding subpoenas and accusing Jack Smith of working for “Marxist Democrat friends.”

The outburst was astonishing. In Michael Cohen’s book, “Disloyal: a memoir” he talks about how Trump once hired a “Faux” Obama to play the former president in a video in which Trump screamed at and insulted him. This is a story of Trump, a man who has no sense of self, no core, and no future except misery. And it’s a story of envy, and it’s warped consequences.

The post Donald Trump has stunningly unhinged meltdown appeared first on Palmer Report.

Germany will not “stand in the way” of Poland sending Leopard tanks to Ukraine; Russia claims more progress in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region

• See all our Russia-Ukraine war coverage

Germany will not “stand in the way” of Poland sending Leopard tanks to Ukraine, foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, said, in what appeared to be the clearest signal yet from Berlin that European allies could deliver the German-made hardware. Asked in an interview with French television station LCI what would happen if Poland sent its Leopard 2 tanks without German approval, Baerbock replied through a translator: “For the moment the question has not been asked, but if we were asked we would not stand in the way.”

German chancellor Olaf Scholz promised that Germany will “continue to support Ukraine – for as long and as comprehensively as necessary”, adding: “Together, as Europeans – in defence of our European peace project.” Germany’s new defence minister, Boris Pistorius, plans to visit Ukraine soon, he told a German newspaper.

Scholz said future decisions on weapons deliveries will be made in coordination with allies, including the United States. Under pressure to allow the shipment of German-made tanks to Ukraine, the chancellor said that all weapons deliveries to Ukraine so far have taken place in close coordination with western partners.

Poland announced it is ready to deliver 14 Leopard tanks to Kyiv but is waiting for “a clear statement” from Berlin, in comments made before German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock’s interview. Poland’s prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, criticised Germany’s failure to supply tanks to Ukraine. “Germany’s attitude is unacceptable. It has been almost a year since the war began. Innocent people are dying every day,” he said.

Former UK prime minister Boris Johnson made a surprise visit to Ukraine, where he said that it was “the moment to double down and to give the Ukrainians all the tools they need to finish the job”. Downing Street said Rishi Sunak is “supportive” of Boris Johnson’s visit, despite warnings that it would undermine the current prime minister’s authority.

French president Emmanuel Macron said on Sunday he does not rule out the possibility of sending Leclerc tanks to Ukraine. “As for the Leclercs, I have asked the defence ministry to work on it. Nothing is excluded,” he said while speaking at a summit with German chancellor Scholz.

Russia claimed to have made advances in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region. After months of stalemate in the south-eastern region, Moscow-installed officials say the front is now “mobile” while the Ukrainian army reported that 15 settlements had come under artillery fire. “During offensive operations in the direction of Zaporizhzhia, units of the eastern military district took up more advantageous ground and positions,” the defence ministry said on Sunday.

Zelenskiy has vowed Ukraine will not tolerate corruption and promised forthcoming key decisions on uprooting it this week. “I want this to be clear: there will be no return to what used to be in the past, to the way various people close to state institutions or those who spent their entire lives chasing a chair used to live,” he said in his nightly video address. The EU has made anti-corruption reforms one of its key requirements for Ukraine’s membership to the bloc, after granting Kyiv candidate status last year.

Norway’s army chief has estimated 180,000 Russian troops have been killed or wounded in over the course of the conflict, while the figure for the Ukrainians is 100,000 military casualties and 30,000 dead civilians. Norwegian chief of defence Eirik Kristoffersen gave the figures in an interview with TV2, without specifying how the numbers were calculated. The figures cannot be independently verified.

Continue reading…

Many of you know former Republican Speaker of the House Joseph G. Cannon without even knowing why. At the twilight of his political career, Cannon’s grizzled face was the first to adorn the inaugural issue of TIME Magazine, March 3rd, 1923. A powerful figure of his era, he’s otherwise relatively obscure today, but he is known historically for one other reason as well. In 1910 he was the first Speaker of the US House of Representatives to be thwarted by a little known American parliamentary procedure known as the discharge petition.

Usually there are two ways to bring a bill before the House of Representatives for a vote. The first is for the bill to be recommended by a committee. The second is for the bill to be brought to the floor by the Speaker. A discharge petition, on the other hand, is a rarely used means of getting around all that by bringing a bill out of committee, past the Speaker of the House and on to the floor for consideration. All that is required is a simple majority of 218 members.

Ladies and gentlemen, meet the new Speaker of the House — and it’s not Kevin McCarthy and it’s not Marjorie Taylor Greene. The new Speaker is the Discharge Petition. That’s right, Kevin McCarthy, the weakest Speaker of the House in recent memory, isn’t needed any more. The people of the United States and their best interests are once again going to be served. The discharge petition has got this, and it will remove much of what’s left of the impotent new Speaker’s power.

The discharge petition procedure was originally crafted to allow a majority of the House to force action on a bill that the Speaker or key committees aren’t holding a House floor vote on. For example, if McCarthy won’t allow a vote on a “clean” debt ceiling increase bill, 218 members of the House can sign a discharge petition forcing such a vote — and, since that’s a majority, that bill would undoubtedly pass.

What’s more, next month Virginia’s 4th congressional district will hold a special election for its vacant Democratic seat. It’s in a distinctly blue territory, so it’s going to almost certainly be filled by a Democrat. Which means after that election, only five Republicans would have to join 213 Democrats to make a discharge petition succeed. Those five will probably be very easy to find.

Kevin McCarthy may be the de jure Speaker, but the discharge petition, deftly wielded in the hands of Democrats in the 118th Congress, will be the de facto Speaker. Once again the American system has triumphed. Or, as Joseph G. Cannon was fond of saying, “America is one hell of a success.”

I don’t know what we’ll need Kevin for, really. Cleaning the toilets? Yes, that would make him useful — for a change. And, as ever, ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters, comrades and friends, stay safe.

The post Discharging Kevin McCarthy appeared first on Palmer Report.

A Ukrainian paratrooper takes shelter in a trench from a BM-21 Grad multiple rocket launcher attack on July 5,2022 in Seversk, Ukraine.

Laurent van der Stockt/Getty Images

• The conflict in Ukraine has emerged as the first major war involving drone use on both sides.
• Experts say that drones have made artillery even more lethal, and are changing the face of warfare.
• The debate over whether drones would matter in a conventional war is now over, one expert said.

Trench warfare, relentless artillery, gains measured in mere meters, and heavy casualties on both sides. The battlefields of Ukraine resemble those of World War I, but with a new and terrifying reality — the incessant buzzing of drones, harbingers of death and destruction that are constantly watching from above. 

The Ukraine war has essentially become “World War I with 21st century ISR [Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance],” Mark Cancian, a retired US Marine Corps colonel and senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told Insider.

Ukrainian soldiers work in their artillery unit in the direction of Marinka, 15 January 2023.

Diego Herrera Carcedo/Getty Images

Ukrainian soldiers in a trench on the Vuhledar frontline in Donetsk oblast, 5 January 2023.

Diego Herrera Carcedo/Getty Images

Both Ukraine and Russia have used drones of all shapes and sizes to spy on each other and to strike targets on a scale that’s never been seen before, and it’s changing the face of warfare. Drones are being used to locate enemy positions and direct fire, crash into and destroy buildings in “kamikaze” attacks, and drop bombs on tanks.

With much of the fighting occurring in rural areas with large open fields that are often dangerous to cross — a modern equivalent of WWI’s horror-filled “No Man’s Land” — drones have proven to be an extremely useful and deadly tool. Both sides are using drones equipped with cameras or other sensors that offer a livestream that can be watched on a laptop or digital tablet to scout out the enemy and coordinate attacks from afar.

Drones have played an important role in adjusting artillery fire and confirming that targets were hit or destroyed. They’re an eye in the sky on the battlefield in Ukraine that’s making artillery even deadlier.

—Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (@RFERL) December 30, 2022

“Unmanned systems have been used in greater and greater numbers in conflicts over the last decade, but the Ukraine war took it to a new level. But it is not just about the numbers, but the type of war. Up to last year, there was an active debate as to whether drones could play a role in conventional war, instead of just missions like Afghanistan,” P.W. Singer, a leading expert on modern warfare and senior fellow at the New America think tank in Washington, told Insider.

“That debate is now over,” Singer added. 

‘The future of warfare’

Ukrainian servicemen fly a drone on the outskirts of Bakhmut, eastern Ukraine on December 30, 2022.

Sameer Al-Doumy/Getty Images

Unmanned aerial vehicles, commonly known as drones, have been used in various capacities in warfare for generations. Some researchers point to Austria’s use of pilotless hot-air balloons to bomb Venice in 1849 as the first example.

The US began developing unmanned aircraft as far back as World War I. Remotely piloted aircraft were used for surveillance during the Cold War, and unmanned technology gradually advanced over the 20th century. By the late 1990s, Predator drones were being used by the US and NATO for reconnaissance missions in the Kosovo War.

But it was the onset of the war on terror that saw the use of drones rise exponentially and move away from primarily being employed for reconnaissance. In the years since the 9/11 terror attacks, the US military and CIA have used drones for the surveillance and targeted killings of suspected terrorists in places like Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, and Yemen.

Armed drones have also been used in other conflicts, including in fighting between Azerbaijan and Armenia. Drones have become increasingly attractive to militaries worldwide as the technology has advanced and gotten cheaper. These systems can gather intelligence and execute missions that might otherwise risk the life of a pilot and cost less than building a traditional air force.

The war in Ukraine, however, marks the first time that we’ve seen drones employed in a conflict involving major powers and modern armies on both sides and used so “extensively and over an extended period of time,” Cancian said.

Ukraine has in many ways emerged as a guinea pig for drone warfare. A wide array of unmanned aerial vehicles produced everywhere from the US to China and from Turkey to Iran have been used in battle.

In the early days of the fighting, Ukraine saw success using the Turkish-made Bayraktar TB2 drone to rain hell from above on key Russian assets like armored vehicles. A Bayraktar — which has a range of 186 miles, is the size of a small plane, and is capable of carrying laser-guided bombs — was involved in the attack that sank the Moskva, the flagship of Russia’s Black Sea fleet.

The Turkish-made Bayraktar TB2 drone has been a key instrument used by the Ukrainian military to repel Russian forces.

Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

Later in the war, Russia began launching swarms of Iranian-made Shahed-136 “kamikaze” drones, striking targets across Ukraine. The Shahed-136 is a loitering munition — designed to linger or loiter before locating a target and crashing into it. It’s less than 12 feet long, can fly at 115 mph, contains an explosive warhead in its nose, and explodes on impact. These single-use drones are relatively cheap ($20,000 each) and have been used by Russia to destroy vital civilian infrastructure and make life even harder for Ukrainians.

The US has also provided Ukraine with hundreds of Switchblade drones, a type of loitering munition or kamikaze drone, which can be carried in backpacks. Switchblades can be used to strike infantry, armor, and artillery. 

“We’re seeing the first use of swarm drones with what have been called ‘kamikaze’ drones, these Iranian Shahed-136s and all of their various relatives — that’s new,” Cancian said, adding, “A lot of people have pointed to that as the future of warfare.”

—Christopher Miller (@ChristopherJM) September 23, 2022

Singer said the Russian military’s use of drones to strike civilian targets sets a dangerous precedent for the future of war.

“It is a parallel to the German use of V-1 missiles towards the end of World War II,” he said. “A nation hoping a new technology will make up for its losses on the battlefield, by terrorizing the home-front.”

Firefighters work after a drone attack on buildings in Kyiv, Ukraine, Monday, Oct. 17, 2022.

Roman Hrytsyna/Associated Press

‘They’re always being watched’

The most prevalent drone on the battlefield in Ukraine can fit in your hand. Indeed, military analysts have been particularly surprised by the heavy reliance on small civilian or commercial drones such as the Chinese-made DJI Mavic 3, which cost less than $3,000 online. 

These drones are being used for reconnaissance but have also been weaponized, with soldiers rigging them with improvised explosive devices or grenades. 

“Both Ukraine and Russia are now using them in literally hundreds. Every small infantry unit now has one or more flying for them. It was not something that militaries had been training for,” Singer said of the use of cheap commercial drones in Ukraine.

Drones are not necessarily the most important or impactful tool being used in Ukraine, but they’re making other weapons more accurate.  

“If you wanted to seek out enemy positions in the past, you would have had to send out special forces units… and you might have lost some troops,” Marina Miron, a defense researcher at Kings College London, told BBC News in early January. “Now, all you’re risking is a drone,” Miron added. 

The surveillance element has been significant, with troops on the front line in Ukraine reporting that drones are “always around,” Cancian said, adding, “They’re always being watched.”

A Ukrainian serviceman poses with a drone on the outskirts of Bakhmut, eastern Ukraine on December 30, 2022.

Sameer Al-Doumy/Getty Images

A Ukrainian serviceman shoots at a Russian drone with an assault rifle from a trench at the front line east of Kharkiv on March 31, 2022.

Fadel Senna/Getty Images

“We’ve had overhead reconnaissance for a long time, but the scale of it is new and also the ability to connect that with fire support,” Cancian said. “It’s one thing to get a picture of a target and be able to do something about it 24 or 48 hours later, as opposed to being able to do something in 10 minutes.”

Drones have significantly shortened the so-called kill chain, Cancian explained, helping troops swiftly locate targets and provide coordinates for artillery. “Kill chain” is a military phrase or concept referring to the stages of an attack, from identifying a target to engaging it and assessing the damages. 

The war in Ukraine has shown that drones are “as essential” in battle as artillery or tanks, Singer said, adding that “drones have arguably been most valuable not in launching their own missiles, but in making Ukrainian artillery so lethal, in pinpointing their fires.”

Brazil and Argentina aim for greater economic integration, including the development of a common currency, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Argentine leader Alberto Fernandez said in a joint article they penned.

“We intend to overcome the barriers to our exchanges, simplify and modernize the rules and encourage the use of local currencies,” says the text published on the Argentine website Perfil.

“We also decided to advance discussions on a common South American currency that can be used for both financial and commercial flows, reducing costs operations and our external vulnerability,” the article said.

Earlier in the day, the Financial Times reported the neighboring nations will announce this week that they are starting preparatory work on a common currency.

The plan, set to be discussed at a summit in Buenos Aires this week, will focus on how a new currency which Brazil suggests calling the “sur” (south) could boost regional trade and reduce reliance on the U.S. dollar, FT reported citing officials.

“There will be . . . a decision to start studying the parameters needed for a common currency, which includes everything from fiscal issues to the size of the economy and the role of central banks,” Argentina’s economy minister Sergio Massa told the Financial Times.

Politicians from both countries have discussed the idea already in 2019, but met with pushback from Brazil’s central bank at the time.

Initially starting as a bilateral project, the initiative would later be extended to invite other Latin American nations, the report said, adding that an official announcement was expected during Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s visit to Argentina that starts on Sunday night.