Nexus

Why would a billionaire’s daughter join a cult which inflicted pain and suffering on other women? and what kind of cult leader could convince her to do that? Today we’re looking at the disturbing case of Clare Bronfman and Keith Raniere. 41 year old Bronfman is the daughter of the late Edgar Bronfman Senior, who ran his family’s drinks empire Seagrams. He was worth 2.6b dollars and his daughter’s wealth is estimated to be as much as 500 million dollars. Last week she was sentenced to nearly seven years in prison for the crimes she committed with Keith Raniere, the leader of a sort of expensive self-help group called NXIVM. Now, Raniere doesn’t look like much but somehow he convinced Bronfman and many other women to join his group - including Hollywood actress Allison Mack. Mack and Clare Bronfman, helped him run Nxivm, but most of the other women were victims of the group’s cruelty, which included physically branding them. We take close look at NXIVM and speak to; Susan Dones, a former trainer who set up one of the groups centres; Frank Parlato, an investigative journalist who exposed some of NXIVMs darkest practices and Rick Ross; a cult investigator who’s helped families trying to get their loved ones out of the group.

President Trump says the economy is bouncing back in a kind of V shape and he points to the stock markets being at record highs as proof, whereas his rival Joe Biden claims it's more like the letter K, a line pointing up for rich shareholders and a line pointing down for everyone else. So who to believe?

They don't have much experience when it comes to making content so what value does #Netflix see in signing Prince #Harry and #Meghan Markle for $100 million?

#Prince #Harry and his wife Meghan's decision to ditch royal duties in the UK is really paying dividends. They've signed with #Netflix to create all manner of programming for a rumoured $100 million. How did the media react to the news?.

In 2015, police turned up Julian Betton's house in South Carolina with a so-called 'knock and announce' arrest warrant after they recorded him selling marijuana to a confidential informant. The problem is they didn’t knock, and they didn’t announce who they were. Not realising they were police, Mr Betton went for his gun to defend himself, but before he could fire, police shot at him 29 times and at least nine bullets entered his body. He spent 6 weeks in an induced-coma, and when he came round, he was partially paralysed. Mr Betton took the Myrtle Beach police department to court - and thanks to a 10 second surveillance video he was able to prove the police had breached the terms of their warrant and was recently awarded more than $11 million in compensation.

Prince Harry and his wife Meghan Markle have signed a 100m+ dollar deal with Netflix to make programmes that 'inform and give hope'

It seems like their decision at the beginning of the year to ditch their royal duties is really paying dividends. Meanwhile the UK’s going through tough times, the ordinary Brits they left behind are dealing with the coronavirus, deaths in care homes, soaring unemployment,… but hey, at least they can look back to 2018 when they paid 43 million dollars for Harry and Meghan’s wedding. Are the Sussexes abusing their Royal connections? Should they really be partnering with a company that’s accused of exploiting young children? And what does the Queen really make of all this?

President Trump is concerned that Tik Tok’s Chinese owners, Byte Dance, will take your data and feed it back to the Chinese government and so he’s given them an ultimatum; sell Tik Tok to an American company or be shut down for good. He’s set a September 15th deadline. Does Trump have legitimate security concerns or is he just taking a swipe at China? We get the view from Washington, Beijing and a couple of TikTokkers.

How did face masks become so political- especially in the United States? More and more governments are asking, or sometimes obliging their people to wear one in public. They say they're following the overwhelming scientific advice which states that masks do help to reduce the spread of the Coronavirus significantly. Some people don’t trust this advice, they say the guidance on masks for example, from the WHO, has been contradictory and erratic. And anyway, the mask may carry its own risks and is uncomfortable. Some say it contravenes their rights as citizens to make a choice. Others suspect the mask, like the earlier lockdowns, is part of an attempt to make people afraid and unhappy with the Trump administration.

Nexus speaks one-on-one with Donald Trump’s former White House communications director; Anthony 'The Mooch' Scaramucci. Watch Matthew Moore grill the New Yorker as he tries to get the real truth behind why he has turned on the president and why he's now backing Joe Biden for November's 2020 election.

A year ago this month, the billionaire sex-offender Jeffrey Epstein killed himself in a jail in New York. The circumstances were so bizarre that many people believe he was actually murdered. Either way he didn’t live to face justice and his victims were cheated out of a trial. Just two days before his death, Epstein apparently took steps to cheat them in another way. With the help of his lawyers who often visited him in jail, he changed his will, transferring his fortune to a trust fund which would likely make it even harder for them to get compensation. Over half a billion dollars worth of cash and assets were moved almost instantly. Since then, the Epstein estate has helped establish a victims compensation fund but according to one of our guests, Epstein’s former boss Steven Hoffenberg, the estate controls far more money than they’re letting on. We find out what he knows and hear from a former FBI financial investigator on how to trace the rest of the money and a lawyer for some of Epstein’s alleged victims. ​