Anonymous ID: 5a879d Feb. 10, 2021, 4:53 p.m. No.12886165   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>6176 >>6247 >>6532 >>6600 >>6667 >>6672

MasterCard Joins Visa, PayPal On The Crypto Payments Bandwagon

 

Less than two weeks after Visa CEO Al Kelly said the payments giant is in a position to make cryptocurrencies more “safe, useful and applicable” and may add them to the company’s payments network; MasterCard has tonight laid out in great detail why it also plans to start supporting select cryptocurrencies directly on its network.

 

In a detailed and lengthy statement, Raj Dhamodharan, MasterCard's EVP of Digital Asset & Blockchain Partnerships, adds color to CEO Michael Miebach's Q4 pledge to integrate digital currency payments "directly on our network."

 

The company has not yet disclosed which digital currencies it intends to support, or where.

 

As CoinDesk notes, previously, Mastercard supported limited cryptocurrency transactions through its cryptocard partners Wirex and Uphold. But those programs only cover payment, not settlement; the coins are converted to fiat currency well before reaching the merchant.

 

https://www.zerohedge.com/crypto/mastercard-joins-visa-paypal-crypto-payments-bandwagon

Anonymous ID: 5a879d Feb. 10, 2021, 4:56 p.m. No.12886185   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>6247 >>6532 >>6600 >>6667

Biden Administration Considering Whether to Impose Domestic Travel Restrictions, Including on Florida – Gov. DeSantis Responds

 

The Biden Administration is retaliating against the state of Florida after Governor DeSantis has encouraged Floridians to get back to work so they can live their normal lives.

 

Governor DeSantis recently declared that everyone should get back to work and make “common sense” decisions regarding their health amid the Covid pandemic.

 

Hair salons, restaurants and schools are open in Florida so the Biden Administration is considering whether to impose domestic travel restrictions on the Sunshine State like it’s 1935 Berlin.

 

Covid cases are actually declining in Florida so Biden and his stenographers in the media are afraid that DeSantis is exposing the lie that lockdowns slow the spread of the China virus.

 

News Observer reported:

 

The Biden administration is considering whether to impose domestic travel restrictions, including on Florida, fearful that coronavirus mutations are threatening to reverse hard-fought progress on the pandemic.

 

Outbreaks of the new variants — including a highly contagious one first identified in the United Kingdom, as well as others from South Africa and Brazil that scientists worry can evade existing vaccines — have lent urgency to a review of potential travel restrictions within the United States, one federal official said.

 

“There are active conversations about what could help mitigate spread here, but we have to follow the data and what’s going to work. We did this with South Africa, we did this with Brazil, because we got clear guidance,” one White House official said.

 

“But we’re having conversations about anything that would help mitigate spread,” the official said, referring to discussions about new travel restrictions that could target the spread of the U.K. mutation in Florida.

 

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/02/biden-administration-considering-whether-impose-domestic-travel-restrictions-including-florida-gov-desantis-responds/

Anonymous ID: 5a879d Feb. 10, 2021, 5 p.m. No.12886207   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>6247 >>6532 >>6600 >>6667

Spain Arrests Dozens in Crackdown on Chinese Mob

 

Spanish policearrested 38 suspected members of a so-called “Chinese mafia” involved in drug cultivation and trafficking across Europe, Spain’s Guardia Civil said in a statement on Monday.

 

Chinese organized criminal groups such as so-called Triads and Tongs have been proliferating across Europe in recent years.Chinese organized criminal groups such as so-called Triads and Tongs have been proliferating across Europe in recent years. (Source: Guardia Civil)More than half a metric ton of marijuana, two kilograms of methamphetamines, US$200,000 and several luxury vehicles were seized in a series of raids, the statement said.

 

“This dismantled group was hierarchical and had a high degree of specialization and professionalism,” explained the Guardia Civil. “It was structured in networks in charge of mass cultivation in "indoor" plantations in large industrial warehouses and isolated homes, and others in charge of packaging and shipping abroad through parcel companies.”

 

Police began investigating the group after discovering one of their shipments in 2018.

 

The operation was only the latest bust against Chinese organized criminal groups, which have been proliferating around Europe over the past decade.

 

Throughout an influx of Chinese immigration over the last century, traditional criminal groups such as the Triads have emerged. They maintain their strong connections to East Asia, while new, Europe-grown competitor groups have established themselves in the blossoming Chinese immigrant communities.

 

https://www.occrp.org/en/daily/13833-spain-arrests-dozens-in-crackdown-on-chinese-mob

Anonymous ID: 5a879d Feb. 10, 2021, 5 p.m. No.12886211   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>6247 >>6532 >>6600 >>6667

Angola asks Dutch court to seize Isabel dos Santos-linked stake in energy firm

 

The acquisition was bankrolled by state oil company Sonangol, whose lawyers now allege that the deal enriched Angola’s former ruling family at the expense of the country.

 

Angola has asked a Dutch court to seize on its behalf a stake in an energy company linked to billionaire businesswoman Isabel dos Santos, according to a legal action first reported by Reuters.

 

In 2006, Exem Energy BV, a company controlled by dos Santos’s late husband, Sindika Dokolo, obtained a 6% indirect stake in Portuguese energy firm Galp thanks to a deal with Sonangol, Angola’s state oil company.

 

As a result of the deal, dos Santos had “significant influence” in Galp, according to a confidential report included in leaked documents obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.

 

The finding was part of Luanda Leaks, a 2020 investigation by ICIJ into the fortunes of the eldest daughter of Angola’s former president José Eduardo dos Santos and how decades of insider deals made her one of the world’s richest women.

 

Now, Sonangol lawyers allege that the acquisition of the Galp stake ー currently valued at about $500 million ー made no business sense for Angola and led to the ruling family’s personal enrichment at the expense of the country, one of the world’s poorest, Reuters reported.

 

“It’s all corruption,” Sonangol’s legal counsel Emmanuel Gaillard told Reuters. “You (Exem) owe us the shares, the indirect participation in Galp, because it’s theft. It’s illegal, therefore you have to pay it back,” Gaillard said.

 

https://www.icij.org/investigations/luanda-leaks/angola-asks-dutch-court-to-seize-isabel-dos-santos-linked-stake-in-energy-firm/

Anonymous ID: 5a879d Feb. 10, 2021, 5:01 p.m. No.12886215   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>6247 >>6532 >>6600 >>6667

RSF Urges China to Release 7 Journalists who Reported on COVID-19

 

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) called on the international community to press Chinese authorities to immediately release seven journalists who were arrested for reporting on the COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan a year ago.

 

Fang Bin ChinaChinese journalist,Fang Bin, disappeared soon after reporting on oversaturation of hospital in Wuhan last year. (Photo: Rthk.hk)“Informing the public on this unprecedented health crisis is not a crime! These journalists should never have been arrested,” the head of the NGO’s East Asia Bureau, Cédric Alviani, said in a statement on Monday.

 

Zhang Zhan, a 37-year old reporter sentenced to four years in prison for “picking quarrels and provoking trouble,” disappeared in March after travelling to Wuhan the month before to report on the outbreak.

 

She reported directly from the epicentre on the detention of other independent reporters and the harassment of families of victims seeking accountability, according to a statement by a Chinese NGO at the time.

 

Shortly after her sentencing in December, the UN Human Rights Office said it was “deeply concerned” by the ruling, adding that it has “raised her case with the authorities throughout 2020 as an example of the excessive clampdown on freedom of expression linked to #COVID19 & continue to call for her release.”

 

Zhan, who went on hunger strike shortly after her detention, is one of only two other journalists that have been tried and convicted since their arrest a year ago.

 

Ren Zhiqiang, a 69-year old political commentator detained for reporting on the failures of the regime in their handling of the pandemic, was sentenced to 18 years in prison on “corruption charges” last September.

 

Zhiqiang’s sentencing, like Zhan’s, was widely condemned, and seen as an attempt to silence dissent.

 

“The 18-year sentence handed down to a Communist Party member and member of the economic elite shows the grim environment for speech in China,” Human Rights Watch’s China researcher, Yaqiu Wang, said in a statement that called for authorities to “immediately quash” the sentence.

 

While others arrested for “subversion of state power," by reposting censored COVID-19 news articles and exposing the chaos in Wuhan’s hospitals await trial, one journalist, Fang Bin, remains missing.

 

Bin was “forcibly disappeared” last February after reporting on hospital oversaturation in Wuhan, according to a Human Rights Watch statement, which called for his “immediate and unconditional” release along with five other activist and citizen journalists.

 

To this day, his whereabouts remain unknown.

 

The Chinese regime is the “world’s biggest captor of journalists,” with at least 119 press freedom defenders detained, many in conditions that pose a threat to their lives, according to RSF, which ranked China 177th out of 180 on its 2020 World Press Freedom Index.

 

https://www.occrp.org/en/daily/13836-rwb-urges-china-to-release-7-journalists-who-reported-on-covid-19

Anonymous ID: 5a879d Feb. 10, 2021, 5:04 p.m. No.12886243   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>6532 >>6600 >>6667

Son of Russian Railways Official Owns European Real Estate Empire

 

A 33-year-old Russian man who runs no known profitable businesses secretly owns European real estate and other assets worth at least 50 million euros, corporate records from Luxembourg show.

 

The findings of this story are based on corporate records that are current as of 2019 in the case of Toni’s Luxembourg companies, and 2018 in the case of his investment fund.

 

Sergey Toni’s properties, which he holds through seven companies registered in the tiny European country, include a 19th-century neo-Gothic palace near Paris; an apartment between the Louvre and the Arc de Triomphe; two villas on the French Riviera; three houses, three apartments, a villa, and land on Spain’s Mediterranean coast; a depot in Germany; and even, apparently, a hotel in Switzerland.

 

An investment fund registered in Luxembourg — of which Toni is registered as a director — holds an additional 40 million euros of commercial real estate that almost all once belonged to his family, as well as 60 million euros in other assets. The fund’s current owners are unknown, as is any other role the Toni family may play in its investments.

 

Because Luxembourg records show only a company’s current owner, it is unknown when Toni became associated with these companies and their assets. He was just 15 years old when the first of the properties were purchased. The virtually unknown Toni, who does not have a visible internet presence, did not respond to questions about how he came to possess such wealth.

openlux/Sergei-Toni-Instagram.jpg

Credit: Instagram/Hanushka Toni

Sergei Toni.

 

But his great fortune may have something to do with the fact that his father, Oleg Toni, is a deputy managing director of Russian Railways.

 

The state monopoly, one of the largest transport companies in the world, is also Russia’s largest employer, with over 700,000 workers and net profits of $829 million. But this pillar of Russian state capitalism is famously corrupt.

 

In 2014, for example, Reuters reported that Russian Railways granted contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars to shell companies allegedly controlled by an old friend and “unpaid adviser” of its longtime head, Vladimir Yakunin.

 

Yakunin and the elder Toni appear to have had a warm relationship. The Russian Railways boss contributed an introduction to a book Toni wrote about “the fate of modern Russia.” Yakunin also wrote a laudatory blog post (since deleted) in which he praised his subordinate for his work on the 2014 Winter Olympics.

Wringing Profits From Russian Railways

Novaya Gazeta and OCCRP found that Yakunin’s friend’s son earned millions as an intermediary between Russian Railways and Bombardier, the international transport giant. He also received millions of uncertain origin through a money laundering scheme known as the Russian Laundromat.

Read more

common/back_to_top.png

 

“Toni was the key leader who organized the construction of all of Russian Railways’ Olympic facilities in Sochi,” Yakunin wrote. “Building what we built in just five years from nothing — few could shoulder it.”

 

In 2010, it was reported two of Toni’s former business partners at a private construction firm received massive contracts from Russian Railways to build Olympics facilities. At the time, Russian Railways said no laws had been violated. Toni did not respond to OCCRP’s questions about this possible conflict of interest.

 

No specific evidence has emerged linking the Toni family’s real estate to any illicit activity at Russian Railways. But the opaque corporate structures used to acquire the properties, their registration, en masse, to the younger Toni, and the mysterious origins of much of the financing raise questions about what may be happening behind the scenes.

 

Like his son, Oleg Toni did not respond to requests for comment.

 

https://www.occrp.org/en/openlux/son-of-russian-railways-official-owns-european-real-estate-empire

Anonymous ID: 5a879d Feb. 10, 2021, 5:05 p.m. No.12886253   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>6311 >>6390 >>6527 >>6532 >>6600 >>6667

U.S. Government Contractor Embedded Software in more than 500 Apps to Track Phones of hundreds of millions of users!

 

WTF!!! This went completely unnoticed!

 

A small U.S. company with ties to the U.S. defense and intelligence communities has embedded its software in numerous mobile apps, allowing it to track the movements of hundreds of millions of mobile phones world-wide, according to interviews and documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

 

Anomaly Six LLC a Virginia-based company founded by two U.S. military veterans with a background in intelligence, said in marketing material it is able to draw location data from more than 500 mobile applications, in part through its own software development kit, or SDK, that is embedded directly in some of the apps. An SDK allows the company to obtain the phone’s location if consumers have allowed the app containing the software to access the phone’s GPS coordinates.

 

+60% at the link. Rest behind a paywall.

 

www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-government-contractor-embedded-software-in-apps-to-track-phones-11596808801

 

Yeah, as if this shit only works if the user allowes GPS coordinates! Complete BULLSHITZ!!!

 

According to the WSJ, two military veterans founded the Alexandria, Virginia-based marketing company Anomaly Six. The company has excellent relationships with the Department of Defense and several US intelligence agencies, says the article that the publisher has hidden behind a paywall.

 

Anomaly Six LLC pays smartphone app developers to integrate their internal tracking code into their applications. The trackers are apparently hidden in SDKs.

 

500 APPS!

 

https://www.investmentwatchblog.com/u-s-government-contractor-embedded-software-in-more-than-500-apps-to-track-phones-of-hundreds-of-millions-of-users/

Anonymous ID: 5a879d Feb. 10, 2021, 5:28 p.m. No.12886459   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>6467 >>6496 >>6532 >>6600 >>6667

Myanmar State Councellor Aide, At Least 4 Senior Figures Reportedly Arrested Overnight

 

On 1 February, the Myanmar military overthrew the country's democratically-elected government and seized power, arresting State Councellor Aung San Suu Kyi, President Win Myint and other senior figures of the Myanmar ruling political party.

 

On Wednesday, according to Reuters citing an official from Myanmar's National League for Democracy, an aide to State Councellor Aung San Suu Kyi named Kyaw Tint Swe was arrested overnight along with at least four other senior figures.

 

Kyaw was Suu Kyi's Minister for the Office of the State Councellor before she, along with Myanmar President Win Myint and several prominent political figures of the country were arrested in early February.

 

Following the arrests, the nation's military announced a year-long state of emergency and the transfer of power to General Min Aung Hlaing, the head of the military.

 

Police fire a water cannon at protesters demonstrating against the coup and demanding the release of elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi, in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, February 8, 2021

© REUTERS / STRINGER

Myanmar Protests Enter 5th Day With Tens of Thousands Taking to Streets Despite Police Aggression

The coup came amid military claims that there was election fraud during the country's general election that saw Myanmar's NLD party win in a landslide.

 

The wave of arrests has prompted massive protest in Myanmar, with demonstrators demanding the release of the detained political figures and clashing with police.

 

The military coup received condemnation from many countries, including the United States, with its president, Joe Biden introducing sanctions against the Myanmar military leaders and calling for the release of the detained politicians.

 

https://sputniknews.com/asia/202102111082038856-myanmar-state-councellor-aide-at-least-4-senior-figures-reportedly-arrested-overnight/

Anonymous ID: 5a879d Feb. 10, 2021, 5:29 p.m. No.12886471   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>6492 >>6532 >>6600 >>6667

New US Military Base in Northeast Syria Latest of Biden's Warlike Moves

 

The U.S.-government funded outlet Voice of America has confirmed rumors that a new military base is being built in northeastern Syria. A convoy of 40 troop carriers and other vehicles arrived and began setting up shop in the city of Hasakah near the Turkish and Iraqi borders over the weekend. “The U.S. flag is now raised over a building,” said journalist Jindar Berekat, a native of the city, “it is not clear how many American soldiers will be stationed at this location, but their armored military vehicles are here and it looks like they are still constructing parts of it.”

 

“Many here believe that the building of a U.S. base inside Hasakah could be a response to the growing Russian presence in the city,” a local reporter told Voice of America, “this new center [is being built] with the aim of observing Russian forces in Hasakah.” Russian military units have been present in Syria since 2015, intervening on behalf of the government of Bashar al-Assad.

 

The two foreign superpowers have come close to armed confrontation in Syria many times, including in 2017, when President Trump ordered the bombing of a Russian airbase near the Lebanese border. Already, the American presence has prevented the Russian military from carrying out patrols in northeastern Syria.

 

While the United States has presented its role in Syria as a counter terrorism operation, Assad’s government has accused it of plundering its resources, “condemn[ing] in the strongest terms the agreement signed between al-Qasd militia (SDF) and an American oil company to steal Syria’s oil under the sponsorship and support of the American administration.” Around 500 American troops have been guarding the country’s oilfields for months, and last summer, Senator Lindsay Graham confirmed that the U.S. had indeed signed a deal with the SDF to “modernize” the country’s oil industry. Damascus considers the agreement “null and void.”

 

The new base at Hasakah is the latest in a string of actions that suggest the United States wishes to bolster or expand its presence in the war-torn country. Last month, American forces reinforced another base along the M4 highway, which runs from the city of Aleppo through the north of the country and towards the Iraqi border in the east. At the same time, its ally Israel was conducting a series of major airstrikes across the east of the country, reportedly targeting Iranian or pro-Iranian forces.

 

Increasing hostilities against Iran appears to be a chief concern of the U.S. in the Middle East. 12 months ago, the government announced the construction of three further military bases along the Iran-Iraq border. This was despite a recent unanimous vote (with some abstentions) in the Iraqi parliament demanding the United States military leave the country. This was followed by huge demonstrations in Baghdad demanding the withdrawal of U.S. troops Some estimates put the number of those attending as high as 2.5 million people. President Biden has also ruled out lifting deadly sanctions on the country until it complies with the 2015 nuclear deal — an agreement that the U.S. left unilaterally.

 

The Biden administration has distanced itself from Trump somewhat on the question of Yemen. The new president received a great deal of praise for his announcement that he was suspending military support to Saudi Arabia. However, as Yemen-born academic Shireen Al-Adeimi noted, he included a number of qualifiers to his statement, including that the U.S. would only stop supporting “offensive operations” and block “relevant” arms sales. “We are going to continue to help Saudi Arabia defend its sovereignty and its territorial integrity and its people,” Biden said in a speech at the State Department. Almost immediately, the State Department began condemning Yemen’s Houthi rebels for supposedly attacking civilian targets inside Saudi Arabia.

 

Perhaps the Saudis’ defense of their own territory will start to look like Israel’s self-defense against Lebanon and Palestine. On Israel, Biden has countersigned Donald Trump’s decision to move the American embassy to Jerusalem, effectively endorsing the Israeli occupation of Palestine’s largest city. Meanwhile, in Afghanistan, reports suggest he might go back on the decision to remove U.S. troops from the country.

 

With the arrival of every new president, hope springs eternal that they will conduct a less aggressive strategy in the Middle East. However, many of Biden’s first moves, including the building of a new base in Syria, suggest his term will be more of the same rather than a break with the old.

 

https://www.blacklistednews.com/article/79237/new-us-military-base-in-northeast-syria-latest-of-bidens-warlike.html

Anonymous ID: 5a879d Feb. 10, 2021, 5:37 p.m. No.12886560   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>6574

>>12886492

That is a big leap, Syria has had two US mil contingents active in the mid east for the last 4 years at least. Trump was withdrawing troops and tying the hands of the DS mercenaries by interfering in their flow of arms and equipment.

 

Now with Trump out of the way the white hats now have their hands tied and the black hats are running amuck

Anonymous ID: 5a879d Feb. 10, 2021, 5:41 p.m. No.12886594   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>6624

>>12886574

so who is fighting then? black hats v black hats?

 

logical thinking, I stopped doing Syria updates as it was just going round in circles tit for tat as the oil got stolen by Israel Turkey US …….

Anonymous ID: 5a879d Feb. 10, 2021, 5:52 p.m. No.12886702   🗄️.is 🔗kun

>>12886672

seems like they are sucking everyone into crypto so they can kill the $ then hit the kill switch and leave everyone broke.

 

Then offer debt forgiveness in exchange for ownership of all hard assets