The trial of Najib Razak: former PM to face court of over global 1MDB scandal

Everything you need to know about the corruption-related charges the former Malaysian leader faces in the first trial over 1MDB

What is happening?

On Wednesday, the trial of the former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak will finally begin, after a two-month delay.

Najib, who was unexpectedly toppled from power in a general election in May 2018, has been arrested multiple times over the past year on charges relating to 1MDB, a vast corruption scandal which saw billions of dollars embezzled from a Malaysian state fund set up by Najib.

During Najib’s tenure, billions were illicitly spent around the globe on everything from Manhattan real estate and hotels, to yachts, Picasso paintings, diamonds and Hollywood films. It is alleged that about $1bn ended up in Najib’s personal bank account. Najib has said he had no knowledge of the multibillion dollar fraud.

What charges is Najib facing?

Overall Najib has been slapped with 42 criminal charges relating to 1MDB – 27 money laundering charges, nine for criminal breach of trust, five for abuse of power and one for audit tampering – and Wednesday’s trial is just the first of several trials he is due to face.

It specifically relates to financial transactions from SRC International, a company that was a subsidiary of 1MDB. Najib will be facing three charges of criminal breach of trust, three charges of money laundering and one charge of abuse of power, relating to $10m of SRC International funds that allegedly ended up in Najib’s personal bank account. Najib denies all seven charges.

Malaysia is not the only country who has been investigating 1MDB. At least six countries, including the United States, Switzerland and Singapore, have launched money laundering and graft investigations into 1MDB. Malaysia is also seeking reparations of $7.5bn from Goldman Sachs, the investment bank which is accused of facilitating much of the misappropriation of funds.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/apr/02/the-trial-of-najib-razak-former-pm-to-face-court-of-over-global-1mdb-scandal

Getty Images Sued Yet Again For Trying To License Public Domain Images

Back in 2016, we wrote about two separate lawsuits involving claims that Getty Images was selling "licenses" to images it had no rights to sell licenses to. The first one was brought by photographer Carol Highsmith, who sued Getty after Getty had sent a demand letter to her over her own images, which she had donated to the Library of Congress to be put into the public domain. That lawsuit mostly flopped when Getty pointed out (correctly) that Highsmith had no standing, seeing as she had given up the copyright in the photos. The second lawsuit was even more bizarre, involving questions about Getty's rights to various collections it licensed, and whether it had changed the metadata on photos from photo agency Zuma Press. At the time, we noted that little in that lawsuit seemed to make sense, but it still went on for over two years before Getty prevailed, and basically said the only mistakes were done by Zuma.

Well, now we've got another lawsuit against Getty over allegedly licensing public domain images. This one was brought by CixxFive Concepts, and… also seems to be a stretch. How much of a stretch? Well, it starts out by alleging RICO violations, and as Ken "Popehat" White always likes to remind everyone: IT'S NOT RICO, DAMMIT. This lawsuit is also not RICO and it's not likely to get very far.

This is a lawsuit brought by CixxFive, on behalf of itself and others similarly situated, alleging RICO, Washington Consumer Protection Act, and other claims against Defendants for fraudulently claiming ownership of copyrights in public domain images (which no one owns) and selling fictitious copyright licenses for public domain images (which no one can legally sell), including operating an enterprise of third-party contributors to perpetrate this egregious scheme.

Here's the thing, though: you can still sell public domain images. You can do whatever you want with them. Of course, you can't sue over infringement of them, but you can most certainly still sell them. Why do you think book publishers still make a ton of money selling the Bible, the works of Shakespeare, Dickens and others.

In the lawsuit, CixxFive correctly notes that Getty has NASA images in its database, and those are very clearly in the public domain.

Among the images that Getty and/or Getty US licenses are hundreds of thousands to millions of photographs that are in the public domain, including NASA images, White House press images, historical paintings and documents, and photographs that have been donated to the public domain by the authors.

For example, Getty and/or Getty US offers to let the user “Purchase a license” to a NASA photo of Saturn for $499.00 with “standard editorial rights” “or just $475.00 with an UltraPack,” which is a five (5) pack of assets for $2,250.00.

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20190329/15352641901/getty-images-sued-yet-again-trying-to-license-public-domain-images.shtml

Firefights And Artillery Duels Between Indian And Pakistani Forces In Kashmir Region

3 Pakistani soldiers were killed in the Rakhchakri and Rawalakot sectors, according to the ISPR;

India claims that 7 Pakistani positions were eliminated in the recent cross-border firefight;

Artillery strikes were reported in the Shahpur and Kerni sectors;

The Pakistani miltiary allegedly shelled positions of the Indian Army in the Sunderbani Rajouri sector.

https://southfront.org/map-update-firefights-and-artillery-duels-between-indian-and-pakistani-forces-in-kashmir-region/

>>6035332

Zionists

App Developers Left 540 Million Facebook Users' Records on the Public Internet

The exposures didn’t come from Facebook itself, but do show how data generated by one company can end up exposed thanks to another service.

For your regular reminder that developers across the world sometimes have real trouble putting any sort of protection on their databases, third party apps left Facebook user data exposed to the open internet, according to cybersecurity firm UpGuard. Bloomberg was first to report the news.

The data exposures do not come from Facebook itself, but instead apps that have been given access or otherwise collected Facebook data and then stored it elsewhere. But the mishaps still show just how easily data from one service can end up exposed thanks to another.

The two exposures come from Mexican media company Cultura Colectiva and an app called “At the Pool,” UpGuard’s announcement reads. The former includes some 146 gigabytes of data and over 540 million records, such as Facebook users’ comments, likes, account names, and unique Facebook identifiers. The later includes passwords, but these credentials appear to be for the app and not for Facebook accounts themselves, UpGuard’s blog post adds.

Got a tip? You can contact Joseph Cox securely on Signal on +44 20 8133 5190, OTR chat on jfcox@jabber.ccc.de, or email joseph.cox@vice.com.

UpGuard found both datasets on Amazon S3 buckets; data stores that developers commonly use for enterprise projects but sometimes without putting the need for authentication in place to access the data.

Both datasets are now secured, but in Cultura Colectiva’s case, only after Bloomberg reached out to Facebook for comment, UpGuard’s post reads.

Cultura Colectiva did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Lesson: Again, this breach wasn’t really from Facebook itself, but it does still highlight how third parties can mishandle Facebook user data. In general, if there is an app or service that you grant access to your Facebook or other sensitive account and no longer need it, consider closing your account. That may not guarantee your data is deleted, however, so maybe don’t grant access to some of your more important accounts in the first place.

https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/43zjxq/app-developers-exposed-540-million-facebook-user-records-public-internet

>>6035539

trying to deflect blame

>>6035564

4/9 is the Israeli election day so I doubt it.

>>6035604

Been happening for 6 gorillion posts so it must be a holocaust

>>6035648

>There is still plenty of digging and sauce we could perform for POTUS.

So many digs are left behind as they aren't maga narrative or they are WW and not US so they are ignored.

2020 Dem Hopeful Kamala Harris to Introduce Legislation That Would Allow Illegal Alien ‘DREAMERs’ to Work in Congress

American citizens need not apply.

Kamala Harris, Democrat Senator and 2020 hopeful will introduce legislation on Wednesday with Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Catherine Cortez (D-NV) that would allow illegal alien ‘DREAMERs’ to work in Congress.

Once again, the Democrats are working hard to advance the lives of illegal aliens.

Harris’ proposed legislation would lift the ban on illegal alien ‘DREAMERs’ working in Congress.

Politico reported:

Harris is moving aggressively to highlight her immigration reform bona fides — and her latest push comes as a growing number of Dreamers try to flex their muscle by becoming more involved in federal policymaking, after years of being shut out. Outside of Congress, hundreds of thousands of so-called DACA recipients were granted permits allowing them to work legally in the U.S.

“The giant sign outside my office says ‘DREAMers Welcome Here’ because we know and value the contributions that these young people have made to their communities,” Harris said in a statement. “Government works best when it reflects the people it represents.”

Harris and her team recognized early on that there was an opening on the immigration issue in the Senate, in part because large numbers of Latinos are more heavily concentrated in a handful of states including hers.

Harris, a California Senator, lives in a state with the most DACA recipients in the country so she is making it her priority to pander to illegal aliens rather than serve her taxpaying constituents.

Dick Durbin praised Kamala, “She’s been a strong advocate particularly on issues that I’m concerned about: comprehensive immigration reform, DACA and Dreamers,” Durbin said. “I think there’s a certain intensity to her position based on the state she represents because of the diversity of” California, reported Politico.

In addition to Wednesday’s bill, Kamala Harris introduced legislation targeting ICE detention centers for more ‘oversight.’

The Democrat party is officially the party of illegal aliens, welfare/food stamp recipients, open borders and complete lawlessness.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2019/04/2020-dem-hopeful-kamala-harris-to-introduce-legislation-that-would-allow-illegal-alien-dreamers-to-work-in-congress/