Closer Everyday…. Can You Say Mark Of The Beast

New ‘currency’ aims to tackle failings of predecessors

Saga sits between a stablecoin and crypto asset, designed by a team including former central bankers

A new “currency” known as Saga, or SGA, launched on December 10. It joins a crowded field of crypto assets and stablecoins, each hoping to reinvent money.

Saga, the company operating the SGA system, claims its offering has points of difference that could contribute to its viability. For one, it has the backing of a handful of high-profile former central bankers, including one-time Bank of Israel governor Jacob Frenkel and former monetary policy-maker Barry Topf.

It also has a governance model

https://www.fxweek.com/currency-forecasts/4640756/new-currency-aims-to-tackle-failings-of-predecessors

Brussels university to close Chinese-funded institute after espionage accusations

The Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) will stop working with a Chinese state-sponsored institute from next year, after the institute’s director was accused by Belgium of spying for Beijing.

The Dutch-language university in Brussels cited concerns over “free research” as a central reason behind the board’s decision to let its long-running contract with the Confucius Institute (CI) expire in June 2020.

The Chinese-funded institute has been working with the VUB since 2006, and is one of more than 500 institutes that the Chinese government has opened in cities across the world over a 15-year period.

“Collaborations are only an option for the VUB when the actions of partners concerned meet our basic principle of free research,” VUB Rector Caroline Pauwels wrote in an online statement, adding that the CI no longer met “current policy objectives.”

The VUB’s decision comes after Belgian State Security Service banned the head of the institute, Xinning Song, from entering the country in October, after his work visa was not renewed.

Song, who had been living in Belgium for over a decade, was accused of putting his extensive network to work in the interests of Chinese intelligence services in Belgium, De Morgen reported.

https://www.brusselstimes.com/belgium/83195/brussels-university-to-close-chinese-funded-institute-after-espionage-accusations-vub-confucius-institute/

Wonder how many kids they got for their money

Tangled Web of Transactions Utilized to Fund Bankrupt Italian Hospital

NEWS ANALYSIS: The Register has reviewed documents that indicate Vatican officials employed covert and deceptive methods to divert 50 million euros needed at a children’s hospital to the troubled institution.

Edward Pentin

VATICAN CITY — Using costly methods that appear deceptive, Vatican officials diverted 50 million euros belonging to the Bambino Gesù children’s hospital in Rome to guarantee a loan for the same amount to a bankrupt Italian dermatology hospital in 2014, despite warnings from the cardinal appointed to oversee financial transparency not to go ahead with the transaction.

According to documents seen by the Register, the officials, including two lay consultants who received six-figure commissions on top of their other salaries for their efforts, worked with two Curial cardinals to arrange for the Bambino Gesù hospital, which is under Vatican authority, to guarantee the loan to the Istituto Dermopatico dell’Immacolata (IDI).

The IDI, then owned by the Congregation of the Sons of the Immaculate Conception (CFIC), was at the time on the brink of closure, with debts in excess of 600 million euro. A further body, a foundation called the Fondazione Luigi Maria Monti, was set up in 2015 to help save IDI and keep it within the field of Catholic health care.

http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/tangled-web-of-transactions-utilized-to-fund-bankrupt-italian-hospital