Category: x.yahoo

(Bloomberg) — US lawmakers are urging Washington to strike back against China for its decision to bar Micron Technology Inc.’s memory chips, threatening to further inflame tensions between the two countries. Representative Mike Gallagher, a Wisconsin Republican who leads a China-focused congressional committee, wants Changxin Memory Technologies Inc. placed on a blacklist that effectively bars dealings with American firms. That’s in response to Beijing this week blocking Micron from supplying Chinese critical infrastructure on national security grounds, an unusual move…

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United States announced at a U.N. conference on Wednesday nearly $524 million in additional humanitarian aid for the Horn of Africa that aims to put a spotlight on the extreme effects of climate change and the worst drought in the region in 40 years — and the need for more than $5 billion. The U.N. has appealed for $7 billion and has received just $1.6 billion — far from enough to help the 43.3 million…

The U.S. government announced new sanctions against North Korea related to its army of illicit IT workers that have fraudulently gained employment to finance the regime’s weapons of mass destruction programs. North Korea maintains thousands of “highly skilled” IT workers around the world, primarily in China and Russia, which “generate revenue that contributes to its unlawful weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs”, according to an announcement from the U.S. Treasury Department on Tuesday. These individuals, which in some…

  (Bloomberg) — Blackstone Inc. Chief Executive Officer Steve Schwarzman said the investment giant is in talks with several US regional banks to explore purchases of assets and loans they originate. “Pressure on those regional banks won’t just come from the markets,” he said in a video interview Wednesday for the Qatar Economic Forum in Doha. “It will come from regulators, and that will make them less apt to provide credit.” Regional banks’ retreat from lending to swaths of the…

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — A group of Chinese citizens living and working in Florida sued the state Monday over a new law that bans Chinese nationals from purchasing property in large swaths of the state. The law applies to land near military installations and other “critical infrastructure” and also affects citizens of Cuba, Venezuela, Syria, Iran, Russia, and North Korea. But Chinese citizens face the harshest restrictions. The law “will codify and expand housing discrimination against people of Asian descent…

  ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Gov. Ron DeSantis is asking that a federal judge be disqualified from the First Amendment lawsuit filed by Disney against the Florida governor and his appointees, claiming the jurist’s prior statements in other cases have raised questions about his impartiality on the state’s efforts to take over Disney World’s governing body. DeSantis ‘ attorney filed a motion in federal court in Tallahassee on Friday seeking to disqualify Chief U.S. District Judge Mark Walker from overseeing…

  Corruption Ledger editorial note: Privacy technology and strategies have the ability to help all oppressed people, whether male, female, underprivileged or targeted by corrupt corporate or government establishments. Here’s one case in point. TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) — Inside a little wooden house among the pine and oak forests of western Honduras’ coffee-growing mountains, a woman opened a tiny package of pills, delivered to a nearby town. She didn’t know it, but the medication had more than likely entered the…

HELENA, Mont. (AP) — Five TikTok users filed a lawsuit to overturn a planned ban on the video sharing app in Montana. They argued in a legal complaint filed late Wednesday in federal court in Missoula that the law is an unconstitutional violation of free speech rights. They also say the state doesn’t have authority over matters of national security. Gov. Greg Gianforte signed the bill into law Wednesday and said it would protect Montana residents’ private data and personal…

Vladimir Putin had a massive underground lair built beneath his secret palace by the Black Sea, according to plans posted online by the engineering firm behind the project. The Russian president was said to have ordered the construction of tunnels, which lie about 50 metres below the surface, out of concern for his survival in the event of a revolution or war. The underground complex was built before Russia seized control of Crimea in 2014, when Putin was still cultivating…

LONDON (AP) — Deutsche Bank has agreed to pay $75 million to settle a lawsuit claiming that the German lender should have seen evidence of sex trafficking by Jeffrey Epstein when he was a client, according to lawyers for women who say they were abused by the late financier. A woman only identified as Jane Doe sued the bank in federal district court in New York and sought class-action status to represent other victims of Epstein. The lawsuit asserted that…

  EU member countries are preparing to help their companies to exit Russia, amid a growing risk they will be taxed to fund Russian president Vladimir Putin’s war. Source: This is stated in the proposals for the 11th package of sanctions against the Russian Federation, referenced by EUobserver, as reported by European Pravda Details: The proposals include new special permits for financial transactions and legal services designed to help European companies exit Russia. But under the new proposal, EU countries…

  NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Legal arguments over women’s access to a drug used in the most common method of abortion move to a federal appeals court in New Orleans on Wednesday, in a case challenging a Food and Drug Administration decision made more than two decades ago. The closely watched case is likely to wind up at the Supreme Court, which already has intervened to keep the drug, mifepristone, available while the legal fight winds through the courts. Three…

The charges describe schemes to steal computer programming or sensitive materials that could benefit militaries of hostile foreign countries. The alleged recipients of the technology were Russia, China and Iran, according to charging documents. WASHINGTON – A Greek national allegedly buying technology for the Russian military and intelligence services. A Chinese citizen allegedly stealing thousands of documents from Apple related to autonomous vehicles. Another Chinese national allegedly scheming to provide Iran with materials used in weapons of mass destruction. These…

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department announced a series of criminal cases Tuesday tracing the illegal flow of sensitive technology, including Apple’s software code for self-driving cars and materials used for missiles, to foreign adversaries like Russia, China and Iran. Some of the alleged theft highlighted by the department dates back several years, but U.S. officials are drawing attention to the collection of cases now to highlight the work of a task force created this year to disrupt the transfer…

A humanitarian aid worker who used an anonymous Twitter account to mock Saudi Arabia about its economy has filed a federal racketeering lawsuit against the social media platform, the kingdom and a number of individuals alleging an attempt to silence critics overseas. Abdulrahman al-Sadhan, was working for the Red Crescent in Riyadh in 2018 when plain-clothed security forces entered the office of the Red Crescent offices in Riyadh. He was taken away without any explanation. How the Saudi government linked…

CAIRO (AP) — Sudan’s military chief has ordered the freezing of all bank accounts belonging to a rival paramilitary force. The two sides have battled for weeks across Sudan, pushing the troubled country to the brink of all-out war.

The decree, issued on Sunday by Gen. Abdel Fattah Burhan, will target the official accounts of the Rapid Support Forces in Sudanese bank, as well as the accounts of all companies belonging to the group, the state news agency SUNA reported.

It remains unclear what immediate effect the freezing would have on the RSF and how Burhan’s orders are to be enforced.

The military chief also announced the replacement of the governor of Sudan’s Central Bank, a move likely tied to the freezing decree. Over the past decade, the RSF amassed great wealth through the gradual acquisition of Sudanese financial institutions and gold reserves.