Happy Monday!  It's August 12, and we're tracking top stories to start the week: Hezbollah chaos and corruption in Venezuela, Western quest to strangle Russia's shadow fleet may be doomed to fail, escalating conflict in Turkish criminal underworld, JPMorgan coerced to end NY lawsuit against Russia's VTB Bank, and much more...  

Featured Story

🎯 How Hezbollah Is Exploiting Cocaine, Corruption, and Chaos in Venezuela. Hezbollah operates a sophisticated network in South America, carrying out terrorist attacks and criminal activities. Oil Price 

🚩 In Secret Talks, U.S. Offers Amnesty to Venezuela’s Maduro for Ceding Power WSJ

Top Stories

🌎 Is the Western Quest to Strangle Russia’s ‘Shadow Fleet’ Doomed to Fail? Over two years into the invasion of Ukraine, sanctioning Russia's energy sector – the Kremlin's main cash cow – remains an elusive task. Moscow Times

🌎 Spate of Killings in Europe Reveal Escalating Conflict in Turkish Criminal Underworld. An escalation in violence involving major Turkish gangs has spilled over into European cities. OCCRP

🌎 ‘Coerced' JPMorgan seeks to end NY lawsuit against Russia's VTB Bank. The largest U.S. bank had sued VTB in April, after the Russian state-owned bank sued in Russia to recover money that had been frozen. Reuters

🌎 China’s $60B bet on Venezuela’s corrupt tyrant, Nicolás Maduro. Xi pledged that China would “firmly support Venezuela’s efforts to safeguard national sovereignty, national dignity and social stability, and its just cause of opposing foreign interference.” NYP

🌎 Former officials warn campaigns to ‘buckle up’ – more hacks are likely. Experts worry that recent hack of Trump presidential campaign has echoes of the Russian attacks on Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign. Politico

🚩 Hackers leak 2.7B data records with Social Security numbers Bleepingcomputer

🌎 Iran's oil finds new destinations in Tehran export push. Iran continues looking for ways to sidestep U.S. sanctions on its crude exports. Reuters

🌎 Smartmatic executives indicted for bribing Philippine official. The voting machine company has faced claims about vote-rigging in the 2020 U.S. presidential election. NBC

🌎 Crypto scammers pull in $155M on latest Trump coin rumors. ‘Restore the Republic’ has witnessed a dramatic rise and fall due to confusion over its origin. Fortune

IN THE NEWS

Russia

🇷🇺 Russian man held without bail on charges he procured US electronics for Russia AP

🇷🇺 Iran to deliver hundreds of ballistic missiles to Russia soon Reuters

🇷🇺 Second LNG Tanker Seen Docking at Sanctioned Russian Facility Bloomberg

🇷🇺 Russian in prisoner swap ends U.S. hack-and-trade conviction appeal Reuters

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China

🇨🇳 China has just learned that snatching territory by force pays off – and pays off big Telegraph

🇨🇳 Major Chinese hacking group ‘active to this day’ despite US efforts to stop them Politico

🇨🇳 Tech Bros Are Betting They Can Help Win a War With China WSJ

🇨🇳 China tells some brokerages to conduct compliance checks on bond trading Reuters

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Corruption & Financial Crime

💸 Defense Department contractor arrested and charged with mishandling classified documents CNN

💸 Hindenburg alleges India market regulator chief held stake in offshore funds used by Adani Group Reuters

💸 Dutch lender Volksbank faces second fine from Dutch central bank Reuters

💸 Corrupt Spanish lawyer arrested for EUR 4.5M fishery project bribe in Equatorial Guinea Europol

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Crypto & Cyber

🔐 How a cybersecurity researcher befriended, then doxed, the leader of LockBit ransomware gang TechCrunch

🔐 Thousands of Corporate Secrets Were Left Exposed. This Guy Found Them All. Wired

🔐 SEC says its settled fraud charges against Ideanomics' current, former executives Cointelegraph

🔐 GPS spoofers 'hack time' on commercial airlines Reuters

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Terror

💥 The CIA Sent Him Deep Undercover to Spy on Islamic Radicals. It Cost Him Everything. Rolling Stone

💥 Ernst demands end to Afghanistan payments that wind up in Taliban’s hands Washington Times

💥 German mosque took orders from Iran, aided Hezbollah before closure JPost

"The Constitution only gives people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself." --Benjamin Franklin

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