Plus: Chinese chess champion stripped of title after desecrating hotel bathtub...
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12/27/23

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Hello!  It's December 27, and we’re tracking today's top stories: BNP Paribas caught up in French money laundering investigation, China probes illegal baby surrogacies, fall of a fintech star accused of massive fraud, Chinese chess champion stripped of title, and much more...

 

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Featured Story

 

🎯 BNP Paribas caught up in French money laundering investigation. The preliminary probe is focused on transfers worth several hundreds of millions of euros and dollars made by TCR International Limited. Reuters

 

Top Stories

 

🌎 Chinese Media Expose Prompts Probe Into Illegal Baby Surrogacies. Despite Beijing’s repeated crackdowns and an outright ban, underground surrogacy services continue to thrive in China. Bloomberg

 

🌎 ‘A fiction’: the fall of a fintech star accused of ‘massive fraud’. An SEC complaint alleges Tingo inflated its accounts with ‘billions of dollars of fictitious transactions.” FT

 

🌎 Chinese chess champion stripped of title after defecating in hotel bathtub. Yan Chenglong crowned ‘Xiangqi King’ but overdid celebrations, as governing body investigates whether he cheated using anal beads. AFP

 

🌎 Congress warns science agency over AI grant to tech-linked think tank. Lawmakers are worried the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s planned grant to the RAND Corp. lacks transparency. Politico

 

🌎 Hackers steal customer data from Europe’s largest parking app operator. Owner of RingGo and ParkMobile says data including parts of credit card numbers taken in cyber-attack. Guardian

 

🌎 Prosecutors fire back at Bob Menendez bid to delay corruption trial, claim ‘nothing’ justifies move. Menendez, 69, is accused along with his wife Nadine of accepting bribes — including more than $150,000 in gold bars and a Mercedes-Benz convertible. NY Post

 

🌎 Wave of drug-carrying drones flying into India from Pakistan. Border officers say most drones carry opium and heroin, fueling a drugs crisis in Punjab, while others drop weapons. Guardian

 

🌎 Pat Andrew, the phony movie producer, a liar with many faces and victims. Legal cases have been opened against the American businessman in both Spain and Switzerland, for stealing labor and hundreds of thousands of euros. El Pais

 

🌎 Hamas Attacks Should Renew Our Commitment to the 9/11 Report. Analyzing the Hamas Oct. 7 attacks through the prism of the 9/11 Report will aid our policymakers and serve as a reminder that we must remain vigilant in formulating new CT measures. Messenger

IN THE NEWS

Sanctions Brief

 

📌 China Sanctions U.S. Firm Kharon AP

 

📌 Russia pivots oil sales to India amid Ukraine sanctions DW

 

📌 South Korea sanctions 8 North Koreans over arms trade, cyberattacks Reuters

 

📌 China threatens more trade sanctions on Taiwan as election nears Reuters

 

More news...

China

 

🇨🇳 China’s Yuan Is Quietly Gaining Ground WSJ

 

🇨🇳 Chinese Spy Agency Rising to Challenge CIA NYT

 

🇨🇳 Tariffs on art are worsening frayed China-US relations, deepening ongoing trade war Art Newspaper

 

🇨🇳 How China Manages Its Currency – and Why That Matters WSJ

 

More news...

Russia

 

🇷🇺 Russia’s Novatek Starts Arctic LNG 2 Project Amid US Sanctions Bloomberg

 

🇷🇺 Russia wants to topple dollar dominance, but it isn't even able to deliver oil to India with alternative currencies Insider

 

🇷🇺 Seizing Russia’s Central Bank Funds Is Illegal and Unwise Bloomberg

 

🇷🇺 Indian Envoy Hails Relationship With Russia, Bypassing Western Pressure NYT

 

More news...

Crypto & Cyber

 

🔐 Elections, SEC Cases, DOJ Cases: What Crypto Regulation May Bring in 2024 CoinDesk

 

🔐 Biggest Crypto Exploits and Hacks of 2023 Decrypt

 

🔐 A cyberattack blocks Albania's Parliament AP

 

🔐 Warning As 1Password, DashLane, LastPass And 3 Others Leak Passwords Forbes

 

More news...

Corruption & Financial Crime

 

💸 Colombia's ELN rebels say they will only stop kidnappings for ransom if government funds cease-fire AP

 

💸 CIA accused of hiding records that analysts took ‘monetary incentives’ to bury COVID lab leak finding NY Post

 

💸 Is the UK sleepwalking into a lethal US-style opioid drugs crisis? Independent

 

💸 Bizman Behind Infomercial Drugs Had Taste for the Luxe Life Daily Beast

 

More news...

“The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little they really know about what they imagine they can design” -- F. A. Hayek

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