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🎯Kremlin unveils windfall tax to raise $4B from oligarchs. Putin is feeling the pinch from its war in Ukraine so much that it's imposing a one-time windfall tax on large Russian companies and their oligarch owners. [more]
Top Stories
🔸Fake Twitter 'Blondes' Promote UAE Climate Summit. Researchers call them the "American blondes" -– bright-eyed environmentalists tweeting passionately in support of the UAE and its handling of the forthcoming COP28 climate summit. The only problem? They are not real. [more]
🔸Tucker Carlson spins new conspiracy on Trump’s arrest. Carlson pushed a new conspiracy theory that Donald Trump is being prosecuted for calling out Washington DC insiders over Iraq and weapons of mass destruction in his latest Twitter show. [more]
🔸Andrew Tate’s Human Trafficking Case Just Got a Lot More Serious. Prosecutors in Romania on Tuesday said Andrew Tate, his brother, and two other suspects are now being investigated for a more serious charge than the one initially filed against them. [more]
🔸Sinaloa Cartel exports fentanyl ‘kitchens’ from Mexico to Colombia amid international crackdown. Currently, pure fentanyl is widely provided illegally to Mexican drug cartels by China. But on a lower scale, China also exports precursors to manufacture fentanyl in Mexico. [more]
🔸Sanctioning Iran Has Reached its Limits as a Policy Tool. Iran has been able to alleviate the economic pressures of the sanctions by identifying and engaging with countries and entities that are not deterred by U.S. penalties. [more]
🔸The U.S. Accidentally Set Up This Secret Scammer’s Paradise. An app created by the Biden administration has apparently sowed the seeds for a chaotic free-for-all of scams at the Mexican border. [more]
🔸China Deepens Influence In Iraq With Oil-For-Infrastructure Deals. Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Iraq are the most prominent countries in which China is looking to secure long-term oil supply deals. [more]
🔸How Binance’s ‘extensive web of deception’ could lead to DOJ charges against the world’s largest crypto exchange. Last Monday, the Securities and Exchange Commission filed a 136-page complaint against Binance and its founder Changpeng Zhao, alleging the exchange had purposefully evaded U.S. oversight. [more]
🔸Democrat Big Shot Raked in Millions Meant for NYC’s Poor. New filings show Democratic fundraiser Henry Muñoz’s firm has received $41.6 million intended for the health care of NYC’s neediest, even as his legal problems mount. [more]
🔸North Korea Increases Exports of Wigs and Fake Eyelashes, Raising Alarms in US. Many of the wigs and false eyelashes labeled “Made in China” that are sold by American retailers may violate U.S. sanctions on North Korea, which is where they are actually manufactured. [more]
🔸South Africa in the spotlight over terror funding. It's a stark indictment for a country that, apart from the odd alerts issued by the US embassy, hardly registers on the radar of extremist activities worldwide. [more]
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