4/14/2020 News Briefs: (1)

Russian authorities have arrested a group of several dozen individuals who allegedly sold more than 1 billion counterfeit rubles (roughly $13.6 million in nominal value) for crypto assets over the dark web. The Russian Ministry Internal Affairs has—

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— described the scale and scope of the operation as unprecedented. Small batches of between 10,000 ($136) and 150,000 ($2,400) fake roubles were sold for 30 cents on the dollar, while bulk orders of 500,000 ($6,800) or more were priced at between 10% and 15% of their—

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— nominal value. Buyers would make payments using an anonymous wallet and exclusively with cryptocurrencies, Kommersant reports. The bills would then be delivered to various hiding places for collection.

(2) A man involved in the death of a 1-year-old child in 2015 has pleaded guilty to injury to a child causing serious bodily injury and has been sentenced to 20 years in prison. Charles D. Flournoy, who is now 26 years old, is a co-defendant in the case and was the mother’s—

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— boyfriend. In February 2020, 23-year-old Madison Rodriguez was found guilty of aggravated assault, domestic violence with a deadly weapon causing serious bodily injury. She was sentenced to 50 years in prison. Rodriguez was 18-years-old when she was initially—

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— charged with capital murder in 2015. She, along with then 21-year-old Charles Dillon Flournoy were both charged in connection with the death of 1-year-old Mason Rodriguez.

(3) Tech giants Apple and Google have joined forces to develop an interoperable contract-tracing tool that will help individuals determine if they have come in contact with someone infected with COVID-19. As part of this new initiative, companies are expected to release an—

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— API that public agencies can integrate into their apps. The next iteration will be a built-in system-level platform that uses Bluetooth low energy (BLE) beacons to allow for contact tracing on an opt-in basis. The APIs are expected to be available mid-May for—

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— Android and iOS, with the broader contact tracing system set to roll out “in the coming months.” “Privacy, transparency, and consent are of utmost importance in this effort, and we look forward to building this functionality in consultation with interested—

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— stakeholders,” the companies said. The rare collaboration comes as governments worldwide are increasingly turning to technology such as phone tracking and facial recognition to battle the virus and contain the coronavirus outbreak. [Root your phone!]

(4) Kim Jong Un’s Sister’s Rise Continues. Kim Yo Jong was reappointed to North Korea’s politburo. She was appointed to North Korea’s politburo in 2017 but is believed to have been removed last year after a second Kim-Trump summit fell through. Now she’s been reinstated.—

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— Kim Yo Jong has long been a close aide to her brother, but is recently rising again within the country’s hierarchy, experts say. On Saturday, she was reappointed to the central committee’s political bureau as an alternate member; the top policymaking body in the—

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— country and says Kim Yo Jong’s reappointment marks her “comeback.” Other top officials were also reshuffled that day, with Kim Jong Un presiding over the meeting during which Kim Yo Jong’s appointment was confirmed. She recently was appointed first vice-depart—

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— ment director of the central committee of the ruling Workers’ Party, and just last month started issuing statements under her own name. Also at Saturday’s meeting, the party adopted a resolution to take “more thorough state measures to protect life and safety of—

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— our people from the great worldwide epidemic disease” of COVID-19. North Korea officially claims zero coronavirus cases, but the Korea Times reports some observers think the country might be hushing up an outbreak.

(5) Seven illegal immigrants were arrested at Outjo on Sunday in a joint operation between the Ministry of Home Affairs and Immigration and the Namibian Police. According to the spokesperson of the Otjozunjupa police the operation, conducted by members of the police and—

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— immigration officials, resulted in seven illegal immigrants, five men and two women, from Zimbabwe being arrested without the necessary immigration permits or documentation.

(6) A Brooklyn Center woman charged with duping several members of the Hmong community into investing in a nonexistent ginseng farm was arrested in Georgia after eluding authorities for more than two years. Mai Vu Vang, 51, was arrested and extradited to Minnesota over weekend.—

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— Minnesota authorities allege that between 2012 and 2014, Vang persuaded nine Minnesota victims to give her more than $450,000 for a purported farm near Wausau, Wis. A couple who knew Vang from church gave her their life savings, the county attorney’s office said.—

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— Investigators discovered that in those two years, Vang spent an increasingly higher amount of money at Mystic Lake Casino buying chips or playing slot machines, eventually totaling more than a million dollars.

(7) When Lion Air Flight 610 took off in clear skies a year ago, the 737 jetliner carried with it an anti-stall system designed by Boeing that would propel the plane into a nose-dive minutes after takeoff, killing all 189 aboard. But the plane was saddled w/another safety burden—

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— Flight 610 was operated by Lion Air, a low-cost Indonesian carrier that has benefited from its political connections to become one of the world’s fastest growing airlines, despite a questionable safety record. While Boeing has faced intense scrutiny after two fatal—

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— crashes in less than five months, Lion Air has escaped similar attention.

(8) Sun Activity
Sunspot number: 0
Spotless Days
Current Stretch: 8 days
2020 total: 78 days (75%)
2019 total: 281 days (77%)

(9) #Earthquakes

Strongest EQ in Europe M4.1 Albania
Strongest EQ in North America M3.2 29 km depth California – Nevada Border
Strongest EQ on the Planet 5.2 Peru
Deepest EQ M4.2 180 km Argentina