₦airaland Forum

The Port of Abidjan in the Ivory Coast (Côte d'Ivoire) has decided to hold the cargo ship laden with ammonium nitrate offshore while it reviews safety concerns raised in the community and the local media. It is a continuation of the drama that began in September with bulker Ruby and now with the cargo transferred to the Barbados-flagged cargo ship Zimrida (37,296 dwt).

Concerns were reported in the Ivory Coast that the cargo aboard the vessel might have become contaminated and possibly unstable. The vessel took board nearly all the 20,000 tonnes of ammonium nitrate fertilizer that was first shipped from Russia last summer. The first ship, Ruby (37,000 dwt) was damaged in an Arctic storm and sought refuge in Norway. It was denied multiple ports before finally being permitted to offload its cargo in Great Yarmouth in the UK.

Serenity Ship Management based in the UAE which manages Ruby arranged for the cargo to be transferred to another vessel it manages, Zimrida, as part of the agreement. However, it came out in the British press that some of the cargo had been contaminated with fuel oil. That portion was reportedly dumped by the Ruby into the North Sea. However, concerns are being raised in Abidjan that the cargo aboard the Zimrida might also be contaminated. Port officials in a statement on January 4 said they had decided to hold the vessel offshore while they were meeting on Monday, January 6, with the buyer of the cargo, the carrier, and customs officials.

Zimrida had arrived off Ivory Coast on December 30 and had been scheduled to dock this afternoon local time, January 6, in Abidjan. According to the statement, the plan was to offload 3,000 tons of the fertilizer which is in bags. There was no information on where the remainder of the cargo would be going. The port highlights that ammonium nitrate is a regular fertilizer and that all cargoes landed are subject to strict safety protocols. They said the port of Abidjan handled 20,000 tons of traffic in 2023 and 38,000 tons in 2024.

“This is the place to reassure the Ivorian populations that all goods, entering or disembarking in Ivorian ports, are subject to diligent control by the competent State services, which constantly monitor the health and safety of the populations,” the port authority wrote in its statement.

As of late Monday afternoon, local time, the Zimrida continues to wait offshore according to its AIS signal.
https://maritime-executive.com/article/ivory-coast-holds-ammonium-nitrate-cargo-offshore-as-concerns-continues

Three Chinese nationals have been arrested with 12 gold bars and $800,000 (£650,000) in cash in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, officials say. The gold and money was hidden under the seats of the vehicle they were travelling in, according to Jean Jacques Purusi, the governor of South Kivu province. He said the operation to arrest the men had been kept secret after the recent release of another group of Chinese nationals accused of running an illegal gold mine in the area. Eastern DR Congo has abundant reserves of gold, diamonds and the minerals used to make batteries for mobile phones and electric vehicles. Purusi said some of these dealers in precious metals enjoyed good relations with influential people in the capital, Kinshasa, and this was why the mission to carry out these latest arrests had to be kept quiet. He said they had been acting on a tip-off and that the gold and money was only found after a meticulous search of the vehicle in the Walungu area not far from the border with Rwanda. He did not say exactly how much gold had been seized.

Last month, the governor told reporters he was shocked to hear that 17 Chinese nationals, who had been arrested on allegations they had been running an illegal gold mine, had been freed and allowed to return to China. He said this undermined efforts to clean up DR Congo's notoriously murky mineral sector. They owed $10m in taxes and fines to the government, the Reuters news agency quotes him as saying. The Chinese embassy has not commented on the allegations.

The arrests come as fighting continues to flare in the neighbouring North Kivu province, where a Rwanda-backed rebel group has captured large areas of territory. Last month, DR Congo said it was suing Apple over the use of "blood minerals", prompting the tech giant to say it had stopped getting supplies from both DR Congo and neighbouring Rwanda. Rwanda has denied being a conduit for the export of illegal minerals from DR Congo. In their lawsuit, lawyers acting for the Congolese government alleged that the minerals taken from conflict areas was then "laundered through international supply chains". "These activities have fuelled a cycle of violence and conflict by financing militias and terrorist groups and have contributed to forced child labour and environmental devastation," they said.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cdx9w4j5q92o

A relative of 22-year-old Peter Muteti, who was seized in Nairobi, on 21 December, told the BBC on Monday that he had been reunited with the family but was disoriented and unable to speak about the ordeal. Amnesty International Kenya welcomed the releases and urged "the State to free all abductees and hold those responsible accountable". Two weeks ago the police denied responsibility for the abductions carried out by men in plain clothes across the country, some of which were captured on CCTV. Rights groups and other Kenyans have linked the abductions to a shadowy intelligence and counter-terrorism unit of the security forces.

Amid the public uproar, President Ruto said last month: "We are going to stop the abductions so that our youth can live peacefully and have discipline", while urging parents to take care of their children. Until now, no-one had been freed since he spoke on 27 December, with activists planning protests on Monday to push the government to act. On Monday the police released an update acknowledging the freeing of the men, saying they were already in contact with one of the abductees, Bernard Kavuli, who had presented himself at a police station. The police said investigations into all cases of missing people were under way. One other man - Ronny Kiplangat – has also been released, his family told local media. Mr Kavuli, a content creator, was seized on the outskirts of Nairobi in December, while Mr Kiplangat is the brother of Kibet Bull. Two others were seized after posting AI-generated images of the president. At least 24 people are still missing.

The Law Society of Kenya has filed a legal case against the state, demanding the immediate and unconditional release of seven individuals abducted last month, including those who have now been released. The situation continues to stoke fear across the country, with parents worried about the safety of their children and activists vowing to maintain pressure until all missing persons are accounted for.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ced8q1yxggqo

Five young Kenyan men - including a popular cartoonist - who went missing just before the Christmas holidays have been found alive, family members and rights groups say. Kenya has been gripped by a wave of disappearances, with the state-funded rights group saying that over 80 people have been abducted in the last six months. The abductions generally target government critics and are widely believed to be the work of security agents, although the authorities have not admitted responsibility. They began in June last year during nationwide anti-tax protests, but increased in December, when AI-generated photos of the president in a coffin were widely shared. The youth-led protests forced President William Ruto to withdraw a series of planned tax rises and shook his government, leaving his authority badly undermined. Kibet Bull, known for his silhouette cartoon memes critical of the president, announced his release on Monday afternoon on X to much fanfare. He told his 105,000 followers that he had been dropped off in the town of Luanda, nearly 370 km (229 miles) from the capital, Nairobi, where he was last seen in December. Kibet Bull said straight after he was released he went to a disco. His mother told the BBC she "rejoiced" after she heard the news that her son had returned. "I gave him a call and we talked, we didn't talk much, the moment he told me 'I am Kibet' and I heard his voice, I screamed, I celebrated until he hung up," she said.

The others released on Monday include 24-year-old student Billy Mwangi in Embu, in the central Mount Kenya region. Local MP Gitonga Mukunji told journalists that Mr Mwangi "was whipped and beaten while in a dark room. He is traumatised." Mr Mwangi's father said his son was not able to discuss what he had gone through adding that he had been taken to hospital. "He came home around eight in the morning. He walked by himself - his mother and I saw him. We thank everyone who has prayed and supported him," he told the Daily Nation news site. Last week, Mr Mwangi's father broke down in court as he pleaded for his son to be released.

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To protect themselves, users should never click on links within emails unless they can verify the legitimacy of the sender. Experts also recommend bolstering account security with two-factor authentication and strong passwords or passkeys. “Ultimately,” Moore told Forbes, “whether AI has enhanced an attack or not, we need to remind people about these increasingly more sophisticated attacks and how to think twice before transferring money or divulging personal information when requested — however believable the request may seem.”

“AI is giving cybercriminals the ability to easily create more personalized and convincing emails and messages that look like they’re from trusted sources,” security company McAfee recently warned. “These types of attacks are expected to grow in sophistication and frequency.” While many savvy internet users now know the telltale signs of traditional email scams, it’s much harder to tell when these new personalized messages are fraudulent. Gmail, Outlook, and Apple Mail do not yet have adequate “defenses in place to stop this,” Forbes reports. “Social engineering,” ESET cybersecurity advisor Jake Moore told Forbes “has an impressive hold over people due to human interaction but now as AI can apply the same tactics from a technological perspective, it is becoming harder to mitigate unless people really start to think about reducing what they post online.”
https://nypost.com/2025/01/04/tech/gmail-outlook-and-apple-users-urged-to-watch-out-for-this-new-email-scam-cybersecurity-experts-sound-alarm/

AI tools are being maliciously used to send “hyper-personalized emails” that are so sophisticated victims can’t identify that they’re fraudulent. According to the Financial Times, AI bots are compiling information about unsuspecting email users by analyzing their “social media activity to determine what topics they may be most likely to respond to.” Scam emails are subsequently sent to the users that appear as if they’re composed by family and friends. Because of the personal nature of the email, the recipient is unable to identify that it is actually nefarious. “This is getting worse and it’s getting very personal, and this is why we suspect AI is behind a lot of it,” Kristy Kelly, the chief information security officer at the insurance agency Beazley, told the outlet. “We’re starting to see very targeted attacks that have scraped an immense amount of information about a person.” Bad actors are also able to utilize AI to write convincing phishing emails that mimic banks, accounts and more. According to data from the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and cited by the Financial Times, over 90% of successful breaches start with phishing messages. These highly sophisticated scams can bypass the security measures, and inbox filters meant to screen emails for scams could be unable to identify them, Nadezda Demidova, cybercrime security researcher at eBay, told The Financial Times. “The availability of generative AI tools lowers the entry threshold for advanced cybercrime,” Demidova said. McAfee warned that 2025 would usher in a wave of advanced AI used to “craft increasingly sophisticated and personalized cyber scams,” according to a recent blog post. Software company Check Point issued a similar prediction for the new year.

“In 2025, AI will drive both attacks and protections,” Dr. Dorit Dor, the company’s chief technology officer, said in a statement. “Security teams will rely on AI-powered tools tailored to their unique environments, but adversaries will respond with increasingly sophisticated, AI-driven phishing and deepfake campaigns.”

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It's because in every country you have a puppet government.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caBDPFx2et4

Some of these cops are blaming these crimes on bail reform, which is BS. Bail reform impacts petty and nonviolent crimes.

The U.S. Treasury on Friday sanctioned a Beijing-based cybersecurity company for its alleged role in multiple hacking incidents targeting critical U.S. infrastructure. The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control hit Integrity Technology Group, Inc. with sanctions Friday morning, for conducting multiple hacks against U.S. victims, including incidents attributed to Flax Typhoon, a Chinese state-sponsored campaign that targets U.S. critical infrastructure. The sanctions come a few days after Treasury reported that Chinese hackers remotely accessed several U.S. Treasury Department workstations and unclassified documents in a major cybersecurity incident.

The Treasury Department said it learned of the problem on Dec. 8, when a third-party software service provider, BeyondTrust, flagged that hackers had stolen a key “used by the vendor to secure a cloud-based service used to remotely provide technical support” to workers. Friday’s sanctions do not appear to be related to the Dec. 8 Treasury hack. Treasury Acting Under Secretary Bradley Smith said the U.S. will disrupt cyber threats “as we continue working collaboratively to harden public and private sector cyber defenses.” The sanctions block access to U.S. property and bank accounts and prevent the targeted people and companies from doing business with Americans.

U.S. officials are continuing to grapple with the fallout of a massive Chinese cyberespionage campaign known as Salt Typhoon that gave officials in Beijing access to private texts and phone conversations of an unknown number of Americans.
https://nypost.com/2025/01/04/world-news/us-sanctions-beijing-based-cyber-group-for-its-alleged-role-in-hacking-incidents/

The 26-year-old victim told police he boarded the northbound No. 2 train at Fulton Street and that his attacker got on at 72nd Street and attempted to sit on his girlfriend’s lap, police said. When the victim asked Banks to step back, Banks allegedly pulled out a knife and stabbed him in the lower left leg. The officers who responded applied a tourniquet and the victim was taken to a hospital, cops said. Banks was arrested on Dec. 14 for the attack and charged with assault with intent to cause injury with a weapon. It wasn’t immediately clear what happened to the case after that. In June 2015, Banks was accused of bursting out of a McDonald’s bathroom at 14th Street and Sixth Avenue in Manhattan and stabbing a man who had knocked on the door to see if the facility was occupied, the police sources said. In June 1997, Banks was charged with attempted murder after a man bumped into him, allegedly prompting Banks to shoot the man in the leg, the sources said. The victim told cops he was walking on East 226th Street in the Bronx when a man bumped into him. He kept walking and was about to go into a store when Banks allegedly opened fire, the sources said. Banks, who was 24 at the time, was charged with intent to commit murder, assault with intent to cause serious injury with a weapon, criminal use of a firearm in the first degree, criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree, cops said. The outcome of the case wasn’t immediately clear.
https://nypost.com/2025/01/04/us-news/knife-wielding-man-on-the-loose-in-nyc-after-subway-stabbings-nypd/

A knife-wielding maniac with a history of mental illness and 87 prior arrests is wanted in connection with at least two stabbings in the subway this week, The Post has learned. Cops searching for Jamar Banks were warned to use “extreme caution” when encountering him because he is believed to be armed with “a large knife,” according to a message sent to police officers and obtained by The Post. Banks, 52, is known to frequent the No. 2 and No. 5 subway lines, authorities said in the message. He’s being sought in connection with stabbings on Jan. 1 and Jan. 2, according to the NYPD. A surveillance photo allegedly shows Banks holding the knife in gloved hands. “He has a very very lengthy arrest history,” a police source said. “It looks like he rides the rails back and forth.” Banks is wanted for allegedly approaching a 31-year-old man from behind on a 2 train at 14th Street and Seventh Avenue in Manhattan on Wednesday and starting an argument, before stabbing him in the back and running away. He’s also suspected of knifing an off-duty MTA cleaner in the back and armpit around 6 a.m. Thursday, after starting an argument with the victim on a northbound 6 train platform at the Pelham Bay station in the Bronx, police said. The attacker fled after the stabbing. Both victims were taken to hospitals in stable condition. Banks’ rap sheet includes arrests for charges including attempted murder, weapons possession, assault, criminal trespassing, turnstile jumping and petty larceny, police sources said. Banks allegedly stabbed a man in the leg with a kitchen knife on a Manhattan subway around 11 p.m. on Oct. 19, 2022, cops said.

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A China state-backed actor successfully breached US Treasury Department workstations and accessed “unclassified” documents via a cloud service intrusion earlier this month, officials told a key Senate committee. The cyber intruders targeted a third-party security system, BeyondTrust, which alerted the Treasury of the breach on Dec. 8, prompting the department to take the compromised service offline, according to a spokesperson. “There is no evidence indicating the threat actor has continued access to Treasury systems or information,” a Treasury spokesperson told The Post. “Treasury takes very seriously all threats against our systems, and the data it holds.” “Over the last four years, Treasury has significantly bolstered its cyber defense, and we will continue to work with both private and public sector partners to protect our financial system from threat actors.” Treasury officials apprised members of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs of the breach Monday, according to a letter reviewed by The Post.

BeyondTrust had flagged the breach to the Treasury, revealing that the “threat actor” had obtained a key needed to get remote access to the cloud service. From there, the hackers were able to overcome security systems in place and get remote access to the materials from Treasury workstations, per officials. The Treasury is collaborating with the FBI, the Intelligence Community, third-party forensic investigators, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency on the matter, per the spokesperson. News of the hack comes amid heightened concerns about the Chinese hacking group Salt Typhoon. Salt Typhoon is alleged to have been behind a sweeping telecommunications system hack revealed over the summer that allegedly gave Beijing access to communications by President-elect Donald Trump, Vice President-elect JD Vance and others. China has also hacked other critical government departments in the past. Last year, for instance, Microsoft revealed that a “China-based actor” hacked into accounts affecting over two dozen organizations, including the US State and Commerce Departments.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen traveled to Beijing last year where she caused a stir by bowing to her counterpart as part of a Biden administration effort to mend fences with China. She also traveled to China in April of this year. Trade disputes between China and the US are expected to heat up under the incoming Trump administration. The Post contacted reps for BeyondTrust and China’s embassy in the US for comment.
https://nypost.com/2024/12/30/us-news/chinese-hackers-infiltrate-us-treasury-in-major-cyberattack-officials-tell-congress/

A postal worker was stabbed to death in a fight with a "woman" over a spot on line at a Harlem deli Thursday — marking at least the third murder in New York City in just the first two days of the new year. Ray Hodges, an on-duty USPS letter carrier assigned to Manhattan, was knifed multiple times inside the deli at 168 Lenox Ave. around 2:40 p.m., authorities said. Sources told The Post the knife-wielding suspect went crazy and gutted the victim in the stomach after he stepped in front of "her" in line, leaving his blood smeared all over the floors and glass door. Hodges, 36, was rushed to Harlem Hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries, cops said. His alleged killer, "Jaia" Cruz, was arrested at the scene and the knife was recovered, according to sources. Cruz, 24, has been charged with murder.

“The Postal Inspection Service can confirm that on January 2, 2025, a United States Postal Service letter carrier, assigned to Manhattan, was the victim of a homicide,” a spokesperson for the postal agency The Post. “USPIS takes matters involving the safety and well-being of post service employees as a top priority. We are working diligently with the New York State Police Department on this investigation.”

Dr. Iesha Sekou, founder and CEO of Street Corner Resources, an anti-violence organization, said she spent the afternoon in the hospital comforting the victim’s devastated mother and family. Sekou said her organization is notified whenever a victim of a violent act, including stabbings, shootings and assaults, arrives at Harlem Hospital — which she claims is happening more and more. “It’s sad that in the holiday season, you have to look around and watch everybody and see where they have their hands,” Sekou told The Post. “The energy is so flat and so fearful. We have to become a bigger and stronger and better city.”

https://nypost.com/2025/01/02/us-news/on-duty-postal-worker-fatally-stabbed-in-harlem-in-broad-daylight-attack/

It's most likely not a "mass shooting." It's probably gang stuff. The same gangs that people celebrate when they listen to trap or most rap now, or watch ignorant movies.

It's interesting that these gangs never have this energy for the 1%.

“These groups often divide tasks among different teams. One crew scouts parking lots, noting high-value vehicles and passing that intel to the thieves. A separate group handles fake paperwork and arranges storage or resale. This setup keeps them flexible and difficult to track,” Brown explained. Petrino similarly said members of a theft ring “have specific roles: some handle scouting, others manage the technical aspects of reprogramming, and others handle transportation and resale of stolen vehicles.”

They also operate “in multiple jurisdictions,” Petrino explained, “making them harder to track and prosecute.” Because these organized theft rings operate across state lines, expert coordination is needed among law enforcement entities to track down suspects, he added. On top of that, police departments “often lack the resources to dedicate to complex, multi-state investigations, especially if the thefts are part of a larger criminal enterprise,” Petrino said. Brown similarly explained that to combat these theft rings, like targeting bigger threats, local, state and federal authorities need to join forces. “This collaboration helps tie all the pieces together and disrupt the entire theft network. It’s not an easy task, but with persistent teamwork and resource sharing, law enforcement can weaken these rings and protect travelers,” the former Green Beret said. The case is under investigation. The FBI’s Dallas Field Office is aware of the theft ring and is assisting DFW Airport Police with their investigation, the bureau told Fox News Digital.
https://nypost.com/2025/01/01/us-news/5m-worth-of-cars-stolen-from-major-us-airport-by-wide-spread-organized-theft-ring-report/

The ring has allegedly targeted airports across the West, including Texas, New Mexico, Utah, and Nevada. Alleged ringleader Yoel Hernandez-Frometa, 37, used “Autel devices,” which are auto diagnostic tools, “to reprogram key fobs so he can steal vehicles,” the affidavit said, according to NBC 5. Gene Petrino, co-owner of Survival Response LLC and a retired SWAT commander, told Fox News Digital that it’s common for organized theft rings to use Autel tools “to reprogram key fobs and bypass modern security systems.” They often target “vehicles based on their market demand or resale value,” he added. “These devices, designed for legitimate locksmiths and mechanics, can be misused to mimic or reset vehicle keys,” Petrino said. Hernandez-Frometa and two others, including 30-year-old Jose Alejandro Pavon-Estopian and 29-year-old Vainer Pinollotoro, were arrested in Salt Lake City, Utah, in July on charges of possession of a stolen vehicle, fleeing in a vehicle, failing to stop at the command of police, and possession of burglary tools. The three suspects were allegedly caught looking into vehicles at the Salt Lake City airport, and when police caught up with them and attempted to conduct a traffic stop, they fled. Authorities eventually located and detained the suspects with help from multiple law enforcement divisions. During their investigation, they recovered one of the suspect’s backpacks, which was “full of blank car key fobs.” Officers also found keycards to a nearby motel and obtained a search warrant for the motel. With help from the Salt Lake City Police Department’s SWAT team clearing the suspects’ room, officers “found more evidence of a coordinated stolen car operation,” including a “laptop, other hardware used to communicate electronic signals, and a device used to program key fobs inside the stolen car the suspects bailed from,” police said at the time. The Salt Lake City Police Department noted that the three men had no ties to the city. It is unclear if any of the additional 11 suspects involved in the theft ring have been arrested.

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An organized theft ring with at least 14 members nationwide is accused of stealing nearly $5 million worth of vehicles from the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport between 2023 and November 2024, according to a search warrant obtained by local news. “Approximately 14 suspects have been identified … the suspects in this group have stolen approximately 52 cars from DFW, for a total loss of $4.9 million,” officials said in the affidavit obtained by NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth. The DFW Airport told Fox News Digital in a statement that “airport police have recently made significant arrests that have disrupted organized crime rings and greatly reduced reported car thefts at DFW.”

“In 2023 there were a total of 142 vehicle thefts reported in the terminal areas at DFW. Through November 2024 there were only 60 cars reported stolen, which is a reduction of nearly 58% year-over-year,” a DFW Airport spokesperson said in a statement. “Police are generally seeing thieves target high-end muscle cars and luxury SUVs. As has been reported extensively, auto theft is an unfortunate national issue that airports and other public facilities across the country are confronting.” The number of car thefts over the last year at DFW is low compared to the 3.4 million vehicles that are parked at the airport every year, the DFW spokesperson added.

“From my time as a U.S. Army Special Forces Green Beret, I’ve seen that organized theft rings use many of the same tactics as transnational crime networks or terrorist cells,” Eric Brown, founder and CEO of Imperio Consulting and a 24-year Green Beret veteran and security expert, told Fox News Digital. “They look for easy targets, focusing on weak security measures and predictable routines. The key for travelers is to avoid making your vehicle a soft target.”

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A Virginia man arrested two weeks ago on an illegal gun charge was allegedly concealing the largest arsenal of “finished explosive devices” ever seized by the FBI, the bureau said in court documents. Brad Spafford, 36, was found to have over 150 homemade explosive devices, an illegal short-barrel rifle, a target-practice photograph of President Biden, and bomb-building materials at his Norfolk farm, prosecutors claim, according to Court Watch. Spafford was taken into custody outside his farm on Dec. 17 based on a criminal complaint alleging he was in possession of an unregistered short-barrel rifle, according to Court Watch.

Investigators, searching the 20-acre property, then allegedly found the majority of the 150 explosive devices in a detached garage, court documents filed by the Joint Terrorism Task Force state. More pipe bombs were found in Spafford’s bedroom — those were stored in a backpack that had a patch in the shape of a hand grenade bearing the phrase “#NoLivesMatter,” prosecutors allege. Prosecutors also alleged that Spafford was in possession of a jar of hexamethylene triperoxide diamine — or HMTD — a highly volatile compound used in high profile terrorist acts including the 2005 London public transport bombing. A notebook containing recipes for explosives was also found on the property, according to the court documents. Spafford used a photograph of Biden in his shooting range for target practice — and allegedly remarked to a police informant that he wanted to “bring back political assassination,” Court Watch reported.

That informant was a neighbor who secretly recorded conversations with Spafford, according to The New York Times. Prosecutors alleged in a bond hearing that the amount of equipment found at the home indicates the accused was planning “something that Spafford would not be able to do alone,” according to the Smithfield Times. Bond was set at $25,000 bond on the condition that Spafford remains under electronic monitoring and within the confines of his mother’s house.
https://nypost.com/2024/12/31/us-news/fbi-seizes-150-homemade-explosive-devices-from-virginia-farm/

The same problem exists globally: the 1%.

https://www.stlouisfed.org/-/media/project/frbstl/stlouisfed/blog/2024/ov/feb/pie-chart-2_825_2m.gif



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caBDPFx2et4

It’s challenging for companies to keep up with trends in crime as they’re scaling up their workforces, Jonathan Lopez, a former federal prosecutor who specializes in bank crime cases, told Bloomberg. “The issue may not be one of a faulty program in many instances, but the sheer numbers of people involved,” Lopez said. “While zero fraud rates may be impossible, institutions should be incentivized to continue to strive to get their fraud rates and insider fraud rates as close to zero as possible.”

Canada-based TD Bank was fined $3 billion in a historic settlement with US authorities after multiple branch employees accepted gift cards or cash bribes to open accounts and debit cards used to move money to Colombia, according to Attorney General Merrick Garland. One New York-based TD branch manager stole more than $200,000 from an elderly client, stealing from their account even after the retiree died. TD later fired the banker, who admitted to the crime and was sentenced to more than a year in prison. His lawyer said he stole the funds to pay for his son’s college tuition.

In September, New York authorities accused Daria Sewell, a new member of the TD scheme, of taking and posting images of customers’ checks on Telegram with instructions on how to steal from the accounts. A network of New York fraudsters were later charged in a $500,000 check-fraud scheme, according to the Manhattan district attorney’s office. Sewell pleaded not guilty to illegally possessing personal information.

“In both instances the employees were terminated and we cooperated fully with authorities in their investigations,” a TD spokesperson told Bloomberg. “As we have consistently said, these individuals aren’t representative of our 30,000 colleagues in the US who serve our customers with integrity.”
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Bank staffers are selling client data in back-door deals with online fraudsters — helping to facilitate sophisticated scams that target the live savings of Americans, according to a report. These bank insiders, usually the lowest-paid employees, continue to get caught selling personal information, exposing a major weakness in bank security, Bloomberg News reported. “The more employees there are inside a company with access to sensitive customer information, the higher the risk that access is going to be abused,” said R.J. Cross, a privacy advocate at US Public Interest Research Group.

Nearly a decade ago, then-New York Attorney General Eric Schneidermann warned major banks including JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Citigroup, to boost their internal security measures after finding insider leaks were on the rise. The banks contend to lawmakers and the public that the customers are responsible for ensuring they don’t get scammed — but the trend has only worsened over time. Elder fraud complaints to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center spiked 14% last year and associated losses grew 11%, according to a government report released earlier this year.

Among the incidents cited by Bloomberg was a new staffer at Toronto-Dominion Bank who was hired to detect money laundering from a New York outpost. Instead, she used her internal access to leak customers’ personal information to a criminal network via Telegram, according to Manhattan prosecutors. Her phone allegedly had photos of 255 checks belonging to bank customers, as well as personal information from 70 more, according to detectives.

In Florida, Wade Helms, a staffer at Navy Federal Credit Union, allegedly wrote customers’ personal information in a notebook, then made an account on Telegram and posted that he was looking for a buyer, Florida officials said. He would speak to a Telegram user who claimed to be a broker for stolen data over the phone and on a personal computer next to his office desk, prosecutors said. By the time Navy Federal discovered the breach, Telegram pages called “Navy Wave” used to leak client data had exposed as many as 50 accounts to more than 2,700 subscribers. Helms pleaded no contest to 11 charges in a deal with prosecutors this year and was sentenced to 10 years’ probation. He was ordered to pay about $9,100 in restitution to the credit union. “Navy Federal takes all necessary precautions to protect our members’ personal and financial information,” a spokesperson told The Post in a statement, adding that they are constantly strengthening their security measures.
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Does he have the time? Isn't he really busy being America's stooge and terrorizing DRC? I don't think Ayra finds that sexy.

Researchers have developed a new type of material that could make sodium batteries more efficient. Developed by an international team of interdisciplinary researchers, including the Canepa Research Laboratory at the University of Houston, the material could boost the energy performance of sodium batteries, paving the way for a more sustainable and affordable energy future. Researchers have highlighted that the new material, sodium vanadium phosphate with the chemical formula NaxV2(PO4)3, improves sodium-ion battery performance by increasing the energy density—the amount of energy stored per kilogram—by more than 15%. With a higher energy density of 458 watt-hours per kilogram (Wh/kg) compared to the 396 Wh/kg in older sodium-ion batteries, this material brings sodium technology closer to competing with lithium-ion batteries.

Pieremanuele Canepa, Robert Welch assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at UH and lead researcher of the Canepa Lab, stated that sodium is nearly 50 times cheaper than lithium and can even be harvested from seawater, making it a much more sustainable option for large-scale energy storage. “Sodium-ion batteries could be cheaper and easier to produce, helping reduce reliance on lithium and making battery technology more accessible worldwide.” The researchers also created a battery prototype using the new material, NaxV2(PO4)3, demonstrating significant energy storage improvements. NaxV2(PO4)3, part of a group called “Na superionic conductors” or NaSICONs, is designed to let sodium ions move smoothly in and out of the battery during charging and discharging, according to a press release.

The material has a unique way of handling sodium, allowing it to work as a single-phase system. This means it remains stable as it releases or takes in sodium ions. This allows the NaSICON to remain stable during charging and discharging while delivering a continuous voltage of 3.7 volts versus sodium metal, higher than the 3.37 volts in existing materials, according to researchers. Researchers have also claimed that while this difference may seem small, it significantly increases the battery’s energy density or how much energy it can store for its weight. The key to its efficiency is vanadium, which can exist in multiple stable states, allowing it to hold and release more energy. “The continuous voltage change is a key feature. It means the battery can perform more efficiently without compromising the electrode stability. That’s a game-changer for sodium-ion technology,” said Canepa.

Researchers claimed that the implications of this work extend beyond sodium-ion batteries. The synthesis method used to create NaxV2(PO4)3 could be applied to other materials with similar chemistries, opening new possibilities for advanced energy storage technologies. That could, in turn, impact everything from more affordable, sustainable batteries to power our devices to help us transition to a cleaner energy economy, as per the release. Canepa stated that the researchers’ goal is to find clean, sustainable solutions for energy storage. It highlighted that this material shows that sodium-ion batteries can meet the high-energy demands of modern technology while being cost-effective and environmentally friendly.
https://interestingengineering.com/energy/sodium-batteries-breakthrough-material

Six teams will descend on Miami in January 2025 for the debut of Unrivaled, a new 3-on-3 women's professional basketball league.

The league, founded by former UConn teammates and current WNBA stars Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart, will run for nine weeks, before concluding with the championship on Monday, March 17. Thirty-six players will compete across six clubs: Laces, Lunar Owls, Mist, Phantom, Rose and Vinyl.

Here are the full rosters for all six teams and the full schedule for the 2025 season. All games will be televised on TNT or truTV along with being streamed on Max.

https://www.ncaa.com/news/basketball-women/article/2024-12-04/unrivaled-league-rosters-schedule-how-watch-new-3x3-womens-basketball-league

Should be interesting to see how some people's games hold up in that situation, and how others...don't.

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Growing Papaya in Pots

https://www.tyrantfarms.com/how-to-grow-papayas-in-pots-in-non-tropical-climate-zones/

Papaya Disorders
Be very careful with treating for pests and diseases because you can end up with toxic buildup, or destroy the plant.

https://blog.plantwise.org/2024/04/03/common-papaya-disorders-a-comprehensive-guide/