Jul 13 2023
The rate of lethal violence in the Amazon surpasses that of the rest of the country by more than 50%. The tragic deaths of environmental activists Bruno Pereira and Dom Philips serve as a stark reminder of the dangers faced by those who strive to protect the Amazon. Pereira, an expert on Indigenous peoples, and …
Jun 15 2023
Journalist María Teresa Montaño became obsessed with using the State of Mexico’s online procurement database to track down smaller and quirkier contracts. She suspected many contracts were fake, especially those handed to obscure companies based hundreds of kilometers away from her state. At least 17 journalists were reportedly murdered last year alone in Mexico, where …
Jun 12 2023
Bitcoin has undergone numerous ups and downs in its relatively short history, but only a few have been proclaimed as a full-on bull market. The latest one was back in late 2021 when the cryptocurrency skyrocketed to its ATH of $69,000. As bitcoin has recovered a lot of ground since its sub-$16,000 endeavor, the community …
Mar 23 2023
Olufunmilade Adeyemi was arrested in Ghana and extradited to his native Nigeria to face justice for allegedly stealing tens of thousands of dollars in sales of fictitious property. He somehow slalomed his way out of the process and four years later miraculously appeared in Sierra Leone posing as Harvard-educated business visionary Professor Alex O Phillips. …
Mar 23 2023
The bank’s sale to USB comes shortly after it reported its largest annual loss since the 2008 financial crisis. Its Hong Kong-based arm, Credit Suisse Securities, invests in listed Chinese entities, some of which are state-owned. Data from the Hong Kong Stock Exchange reveals the bank’s investments in sanctioned entities and companies connected to sanctioned …
Mar 18 2023
Proposed law would require NGOs and media outlets who receive more than 20% of their funding from abroad to register as “agents of foreign influence” They would also have to submit annual financial statements, facing fines of roughly US$9,400 and scrutiny from the Ministry of Justice for failure to comply. The proposal is seen as …
Mar 18 2023
Rio Tinto paid $10.5 million to a friend of former Guinean President Alpha Condé to retain globally important iron ore rights. The SEC found that the consultant in the middle of the scandal paid $200,000 to buy T-shirts for Condé’s re-election campaign, soon after receiving his first payment from Rio Tinto. While the settlement anonymises …
Mar 16 2023
Dumitru Gheorghe and his wife Maria were under FBI surveillance when he was tagged in a photo posted on Facebook in August 2021. They were arrested a month later. In his affidavit, the FBI agent who tailed the couple described them as “professional, international criminals” and members of the Riviera Maya Gang. The organized crime …
Mar 09 2023
Amazon is reportedly preparing to enter the world of non-fungible tokens (NFT) with the launch of its own Marketplace, reportedly scheduled for April 24th. The new ‘Amazon NFT Marketplace’ will offer 15 NFT collections that will initially be available to customers in the United States. One of the most interesting features of this Marketplace is …
