Month: April 2024

Single Session & Two-Day Passes On Sale For Phillips 66 Big 12 Baseball Championship  KSAL

New Higher Majority Requirement for Condominium Deconversions in Chicago: Here’s What You Need to Know  The National Law Review

From condo to co-op: can owners avoid Florida’s structural reserves law by changing labels?  Palm Beach Post

FBI Offers $25000 Reward, Seeks Information to Identify Party Responsible for Attack at Electrical Substation in …  Federal Bureau of Investigation

Houston woman’s land stolen in title theft scam: FBI warns of growing trend  FOX 26 Houston

FBI busts seven Nigerian pickers in U.S. for laundering $8 million scam proceeds to Yahoo Boys in Lagos  Peoples Gazette

Mary Trump has said that even one night in jail would “ruin” her uncle, Donald Trump. Mary said she thinks even one night in jail would be anathema to Trump. “You seriously think — that guy you know Mr. Hair product and bronzer wants to be in a jail cell overnight without any of his products and without his cell phone?”

True. Not to mention without his ketchup bottles. “Imagine,” Mary Trump went on. “Imagine what he’s going to look like in the morning.” That’s so true. Looking at this situation rationally, can anyone believe Trump would be singing kumbaya all alone in a stinking jail cell? I, for one, do not.

If Trump does get thrown in the clink for one night or two or even longer, it will destroy him. Imagine it. Let me set the stage. It’s midnight. A groggy, rusty, farting Trump sits, orange hair standing on end, calling in vain for prison correctional guards to put in an order to McDonald’s.

He would have no golden toilet. Indeed, he’d not have a bed laden with silk sheets. He would have a long, uncomfortable prison bench and a dish of likely extremely unappetizing food pushed through his cell door.

He would not have a TV or a cell phone. He would just sit there, isolated and bored, collecting dust—lots of dust. Mary Trump said he can barely handle three HOURS per day in court. She said she feels like watching her uncle “dissolving before our eyes.”

That’s what she’s watching, alright. But Mary also said she has a hard time believing anyone could fear this man, this pathetic person who “can’t even keep his eyes open at his trial.”

The post Mary Trump says this will “ruin” Donald Trump appeared first on Palmer Report.

Chad is likely to become the next African nation where Russia is going to replace the Western footprint. This perspective goes in line with the Kremlin’s pattern of ousting Paris from African countries where it traditionally had sway, to establish colonial influence and natural resource control in the area (Idriss Déby Itno visited Moscow in January 2024).

An Ethiopian Airlines flight brought some 130 Russian ‘instructors’ to the capital of Chad, N’Djamena. We believe they are from the Africa Corps – the Russian expeditionary force, successor to the Wagner militias. Russian ‘instructors’ arrived several days after the announcement of upcoming withdrawal of 75 American military trainers from the country, on explicit request by Chad’s military junta.

These new developments come a week before national elections scheduled for May 6 in Chad. Chad is the final African nation in the Sahel to see Russia’s footprint penetrating gradually, which coincided with the French and now American retreat. We noted, in 2023, the trend of Russia infiltrating into Chad, with high probability of taking political control over the Idriss Déby Itno’s regime.

We believe there is a high chance of military bases being deployed in Niger, Mali and Sudan.Russian military ‘instructors’ arrived in Niamey on April 10, and were seen unloading equipment, including an air defense system. That kind of equipment means that a full-fledged base is going to be deployed, to establish military presence in the area. We doubt that Russia intends to back local regimes in fighting terrorism. The Kremlin most likely cares about protection and control of natural resources, as it’s going to extract them and bring to Russia, and showing its step-up in the region amid symbolic ousting of France and the U.S. from Africa. Russia’s relationship with local regimes is based on corruption and lobbying for authoritarian regimes in the UNSC. Following the elections in Chad, Russia is highly likely to use this area to bypass sanctions.

Washington — Scammers stole more than $3.4 billion from older Americans last year, according to an FBI report released Tuesday that shows a rise in losses through increasingly sophisticated criminal tactics to trick the vulnerable into giving up their life savings.

Losses from scams reported by Americans over the age of 60 last year were up 11% over the year before, according to the FBI’s report. Investigators are warning of a rise in brazen schemes to drain bank accounts that involve sending couriers in person to collect cash or gold from victims.

“It can be a devastating impact to older Americans who lack the ability to go out and make money,” said Deputy Assistant Director James Barnacle of the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division. “People lose all their money. Some people become destitute.”

The FBI received more than 100,000 complaints by victims of scams over the age of 60 last year, with nearly 6,000 people losing more than $100,000. It follows a sharp rise in reported losses by older Americans in the two years after the 2020 coronavirus pandemic, when people were stuck at home and easier for scammers to reach over the phone.

Barnacle said investigators are seeing organized, transnational criminal enterprises targeting older Americans through a variety of schemes, like romance scams and investment frauds.

The most commonly reported fraud among older adults last year was tech support scams, in which criminals pose over the phone as technical or customer service representatives. In one such scam authorities say is rising in popularity, criminals impersonate technology, banking and government officials to convince victims that foreign hackers have infiltrated their bank accounts and instruct them that to protect their money they should move it to a new account — one secretly controlled by the scammers.

Federal investigators saw an uptick between May and December of scammers using live couriers to take money from victims duped into believing their accounts had been compromised, according to the FBI. In those cases, scammers tell victims that their bank accounts have been hacked and that they need to liquidate their assets into cash or buy gold or other precious metals to protect their funds. Then the fraudsters arrange for a courier to pick it up in person.

“A lot of the the fraud schemes are asking victims to send money via a wire transfer, or a cryptocurrency transfer. When the victim is reluctant to do that, they’re given an alternative,” Barnacle said. “And so the bad guy will use courier services.”

Earlier this month, an 81-year-old Ohio man fatally shot an Uber driver he thought was trying to rob him after receiving scam phone calls, according to authorities.

The man had been receiving calls from someone pretending to be an officer from the local court who demanded money. The Uber driver had been told to retrieve a package from the man’s home, a request authorities say was possibly made by the same scam caller or an accomplice.

The staggering losses to older Americans are likely an undercount. Only about half of the more than 880,000 complaints reported to the FBI’s Internet Crime Compliance Center last year included information on the age of the victim.

MAE SOT, THAILAND — The battle between Myanmar’s military and rebel groups for control of the southeastern border town of Myawaddy has seen thousands of refugees cross into neighboring Thailand in April.

But while many return to Myanmar when there is a lull in the fighting, others are seeking a more permanent escape from the conflict.

Myanmar is experiencing a critical time during its over three-year-long post-coup conflict with rebel groups gaining significant territory and launching unprecedented attacks on the Myanmar regime. 

Armed ethnic groups have captured bases in northern Shan state and Rakhine state since October.

The most significant success came via the Karen National Union, or KNU, who earlier in April announced it had forced the surrender of hundreds of Myanmar’s military soldiers who had been in control of Myawaddy.

The junta have since regained a foothold by occupying a base in Myawaddy, but are still fighting to retain full control from the KNU and its allies.

Local media report that junta reinforcements were advancing on Myawaddy as of Monday evening.

The border town connects billions of dollars’ worth of trade passing between Myanmar and Thailand each year.

Saw Thoo Kwei is a small business owner in Myawaddy. He said the situation in the town has deteriorated since the recent conflict. 

“During a particularly intense period of conflict, I found myself having to seek refuge near the border in Myanmar for one night,” he told VOA. “As the situation gradually cooled down, I returned home. [But] I can’t stay here long because of the conflict,” he added.  

The 30-year-old owns a grocery store in Myawaddy, but the weeks of fighting between government troops and rebels have affected everyday life in the town.

“Currently, there is no policing in Myawaddy, not even traffic police. Most government offices are closed. There is no fighting in the city, but people are living in fear. Many civilians are worried about heavy artillery like mortar shells,” he said.

His business is also suffering from the uncertainty, which has prompted Saw Thoo Kwei to make plans to leave Myanmar.

“Small businesses don’t have many stocks to sell due to road blockages. The fighting in Myawaddy has really hit our business hard. We’re seeing fewer customers, which means sales are down, and sometimes we have to shut the shop.

“With the power cuts and prices shooting up, it’s getting tough. We have to worry about thieves targeting our shop when things get tense, showing how unsafe Myawaddy can be. My only viable option is to relocate to Thailand,” he said.

Since April, the fighting has continued despite the KNU announcing its forces had retreated from one base in the town. The tussle for control of Myawaddy led to at least 1,300 refugees crossing from Myanmar into Thailand, The Associated Press reported on April 20, citing Thai officials. 

But that number may be higher as volunteers aiding the refugees told Myanmar Now that 3,000 were returned to Myanmar when fighting in the border town had temporarily quietened.

Thailand shares a 2,400-km (1491-mi) -long land border with Myanmar. 

Thailand’s border town Mae Sot, which sits across the Moei river from Myawaddy, has long been accustomed to receiving thousands of people from Myanmar, with many fleeing the war.

In one undisclosed safehouse in Mae Sot, nearly a dozen Myanmar refugees have fled the conflict in recent weeks.

Kyaw Zin Oo, a physics teacher from the Ayeyarwady region, told VOA he needed to leave Myanmar to avoid being conscripted by the junta.

“I arrived here 17 days ago. I had two choices, to go with the [Myanmar military] or here. I chose to come to Thailand because I see more of a future here. I have friends who have joined the revolution. I thought about joining but I thought I can still support them from here by donations and sending food to them.”

Other refugees, who didn’t want to be identified, said they left Myanmar because the junta had targeted them and their family because of their participation in anti-military protests.

Myanmar’s military enacted a conscription law in February that makes 14 million men and women eligible to be drafted into the military and says it will conscript up to 60,000 new recruits a year. The Irrawaddy reports that the military has begun recruiting Rohingya people despite the ethnic minority group suffering appalling atrocities by Myanmar’s military in 2017.

The junta is looking to bolster its ranks so it can resist the momentum gained by rebel groups in recent months.

Chi Lin Ko, a farm worker from Yangon, sits in a bamboo-crafted hut in a highway lay-by in Mae Sot, pondering his next move. The 19-year-old farm worker left Myanmar over a month ago.

But the prospect of fighting for the military spooked him.

“I received a [military conscription] pamphlet at my home. My neighbors joined, but I came here because I didn’t want to join the military. I’ve heard there is a paid salary, but by enlisting in the military there’s no way I can leave after I’ve joined,” he said.

If Chit Lin Ko were to ever pick up arms, it wouldn’t be for the Tatmadaw. “If I didn’t have any family, I would go and fight with the revolutionary groups,” he said.

One of the reasons the teenager left Myanmar was to financially support his family.  Myanmar’s conflict has devastated the country’s economy, which is 10% lower than it was in 2019, according to a December report by the World Bank.

“I have a family and need to look after to them, so I need to make money,” Chit Lin Ko said.

The U.N. says at least 45,000 Myanmar refugees have entered Thailand since the military coup over three years ago.

Although Thailand’s government has recently pledged to welcome “100,000” Myanmar refugees, Thailand is not party to the 1951 Refugee Convention and has no specific domestic legal framework for the protection of urban refugees and asylum-seekers.

Since the military seized power in Myanmar, nearly 5,000 people have been killed and over 26,000 people arrested, according to rights groups.