Thursday, May 16, 2024

‘Biggest student movement of 21st century’: Pro-Palestinian protests spread across global campuses

 Macron’s cognac — the only thing that went down smoothly with Xi Politico


Aurora borealis and australis dazzle viewers across the world three nights in a row


‘Biggest student movement of 21st century’: Pro-Palestinian protests spread across global campusesAnadolu Agency


America’s Jewish Supremacist Problem Mark Wauck 


Washington Post: “Many first time home buyers are struggling to break into the U.S. housing market as prices continue to rise. Since 2019, home prices have surged 54 percent. In the last year, prices increased 5.8 percent — a more steady rise after the volatile years of the early pandemic, according to a Washington Post analysis of home value data from the mortgage technology division of Intercontinental Exchange (ICE). 

But high interest rates, low inventory and years of price jumps continue to challenge Americans buying homes. Prices vary widely depending on where you live. Enter your Zip code below to see how the market value of the average home in your area has changed…”


Time is a brutal assassin

 “If you’re twenty-two, physically fit, hungry to learn and be better, I urge you to travel – as far and as widely as possible. Sleep on floors if you have to. Find out how other people live and eat and cook. Learn from them – wherever you go.”

― Anthony Bourdain 22 44 66 …



Back in my teens we were exposed to many stories of Czechoslovak Oscar Schindler, captured by Thomas Keneally, however, no one captured the story of Russian Zinaida Portnova in a book 📖 or film 🎥 yet


1958 Flying



The story of Zinaida Portnova, the 16 year old girl who took the lives of more than 100 Nazis by poisoning their food. She was captured by the Gestapo, and while being interrogated, she disarmed the Nazi detective and shot him in the head. In her attempt to escape, she executed two more Nazis. A seventh-grade student at the 385th school in Leningrad, Zinaida became member of the local underground Komsomol organization, named Young Avengers, during the German invasion. She became employed as a kitchen aide in Obol. In August, she poisoned the food meant for the Nazi garrison stationed there. Immediately falling suspect, she said she was innocent and ate some of the food in front of the Nazis to prove it was not poisoned. After she did not fall ill immediately, they released her. Portnova became sick afterwards, vomiting heavily but eventually recovering from the poison after drinking much whey. After she did not return to work, the Germans realized she had been the culprit and started searching for her. When she was captured in 1943, during the Gestapo interrogation, she took the investigator's pistol off the table, then shot and killed him. When two German soldiers entered after hearing the gunshots, she shot them as well. She then attempted to escape the compound and ran into the woods, where she was caught near the banks of a river. She was executed in 1944.


“Kant saw reason’s potential as a tool for liberation” — Susan Neiman (Einstein Forum) in the NYT on why we should celebrate Kant


THIS IS THE WAY 1968 ENDS


"Sometimes people don't want to hear the truth because they don't want their illusions destroyed."


"When we are tired, we are attacked by ideas we conquered long ago."


"What was a lie in the father becomes a conviction in the son."


"The worst enemy you can meet will always be yourself, Jozef "


"If you crush a cockroach, you're a hero. If you crush a beautiful butterfly, you're a villain. Morals have aesthetic criteria."


"In loneliness, the lonely one eats himself; in a crowd, the many eat him. Now choose."


~ Friedrich Nietzsche died at 56 (1844-1900)



Aldous Huxley Explains How Man Became “the Victim of His Own Technology” (1961) 


Robert Fico - on Facebook - Slovakia's prime minister in 'life-threatening condition' after being shot

Who is Robert Fico?


Slovakian PM fights for life after '71-year-old assassin' shoots him in the stomach and arm before being bundled to the ground while trying to flee



Slovakia's PM Robert Fico shot outside government meeting, official says his condition is 'life-threatening'


Slovakia's prime minister in 'life-threatening condition' after being shot

Slovakia's populist Prime Minister Robert Fico is in a 'life-threatening condition' after being wounded in a shooting, according to his Facebook profile.

The message posted to his account just before 4pm on Wednesday (just before midnight AEST) said that Fico "has been shot multiple times and is currently in life-threatening condition".

"At this moment he is transported by helicopter to Banská Bystrica [a city in central Slovakia], because it would take too long to get to Bratislava due to the necessity of an acute procedure," the message said.

Slovakia's Prime Minister Robert Fico arrives for a cabinet's away-from-home session in the town of Handlova, Slovakia, on Wednesday, May, 15, 2024. (AP)


Slovakia’s populist prime minister, Robert Fico, who was shot and wounded on Wednesday, is a burly and brash political veteran known for his attacks on the media, NGOs and prosecutors.

Having enjoyed three previous stints as prime minister, Fico, 59, is well known to voters and observers – and critics, who accuse him of seeking to emulate Viktor Orbán, his friend in neighbouring Hungary, by trying to undermine checks and balances and cement his power while also taking a friendlier stance toward Russia.

He is borrowing from Trump’: the rise of Robert Fico, Slovakia’s populist leader




 

Wednesday, May 15, 2024

Trump now Glencore then old acting 🎭 news …

Daily court transcripts – People v Trump Stormy Daniels payoff PDFnycourts.gov – /PeopleVs.DTrump-71543/transcripts/

[To Parent Directory]

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Glencore loses bid to stop Australian tax office using 'Paradise Papers'

High Court finds Glencore trader's $200m bonus not a capital gain


The High Court has dismissed a claim by former Glencore trader Vaughan Blank that $200 million in bonuses should be taxed as capital gains and not ordinary income.
"The amount was ordinary income of Mr Blank," said a High Court judgment published on Wednesday. 
"It was deferred compensation for services Mr Blank rendered as an employee and therefore, on receipt, formed part of his assessable income." 
Lawyers for Mr Blank, now a real estate developer, had argued the income should be treated as a capital gain because it was the proceeds of an employee scheme that entitled him to a future proportion of the profit of Glencore. 
Stewart Grieve, a partner with Johnson Winter & Slattery, estimated a win for Mr Blank would have entitled him to a refund of up to $17 million. But a loss might force him to pay the Australian Taxation Office an extra $45 million.

ednesday's judgment does not include details of any liability. 
Mr Blank worked for Glencore in Switzerland and Hong Kong before he moved to Australia in 2002.

Rights issue

By the time he resigned in 2006 he had acquired, over a 15-year period with the company, a series of rights to share in the future profits of Glencore companies.
In 2007 he gave up the rights in exchange for $US160 million, or $201 million Australian, which was payable in 20 instalments over five years.
Mr Blank lodged a tax return for the 2007 tax year in which he returned a capital gain of $100.8 million.
This was the result of the disposal of his Glencore rights, at $201 million, minus the 50 per cent capital gains tax discount.
While the Tax Office initially accepted this position, it later issued amended assessments for 2008, 2009 and 2010, telling Mr Blank the $201 million would be treated as ordinary income and therefore taxed at his full marginal rate.
The Federal Court of Australia held that the amount was income according to ordinary concepts because it was deferred compensation for services rendered by Mr Blank.
That decision was upheld by a majority of the Full Court of the Federal Court.
"We respect the decision of the court and will not be commenting further at this time," the ATO said.

Present is a foreign country: Inside a Myanmar scam call center compound: sex, drugs, forced labor

 Inside a Myanmar scam call center compound: sex, drugs, forced labor


Another troubling story about a fraud victim.  As I’ve previously reported, 74 year old Ann Mayer was arrested for trying to rob a credit union in a Cincinnati suburb recently. She had a gun, had taken the license plates off of her car, and had mentioned robbing a bank to family members recently.  She was arrested and charged.  She had no criminal record.  She got $500.
 
Family members say she was a scam victim herself, and had been sending money to an “unidentified individual.”  News articles also say that she’d lost tens of thousands of dollars; others say she lost her life savings.
 
But we don’t know anything about the scam.  Was this a romance fraud?  Did the scammer encourage the robbery?  Have they tried to track down the scammer?
 
Police in Bosnia, Lebanon, Albania, Kosovo shut down 12 scam call centers, arrest 21; scammers were doing romance scams, investment fraud, and fake police calls
 
Investigation finds Chinese operation has created at least 76,000 websites for designer goods; 800,000 victims in the US and Europe; victims don’t get counterfeits, instead get nothing or something wholly different
 
Wired:  Nigerian Yahoo boys on the internet often don’t even try to hide; have 16 Facebook groups with 200,000 members; a dozen Youtube channels, more

India busts 76 tech support operations across the country, work with Microsoft and Amazon

Iowa: Three arrested for impersonating police and sheriffs deputies, telling people that they had to pay or they would be arrested; met victims in person

US sends cybercrime advisor to Nigeria, and country adopts the 2022 international cybercrime convention
 

Fraud Studies: Here are links to the studies I’ve written for the Better Business Bureau: puppy fraudromance fraud; BEC fraudsweepstakes/lottery fraud,  tech support fraudromance fraud money mulescrooked movers, government impostersonline vehicle sale scamsrental fraud, gift cards,  free trial offer frauds,  job scams,  online shopping fraud,  fake check fraud and crypto scams
 
Fraud News Around the world

Humor 

FTC and CFPB

Virus Benefit Theft 

Kidnapping and forced to scam

Business Email compromise fraud 

Ransomware and data breaches

Bitcoin and cryptocurrency  

ATM Skimming

Romance Fraud and Sextortion 


Budget 2024/5 - ATO new powers - Shell sold millions of ‘phantom’ carbon credits

Federal Budget 2024: Winners and Losers


Budget 2024-25


The federal Budget is presented to Parliament in May each year.

The Budget website is the whole-of-government entry point for the Budget papers.

Past budgets papers are available at Budget archive.


more links … to budget



Show me the money: Tax emerges a serious 2024 budget winner in agency revamp

Budget 2024: robotax debts could be put on ice with ATO to be given new powers


ATO to receive $187 million to combat tax and superannuation fraud



Digital ID rollout accelerated, scores $288 million



This budget will make us better off now, worse off later

It’s said you can tell a government’s true priorities from what it does in its budget. If so, the top priority of Anthony Albanese’s government is not to have any priorities.



Don’t be fooled: this is an election budget with plenty of pork barrelling

This budget taxes more, and spends more, than any of the others for at least a quarter-century.

Peter Hartcher
Peter Hartcher

Political and international editor



The association would also like to see the government address the significant backlog of announced but unenacted measures that remain outstanding from previous budgets, reviews and announcements. This would provide certainty to taxpayers and their advisers, the Tax Institute said.

“Many decades of isolated measures, knee-jerk reactions and tweaks without consideration of the broader system have resulted in a tax system that is complex, inefficient and unfair,” the association said.

Business tax incentives, tax reform top of budget wishlist


A Shell-operated plant reported millions of carbon credits tied to CO₂ removal that never took place but were used by Canada’s largest oil sands companies, raising new doubts about a technology seen as crucial to mitigating greenhouse gas emissions. 

As part of a subsidy scheme to boost the industry, the Alberta provincial government allowed Shell to register tradable carbon credits equivalent to twice the volume of emissions avoided by its Quest carbon capture facility between 2015 and 2021, the province’s registry shows. The subsidy was reduced and then ended in 2022.

Shell sold millions of ‘phantom’ carbon credits FT



Major bail reforms for accused serious domestic violence offenders in NSW

 

The CEO Who Hired His Wife, Gave His Dog a Title, and Brought Down a Bank WSJ

 

South Korea finds illegal stock short sales by seven more banks Channel News Asia

 

I believe the public has the right to know the secret world."

For the first time ever, a former spy for China's notorious secret police – one of the most powerful arms of the country's intelligence apparatus – goes public, exposing the covert and illegal operations he was ordered to carry out on foreign soil, including in Australia.


China’s economy is headed for a ‘dead-end,’ and Beijing won’t do anything to stop it, scholar says.

“Years of erratic and irresponsible policies, excessive Communist Party control and undelivered promises of reform have created a dead-end Chinese economy of weak domestic consumer demand and slowing growth,” she wrote. “The only way that China’s leaders can see to pull themselves out of this hole is to fall back on pumping out exports.”

The result will be more tension with China’s trade partners as cheap manufactured goods continue to flood markets, while the Chinese people will turn gloomier, causing the government to get more repressive, Stevenson-Yang predicted.

The root cause of China’s economic problems is the Communist Party’s excessive control, which isn’t going away, while its strategies that focus on adding more industrial capacity are counterproductive, she said.

Most economists have recommended that Chinese leaders loosen their grip on the private sector and promote more consumption, which would entail reforming the government—” and that is unacceptable,” she added.

MEANWHILE IN SHANGHAI: China: Old And Busted: 1 Bed, 1 Bath. The New Hotness: 1 Bed In Bathroom.

FLASHBACK (From Ed) to November of 2019: How to Conduct Business with Chinese Companies That See a Dark Future.