DAILY DOSE: July 16, 2021
Posted on 07/16/2021
1. Nigeria Major General Hassan Ahmed, former Provost Marshal of the Nigerian Army, has been assassinated in Abuja as they opened fire on his vehicle. He was murdered Thursday night in the Abaji area of the nation’s capital. The assailants kidnapped his sister, Safina Ahmed.
2. Wikipedia is the world’s fifth largest website (any nearly anyone can edit it). Wikipedia’s co-founder, Larry Sanger left the site in 2007, describing it as “broken beyond repair.”
3. INFO POLICE: With a new administration, Facebook is now listening to White House commands. White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Thursday the Biden administration is identifying “problematic” posts for Facebook to censor because they contain “misinformation” about COVID-19.
4. TESTIMONY SENATE BANKING COMMITTEE: Federal Reserve Chairman Jay Powell said cryptocurrencies completely failed to become a payment mechanism.
5. Jagmeet Singh says the New Democrats (NDP) eye a wealth tax for extremely wealthy Canadians and corporations. Jagmeet Singh Jimmy Dhaliwal MP is a Canadian politician who has served as the leader of the New Democratic Party since 2017.
6. The Consumer Price Index report for May 2021 published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that year-over-year inflation jumped 5.4%, marking three straight months of increases.
7. California lawmakers approved the first state-funded guaranteed income plan in the U.S. The money includes US$ 35 million in monthly cash payments to qualifying pregnant people and young adults who recently left foster care with no restrictions on how they spend it. The plan was approved on a bi-partisan basis with votes – 36-0 in the Senate and 64-0 in the Assembly.
8. The Pentagon admitted that a number of former Colombian soldiers accused in the killing of Haiti’s president Jovenel Moise were trained by the United States. These soldiers were trained when they were active members of the Colombian Military Forces. Haitian authorities have said Moise was shot dead at his home on July 7, 2021 by a unit of assassins including 26 Colombians and two Haitian Americans.
Leon Charles is the head of Haiti’s National Police. Leon Charles previously announced the arrest of the alleged mastermind behind the assassination plot, 63-year-old Christian Emmanuel Sanon, a Haitian who was living in Florida and hired CTU Security. Colombia’s national police chief, General Jorge Luis Vargas, disclosed that CTU Security used its company credit card to buy 19 plane tickets from Bogota to Santo Domingo for the Colombian suspects allegedly involved in the killing. Antonio “Tony” Intriago is the owner of CTU Security. The latest suspects identified in the sweeping investigation included a former Haitian senator, a fired government official, and an informant for the U.S., government.
The head of security at Haiti’s presidential residence has been placed in police custody – Dimitri Herard.
9. New Zealand inflation increases to 3.3%, brakes RBNZ target band.
10. The U.S. government plans to sanction Chinese officials over Hong Kong.
11. Twitter and Square CEO Jack Dorsey tweeted at 1:11 PM / Jul 15, 2021, “Square is creating a new business (joining Seller, Cash App, & Tidal) focused on building an open developer platform with the sole goal of making it easy to create non-custodial, permissionless, and decentralized financial services. Our primary focus is #Bitcoin. Its name is TBD.”
12. RELIVING ARIZONA – 2020 U.S. Election Chaos – The Arizona Senate held a hearing on the ongoing Maricopa County forensic audit. The audit team discovered there were 74,000 ballots that were received and included in the U.S. 2020 Election in Maricopa County than were mailed out.
13. VIDEO GAMES – Netflix Inc. is planning an expansion into video games and has hired a former Electronic Arts Inc. and Facebook Inc. executive to lead the effort. Mike Verdu will join Netflix as vice president of game development. Netflix is banking on offering video games on its streaming platform within the next year.
14. U.S. Magistrate Judge Sarah Netburn ruled Ripple Labs Inc. can question a former Securities and Exchange Commission official about the agency’s policy decisions. The SEC sued Ripple, its co-founder Christian Larsen and Chief Executive Officer Bradley Garlinghouse in New York in 2020. XRP is Ripple’s cryptocurrency. Ripple claims the SEC can’t regulate XRP because, as a virtual currency used in international and domestic transactions, it’s a medium of exchange and not a security. Ripple wants to depose William H. Hinman, the former director of the SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance.
“This is not a run-of-the-mill SEC enforcement case,” Netburn said.
15. Deadly protests continue to plague South Africa caused by the arrest of former South Africa President Jacob Zuma. The chaos continues to undermine President Cyril Ramaphosa’s authority.
16. Lebanese Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri steps down after his latest proposed cabinet is rejected.
