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How Europe’s crypto queen was brought down by cash

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:44:58 GMT

The Qatargate Files:How Europe’s crypto queen was brought down by cashThe Qatargate story overflows with bundles of banknotes stashed in odd places, with around €70,000 even ending up in the trash, according to one suspect.By EDDY WAX, ELISA BRAUN and GIAN VOLPICELLIin BrusselsShe was the European Parliament’s loudest cheerleader for cryptocurrencies. But Eva Kaili’s glittering career as the Parliament’s vice president collapsed when police raided her home a year ago and found €150,000 euros in old-fashioned cash. Kaili and her partner Francesco Giorgi were among the Brussels high fliers handed preliminary charges in one of the biggest corruption investigations ever to hit the EU institutions. Now, hundreds of leaked documents from the inquiry — seen by POLITICO — reveal eye-opening new details about the dramatic investigation, based on secret surveillance, confessions and evidence snatched during police raids. The long-running probe into the case is yet to concl...

Saving the world’s forests through carbon markets isn’t just ‘greenwashing’

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:44:58 GMT

Graham Stuart is a British MP and the United Kingdom’s minister for energy and net zero. Samuel A. Jinapor is Ghana’s minister for lands and natural resources. Vickram Bharrat is Guyana’s minister of natural resources.The term “greenwashing” was coined by the environmentalist Jay Westerveld in 1986, after he noticed hotels had signs in bathrooms asking guests to reuse their towels to save the planet. Why, he wondered, were hotels passing the onus onto guests instead of doing more themselves? But today, the term “greenwashing” has become so ubiquitous, it risks dismissing almost any effort to transition to net zero.Voluntary carbon markets have been at the forefront of allegations of greenwashing in recent years. These are markets that trade in units of carbon, and corporations can use them to offset their emissions and deliver additional carbon savings.Carbon credits linked to forest initiatives have attracted particularly strong criticism recently, with companies ...

German budget crisis strikes at heart of the Greens’ ambitions

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:44:58 GMT

KARLSRUHE, Germany — Germany’s Greens thought their moment had finally come.After successive crises — the pandemic and the skyrocketing energy prices that followed Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine — it seemed time to double down on the party’s core mission: what party leaders call the “social-ecological” transformation of Germany’s market economy.For the Greens, who govern in the country’s tripartite ruling coalition with the center-left Social Democrats (SPD) and the fiscally conservative Free Democrats (FDP), the stakes of that transformation could hardly be greater.The green-energy transition would not only help Germany, the world’s 11th largest emitter of greenhouse gases in 2022, to meet the country’s ambitious goal of cutting emissions by at least 65 percent compared to 1990 levels by the end of the decade. It would make Germany an example to the rest of the world for how industry and consumers could prosper by embracing the vast societal changes needed...

WTF is the ‘Global Stocktake’? We explain the ‘heart’ of COP28

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:44:58 GMT

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Now the real work starts. The first few days of the COP28 climate conference featured so many lofty declarations and flashy promises that you’d be forgiven for asking what delegates are still doing here. But the main negotiations have only just gotten underway. At the core of this year’s summit sits something called the “Global Stocktake,” often abbreviated to GST — a nondescript name that conceals its vital role in international climate efforts. In short, it’s about drawing up a report card on where the world stands eight years after signing the Paris Agreement, and how countries plan to fix their inevitable shortcomings. That plan coming out of COP28 will help determine whether the world can stave off the worst impacts of climate change or careen toward unlivable temperatures. German climate envoy Jennifer Morgan called the stocktake the “heart” of the Paris climate accord; Toeolesulusulu Cedric Schuster, chair of the Alliance...

Haliburton’s triple-double and late 4-point play help Pacers oust Celtics from NBA tourney

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:44:58 GMT

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — All-Star guard Tyrese Haliburton recorded the first triple-double of his career and completed a tiebreaking four-point play with 1:33 left as the surprising Indiana Pacers ousted the Boston Celtics from the NBA In-Season Tournament with a 122-112 quarterfinal victory Monday night.Haliburton finished with 26 points, 16 in the second half, to go with 13 assists and 10 rebounds. Myles Turner added 17 points and 10 rebounds, and seven Pacers finished in double figures as Indiana remained unbeaten in the tournament after finishing group play with a 4-0 mark.The Pacers will face Milwaukee or New York in Thursday’s semifinals at Las Vegas.The Celtics were led by Jayson Tatum’s 32 points and 12 rebounds, while Jaylen Brown had 30 points and nine rebounds. All-Star Kristaps Porzingis missed his fourth straight game with a strained left calf as Boston’s three-game winning streak ended thanks to a late 9-0 run, which began with Haliburton’ basket.Ind...

Celtics eliminated from In-Season Tournament with loss to Tyrese Haliburton, Pacers

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:44:58 GMT

Aaron Nesmith took a transition pass from Tyrese Haliburton and dunked it over Al Horford. The former Celtic galloped around the court and chest-pumped Myles Turner as the rest of his Pacers teammates flooded the court to celebrate an imminent victory.The Celtics proved they cared about the NBA’s inaugural In-Season Tournament with how they handled their final group stage game last week. They showed that mentality during stretches of Monday’s first ever quarterfinal game of the tournament. But ultimately, the moment meant more for the upstart Pacers.In a playoff-like atmosphere, the C’s couldn’t get the job done on Monday night in Indiana. Jayson Tatum scored 32 points and Jaylen Brown added 30, but their worst habits haunted them again. They laid another dud in the third quarter. Too many turnovers piled up. And then the Pacers – led by Tyrese Haliburton – raised their game to another level in the second half, as they handed the Celtics a 122-112 loss and sending them home from the...

Thieves swarm, rob FedEx truck making deliveries in Chula Vista

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:44:58 GMT

CHULA VISTA, Calif. -- Chula Vista police are looking for multiple suspects after a FedEx truck was robbed November 30 in the Eastlake area.“When I looked out and saw the blue car and saw what was happening, I was mad. It was like, 'really? No, that's my package,'" says a woman who watched the robbery in front of her house.The crime was caught on her home security camera.Video shows the blue car, possibly a BMW, pull up and then four to five young men, dressed in dark hoodies, masks and gloves, jumping out and swarming the truck.“They just had an assembly line as they were emptying the truck, yelling at each other to hurry up and then you could hear me," said the woman who wished to remain anonymous.The woman started shouting at the robbers, telling them they're on video. 14-year-old student stabbed near San Diego High School FOX 5 spoke with the FedEx driver who was not hurt.Off camera, he said he backed off when the thieves put a long, sharp metal object to his face.“He was very...

Man sentenced in 2019 killing of East Village homeless shelter security guard

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:44:58 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- One of the two men found guilty in a 2019 shooting that resulted in one East Village homeless shelter security guard dead and another injured was sentenced to prison, prosecutors said.Johnny Hill, a member of a criminal street gang, was sentenced to 55 years to life, plus an additional 26 years in prison, San Diego County District Attorney Summer Stephan said in a news release Friday. On Sept. 14, Hill and Floyd Garrett were found guilty of second-degree murder with a special allegation of personal gun use causing death, assault with a semi-automatic firearm and being a felon in possession of a firearm.The shooting occurred in December 2019 at the Alpha Project homeless shelter at 1700 Imperial Ave, which the DA says "lies within territory claimed by ‘Crip’ criminal street gang sets and is an area primarily used for gang related drug sales and acts of violence." 14-year-old student stabbed near San Diego High School Two security guards from the homeless shelter, ...

Mexico halts deportations and migrant transfers citing lack of funds

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:44:58 GMT

MEXICO CITY (AP) — The head of Mexico’s immigration agency has ordered the suspension of migrant deportations and transfers due to a lack of funds amid a record-setting year for migration through the country’s territory.The suspensions were outlined in an agency memo dated Dec. 1 from director Francisco Garduño, whose authenticity was confirmed to the Associated Press by an agency official who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss it.Mexico’s finance ministry suspended payments to the National Immigration Institute in November due to end-of-year budget adjustments, according to the memo. Citing budget constraints “and the lack of liquidity to cover commitments,” Garduño ordered a halt to various agency activities, most notably the “assisted returns,” a government euphemism to describe deportations, and “ground transportation for transfer of irregular migrants.”Mexico’s government had been frequently moving migrants from points north near the U.S. bord...

Thousands protest Indigenous policies of New Zealand government as lawmakers are sworn in

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:44:58 GMT

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Thousands of protesters rallied against the New Zealand government’s Indigenous policies on Tuesday as the Parliament convened for the first time since October elections.Demonstrations in the capital, Wellington, and in about a dozen other New Zealand cities and towns were organized by the minor Maori Party, which advocates for the rights of Indigenous New Zealanders who are known as Maori.Protesters demonstrated peacefully outside Parliament against what they described as the “anti-Maori” policies of the newly elected conservative-led coalition government.Maori Party co-leader Rawiri Waititi said the new policies of Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s administration would take New Zealand “back to the 1800s.”“Our protest this morning was an activation of our people,” Waititi said.The National Party-led government promises to review the Treaty of Waitangi and implement potential changes to how that foundation document signed by British colonists and Mao...