Today's news: Pyongyang laundered 7.5 million in stolen cryptocurrencies in March alone; Rosewood trade from Mozambique to China finances Islamic State militants; YouTube blocks "Glory to Hong Kong" videos as requested by local government; Israel and Egypt blame each other for closing the Rafah crossing and blocking aid.
INDONESIA
Thirty-five people are still missing after flash floods hit the province of West Sumatra in recent days. Meanwhile, the death toll has risen to 58. At least 249 houses, 225 hectares of land, including several rice fields, 19 bridges and most of the main roads were damaged in three districts and one city in the country.
NORTH KOREA
In March, North Korea laundered USD 147.5 million through the Tornado Cash platform, according to analysis by UN sanctions monitors. The experts investigated 97 suspected North Korean cyber attacks against cryptocurrency companies between 2017 and 2024, with a total value of around .6 billion. In 2024 alone, observers claimed to have examined '11 cryptocurrency thefts worth .7 million'.
CHINA - MOZAMBIQUE
The smuggling of timber from Mozambique's forests to China is helping to finance the Islamic State insurgency in the northern province of Cabo Delgado. It is an illicit trade worth million a year, according to a four-year investigation by the Environmental Investigation Agency. Despite being protected by international treaties, rosewood from Mozambique is shipped to China for the construction of luxury furniture.
HONG KONG
Yesterday, YouTube said it will abide by a Hong Kong Court of Appeal ruling that will block access within the city to a number of videos banned by the government to suppress dissent. The ruling particularly concerns the ban on the use of the 'Glory to Hong Kong' anthem, written during the 2019 protests as an alternative to the Chinese anthem. Some investors have expressed concern, but this is not the first time that large IT companies have removed online content to please the local government.
GAZA - ISRAEL
Israeli tanks pushed deeper into the city of Rafah yesterday, reaching some residential areas where more than a million people had sought refuge. Meanwhile Israel and Egypt blamed each other for the continued closure of the crossing as the humanitarian crisis worsens. Israeli air strikes also continue unabated. Yesterday, fierce clashes broke out in Jabalia, a vast refugee camp.
RUSSIA
More flooding has occurred in the past few days in the north-eastern region of Jacuzia in Siberia, with temperature swings and ice breakage causing the Lena river to overflow in several places, invading some villages, with the evacuation of more than 120 homes and rescuing the inhabitants by helicopter, while many are trying to move by boat.
KAZAKHSTAN
Kazakhstan's State Commission for the Rehabilitation of Victims of the Political Repressions of the 1920s-1950s has released the conclusions of its work, with the rehabilitation of 311,000 people, publishing 72 volumes of documentation, including over 6 million desegregated materials, and now historians intend to 'rewrite the country's history'.