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Man Who Stole and Laundered $1B in Bitcoin Sentenced to 5 Years in Prison (Maria)
The author writes, “A computer expert who stole bitcoin worth billions of dollars at current prices — and then spent years laundering some of the hacked cryptocurrency with help from his wife — was sentenced on Thursday to five years in prison. Ilya Lichtenstein masterminded one of the largest-ever thefts from a virtual currency exchange before he and his wife, Heather Rhiannon Morgan, carried out an elaborate scheme to liquidate the stolen funds, according to federal prosecutors. … Lichtenstein, who gets credit for the two years and nine months that he has spent in jail since his February 2022 arrest, expressed remorse.”
Susie Wiles China Ties Raise Questions About White House Role (Al)
From Unherd: “A political consultant with a long history of providing corporate interests and foreign agents with Government favors is set to become the most powerful figure in the White House.”
How a Trump Presidency Could Lead To a Purge at the Pentagon (Reader Jim)
The authors write, “Trump is expected to have a far darker view of his military leaders in his second term, after facing Pentagon resistance over everything from his skepticism toward NATO to his readiness to deploy troops to quell protests on U.S. streets. … Current and former U.S. officials say Trump will prioritize loyalty in his second term and root out military officers and career civil servants he perceives to be disloyal.”
Why Does No One Understand the Real Reason Trump Won? (DonkeyHotey)
The author writes, “Today, the right-wing media — Fox News (and the entire News Corp.), Newsmax, One America News Network, the Sinclair network of radio and TV stations and newspapers, iHeart Media (formerly Clear Channel), the Bott Radio Network (Christian radio), Elon Musk’s X, the huge podcasts like Joe Rogan’s, and much more — sets the news agenda in this country. And they fed their audiences a diet of slanted and distorted information that made it possible for Trump to win.”
Republicans Celebrate by Admitting They Can’t Wait for Project 2025 (Dana)
From Rolling Stone: “Donald Trump has won the election, and Republicans are now comfortable openly admitting that Project 2025 was the plan all along. … Trump feigned ignorance of the plan, despite his close ties to those involved in crafting it, while Democrats did all they could to warn about the conservative blueprint for a second Trump term. Sure enough, less than 24 hours after the election was called for Trump, his allies, advisers, and prominent supporters were celebrating the now-open road to Project 2025’s implementation.”
Everything You Need to Know About Project 2025’s Plan for the EPA (Laura)
From Drilled: “The details of Project 2025 plans on climate, and for the EPA.”
How a Colombian Influencer Made Recycling Cool (Russ)
The author writes, “Through her colorful aesthetic and peppy persona, [Sara] Samaniego brands herself as Latin America’s first recycling influencer, attracting a passionate fan base in Colombia’s capital, Bogotá, by educating followers on how to clean and sort their garbage through her character, Marce the Recycler.”