CNBC: Over 60% Of Illegal Crypto Activity Is Tied To Sanctioned Groups Or Terrorist Organizations, Report Finds

“Sanctioned entities, like those linked to North Korean hacking groups and U.S.-designated terrorist organizations such as Lebanon’s Hezbollah, continue to rely on cryptocurrency for fundraising, according to a new report from Chainalysis. The American blockchain analysis firm’s “2024 Crypto Crime Report” found that $24.2 billion of illicit cryptocurrency was transferred in 2023, based on already identified illicit crypto wallets. Chainalysis retroactively updates its yearly crypto figures when new illicit wallets come to light.”

Reuters: Some US Lawmakers Urge Biden, Blinken Not To Recognize New Pakistan Government

“Thirty-one members of the U.S. Congress have signed a letter to President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken urging them to not recognize a new government, opens new tab in Pakistan until an investigation of election interference has been conducted. Voters in Pakistan went to the polls, opens new tab earlier this month in a vote marred by a mobile internet shutdown on election day; arrests and violence in its build-up; and unusually delayed results, leading to accusations that the vote was rigged. The United States, Britain and the European Union have expressed concerns, opens new tab about reported election irregularities and urged a probe. The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) agreed to form a coalition government even as candidates backed by jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan gained the most seats. Khan-backed candidates won 93 seats, opens new tab, but did not have the numbers to form a government. He and his party rejected the results of the elections, alleging widespread rigging.”

CEP Mentions

AIO Information: Hostage Negotiations Between Israel And Hamas: Will There Be A Ceasefire During Ramadan?

“... A complete ceasefire is unlikely to be reached; a reduction in fighting is more realistic. Hamas is fighting to continue existing as a power factor in Gaza and for the survival of its leadership. Netanyahu’s government has three, sometimes contradictory, goals: destroy Hamas’ infrastructure in Gaza, free the hostages and ensure the government’s continued existence. It will be difficult to reconcile these positions so that a general pause is possible. Proof of this is the rejection of negotiation proposals by the Israeli government about two weeks ago and by Hamas a few days ago. Therefore, it can be assumed that fighting will continue, albeit at a reduced level, in the coming weeks and also during Ramadan. However, a partial agreement, that is, an exchange of some of the remaining hostages in exchange for a halt to fighting in part of Gaza, appears to be an achievable goal in the current situation.”

United States

NBC: Missouri GOP Moves To Toss 'Honorary' Member Of Ku Klux Klan From Governor's Race

“The Missouri Republican Party said Thursday it was working to remove a Republican candidate for governor from the primary ballot after a picture of him appearing to do a Nazi salute while standing in front of a burning cross resurfaced online. In the picture, the candidate, Darrell Leon McClanahan III, is seen apparently saluting alongside a hooded man in Klan robes. “The Missouri Republican Party has been made aware that Darrell Leon McClanahan III filed for Governor as a Republican despite his affiliation with the Ku Klux Klan, which fundamentally contradicts our party’s values and platform,” the party said in a post on X Thursday. “We have begun the process of having Mr. McClanahan removed from the ballot as a Republican candidate.”

Reuters: US Senate Defeats Bid To Stop F-16 Fighter Jet Sale To Turkey

“The U.S. Senate on Thursday soundly defeated an effort to stop the $23 billion sale of F-16 fighter jets and modernization kits to Turkey, which President Joe Biden's administration approved after Turkey approved Sweden's joining the NATO alliance. The Senate voted 79 to 13 against a resolution of disapproval of the sale introduced by Republican Senator Rand Paul. Before the vote, Paul criticized Turkey's government and said allowing the sale would embolden its "misbehavior." Backers of the sale said it was important for Washington to keep its word to a NATO ally. The Biden administration formally informed Congress on Jan. 26 of its intention to proceed with the sale of 40 Lockheed Martin (LMT.N), opens new tab F-16s and nearly 80 modernization kits to Turkey, a day after Ankara fully completed ratification of the NATO membership of Sweden. The sale had been held up for months over issues including Turkey's refusal to approve Sweden's accession to the military alliance. Turkey first asked to make the purchase in October 2021.”

Syria

Voice Of America: Who Is Syrian Christian Militia Targeted In Turkish Drone Attacks?

“Local officials in northeastern Syria said a series of Turkish drone strikes on Wednesday killed and wounded several people in a Kurdish-controlled town near the border with Turkey. Unlike other attacks carried out by Turkey in recent months, those targeted Wednesday were not Syrian Kurdish fighters. According to local sources, three members of a local Christian militia were killed and two others were wounded in several Turkish drone strikes on the town of Derik in northeastern Syria. Ankara has not commented on the recent attacks, but Turkey has been targeting areas under the control of the Syrian Democratic Forces, a Kurdish-led military alliance that has been a major U.S. partner in the fight against Islamic State group militants. Turkey’s attacks have increased in recent months. Turkey views the SDF as an extension of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which is considered a terrorist organization by Ankara and Washington. But the United States makes a distinction between the two Kurdish groups.”

Middle East

Associated Press: Palestinians Say Israeli Troops Fired At People Seeking Food. Israel Says Scene Was Deadly Stampede

“Israeli troops fired on a crowd of Palestinians racing to pull food off an aid convoy in Gaza City on Thursday, witnesses said. More than 100 people were killed in the chaos, bringing the death toll since the start of the Israel-Hamas war to more than 30,000, according to health officials.

Israel said many of the dead were trampled in a chaotic stampede for the food aid and that its troops only fired when they felt endangered by the crowd. The violence was quickly condemned by Arab countries, and U.S. President Joe Biden expressed concern it would add to the difficulty of negotiating a cease-fire in the nearly five-month conflict.”

Reuters: Hezbollah Signals It Will Cease Fire When Israel Stops Attacking Gaza

“The Iran-backed Hezbollah signalled on Thursday that it would halt its attacks on Israel from Lebanon when the Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip stops, but that it was also ready to keep on fighting if Israel continued hostilities. Hezbollah and the Israeli army have been trading fire since the Palestinian group Hamas stormed southern Israel from the Gaza Strip on Oct. 7, in a steadily intensifying conflict that has fuelled concern of wider escalation. "The war in the south is linked to the aggression on Gaza on the one hand, and to securing means of protection for our country on the other," senior Hezbollah politician Hassan Fadlallah said. "When the (Israeli) occupation halts its aggression on Gaza, this front stops, because it is a supportive front," he said in comments made at an event to commemorate a Hezbollah field commander killed in an Israeli strike earlier this week. Two sources familiar with Hezbollah's thinking told Reuters on Tuesday that the group would halt fire on Israel if Hamas agrees to a proposal for a truce in Gaza - unless Israeli forces kept shelling Lebanon.”

Africa

Associated Press: UN Experts: Sudan’s Paramilitary Forces Carried Out Ethnic Killings And Rapes That May Be War Crimes

“Paramilitary forces and their allied militias fighting to take power in Sudan carried out widespread ethnic killings and rapes while taking control of much of western Darfur that may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity, United Nations experts said in a new report. The report to the U.N. Security Council, obtained Thursday by The Associated Press, paints a horrifying picture of the brutality of the Arab-dominated Rapid Support Forces against Africans in Darfur. It also details how the RSF succeeded in gaining control of four out of Darfur’s five states, including through complex financial networks that involve dozens of companies. Sudan plunged into chaos in April, when long-simmering tensions between its military led by Gen. Abdel Fattah Burhan, and the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary commanded by Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, broke out into street battles in the capital, Khartoum. Fighting spread to other parts of the country, but in Sudan’s Darfur region it took on a different form: brutal attacks by the RSF on African civilians, especially the ethnic Masalit.”

Europe

Politico: Spain Opens Terrorism Probe Into Puigdemont

“Spain’s top court has opened a terrorism investigation into former Catalonia President and separatist chief Carles Puigdemont over protests linked to the region’s failed 2017 independence referendum. The Supreme Court decided unanimously to investigate Puigdemont and MP Rubén Wagensberg “for crimes of terrorism in relation to the facts investigated in the ‘Democràtic Tsunami’ case,” the court said Thursday in a statement. Democratic Tsunami is a secretive Catalan group that in 2019 organized a string of protests against the jailing of several separatist leaders involved in the 2017 referendum; in the unrest, thousands of protesters blocked access to Barcelona’s airport, clashing with police and causing the cancellation of over 100 flights. The court said it had decided to launch the probe after examining a statement by judge Manuel García-Castellón, which includes “evidence that, in his opinion, proves the participation of the two defendants in the events under investigation.”

Associated Press: Aid Groups Appeal To The European Union To Release Urgent Funds For Palestinian Refugee Agency UNRWA

“Humanitarian aid groups appealed on Thursday to the European Union to release tens of millions of euros in funding due to the main U.N. agency that delivers most aid to people in the Gaza Strip as the organization teeters on the brink of financial collapse. The European Commission, the EU’s executive branch, was due to disburse 82 million euros ($89 million) to the UNRWA aid agency on Feb. 29. UNRWA said that it still hadn’t received the payment as of Thursday morning. “This is a moment of reckoning for the EU as a humanitarian leader and a critical donor for this crisis,” said Niamh Nic Carthaigh, from Plan International’s EU Liaison Office. “Any further cuts to UNRWA funding would be an effective death sentence for civilians trapped in Gaza and the region who rely on the agency for their survival,” she said in a joint statement from 17 aid groups, including the International Rescue Committee, Save the Children and Oxfam.”

BBC: Strasbourg Christmas Market Attack Trial Begins

“Five people were killed after gunman Cherif Chekatt opened fire on the crowd at the open-air market. Chekatt was shot dead by police two days later. The four men on trial are accused of crimes ranging from terrorism to helping to supply weapons. All four suspects deny the charges. A fifth may be tried at a later date. The trial started at the Court of Assize in Paris on Thursday. A lawyer representing some of the families affected by the attack, Arnaud Friedrich, told AFP news agency it was a "key moment" for his clients. One of the defendants, Audrey Mondjehi, 42, is accused of terrorism and could face the maximum penalty of life imprisonment if he is found guilty.”