OceanGate's submersible, the Titan, can hold up to five people on a dive to the bottom of the ocean.
👋 ନମସ୍କାର*
Welcome to Tuesday, where Russia targets several Ukrainian cities with airstrikes overnight, the search continues for the missing Titanic wreck tourist submarine, and IndiGo places a record order for 500 Airbus planes. Meanwhile, Xu Kaiming in Chinese-language digital media The Initium shines a light on how North Korea’s shady cryptocurrency business funds its nuclear weapons program.
[*Namaskār - Odia, India]
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• Russia attacks Ukrainian cities in overnight airstrikes: Russia targeted several Ukrainian cities overnight, including the capital, Kyiv. Ukraine’s air force says 32 out of 35 drones were shot down. Meanwhile, the European Union is no longer the top client of Russian oil. As a result of the bans imposed on Russia in reaction to the Ukraine war, the bloc’s imports of Russian oil have plummeted by 90% in the span of a year.
• Father and son among Titanic sub missing as search continues: Search teams are racing against time to find a tourist submersible that went missing during a dive to the wreck of the Titanic. Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman, and British businessman and explorer Hamish Harding, are among the five onboard.
• International donors pledge $1.5 billion in Sudan aid: International donors made pledges of close to $1.5 in aid for Sudan and its surrounding region, about half of estimated needs for the gravity of the humanitarian crisis that has driven around 2.2 million people from their homes. The conflict between Sudan's army and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has turned the capital Khartoum into a war zone.
• India’s Modi on way to U.S. for first state visit: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi heads to the United States to meet with President Joe Biden and address Congress, during his first official state visit to the U.S. since assuming power in 2014.
• Andrew Tate charged with rape and human trafficking: Social media influencer Andrew Tate has been charged in Romania with rape, human trafficking and forming an organized crime group to sexually exploit women. His brother Tristan and two associates have also been charged. The Tate brothers were first arrested at their Bucharest home in December.
• Four injured in ax attacks at Chinese restaurants in New Zealand: A man with an ax has attacked diners at three Chinese restaurants in Auckland, New Zealand, wounding at least four people. Three victims remain in hospital in stable condition, while a fourth was discharged. Police said a 24-year-old suspect was arrested at the scene.
• French police raid Paris 2024 organizers’ HQ: French police are searching the headquarters of the organizers of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. It is not yet clear what prompted the raids in and around the French capital but reports in French media suggest financial police are involved as part of a probe into suspected corruption. The offices of Solideo, the organization in charge of delivering Olympic infrastructure, are also being searched.🗞️ FRONT PAGE
To mark World Refugee Day, an international day designated by the United Nations to honor refugees around the globe, Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza has issued a special edition to tell the stories of migrants and showcase their plight. The Warsaw-based newspaper also designed a special logo for their masthead.
#️⃣ BY THE NUMBERS
500
French aerospace giant Airbus announced yesterday that Indian airline company IndiGo had placed an order for 500 of its Airbus 1320 planes. Worth an estimated $50 billion, this marks a record for the biggest single purchase agreement in the history of commercial aviation, and brings the total number of Airbus planes ordered by IndiGo to 1,330. The planes will be delivered between 2030 and 2035.
📰 STORY OF THE DAY
Will hack for nukes: inside North Korea's cryptocurrency extortion ring
North Korea has industrialized the theft of cryptocurrency to finance its nuclear weapons program and its state-sponsored hackers are getting better at emptying digital wallets. But global law enforcement agents are in hot pursuit, and cashing in crypto is harder than ever, reports Xu Kaiming in Chinese-language digital media The Initium.
🇰🇵💻 In North Korea, less than 1% of the population has access to the country's Intranet service, which is called Kwangmyong, but the country's government has still produced some of the best hackers in the world. In recent years, the Pyongyang government has taken advantage of the decentralized nature of cryptocurrencies and has used its two-decade-old cyberwarfare capabilities to raise money to fund nuclear weapons research through large-scale financial extortion like WannaCry — and it has been very successful.
🔍 As early as 2008, the North Korean government established Bureau 121, also known as the Electronic Reconnaissance Department or Cyber Warfare Guidance Department. It was tasked with conducting cyber attacks and cyber espionage and collecting intelligence on overseas politics, economy and society. Bureau 121 now has an estimated 3,000 to 6,000 employees in various countries, including China, India, Malaysia and Russia.
☢️ North Korea's rapid nuclear development is due to the Kim Jong-un government's use of the "all-purpose sword" of cyberattacks — a year-long focus on training a cyber army of hackers to steal large sums of money through cyberattacks targeting government agencies, financial institutions and even the general public.
➡️ Read more on Worldcrunch.com
📣 VERBATIM
“The biggest blow is yet to come.”
— Ukraine's deputy defense minister, Hanna Maliar, said the "biggest blow" was yet to come in Kyiv’s counteroffensive, although Moscow is doing all it can to prevent Ukraine from moving forward. The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) has confirmed that Ukraine has not yet begun its main counteroffensive campaign.
👉 MORE FROM WORLDCRUNCH
• For Ukraine, It May Be Time To Crack Down On Draft Dodgers — LIVY BEREG
• Africa's Demographic Boom Is The Continent's Greatest Resource — FINANCIAL AFRIK
• Latin America Gentrified: How A Rent Gap Can Change Everything — VOLCÁNICAS
✍️ Newsletter by Emma Albright, Sophie Jacquier, Anne-Sophie Goninet and Katarzyna Skiba
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