Prosecutors allege Gannon Van Dyke won $400,000 using insider information to bet on Maduro raid on Polymarket

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The US army soldier charged with winning $400,000 by using insider information to bet on the removal of the ousted Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro pleaded not guilty to fraud charges on Tuesday.

Gannon Ken Van Dyke, 38, entered the plea in US district judge Margaret Garnett’s courtroom in Manhattan. Van Dyke sported a shaved head and wore a black blazer, jeans and brown shoes as he arrived to the courtroom with his lawyers, Zach Intrater and Mark Geragos.

Ittai Gradel died of renal cancer days after museum awarded him medal for ‘very significant contribution’

The academic turned antiquities dealer who exposed the theft of hundreds of artefacts from the British Museum has died aged 61.

Dr Ittai Gradel, from Denmark, alerted the British Museum and the police after he was able to buy dozens of museum artefacts on eBay over the course of several years.

A Hong Kong political commentator charged with disclosing details of a national security investigation will stand trial in October.

Wong Kwok-ngon, known by his pen name Wong On-yin, appeared at the District Court on Tuesday.

Judge Stanley Chan said the pre-trial review would take place behind closed doors on August 11, and the trial would begin on October 9.

Before the hearing began on Tuesday, Judge Chan told those in the public gallery that police would take down their names if they called out words of encouragement for Wong after the hearing ended.

Chan noted that at the court mention last month, after the hearing ended and he had left the room, people made comments of support to the defendant.

Wong, 72, has been detained since his arrest in December for allegedly divulging in a YouTube video details of enquiries made by police during a national security investigation.

The offence falls under the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance, a homegrown security law known as Article 23. It was added to the ordinance in May as part of subsidiary legislation, and Wong is the first to be charged under the new law.

Wong is also charged with sedition over videos posted on YouTube between January 3 and December 6 last year. He plans to plead not guilty to both charges.

The defendant, who continues to represent himself, told the court he had dropped his legal aid application.

Asked by the judge whether he had legal knowledge for self-defence, Wong said he had “three law degrees” and was confident of handling the case.

The prosecution has set aside eight days for its case and plans to go through around 30 commentary videos on Wong’s YouTube channel. The transcripts of the videos run to more than 900 pages.

The prosecution added that it had lined up six witnesses, all police officers.

Wong was taken in by national security police in December, on the same day he was set to appear at a press conference about the fatal Wang Fuk Court fire, which had occurred days before. He was then released.

He was arrested four days later on suspicion of “prejudicing of investigation of offences endangering national security” and “doing an act that has a seditious intention with a seditious intention.”

Meta is preparing to backtrack its acquisition of AI startup Manus, the Wall Street Journal reported late Monday, after China banned the transaction citing national security concerns.

Facebook owner Meta announced in December it had agreed to acquire Manus, an artificial intelligence agent created by a company founded in China but now based in Singapore.

But China’s top body for economic planning, the National Development and Reform Commission, said in a statement on Monday that it will “prohibit the foreign investment in the acquisition of the Manus project” and “requires the parties involved to withdraw the acquisition.

The statement did not specifically name Meta.

Meta had told AFP in a statement on Monday that “the transaction complied fully with applicable law.”

“We anticipate an appropriate resolution to the inquiry,” it added.

Analysts had warned the deal could fall foul of regulators at a time of fierce technological  rivalry between Washington and  Beijing.

The Wall Street Journal, citing sources familiar with the matter, said the U-turn was complicated by the fact that Manus’s investors have already received returns from the deal.

Meta said in December that the deal — the financial details of which were not disclosed — would “bring a leading agent to billions of people and unlock opportunities for businesses across our products.”

Manus, created by startup Butterfly Effect, says on its website that it can do everything from analyzing the stock market to creating a personalized travel handbook for a trip with simple user instructions.

By Suy Se

Waving their national flags, dozens of Chinese nationals protested outside Cambodia’s central bank on Monday, demanding the unfreezing of accounts they opened with a financial services firm linked to cyberscamming.

Some demonstrators wielded umbrellas and clashed with scores of local security personnel armed with batons, leaving at least two protesters bloodied.

The former chairman of Huione Group, Li Xiong, was extradited to China on April 1, with Chinese authorities saying he was central to a major transnational gambling and fraud syndicate, and suspected of multiple crimes.

Protesters said their accounts with its digital payments platform H-Pay, previously Huione Pay, had been frozen since December.

Construction and renovation company owner Wang Xijun said he had about US$50,000 locked in his account and has been unable to pay his staff for around three months.

“We are Chinese citizens. We support the crackdown on illegal online gambling and illicit earnings,” Wang shouted.

“But do not lay your hands on us ordinary civilians,” he added. “Give the people’s money back!”

The US government last year accused Huione, which owned several companies offering e-commerce, payment and cryptocurrency exchange services, of laundering funds for transnational criminal groups perpetrating scams from Southeast Asia.

But the protesters in Phnom Penh say they have nothing to do with these alleged crimes and now cannot access their assets deposited with Huione, calling on the National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) to intervene.

Monday’s demonstration followed protests earlier this month outside the NBC and the Chinese embassy in Phnom Penh.

Li Shangfu, 54, said many Chinese people in Cambodia had used Huione because it was “trusted” and convenient for “all our transactions”.

He works in the restaurant and hotel industry and said he has tens of thousands of dollars tied up in Huione’s platform.

“I want the government to give us an answer. What exactly is the situation regarding our money?” said Li. “Does this money still exist or not?”

‘My blood and sweat’

The NBC has said the Huione platforms’ business licences have been revoked, and Huione Pay creditors should go to the courts, while H-Pay creditors can make claims with a liquidator.

The US Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) designated Huione Group a “primary money-laundering concern” last year, and prohibited US financial institutions from processing transactions with it.

Beijing has called Huione’s Li “a core member” of the criminal gang of Chen Zhi, another Chinese-born accused scam boss who was operating from Cambodia before being extradited to China this year.

The Southeast Asian nation has emerged as a hub for the illicit industry in recent years, with transnational crime groups initially mostly targeting Chinese speakers before widening their reach and stealing tens of billions of dollars annually from victims around the world.

Cambodian authorities say they are cracking down, detaining and deporting more than 13,000 foreign nationals involved in online scams since early last year.

From January to April, more than 240,000 people, including Chinese, Indonesians, Indians and others, accused of scam involvement “voluntarily departed” Cambodia, the government said last week.

Monitors accused senior Cambodian officials of complicity — allegations the government has denied.

Protesting Cambodian food vendor Sopheak, 42, said she could see her US$36,000 balance on the Huione platform but cannot withdraw any money.

She opened her account three years ago because Chinese customers preferred it, she said.

“The money is my blood and sweat.”

Hong Kong’s anti-corruption watchdog has charged two men accused of urging others on social media to boycott and cast blank votes in last year’s legislative elections.

The Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC), which oversees Hong Kong’s election legislation, said in a Monday statement that the two men, aged 38 and 63, were charged with alleged breaches of the Elections (Corrupt and Illegal Conduct) Ordinance.

The pair, both security guards, have been released on bail and are scheduled to appear at the West Kowloon Magistrates’ Courts on Thursday.

Ramirez Lam, 38, faces one count of engaging in illegal conduct to incite another person to cast an invalid vote during an election period, while Wong Wah-kwong, 63, faces one count of engaging in illegal conduct to incite another person not to vote.

Their posts were made last year, between October 24, when the nomination period commenced, and December 7, the polling day, the ICAC said.

Lam is accused of leaving a comment on a media outlet’s social media post to incite an invalid vote at the election. The post was a news report on security chief Chris Tang’s remarks that it is an offence to incite people not to vote or cast an invalid vote.

Wong shared a post by wanted overseas-based activist Alan Keung on social media, calling on people not to vote.

Keung himself faces two charges under the elections ordinance for inciting people not to vote. The activist, who also has a HK$200,000 bounty on his head for a separate national security allegation, called for a boycott of what he described as a “fake election.”

The ICAC charged three people accused of sharing posts made by Keung and another overseas activist, Tong Wai-kung, in November.

One Hong Kong woman, 61-year-old housewife Bonney Ma, was given an 18-month suspended jail sentence last month. The two other defendants are scheduled to appear in court in May.

The 2025 “patriots only” legislative polls took place on December 7, days after the deadly Wang Fuk Court fire. The 31.9 per cent turnout – a slight increase compared with the 2021 polls – was the second lowest on record.

The number of registered voters was down compared to 2021, with 32,998 fewer Hongkongers casting a ballot than in 2021, and a record 3.12 per cent of invalid votes were cast.

Dances With Wolves actor assaulted Indigenous women and girls, exploiting his position as a spiritual leader

Nathan Chasing Horse has been sentenced to life in prison for sexually assaulting Indigenous women and girls.

A Nevada judge gave the Dances With Wolves actor his sentence Monday. A jury had previously convicted him of 13 charges, mostly related to sexual assault. He was accused by three women, including one who was 14 when the assaults began. He was acquitted on some charges.

Police warn of violent pornography and ‘toxic’ influencers as suicides outstrip homicides for third year running

The first teenage girl has been identified as having been driven to kill herself after domestic violence, as police chiefs blamed violent pornography and “toxic” influencers for being behind a rise in teen abuse.

Suicides after domestic abuse have outstripped homicides for the third year running, according to the Domestic Homicide Project, which records deaths in England and Wales after domestic abuse.