FTX founder Bankman-Fried allowed $250M bond, house arrest
Cryptocurrency entrepreneur Sam Bankman-Fried has left Manhattan federal court after his parents signed a $250 million personal recognizance bond. He wore an electronic monitoring bracelet as he rushed to a car Thursday to head with his parents to their California home to await trial. Bankman-Fried is accused of swindling investors and looting customer deposits on his FTX trading platform. Assistant U.S. Attorney Nicolas Roos said that the 30-year-old Bankman-Fried “perpetrated a fraud of epic proportions.” Magistrate Judge Gabriel W. Gorenstein largely agreed to bail terms proposed by lawyers on both sides. Bankman-Fried is scheduled to return to court on Jan. 3.
Arizona to remove
shipping container
wall from Mexico border
Gov. Doug Ducey says Arizona will take down a makeshift wall made of shipping containers at the Mexico border, settling a lawsuit and political tussle with the federal government over trespassing on federal lands. The Biden administration and the Republican governor entered into an agreement that Arizona will cease installing the containers in the Coronado National Forest. That is according to court documents filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court. The stipulation says Arizona must remove the shipping containers already present in southeastern Cochise County by Jan. 4. The resolution comes just two weeks before Democrat Katie Hobbs, who opposes the construction, takes over as governor.
Taliban minister
defends ban on women’s university studies
The minister of higher education in the Taliban government has broken his silence over his decision to ban women from universities. Nida Mohammad Nadim said Thursday he issued the decree earlier this week to avoid the mixing of genders in universities and because he believes some subjects being taught violated the principles of Islam. Earlier, the foreign ministers of the G-7 group of states urged the Taliban to rescind the ban, warning that “gender persecution may amount to a crime against humanity.” The ministers warned after a virtual meeting that “Taliban policies designed to erase women from public life will have consequences for how our countries engage with the Taliban.”
Fiji calls in military after close election is disputed
Fijian police say they are calling in the military to help maintain security following a close election last week that is now being disputed. It was an alarming development Thursday in a Pacific nation where democracy remains fragile and there have been four military coups in the past 35 years. The two main contenders for prime minister this year were former coup leaders themselves. The military move came after Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama’s Fiji First party refused to concede, despite rival Sitiveni Rabuka’s party and two other parties announcing they had formed a majority coalition and would serve as the next government.
Russia scrubs
Mariupol’s Ukraine
identity, builds on death
Throughout Mariupol, Russian workers are tearing down bombed-out buildings at a rate of at least one a day, hauling away shattered bodies with the debris. Russian soldiers, builders, administrators and doctors are replacing the thousands of Ukrainians who have died or left. Eight months after Mariupol fell into Russian hands, Russia is eradicating all vestiges of Ukraine from it. But it cannot hide the fact that it is building on death: The Associated Press found that more than 10,000 new graves already scar Mariupol. An AP investigation into occupied Mariupol drew on interviews with 30 residents, including 13 living under Russian occupation, satellite imagery, hundreds of videos gathered from inside the city, and Russian documents.
By wire source
