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Market Wrap: Bitcoin Dips to $11.6K, ETH Options Predict Price Below $400 by End of Year – CoinDesk – CoinDesk

Posted on August 28, 2020 by Danzig

Bitcoin traders are hitting the sell button Friday while the ether options market loads up on lower prices.

After holding around $11,800 Thursday into Friday, bitcoin started to slide downward around 08:00 UTC (4 a.m. ET), dropping to a 24-hour low of $11,605. Spot volumes were lower to cap off the workweek. It was $138 million on major spot USD/BTC exchange Coinbase, lower than its $179 million average over the past month.

Over-the-counter crypto trader Henrik Kugelberg expects a bullish, if not record, fourth quarter ahead for bitcoin, even if the number of sluggish market days pile up. I expect a slower curve but would not be surprised if we reach a $15,000 BTC in October and somewhere around $18,000-$20,000 at year end.

Kugelberg points to the uncertain economy as giving people reason to swap fiat for crypto investments. Theres the falling value of the dollar to be priced in; we have not seen the end of the dollars fall that is for sure, he added. Indeed, while the U.S. Dollar Index, a measure of the greenbacks strength versus a basket of other fiat currencies, is up 0.52% Friday, its still at lows not seen since June 2018.

In the bitcoin options market, Neil Van Huis, director of sales and institutional trading at liquidity provider Blockfills, noted volatility decreased this week. Bitcoins at-the-money implied volatility, which is a metric to forecast movement in prices, has dropped from 71% Monday to 59% Friday. Looks like some normalization of volatile trading as of late, Van Huis said.

Opportunities in Ethereum-powered DeFi are taking some traders focus away from the bitcoin market, Kugelbrg told CoinDesk. The crypto community is in a total FOMO to DeFi-related altcoins, said Kugelberg. I believe the run-up for bitcoin may be slower than expected and fueled by retail sales to newcomers wanting a somewhat steadier haven.

Ether options market bearish

Ether (ETH) was down Friday, trading around $399 and slipping 3.8% in 24 hours as of 20:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET).

The ether options market is predicting prices by the end of 2020 wont be much higher than they are now for the worlds second-largest cryptocurrency. December 20 maturities only give ether a 25% chance of being over $520, a 38% probability of being over $420 and a 41% chance of being over $400, according to data aggregator Skew.

Despite the probabilities, Jean-Marc Bonnefous, managing partner for Tellurian Capital, which has been investing in crypto projects since 2014, is still bullish on ether. He doesnt see Ethereums fundamental issues, such as fees constraining the network, as anything but a speed bump on the fast-moving DeFi highway. Structurally, no, said Bonnefous. But short term, ether needs a new trigger to go higher.

Other markets

Digital assets on the CoinDesk 20 are mixed Friday. Notable winners as of 20:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET):

Notable losers as of 20:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET):

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Market Wrap: Bitcoin Dips to $11.6K, ETH Options Predict Price Below $400 by End of Year - CoinDesk - CoinDesk

Fed, futures and fundamentals: 5 things to watch in Bitcoin this week – Cointelegraph

Posted on August 28, 2020 by Danzig

Bitcoin (BTC) starts another week in a bullish mood as hurdles line up to shape price trajectory.

Cointelegraph presents five factors determining where BTC/USD may go in the coming days, and what traders should look out for.

Stocks saw records last week with the S&P 500 hitting all-time highs. Despite a lower overall impact on Bitcoin, moves on macro markets are still more than capable of spilling over into cryptocurrency.

Upward momentum continued on Monday, with stocks futures up but a sense of foreboding building about an upcoming speech from the United States Federal Reserve.

Markets were waiting to hear news about inflation, which rumors previously suggested could target up to 4%.

This would be a perfect storm for buoying safe havens, analysts said, in an environment which has already sent the U.S. dollar index to two-year lows and flooded the market with excess liquidity from quantitative easing.

The news will come from Fed Chair Jerome Powell during its annual Economic Policy Symposium, held in Jackson Hole, Wyoming on Thursday.

More clarity will no doubt be sought via this weeks Jackson Hole Symposium, Ben Emons of macro analysis firm Medley Global Advisors told Bloomberg on Monday.

U.S. futures were meanwhile up on the day, while Asia set a bullish tone thanks to Washington reassuring on not blocking Chinese social media network WeChat shares in owner Tencent rose over 4% as a result.

On short timeframes, Bitcoin was pleasing analysts as the week began. For Cointelegraph Markets analyst Michal van de Poppe, a run to lower levels was now less likely after BTC/USD avoided a retest of levels below $11,500 on Sunday night.

In a transaction analysis video on Sunday, van de Poppe added that in the event of a breakdown, the buy the dip level to look out for would nonetheless fall below $10,000.

The real level Im watching for buy the dip levels if we do break out is between $9,600 and $9,900, he summarized.

BTC/USD short-term analysis. Source: Michal van de Poppe/ Twitter

Concerns over a break below five figures had become less common among commentators, while Van de Poppe mostly discarded rumors of a pullback to below $8,000.

The last time that Bitcoin traded below $10,000 was at the end of July.

A mixed bag for Bitcoin fundamentals saw network difficulty adjust upwards 3% to hit new all-time highs, but hash rate trend lower.

According to data from monitoring resource BTC.com, difficulty increased by 3.6% on Monday to hit 18.17 trillion.

The new record suggests that miner participation in the network is stronger than ever, and competition is being reflected in how taxing it is to solve equations on the blockchain.

The difficulty adjusts automatically and is an essential feature of Bitcoin as self-regulating hard money. Issuance remains fixed regardless of how high or low difficulty is.

Meanwhile, the hash rate declined around 8% over the past seven days, estimates show, currently circling 119 exahashes per second (EH/s).

Bitcoin 7-day average hash rate six-month chart. Source: Blockchain

Given the imprecise nature of hash rate measurements, it is likely that the number will normalize after the difficulty adjustment, continuing a broad uptrend in place since just after Mays block subsidy halving cut miner revenues by 50% overnight.

The spotlight could fall once again on crypto derivatives this week as the month draws to a close and settlements near.

62,000 BTC ($730 million) worth of Bitcoin options will expire on Aug. 28, reminiscent of the end-of-month action from June.

Bitcoin options open interest expiry dates. Source: Skew

Traditionally, settlement junctures exert downward pressure on BTC price, but as Cointelegraph reported, Junes near-$1 billion expiry turned out to be a non-event for the market.

With every week that passes, however, futures reach a wider audience, evidenced by Grayscales record inflows in August.

At the same time, on-chain analytics resource Skew reported record short positions for CME Groups Bitcoin futures, something it described as most likely due to the profitability of the so-called cash & carry trades.

These are performed between the futures price and spot price of Bitcoin as a form of arbitrage.

Bitcoin investor sentiment is extremely greedy and getting greedier.

That was the conclusion from sentiment indicator the Crypto Fear & Greed Index, which on Monday remained firmly bearish on the overall market mood.

As Cointelegraph reported last week, the Index almost hit record greed before a slight retracement, nonetheless rebounding toward its maximum 100/100 over the weekend.

The Index uses a basket of factors to measure whether the market is oversold or conversely due for a correction.

Crypto Fear & Greed Index as of Aug. 24. Source: Alternative.me

In terms of volatility, using Bollinger Bands on BTC/USD likewise hints that fresh price action is incoming, but whether it will be up or down remains uncertain.

Last week, creator John Bollinger himself described the current Bitcoin rally as picture perfect.

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Fed, futures and fundamentals: 5 things to watch in Bitcoin this week - Cointelegraph

I would never invest one cent in Bitcoin, says Ryanair CEO – Cointelegraph

Posted on August 28, 2020 by Danzig

Micheal OLeary, the CEO of major budget airline Ryanair,has come out very bearish on Bitcoin (BTC).

Recently speaking to The Times, OLeary likened Bitcoin to a Ponzi scheme and advised investors to avoid it:

I have never, and would never, invest one cent in Bitcoin, which I believe is equivalent to a Ponzi scheme. [...] I would strongly advise everyone with any shred of common sense to ignore this false story and avoid Bitcoin like a plague.

OLeary was referring to an apparent crypto scam, Bitcoin Lifestyle, which claimed to have his approval in a promotional campaign.

A bogus article on a fake news outlet claimed that, in an interview on the Late Late Show, OLeary shocked audiences and the host Ryan Tubridy by showing how much money he was making with the Bitcoin scheme,which advertises itself as an automated trading system.

According to the scams campaign, the publicity stuntwas enough to drive National Ireland Bank to phone the show in anattempt to stop the bit from being aired.

One problem is that the National Ireland Bank does not exist.

Using the image of wealthy and famous people to promote cryptocurrency scams is a very common tactic to gain credibility among potential investors.In early April, a Bitcoin trading scam claimed the involvement of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex Prince Harry Charles Albert David and Meghan Markle.

In March, Janet Jacksons billionaire ex-husbandWissam Al Manademanded Facebook to reveal who paid for ads featuringhis image while promoting a crypto fraud.

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I would never invest one cent in Bitcoin, says Ryanair CEO - Cointelegraph

Re-Mining Simulation Shows Satoshi Used a Single High-End PC to Mine 1.1M Bitcoin – Bitcoin News

Posted on August 28, 2020 by Danzig

Cryptocurrency advocates have been recently discussing the mysterious Bitcoin inventor Satoshi Nakamoto as RSKs chief scientist, Sergio Demian Lerner, published a paper called The Patoshi Mining Machine. Essentially, Lerner simulated Satoshis mining experience. The findings estimate that Bitcoins creator used a single computer to mine an estimated 1 million bitcoin minted in the early days.

Sergio Demian Lerner is well known for publishing one of the first estimates backed by technical data in 2013 concerning Satoshi Nakamotos alleged stash of bitcoin.

During the last seven years, Lerner has published a few more papers about this subject and it is estimated that Satoshi mined 1.1 million BTC. Not too long ago in 2018, Bitmex Research published findings that estimated Satoshi may have only mined 700,000 BTC.

At the end of July 2020, the blockchain trackers and researchers from Whale Alert published a new research report which placed the figure around 1,125,150 BTC.

Lerners latest paper The Patoshi Mining Machine looks into whether or not the Patoshi pattern (Satoshis mining) was done by multiple computers or a single PC. Lerner simulated Satoshis mining experience by mining a large part of Patoshi nonce space scanning sequentially in the range.

The RSK chief scientist paper noticed a tendency while re-mining the old Satoshi bocks which reduces the nonce value.

It turned out that re-mining reveals a strong tendency of the Patoshi mining algorithm to choose higher nonces when scanning the inner nonce, Lerner discovered. This tendency suggests the nonce was being decremented, which is the opposite that the Satoshi client version 0.1 does.

Re-mining revealed some of the possible solutions chosen by the miner, Lerner detailed and one that exists in the blockchain, will be called the real solution.

The finding leads Lerner to believe that Satoshi didnt leverage 50 computers to mine the Patoshi blocks and its very likely the inventor utilized a single machine back then.

Lerner thinks that Satoshi may have been scanning subranges in parallel when he examined the nonce imbalance decreases. Since the nonce imbalance decreases when analyzing two subranges together, this suggests Patoshi was scanning the 5 subranges in parallel, but each subrange internally sequentially, Lerners paper notes.

The researchers study further adds:

This contradicts a theory that Patoshi deployed the first mining farm of 50 independent computers (or any other highly decoupled system) and supports the theory that Patoshi was simply multi-threading in a high-end CPU.

Lerner said that he attempted the re-mining process in 2014, but shelved the idea for a number of years. The researcher detailed that this year he re-mined with a standard CPU and re-mined the first 18K block only to check that the theory matched the reality (It does).

During the last few years, the search for clues about Satoshi has been a fan favorite and people continue to investigate his past movements and how the inventor jumped-started the Bitcoin network.

Lerners Patoshi papers have always lent credence to a number of theories about the estimated size of Satoshis bitcoin stash and how Nakamoto may have operated in the early days.

What do you think about Sergio Demian Lerner re-mining 18,000 blocks in order to discover Satoshis secrets? Let us know what you think in the comments section below.

Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons, https://bitslog.com

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not a direct offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation or endorsement of any products, services, or companies. Bitcoin.com does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article.

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Re-Mining Simulation Shows Satoshi Used a Single High-End PC to Mine 1.1M Bitcoin - Bitcoin News

IMF Publishes Cryptocurrency Explainer, Saying It ‘Could Be the Next Step in the Evolution of Money’ | News – Bitcoin News

Posted on August 28, 2020 by Danzig

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has published a video explaining what cryptocurrency is. Besides suggesting that cryptocurrency could completely change the way we sell, buy, save, invest, and pay our bills, the video states that it could be the next step in the evolution of money.

The IMF tweeted a video explaining what cryptocurrency is on Sunday that instantly went viral. Referring to cryptocurrency as a special currency, the two-minute video attempts to outline its benefits in payments, such as by removing middlemen, lowering costs, and increasing transaction speed. It also warns of what it sees as risks, such as anonymity and volatility. The video has garnered more than 523K views at the time of writing; it has been retweeted 5.5K times, liked 8.2K times, and received 807 comments. The video ends with:

If we can counter the risks, then this new technology or some variation of it can completely change the way we sell, buy, save, invest, and pay our bills. And who knows, this could be the next step in the evolution of money.

The video references the IMFs F&D (Finance & Development) magazine, June 2018 edition, entitled Money, Transformed The future of currency in a digital world. When that magazine edition came out, the organization posted the above video on its Youtube channel, which received little interest at the time.

Many people in the crypto space view the IMFs video as bullish. Tweets such as IMF learning fast. Global adoption is on its way, This is a big deal, and They are finally understanding blockchain and cryptocurrency are not going away flooded Twitter. One user wrote: I still cant believe I see this. IMF shills cryptocurrencies, of course, not bitcoin yet, but that time will come too.

Since the IMFs crypto explainer video does not mention any specific cryptocurrency, many commenters took the opportunity to promote their favorite coins.

Some people, however, criticize the content of the IMF video, saying that the information is misleading and omits many important points, including mining. Many also believe that bitcoin should have been mentioned. Nothing about why people choose to store their wealth in a scarce currency like bitcoin instead of fiat currencies that are benign constantly debased by banksters and cantillionaires, one user tweeted. You forgot one fundamental difference between fiat and bitcoin. Fiat is printable by centralized entities like government & banks, whereas BTC is decentralized and has a limit cap to its supply where only 21 million will ever exist in this universe. All powered by blockchain, another wrote.

Some questioned who the bad guys in the video are supposed to be and frowned upon it referring to private keys as passwords. Some say the video gives the appearance that all cryptocurrencies share the properties of bitcoin, and some suspect that the IMF is planning to launch its own cryptocurrency. One user noted that this video is set up like a Prelude to their own crypto coin that will come out at some point fixing all the problems with crypto that the IMF has outlined in this video.

What do you think about this IMF video? Let us know in the comments section below.

Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons, IMF, Twitter

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IMF Publishes Cryptocurrency Explainer, Saying It 'Could Be the Next Step in the Evolution of Money' | News - Bitcoin News

Bitcoin’s presence in South Florida is growing – Key West Florida Weekly

Posted on August 28, 2020 by Danzig

The rising value of the digital currency Bitcoin has helped fuel the growth of a South Florida Bitcoin ATM company and a statewide association that is working to create a friendly business environment for financial technology firms.

In 2016, Lee Hansen and his business partner Lennart Lopin started ByteFederal, a Venice-based company that manufactures and operates Bitcoin ATMs where people can trade the currency for cash.

CEO Mr. Hansen, 48, has worked as a financial advisor and software engineer. The companys chief technology officer, Mr. Lopin, 42, is also a software engineer with a special interest in computational linguistics and artificial intelligence.

ByteFederal now operates 125 ATMs in 15 states, with 38 locations across Florida. The companys website allows you to search for local businesses that host its ATMs, such as Fire Vape Smoke Shop in West Palm Beach, Friendly Market in Naples, Down T Liquor in Fort Myers, and PGI Liquors in Punta Gorda.

A ByteFederal Bitcoin ATM. The company manufactures and operates Bitcoin ATMs across Florida and in 14 other states at local businesses such as Down T Liquor in Fort Myers, Fire Vape Smoke Shop in West Palm Beach, Friendly Market in Naples and PGI Liquors in Punta Gorda. EVAN WILLIAMS / FLORIDA WEEKLY

In 2018, Samuel Armes and Mr. Lopin co-founded the Florida Blockchain Business Association. Blockchain is a digital architecture that allows Bitcoin to work by keeping a public ledger of all transactions, but it has potential applications across many other industries.

Mr. Armes serves as president of the association. He and other members have supported two bills signed in to law by Gov. Ron DeSantis. The first created a 13-person Florida Blockchain Task Force, which held its first meeting last September in Tallahassee. The second, signed by Gov. DeSantis in July, created a fintech sandbox for blockchain and cryptocurrency companies.

According to the Blockchain Business Association, this fintech sandbox creates an environment where companies that disrupt the status quo are provided regulatory flexibility to operate and provide new types of products and services.

It allows the Office of Financial Regulation to waive certain licensure requirements for FinTech companies to offer innovative services in Florida while ensuring OFR has sufficient authority to protect consumers.

VERLEY

Overall, the fast-rising value of Bitcoin has helped lift business efforts. But at the same time, Bitcoin is still widely considered a volatile, high-risk form of currency in which investors should be prepared to lose their money.

The price of Bitcoin quickly recovered since losing half its value as investors initially fled in a flash crash during the beginning of the pandemic. But in recent weeks the price continued to rise from a low this year of below $5,000 to upwards of $12,000, suggesting that more investors see this form of digital currency as a safe haven not unlike gold, say Bitcoin industry professionals and enthusiasts.

Bitcoin is often called digital gold because only a finite number of Bitcoins, about 21 million, will ever be created. It is by far most popular form of cryptocurrency, though there are others. The idea and design of the Bitcoin system was created by an anonymous person in 2009 using the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto.

Over the last five years, its value went on a rollercoaster ride from about $400 per coin five years ago to an all-time high of $19,665 in 2017 before coasting down below $4,000 in 2018 and then rising again above $11,000 in 2019, according to CoinDesk.

ByteFederal makes money on transaction fees at its ATMs, and businesses where the ATMs are placed get a cut of the fees.

Starting a business based on cryptocurrency in a system its designed to disrupt was an uphill battle, Mr. Hansen and Mr. Lopin said. They interviewed with more than 400 banks before finding one that would take them on.

It took us years, Mr. Lopin said. It was a very, very difficult journey just to get a bank account.

As a financial services company they are also monitored by the Financial Crime Enforcement Network, a division of the Treasury.

Once they began, though, their business grew along with the price of Bitcoin. Now, the pandemic appears to have had a positive effect on business.

Weve seen a significant uptick in transaction volume throughout the entire process, Mr. Hansen said.

He attributes that to a renewed interest for many people in Bitcoin as a potential safe haven for money and a possible future alternative to central banking.

For those interested in exactly how Bitcoin works, its many implications or its mysterious history, Mr. Lopin recommends what he calls an instant classic in the world of Bitcoin called The Bitcoin Standard. There are also numerous YouTube videos explaining it. Bitcoin is touted as an alternative to our current system in which we trust a central banking system to handle our transactions and make sure we dont cheat.

The major innovation behind Bitcoin was to create a monetary system that can be trusted without any central authority. This decentralized system relies on computers throughout its network to provide checks and balances and keep a public ledger on every transaction. The ledger is managed within a digital architecture called a blockchain.

It is all still relatively new technology, Mr. Lopin points out. And Bitcoins volatile price, like the stock market, can reflect many factors including inflation, hype, media influencers, political events, pandemics, and how many people use it.

Other members of the Blockchain Business Association that Mr. Armes started are pursuing their own projects in South Florida.

A liaison for the Association in Palm Beach County and an SEO and digital marketing consultant, Lenny Mauricio started an initiative to convince businesses along Clematis Street, a shopping and entertainment destination in West Palm Beach, to take Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies from customers as a payment option.

He hopes to have 20 or more businesses signed up over the next sixth months with an app that allows them to use the digital currency system. After the system shows success along Clematis, he plans to take it to other cities such as Miami.

Were not trying to eliminate the current financial system, all were trying to do is give them an alternative, he said.

Mr. Armes worked for a lobbying firm before deciding to start his own crypto lobbying firm, which grew in to the Blockchain Business Association.

Now age 23, Mr. Armes recalls being introduced to the world of Bitcoin when a friend bought him some in high school about seven or eight years ago.

How is that investment doing now?

Its doing pretty damn good, he said, though he didnt name an exact figure.

A Southwest Florida cryptocurrency enthusiast, as well as a filmmaker and photographer, among other activities, Justin Verley, 24, delved in to Bitcoin as an investor starting in 2016. He has worked as a Bitcoin miner people in the cryptocurrency system who record transactions on a public digital ledger and are thereby rewarded with a fee for doing so. He plans to go back to school to further study blockchain and its applications.

He pointed out that using Bitcoin is relatively germ-free compared to money and that Bitcoins price has gone up in correlation with the federal government printing massive amounts of money to help with the pandemic economic downturn.

If anything, Id say COVID-19 is a driving force for Bitcoin in terms of price and usability, he said.

Bitcoin's presence in South Florida is growing - Key West Florida Weekly

Storefronts at buddy’s place: These windows in OTR offer a voice to the community – The Cincinnati Enquirer

Posted on August 28, 2020 by Danzig

Left to Right: Janet Albright-Captain, Jacquie Eaton, Tony Drummond, Ann Driscoll, Sarah Corlett, June Alexander, Dionna DeeDee Flowers, Jeremy Neff and Key Beck as part of a series at Storefronts at buddy's place.(Photo: Joe Walsh and MC Rietz/Provided)

In the middle of Over-The-Rhine's entertainment district is an art collective made for and by community members.

Some are artists, others are educators andstudents,and some are longtime residents.

The work featured as part of the "Storefronts at buddy's place" series varies from cutoutsto live performances andlight installations.

And it's all housed on buddy's place, a building with 20 units of permanent affordable housing for former homeless residents. The building itselfis recognizable by a giant mural on its side that features sunflowers, people and a sign that says "Over-the-RhinePeoples Movement."

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buddy's place was named after buddy gray, a homeless advocate andfounderof Cincinnati's Drop Inn Center. buddy did not capitalize the "b" or "g" in his name and buddy's place has continued the tradition.

Storefronts was formed in 2017with the goal to allow residents to produce art shows that address issues that impact their lives, such as development and gentrification in the community.

"For many of us, even folks who weren't here since the beginning, we've always wanted something to do," said Key Beck, an organizer, collaboratorand board member of the OTR community council. Becksaid that Storefronts feels like something theycan do.

On various projects, Beck has served several roles from community member to participant. "It shows you what intentional community work looks like. The voice of the community is always being heard."

Dorothy Darden as part of a series called "Vigils" at Storefronts at buddy's place.(Photo: Storefront at buddy's place.)

The first exhibit at Storefronts was called Vigil. Community members dressed in black stood in the windows with signs that said things like, "We need to support affordable housing," and "Neighborhoods are nothing without neighbors."

The process has evolved over the years at Storefronts.

Mary Clare Rietz, the facilitating artist for Storefronts' art series at Miami University's Center forCommunity Engagement, first would bring the concepts to the community. Since then, OTR residents now work together to flesh out ideas for the Storefronts presentations.

Tony Drummond says he'slived in OTR for 12 years and has met more than 50 people since joining Storefronts. He currently lives at buddy's place and was part of Storefronts' Blink presentation called "Time for an UPdate?"

"I wore a big hat on with lights, and I'm a big man, so I guess I drew a lot of attention," Drummond said. "But we had a lot of educational stuff there, people looked at that and read that. It wasn't just a big light show. People were stopping. People were learning. People were seeing things they didn't know nothing about."

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June Alexander has lived in OTR for more than 20 years and saidStorefronts reminds her of the Harlem Renaissance.

"Without that expression that ability to say, in a healthy way, what's going on with us and have that support there would be other things going on," Alexander said. "This is what people need to see. Grassroots people, people in your own community, must have supporters."

Student involvement differs for each project. Sometimes they help with facilitating conversations or gathering props. Other students design posters and artwork or create costumes for exhibits.

Students from Miami University as well as the University of Cincinnati's College of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning have also assisted with projects.

"The good thing about working with the students is that they're often involved in different portions of the project," Beck said.

"It's kind of a good partnership between students who are working in this kind of environment from an academic perspective and communities coming from the experiential perspective and together we have a unified goal of representing something," Beck said. "It's more like we're doing work with the students and working together."

End Times exhibit by Dionna "DeeDee" Flowers at Storefronts at buddy's place in Over-the-Rhine.(Photo: Storefronts at buddy's place)

The summer art project was bolstered by Black Lives Matter protests happening in Cincinnati and across the nation.

"With the powerful emergence of this most recent movement for Black lives and all of the other storefronts being covered with wood and then art," Rietz said. "Some of us decided it might be a good idea to have art in our windows."

This current series will feature several single-artist shows for the windows, rather than the usual collective approach.

Dionna DeeDee Flowers created the art for the first installation of BLACKLIBERATION. The second part of the series will premiere on Aug. 28as part of OTR's Final Friday art programming.

"It has been a very moving experience for me to be a part of this movement," Flowers said. "Whether they be rich, poor, professional, street person or whatever, what have you, Over-the-Rhine community folks, new ones and nostalgic, this is getting us together and getting us to communicate with one another."

"Wonderland" exhibit at Storefront at buddy's place.(Photo: Storefront at buddy's place)

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Storefronts at buddy's place: These windows in OTR offer a voice to the community - The Cincinnati Enquirer

Hurricane Laura the latest blow to residents of one HUD-subsidized community in Galveston – HousingWire

Posted on August 28, 2020 by Danzig

As fires and a hurricane threaten communities across the U.S. this week, residents of low-income housing are at an especially high risk of financial and other loss resulting from the natural disasters, the Urban Institute has shown.

For one community in Galveston, Texas, Hurricane Laura expected to make landfall in Texas and Louisiana as a Category 4 hurricane is just the latest in a long series of disasters that they say have been made worse by the way the Department of Housing and Urban Development has managed the situation.

Built in 1971 with 192 units, Sandpiper Cove is a privately owned apartment complex under HUD contract that allows tenants to pay 30% of their income after deductions, or a minimum of $25 per month, with HUD paying the difference. The property also sits directly in a high-risk flood area, according to FEMAs flood maps.

John Henneberger, co-director of Texas Housers, a Texas low-income housing information service, said their organization has been following Sandpiper Cove for nearly a decade. Because of its location relative to the seawall and lack of any sort of elevation, Henneberger said the 200-family complex floods in every hurricane.

When they flood, the tenants who suffer water damage lose their personal possessions, their furniture and their household belongings among other things. Theyre all low-income so most of them dont have renters insurance, Henneberger said. Then HUD comes in, gets the owner to basically patch up the apartment, which then leaves the tenants suffering a recouped financial loss that they cant bear.

When Galveston residents were issued a mandatory evacuation order on Monday ahead of Hurricane Lauras approach, Sand Piper Cove tenants were given a location for a bus that would evacuate them to Austin, but were not told where they would be going upon arrival. The uncertainty of where they are going is matched by what they will find when they return.

Because of repeated water damage, Sandpiper Cove has experienced a myriad of other problems including mold, sewage back-ups, broken air conditioners, buckling ceilings, rats and cockroaches, residents told the Houston Chronicle.

At the end of June, the non-profit law firm Lone Star Legal Aids Fair Housing team and housing civil right lawyers filed a lawsuit for Sandpiper Cove against HUD for intentional discrimination and its failure to relocate tenants after the property failed inspections and received a Notice of Default.

In a release, LSLA cited Rule-24 CFR 886.323 of the Code of Federal Regulations, which states that when a property participates in the project-based rental assistance program and it receives a Notice of Default, HUD shall provide a remedy for those tenants.

In the case of Sandpiper Cove residents, HUD wont let them move without a tenant choice voucher, despite the fact that these vouchers help families rent houses and apartments throughout Galveston. HUDs failure to provide assistance to these tenants violates its habitability regulations and its obligation to affirmatively further fair housing under the Fair Housing Act, the release said.

In Houston, LSLA filed claims against HUD and two other Section 8 project-based apartment complexes Coppertree and Arbor Court for similar complaints of inadequate living conditions in 2018, according to the National Housing Law Project.

Henneberger said Texas Housers has been working with residents of Sandpiper Cove to seek a meeting with HUD officials in Houston, as tenants pursue a more permanent and systemic solution to the problem. Currently, residents are seeking the option to receive Housing Choice Vouchers so they can leave their existing units for alternative housing.

Bottom line, the tenants are basically locked into these developments, by virtue of the fact that this is a project-based development and the tenant has no choice. If they want the rent subsidy, they have to live at Sandpiper Cove they cant take a voucher and go find a place that doesnt flood or a place that doesnt have mold or sewage problems or electrical problems, Henneberger said.

On Aug. 10, HUD announced it plans to allocate $472 million of CARES Act funding for low-income households. According to HUD secretary Ben Carson, Public Housing Authorities will use the money to make sure people have a decent, safe, and affordable place to call home.

For now, Henneberger, along with Texas Housers community outreach coordinator Ericka Bowman, are attempting to stay in contact with the residents of Sandpiper Cove as they make their way to Austin.

According to a report from CoreLogic, 431,810 single-family and multifamily homes along the Texas and Louisiana coast are at risk of storm surge damage from projected Category 4 Hurricane Laura, representing approximately $88.3 billion at potential risk for reconstruction cost value.

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Hurricane Laura the latest blow to residents of one HUD-subsidized community in Galveston - HousingWire

The People Of Belarus Are Rising Up Against ‘Europe’s Last Dictator’. But Is The Tide Turning Against Them? – The Organization for World Peace

Posted on August 28, 2020 by Danzig

On August 25th, 1991, Belarus declared its independence from the Soviet Union and Alexander Lukashenko a man not particularly well known to most people outside of the country until recently became its first president. This was a time of hope and promise for the people of Belarus, a move towards democracy and liberalism after years of repression. However, Mr. Lukashenko would not serve his term and pass the baton to a successor; instead, he remains in power to this day and has earned the label of Europes Last Dictator. Lukashenkos regime is currently facing the biggest protests in the history of the country, rocking the very foundations of his almost 3-decade old regime. The world looks on wondering if Lukashenkos time is up or whether he will be able to hold his dictatorship in place.

Just 10 days after the August 9th presidential election, Lukashenko has found himself on the ropes. The protests initially began as a backlash against what many claim to be a rigged election in which he claimed to have won 80% of the vote, while opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya who was widely regarded as very popular received only 10% and then had to flee the country. The movement soon morphed into something much bigger than just a reactionary spate of anger, with estimates ranging from 100,000 to 200,000 people demonstrating in Minsk last Sunday, the largest in the independent history of Belarus.

The protests took the Lukashenko regime by surprise and spread across the country even drawing factory workers to join the protests. Nick Kaeshko, an accredited independent election observer during the election, who witnessed the voter fraud first-hand described the protests as decentralized functioning as a grassroots movement led by individuals and small communities. The atmosphere in Minsk was one of hope for the future as Lukashenko was seemingly at the mercy of those whom he had oppressed for almost 3 decades.

The Lukashenko administration reacted violently claiming to have imprisoned over 7000 protestors whilst attempting to discredit the demonstrators as foreign agents. Reports of torture and abuse by the authorities spread quickly and many protesters have simply disappeared at the hands of the national guard. The violent clampdown initially failed to have the desired effect, and more people were driven into the streets by the horrific images of beaten and abused protestors that flooded social media and the international press. Despite the initial success of the demonstrators, there appears to be a shifting of the tide in favour of Lukashenko and his allies.

The government has successfully forced many of the factory workers back into line by threatening them with criminal punishments. As a result, they are more or less back to business as usual. The general population has suffered some morale loss as protestors have been relentlessly attacked by the national guard, loved ones have gone missing and the government has introduced martial law in all but name. The uprising now appears to be at a crossroads, as momentum slows and the government regains an element of control over the situation. Lukashenko hopes that the local population can be demoralized enough to stop major marches whilst the international community and press lose interest, thus preventing further international backlash against him and his government.

The European Union and the international community as a whole must use the powers they have at their disposal to support the people calling for their basic human rights: to freely elect those who decide the fate of their country. The EU has already responded to the situation by sanctioning members of the regime and refusing to acknowledge the legitimacy of the election. Thierry Breton, the EU Industry Commissioner, stated that It is clear that (the outcome of the Belarus presidential election) is not in line with the wish of the people, there has been unacceptable violence, and the rule of law is not respected. This pressure must be maintained by Europe in order to remind Lukashenko that what has happened will not be forgotten and that democratic world stands behind the demonstrators.

Furthermore, the inevitable role that Russian President Vladimir Putin plays and will continue to play in Belarusian politics must be recognized. Lukashenko pleaded for help from Putin as the gravity of his situation began to set in. Artysom Shraybman, a Minks-based political analyst, explained that Russia has agreed to intervene only if there is clear foreign aggression. Furthermore, Aleksandr Baunov of the Carnegie Moscow Centre has pointed out that Putin intervening without support from the local population would be potentially disastrous for the Kremlin. As a result, Lukashenko is alone, condemned in the west by the EU and put on hold by his only powerful friend in the East. The European Union must maintain a dialogue with the Kremlin and make it abundantly clear that any intervention like what was seen in Ukraine will be punished severely. Lukashenko must be kept in isolation both from his allies and his foes.

The August 9th election bought members from all across Belarusian society together to fight for their freedom and justice in the face of a brutal leader, and now the fate of Lukashenko hangs in the balance. The intentional community and every person that believes in the basic human right to freedom must not let Lukashenko believe that he can continue to abuse his powers without reprisal. Ultimately, his fate will be decided by the people of Belarus and their will to fight for their freedom. This historic moment in Belaruss history will either be looked back on as the moment a dictator was almost removed or as the moment that the calls for freedom and progress were too loud even for a dictator as brutal and well established as Alexander Lukashenko.

Graduate in Politics and History interested primarily in the European Union, East Asian development, and the connection between conflict in the MENA region and the refugee crisis in Europe.

Fresh Thyme Partners with The Distillery Project to Release New Advertising Campaign and New Company Logo – PerishableNews

Posted on August 28, 2020 by Danzig

DOWNERS GROVE, Ill. This past year has been a defining one for many reasons, and Fresh Thyme Market, the full-service specialty retailer with a focus on value-priced fresh, healthy, natural and organic offerings, is helping customers adjust with confidence. With an understanding that the real role they play in peoples lives has become bigger and more meaningful, Fresh Thyme grounds itself as a valuable partner to their communities as they continue to adjust. By offering a more deliberate way to shop and eat, Fresh Thyme presents a more thoughtful approach to managing health and wellness. To drive these efforts forward, Fresh Thyme is excited to announce the unveiling of a new company logo, as well as a new advertising campaign, set to air thisSunday, August 30th.

In this year of rapid consumer change, Fresh Thyme has continued to change as well, ensuring that their name and logo match up with customers needs and expectations. The new logo encapsulates this change for the Fresh Thyme brand and its purpose. With clear and authentic messaging, Fresh Thyme aims to provide support for those looking for real solutions for wellness. The new design drives straighter towards who Fresh Thyme really is and the retailers promise to customers.

Fresh Thymes new company logo, redesigned by The Distillery Project, showcases a refined and sharpened look, featuring green and white lettering and condensed wording. The logo is simpler, reading solely Fresh Thyme Market.

In tandem with their new logo, Fresh Thyme will kick off a new advertising campaign with the debut of their latest commercial. The ad entitled, This is Real, starsrealFresh Thyme shoppers. Cast while shopping in the retailers home city ofChicago, the ad highlights the diversity and uniqueness of the Fresh Thyme customer. Created in partnership with The Distillery Project, the commercial showcases three families preparing and eating dinner in their own homes.

Fresh Thyme has always been a solution for healthy living, no matter the circumstance, says Fresh Thyme Market Chief Merchandising and Marketing Officer,Tod Pepin. As we all continue to navigate this new normal, Fresh Thyme is dedicated to helping people meet a new standard and heightened responsibility towards their own wellbeing. Our new logo and advertising campaign is an intentional evolution in that direction, and we are thrilled to share it with our community.

The ad emphasizes that as the world continues to change, it has become harder for people to know what is real. In the midst of it all, Fresh Thyme shoppers are quietly taking control of their health and wellbeing by eating real, healthy foods.

Its always been hard for people to know what to do to stay healthy, saysJohn Condon, Founder and Chief Creative Officer of The Distillery Project. Its such an important topic that theres a constant barrage of information. It can be confusing, contradictory and sometimes come from pretty questionable sources, he continues. Now, more than ever, people are searching for some clarity. The pandemic has made us all more health conscious and more price sensitive. So, it just seemed an especially right time to remind people that Fresh Thyme has always stood for, Real healthy foods at real affordable prices. And, that the single, most important thing any of us can do to keep ourselves and our families healthy is eat healthy foods. Its a simple basic truth, at a time when people really need it.

The commercial, featuring the new Fresh Thyme logo, will run in 18 Midwest markets starting onSunday, August 30th.

About Fresh Thyme MarketFresh Thyme Market is a full-service specialty retailer focusing on value-priced fresh, healthy, natural and organic offerings. It boasts an extensive produce department with organic and local fruits and vegetables, a natural meat department, healthy deli foods to go, hundreds of bulk food items, frozen and dairy products including hundreds of plant-based options, health-focused vitamin and supplement products, and its own line of organic and natural private label products. Fresh Thyme has 73 stores in 11 states throughout the Midwest. Learn more atfreshthyme.com. Keep in touch by liking us atfacebook.com/freshthymefarmersmarkets, and following us attwitter.com/freshthymefm.

About The Distillery ProjectFounded inApril 2012, The Distillery Project is an independent, creative and strategic agency dedicated to giving its clients more of what they want and less of what they dont. The Distillery Project filters out the nonsense, the noise, the bureaucracy and the jerks. The Distillery Project specializes in clear, sharply refined thinking. And a powerful brand of creativity driven by ideas simple, pure and potent enough to change the way people think, how they feel and even what they do. The Distillery Project was named an Ad Age Small Agency of the Year in 2012, 2014 and 2017. Based inChicago, IL.Clients of The Distillery Project include: Meijer, Caterpillar, Fresh Thyme, Dehnco, Arrow Electronics, Lifeway Foods, Presto, Duran Cigars, Rooms to Go, RetailMeNot, Omni Hotels and Resorts, Athletico, TropicSport, Alliant Insurance and Ascend Medical. For more information, visitdistilleryproject.com.

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Fresh Thyme Partners with The Distillery Project to Release New Advertising Campaign and New Company Logo - PerishableNews

Teen charged in killings of BLM protesters considered himself a militia member – The Guardian

Posted on August 28, 2020 by Danzig

Kyle Rittenhouse, who is suspected of involvement in fatally shooting two people and wounding another during the Kenosha, Wisconsin, protests on Tuesday night, appears to have long been interested in law enforcement and considered himself a militia member working to protect property, social media posts and reports indicate.

Rittenhouse, 17, was arrested on Wednesday and charged with first degree intentional homicide for his alleged role in the shootings. He is presently jailed in nearby Lake county, according to law enforcement documents.

The teen appears to be a supporter of Donald Trump and posted a TikTok video from a Trump rally he attended in Iowa in January, where images show him in the front, BuzzFeed News reported.

A Trump 2020 campaign spokesman told the news outlet: This individual had nothing to do with our campaign and we fully support our fantastic law enforcement for their swift action in this case.

A Facebook account under Rittenhouses name, which can no longer be accessed, contained photos of him posing with an apparent assault-style rifle. Text surrounding the photo includes the pro-police phrase blue lives matter. Several other photos on this profile page feature that wording, as well as images showing local law enforcement agencies logos.

Video from the protest on Tuesday night show a man who appears to be Rittenhouse walking amid demonstrators carrying a semi-automatic rifle.

Following the shootings the man could be seen on video approaching police vehicles still holding his rifle and with his hands raised. He calls out to police as police cars drive past him ignoring shouts from bystanders that he was the shooter.

Police said Rittenhouse was a former member of a youth police cadet program, CNN reported a program designed for 14- to 20-year-olds to explore a career in law enforcement.

In December 2018, Rittenhouse created a fundraiser for Humanizing the Badge, an organization seeking to forge stronger relationships between law enforcement officers and the communities they serve. The post indicates that Rittenhouse was seeking donations for his birthday.

Their mission means a lot to me, and I hope youll consider contributing as a way to celebrate with me, the post read.

A Facebook page belonging to a middle-aged woman identifies this same Rittenhouse as her son. On this page, this woman and a boy who appears to be Rittenhouse are posing in a photo together and he is wearing a law enforcement-style uniform.

Several videos posted to TikTok also show a male who appears to be Rittenhouse firing guns.

In a video posted to Twitter by a journalist for the conservative media outlet the Daily Caller, a male who appears to be Rittenhouse stands with his gun, explaining why he is present at protests.

So people are getting injured and our job is to protect this business, he explained, saying that part of his job was also to help injured people. Im running into harms way, thats why I have my rifle, he said, to protect myself obviously.

I also have my med kit, he said, showing an orange bag to the camera.

Law enforcement and civic leaders in Kenosha have slammed armed out-of-towners for coming to Kenosha in recent nights, to agitate, or with the delusion that they are aiding security or just, as the county sheriff, David Beth, said, to treat the unrest like a show.

On Thursday, James McKay, superintendent of Community High School District 117, which serves Antioch, confirmed that Rittenhouse attended Lakes Community high school for one semester during the 2017-18 school year.

And, citing court records, the Chicago Tribune reported that Rittenhouse was a lifeguard at a Lindenhurst, Illinois, YMCA.

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Teen charged in killings of BLM protesters considered himself a militia member - The Guardian

Spurred by calls for reform, Palo Alto backs restrictions on police use of force – Palo Alto Online

Posted on August 28, 2020 by Danzig

With the shooting of Jacob Blake in Wisconsin spurring a fresh wave of protests against police brutality, the Palo Alto City Council agreed on Monday to revise the Police Department's policies on use of force and vowed to pursue broader initiatives to promote racial justice.

By a unanimous vote, the council endorsed a set of revisions to police policies that largely comported to recent recommendations from the city's Human Relations Commission. The goal was to better align the city's official policies with those in the 8 Can't Wait platform, a project of Campaign Zero, a nonprofit that focuses on reducing police violence.

The campaign calls for a ban on chokeholds and requirements that officers prioritize de-escalation, provide warnings before shooting, exhaust all alternatives before shooting, intervene when they see excessive force, avoid shooting at moving vehicles, follow a use-of-force continuum and report all incidents of force.

In debating the changes to police policies, the council at times struggled to reconcile the recommendations of the Human Relations Commission, which supported broader restrictions on use of force, and those of department leadership, who urged the council not to adopt any policies that would hinder officers' ability to protect themselves during dangerous situations.

The Rev. Kaloma Smith, who chairs the commission, observed that the conversation feels particularly urgent in the aftermath of the shooting of Blake, which sparked protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin on Sunday and Monday. A video of the incident showed a police officer shooting Blake seven times at close range as he was entering his vehicle.

Blake was in stable condition in an intensive care unit on Monday night, according to multiple news reports.

"This moment was sparked by the killing of George Floyd and last night we watched Jacob Blake get shot in the back seven times by officers," Smith said. "This makes this conversation more of a priority right now, because we don't want to end up in this position."

The Police Department has already adopted some new restrictions, moving in June to ban the carotid hold and agreeing to make the existing ban on chokeholds and strangleholds more explicit in its policy manual. Police Chief Robert Jonsen and Assistant Chief Andrew Binder also agreed with the Human Relations Commission that they should expand the department's de-escalation policy to list the types of techniques that officers should use to avoid violence, including effective communication, self-control and requesting additional resources such as crisis intervention team members to decrease the need to use force.

The council agreed that the policy on strangleholds should go even further and supported the Human Relations Commission's proposed change, which also bans "lateral vascular neck restraints, chest compressions" and other moves that restrict airflow.

"What everybody agrees on is that what happened to George Floyd or Eric Garner can't be allowed to happen in Palo Alto," said Councilman Eric Filseth in discussing the proposed change.

While Smith similarly argued that the city needs to send a clear message that the types of moves that resulted in the deaths of Floyd and Garner (who was killed by a New York City officer in 2014) should be banned, Jonsen and Binder countered that the proposed restrictions are too broad. Jonsen suggested that implementing policies that outright ban certain actions "could have a detrimental effect, not only to officers' safety but to the public at large." Binder agreed.

"If an officer is so concerned with avoiding being on someone's chest, back or neck during a fight because they don't want to be out of policy and afraid they will restrict the person's airflow, then they're not concentrating on the most important task at hand, which is taking this person into custody in the most safe manner, both to the subject and the officer," Binder said.

To address this concern, the council agreed to specify that "intentional tactics" that restrict blood flow to the head or neck are prohibited. Binder and Smith both supported the consensus, which carves out an exception for accidental impediments to air flow.

"If someone falls on someone's chest at a fight, that's an accident," Smith said. "But we've seen nationally, across the country, where now the mantra for many marchers is "Hands up! I can't breathe!" and the reality is we are asking that the intentional tactics are listed out and put there."

The council also requested that the Police Department expand and clarify its use-of-force policy and that it adopt a requirement that "all options would be exhausted before shooting." It also supported a policy that bans police from shooting at vehicles unless the driver poses a "deadly threat." Jonsen and Binder each argued against an outright ban on shooting at moving vehicles, and pointed to situations in which someone may be trying to drive into a crowded demonstration or an outdoor dining area.

"The one predictable thing about police work is that it is unpredictable," Binder said. "We can pass a policy measure tonight that says, 'No doing that,' and there could be a demonstration in Foothills Park where someone decides they're going to drive into the crowd and that officer doesn't have the ability, based on totality of circumstances, to stop that threat with their firearm because they've been restricted by policy."

The council and the commission agreed that the Monday changes are just a small, early step in the city's campaign to revise police policies. Numerous residents offered a similar message.

Aram James, a former public defender and longtime police watchdog, argued that the department needs a culture change and better accountability, including the firing of officers who had been engaged in racist behavior.

"You can tinker with all the policies that you want," James said. "You can change all the policies every six months. The problem is, absent accountability and the ability to swiftly discipline and prosecute officers, this department's officers will not be even disciplined internally."

Other residents urged the council to follow the Human Relations Commission recommendations and align the Palo Alto Police Department with 8 Can't Wait. Cari Templeton, chair of the Planning and Transportation Commission who is running for council, said the reforms are "literally the least we can do." Two other challengers for council seats, Rebecca Eisenberg and Steven Lee, similarly urged the council to go further.

Lee, an outgoing member of the Human Relations Commission, asked the council not to "water down" the prohibitions on use of force with caveats and half-measures.

"It would certainly send the wrong message that Palo Alto wavers in fully implementing basic reforms and that we fail to do the very bare minimum," Lee said.

Eisenberg said the council has "no excuse whatsoever" to tone down any of the measures recommended by 8 Can't Wait.

"We need significant structural change if we're going to address white supremacy, segregation and violence against our Black and brown communities," Eisenberg said.

The council's vote directs City Manager Ed Shikada and department brass to work with the police unions to implement the new policies. The council is also moving ahead with broader efforts to address racial injustice and police transparency.

One of the council's ad hoc committees is putting together a series of programs for the next year that focus on diversity and inclusion, including citywide training on implicit bias, a demographic analysis of the city's workforce and development of permanent artwork that pertains to race and equity.

Other committees are focusing on ways to improve the Police Department's transparency and accountability, hiring practices and policies and alternate service models.

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Spurred by calls for reform, Palo Alto backs restrictions on police use of force - Palo Alto Online

Opinion: New York Needs Its Own Voting Rights Act – City Limits

Posted on August 28, 2020 by Danzig

We have the opportunity to protect our democracy by passing the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act of New York.

Jeanmarie Evelly

Our country is a beacon of hope for democracy, founded with the promise that justice and equality can serve as the building blocks of a great nation. However, for some of us, the right to participate in this democracy had to be earned through blood, tears, and sacrifice.

Growing up, my mother would have me read the many books in her library about the Civil Rights Movement. She introduced me to the stories of leaders like Medgar Evers and Martin Luther King Jr., who gave their lives for our chance at a fair democracy. Of course, I also learned about the Boy from Troy Congressman John Lewis, a true hero to many Americans. Its an absolute tragedy to have lost such a powerful voice for the dignity of Black lives and for the very basic right to vote.

Throughout the course of his life, Congressman Lewis made many sacrifices to get us our chance at a true and fair democracy. Many of us in the next generation of activists have already begun to follow in his footsteps. For more than two months, we organized protests, and rallies seeking justice for the families of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Elijah McClain, Ahmaud Arbery and others who have been killed by police violence.

With every opportunity given to me to speak I would emphasize how important it was for us to actively participate in our democracy by using the power to vote. I reminded thousands of protestors of the upcoming primary and how they could request absentee ballots to avoid voting in person.

However, many people approached me informing me that waited weeks for their ballots. And NBC reported that city election officials rejected 84,000 ballots 21 percent of all those received by election officials. That is 84,000 voices that went unheard by our democracy.

Many states have a history of suppressing the voices of minorities. Impossible and arbitrary tests prevented many African Americans from voting, giving legal cover to the widespread belief in Southern states that the right to cast a ballot in any election varied by skin color. Even New York State passed a law requiring an English literacy test to vote. In a city like New York that has a large number of immigrants who may not speak English, this was a very intentional discriminatory act. By 1968, this meant that fewer than half of those who were voting-age in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and the Bronx actually voted.

Activists like Lewis eventually succeeded in showing the nation that the 1965 Voting Rights Act, signed 55 years ago this month, was the necessary antidote to this blatant voter suppression.

Even so, more than half a century later, our voices and our votes are still being suppressed. Language access remains insufficient; voting resources are not supplied to Black and Brown communities; polling sites are closed or moved with little to no notice; absentee ballots arrive after the election or not at all; and, we are witnessing the defunding of our postal service right before one of the most influential elections in our history. As President Barack Obama remarked while eulogizing Lewis : We may no longer have to guess the number of jelly beans in a jar in order to cast a ballot. But even as we sit here, there are those in power who are doing their darndest to discourage people from voting.

The same stumbling blocks that hindered civil rights leaders decades ago seem to have returned, or maybe they never left. Instead they have swelled into more complex obstacles for us to overcome. True democracy must be protected at all costs, we cannot allow the progress that so many have made be slowly rolled back by unconstitutional schemes put forth by those who want to silence the voices of the minorities.

This is why New Yorkers need the passage of a state-level voting rights act to preserve our right to vote. Otherwise, as Lewis points out, if we let up in the slightest, we could easily lose it. We have the opportunity to protect our democracy by passing the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act of New York.

This legislation will protect voters, make voting more inclusive by adding language accommodations, and mandate that changes to local election laws must be approved by the States Attorney General. These changes arent just good, they are necessary. Lewis trusted us to pick up the torch and continue to cause that Good Trouble. Just like Lewis did in forcing through the 1965 Voting Rights Act, today we must make our leaders fulfill his vision of a more inclusive, and equal government.

Timothy Hunter (@TheTimHunter) serves as the Chairperson of the CUNY University Student Senate, and is an NYC Votes We Power NYC Youth Voting Ambassador.

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Opinion: New York Needs Its Own Voting Rights Act - City Limits

Race and Higher Education in Virginia – Diverse: Issues in Higher Education

Posted on August 28, 2020 by Danzig

by Alvin J. Schexnider

In January 1977, I began a faculty appointment at the Federal Executive Institute (FEI) in Charlottesville. The long, gray winters endured teaching political science at Syracuse University in New York propelled me to look southward, and FEI beckoned.

The thought of returning to the South was met with some trepidation but I decided to take a leap of faith. The reverence paid to Mr. Jefferson locally prompted me to pay attention to Virginias colleges and universities, several of which had begun to lay down markers.

I remain fascinated by how the higher education landscape has changed. Madison College now is highly competitive James Madison University. The former Northern Virginia campus of the University of Virginia now is George Mason University. Christopher Newport University, Old Dominion University and Virginia Commonwealth University essentially commuter schools three decades ago have undergone major transformations.

For the most part, these changes have been substantive. They could not have happened without strong leadership in the executive and legislative branches of government, but also the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV) and of course, institutional leadership.

Dr. Alvin J. Schexnider

Having worked at public universities in Virginia and North Carolina, I believe that the heterogeneity of Virginias higher education institutions is a major asset. Virginia, unlike North Carolina, has a coordinating body rather than a comprehensive university system.

In Virginia every tub stands on its own bottom. Schools with strong leadership and engaged governing boards are able to make significant progress by carving a distinctive niche, and attracting students and faculty who are drawn to its mission, unique character and array of degree programs.

Virginias universities and colleges are major assets that should be deployed to combat the lingering effects of slavery.

Virginia is the birthplace and the incubator of Americas original sin. While several public universities bear the names of slaveholders Madison, Mason, Washington all carry the stain, and its most prominent schools were built by enslaved people. Virginias colleges and universities supported slavery, benefited from it and sought to justify it.

Faculty promoted theories alleging the intellectual inferiority of Black people, and wrote textbooks and articles packed with lies. Snatching Black bodies from graves for medical research and the systematic conscription of Black men in prison to be used as guinea pigs a practice that continued well into the 20th century are among the worst crimes against humanity.

The degradation of human beings found support in the classroom, laboratories, law schools and medical schools of Virginias colleges and universities. The neighborhoods surrounding state-supported academic medical centers are among the most disadvantaged with ZIP codes documenting Third World health resources, life expectancies and infant mortalities but whose citizens derive little direct benefit from their presence.

Virginias colleges and universities must be intentional about addressing the residual effects of slavery. Racial disparities in education, health, criminal justice, housing and income are obvious areas where they can make a difference.

For example, North Carolinas community colleges will provide specialized training for law enforcement agencies in all of the states 100 counties to eliminate racial disparities in policing.

Amazon represents a half-billion dollar state investment. Higher education institutions must be intentional that African American graduates benefit from this venture in ways that exceed increases in an institutions budget.

Applying the intellectual capital and technical know-how of Virginias colleges, universities and academic medical centers to addressing its most intractable racial problems is not asking too much.

Education has been and remains the great equalizer in American society. Virginia can confront the horrors and evils of slavery by being intentional about combating its residual effects. There are countless ways to contribute to the task.

Virginia Commonwealth Universitys L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs sponsors annual symposia on race and society that spotlight selected public policy issues. Recently, UVA released a task force report that recommended 12 key initiatives to improve racial equity at the university. This is a laudable start, but the plan will help the university more than its neglected communities.

In this mea culpa moment, nearly every public, private and third sector organization in the country has issued a statement confirming its commitment to social justice. For many, the promulgation of carefully worded proclamations will be met with skepticism as mere platitudes.

Nearly 30 years ago, Judge A. Leon Higginbotham Jr., quoting U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, reminded Justice Clarence Thomas that for millions of Americans, there still remain hopes not realized and promises not filled. We dare not miss this opportunity again.

This column initially was published in the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

Dr. Alvin J. Schexnider is a senior fellow at the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges.

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Race and Higher Education in Virginia - Diverse: Issues in Higher Education

Shani Cooper-Zubida: Global food security in the shadow of Covid-19 Does the solution for local food production lie with Israel? – Myjoyonline.com

Posted on August 28, 2020 by Danzig

The Covid-19 pandemic and the ensuing global economic crisis revealed a very troubling fact: the world is unprepared for food security. The complex global systems that were created in the era of accelerated globalization are threatening to collapse: Leading food producers have placed limitations on the export of agricultural goods from their territory, disturbances and interruptions have been encountered along the entire global supply chains from production in the field to the international marketing of food, the decline in demand and buying-power due to the global economic recession, shortage of farm-hands and the contraction of disease amongst workers in the food-packing factories.

But what is important to emphasize is that we still have not truly distanced ourselves from the danger of hunger and the interruption in the global food supply mechanisms. At the same time, the phenomena of rising food prices, the lack of foreign currency for purchasing food on the global market, market disturbances etc., continue vigorously. Tens of millions of people in the Middle East, Africa, Asia and other areas of the world have joined the 820 million people that, prior to the pandemic, were already defined as under-nourished and in danger of hunger or starvation. The World Bank estimates that approximately 40 million people have entered the category of immediate risk in western Africa alone. U.N. reports, and first among them, that of the International Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), warn of a rising threat of hunger, and the U.N. called upon the international community to maintain open commerce and to refrain from national protectionist policies.

In its annual report on The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2020, the UN projections show that the world is not on track to achieve Zero Hunger by 2030 and, despite some progress, most indicators are also not on track to meet global nutrition targets. The food security and nutritional status of the most vulnerable population groups is likely to deteriorate further due to the health and socio-economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This situation raises the question of what we can do to prevent a global food crisis which may result in hunger, political and security instability and rampant migration. Without doubt, international trade systems for food and agricultural necessities such as fertilizers, machinery, fuel, etc. must be kept open and functioning. At the same time, states would do well if they increased their local food production capacity. This food, in addition to supplying caloric needs, must be healthy, nutritious and available to everyone and at an affordable price. For this, local farming requires significant incentives and support in order to increase its production and variety.

The State of Israel, having proved itself over a period of decades an expert in successful innovative farming in some of the most challenging desert and drought-prone areas of the world, can be a supplier of quick, efficient and low-cost solutions for these needs. Drip-irrigation is one of the best examples of this. Today most of the agricultural crops the world over are still grown by dry farming, i.e. farming that is reliant on rain for field irrigation. Moving to irrigated farming would increase the crop yield, would save water and greenhouse gases, and would, over time, create food security. Vegetables, for instance, could be grown a number of times during the year via drip-irrigation as opposed to only once a year when relying on natural precipitation during the rainy season.

Precise agriculture, which supplies all plant needs on an almost individual basis, is another example. Today, sensors are capable of informing precisely how much water and fertilizer is required for each tree and from what diseases it is suffering, and accordingly, an individualized treatment, which is often administered via drones or other methods. The use of satellites for information gathering and remote sensing, computerized greenhouses and continuous monitoring of temperature, humidity and pests/insects from afar also increase agricultural crop yields and create more food.

Everyone knows that without water, nothing can be grown, and in arid Israel, unlimited solutions have been found and implemented. Such an example is the use of purified sewage water for farming, or even the use of saline water; leak prevention and/or the identification of their source in water supply systems; and Hydroponics a form of farming that allows for growing vegetables in water. Water conservation, irrigation monitoring and many other solutions developed in Israel can be implemented relatively easily and at low costs throughout the world.

Knowing the challenges Ghana is facing with Food Security, the state of Israel has put the Agriculture sector at the prime priority of its work in Ghana. Among our activities in the Agriculture sector, Israel has received for the second year a group of 70 agricultural students for 11 months practical training in the Agrostudies program. A new group of 70 students will be sent to Israel when we go back to normal. We also continue in our capacity-building programs, but holding them on-line.

Innovation in agriculture is also an important sector to promote and so the Embassy held the maiden edition of the Israel Green Innovation Competition for Start-ups and trained senior officials in the innovation field as we identify Ghana with a conducive environment for thriving innovators in Africa.

Our Trade and Economic Mission is encouraging more investments and more business between the countries in Agriculture. One of such was the GHrowIL Agriculture conference that brought to Ghana 18 Israeli companies to meet to key players in the Agriculture sector in Ghana for business. The great partnerships forged at this event have led to bilateral business agreements in diverse areas of Agriculture Technology.

In conclusion, the Covid-19 crisis is still very far from being resolved and we will continue to experience its ramifications in almost every realm of our daily lives. Therefore, it is more important today than ever before to understand the fragility of the global food supply chains, the vulnerability of food security to different sources of disturbance, and to increase local food production in a wide-scale. Israel would be both happy and honored to share its rich experience and knowledge in these areas with anyone interesting in learning.

The author H. E. Shani Cooper-Zubida is the Israeli Ambassador to Ghana, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

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Shani Cooper-Zubida: Global food security in the shadow of Covid-19 Does the solution for local food production lie with Israel? - Myjoyonline.com

The Cryptocurrency XRP Is Having A Good 6 Weeks – Forbes

Posted on August 28, 2020 by Danzig

US Paper Currency, Stock Market and Exchange, Currency, Finance, Graph

From about 18 to about 30 in just 6 weeks time, thats not bad.

Thats in cents not dollars, though, giving the cryptocurrency that goes by the name of XRP the dramatic price action feel (somewhat) of those infamous penny stocks from Blinder Robinson that traded crazily in the 80s.

The cryptos in general have had a good summer of price action, some in dollars and some in pennies but its XRP thats of interest since my card counting friend in Las Vegas had mentioned it and I wrote about it here in XRP Is The Crypto To Watch, Says Vegas Blackjack Pro.

That posted on July 16th and it was just a few days later that the thing broke above previous resistance at 21 and took off for the much higher price level. At the time I took a bit of heat from experts on Twitter for suggesting that a pro at the 21 tables might have advice about anything crypto. Now it looks like my friend was right.

Maybe he just got lucky, who knows?

Anyway, just for the record, XRP looks like this now on the daily price chart:

XRP daily price chart, 8 23 20.

After tracking mostly sideways to slightly down in price from May to July, you can see the late July breakout. XRP had been unable to rise above the Ichimoku cloud for weeks but then got there easily on some volume. It looks like the selling that comes in at above 31 is likely to be significant enough to prevent further upside, at least for now.

The XRP weekly price chart looks like this:

XRP weekly price chart, 8 23 20.

Like the other cryptocurrencies, XRP has a long way to go to make it back up to the early 2018 highs. Clearly. Whats interesting here is the increase in buying volume that is shown for this summer. The other thing is that price may be about to break above the weekly Ichimoku cloud for the first time in a couple of years. Its almost there.

The XRP monthly price chart looks like this:

XRP monthly price chart, 8 23 20.

The dramatic drop in price is clearly evident on the monthly time frame from the January, 2018 peak until the much lower present. Take a look at the moving average convergence/divergence (MACD) indicator below the price chart: the shorter-term time line is just now crossing above the longer, a positive sign on that measure. Whether it turns out to be an actual buy signal remains to be seen.

This is just a form of price chart analysis where trend is identified and the potential support and resistance levels are suggested a serious investor or trader would want to research the fundamentals and formation of a cryptocurrency like XRP or any of the cryptos before taking any action. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

I do not hold positions in these investments.No recommendations are made one way or the other.If you're an investor, you'd want to look much deeper into each of these situations. You can lose money trading or investing in stocks and other instruments. Always do your own independent research, due diligence and seek professional advice from a licensed investment advisor.

The Cryptocurrency XRP Is Having A Good 6 Weeks - Forbes

Want to Invest in Bitcoin? Learn the Basics of Cryptocurrency, Blockchain on the Cheap – PCMag.com

Posted on August 28, 2020 by Danzig

(Image via Pixabay)

This could be the year investors in blockchain technology have beenwaiting for. It remains to be seen whether the hype over this new storage and security medium has died away enough that people can finally see it as more than just a delivery system for cryptocurrency.

If you've thought about investing in bitcoin or blockchain technology yourself, but want a simple explanation of just what it is that makes it tick, check out TheMega Blockchain Mastery Bundle. It's a truly comprehensive way to learn about blockchain and its possibilities in the new economyand beyond.

This massive e-learning course spans more than 55 hours of training and lectures, so you can tell right away it's much more than just a primer on blockchain. It gets the basic principles of this revolutionary digital accounting system out of the way quickly, highlighting how transactions are not only easier to access on a decentralized network, but infinitely more secure.

You'll glimpse the inner workings of blockchain security, as well as how to implement it yourself as you dive into the possibilities of accessing cryptocurrency, and even potentially making your own. There's plenty of attention given to popular new protocols like the EOS blockchain and its own native cryptocurrency, and how you can leverage your knowledge of it for smart investing. You'll even get a tutorial on how to start coding your own protocols with JavaScript.

Whether you just want a working knowledge of this exciting new way of storing information or are determined to jump ahead of the trends, this is a great resource. PCMag readers can get lifetime access to The Mega Blockchain Mastery Bundle for $39 (97 percent off the MSRP), including updates to keep you abreast of changes in the technology.

Visionary DJ PLS&TY Explores Cryptocurrency in Limited Vinyl Partnership With Foundation – PRNewswire

Posted on August 28, 2020 by Danzig

LOS ANGELES, Aug. 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ --PLS&TY becomes a front-runner in the connection between music and technology by partnering with Ethereum blockchain platform,Foundationto sell a limited quantity of his "Very Special" EP on vinyl. The EP was released digitally in Apriland features four tracks, includingcollaborations from Sean Kingston, Alex Aiono, Wifisfuneral, to name a few.

Foundation's mission is to serve as a stock exchange for art and culture, which allows the market's natural supply and demand to dictate the price of the goods sold on the platform; this dynamic pricing model lets artists benefit directly from the hype that surrounds their work. If you're already anxious for a copy of "Very Special" on vinyl, you'll need to get your hands on a $PECIAL digital token. Early buyers will secure a better price. When the vinyl is ready to ship, the tokens will be redeemable to receive the physical vinyl anywhere in the world; alternatively, token holders can continue to keep the digital value of the token or trade it in the Foundation market. The intersection of music with blockchain is an exciting glimpse into the future of the industry, and PLS&TY is the first musician to dive right in.

Foundation is an exciting new platform for creators to realize the true value of our work and benefit directly from the hype surrounding it. For a lot of people, cryptocurrency might feel inaccessible or complicated, but Foundation has built a streamlined process of buying and selling tokenized goods that puts the power in the hands of artists and our communities. Get in now, be a part of something transformative. You'll thank me later. -PLS&TY

Tommy Leas, a Florida native - better known as PLS&TY - is burgeoning into the electronic dance music scene with his unique sound: languid bass, captivating vocals, and enough upbeat melodies to make anybody feel good. After a collection of chart-topping singles including "Good Vibes" (#1 on iTunes US Electronic Charts), "Down For Me", "Rebel Love (#1 on iTunes US Electronic Charts), and "Motives" (#1 on iTunes US Electronic Charts / Top 25 Billboard Electronic Charts), PLS&TY would see his productions remixed by Grammy-nominated Morgan Page, Rusko, Cazzette, and more. His own remix of Genevieve's "Colors" was featured in a Hershey's chocolate television commercial that has amassed over 1 billion views. With his brand new "Very Special" EP, PLS&TY is showing no signs of slowing down, even after a busy 2019 touring season which included A-List festivals Shaky Beats, Breakaway, Electric Forest, EDC Vegas, & more.

Foundation is a new medium for buying, selling, and trading limited-edition goods and art. Built on the Ethereum blockchain, Foundation claims the power of the stock market and reinvents it forartists, designers, and brands across the music, fashion, fine art, and emerging media.

For press inquiries, please contact:

Unfolded PR[emailprotected]

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Visionary DJ PLS&TY Explores Cryptocurrency in Limited Vinyl Partnership With Foundation - PRNewswire

US tries to seize 280 cryptocurrency accounts linked to North Korean hacks – NK News

Posted on August 28, 2020 by Danzig

The United States government is trying to seize 280 cryptocurrency accounts related to theft cases involving hackers linked to North Korea, according to a U.S. Department of Justice release published on Aug. 27.

The Justice Department alleges that North Korean hackers stole cryptocurrencies worth at least $298.5 million from South Korean cryptocurrency exchanges in 2018 and 2019, as well as an exchange focused on the Algorand blockchain based in the United States.

The Wall Street Journal reported that this is the first time a U.S.-based exchange is known to be hacked by North Korea. And though cryptocurrencies in theory are not supposed to be under government control, its unclear to many whether or not the U.S. really has the legal standing to seize these accounts.

Investigators from the FBI, the IRS and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security were able to track the stolen funds through unique qualities of the blockchain system. All transactions for each specific cryptocurrency are logged on a public ledger, although the identities behind the transactions are unique pseudonyms composed of letters and numbers.

Often, an individual controls many unique identities to the point where an individual could theoretically use a unique address for every transaction in which they engage.

According to the U.S. Justice Department, North Korean hackers leveraged these unique identities, as well as explicit attempts to pass themselves off as Russian and Canadian nationals when making cryptocurrency exchange accounts.

The U.S. blamed lax oversight and insufficient Know Your Customer protocols at various virtual currency exchanges, which among other services can turn alternative coins like the stolen South Korean Proton Tokens into more mainstream currencies like Bitcoin. Mainstream currencies can then be converted into real-world cash.

At first, the hackers tried to launder their stolen funds further by exchanging them for other cryptocurrencies a tactic known as chain hopping, according to the justice department filing.

Chain hopping is a tactic frequently used by individuals who are laundering the proceeds of virtual currency thefts, as the practice moves transactions from one currencys public ledger to another, obscuring the transaction trail.

Kim Grauer, head of research at a blockchain analysis company called Chainalysis, said that she has seen these tactics before.

Our research shows that, in the past, the DPRK-linked Lazarus hacking group moved most of their stolen funds to exchanges with low Know Your Customer (KYC) requirements, she said. However, more recently in 2019, they began using mixers in an attempt to obfuscate the flow of funds on the blockchain.

But the hackers primary goal was eventually transforming their stolen funds into bitcoins, according to a flowchart in the justice department filing. That way, hackers could use Over The Counter (OTC) traders who have less strict oversight compared to more automated exchanges to turn the bitcoins into U.S. dollars.

Three Chinese OTC accounts received the stolen funds, the filing stated. In March, the U.S. placed criminal charges on two Chinese nationals, Tian Yinyin and Li Jiadong also known as snowsjohn and khaleesi and sanctioned them. The two allegedly laundered $100 million worth of cryptocurrency for North Korea, turning it into real-world cash value items like gift cards and actual U.S. dollars.

In spite of the actors use of VPN services to mask their location during this theft, law enforcement was able to trace logins to an IP address within North Korea, the filing stated. It is rare for this kind of activity to be traced back to DPRK territory itself, partially because North Korea has thousands of hackers deployed abroad to avoid being identified or blamed.

As part of our commitment to safeguarding national security, this office has been at the forefront of targeting North Koreas criminal attacks on the financial system, acting U.S. attorney Michael R. Sherwin said in a Justice Department press release issued alongside the filing.

This complaint reveals the incredible skill of our Cryptocurrency Strike Force in tracing and seizing virtual currency, which criminals previously thought to be impossible, Sherwin said.

Edited by Kelly Kasulis

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US tries to seize 280 cryptocurrency accounts linked to North Korean hacks - NK News

Lazarus Group linked to phishing attacks on cryptocurrency sector – SecurityBrief Asia

Posted on August 28, 2020 by Danzig

Cybersecurity firm F-Secure has published new research suggesting that the advanced persistent threat (APT) group Lazarus Group, also known as APT38, is behind a recent attack against a company working in the cryptocurrency space.

The attack was part of a wider campaign that targeted cryptocurrency businesses in countries including Japan, Singapore, China, South Korea, Hong Kong, the Philippines, the United States, Canada, Argentina, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Estonia, and Germany. The wider campaign involved phishing campaigns that have been ongoing since January 2018, if not earlier.

In this case, the attacks were launched through a phishing document sent via LinkedIn to employees at the targeted organisation. This phishing document was styled to look like a job advertisement for a role in a blockchain company.

F-Secure director of detection and response, Matt Lawrence, says the research is based on insights from the companys incident response, tactical defence, and managed detection and response.

This attack bears a number of similarities with known Lazarus Group activity, so were confident they were behind the incident. The evidence also suggests this is part of an ongoing campaign targeting organisations in over a dozen countries, which makes the attribution important, he notes.

The research points out the malicious implants used in the attack were almost identical to tools previously used by Lazarus Group in the past. While the group is evolving its toolset over time, there are opportunities for organisations to create defences and protect themselves against further attacks.

F-Secure also says that Lazarus Group invests significant effort in evading an organisations defences. It does this by disabling antivirus software on host devices and removing all traces of evidence of its malware.

The target in this investigation had a leading EDR and network security tool installed that captured telemetry of Lazarus Groups actions, but this did not result in a positive detection that was actioned. It is F-Secures view that people play an important role in building effective detection capability, and this incident serves as an example of the need to invest in people as well as technology.

According to F-Secure, Lazarus Groups interests reportedly align with the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (DPRK). This claim is backed up by numerous government bodies, including those belonging to the United Kingdom and the United States.

The United States Department of Treasury states, Created by the North Korean Government as early as 2007, this malicious cyber group is subordinate to the 110th Research Center, 3rd Bureau of the RGB. The 3rd Bureau is also known as the 3rd Technical Surveillance Bureau and is responsible for North Koreas cyber operations.

In addition to the RGBs role as the main entity responsible for North Koreas malicious cyber activities, the RGB is also the principal North Korean intelligence agency and is involved in the trade of North Korean arms.

The Lazarus Group has also been named as the APT behind the 2017 WannaCry ransomware attacks.