Cybercrime, Julian Assange, & Getting Trapped On Mars (Kind Of)
February 21, 2024
Hello, readers – happy Wednesday! Today, we’re talking about diversity in home ownership, a ransomware operation, Julian Assange, Guinea’s government, the Supreme Court’s caseload, and a way to experience Mars.
Want answers? We’ve got you covered: DP 2/16 Quiz Answers. Hats off to Steve F., who scored a perfect 10 on l
“Being brave isn’t the absence of fear. Being brave is having that fear but finding a way through it.” – Bear Grylls
A Holistic Look At Homeownership
Homeownership, as any good American knows, is the path to building generational wealth. Unfortunately, a new study shows that there’s a pretty big gap in homeownership rates between white and Black Americans, meaning the path to generational wealth remains an uneven one.
The National Association of Realtors generated a new homeownership report using data from the U.S. Census Bureau. They found that the Black homeownership rate rose from 44% in 2021 to 44.1% in 2022, well below the white homeownership rate of 72%, and the gap between the two groups has actually widened over the past decade, growing from 27% to 28%. The report says that this is because Black borrowers applying for loans face a higher refusal rate than white borrowers. Mortgage rates for Black homeowners are often higher than those of their white counterparts, which the report attributes to Black applicants often having higher debt-to-income ratios or lower credit scores.
While the report’s findings weren’t all that sunny, there was some good news – homeownership rates for Asian and Hispanic Americans both grew significantly in 2022. The percentage of Asian Americans who own homes rose 6.1% over the decade reviewed in the report to a record high of 63% in 2022. Over that same period, Hispanic American homeownership rose by 5.4% to 51.1% in 2022.
Crime & Punishment (On The Internet)
An international police operation has shut down a global cybercrime syndicate – and no, we’re not talking about the plot of some mediocre Netflix movie. On Tuesday, Britain’s National Crime Agency (NCA) announced that it had led a collaborative operation with the help of law enforcement agencies from across the globe to take down LockBit, a ransomware group that’s stolen an estimated $120 million from thousands of victims worldwide.
Officials at a joint press conference said they’d apprehended two people tied to the syndicate in Poland and Ukraine and seized 200 cryptocurrency accounts. The law enforcement agencies added that they’d obtained “comprehensive access” to LockBit’s internal systems, taking control of their infrastructure and website and even obtaining the keys needed to help victims decrypt their data.
Ahead of the press conference, LockBit’s dark web website was taken over by banners reading “this site is now under control of law enforcement,” as well as the flags of the countries that participated in the operation. “We have hacked the hackers,” said NCA director general Graeme Biggar at the press conference. “LockBit has been locked out.” Who says cops can’t be funny?
Invest in Your Biggest Asset: Your Brain
- Here at Daily Pnut, we think that keeping up with the world around you is important, which is why we love Brilliant. From unpacking AI and LLMs to navigating a sea of data, Brilliant helps you build real knowledge in cutting-edge topics while becoming a better thinker and problem solver.
- Brilliant’s first-principles approach helps you build knowledge from the ground up, and their library of bite-sized, interactive lessons makes it easy to level up in just minutes a day.
- Brilliant has created a more effective and efficient way to learn. Join over 10 million people and start your 30-day free trial today. Oh, and Daily Pnut readers get 20% off an annual premium subscription.
The Leaker’s Last Stand
- Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, is making a final attempt to avoid extradition to the U.S. Assange is wanted by American authorities for 18 criminal charges related to his organization’s publication of classified materials in the early 2010s, but has been held in a high-security British prison since 2019. He and his lawyers have been fighting the extradition order for years, but the decision now rests with two U.K. High Court judges.
- Assange leaked classified U.S. government information to the public in an alleged effort to challenge Western hegemony and raise awareness of America’s human rights abuses. Among the material he’s made public are a video of a U.S. military helicopter firing on journalists and Iraqi civilians in 2007, and thousands of classified Afghan war documents.
- Assange is facing up to 175 years in prison. His lawyers argue that he is “being prosecuted for engaging in [the] ordinary journalistic practice of obtaining and publishing classified information.” They also claim that Assange faces “a real risk of further extrajudicial actions … by the CIA [Central Intelligence Agency] or other agencies” if he’s brought to the U.S. – basically predicting that the U.S. intelligence community might assassinate him.
Guinea’s Government Goes As Small As Possible
- Guinea’s military junta dissolved the country’s government and sealed its borders, according to a statement made on Monday by the presidency’s Secretary General, Brigadier General Amara Camara. The junta came to power in a 2021 military coup, and is expected to oversee a transition to democratic rule within 10 months via national elections.
- Camara’s statement didn’t reveal any reason behind the government’s dissipation, but it’s certainly confusing, considering the now-former government was directly selected by the junta itself following the coup. According to the military’s statement, all ministers have been ordered to surrender their passports and official vehicles, and their bank accounts have been frozen. Lower-level officials will run government ministries until the military installs a new government.
Additional World News
- Russia says dual national California woman arrested over suspected treason for helping Ukraine’s armed forces (CBS)
- US drone that crashed in Yemen appears to have been shot down by Houthi missile, official says (CNN)
- Bullet-riddled body found in Spain was Russian defector, Ukraine says (WaPo, $)
- Assassinated Haitian president’s widow among dozens indicted over his death (Guardian)
- Ecuador’s drug kingpin José Adolfo ‘Fito’ Macías lived ‘like a king’ while locked up. His jailbreak shines a light on the country’s lawless prisons (CNN)
Middle East News
- Gaza war hits Israeli economy with 19.4% Q4 drop (Reuters)
- Israel orders new evacuations in northern Gaza, where UN says 1 in 6 children are malnourished (AP)
- Prince William: ‘Too many killed’ in Israel-Gaza war (BBC)
- The US vetoes an Arab-backed UN resolution demanding an immediate humanitarian cease-fire in Gaza (AP)
A Supremely Uninterested Court
- Yesterday, the Supreme Court declined to hear a slew of cases that ranged from affirmative action and rent stabilization to election fraud and religion, so let’s dive in. The court, just a few months after overturning affirmative action in colleges and universities, declined to hear a case about “race-neutral” admissions at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Virginia. Critics (and Justices Alito and Thomas) said the policy, which admitted a few of the highest-performing students from each middle school in the county, discriminates against Asian-Americans.
- The Supreme Court also rejected appeals from a group of Trump-allied lawyers that called themselves “the Kraken,” leaving a 2023 ruling that upheld sanctions against the group in place. The lawyers who spread election fraud claims will have to pay legal fees, undergo more legal training, and face their state bar associations for any other punishments.
- Also declined was a case about rent stabilization in New York. Those laws, which landlords were hoping to have overturned, apply to buildings built before 1974 containing six or more units. They limit how much a landlord can charge in rent and how much they can raise rates each year, plus they allow tenants to leave units to family members (basically how Monica kept her apartment in Friends).
- Finally, the court refused to consider if religion can be used to select or deny jury members. A lesbian whose lawyers hoped to exclude jurors who believed homosexuality was a sin was at the center of the case. Lawyers are allowed to exclude potential jurors without providing a reason, but they cannot do it based on race or gender.
Additional USA Reads
- Alabama supreme court rules frozen embryos are ‘children’ (Guardian)
- California weather: Los Angeles could see flooding and landslides from intense bursts of rain (CNN)
- Crypto attorney launches Senate bid against Elizabeth Warren (Politico)
- Biden heads to California to rev up his fundraising (ABC)
- Biden admin was working behind closed doors to dissuade Russia from testing space weapon (Politico)
- Supreme Court rejects appeal from 3 GOP House members over $500 mask fines (ABC)
The Final Frontier (But It’s On Earth And In A Plastic Enclosure)
- Have you ever just wanted to leave the planet? Unfortunately, you probably won’t be able to unless you can afford a private space flight or are qualified to be an astronaut. Luckily, NASA is providing a select few volunteers with the opportunity to simulate a trip to Mars – by locking them into a 3D-printed replica of the planet for a year.
- In order to simulate the red planet, NASA has built a 1,700-square-foot habitat called Mars Dune Alpha at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. The four-person crew, which is yet to be picked, will conduct simulated spacewalks, robotic operations, habitat maintenance, exercise, and crop growth within the habitat as part of the agency’s CHAPEA (Crew Health And Performance Exploration Analog) program.
- According to NASA, “Applicants should have a strong desire for unique, rewarding adventures and interest in contributing to NASA’s work to prepare for the first human journey to Mars.” Besides those intangibles, the agency wants applicants to have a university degree in engineering, mathematics, or biological, physical, or computer science, as well as a career in those fields. They’re also asking for only non-smoking U.S. citizens or permanent residents ages 30 to 55. If you apply, tell NASA that we sent you – we’re sure that’ll get your foot in the door!
Additional Reads
- YouTube vlogger Ruby Franke, business partner Jodi Hildebrandt sentenced in child abuse case (ABC)
- Mystery surrounds origin of human leg found on New York subway (Guardian)
- Horse trots along I-95 in Philadelphia in surprising video (CBS)
- Cape Town: Ship carrying 19,000 cattle causes big stink (AP)
- Powerball: US man sues lottery after being told $340m win is error (BBC)
- Death Valley National Park offers rare chance to kayak on a temporary lake (CNN)