World
Elon Musk Sued For $258bn Over Dogecoin Support
An investor in dogecoin, originally created as a joke but whose value increased and fell as it was promoted by Elon Musk, filed a $258 billion lawsuit Thursday against the billionaire and his companies Tesla and SpaceX.
Keith Johnson, who says he lost money after investing in dogecoin, described himself as an “American citizen who was defrauded” by what he called a “Dogecoin Crypto Pyramid Scheme.”
He is asking for his motion, filed in a New York court, to be classified as a class action suit on behalf of those who have suffered losses by investing in dogecoin since 2019.
Since Musk began promoting the virtual currency, investors have lost around $86 billion, Johnson estimates. He would like Musk to reimburse investors this sum, plus pay double that in damages — an additional $172 billion.
Founded in 2013, dogecoin’s creators say it was intended as an ironic response to two big internet phenomena: cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin, and a meme image of a Shiba Inu dog.
The price of dogecoin traded at just fractions of a cent for most of its existence.
But it saw its value leap at the beginning of 2021, rising to $0.73 in May of that year, amid a buying frenzy that surrounded the GameStop saga and after humorous messages about it from Musk.
On Thursday, however, it was worth less than six cents.
Johnson said he believes Musk increased “the price, market cap and trading volume of Dogecoin” through his promotion of it.
He included tweets from Musk, the world’s richest man who has more than 98 million followers on Twitter, including one promising that SpaceX would “put a literal Dogecoin on the literal moon.”
Johnson named Musk’s Tesla electric carmaker in the suit since it accepts dogecoin as payment for certain derivative products. SpaceX was also included for having named one of its satellites after dogecoin.
Johnson likened dogecoin to a pyramid scheme since the virtual currency has no intrinsic value nor is it a product. Additionally, it is not backed by a tangible asset and the number of “coins” is unlimited.
Suits by investors who feel cheated by the promises of virtual currency are on the rise in the United States.
World
Woman killed and swallowed whole by 16-foot python in Indonesia
A woman has been found dead inside the belly of a snake after it swallowed her whole in central Indonesia, a local official said Saturday.
The husband of 45-year-old Farida and residents of Kalempang village in South Sulawesi province discovered her on Friday inside the reticulated python, which measured around five metres (16 feet).
The mother-of-four had gone missing Thursday night and failed to return home, forcing a search effort, village head Suardi Rosi told AFP.
Her husband “found her belongings… which made him suspicious. The villagers then searched the area. They soon spotted a python with a large belly,” said Suardi.
“They agreed to cut open the python’s stomach. As soon as they did, Farida’s head was immediately visible.”
Farida was found fully clothed inside the snake.
Such incidents are considered extremely rare but several people have died in Indonesia in recent years after being swallowed whole by pythons.
Last year, residents in Southeast Sulawesi’s Tinanggea district killed an eight-metre python, which was found strangling and eating one of the farmers in a village.
In 2018, a 54-year-old woman was found dead inside a seven-metre python in Southeast Sulawesi’s Muna town.
And the year before, a farmer in West Sulawesi went missing before being found eaten alive by a four-metre python at a palm oil plantation.
World
UN adds Israel to list of nations committing violations against children
Antonio Guterres, the United Nations (UN) secretary-general, says Israel’s military has been added to the global list of offenders committing violations against children.
Gilad Erdan, Israel’s envoy to the UN, was informed of the decision on Friday.
Guterres is expected to notify the UN security council of the resolution on June 14.
The development follows Isreali’s eight months bombardment of Gaza.
On May 8, the UN published data showing that 34,844 people had been killed, including 4,959 women and 7,797 children, since the war started.
‘IT’S SHAMEFUL’
The Israeli envoy described the UN resolution as a “shameful decision”.
“I am utterly shocked and disgusted by this shameful decision of the secretary-general,” Erdan said.
“Israel’s army is the most moral army in the world so this immoral decision will only aid the terrorists and reward Hamas.”
Israel Katz, Israel’s foreign minister, said the decision “will have consequences for Israel’s relations with the UN”.
Israel has always had a strained relationship with the UN which further deteriorated during the Israel-Hamas war.
Benjamin Netanyahu, prime minister of Israel, and Yoav Gallant, the country’s defence minister, have been accused of war crimes.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) is seeking an arrest warrant for Netanyahu, Gallant, and three Hamas chiefs — Yahya Sinwar, leader of the Palestinian militant group; Mohammed Al-Masri, leader of the Al Qassem Brigades; and Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas’ political leader.
World
Trump vows to reverse Biden’s order clamping down on illegal border crossings
Donald Trump said yesterday he would reverse US President Joe Biden’s order clamping down on illegal border crossings, in his first campaign event since becoming a convicted felon.
The expected Republican Party nominee also threatened to impose tariffs on countries that do not stem the flow of migrants into the United States, as he seeks to make electoral capital on an issue polls show resonates with voters.
Asked by an audience member at an event in the must-win state of Arizona what he would do to shut off the flow of people entering the US via the southern border — including migrants from China and the Middle East — Trump said he would use economic measures.
“We have tremendous economic power… if China or some other country is behaving badly, we have things called tariffs that are so severe,” he said.
“We are going to be so tough and if a country is not going to behave, we’re going to tariff the hell out of that country,” he added, without giving details on what size or kind of tariffs he would impose.
Trump was in Phoenix for his first event since being convicted of 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover up hush money paid to a porn star.
A sympathetic audience in this southwestern border state were given the opportunity after a long speech to ask questions of the former president.
While there were some on the cost of living, most were variations on a theme of immigration, an issue polls show is uppermost in voters minds ahead of the November 5 election.
Biden, seeking to neutralize an issue he is widely thought to be performing badly on, this week issued an executive order barring migrants who enter the US illegally from claiming asylum when numbers surge past 2,500 in a day.
The order also makes it easier to deport people back to Mexico.
The curbs will remain in place until numbers fall back down below 1,500 illegal crossings a day.
Biden came under fire from all sides for the policy shift, which uses the same law that Trump once employed to ban migrants from Muslim countries when he was president.
Republicans, meanwhile, lashed it as too little.
Trump on Thursday said he would reverse the order if he won the election.
“On Day One of my administration, I will be rescinding Crooked Joe’s outrageous executive order,” he told the cheering crowd, blasting it — without evidence — as “pro-invasion, pro-child trafficking… pro-drug dealers.”
“And I will terminate every single open borders policy of the Biden administration.”
Biden won Arizona in 2020 by a wafer-thin 10,000 votes, and the state is expected to be crucial to both men’s chances of winning another four years in the White House.
Trump is expected to hold a rally in the swing state of Nevada on Sunday.
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