The Dutch central bank has fined Binance more than €3mn for offering services without proper registration in a blow to the crypto exchange’s campaign to win over European regulators.
The central bank said on Monday that the world’s largest crypto trading platform had breached its rules, which require digital asset companies to register in order to offer services in the Netherlands.
The administrative fine against Binance had been increased because of the seriousness of its breach of Dutch standards, the bank said. The exchange benefited from a “competitive advantage” from not paying levies to the bank and skipping out on compliance costs, and had been violating the rules over a long period, beginning in May 2020, the bank added.
However, the central bank said the fact that Binance had now applied for regulation weighed in its favour, reducing the total fine.
The censure from the Dutch watchdog underscores a widening split among European financial regulators on their attitudes towards the exchange. Binance has been rebuked by dozens of regulators around the world over concerns about its policies to prevent money laundering and protect consumers as well as for operating without permission.
In the UK, the Financial Conduct Authority has been outspoken on the risks presented by the sprawling crypto exchange, issuing a consumer warning against Binance in June 2021. The FCA also said it did not consider Binance to be capable of being effectively supervised as it warned its “complex and high-risk financial products” posed “a significant risk to consumers”.
In contrast, France, Spain and Italy have in recent months opened their doors to the exchange. The nod from France’s Autorité des Marchés Financiers drew criticism from French MEP Aurore Lalucq, who described the decision as “incomprehensible”.
Lalucq added that France’s decision was “surprising and even worrying . . . especially since many other supervisors, and not the least significant ones, have already refused to give Binance any form of registration or approval”.
Binance described the regulatory rebuke in the Netherlands as a “long-awaited pivot in our ongoing collaboration with the Dutch central bank.”
“While we do not share the same view on every aspect of the decision, we deeply respect the authority and professionalism of Dutch regulators to enforce regulations as they see fit,” the exchange said, adding that it was now “pursuing a more traditional operating model in the Netherlands.”
The Dutch central bank previously raised concerns about the exchange, issuing a public warning against Binance in August last year. “Binance is providing crypto services in the Netherlands without the required legal registration”, the bank said at the time, saying the exchange’s lack of a proper registration increased the risk of customers “becoming involved in money laundering or terrorist financing”.
Binance has pledged to establish a formal headquarters and regularise its corporate structure after operating for several years as a “decentralised” organisation. The promise to reform represents a concession to regulators, which had been put off by the business’s irregular set-up.
The group has also said it has rapidly ramped up its hiring of compliance staff and enforcement efforts as it seeks to bolster its regulatory credentials.
Josep Borrell insisted the restrictions are not a mistake, after Hungarian PM Viktor Orban called them “miscalculated”
The EU’s top diplomat has hit back at those who criticize the Western sanctions slapped on Russia, saying on Monday that he does not believe them to be a mistake, and adding that the bloc will continue to stand by its policies.
“There is a big debate about ‘are the sanctions effective? Are the sanctions affecting us more than Russia?’ Some European leaders have been saying that the sanctions were an error, were a mistake. Well, I do not think they were a mistake, it is what we had to do and we will continue doing,” Josep Borrell, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, told reporters prior to the EU Foreign Affairs Council meeting in Brussels.
Borrell’s comments come after Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban castigated EU sanctions against Russia on Friday, claiming they were “miscalculated” and could destroy Europe’s economy. He also noted that the sanctions have failed to destabilize Russia’s economy and haven’t forced Moscow to stop its military operation in Ukraine, instead causing massive damage to the EU’s economic stability.
The senior diplomat also declined to admit that oil prices soared due to the oil embargo that Brussels had imposed on Russia. He said the price of the fuel is now back at the same level as it was before February 24.
“So, how can someone say that it was the ban which has increased the price of oil?” Borrell argued.
Following the start of the Russian military campaign in Ukraine, Brent crude prices skyrocketed, reaching more than $120 per barrel in early March. Later, however, the prices went down, with Brent crude trading now at just above $100 per barrel, despite the EU’s decision on June 3 to impose an embargo on Russian oil.
Borrell said at the Council meeting on Monday that ministers would discuss a new sanctions package against Russia, as well as measures to better implement the restrictions already in place, and added that he had presented new proposals on the matter, including a ban on Russian gold.
Samsung Galaxy A23 5G has allegedly been spotted on the US FCC (Federal Communications Commission) website, suggesting three models and support for 25W fast charging. The Samsung smartphone is expected to come with a triple rear camera setup. The specifications of the smartphone have already been tipped by its alleged Geekbench listing. The Galaxy A23 5G could run Android 12 out of the box, which is likely to be based on OneUI 4.1 skin. The smartphone was also spotted by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) website recently, hinting that it could make its debut in India as well.
As per the FCC listing, a smartphone with model numbers SM-A236M, SM-A236B, and SM-A236E — alleged to denote the target markets — have been spotted. The listing suggests that there will be three smartphone models with each having three variants said to belong to the Galaxy A23 5G. The base model number of the smartphone is SM-A236. The phone is listed to come with 25W fast charging, a triple rear camera, 5G support, dual-band Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth v5.0.
It is to be noted here that a smartphone with SM-A236 as the base model number was spotted on Geekbench last month. Thought to be the Galaxy A23, the listing suggested that the upcoming smartphone from Samsung will be powered by an octa-core Snapdragon 695 SoC. The phone is also tipped to run Android 12 out of the box and come with 4GB of RAM.
As per a previous report, the rumoured Samsung Galaxy A23 will feature a quad rear camera setup with a 50-megapixel primary sensor, an 8-megapixel ultra-wide-angle sensor, and two 2-megapixel macro and depth sensors. For selfies, it may get a 13-megapixel sensor. The Samsung Galaxy A23 has reportedly also been spotted on the BIS website hinting at its India launch.
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Janhvi Kapoor shared this picture. (courtesy: janhvikapoor)
Janhvi Kapoor loves to hike. Need proof? Just cast a cursory glance at her Instagram timeline. The actress is often seen trekking through the woods in different parts of the world. Now, Janhvi has shared another set of images in which she is seen in a scenic location surrounded by greenery on all sides. Dressed in brown pants and a matching top, the star looks lovely as always. While the actress did not disclose the location, the stunning lake and gorgeous mountains in the background make for some postcard-like images. Sharing the photos, Janhvi wrote, “It was a good day.”
See the images here:
Over the weekend, Janhvi Kapoor dropped pictures with her co-star Varun Dhawan. The two stars are shooting for Bawaal in parts of Europe and if the pictures are anything to go by, the shoot looks like a fun ride. Sharing two images, Janhvi said, “Instagram vs reality.”
Before that, Janhvi Kapoor shared a bunch of images from her shooting location. In two photos from the series, Janhvi is seen photobombing images featuring director couple Ashwini Iyer Tiwari and Nitesh Tiwari as well as Varun Dhawan and Natasha Dalal. In the caption, she said, “Your #1 third wheel.”
Replying to the post, Ashwini said, “You will always be a part of us. Lots of love, Janhvi Kapoor.”
Sharing another lovely snap from the sets of Bawaal with Varun Dhawan, Janhvi Kapoor said, “Having a #Bawaal time in Amsterdam. Amsterdam sched wrap, Poland are you ready for us? #niteshtiwari #sajidnadiadwala.”
On the work front, Janhvi Kapoor will be seen in Good Luck Jerry. The film will be released on the streaming platform Disney+Hotstar on July 29. Good Luck Jerry is a remake of the Nayanthara film Kolamaavu Kokila.
As markets responded to Shadow Fork 9’s announcement, ETH was back in the green. Ethereum is currently regaining ground and progressing due to the favorable market situation.
At the same time, some other altcoins are doing well on the weekly chart, such as Polygon (MATIC) and Lido DAO (LDO), which have seen considerable price increases over the last week and in the previous 24 hours as well.
Only a few of the top 100 cryptocurrencies have been able to generate double-digit gains, and the rest are still suffering from the effects of the merciless crypto storm. One of them is Polygon (MATIC), which demonstrated a sizable gain.
Per the CoinGecko statistics, MATIC is currently trading at $0.91, up almost 19.88% over the past 24 hours and a notable 65% gain over the last seven days. After Disney revealed that Polygon (MATIC) had been chosen for its “Accelerator Program,” the price of the coin increased quickly.
The list also includes Lido DAO (LDO), which has experienced a significant gain. The decentralized autonomous organization’s governance token, LDO, outperformed over the last seven days with a remarkable increase of 167%. Its current price is $1.68, with an upward thrust of 6.1%throughout the previous 24 hours.
Even though LDO was able to recover its losses from the June decline, in which it fell to a low of roughly $0.432899, it yet hasn’t found the support it needs to climb back to the May high of $3.3816.
ETH is currently trading at $1481 on the daily chart | Source: ETHUSDT From Tradingview
Ethereum(ETH) Is On A Comeback Rally
Ethereum (ETH), the second largest coin, has recently crossed the $1,400 threshold. It has gained 9.31% over the previous 24 hours and is currently trading at $1,482.01. The currency has increased by around 29.32% over the past seven days, according to CoinMarketCap, and is thus gaining momentum.
According to nomics data, ETH’s overall market cap increased by 8.78% over the last 24 hours to $179.11 billion. However, the price increase occurred after a week of poor performance and unfavorable market circumstances.
Although, the specific cause is unknown. The fact is that the price spike occurred right after the ninth shadow fork’s introduction on July 14. It implies that the price spike may be caused by the rising popularity of Ethereum and its impending “Merge” to Proof-of-Stake.
The Merge was covered during the most recent Consensus Layer Call of the Ethereum Foundation, which took place on Thursday. Tim Beiko, an Ethereum Foundation member, proposed September 19 as a tentative launch date, providing the most unambiguous indication that the Merge would happen soon.
The merge upgrade combines Ethereum’s consensus and execution layers to switch the network from Proof-of-Work to Proof-of-Stake. It is anticipated to cut the network’s energy use by 99.95%, but it won’t necessarily result in lower transaction fees (gas).
Featured image from Flickr, chart from Tradingview.com
Team India has underlined their importance as one of the best teams in the world yet again as they sit above Pakistan in the latest International Cricket Council (ICC) ODI team rankings. After beating England 2-1 in the three-match ODI series, India will now set their sight on the top spot. India beat England in the final ODI in Manchester on Sunday thanks to an unbeaten hundred from Rishabh Pant.
India’s win on Sunday was a significant one, because had India lost they would have dropped rating points and could have paved way for Pakistan to take over the third spot in the table. Both India and Pakistan were on 106 rating points but had India lost the match, they would have dropped to 103 rating points and inevitably sent Pakistan to third.
An extra bonus for India after a thrilling series triumph over England.
However, a brilliant batting display from the Indian side saw them cruise through total with ease. Initially, 72/4, Rishabh Pant and Hardik Pandya guided India home and took control of the match. They will now be eying another big win in the ODI series when they take on the West Indies on Friday.
India will also have three more ODI matches to play when they visit Zimbabwe in August and could be targeting the spot in the ICC ODI rankings in the coming months.
England fought to post a competitive total, though had no answer for Rishabh Pant’s masterful knock.#ENGvIND talking points 👇https://t.co/L1YbJK4L4E
India will play a three-match ODI series, with all matches taking place in Port of Spain. If India does win the ODI series, they will close the gap on second-placed England, who missed the opportunity to close the gap on leaders New Zealand. The Kiwis still occupy the top spot as they too won their ODI series against Ireland, although all the three affairs were a close contest.
In the rest of the standings, Australia and South Africa occupy the fifth and sixth spots respectively. As things stand, Bangladesh is seventh followed by Sri Lanka at eighth and West Indies at ninth place in the ICC ODI standings. Afghanistan completes the rest of the top 10 while Ireland, who narrowly lost the ODI series against New Zealand is 11th in the standings.
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Grayscale Investment’s latest Insightreport provides interesting food for thought, pinning the start of the current bear market in June 2022, which could last another 250 days if previous market cycles are to repeat themselves.
Grayscale notes that cryptocurrency markets mimic their conventional counterparts with cyclical movements. Bitcoin (BTC) market cycles conventionally last 4 years or approximately 1,275 days. The firm defines a cycle when the realized price of BTC moves below the current market price.
Realized price is determined by the sum of all assets at their purchase price divided by the asset’s market capitalization. This gives a measure of how many positions are profitable, if at all. June 13 saw the realized price of BTC cross below market price, which Grayscale identifies as the start of the current bear market.
The firm believes this presents a prime investment opportunity – which is set to last another 250 days from July if the duration of previous cycles repeats itself.
Retracing history, Grayscale highlights the 2012-2015 market cycle with events like the rise and fall of the dark web marketplace Silk Road and the infamous Mt. Gox debacle, which led to the first major bear market. The development of Ethereum, major exchanges and wallet providers led to a gradual climb to the next highs in the market.
2016 to 2019 will be remembered for the boom in initial coin offerings, made possible by smart contract functionality introduced by Ethereum. Much of the capital that flowed into the cryptocurrency ecosystem in late 2017 exited the following year, as the second major bear market began.
The 2020 market cycle will be remembered as a story of leverage. Grayscale notes that investors were enticed to leverage trade with increased government spending during the Covid-19 pandemic.
A positive funding rate lasted for six months, with many traders leveraging positions with cryptocurrency as collateral. When crypto prices dipped, traders were forced to sell, which triggered a cascade of liquidations, seeing BTC drop from a November 2021 peak of $64,800 to $29,000 in June 2021.
Again leverage hurt the markets a year later, but DeFi’s major centralized finance (CeFi) players faltered after attracting massive investment with attractive yields. The rest is history, as the collapse of the US Terra stablecoin (UST) engulfed the ecosystem. Over-leveraged traders and positions were liquidated across various CeFi platforms – which exacerbated market sell-offs and sunk major capital lending firms in the space like Celsius and Three Arrows Capital.
Ben Stokes celebrates in the dressing room after winning the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 Final against New Zealand
Ben Stokes has announced that he is retiring from one-day international cricket.
Stokes, England’s Test captain and authoritative all-rounder, will continue to play T20I fixtures but says Tuesday’s game against South Africa will be his last in the 50-over format for his country.
The 31-year-old has a 39.44 batting average in ODIs and has taken 74 wickets.
England kick off the ODI series against South Africa in Durham, Stokes’ home county ground, on Tuesday live on Sky Sports Cricket. Coverage starts at 12.30pm on Sky Sports Cricket and Main Event, with the first ball at 1pm.
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Watch the pick of the action as England beat New Zealand in an incredible finale to the 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup.
Watch the pick of the action as England beat New Zealand in an incredible finale to the 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup.
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A damning report and hours of body camera footage further laid bare the chaotic response to a mass shooting at a Uvalde elementary school, where hundreds of law enforcement officers massed but then waited to confront the gunman even after a child trapped with the shooter called 911.
The findings of an investigative committee released Sunday were the first to criticise both state and federal law enforcement, and not just local authorities in the South Texas city for the bewildering inaction by heavily armed officers as a gunman fired inside two adjoining fourth-grade classrooms at Robb Elementary School, killing 19 students and two teachers.
Footage from city police officers’ body cameras made public hours later only further emphasised the failures — and fueled the anger and frustration of relatives of the victims.
“It’s disgusting. Disgusting,” said Michael Brown, whose 9-year-old son was in the school’s cafeteria on the day of the shooting and survived. “They’re cowards.”
Nearly 400 law enforcement officials rushed to the school, but “egregiously poor decision making” resulted in more than an hour of chaos before the gunman was finally confronted and killed, according to the report written by an investigative committee from the Texas House of Representatives.
NEW: Bodycam footage outside Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.
Together, the report and more than three hours of newly released body camera footage from the May 24 tragedy amounted to the fullest account to date of one of the worst school shootings in US history.
“At Robb Elementary, law enforcement responders failed to adhere to their active shooter training, and they failed to prioritise saving innocent lives over their own safety,” the report said. The gunman fired approximately 142 rounds inside the building — and it is “almost certain” that at least 100 shots came before any officer entered, according to the report, which laid out numerous failures.
Among them:
— No one assumed command despite scores of officers being on the scene.
— The commander of a Border Patrol tactical team waited for a bulletproof shield and working master key for a door to the classrooms that may have not even been needed, before entering.
— A Uvalde Police Department officer said he heard about 911 calls that had come from inside the rooms, and that his understanding was the officers on one side of the building knew there were victims trapped inside. Still, no one tried to breach the classroom.
A man shows the newspaper with photos of the victims of the deadliest US school shooting in nearly a decade where a gunman killed 19 children and two teachers at Robb Elementary school, in Uvalde, Texas. (Reuters)
The committee didn’t “receive medical evidence” to show that police storming the classrooms sooner would have saved lives, but it concluded that “it is plausible that some victims could have survived if they had not had to wait 73 additional minutes for rescue.”
The findings had at least one immediate effect: Lt Mariano Pargas, a Uvalde Police Department officer who was the city’s acting police chief during the massacre, was placed on administrative leave. Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin said an investigation would be launched to determine whether Pargas should have taken command of the scene. He also disclosed for the first time that some officers had left the force since the shooting but did not provide an exact number, saying it was as many as three.
Hours after the report was released, Uvalde officials separately made public for the first time hours of body camera footage from the city’s police officers who responded to the attack. It included video of several officers reacting to word from a dispatcher, roughly 30 minutes after the shooting began, that a child in the room had called 911.
“The room is full of victims. Child 911 call,” an officer said. Other body camera video from Uvalde Staff Sgt. Eduardo Canales, the head of the city’s SWAT team, showed the officer approaching the classrooms when gunfire rang out at 11.37 am.
Shocking surveillance footage shows police standing in hallways—with one officer even taking a moment to put on hand sanitizer—as the Uvalde, TX, school shooting continued for more than an hour
A minute later, Canales said: “Dude, we’ve got to get in there. We’ve got to get in there, he just keeps shooting. We’ve got to get in there.”
Another officer could be heard saying “DPS is sending their people.”It was 72 minutes later, at 12.50 pm, when officers finally breached the classrooms and kill the shooter.
Calls for police accountability have grown in Uvalde since the shooting. “It’s a joke. They’re a joke. They’ve got no business wearing a badge. None of them do,” Vincent Salazar, grandfather of 11-year-old Layla Salazar, who was among those killed, said Sunday.
Anger flashed in Uvalde even over how the report was rolled out: Tina Quintanilla-Taylor, whose daughter survived the shooting, shouted at the three-member Texas House committee as they left a news conference after the findings were released. Committee members had invited families of the victims to discuss the report privately, but Quintanilla-Taylor said the committee should have taken questions from the community, not just the media.
At a memorial set up outside Robb Elementary School, the site of a mass shooting, in Uvalde, Texas, US, May 25, 2022. (Reuters)
“I’m pissed. They need to come back and give us their undivided attention,” she said later. “These leaders are not leaders,” she said.
According to the report, 376 law enforcement officers massed at the school. The overwhelming majority of those who responded were federal and state law enforcement. That included nearly 150 US Border Patrol agents and 91 state police officials.
“Other than the attacker, the Committee did not find any ‘villains’ in the course of its investigation,” the report said. “There is no one to whom we can attribute malice or ill motives. Instead, we found systemic failures and egregiously poor decision making.”
The report noted that many of the hundreds of law enforcement responders who rushed to the school were better trained and equipped than the school district police — which the head of the Texas Department of Public Safety, the state police force, previously faulted for not going into the room sooner.
Investigators said it was not their job to determine whether officers should be held accountable, saying that decisions rested with each law enforcement agency.
Prior to Sunday, only one of the hundreds of officers on the scene — Pete Arredondo, the Uvalde school district police chief — was known to have been on leave. “Everyone who came on the scene talked about this being chaotic,” said Texas state Rep. Dustin Burrows, a Republican who led the investigation. Officials with the Texas Department of Public Safety and US Border Patrol did not immediately return requests for comment Sunday.
The report followed weeks of closed-door interviews with more than 40 people, including witnesses and law enforcement who were on the scene of the shooting. No single officer has received as much scrutiny since the shooting as Arredondo, who also resigned from his newly appointed seat on the City Council after the shooting.
Arredondo told the committee he treated the shooter as a “barricaded subject,” according to the report, and defended never treating the scene as an active-shooter situation because he did not have visual contact with the gunman. Arredondo also tried to find a key for the classrooms, but no one ever checked to see if the doors were locked, according to the report.
The report criticised as “lackadaisical” the approach of the hundreds of officers who surrounded the school and said that they should have recognised that Arredondo remaining in the school without reliable communication was “inconsistent” with him being the scene commander. The report concluded that some officers waited because they relied on bad information while others “had enough information to know better.”
The report was the result of one of several investigations into the shooting, including one led by the Justice Department. Brown, the father of the 9-year-old who was in the cafeteria the day of the shooting, came to the committee’s news conference Sunday carrying signs saying, “We Want Accountability” and “Prosecute Pete Arredondo.”
Brown said he has not yet read the report but already knew enough to say that police “have blood on their hands.”
Sushmita Sen shared this video. (courtesy: sushmitasen47)
New Delhi:
Sushmita Sen became the center of brutal trolling ever since she and Lalit Modi made their relationship social media official. The actress, who was labelled a “gold-digger” by trolls, shut the haters in a strongly-worded Instagram post. This line, pretty much sums up the actress’ boss lady reply to trolls: “I dig deeper than gold…and I’ve always (famously) preferred diamonds! And yes I still buy them myself.” Sushmita Sen’s post addressed to trolls got a huge shout out from members of the film industry. Priyanka Chopra, in the comments section of her post, wrote: “Tell em queen.” Shilpa Shetty added, “Love you Sush, my star.” Dia Mirza dropped multiple heart emojis. As did Ranveer Singh and Neha Dhupia.
Here’s a screenshot of comments on the post:
Screenshot of comments on Sushmita Sen’s post.
An excerpt from Sushmita Sen’s post read: “Perfectly centred in my being and my conscience…I love how nature merges all it’s creation to experience oneness…and just how divided we are, when we break that balance. It’s heartbreaking to see just how miserable and unhappy the world around us is becoming…The so called intellectuals with their idiosyncrasies….the ignorant with their cheap andd at times funny gossip The friends I never had and the acquaintances I’ve never met….all sharing their grand opinions and deep knowledge of my life and character…monetising the ‘Gold Digger’ all the way! Ah these geniuses.”
Over the weekend, the Aarya star shared a picture with daughters Alisah and Renee and she wrote: “I am in a happy place!!Not married, no rings…Unconditionally surrounded by love. Enough clarification given… Now back to life and work! Thank you for sharing in my happiness always…and for those who don’t…it’s #NOYB Anyway.
Last week, Lalit Modi made his relationship with Sushmita Sen official by sharing this post and he wrote: “Just back in London after a whirling global tour. Maldives, Sardinia with the families – not to mention my better looking partner Sushmita Sen – a new beginning a new life finally. Over the moon. In love does not mean marriage yet. But one day that by God’s grace will happen. I just announced that we are together.”
Sushmita Sen is best-known for starring in movies like Biwi No 1, Do Knot Disturb, Main Hoon Na, Maine Pyaar Kyun Kiya and Tumko Na Bhool Paayenge and No Problem. She made her acting comeback with the International Emmy-nominated series Aarya and also starred in the second installment of the show.
Sushmita Sen is a single mom to daughter Alisah – Sushmita adopted Renee in 2000 while Alisah joined the family in 2010. Renee made her acting debut with a short film.
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A man shows the newspaper with photos of the victims of the deadliest US school shooting in nearly a decade where a gunman killed 19 children and two teachers at Robb Elementary school, in Uvalde, Texas. (Reuters)
At a memorial set up outside Robb Elementary School, the site of a mass shooting, in Uvalde, Texas, US, May 25, 2022. (Reuters)
