Two months before Payton Gendron allegedly killed 10 people at a supermarket in Buffalo, in the US, he was confronted by a security guard at the store during a trip on which he compiled detailed plans of the location, according to a document posted online in April by a writer who identified himself as Gendron. “I've seen you go in and out ... What are you doing?” the guard asked Gendron on March 8, according to an account in the document. Gendron replied that he was “collecting consensus data” before making excuses and leaving for his car, according to the account, adding: “In hindsight, that was a close call.” The encounter with the guard at the supermarket was described within a 589-page document posted online on April 29. The document refers to the supermarket as “attack area 1” and describes two more Buffalo locations as other attack areas to “shoot all blacks” during an apparent reconnaissance trip that spelled out the travel paths to each one, timing needed for each … [Read more...] about Store guard questioned Buffalo shooting suspect during earlier visit, documents show
Banking interview questions and answers
Two-Card Monte: Why Mastercard And Visa Rarely Shut Down Scammers Who Are Ripping Off Consumers
Paul Paolucci, the top cop for one of the world’s biggest credit card companies, sure had some interesting friends. One made a fortune fronting for pornography websites that needed access to Mastercard’s and Visa’s payment networks. Paolucci, who oversaw Mastercard’s merchant fraud control, was photographed cavorting around the Las Vegas Hard Rock Hotel with him and a group of women in white corset minidresses. A second was a Lamborghini-driving e-commerce mogul with whom Paolucci used to celebrate family holidays. The mogul ended up in prison for a financial crime he committed, in part, using Mastercard’s network. An executive at a famously corrupt European bank claimed to have dined with Paolucci and gotten his help evading Mastercard’s regulations. It was Paolucci’s job to make sure that the banks and companies using Mastercard’s network were playing by the rules. He bent those rules himself by getting close to the very kinds of high-risk businesses he was supposed to be … [Read more...] about Two-Card Monte: Why Mastercard And Visa Rarely Shut Down Scammers Who Are Ripping Off Consumers
What Ted Cruz’s Supreme Court Win Means
To hold his Senate seat against his challenger, Beto O’Rourke, in 2018, Ted Cruz spent nearly $40 million. O’Rourke’s campaign spent double that amount. The day before the vote in Texas, Cruz lent his campaign $260,000. This was a curious—and seemingly unnecessary—gesture: The campaign’s final report showed it ended with $263,000 cash in hand. Yet Cruz was not acting irrationally. He was preparing the ground for a challenge of his own, an assault on the tottering remains of the McCain-Feingold campaign-finance law of 2002. That law, more formally known as the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, or BCRA, limited how campaigns could repay loans from candidates. A campaign has 20 days in which it can repay such loans in full. After that deadline, it can repay no more than $250,000. When Cruz’s campaign finished repaying him, the deadline had elapsed. So his campaign committee settled only $250,000 of the loan, leaving $10,000 outstanding—which Cruz then sued in federal court to … [Read more...] about What Ted Cruz’s Supreme Court Win Means
What will it take to get inflation under control?
Faisal Islam @faisalislam on Twitter Published 2 hours ago comments Comments Share close Share page Copy link About sharing Today's astronomical rise in inflation is no less shocking, even though it was predicted. UK inflation is simply not supposed to hit levels such as 9%, and the statisticians have had to go back in time to remodel historical data, as inflation has not been this high while the Consumer Prices Index has been in existence. As the Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey has said, these sorts of rises hit the poorest the hardest. 9% is an average across the population. The older Retail Prices Index measure is already at 11%. But Mr Bailey's institution has a battle on now to get this under control. The really painful issue is that this rate will sustain and is on course to get higher over the course of this year. And only this week he … [Read more...] about What will it take to get inflation under control?
How Gen Z is hooked on cryptocurrency and NFTs
By Mariko Oi Published 14 hours ago Share close Share page Copy link About sharing The lure of making a quick buck has always attracted young people to invest in risky assets. For Generation Z, it is the volatility - and the decentralised nature - of digital assets such as cryptocurrency and NFTs which appeals. But they are unregulated, meaning there is little investor protection. "All my friends were talking about [cryptocurrency] so one day I just decided why not just jump in and see if I can make some money," says 20-year-old Paxton See Tow. All he needed was his phone and trading thousands of dollars' worth of assets was only a click away. Generation Z - also known as Zoomers - are the age group born between the mid-1990s to early-2000s. They grew up online, playing games and meeting friends virtually, so the transition is natural. Cryptocurrencies are digital currencies while … [Read more...] about How Gen Z is hooked on cryptocurrency and NFTs
I avoided a new travel rip-off simply by pressing a button
Ben Groundwater is a columnist, blogger, feature writer, and host of Traveller's podcast Flight of Fancy. He was named travel writer of the year by the Australian Society of Travel Writers in 2014 and 2015. "Do you agree to this currency conversion?" This is a new one. I'm standing in front of a Bankomat ATM on the shores of Lapad beach in Dubrovnik, trying to withdraw enough Croatian kuna to get me through the next few days. I've done the standard thing, looked up the exchange rate online, guessed at how much cash I'll need, calculated the rough exchange, and punched the amount into the ATM (using a debit card that doesn't usually attract any foreign conversion or withdrawal fees). READ MORE: Who offers the best pre-paid travel currency card? Holiday spending money gouges could drive uptake of Facebook's digital currency Don't pay in your own currency with credit cards overseas But now something strange is happening. The ATM is displaying its conversion rate, … [Read more...] about I avoided a new travel rip-off simply by pressing a button
US Congress dives into UFOs, but still no signs of extraterrestrial life
The United States Congress held its first hearing in half a century Tuesday (local time) on unidentified flying objects. And no, there is still no government confirmation of extraterrestrial life. Testifying before a House Intelligence subcommittee, Pentagon officials did not disclose additional information from their ongoing investigation of hundreds of unexplained sightings in the sky. But they said they had picked a director for a new task force to co-ordinate data collection efforts on what the government has officially labelled “unidentified aerial phenomena”. Ronald Moultrie, the undersecretary of defence for intelligence, said the Pentagon was also trying to destigmatize the issue and encourage pilots and other military personnel to report anything unusual they see. “We want to know what's out there as much as you want to know what's out there,” Moultrie told politicians, adding that he was a fan of science fiction himself. READ MORE: Pentagon will track … [Read more...] about US Congress dives into UFOs, but still no signs of extraterrestrial life