#GlobalNews: U.S. special forces soldier arrested after allegedly winning $400,000 on #Maduro raid.

According to an indictment unsealed Thursday, Master Sgt. Gannon Ken Van Dyke opened an account in late December on Polymarket, one of the best-known prediction markets. He wagered about $32,000 that Maduro would be “out” by January. The bet was a long-shot.

But Van Dyke was involved in the planning and execution of Operation Absolute Resolve, prosecutors allege, and had access to classified information before he placed the bet. His winnings, though anonymous, caught the attention of law enforcement almost immediately.

Van Dyke, an active duty solider stationed at Fort Bragg, faces five criminal charges for stealing and misusing confidential government information, theft and fraud. He will make his first court appearance in North Carolina. No attorney has been listed for him on the court docket.

He allegedly made 13 bets from December 27 to January 2, the last being hours before the overnight capture. Prosecutors said Van Dyke sent his more than $400,000 in profits to a foreign cryptocurrency vault before he deposited them in an online brokerage account.

A master sergeant in the Army is a senior noncommissioned officer, considered a key tactical leader and technical expert and serving as the principal NCO typically at the Army battalion level. Senior NCOs are often looked to for setting and upholding the standard for more junior soldiers in the unit.

“Those entrusted to safeguard our nation’s secrets have a duty to protect them and our armed service members, and not to use that information for personal financial gain,” said Jay Clayton, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York.

Van Dyke was photographed just after the operation – and from when he placed his final bet – on “what appears to be the deck of a ship at sea, at sunrise wearing U.S. military fatigues, and carrying a rifle, standing alongside three other individuals wearing U.S. military fatigues,” court documents say.

Van Dyke profited more than $400,000, prosecutors say. He then allegedly moved those winnings to a foreign cryptocurrency vault before he deposited them in an online brokerage account in what prosecutors called an attempt to conceal their origin.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission filed a related complaint against Van Dyke on Thursday, seeking restitution, disgorgement and civil monetary penalties.

CNN reported last month that federal prosecutors were investigating the Maduro trade, according to a person familiar with the matter. The chiefs of the securities and commodity fraud unit at the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan met with representatives at Polymarket last month.

After the bets were placed, the U.S. military launched a covert operation that extradited Maduro from the presidential palace in Caracas in an overnight capture while coming under heavy fire. Maduro was transported to New York to face federal drug-trafficking related charges. He has pleaded not guilty.

Polymarket in a post on X said, “When we identified a user trading on classified government information, we referred the matter to the DOJ & cooperated with their investigation. Insider trading has no place on Polymarket. Today’s arrest is proof the system works.”

ABC News first reported Thursday’s arrest.
Prediction markets face criticism

Trading on prediction markets has exploded the past year, with users now spending a few billion dollars each week on such sites.

Lawmakers in Congress have introduced more than a dozen new bills this year to further regulate prediction markets. Some of the bills, which gained bipartisan support, would stiffen penalties against government officials who engage in insider trading.

Trump told reporters Thursday he is concerned about the growing trend of betting on geopolitical events. Asked about the charges against the U.S. soldier, the president said he was not familiar with the specifics of the incident but compared it to baseball’s all-time hit leader Pete Rose.

“That’s like Pete Rose betting on his own team,” Trump said, referring to the late baseball player who was banned from baseball for gambling.

Pressed on whether he is concerned about betting tied to the war with Iran, Trump said it’s a global issue.

“Well I think that the whole world, unfortunately, has become somewhat of a casino,” Trump said, adding that such betting is happening “all over the world, and every place they’re doing these betting things.”

“Now, I think that I’m not happy with it,” he concluded.

The Trump administration approved Polymarket last year to start offering trades for American customers, but its U.S.-facing site isn’t fully operational yet. The Maduro-related trades occurred on Polymarket’s highly popular international site.

That site operates out of the reach of U.S. regulations – which is how it’s able to offer markets related to war, which is illegal under federal law. But experts say Americans can easily access the offshore site with a virtual private network, or VPN.

There is a debate in the prediction market industry over the role of insiders in prediction markets. Some experts see these markets as a vehicle for information to flow more freely from insiders to the general public.

Asked about insider trading risks, Polymarket’s CEO told Axios in November it was “super cool” that his platform “creates this financial incentive for people to go and divulge the information to the market,” including insiders.

Polymarket rolled out new rules in March, to “clarify three core categories of prohibited insider trading conduct.”

They banned #trades based on information that users were legally required to keep confidential, and trades based on tips from someone with the same obligation. They also said people in “a position of authority or influence” to affect the outcome of an event cannot participate in any related markets.

Hannah Rabinowitz, Kara Scannell, CNN

CNN’s Marshall Cohen, Haley Britzky and Alejandria Jaramillo contributed to this report.

#News : Tourist’s ‘pre-wedding challenge’ damages historic Florence statue, A tourist has caused thousands of dollars in damage to a 16th-century monument in Florence, Italy, after climbing on it during a bachelorette party, according to authorities.

The 28-year-old woman, whose name and nationality have not been publicly disclosed, climbed the Fountain of Neptune in the #Piazza della Signoria on Saturday, the city of Florence said in a statement this week.

The Fountain of Neptune was commissioned in 1559 by Cosimo I de Medici, Duke of Florence, to mark the marriage of his son Francesco and the Grand Duchess Joanna of Austria.

The fountain features a statue of the Roman sea god Neptune atop a shell-shaped carriage pulled by horses.

The woman was immediately spotted by police, who told her to get out of the fountain, officials said in the statement Tuesday.

The woman allegedly told officers that she had entered the fountain by climbing over a railing and the edge of the basin, then onto the legs of the figure of a horse to avoid stepping into the water.

“Her intention was to ‘touch’ the private parts of the statue for a sort of pre-wedding challenge,” reads the statement.

Investigators later found that the woman had “caused small but significant damage” to the legs of the horses she’d walked on, as well as “to a frieze she had grabbed onto to avoid slipping,” which will cost 5,000 euros (US$5,845) to repair, according to the statement.

“The young woman was reported to the Judicial Authority for defacing an artistic and architectural asset,” it adds.

Officials added that the woman is “to be presumed innocent until a final judgment by the Judicial Authority.”

This is not the first time that badly behaved tourists have been linked to damaged to the fountain.

In 2023, a 22-year-old German man was accused of damaging the statue after climbing on it as two friends took photos of him.

The statue was previously damaged in 2005, when someone climbed on it and broke Neptune’s hand. This prompted the authorities to install security cameras.

By Jack Guy, CNN

Three Iranian tankers intercepted as US adds pressure in Strait of Hormuz

Lebanese journalist Amal Khalil killed in #Israeli strike on a house where she took cover, paper says.

#BEIRUT — A #Lebanese journalist was killed Wednesday in an Israeli airstrike on a house in southern Lebanon where she had taken cover while reporting on the Israel-Hezbollah war. Her body was only retrieved from the rubble hours later, rescue workers said.

The daily Al-Akhbar newspaper says its reporter Amal Khalil was killed in the southern village of al-Tiri.

Khalil had been covering the conflict in Lebanon between Israel and the Lebanese Hezbollah militant group that resumed in early March, in the shadow of the U.S.-Israeli war in Iran. She took cover in the house in al-Tiri after an earlier Israeli airstrike hit near the car she was traveling in with another colleague.

The Lebanese health ministry said the first strike killed two people. A second Israeli strike then hit the house in al-Tiri where Khalil and her colleague Zeinab Faraj had taken cover.

At first, rescue workers were able to get to Faraj, who was seriously wounded, and retrieve the bodies of two killed in the first airstrike. But they were fired on by Israeli forces so they were forced to halt attempts to reach Khalil, the ministry said.

Khalil remained under the rubble for hours before the Lebanese army, civil defense and the Lebanese Red Cross were able to get to the scene hours later. Khalil’s body was retrieved shortly before midnight, at least six hours after the strike.

Israel’s military said individuals in the village had violated the ceasefire, endangering its troops. Israel denied that it targets #journalists or that it prevented rescue teams from reaching the area. It said the incident was under review.

“Killing of journalists is a crime and a flagrant violation of international and humanitarian law,” said Lebanon’s Information Minister Paul Morcos.

Khalil’s death comes on the eve of the second round of direct talks between Israeli and Lebanese officials in Washington on extending the ceasefire that went into effect last Friday.

Khalil, who was from southern Lebanon, had been covering the area since 2006 for al-Akhbar. Her latest reporting was about Israeli demolitions of Lebanese homes in villages where Israeli troops are now positioned inside Lebanon.

Her death brings to nine the number of #journalists killed in Lebanon so far this year. At least 2,300 people have been killed in Israeli strikes and more than 1 million displaced since the latest #Israel-#Hezbollah war erupted on March 2.

Earlier on Wednesday, Reporters Without Borders called for international pressure on the Israeli army to allow Khalil’s rescue. Committee to Protect Journalists expressed its “outrage” at the apparent targeting of the two journalists and warned the obstruction of rescue efforts “may amount to a war crime.”

Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun asked the Lebanese Red Cross to coordinate with the Lebanese army and U.N. peacekeepers “to carry out the rescue operation” as quickly as possible.

In late March, an Israeli airstrike on southern Lebanon killed three journalists covering the war. Hezbollah’s al-Manar TV said its longtime correspondent Ali Shoeib was killed. Israel’s military said it had targeted Shoeib, accusing him of being a Hezbollah intelligence operative, without providing evidence.

Also killed in the same strike was reporter Fatima Ftouni, who worked for the Beirut-based Al-Mayadeen TV along with her brother Mohammed Ftouni, a video journalist.

Days earlier, an Israeli airstrike on an apartment in central Beirut killed Mohammed Sherri, the head of political programs at Hezbollah’s at Al-Manar TV, along with his wife.

Associated Press writer Abby Sewell in Beirut contributed to this report.

Bassem Mroue And Sarah El Deeb, The Associated Press

U.K. to ban cigarettes sales for those born after 2008. Could Canada do the same?

The proposed U.K. law, dubbed the “Tobacco and Vapes Bill,” aims to stop anyone born after Jan. 1, 2009, now aged 17, from taking up smoking. It has been approved by both houses of Britain’s Parliament but still requires royal assent.

“It’s a step in the right direction and we’re really encouraged to see this,” said Dr. Lesley James, the director of health policy and systems in Ontario for the Heart and Stroke Foundation. “We’re hoping officials in Canada will see this and see what can be done here within our borders, to see what can be done to address smoking.”

A brief history of the White House #bunker

Secrecy surrounding White House security makes details hard to come by, but U.S. President Donald Trump’s court fight over his US$400 million ballroom casts some light on an underground bunker at the site that has had a role in history.

The bunker emerged in the #Trump administration’s court fight against the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which is challenging the 90,000-square-foot (8,400-square-metre) ballroom project in #Washington. A federal appeals court last week permitted the president to continue with construction of the project at the site of the former East Wing, which was demolished last fall.

That ruling put on hold a lower-court judge’s order blocking aboveground construction but exempted work to ensure the safety and security of the White House. The Republican administration’s appeal cited materials that would be installed to make a “heavily fortified” facility, including adding bomb shelters, military installations and a medical facility underneath the ballroom.
The bunker’s role in presidential history

The history of a bunker beneath the East Wing dates to Franklin D. Roosevelt’s presidency, when an underground bomb shelter was installed in 1942 after the United States had entered World War II. Beyond that, detail is obscured by secrecy resulting from concerns about presidential safety.

Garrett Graff, a historian and national security author, said the Presidential Emergency Operations Center beneath the East Wing was always intended to be for short-term use.

“The whole point of the sort of presidential evacuation and continuity of the presidency is you want to get the president out of the place where everyone knows that he is and get him into a place where people don’t know where he is,” Graff said.

High-profile flights to an underground bunker at the White House include vice-president Dick Cheney being taken there because of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

A Secret Service agent burst into the West Wing room, grabbed Cheney by the belt and shoulder and led him to a bunker underneath the White House. “He didn’t say, ‘Shall we go?’” Cheney told NBC News years later. “He wasn’t polite about it.”

More recently, Trump was rushed to a White House bunker in 2020 amid protests stemming from the death of George Floyd. At the time, there were chants from protesters at Lafayette Park that could be heard in the building, and Secret Service and law enforcement officers struggled to control the crowds.

Why a ballroom matters to a bunker

Matthew Quinn, deputy director of the Secret Service, wrote in court filings that it’s important for the ballroom project to go forward for security at the White House.

“An above-ground slab and topping structure is needed to ensure that key underground structures with a security purpose are properly protected and strengthened,” Quinn wrote.

He added: “Leaving the project site unfinished imperils the ability of the Secret Service to meet its statutory mission to protect the President.”

Trump last month offered a list of what’s being done to enhance security while the ballroom is built.

“The roof is droneproof. We have secure air-handling systems. You know, bad things happen in the air if you have bad people,” the president said. “We have biodefence all over. We have secure telecommunications and communications all over. We have bomb shelters that we’re building. We have a hospital and very major medical facilities that we’re building.”

The president took to social media to criticize the lower-court ruling and said the underground portion wouldn’t work without the aboveground facility as well.
What’s next in the legal battle over the ballroom

The National Trust for Historic Preservation has argued that Trump overstepped his authority by moving forward with the project without getting approval from key federal agencies and Congress.

U.S. District Judge Richard Leon ruled in favor of the nonprofit group at the end of March but put his decision on hold briefly while allowing underground work to continue. The administration appealed.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has a hearing for June 5 to review the case.

#Taxpayer dollars will pay for the security aspects of the project, though Trump has said the ballroom costs will be covered by donations from wealthy people and corporations. He’s said it’s a long-overdue addition to the White House complex.

“The underground portion is wedded to, and serves, the upper portion,” the president said in a #socialmedia post.

What that means in practice is unclear and hinges in part on the outcome of litigation.

Mike Catalini, The Associated Press

#EU Permanent Representatives approved 90 bln euro financing for Kiev and the 20th package of anti-Russian sanctions after Hungary and Slovakia lifted their veto, the Cyprus presidency in the EU said.

"Ambassadors approved the 90 bln euro loan for Kiev and the 20th package of anti-Russian sanctions," the presidency said.

Information appeared earlier about the start of Russian oil transit to Hungary and Slovakia over the Druzhba oil pipeline via Ukraine, which was a condition of veto cancellation for both countries.

#OTTAWA — The Liberals are moving to take control of House of Commons committees now that they’ve secured a majority government.

House leader Steven MacKinnon said in a social media post Tuesday that the Liberals will seek to change the standing orders, the rules that govern the Commons, to ensure they have the most votes on committees.

“Prime Minister Mark Carney and his government are determined to work constructively both in the House and in parliamentary committees,” he said.

Majority governments traditionally hold a majority of seats on House committees.

Because the Liberals won a minority in last April’s election, MPs agreed to form committees with four Liberals, four Conservatives and one member from the Bloc Québécois.

MacKinnon is proposing that most committees will now have seven Liberals, four Conservatives and one Bloc member.

The standing orders are typically agreed upon unanimously, but MacKinnon’s proposed change will require a vote in the House. He said he intends to give notice of a motion in the coming days.

Committees are a key step in examining legislation and holding the government to account through studies.

Carney’s Liberal government was granted a majority earlier this month through a set of byelection wins.

The governing party swept three byelections in the Toronto area and the Montreal suburb Terrebonne, giving them 174 seats in the House of Commons. Carney’s federal government is the first in Canada’s history to switch from a minority to a majority between elections.

The byelection results, combined with five opposition MPs who crossed the floor to the Liberals in recent months, have pushed Carney’s party over a threshold it could not reach in last year’s election.

The Liberals won 169 seats last April, shy of the 172 needed for a bare-bones majority.

Conservatives sent supporters a fundraising email Tuesday evening arguing that Carney is “going to use his majority powers to make life easier for his government.”

#BREAKING: Toronto police ID Fairview Mall shooting suspect

#Kenya Met Issues 5-Day Heavy Rainfall Alert