news

As the Israeli military closed in on Kamal Adwan Hospital in recent weeks — the last remaining major health care facility in northern Gaza — Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya remained inside to record the worsening situation. 

In one video, Abu Safiya, the hospital’s director, showed an intensive care unit with blown out windows where he said shrapnel had shattered a nurse’s skull as he cared for a patient. In another, as bombs shook the building, Abu Safiya explained that Israel Defense Forces robots equipped with explosives were detonating around 50 meters from the hospital. Separate videos showed quadcopter drones dropping bombs atop nearby buildings as patients and staff looked on.  

Last week, Israeli soldiers raided the hospital. One hundred and eighty medical workers and more than 75 patients and their relatives remained inside. Medical workers and patients reported that Israeli soldiers beat them and killed one doctor. Soldiers set fire to several parts of the hospital, Gaza health officials said. The hospital is currently nonfunctional. 

Abu Safiya was among those arrested by the Israeli military. The last known images of him, first broadcast by Al Jazeera and since circulated widely online, show Abu Safiya, still dressed in his white doctor’s coat, walking amid heaps of rubble toward a pair of Israeli armored vehicles. He has since disappeared into the Israeli military’s secretive prison system, with no clear charges, a norm for Palestinian prisoners who are often held indefinitely by Israeli authorities.  

Colleagues and family members have been scrambling to locate Abu Safiya and to secure his release. Abu Safiya’s arrest has drawn outcry from Amnesty International, the World Health Organization, political officials, and hundreds of physicians who launched a social media campaign to demand his release.

Abu Safiya has been outspoken in his criticism of Israel’s attacks on Gaza’s health system in the past year. His 15-year-old son Ibrahim was also killed in an Israeli drone strike in October in front of Kamal Adwan, where he had been sheltering with his family. Abu Safiya is one of hundreds of medical workers who have been detained by the Israeli military, most times without cause, throughout its genocidal war in Gaza. 

According to his family and former prisoners, he is being held at Sde Teiman, a secretive Israeli military prison in the Negev Desert with a history of abuse, torture, and sexual assault. “He now suffers severe mistreatment in Sde Teiman detention center, including humiliation, exposure to freezing cold, and denial of medical care,” his family said in a statement. 

Abu Safiya works for MedGlobal, a Chicago-based humanitarian organization that provides medical care in disaster and conflict zones, and is just one of six medical personnel with the organization who remain in Israeli custody, according to MedGlobal Executive Director Joseph Belliveau. Two other doctors, two cleaners, one data entry worker, and one nurse administrator — all arrested on October 26 at Kamal Adwan — remain in detention. 

Belliveau said in recent days that MedGlobal has been working with the U.S. State Department, members of Congress, the European Union, the United Nations, and the Israeli government to secure the release of Abu Safiya and other MedGlobal staff. 

Israeli officials have confirmed that the workers have been arrested, “but beyond that, absolute pin-dropping silence,” Belliveau said. “Where exactly are they? What are their conditions? What are they being accused of? How are they being treated? What comes next? What about due process here? Nothing.”

The Scramble to Find the Gaza Doctor in the White Coat

bitcoin

Strike Adopts Transfer of Funds Regulation

I think it’ll definitely slow down the volume after this

science

Here's Your Guide to The Must-See Astronomy Events of 2025

security

Threat actors compromised at least 16 Chrome browser extensions leading to the exposure of data from over 600,000 users.

A supply chain attack compromised 16 Chrome browser extensions, exposing over 600,000 users.

Threat actors targeted the publishers of the extensions on the Chrome Web Store via phishing messages, then once obtained access to their account inserted a malicious code into the code of the extensions.

The malicious code allowed attackers to steal cookies and access tokens.

One of the victims of this campaign is the cybersecurity firm Cyberhaven, on December 24 attackers published a malware-laced version of their Chrome extension.

“On December 24, a phishing attack compromised a Cyberhaven employee’s credentials to the Google Chrome Web Store. The attacker used these credentials to publish a malicious version of our Chrome extension (version 24.10.4).” reads a post on the incident published by Cyberhaven. “Our security team detected this compromise at 11:54 PM UTC on December 25 and removed the malicious package within 60 minutes.”

The phishing email, posing as Google Chrome Web Store Developer Support, warns the employee of the extension removal for policy violations. The message urges the recipient to accept the publishing policy.

Once the recipient clicked on the email, the employee unknowingly authorized a malicious OAuth app via Google’s standard authorization flow, despite using MFA and Google Advanced Protection.

“The attacker gained requisite permissions via the malicious application (“Privacy Policy Extension”) and uploaded a malicious Chrome extension to the Chrome Web Store. After the customary Chrome Web Store Security review process, the malicious extension was approved for publication.” reads the report published by Cyberhaven. “This malicious extension (24.10.4) was essentially based on a clean prior version of the official Cyberhaven Chrome extension. The attacker made a copy of the clean extension and added some malicious code to create a new malicious extension. This extension was uploaded to the Chrome webstore and replaced the clean official Cyberhaven Chrome extension. The malicious Chrome extension was now available and distributed to a portion of our customer base.”

The attackers only compromised version 24.10.4 of the Cyberhaven Chrome extension.

Only Chrome-based browsers that auto-updated between 1:32 AM UTC on December 25 and 2:50 AM UTC on December 26 were impacted.

The malicious extension used two files: worker.js contacted a hardcoded C&C server to download configuration and executed HTTP calls, and content.js that collected user data from targeted websites and exfiltrated it to a malicious domain specified in the C&C payload.

“Based on our initial research so far, this was a non-targeted attack, and part of a wider campaign, aimed at Facebook Ads users. We are working with our customers and an external third-party security response team to help us analyze and investigate further. We will post more updates as we have more findings.” concludes the report published by Cyberhaven. 

Researchers at security firm Secure Annex further investigated the attack and discovered that other Chrome browser extensions were compromised:

- AI Assistant – ChatGPT and Gemini for Chrome
- Bard AI Chat
- GPT 4 Summary with OpenAI
- Search Copilot AI Assistant for Chrome
- TinaMInd AI Assistant
- Wayin AI
- VPNCity
- Internxt VPN
- Vindoz Flex Video Recorder
- VidHelper Video Downloader
- Bookmark Favicon Changer
- Castorus
- Uvoice
- Reader Mode
- Parrot Talks
- Primus
- Tackker – online keylogger tool
- AI Shop Buddy
- Sort by Oldest
- Rewards Search Automator
- ChatGPT Assistant – Smart Search
- Keyboard History Recorder
- Email Hunter
- Visual Effects for Google Meet
- Earny – Up to 20% Cash Back

The researchers noticed that the extension “Earny” was last updated on April 5th, 2023 and has been compromised since then.

Hacking campaign compromised at least 16 Chrome browser extensions

| Date(s)          | Event                                      | Description                                                                                                                                                   |
|-------------------|-------------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| January 3        | **Quadrantid Meteor Shower**              | Peaks with up to 120 meteors per hour; favorable viewing conditions expected.                                                                                |
| January 13-14    | **Total Lunar Eclipse (Blood Moon)**      | Earth's shadow causes the Moon to appear reddish; visible from various regions.                                                                             |
| February 28      | **Planetary Parade**                      | All seven other planets align in Earth's sky; a rare visual spectacle.                                                                                       |
| March            | **Saturn's Rings Disappear**              | Saturn's rings appear edge-on from Earth, making them seem to vanish; occurs every 13-16 years.                                                              |
| March 13-14      | **Total Lunar Eclipse (Blood Moon)**      | Second total lunar eclipse of the year; Moon appears reddish due to Earth's shadow.                                                                          |
| July             | **Solar Maximum Peak**                    | Increased solar activity leads to more intense Northern Lights, potentially visible at lower latitudes.                                                      |
| August 11-12     | **Venus and Jupiter Conjunction**         | Venus and Jupiter appear very close in the night sky; visible to the naked eye.                                                                              |
| September 7-8    | **Total Lunar Eclipse (Blood Moon)**      | Another opportunity to witness the Moon's reddish hue during Earth's shadow.                                                                                 |
| October 7        | **Supermoon**                             | Full Moon appears larger and brighter; first of three supermoons in 2025.                                                                                    |
| November 5       | **Supermoon**                             | Second supermoon; largest and brightest since 2019.                                                                                                          |
| December 4       | **Supermoon**                             | Final supermoon of the year; offers spectacular lunar views.                                                                                                  |
| December 14      | **Geminids Meteor Shower**                | Annual meteor shower peaking with up to 160 meteors per hour; clear skies enhance viewing.                                                                   |


✨ Happy New Year’s Eve 2025! ✨

ch0k1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OibhBEThA_o&embeds_referring_euri=https%3A%2F%2Fprimal.net%2F

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has made a significant contribution toward a legal defense fund for Tornado Cash developers Roman Storm and Alexey Pertsev.

According to a Dec. 31 X post from the Juicebox project Free Pertsev and Storm, Buterin donated 50 Ether (ETH) — roughly $170,000 at the time of publication — to Storm’s and Pertsev’s legal aid.

Storm reported that the contribution was roughly 25% of the total $650,000 available to the Tornado Cash developer through JusticeDAO ahead of his trial.

In 2022, Dutch authorities arrested and charged Pertsev for his involvement with the cryptocurrency mixing service. In May 2024, he was found guilty of money laundering and sentenced to more than five years in prison, though Pertsev will appeal the verdict.

United States prosecutors later charged Storm and fellow developer Roman Semenov with money laundering, sanctions violations, and fraud related to their roles with Tornado Cash.

Storm was given bail conditions ahead of his trial, scheduled to begin on April 14, while Semenov remained at large at the time of publication.  

Many of the criminal charges against the Tornado developers seemed to stem from the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control adding the mixer to its Specially Designated Nationals list in August 2022. US officials said at the time that bad actors, including North Korean hackers, had used Tornado Cash to launder more than $7 billion worth of crypto since 2019.

The sanctions against the mixer and criminal charges against the developers have drawn outrage from many in the crypto industry.

Buterin donated 100 ETH — roughly $240,000 at the time — to the Free Pertsev and Storm Juicebox in October, but GoFundMe shut down a similar fundraising effort in February. 

The US Treasury Department faces two lawsuits filed by crypto advocacy group Coin Center and a group of Tornado Cash users backed by Coinbase.

An appellate court said in November that the Treasury had “overstepped” in sanctioning the crypto mixer’s immutable smart contracts, but the ruling did not appear to have affected the criminal case against Storm.

Vitalik Buterin donates $170K to Tornado Cash developers’ legal fund

A Virginia man was arrested this month with what federal prosecutors described in court papers on Monday as the largest cache of “finished explosive devices” ever found in the F.B.I.’s history.
The man, Brad Spafford, was taken into custody at a farm outside Norfolk on Dec. 17 on the basis of a single-count criminal complaint accusing him of illegally possessing an unregistered short-barrel rifle. When investigators searched his 20-acre property, in Isle of Wight County, they found in a detached garage more than 150 explosive devices — mostly pipe bombs, some of them labeled “lethal,” prosecutors said.

They found more pipe bombs in a bedroom inside Mr. Spafford’s house, loosely stuffed in a backpack that bore a patch shaped like a hand grenade and a logo reading “#NoLivesMatter,” prosecutors said.
No Lives Matter is a nihilistic, far-right ideology that largely exists on encrypted online messaging apps like Telegram. The movement’s adherents promote “targeted attacks, mass killings and criminal activity” and have “historically encouraged members to engage in self-harm and animal abuse,” according to a threat assessment released in August by the New Jersey Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness.

Prosecutors in Federal District Court in Norfolk filed the court papers describing Mr. Spafford’s explosives in an effort to keep him in custody as his case moves toward trial.

According to the court papers, which were reported earlier by the website Court Watch, the investigation into Mr. Spafford began last year, after a neighbor reached out to the authorities. Mr. Spafford had lost three fingers on his right hand while working with a homemade explosive device, the neighbor said, and he was stockpiling weapons and homemade ammunition.

The neighbor reported that Mr. Spafford had told him that he and his friends were “preparing for something” that he “would not be able to do alone,” the court papers said.

The neighbor also told investigators that Mr. Spafford sometimes used photographs of President Biden for target practice at a local shooting range and believed that “political assassinations should be brought back.” After the attempt on President-elect Donald J. Trump’s life in Pennsylvania in July, the papers said, Mr. Spafford told his neighbor that he “hoped the shooter doesn’t miss Kamala,” an apparent reference to Vice President Kamala Harris.

Mr. Spafford moved to his farm this fall, and the neighbor went to visit him there in October wearing a secret recording device, the papers said. Mr. Spafford told the neighbor that he had various types of explosives at the property and discussed fortifying it with “a 360-degree turret” in which he planned to mount a 50-caliber rifle, according to the papers.

No Lives Matter is an offshoot of the broader “accelerationist” movement, which seeks to accelerate radical social change through sabotage and violence. Some scholars of far-right extremism believe it takes its name from a song entitled “No Lives Matter,” by the pro-Trump Canadian rapper Tom MacDonald.

FBI Found Largest Cache of Homemade Explosives in Its History in Norfolk, VA

Stacker Saloon

saloon

The moment Bitcoiners around the world have been waiting for is finally here: Bitcoin has hit the monumental $100,000 mark, and Michael Saylor is throwing the Party of the Century to celebrate!

What started as a dream and a meme has now become a reality, as Michael Saylor, a legendary advocate for Bitcoin and Executive Chairman of MicroStrategy, is hosting the most epic New Year’s Eve celebration to mark this historic occasion.

Bitcoin Magazine is thrilled to announce that we are streaming live from the event in Miami Beach, bringing the excitement of Saylor’s $100K Bitcoin party straight to your screens. From 7:00 PM EST, join us on the Bitcoin Magazine News Desk, hosted by Pete Rizzo.

The Party has been hyped for years and is set to deliver on all fronts. Your favourite Bitcoiners and podcasters will attend, including the man of the hour, Michael Saylor, Preston Pysh, American Hodl, Peter McCormack, and other Bitcoin legends. Expect lively and fun discussions as Bitcoiners come together to ring in 2025.

This exclusive live stream will give you front-row access to the celebration as we welcome a new year—and a new era for Bitcoin.

Catch the Bitcoin Magazine News Desk live stream on X and YouTube starting today, December 31, 2024, at 7:00 PM EST.

WATCH: Michael Saylor’s Bitcoin $100K Party

The Terraform Labs co-founder was arrested in Montenegro in 2023 for using falsified travel documents as the courts determined whether he would go to the US or South Korea.

Montenegrin authorities handed over Terraform Labs co-founder Do Kwon to United States law enforcement officers after a months-long fight over where or whether he would be extradited.

In a Dec. 31 X post, Montenegro Prime Minister Milojko Spajić said Kwon was in US custody, suggesting that he would soon be traveling to the United States to face criminal charges.

The handover happened four days after Montenegrin Justice Minister Bojan Božović approved the Terraform co-founder’s extradition to the US instead of accepting a petition from South Korea, where Kwon also faces charges and holds citizenship.

“Our nation welcomes innovation and legitimate crypto, AI and other tech entrepreneurs — but we have zero tolerance for fraud,” said Prime Minister Spajić. “This extradition demonstrates our unwavering commitment to international justice and the rule of law.”

Kwon was one of the individuals alleged to have been involved in the 2022 collapse of the Terra ecosystem, which likely contributed to a significant crypto market downturn the same year.

Authorities in the US and South Korea filed charges against Kwon and some Terraform executives, but the co-founder’s whereabouts were largely unknown until he was arrested in Montenegro in 2023.

After serving four months in prison for using falsified travel documents, Kwon was in legal limbo for more than a year as Montenegro’s courts considered whether to have him remain in the country or be extradited to the US or South Korea. Every time it appeared a court had reached a decision, Kwon’s legal team filed an appeal on different grounds, delaying potential extradition and forcing officials to revisit the matter.

As part of a civil case brought by the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Terraform and Kwon were found liable for fraud in April. Both agreed to pay roughly $4.5 billion in disgorgement, civil penalties and prejudgement interest.

The US Justice Department charged Kwon with eight felony counts in March 2023, including commodities fraud, wire fraud, and conspiracy to engage in market manipulation. It’s unclear when he could appear in a courtroom after his extradition from Montenegro.

Do Kwon is in US custody after extradition battle

Row 1 starts on your side on the bottom so you could d3 or d4. i think you have to make a new comment, it won't move based on the comment edit.

I may just stream that one at home, but I'm looking forward to it. I always enjoyed the lyrics, may be interesting to see his personal journey, if that's what it is about.