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UK sentences Chinese scammer after record-breaking Bitcoin seizure

UK sentences Chinese scammer after record-breaking Bitcoin seizure

Police seized 61,000 Bitcoin from Zhimin Qian, 47, as part of a years-long money laundering investigation. The United Kingdom has sentenced a Chinese woman to 11 years and eight months in prison for a years-long scheme to launder investment scam proceeds into Bitcoin, luxury property, and other assets now worth about 4.8 billion British pounds ($6.3bn). Zhimin Qian, 47, was sentenced by the Southwark Crown Court in London on Tuesday, in a case that saw UK police seize a record-breaking 61,000 Bitcoin as part of their investigation. Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list Qian, who is also known by the alias Yadi Zhang, was found guilty of money laundering and possessing illegally obtained cryptocurrency. Will Lyne, the Metropolitan Police’s head of Economic and Cybercrime Command, described the case as “one of the largest and most complex economic crime investigations ever undertaken by the Met”. “This is currently the largest cryptocurrency seizure by law enforcement in the UK and is the largest money laundering case in UK history by value,” he said in a statement. UK authorities allege that Qian helped mastermind an investment scam in China between 2014 and 2017 that defrauded 128,000 people out of roughly £4.6bn, according to sentencing remarks from Judge Sally-Ann Hales. Much of the funds were later recovered by police in China, but Hales said that a “sizeable amount was siphoned off and used by” Qian, and transferred into 70,000 Bitcoin stored on a laptop wallet. Qian fled China in 2017, spending the next seven years on the run, and travelling between the UK and other countries without an extradition agreement with China. Advertisement Qian and an accomplice, who has since been sentenced, came to the attention of UK authorities in 2018, when Qian tried to buy three London properties worth 40.5 million pounds ($53.2m) but failed “know your customer” regulations, according to the Crown Prosecution Service. Qian disappeared from the UK in 2020, but not before police seized items from a safe deposit box, including a laptop smuggled from China. Hales said that documents found during the search “give an indication of the level of the defendant’s monthly expenditure, and the grandiose ambitions she held for her future using the proceeds of her criminal conduct”. Qian returned to police attention last year, when she began to use a dormant wallet with the help of a second accomplice, Senghok Ling, 47, a Malaysian national based in the UK. When police arrested Ling and Qian in April 2024, the pair was living a “lavish” lifestyle in the UK, according to Hales. At the time, Qian was found in possession of 62 million pounds ($81.4m) worth of cryptocurrency, a large quantity of cash, and two false passports. Ling was separately sentenced to four years and 11 months in prison. Richard Hermer, Attorney General for the UK and Wales, on Tuesday praised the sentencing of “two prolific fraudsters”, who together “caused misery upon thousands of victims to fund their lavish lifestyles”. Adblock test (Why?)

Ukrainian forces pull back under fierce Russian pressure in Zaporizhia

Ukrainian forces pull back under fierce Russian pressure in Zaporizhia

Ukrainian Army reports thousands of artillery shells fired as Russians advance in southeastern Zaporizhia region. Published On 12 Nov 202512 Nov 2025 Click here to share on social media share2 Share Ukraine’s top military commander has conceded that the army’s situation has “significantly worsened” in parts of the southern Zaporizhia region, where Ukrainian forces have withdrawn from five villages after intense fighting against Russian troops. News of the setback in Zaporizhia in southeastern Ukraine comes as Russia said earlier on Tuesday that its forces had pushed deeper into the eastern Ukrainian cities of Pokrovsk and Kupiansk. Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list Video footage published by Russian war bloggers shows Moscow’s troops riding motorcycles, travelling in battered cars and sitting on top of military vehicles as they poured into Pokrovsk, which Russian media has dubbed “the gateway to Donetsk” due to its strategic location. “Using its numerical superiority in personnel and materiel, the enemy advanced in fierce fighting and captured three settlements,” the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Oleksandr Syrskii, said of the fighting in Zaporizhia on Tuesday. “The situation has significantly worsened in the Oleksandrivka and Huliapole directions,” Syrskii said in a statement. The Ukrainian Army said earlier that orders to withdraw from five villages in Zaporizhia were given after the “de facto destruction of all shelters and fortifications” following intensive Russian artillery strikes. An estimated 2,000 shells were launched at the Ukrainian positions. Control of three other villages is also being hotly contested between Russian and Ukrainian forces northeast of the town of Huliapole in Zaporizhia, according to the Ukrainian Army. Advertisement Syrskii said that Russian forces in Zaporizhia had used poor weather conditions to their advantage, advancing under heavy fog to infiltrate between Ukrainian positions in the region. But he added that Russian forces suffered heavy losses during their attacks. “Every metre of our land costs Russia hundreds of military lives,” he said. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who was visiting the parts of the southern Kherson region not occupied by Russia on Tuesday, described the situation in Pokrovsk and Zaporizhia as “difficult, in part because of weather conditions that favour the attacks”. The battlefield situation in Kupiansk was “somewhat easier”, he said, adding that Ukrainian forces had “achieved results there”. Russia has been threatening Pokrovsk for more than a year, using a pincer movement to attempt to encircle it and threaten supply lines. Syrskii told US media that Russia has concentrated an estimated 150,000 troops in a drive to take Pokrovsk. Russia and Ukraine have given conflicting accounts of the battle in recent days, with Moscow claiming for days that it had encircled Pokrovsk, while Kyiv has denied the claims and asserted that it still had supply lines to neighbouring Myrnohrad. Russia also said its forces have taken full control of the eastern part of Kupiansk in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, located to the northeast of Zaporizhia and Pokrovsk. A Russian commander, who gave his call sign as Hunter, said his forces had taken control of an oil depot on Kupiansk’s eastern edge. In a video statement issued by Russia’s Ministry of Defence, the commander said his forces had also taken control of a series of train stops south of Kupiansk. Military observers have noted a thinning of Ukraine’s front lines due to a severe shortage of soldiers and massive Russian drone superiority, which has led to advances in several locations along the front line in the more than three and a half years of war. Adblock test (Why?)

Indigenous activists storm COP30 climate summit in Brazil, demanding action

Indigenous activists storm COP30 climate summit in Brazil, demanding action

Hundreds of people have joined an Indigenous-led protest on the second day of the UN climate summit in the Brazilian city of Belem, highlighting tensions with the Brazilian government’s claim that the meeting is open to Indigenous voices. Dozens of Indigenous protesters forced their way into the 30th annual United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP30) on Tuesday evening after hundreds of people participated in a march to the venue. Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list “We can’t eat money,” said Gilmar, an Indigenous leader from the Tupinamba community near the lower reaches of the Tapajos River in Brazil, who uses only one name, referring to the emphasis on climate finance at many of the meetings during the ongoing summit. “We want our lands free from agribusiness, oil exploration, illegal miners and illegal loggers.” A spokesperson from the UN, which is responsible for security inside the venue, said in a statement that “a group of protesters breached security barriers at the main entrance to the COP, causing minor injuries to two security staff, and minor damage to the venue”. The protest came as Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has highlighted Indigenous communities as key players in this year’s COP30 negotiations, even as several industries continue to further encroach on the Amazon rainforest during his presidency. Lula told a leaders summit last week that participants at the COP30 would be “inspired by Indigenous peoples and traditional communities – for whom sustainability has always been synonymous with their way of life”. Advertisement However, Indigenous participants taking part in rolling protests in and around the climate change meeting say that more needs to be done, both by Lula’s left-leaning government at home and around the world. A joint statement ahead of the summit from Indigenous Peoples of the Amazon Basin and all Biomes of Brazil emphasised the importance of protecting Indigenous territories in the Amazon. As “a carbon sink of approximately 340 million tons” of carbon dioxide, the world’s largest rainforest, “represents one of the most effective mitigation and adaptation strategies”, the statement said. Protesters, including Indigenous people, participate in a demonstration on the sidelines of the UN Climate Change Conference (COP30), in Belém, Brazil, on Tuesday [Anderson Coelho/Reuters] The statement also called for Indigenous territories to be excluded from mining and other activities, including “in particular, the Amazon, Congo, and Borneo-Mekong-Southeast Asia basins”. Leo Cerda, one of the organisers of the Yaku Mama protest flotilla, which arrived at the summit after sailing 3,000km (1,864 miles) down the Amazon river, told Al Jazeera that Indigenous peoples are trying to secure nature not just for themselves but for humanity. “Most states want our resources, but they don’t want to guarantee the rights of Indigenous peoples,” Cerda said. As the flotilla sailed towards COP30, Brazil’s state-run oil company, Petrobras, received a licence to begin exploratory offshore oil drilling near the mouth of the Amazon River. “You cannot make climate policies without indigenous people at the negotiation table.” This Indigenous activist flotilla just sailed the entire length of the Amazon River to take their message to the #COP30 climate conference. pic.twitter.com/55YjlZgJct — AJ+ (@ajplus) November 11, 2025 Cerda also said it was important for Indigenous people to be present at the conference, considering the fossil fuel industry has also participated in the meetings for several decades. According to The Guardian newspaper, some 5,350 fossil fuel lobbyists participated in UN climate summits over the past four years. Representatives from 195 countries are participating in this year’s summit, with the notable absence of the United States. Under President Donald Trump, the US has fought against action on climate change, further cementing its role as the world’s largest historical emitter of fossil fuels. Most recently, Trump has torpedoed negotiations to address emissions from the shipping industry. Advertisement Notably, this year’s meeting is the first to take place since the UN’s top court, the International Court of Justice (ICJ), ruled that countries must meet their climate obligations and that failing to do so could violate international law. Adblock test (Why?)