Greetings! It’s February 26, and we’re tracking today’s top stories: Inside the story of the U.S. defense contractor who leaked hacking tools to Russia, North Carolina prosecutors seize $61 million in USDT tied to 'pig butchering' scam, Pentagon takes first step toward blacklisting Anthropic, Google Disrupts UNC2814 GRIDTIDE Campaign After 53 Breaches Across 42 Countries, and much more…

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🎯 FEATURED STORY

Inside the story of the US defense contractor who leaked hacking tools to Russia. Trenchant is a crew of hackers and bug hunters who dig deep into other popular software made by companies like Google and Apple, identify flaws in those millions of lines of code, then devise techniques to turn those flaws into workable exploits that can be used to reliably hack into those products. TechCrunch

🔥 TOP STORIES

North Carolina prosecutors seize $61 million in USDT tied to 'pig butchering' scam U.S. Department of Justice

Pentagon takes first step toward blacklisting Anthropic Axios

Hacker Used Anthropic’s Claude to Steal Mexican Data Trove Engadget

Google Disrupts UNC2814 GRIDTIDE Campaign After 53 Breaches Across 42 Countries The Hacker News

America Might Not Rule, but the Dollar Still Does The New York Times

Trump cites fraud in freezing Minnesota Medicaid funds Axios

FBI raids LA Unified School District offices and superintendent’s home Politico

Epstein Used His Fortune to Infiltrate America’s Most Prestigious Universities The Wall Street Journal

Inside Bill Gates’ sordid affair with Russian Mila Antonova and the dark links to Epstein New York Post

An Individual Settles with OFAC for $3,777,000 Related to Apparent Violations of Syrian Sanctions Regulations U.S. Department of the Treasury

KuCoin told to halt new EU business due to compliance staffing shortfalls CoinDesk

Crypto’s biggest exchange fights back against allegations of moving billions of Iran-linked money CoinDesk

Trump weighs citizenship requirement for bank account holders Semafor

Russia Used British Overseas Territories to Evade $8 Billion in Sanctions United24 Media

The Ukrainian Bureaucrat Working to Squeeze Russia’s War Machine The New York Times

Turkish Halkbank Sanctions Case Back on Agenda of US Court Bloomberg

Conduent data breach grows, affecting at least 25M people TechCrunch

Phishing operation with links to Russia, Armenia compromised Western cargo companies The Record

🚩 RUSSIA & CHINA

DeepSeek withholds latest AI model from US chipmakers including Nvidia Reuters

The Russian economy is eating its own muscle to survive as Putin’s war on Ukraine destroys future capacity Fortune

Musk blocking Russia’s drones from using Starlink has delivered ‘enormous’ boost to Ukraine The Independent

China imposes export controls on 20 Japanese entities to curb ‘remilitarization’ AP News

Huawei’s 2025 revenues surge to US$127 billion as firm continues to defy US sanctions South China Morning Post

A Chinese official’s use of ChatGPT accidentally revealed a global intimidation operation CNN

Former U.S. Air Force Pilot Arrested for Providing Defense Services to the Chinese Military U.S. Department of Justice

🚀 SANCTIONS

Trump Treasury official to exit after objecting to Minneapolis crackdown The Washington Post

On eve of nuclear talks, Trump hits Iran with new sanctions The Hill

How Tehran whitewashes its crimes abroad Iran International

DJI sues the FCC for “carelessly” restricting its drones Ars Technica

UK sanctions New Zealand insurance firm over Russian oil trade links The Independent

UK sanctions Russian oil pipeline giant on fourth anniversary of Ukraine war The Independent

Panama seizes control of key canal ports from Hong Kong company Semafor

UK sanctions two Georgian TV channels over 'Russian disinformation' Reuters

Solar dominates import seizures after US ban on Chinese forced labor goods Reuters

💸 CORRUPTION & FINANCIAL CRIME

Hong Kong's Court of Appeal overturns tycoon Jimmy Lai's fraud conviction and sentencing BBC News

MrBeast Editor Accused of Insider Trading on Kalshi The Hollywood Reporter

Jane Street faces claims of insider trading that sped up Terraform's 2022 collapse CoinDesk

Former Star Supreme Court Lawyer Convicted of Tax Violations The Wall Street Journal

Meet the man Trump picked to pursue his war on fraud at the Justice Department CNN

🔐 CRYPTO & CYBER

The Big One: The cyberattack scenarios that keep officials up at night Axios

Anti-Money Laundering Body Warns of Growing Threat of Cyber Scams OCCRP

Bitcoin Depot Will Require ID for 'Every Transaction' at ATMs Amid Growing Pressure Decrypt

CEO of Orlando company arrested in alleged $328M cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme NBC

Trump Administration Moves to Allow Intelligence Agencies Easier Access to Law Enforcement Files ProPublica

🚚 TRAFFICKING

Inside El Mencho’s arsenal: high-powered weapons, 400 gunmen, drones and land mines Los Angeles Times

After El Mencho killing, U.S. still seeks these Mexican cartel leaders Axios

Sinaloa Cartel Leader Charged in Massive Drug Trafficking Scheme U.S. Department of Justice

Super Bowl anti-human trafficking operations lead to 73 rescued, 29 arrested in Bay Area ABC

How cartel members are getting drone training in Ukraine Metro

Dark Bank: American suspected of leading an international criminal organization extradited to France Le Monde

🇻🇪 VENEZUELA

US to allow resale of Venezuelan oil to Cuba's private sector Deutsche Welle

Venezuela’s controversial attorney general forced to resign amid post-Maduro reshuffle Miami Herald

Trump admin won’t let Venezuela pay for Maduro’s legal fees, his lawyer says Politico

Violent Militias Stand Between the U.S. and Venezuela’s Vast Mineral Riches The Wall Street Journal

The Future of Drug Trafficking Out of Venezuela InSight Crime

“They can't collect legal taxes from illegal money.” —Al Capone

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