Author: Alex Maschino

The crime syndicate La Cosa Nostra in the U.S. is built around “Five Families” that famously war with each other for money and power. North Korea’s prosperous cyber-crime operations are similar, except there is only one family and it belongs to authoritarian leader Kim Jong Un. “Stop looking at North Korea’s cyber program as a government program like the other major state programs and liken them to a single-family mafia organization and the lines begin to unblur,” states a new report from cybersecurity firm DTEX. The report delves into the organization and structure of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea…

Is The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives star Jen Affleck‘s husband, Zac Affleck, related to Ben Affleck? Depends on who you ask. The hit Hulu series premiered in September 2024 and introduced Us to a group of Mormon mom influencers in Utah. Season 1 was made up of Demi Engemann, Whitney Leavitt, Mikayla Matthews, Mayci Neeley, Jessi Ngatikaura, Taylor Frankie Paul and Layla Taylor, but it was Jen Affleck that caught everyone’s attention because of her familiar last name. Jen claimed on the show that Zac was related to Ben and Casey Affleck — specifically that Zac’s dad, David Affleck,…

Sportsnet 590 The FAN: Nick Kypreos, Justin Bourne, and Sam McKee talking (after Game 5) about the Mitch Marner situation, how he’ll be leaving for nothing if they lose in the second round, and how he should have been traded a while ago. ** NHLRumors.com transcription Bourne: “The only thing that’s changed in this conversation is, you know, if it looks like that in Game 6 and they lose, would they want him back at a number, you know, at around what he wants. I think they would have made him an offer for …” Kypreos: “They lose. They lose.…

ReutersDonald Trump says he will be speaking to Russian President Vladimir Putin by phone on Monday about ending the war in Ukraine, saying the call would be about “stopping the ‘bloodbath'”.In a post on Truth Social, the US president said the call would take place at 10:00 EDT (14:00 GMT) and he would then speak to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, and the leaders of some Nato countries.Russia and Ukraine were unable to reach any breakthrough when they held their first face-to-face talks in three years in Istanbul on Friday, although a prisoner swap was agreed.Trump had offered to attend the…

Welcome to Music Business Worldwide’s weekly round-up – where we make sure you caught the five biggest stories to hit our headlines over the past seven days. MBW’s round-up is supported by Centtrip, which helps over 500 of the world’s best-selling artists maximize their income and reduce their touring costs.It was a week of dramatic developments in the field of AI.The Trump administration fired the US’s Register of Copyrights, Shira Perlmutter, shortly after Perlmutter issued a report asserting that using copyrighted works to train AI likely exceeds the limits of “fair use” under copyright law.Meanwhile, SoundCloud felt the heat from artists over a change…

Cassie Ventura is sharing new details about her relationship with ex Sean “Diddy” Combs as she wraps up testimony in his trial. On Friday, May 16, the model — who is eight and a half months pregnant — was questioned by both prosecutors and Diddy’s defense team about the infamous hotel security footage from a Los Angeles hotel on March 5, 2016. According to The New York Times, the government tried to show that Diddy was dragging his then-girlfriend back to a freak off in the hotel room. “He followed me into the hallway and tried to bring me back,”…

Roy Keane has savaged Rasmus Hojlund, Kobbie Mainoo and Alejandro Garnacho and suggested almost every Manchester United player could leave if any clubs want them – but Ruben Amorim defended the Denmark striker after he drew another blank at Chelsea.Marc Cucurella’s 71st-minute header proved the only goal of the Premier League game at Stamford Bridge as United prefaced their Europa League final against Tottenham in Bilbao on Wednesday (20:00 BST) with their 18th league defeat of the season, producing a solitary shot on target.“Garnacho just runs by him,” United legend Keane said of Cucurella’s winner, speaking to Sky Sports. “He…

Puchong, Malaysia – On a recent Sunday morning, about a dozen men with fishing nets skirted the rubbish-strewn banks of the Klang River just outside the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur. Surveying the river, the men cast their nets into the polluted water. The nets billowed open and sunk quickly under the weight of metal chains. From where they stood on the riverbank, they started to pull in their nets, already filled with dozens of squirming black-bodied catfish. “You don’t see any other fish. Only these,” said Mohamad Haziq A Rahman, the leader of Malaysia’s “foreign fish hunter squad”, as…

Donald Trump’s swaggering tour of the Middle East ended with a sobering dose of domestic reality on Friday as the president headed home to a credit rating downgrade, gloomy data on consumer sentiment and challenges to his flagship tax bill. Over the past two weeks, Trump has seen his approval ratings improve and equity markets bounce back strongly after pausing some of the more aggressive import tariffs he announced in early April. Labour market and inflation data has also been encouraging, defusing fears that a sharp slowdown or even a recession could be imminent. But while the president was aboard…

Let’s get something out of the way: I am a ride-or-die Law & Order: SVU fan. I will stan Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay) and Odafin Tutuola (Ice-T) for the rest of time. I will stick by them through every new, slightly different but very similar squad room, and I will pretend not to know that the famous guest star is the bad guy as soon as I see him. Nothing gives me comfort like that dependable “chung-chung”— what an ex once called “the soundtrack” to my apartment—and I can watch the same episode 25 times, actually, without getting bored. It…