💵 Crypto lender to pay $100 million over alleged securities violations

US regulators are making it clear crypto companies must follow conventional rules. Crypto lender BlockFi has settled with the Securities and Exchange Commission over charges that the company allegedly offered interest accounts without registering them under the Securities Act.

The company will pay $100 million in penalties, including $50 million to settle charges from 32 states.

The move also comes in sync with a broader effort by American officials to clarify the legal status of crypto assets. BlockFi's fate, in that regard, might help other crypto businesses start on a better footing.

Subscribe to @sputniknewsus

⚡️ US, NATO positively responded to Russian initiatives they have been rejecting for years, Lavrov says

📹: Russian tanks return from the southern border after drills.

Credit: Russian Defence Ministry

Subscribe to @sputniknewsus

Check out some news you may have missed:

🔹 Las Vegas cops investigating Cristiano Ronaldo's alleged sexual assault were prevented from arresting him by a senior official, as per reports.

🔹 Former US Navy engineer Jonathan Toebbe has pleaded guilty to trying to sell classified info and may face a life sentence.

🔹 President Biden's Director of Broadcast Media Mariel Saez is leaving office to work for a private company, reports say.

🔹 Acting Afghan Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi has accused the US of breaking promises it made during the Doha talks.

🔹 Elon Musk’s company Neuralink has admitted to euthanizing eight monkeys during experiments with brain-implanted chips.

Subscribe to @sputniknewsus

💉 More than 1,400 government workers in New York City have been fired for not getting a COVID-19 vaccine.

Mayor Eric Adams has fired 1,430 unvaccinated government workers who didn’t comply with the city's vaccine mandate, which required getting at least one jab by 11 February.

Of those fired, 36 are reported to have worked in the NYPD, 25 others worked in the Fire Department. Another 914 were Department of Education workers, according to reports.

Subscribe to @sputniknewsus

⚡️ US to 'verify' Russia's statements on partial troop withdrawal from border with Ukraine

Whoopi Goldberg has returned to "The View" following her two-week suspension after stating on the show that the Holocaust was "not about race", but rather "about man's inhumanity to man".

"The View" co-host said that she had learned from her time away; however, she didn't directly mention the controversy.

🗣 Commenting on her break, she said: "And in part, because this is what we have been hired to do, and it's not always pretty as I said, and it's not always as other people would like to hear, but it is an honour to sit at this table and be able to have these conversations because they’re important", Goldberg concluded.

📹: A cyclist was knocked off his bike by an angry bull that was standing on a bicycle trail during this weekend’s Rock Cobbler race in California.

The man said he was sore all over after the bull hit him, but his condition hasn’t worsened since.

Subscribe to @sputniknewsus

⚡️ President Biden to deliver remarks on Russia and Ukraine at 3:30 PM (20:30 GMT) – White House

❗️ President Biden won’t make any new policy announcements during his update on Ukraine – White House

🏛Kevin McCarthy said John Durham “has already uncovered several troubling findings” in a statement to the New York Post.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy is committed to further exploring the findings of special counsel John Durham’s investigation into the FBI’s Trump-Russia probe to “ensure nothing like it ever happens again.”

McCarthy’s statement came days after Durham revealed Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign paid a tech company to mine data from servers at the White House and Trump Tower in a bid to tie the 45th president to a Russian bank. “Special Counsel John Durham’s continued investigation into the Russia hoax is essential to getting to the truth and protecting our democracy,” McCarthy said.

Subscribe to @sputniknewsus

⚡Large fire reported at a multi-building housing complex near New Orleans, Louisiana

Unconfirmed reports say a massive fire is underway, suggested injuries may be involved, but that has not been confirmed by officials. Large emergency response is underway.

Gathering further details.

Subscribe to @sputniknewsus

⚡️US Republicans propose a bill to impose sanctions on Russia in response to any "Ukraine incursion"

👮Police in Albuquerque, New Mexico, told Fox News that crime is surging in their city because cops are not allowed to do their jobs.

The Albuquerque Police Department entered into a settlement agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice in November 2014 after an investigation concluded the local agency "engaged in a pattern or practice of use of excessive force."

For example, if an officer puts a resisting suspect into handcuffs during an arrest, it could be considered the use of force, Willoughby said. He told Fox News an investigation could take officers off the street for four to six hours and that this happens regularly.

In 2021, Albuquerque broke its annual homicide record with 117 killings. According to local media reports, the city's yearly homicide count has averaged about 45 homicides per year over the last 35 years.

Subscribe to @sputniknewsus

💵 American consumers are grappling with the hottest inflation in a generation, and some parts of the country are seeing steeper price increases than others.

According to a Labor Department report released last week, the consumer price index rose 7.5% in January from a year ago, marking the fastest increase since February 1982, when inflation hit 7.6%.

But the increase was starkest in the region that encompasses Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico, with prices surging by a staggering 9%. Other states are also experiencing inflation that's well above the national average: Prices were up 7.9%
Subscribe to @sputniknewsus

💻 Google is bringing Chrome OS to PCs and Macs.

Google has announced early access to a new version of Chrome OS called Chrome OS Flex. The latest version of Chrome OS, designed for businesses and schools, runs on old PCs and Macs.

Google recently bought Neverware, which previously sold CloudReady that allowed users to convert old PCs into Chrome OS systems. That set off speculation about where we might next see Chrome OS and its future in the PC space.

Subscribe to @sputniknewsus

⚡️NATO frigates tried to conduct electronic reconnaissance of Russian ships during the naval exercises in the Mediterranean, a source told Sputnik on Wednesday

📢 Former President Trump says Durham probe exposing 'the crime of the century,' predicts it's 'just the beginning.'

"It looks like this is just the beginning, because, if you read the filing and have any understanding of what took place, and I called this a long time ago, you're going to see a lot of other things happening, having to do with what, really, just is a continuation of the crime of the century," Trump told Fox News.

Trump was reacting to Durham's Feb. 11 court filing, in which he accused lawyers of Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign of "exploiting" internet traffic to "establish 'an inference' and 'narrative'" to then bring to federal government agencies tying Trump to Russia.

Subscribe to @sputniknewsus