Colombia: Four kids survive 40 days alone in jungle after plane crash – National & International News – 12Jun2023 MON

Colombia: Four kids survive 40 days alone in jungle after plane crash

Billions in federal COVID-19 aid wasted or stolen.

JPMorgan settles with Epstein victims for $290 million.

NATIONAL NEWS

Billions in federal COVID-19 aid wasted or stolen

According to analysis by The Associated Press, as much as 10% of the $4.2 trillion disbursed by the federal government for COVID relief aid was either wasted or stolen. Many of the COVID relief programs, especially the Paycheck Protection Program, were open to fraud and abuse. This is because the federal government emphasized getting the money out as quickly as possible to as many people and institutions as possible to keep the economy afloat during the pandemic. As a result, there was little in the way of red-tape to discourage fraudsters.

Another program that was prone to abuse was the unemployment system. During the pandemic, the government offered bonus unemployment money and extended the amount of time a person could receive unemployment. In several states, grifters used the Social Security numbers of dead people to collect unemployment checks they weren’t entitled to.

The huge amount of money available and the minimal oversight was just too tempting a target for dishonest people, says Dan Fruchter, chief of U.S. Attorney’s fraud and white-collar crime unit in the Eastern District of Washington, “Here was this sort of endless pot of money that anyone could access,” Fruchter said . “Folks kind of fooled themselves into thinking that it was a socially acceptable thing to do, even though it wasn’t legal.”

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JPMorgan settles with Epstein victims for $290 million

Sex trafficking victims of deceased financier Jeffrey Epstein are pursuing civil cases against major banks that did business with him. The victims say that executives at these banks chose to turn a blind eye towards Epstein’s crimes to keep him as a client.

In the last several months, its come to light that Jes Staley, a former JPMorgan exec, had shared images of young women with Epstein. Communications between Staley and Epstein suggest Staley may have had some knowledge of Epstein’s sex trafficking and some have even accused him of being involved.

After denying any complicity with Epstein’s activities for months, JPMorgan has agreed to settle with more than 100 of Epstein’s victims for a $290 million payout.

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INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Colombia: Four kids survive 40 days alone in jungle after plane crash

Rescuers in Colombia have found four children, aged 13, 9, 4 and 1, who survived alone for 40 days in the jungle. They were traveling on a small plane with their mother that crashed on May 1. The crash instantly killed the pilot and another unrelated adult. Family members said the mother survived for four days after the crash, but ultimately told them to leave her to seek help and survive. 

The children are members of the Huitoto Indigenous group. Even after they’d been missing for weeks, other members of their community held out hope that their knowledge of foods available in the jungle would improve their chances of survival. The 13-year-old girl, Lesly Mucutuy, carried the eldest child and led her other siblings to find food. Lesly built a makeshift shelter and found a meager water source nearby, enabling them to survive.

When the rescuers found the children, they were alive but very malnourished and some had contracted illnesses from their time in the jungle. The children are now recuperating in a hospital.

A massive search effort

One of the children drew this picture of Wilson in the hospital.

Over 100 soldiers, native trackers, searchers with sniffer dogs combed the jungle for weeks. Fearing they wouldn’t find the children in time, rescuers recorded their grandmother telling the children in the Huitoto language to stay put so rescuers could find them. The children said they heard the message, played over loudspeakers in the jungle.

One of the sniffer dogs, named Wilson, broke away from its handler and found the children ahead of the rescuers. It spent some time with the kids but had departed by the time rescuers found the children’s campsite. In the hospital, one the children drew a picture of Wilson at the campsite.

The searchers are now searching for Wilson, determined to leave no one behind.

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