Breaking News Thread (Part 2)

Shopping bag charges are a massive scam.

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https://news.sky.com/story/crypto-worth-billions-frozen-over-potential-security-issue-13605627

that’s a lot of money stolen in around 15 minutes.

According to TRM Labs, which tracks the industry, digital assets worth more than $6.3bn (£4.7bn) have been taken from Binance by North Korean hackers. This would be the largest cryptocurrency hack to date - and one of the biggest in financial history. < for those that can’t be arsed to open the link.

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Crypto the natural home of drug dealers and worse and now propping up the North Korean regime. When will governments learn and regulate it out of existence.

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Look into what happened at Sears here in the US. They were a historical department store that ran into very understandable trouble trying to navigate the rise of online shopping and made a series of poor choices that really hurt them. But what ultimately took them down was being bought out by venture capital who essentially gave up on them as a retail play and instead institute a decade long play to milk all the value out of the brand while siphoning off money into sister companies under the VC umbrella. The main thing was they sold all Sears’ store front to themselves, a different company under within the VC portfolio. Not only did that large influx of cash allow them to take huge dividends out of the Sears brand, but they then put rent up to impossible levels just trying to maximize how much cash could be diverted from Sears into other areas before ultimately shutting the whole thing down once there was no juice to squeeze.

Its the sort of shit that should be illegal, but explains a large part of most of these “wow, can you believe [insert famous brick and mortar company] has gone into adminstration” stories.

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Important to note that was really a private equity situation, not venture capital. A critical part of the whole process was loading Sears with significant amounts of debt in order to fund those dividends.

That is exactly the situation I thought about in my comment above

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Yes, thank you. Thats one of those “aktuawaly” things I normally call out myself :rofl:

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from what i understand, which is very little, Poundland/it’s owners don’t own the buildings but long term leases. Not sure if that helps either of you.

Leases are still an asset, but my suspicion was that they might also be quite restrictive. It would also be worth knowing who does own the property - that was also the case for the Sears case @Limiescouse cited. The property had been moved out of the Sears corporation about a decade before the crisis that led to liquidation

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This is what google AI chucked at me.

  1. The Store Leases are Managed by Poundland’s Parent Owner

While the buildings themselves belong to third-party landlords, the retail business and its lease contracts are controlled by its parent company. Poundland is owned by the US investment and restructuring firm Gordon Brothers. In October 2026, Poundland officially filed a notice of intention to appoint administrators. As a result, the ultimate management of these store leaseholds is currently going through insolvency proceedings handled by administrators. [1, 2, 3, 4]

  1. A Massive Lease Restructuring Pushed Rents Down

Because Poundland does not own the brick-and-mortar real estate, it has historically been at the mercy of high-street rental costs. To survive financial difficulties, the company utilized a court-sanctioned restructuring plan (known as an English Restructuring Plan). This legally forced the building owners—the landlords—to accept steep rent cuts of up to 75% across more than 470 stores, while giving those landlords rolling “break rights” to take their buildings back if they chos

edit: this is apparently breaking news …
https://news.sky.com/story/poundland-bidder-tells-administrator-it-remains-keen-on-rescue-deal-13605702

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I laughed at this way too hard then realized you have to know way too much dead end internet lore to get it

https://x.com/cwarzel/status/2115937840010068299?a=yR4AUV8zuU5CS9pvzUQ&s=20

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i asked my toaster, told me the user needs help as his fridge was hacked and his crypto wallet is now gone, But the historical meaning escaped me :grimacing:

Similat to collapse of BHS in the UK a decade or two ago

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https://news.sky.com/story/bomb-threats-reported-on-multiple-flights-13607460

This is happening more and more

At some point, Russia needs to be targeted with countervailing disruptions by ‘non-state actors’.

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Are the freezer and planes attacks both from Russia?

There is very little doubt about the freezer attacks. I have not seen any evidence about the aircraft.

Brand guilty

https://news.sky.com/story/thomas-markle-snr-arrested-by-fbi-in-florida-report-13608900

The Duchess of Sussex’s father, Thomas Markle Snr, has been charged by the FBI in Florida on charges related to child sexual abuse material.

Birds of a feather…

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