If you are fed up with the other people on your team, remember this: it could be so much worse. Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, two American astronauts, returned to Earth on March 18th after a planned days-long mission to the International Space Station turned into a nine-month stay. At the SANAE IV research station in Antarctica, reports have emerged of assault, death threats and intimidation among a team of South African scientists who arrived there in February; they are due to leave the base only in December. Submariners on Britain’s nuclear-armed subs can be at sea for six months or more. More

The New York couple charged with trying to launder $4.5 billion in bitcoin stolen in a 2016 hack of Bitfinex appear set to plead guilty in the case, a new federal court docket entry suggests.
Ilya Lichtenstein and Heather Rhiannon Morgan have been charged in a new document typically used by federal prosecutors when defendants have agreed to plead guilty.
Netflix last year commissioned a series about the couple.

The New York couple charged with trying to launder $4.5 billion in bitcoin stolen in a 2016 hack of Bitfinex appear set to plead guilty in the case.
The couple, Ilya Lichtenstein and Heather Rhiannon Morgan, have been newly charged in the case with a document known as an information, according to a new Washington, D.C., federal court docket entry Friday.

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An information is a type of charging document that federal prosecutors typically use when defendants have agreed to plead guilty.
Another docket entry shows that Lichtenstein and the aspiring rapper Morgan have been ordered to appear in court on Aug. 3 for separate arraignments and plea hearings on the information.
The nature of the charge or charges in the information was not made public. It is common for informations to have fewer charges than those originally lodged against defendants, or to have different ones.

Booking photos for Heather Morgan and Ilya Lichtenstein.
Courtesy: Alexandria Adult Detention Center.

Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly on Friday ordered prosecutors and defense lawyers to provide plea paperwork to her by Thursday, the docket shows.
That paperwork is to include “charged offense(s) and statutory provision; charge(s) in plea and statutory provision; elements of the offense; copy of the plea agreement; penalties; and [federal sentencing] guideline calculations.”

The couple was originally charged in a criminal complaint when they were arrested in February 2022, and had pleaded not guilty to the charges listed in that document – money laundering conspiracy and conspiracy to defraud the United States.
Morgan, known as “Razzlekhan,” is free on a $3 million bond. Lichtenstein, whose nickname is “Dutch,” has been held in jail since February 2022 without bond after a judge ruled that the Russian emigre was a flight risk.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington, which is prosecuting the couple, declined to comment. Their defense lawyers didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment from CNBC.
Prosecutors had said weeks after the couple’s arrests that they were in plea negotiations with them.
The couple’s case has been repeatedly continued since their arrests. Until Friday’s new docket entries, they had been scheduled to appear at a status hearing on Monday. That hearing was vacated as a result of the new charging document being filed.
Lichtenstein, 34, and the 32-year-old Morgan are accused of trying to launder the proceeds of 119,754 bitcoin that were stolen from Bitfinex’s platform in August 2016. The couple was not charged in the hack of the Hong Kong-based cryptocurrency exchange.
At the time of their arrests, the Department of Justice said officials had been able to seize more than 94,000 bitcoin involved in the hack, which at that time of the seizure was worth about $3.6 billion. That was the largest financial seizure in DOJ history.
The bitcoin stolen in the hack was worth just $70 million at the time of the theft, but soared in value in the following years.
“Over the last five years, approximately 25,000 of those stolen bitcoin were transferred out of Lichtenstein’s wallet via a complicated money laundering process that ended with some of the stolen funds being deposited into financial accounts controlled by Lichtenstein and Morgan,” the DOJ said at the time of their arrests.
Netflix in early 2022 announced it had commissioned a series on the couple. More

Pedestrians pass in front of the Salesforce Tower in New York. Victor J. Blue | Bloomberg | Getty Images Check out the companies making headlines in midday trading on Friday: Big Lots — Shares of the discount retailer jumped more than 7% after the company beat top and bottom-line estimates in the first quarter. Big Lots earned […] More

The Bond Fire, started by a structure fire that extended into nearby vegetation on Thursday, Dec. 3, 2020 in Silverado, CA. Dangerous fire weather conditions are in effect across wide swaths of Southern California as dry, gusty Santa Ana winds are expected from the northeast.
Kent Nishimura | Los Angeles Times | Getty Images

2020 has tied with 2016 as the hottest year on record, marking the end of the hottest decade on record as the world grapples with global climate change, researchers confirmed on Friday.
The finding, published by the Copernicus Climate Change Service, an intergovernmental agency that supports European climate policy, continues a relentless upward trend in global temperatures due to greenhouse gas emissions trapping heat in the atmosphere.

“2020 stands out for its exceptional warmth in the Arctic and a record number of tropical storms in the North Atlantic,” Carlo Buontempo, director of Copernicus service, said in a statement. 
“It is no surprise that the last decade was the warmest on record, and is yet another reminder of the urgency of ambitious emissions reductions to prevent adverse climate impacts in the future,” he said.
The evidence of record heat in 2020 mounted throughout the year: Dry and hot conditions fueled massive record-breaking wildfires in Australia and later in the U.S. West; Arctic sea ice plummeted to its second-lowest levels on record; and worldwide, monthly temperature records were shattered.
Last year was 0.6 degree Celsius (1.08 degrees Fahrenheit) above the average for the period between 1981 and 2010 and about 1.25 degrees Celsius (2.25 degrees Fahrenheit) above the average for the pre-industrial period between 1850 and 1900, according to the agency.

Arrows pointing outwards

Some parts of the world heated up more than others as carbon emissions continued to rise. Europe had its hottest year on record, with temperatures that were 1.4 degree Celsius (2.53 degrees Fahrenheit) hotter than 2019, which was previously the warmest year.

The Arctic and northern Siberia saw the largest temperature surges, which reached to over 6 degrees Celsius (10.8 degrees Fahrenheit) above average for the year. Western Siberia had an exceptionally hot winter and spring, while the Siberian Arctic and much of the Arctic Ocean had exceptionally hot temperatures in summer and autumn.
Major wildfires near the Arctic Circle also released a record amount of carbon emissions in 2020 and Arctic sea ice hit record lows for the months of July and October.
“Until the net global emissions reduce to zero, CO2 will continue to accumulate in the atmosphere and drive further climate change,” Vincent-Henri Peuch, director of the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service, said in a statement.
2016, the pervious hottest year, was very hot because temperatures had been impacted by an El Nino, which sent a significant amount of heat from the Pacific Ocean into the atmosphere. The last six years were the warmest six on record.
— Graphics by CNBC’s Nate Rattner More

About 2½ minutes after launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Firefly’s rocket began flipping end over end and exploded in the air.
The Vandenberg’s Space Launch Delta 30 unit confirmed that it triggered the Alpha rocket’s flight termination system, causing the explosion.

Firefly Aerospace’s Alpha rocket accelerates away from SLC-2 at Vandenberg Space Force Base on September 2, 2021.
Andrew Evers | CNBC

Space company Firefly launched its inaugural Alpha rocket on a cloudless Thursday evening over the California coast.
The Alpha rocket took off from Vandenberg Space Force Base’s SLC-2 complex, climbing west over the Pacific.

Firefly Aerospace’s Alpha rocket lifts off from Vandenberg Space Force Base on September 2, 2021.
Andrew Evers | CNBC

But about 2½ minutes after launch, Firefly’s rocket began flipping end over end and exploded in the air.

The flight termination system on Firefly Aerospace’s Alpha rocket detonates after it launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base on September 2, 2021.
Andrew Evers | CNBC

Firefly Aerospace’s Alpha rocket explodes in a fireball in the sky above California after launching from Vandenberg Space Force Base on September 2, 2021.
Andrew Evers | CNBC

The company’s first Alpha rocket explodes during its orbital launch attempt on Sept. 2, 2021.
Firefly Aerospace

The Vandenberg’s Space Launch Delta 30 unit confirmed that it triggered the Alpha rocket’s flight termination system, causing the explosion.
“A team of investigators will convene to determine the cause of the failure,” Space Launch Delta 30 said.
The Federal Aviation Administration is also investigating. The agency told CNBC in a statement that there were no reported injuries or damage to public property but is aware of reports regarding possible debris falling to the ground.
Firefly’s Alpha rocket is grounded “until the FAA approves the final mishap investigation report or determines the issues related to the mishap do not affect public safety,” the agency added.

Firefly Aerospace’s Alpha rocket stands on the launchpad at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on September 2, 2021.
Andrew Evers | CNBC

Firefly was attempting to reach orbit on the company’s first-ever launch, which would have been a rare feat for private rocket builder. The first orbital launch attempts of other private rocket builders — SpaceX, Rocket Lab, Virgin Orbit and Astra — suffered a variety of failures, with the former three companies reaching orbit on later attempts.
A Firefly statement emphasized that its Alpha test flight achieved “a number of” mission objectives, including: booster ignition, liftoff and supersonic speed, and collected “a substantial amount of flight data.”

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