How President Trump made $1.4bn in crypto and what it has to do with corruption

 Donald Trump is one of the richest people ever to serve as U.S. president. But critics say his wealth is growing while he's still in office. This is raising questions about conflicts of interest, cryptocurrency (and the €1.4bn he’s made in it), and the influence of money in American politics.

How Qatar Bought the World Cup

 How Qatar won the bid to host the World Cup. What we found was a deep web of corruption and influence peddling. This video is our clearest explanation of how it all went down.

Ros Atkins on… How Qatar got to host the World Cup

 

BBC Analysis Editor Ros Atkins looks at the years of corruption allegations around Fifa awarding the 2022 World Cup to Qatar.

Corrupt China: The Secrets Behind the State | Xi Jinping Government Corruption

 

They say that power corrupts, but absolute power corrupts absolutely. Realising that public anger at corruption was threatening the legitimacy of the Communist Party, President Xi Jingping launched a wave of corruption investigations when he came to power in 2012. ‘Economic crimes’ still carry the death penalty and in the past two years, over 300,000 officials have been punished – including ‘Red Prince’ and Politburo member, Bo Xilai

Fans threaten boycott of Qatar World Cup over corruption, human rights

 It's just a year until the football World Cup kicks off in Qatar. Allegations of vote buying and human rights abuses have marred the run-up to the competition. Some fans are threatening a boycott. But Qatar says it deserves to host the cup.

China Tried to Pay me to Lie about Covid

 

Who is profiting from COVID-19 in Africa?

 

Corruption thrives during times of crisis. The coronavirus pandemic is no exception. Traders have inflated prices for scarce supplies, like masks and hand sanitisers. Politicians have received kickbacks for brokering deals.

Corruption in South Africa

A country falls into the hands of kleptocrats, a state is taken over. This happens again and again, all over the world. Including in South Africa, of all places, where the fight for democracy against a brutal apartheid regime was so hard-won.

Why Putin wants Alexei Navalny dead

 In 2006, a lawyer named Alexei Navalny started a blog where he wrote about corruption in his home country of Russia. It’s the most prominent problem under the regime of Vladimir Putin, who has ruled Russia since 2000. Putin has systematically taken over the country’s independent media, oligarchy, elections, and laws to cement his own power and wield corruption to his advantage.

All the Prime Minister’s Men

 

An explosive investigation reveals how a criminal gang is colluding with the security forces of Bangladesh and has links to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

Undercover reporters with the I-Unit expose how a former street mafia claims to have captured a state. Haris Ahmed, brother of Bangladesh’s army chief, Aziz Ahmed, boasts that he can use police and paramilitary units to abduct rivals and earn millions in bribes.

Can South Africa's president stamp out corruption?

 ANC Secretary-General Ace Magashule faces 21 charges of corruption and fraud.

Critics have said the corruption case against ruling African National Congress (ANC) General-Secretary Ace Magashule is politically motivated.

The government has insisted it is part of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s promise to stamp out corruption in both the party and government.

How to tackle corruption | The Economist

 

Corruption costs the world nearly $3trn a year. Here are some of the innovative ways in which communities, companies and countries are tackling it.

Money laundering, oligarchs, terrorists: How corrupt are the banks?

Are banks helping criminals, oligarchs and terrorists to launder money? That’s what the so-called FinCen leaks allege.

 

Trump is boosting another miracle COVID-19 'cure,' this one brought to him by the My Pillow guy

Hunter

Daily Kos Staff

Well, it's happening again: It appears that Donald Trump, one of the most mushbrained people in America, is latching on to a new "miracle cure" for the deadly COVID-19 pandemic with no evidence of its effectiveness. Like the last time around, it appears he chose this particular miracle cure after it was talked up by Grifters With Access to His Office, which is how all federal government business is now run.

Specifically, the My Pillow guy. Trump is hitching his wagon to a new miracle cure touted by the right-wing Fox-famous Tucker-Carlson-sponsoring My Pillow guy. It’s 2020, there’s a worldwide pandemic, Trump is taking medical advice from the My Pillow guy, and we’re all going to die.

According to Axios' Jonathan Swan, My Pillow Guy Mike Lindell has been talking up a new "dietary supplement" extracted from the toxic plant oleander after buying a financial stake in the company that makes it. (Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson is also boosting the product in yet another reminder that ex-surgeons can dive into crackpotism as eagerly as anyone else.) My Pillow Guy arranged a meeting between himself, Carson, Trump, and the CEO of the company involved to advocate for the maybe-drug, maybe-supplement as a potential COVID-19 cure.

Trump, apparently, was hooked, and there's now pressure on Trump Food and Drug Administration head Stephen Hahn to rapidly approve this new product as COVID-19 "cure," just as hydroxychloroquine was forced through the system back in March. That drug is now thought to be largely useless in COVID-19 cases, and due to its known side effects affecting the heart may actually worsen COVID-19 complications in patients it is given to.

So there you go, again. A personal Trump friend has a business interest in a new "dietary supplement." A personal Trump friend pushes it to Trump, without scientific evidence, as a new miracle cure for what ails the country. Trump, an idiot who believes anything anyone tells him if it comes with enough flattery and even the slightest chance of extracting him from having to do a damn bit of work, bites onto it hook, line, and sinker, and pushes the federal government to promote Rich Friend Guy's new product. It happens often enough now that there's a rhythm to it.

If it were happening in any other country, every single person of importance in this country would be (1 laughing at the sheer stupidity of it and (2 using it as unassailable evidence of systemic, autocratic corruption. It's not happening here because the media is simply unwilling to contemplate that this country could be in that same hypercorrupt position, and because Republicans remain not just willing but positively eager to use those same corrupt instincts to boost their own career prospects.

So what's the new product's name going to be? "My Pillow Guy's Pandemic Cure Everything Oil" isn't going to cut it. The extract itself is called oleandrin, which is both a little flat and too toxic-sounding for mainstream marketing purposes. A few others come to mind, but probably wouldn't make it past network censors.

In the meantime, do not start chewing on oleander plants in an attempt to immunize yourself against COVID-19. It does kill the virus, but only as side effect of killing you off directly. Don’t inject bleach. Don’t drink fish pond cleaners. In general, don’t do anything Trump tells you. At some point the Secret Service may yet put a bag over his head and whisk him out of the Oval Office before he kills any more people, but for now you’re on your own.

actually worsen COVID-19 complications in patients it is given to.

Lebanon’s government collapses following Beirut explosion, blaming "endemic corruption" - BBC News

The entire Lebanese government has stood down following last Tuesday's catastrophic explosion in Beirut. The prime minister said it was the result of endemic corruption which is "bigger than the state" itself.

Exposing the Thieves Guild of China

Theft in China is huge. Thieves are rampant. I have been a victim many times, but today I expose the secret language that the thieves in China use to communicate with each other, and how they determine their targets.

Brazil court releases explosive Bolsonaro video as coronavirus cases soar | DW News

Pressure on Brazil's embattled President Jair Bolsonaro has intensified after the Supreme Court's release of an explosive video. The recording of a cabinet meeting shows the president on a profane rant as he expresses frustration over his inability to replace law enforcement officials. It was released as part of a probe into allegations that Bolsonaro tried to interfere in federal police investigations into his sons.

Malaysia's Game Of Thrones

It has been described as Malaysia's political Game of Thrones: a fortnight of mind-bending political turmoil, triggered by the resignation last week of 94-year-old Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad after his coalition collapsed. After being reinstated as interim prime minister by the king, Mahathir seemed poised to form a new government that may have sidelined his designated successor Anwar Ibrahim. But before long, Mahathir and Anwar were once again united in an attempt to form a new government, only to find themselves both on the outside looking in as someone else - Muhyiddin Yassin - was sworn in as Malaysia's eighth prime minister.

Oil and ruin — exodus from Venezuela

Venezuela is in the grips of what is now the world’s second largest refugee crisis after Syria. But unlike Syria, Venezuela is not mired in civil war, and the country is sitting on the world’s largest proven oil reserves. How could such a rich nation be driven into ruin? Where has the country’s wealth gone, and why are its people starving? Corruption and mismanagement are driving displacement worldwide. The majority of the world’s refugees and migrants are fleeing from countries in the top 10 of Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index - places like Afghanistan, Syria, South Sudan and Somalia.

Journalism that changed 2019

A look at cases where reporting speaks truth to power, exposes wrongdoing, and helps rectify it.

Picking just four was hard but we settled on West Africa and a documentary film Sex for Grades produced by Africa Eye, the investigative arm of BBC Africa.

It follows a radio presenter and investigative journalist, Kiki Mordi, as she exposes the extent of sexual harassment in West African universities.

Speaking from personal experience, she told The Listening Post: "People like to make excuses for abusers and people like making excuses for harassers. But right there, visualising it, seeing it and putting your own daughter in that room, I think you would have a rethink about the excuses you were going to make for abusers or lecturers who harassed their students."