Corruption Ledger

HELSINKI – Finnish Defence Minister Antti Hakkanen hailed plans on June 25 for six Nato member states including Britain and France to participate in land forces that are to be established in northern Finland. Finland, which has a longer border with Russia than any other Nato state, has strengthened the frontier in the two years since it joined the military alliance following a policy U-turn after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. “I am very pleased that yesterday, in connection with…

ZURICH – Switzerland is holding talks with the United States after Washington tried to raise the price of new fighter jets Bern is buying for its air force, the government said on Wednesday. Bern chose Lockheed Martin’s F-35A Lightning II as its next-generation fighter plane in 2021, with a fixed price of around 6 billion Swiss francs ($7.4 billion) for 36 jets, a decision that attracted controversy in neutral Switzerland. But the U.S. Joint Program Office overseeing the project said…

The number of years former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan spent in Springfield has often been used as shorthand to explain his outsized impact on state government and politics. His political career spanned 50 years in the General Assembly, 23 years chairing the Democratic Party of Illinois, and 36 years as House speaker — the longest tenure of any state or federal legislative leader in U.S. history. But on Friday, a new term was added to the former speaker’s list…

In a high-profile case that has sent shockwaves through Nigeria’s financial sector, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Friday, June 13, 2025, arraigned Halima Buba, the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of SunTrust Bank Ltd, and Innocent Mbagwu, the bank’s Executive Director/Chief Compliance Officer, before Justice Emeka Nwite at the Federal High Court in Abuja. The duo faces a six-count charge of money laundering involving a staggering $12 million, in what the EFCC describes as a blatant violation of…

BOSTON – A federal judge on June 13 blocked President Donald Trump’s administration from implementing parts of his sweeping executive order overhauling federal elections, including by requiring proof of US citizenship to register to vote and barring states from counting mail-in ballots received after Election Day. US District Judge Denise Casper in Boston issued a preliminary injunction at the behest of 19 Democratic-led states who had argued that the Republican president lacked the authority to mandate changes to elections and…

Ghana’s former finance minister Kenneth Ofori-Atta has been placed on Interpol’s Red Notice list, accused of using public office for profit.

LONDON – The clashes between rioters and federal and California National Guards troops now unfolding in Los Angeles have played out in typical American fashion, with exaggerated claims and disputes about the interpretation of supposedly grand constitutional principles. US President Donald Trump claims that, had he not deployed a total of around 5,000 troops, Los Angeles “would be burning”. But Ms Karen Bass, Los Angeles’ mayor, argues that law and order was never truly threatened in her city, and that…

WASHINGTON – Ms Tulsi Gabbard, the US director of national intelligence, released a video on June 11 warning that the world is closer to nuclear war than ever and accusing unnamed political elites of trying to foment conflict between world powers. Ms Gabbard didn’t cite any countries by name, but her remarks echoed long time claims by Russian officials and, more recently, by far-right commentators in the US who have warned that the Ukrainian drone attack on Russia’s strategic bomber…

WASHINGTON – US President Donald Trump warned people on June 11 against protesting at the weekend military parade in Washington marking the US Army’s 250th anniversary. “For those people that want to protest, they’re going to be met with very big force,” Mr Trump told reporters in the White House’s Oval Office. Law enforcement agencies are preparing for hundreds of thousands of people to attend the June 14 parade, US Secret Service special agent in charge Matt McCool said on…

Britain, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Norway said Tuesday they have imposed sanctions on two far-right Israeli government ministers for allegedly “inciting extremist violence” against Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich face asset freezes and travel bans from the five countries. The ministers are champions of expanding Israeli settlements in the West Bank. The decision by Western governments friendly to Israel was a sharp rebuke of Israel’s settlement policies in the West Bank and of settler…

ATHENS – A Greek court has stripped three far-right lawmakers of their seats in parliament on accusations they deceived voters in a June 2023 national vote, the semi-official Athens News Agency and a legal source said on Tuesday. The ruling means parliament will operate with 297 lawmakers instead of 300, while the number of seats needed for an absolute majority drops to 149. The three former lawmakers were elected with the far-right Spartans party in 2023. An election court, however,…

During his visit to the Middle East in May, U.S. President Donald Trump did several things that few would have predicted months or even weeks earlier. One was his surprise meeting with Syria’s new leader, Ahmed al-Shara, and the subsequent lifting of U.S. sanctions on Syria, notwithstanding Shara’s history as a leader of a militant Islamist group. Another was his decision not to include Israel on the itinerary, despite his administration’s ongoing efforts to end the war in Gaza. The…

Video: TedX talk by Gigi Foster in Australia, October 2024

Two Chinese nationals have been charged with smuggling a plant pathogen into the US for research at a University of Michigan laboratory, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced on 3 June. The couple has also been charged with making false statements and visa fraud. They were arrested in connection with allegations related to secretly transporting the fungus Fusarium graminearum, which federal prosecutors claim is classified in the scientific literature as ‘a potential agroterrorism weapon’, although experts Chemistry World spoke to…