Category: Ledger of Shame

Video: The asset-management giant BlackRock, which has invested huge amounts in Russian state-owned energy and banks, and which is also invested in rebuilding Ukraine, is now buying property that will give them control over 43 ports in 23 countries, including the ports of Balboa and Cristobal, located at either end of the Panama Canal. Other ports are in Mexico, the Netherlands, Egypt, Australia, Pakistan and elsewhere.

The Trump administration has suspended delivery of all US military aid to Ukraine, a White House official has said, blocking billions in crucial shipments as the White House piles pressure on Ukraine to sue for peace with Vladimir Putin. The decision affects deliveries of ammunition, vehicles, and other equipment including shipments agreed to when Joe Biden was president. It comes after a dramatic blow-up in the White House on Friday during which Donald Trump told Volodymyr Zelenskyy that he was…

The villa is stunning. The private swimming pool; the lush, landscaped terrace with firepit; the long dining table with its expansive balcony view; the pingpong table; the piano. But the jewel in the crown, according to the Airbnb listing, is the experience of watching the sun rise over the nearby mountains from the luxury of the generous master bedroom. The villa with views of the Judean mountains is in a settlement located on land seized from Palestinians and considered illegal…

U.S. Vice-President J.D. Vance met the leader of a German far-right party during a visit to Munich on Friday, nine days before a German election and after lecturing European leaders about the state of democracy. Vance met with Alice Weidel, the co-leader and candidate for chancellor of the far-right and anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany party, his office said. Mainstream German parties say they won’t work with the party, a stance often referred to as a “firewall.” Polls put Alternative for Germany, or AfD, in second place going into…

By car and on foot, through muddy olive groves and sniper sight lines, tens of thousands of Palestinians in recent weeks have fled Israeli military operations across the northern West Bank — the largest displacement in the occupied territory since the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. After announcing a widespread crackdown against West Bank militants on Jan. 21 — just two days after its ceasefire deal with Hamas in Gaza — Israeli forces descended on the restive city of Jenin, as they have dozens…

Officials in St. Petersburg announced controversial plans to equip thousands of the city’s surveillance cameras with ethnicity recognition software, the Kommersant business newspaper reported Thursday. Oleg Kapitanov, head of interethnic relations for the St. Petersburg city government, said around 8,000 of the city’s 102,000 cameras will feature the new ethnicity recognition technology. According to him, the system will help combat “the formation of ethnic enclaves” and “prevent social tension.” Kapitanov said the St. Petersburg city government purchased an ethnic recognition software…

The US vice-president, JD Vance, has launched a brutal ideological assault on Europe, accusing its leaders of suppressing free speech, failing to halt illegal migration and running in fear from voters’ true beliefs. In a chastising speech on Friday that openly questioned whether current European values warranted defence by the US, he painted a picture of European politics infected by media censorship, cancelled elections and political correctness. Arguing that the true threat to Europe stemmed not from external actors such…

The Pentagon will deploy roughly 1,500 more active-duty soldiers to the southern border to support President Donald Trump’s expanding crackdown on immigration, a U.S. official said Friday. That would eventually bring the total to about 3,600 active-duty troops at the border. The order has been approved, the official said, to send a logistics brigade from the 18th Airborne Corps at Fort Liberty in North Carolina. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because the deployment has not yet been publicly…

Israeli forces shot a two-year-old girl in the head in her West Bank home on Saturday while she was eating dinner with her family, according to health officials and family members. The Palestinian Health Ministry says Laila Muhammad Al-Khatib was shot dead during an Israeli military raid on the village of Ash-Shuhada, just south of Jenin. “They started to shoot at us through the windows without any warning,” Ghada Asous, the toddler’s grandmother, said. “All of a sudden, the special forces raided…

Late Friday night, President Trump abruptly fired at least 12 inspectors general, defying a law that requires 30 days’ notice and detailed rationale to be provided to Congress, according to NYT sources. The firings targeted watchdogs in agencies from the departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, Education, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, Labor, Transportation and Veterans Affairs, along with the Environmental Protection Agency and the Small Business Administration. Emails from the White House cited “changing priorities” as the reason for the…

Trump has apparently not ruled out the use of military force to annex Greenland. During a press conference on January 8, 2025, Trump stated that “all options were on the table,” refusing to exclude the possibility of military force (The Guardian). The confrontational stance has raised concerns among European leaders, with Germany and France warning against any use of force over Greenland (The Guardian). German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said “the principle of the inviolability of borders applies to every country……

While fighting in the air may have stopped in Gaza, danger remains for Palestinians returning to parts of the war-torn territory due to unexploded bombs on the ground. They blend in with the mounds of rubble and destruction. Efforts are underway in Gaza to locate and remove these bombs, starting in the southern Gaza city of Rafah — which saw some of the heaviest combat in the 15-month-long long war between Israel and Hamas. But mines advisory groups say in order…

TD Bank’s (TD.TO), opens new tab chief compliance officer has left the bank, according to a memo sent internally, at a time the Canadian lender faces U.S. regulators and the Justice Department in a probe related to its anti-money laundering program. Monica Kowal, who joined the bank in 2017, left the company this week, and will be replaced by Deputy Chief Compliance Officer Erin Morrow who will report to Chief Risk Officer Ajai Bambawale, according the memo sent in late June, seen by…

A controversial gesture by Elon Musk has sparked further debate, with subplots now unfolding as the billionaire trolls Wikipedia and calls for its defunding. The tension arose after a description of Musk’s recent public action—interpreted by some as resembling a Hitler salute—was added to the online encyclopedia. The clash pits two prominent internet figures against each other: Elon Musk, owner of the social media platform X, and Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia. The incident underscores the stark differences between Musk’s…

Billionaire Michael Bloomberg announced on Jan 23 that his foundation will step in to fund the UN climate change body after US President Donald Trump declared the United States would withdraw from the Paris Agreement for the second time. Mr Bloomberg’s intervention aims to ensure the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) remains fully funded, despite the US halting its contributions. The US typically provides 22 per cent of the UNFCCC secretariat’s budget, with the body’s operating costs…