Corruption Ledger

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…

President Donald Trump this week falsely blamed Ukraine for starting the war that has cost tens of thousands of Ukrainian lives, causing outrage and alarm in a country that has spent nearly three years fighting back a much larger Russian military. Trump called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy “ a dictator without elections” and claimed his support among voters was near rock-bottom. Zelenskyy said Wednesday that the disinformation is coming from Russia, and some of what Trump has said does echo Russia’s own narrative of the conflict….

The relationship between the United States and Ukraine, which has helped Kyiv fend off the Russian invasion for the past three years, appeared on the verge of collapse Wednesday as the presidents of the two countries publicly traded insults. The furor has the potential to leave Ukraine – which is already losing ground along the front line – without the support of its biggest ally, as U.S. President Donald Trump called Ukraine’s future existence into question. The relationship between Mr….

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…

YAPP USA Automotive Systems Inc., a corporation with its principal place of business in Michigan, has agreed to pay $14,208,496 to resolve allegations that it violated the False Claims Act by submitting false claims to obtain a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan for which it was not eligible. Congress created the PPP in March 2020 to provide emergency financial assistance to Americans suffering from the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Under the PPP, eligible businesses could receive forgivable loans…

The Coast Guard is in the midst of investigating a data breach within its personnel and payroll system that delayed bi-weekly pay for 1,135 service members. The Coast Guard said it temporarily shut down its Direct Access (DA) system as it investigates the breach. News articles won’t speculate, but supposedly enlisted users on certain online forums have said that hackers entered the DA system and changed the direct deposit data of the affected users. Coast Guard members take to social…

Brazil’s prosecutor-general said Tuesday that former leader Jair Bolsonaro knew and agreed to a plan to poison his successor and current President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, as part of an attempted coup that would have allowed him to remain in power. Prosecutor-General Paulo Gonet formally charged Bolsonaro and 33 others with participating in a plan to keep Bolsonaro in power following his 2022 election defeat. The alleged plot also included a plan to poison Lula and shoot dead Supreme Court Justice Alexandre…

About half the middle managers at Ford Motor will not get stock bonuses this year in what is seen internally as CEO Jim Farley’s latest attempt to cut the automaker’s bloated costs, according to six people familiar with the matter. The stock awards are usually paid in March, but senior managers have been told to select which half of their middle management staff will receive them, four of the sources said. Ford said the change was meant to incentivize an…

President Donald Trump’s administration has said no one at the Federal Aviation Administration with a “critical safety” position has been fired as it cuts the federal work force, but some FAA jobs that were eliminated had direct roles in supporting safety inspectors and airport operations, according to their union and former employees. About 400 personnel were let go starting Friday. There is still not a complete picture of who was fired, but the union representing about 130 of them said…

DeepSeek, a Chinese artificial intelligence startup, has temporarily paused downloads of its chatbot apps in South Korea while it works with local authorities to address privacy concerns, South Korean officials said Monday. South Korea’s Personal Information Protection Commission said DeepSeek’s apps were removed from the local versions of Apple’s App Store and Google Play on Saturday evening and that the company agreed to work with the agency to strengthen privacy protections before relaunching the apps. The action does not affect…

On Sunday, Mumbai Police arrested Dharmesh Paun, private developer from Kandivali, in connection with the New India Cooperative Bank scam (NICB). According to the police, Paun allegedly received illicit funds from the bank’s General Manager and Account Head, Hitesh Mehta, who was also arrested Saturday. The scam was uncovered during an audit at the bank’s headquarters in Prabhadevi last Wednesday, when RBI officials discovered funds missing from the vault. Mehta, who has been with the bank since 1988, reportedly confessed…

Video: Trump’s tariff policies are straining US-Canada relations. After imposing and then suspending tariffs, Canadian leaders are reassessing their ties with the US. Some are now looking to the European Union as a potential alternative. Major publications, including The Toronto Star and The Economist, are openly questioning whether Canada could align more closely with Europe. European politicians are also weighing in. Could this mark a significant shift in global alliances?

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…

Veterans Affairs leaders dismissed more than 1,000 employees Thursday night as part of a White House purge of government workers still in their probationary periods, an effort designed to dramatically reduce the size of the federal workforce. In a statement, VA Secretary Doug Collins said the elimination of the posts will save roughly $98 million annually, funds that can be redirected into veterans’ care and benefits. “We thank these employees for their service to VA,” he said. “This was a…

Three senior U.S. Justice Department officials, including Manhattan’s top federal prosecutor, resigned on Thursday rather than comply with an order to dismiss corruption charges against New York City’s mayor, according to an internal Justice Department memo seen by Reuters and people familiar with the matter. The departures mark a sign of resistance from career Justice Department officials to U.S. President Donald Trump’s efforts to overhaul the agency to end what he calls its weaponization against political opponents. Critics say Trump’s changes threaten to subject…