Corruption Ledger

Adam Kovacevich is the CEO and founder of a center-left tech industry coalition called Chamber of Progress and has worked at the intersection of tech and politics for 20 years, leading public policy at Google and Lime and serving as a Democratic Hill aide. When the Biden administration proposed new protections earlier this month to prevent law enforcement from demanding…

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The head of the Russian private army Wagner claimed Saturday that his forces have taken control of the city of Bakhmut after the longest and most grinding battle of the Russia-Ukraine war, but Ukrainian defense officials denied it. In a video posted on Telegram, Wagner head Yevgeny Prigozhin said the city came under complete Russian control…

The international community will not fall in line with the pro-Western rules pushed by the G7 and not allow the US-led group to dominate world affairs, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Saturday.  “China will never accept the so-called rules imposed by the few. The international community does not and will not accept the G7-dominated Western rules…

NEW YORK – Dozens of fringe news websites, content farms and fake reviewers are using artificial intelligence to create inauthentic content online, according to two reports released on Friday. The misleading AI content included fabricated events, medical advice and celebrity death hoaxes, the reports said, raising fresh concerns that the transformative technology could rapidly reshape the misinformation landscape online. The…

Although it has claimed to be fighting Daesh* and other terrorist groups in Syria since 2014, the US military has never received permission from the Syrian government to operate there. In addition, US forces continue to help occupy the eastern third of the country under the guise of supporting allied Kurdish forces. Having previously claimed that a May 3 airstrike…

French prosecutors have issued an arrest warrant for Lebanon’s Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh, Arab News reported on 16 May. The warrant comes after Salameh failed to attend a court hearing in Paris. Prosecutors intended to press preliminary fraud charges, court documents and two sources said. Salameh has attempted to avoid arrest and has failed to show up for court…

The Russian branch of environmental group Greenpeace on Friday said it would shut down after authorities declared the group an “undesirable organization”, effectively banning it from operating. In a statement, Russia’s Prosecutor General said Greenpeace had tried to “interfere in the internal affairs of the state” and was “engaged in anti-Russian propaganda” by calling for sanctions against Moscow. The label…

Thales, a French multinational defence firm, is now facing a bribery probe from French prosecutors over allegations related to a contract to modernise the Indian Air Force’s (IAF) Dassault Mirage 2000 planes. Sanjay Bhandari, who claims to have assisted Thales in winning the $2.5 billion contract in 2011, has made the accusations, with the focus of the investigation on whether…

New developments: Air raid alerts were declared throughout Ukraine early Friday, with some areas reporting explosions. The U.S. overcounted the total of U.S. military aid provided to Ukraine by about $3 billion, a senior defense official and a military official said. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba discussed “ways to stop Russian aggression” in talks with Chinese envoy Li Hui, Ukraine…

BEIJING – China is considering transferring government ownership in the nation’s biggest bad debt managers to a unit of its sovereign wealth fund as part of a financial regulatory regime overhaul, according to people familiar with the matter. Under the current proposal, the Ministry of Finance will move its stakes in China Cinda Asset Management, China Great Wall Asset Management…

HELENA, Mont. (AP) — Five TikTok users filed a lawsuit to overturn a planned ban on the video sharing app in Montana. They argued in a legal complaint filed late Wednesday in federal court in Missoula that the law is an unconstitutional violation of free speech rights. They also say the state doesn’t have authority over matters of national security….

KYIV, Ukraine — Russia fired 30 cruise missiles against different parts of Ukraine early Thursday in the latest nighttime test of Ukrainian air defenses, which shot down 29 of them, officials said. One person was killed and two were wounded by a Russian missile that got through and struck an industrial building in the southern region of Odesa, according to…

  LONDON – Ukraine has rejected a Chinese suggestion to consider an immediate ceasefire in the country’s war with Russia. In a statement issued on Wednesday after a day of closed-door meetings with Ambassador Li Hui, China’s special mediator in the conflict, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said: “Ukraine does not accept any proposals that would involve the loss of…

Without approval from Washington, the best that Ukrainian airmen can hope for are lessons on technical language and tactical training on the ground, the outlet said on Wednesday. Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has been pressing his Western backers for fourth generation F-16 warplanes for months, arguing they are crucial for defending the country’s airspace amid a massive Russian missile campaign…

The world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange has been kicked off a major Australian payments service and banned by big four bank Westpac, with customers suddenly unable to deposit or withdraw funds from the platform. Binance Australia – the local arm of the $6.7 billion crypto exchange Binance – told customers on Thursday afternoon they would no longer be able to deposit…

Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu accused the US of using the western media to manipulate the outcome of the upcoming presidential and parliamentary elections in Turkiye. “The plan by the US intensifies actively. The reason of [the] Western media’s interference is the realization of the US’s plan,” Soylu told reporters. In the months leading up to the14 May elections, several…