buy – Radio Free

Sky TV to buy channel Three owner Discovery NZ for $1

Pacific Media Watch — Mon, 21 Jul 2025 23:06:19 +0000

By Anan Zaki, RNZ News business reporter

Sky TV has agreed to fully acquire TV3 owner Discovery New Zealand for $1.

Discovery NZ is a part of US media giant Warner Bros Discovery, and operates channel Three and online streaming platform ThreeNow.

NZX-listed Sky said the deal would be completed on a cash-free, debt-free basis, with completion expected on August 1.

READ MORE: Other TV3 reports

Sky expected the deal to deliver revenue diversification and uplift of around $95 million a year.

Sky expected Discovery NZ’s operations to deliver sustainable underlying earnings growth of at least $10 million from the 2028 financial year.

Sky chief executive Sophie Moloney said it was a compelling opportunity for the company, with net integration costs of about $6.5 million.

“This is a compelling opportunity for Sky that directly supports our ambition to be Aotearoa New Zealand’s most engaging and essential media company,” she said.

Confidential advance notice
Sky said it gave the Commerce Commission confidential advance notice of the transaction, and the commission did not intend to consider the acquisition further.

Warner Bros Discovery Australia and NZ managing director Michael Brooks said it was a “fantastic outcome” for both companies.

“The continued challenges faced by the New Zealand media industry are well documented, and over the past 12 months, the Discovery NZ team has worked to deliver a new, more sustainable business model following a significant restructure in 2024,” Brooks said.

“While this business is not commercially viable as a standalone asset in WBD’s New Zealand portfolio, we see the value Three and ThreeNow can bring to Sky’s existing offering of complementary assets.”

Sky said on completion, Discovery NZ’s balance sheet would be clear of some long-term obligations, including property leases and content commitments, and would include assets such as the ThreeNow platform.

Sky said irrespective of the transaction, the company was confident of achieving its 30 cents a share dividend target for 2026.

‘Massive change’ for NZ media – ThreeNews to continue
Founder of The Spinoff and media commentator Duncan Greive said the deal would give Sky more reach and was a “massive change” in New Zealand’s media landscape.

He noted Sky’s existing free-to-air presence via Sky Open (formerly Prime), but said acquiring Three gave it the second-most popular audience outlet on TV.

“Because of the inertia of how people use television, Three is just a much more accessible channel and one that’s been around longer,” Greive said.

“To have basically the second-most popular channel in the country as part of their stable just means they’ve got a lot more ad inventory, much bigger audiences.”

It also gave Sky another outlet for their content, and would allow it to compete further against TVNZ, both linear and online, Greive said.

He said there may be a question mark around the long-term future of Three’s news service, which was produced by Stuff.

No reference to ThreeNews
Sky made no reference to ThreeNews in its announcement. However, Stuff confirmed ThreeNews would continue for now.

“Stuff’s delivery of ThreeNews is part of the deal but there are also now lots of new opportunities ahead that we are excited to explore together,” Stuff owner Sinead Boucher said in a statement.

On the deal itself, Boucher said she was “delighted” to see Three back in New Zealand ownership under Sky.

“And who doesn’t love a $1 deal!” Boucher said, referring to her own $1 deal to buy Stuff from Australia’s Nine Entertainment in 2020.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by Pacific Media Watch.

“Buy More U.S. Weapons”: "Daddy" Trump Pushes Military-Industrial Complex on NATO Countries

Democracy Now! — Thu, 26 Jun 2025 14:58:57 +0000

This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

“Buy More U.S. Weapons”: "Daddy" Trump Pushes Military-Industrial Complex on NATO Countries

Democracy Now! — Thu, 26 Jun 2025 14:58:57 +0000

This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

“Buy More U.S. Weapons”: “Daddy” Trump Pushes Military-Industrial Complex on NATO Countries

Democracy Now! — Thu, 26 Jun 2025 12:49:33 +0000

President Donald Trump has returned to Washington after a NATO summit where leaders agreed to increase their military spending to 5% of GDP by 2035, more than doubling the current target of 2%. The increase comes after years of pressure from Trump, who accuses other countries in the military alliance of not spending enough. “What he is interested in is catering to the military-industrial complex of the United States,” says Gilbert Achcar, emeritus professor of development studies and international relations at SOAS, University of London. “When he asks these NATO countries to increase their military expenditure, he means 'buy more U.S. weapons.' That’s what he is doing. He’s a salesperson for the military-industrial complex.”

This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

Former “We Buy Ugly Houses” Franchise Owner to Plead Guilty in Fraud Scheme That Cost Investors $40 Million

by Anjeanette Damon and Mollie Simon — Fri, 30 May 2025 19:30:00 +0000

by Anjeanette Damon and Mollie Simon

ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as they’re published.

The former operator of one of the largest HomeVestors of America franchises has agreed to plead guilty to federal wire fraud in connection with a sprawling Ponzi scheme targeting people who believed they were investing in his real estate empire.

Federal prosecutors in Texas identified 80 victims defrauded of nearly $40 million by Charles Carrier since 2018. Though Carrier agreed to plead guilty to only one count of felony wire fraud involving one $200,000 transfer, he admitted to the broader scheme as part of the deal and agreed to pay restitution — the amount of which has yet to be determined.

The charge also carries a maximum 20-year prison sentence and the possibility of millions of dollars in fines. A federal judge will decide the sentence.

Carrier owned Dallas-based C&C Residential Properties, one of the most successful franchises in the HomeVestors chain, which is known for its “We Buy Ugly Houses” slogan. HomeVestors terminated Carrier’s franchise in October 2024, after receiving a tip that he had been defrauding investors. It has since sued him for infringing on the company’s assiduously protected trademark. Carrier has not yet responded to the lawsuit.

In a story published this month, ProPublica detailed how Carrier bilked millions of dollars from scores of investors across Texas, including both wealthy businesspeople and older adults of more modest means who depended on the investment income for daily expenses. According to new court documents, losses to individual investors range from $35,000 to $11.6 million. The plea agreement was filed in court two weeks after the article was published.

Carrier took loans from investors to finance his house-flipping business, initially using the money to buy and renovate older houses to sell for a profit. Carrier promised each loan would be secured by an ownership interest in a house and that he would pay 8%-10% interest in monthly installments over the course of the loan.

For many years, investors received reliable monthly payments. In 2018, however, Carrier started taking out multiple loans on individual properties, sometimes providing investors with deeds he never recorded and racking up debt far beyond the value of the houses, according to court documents. Carrier also admitted to forging signatures and notary stamps so he could sell properties without notifying the investors or paying off their notes, according to court documents. Carrier admitted to using investor money to “pay personal credit card balances, business operating expenses and interest obligations to earlier investors,” according to court documents.

The fact that Carrier’s plea deal contains only a single charge left some victims even more angry.

“That’s ridiculous,” said Ron Carver, who lost $300,000 and whose father lost $200,000 before he died. “They will let him plead out and he might get a slap on the wrist.”

A spokesperson for the U.S. attorney’s office said they can’t comment on a pending case.

Carrier’s lawyer, Tom Pappas, said it wasn’t Carrier’s “intention to defraud anybody of their money.”

“Pretty much all of his money was put into his business to try and make it successful so investors would be successful,” Pappas said, adding that Carrier didn’t fund a lavish lifestyle. Without providing details, Pappas said changes in the real estate market “overtook” Carrier and “the thing just got away from him.”

Although Carrier agreed to plead to only one count, the entirety of the fraud identified by prosecutors will be considered by the judge during sentencing.

Pappas said Carrier is “committed to repaying every investor every dollar he can to make them whole.” Pappas said he expects the restitution will likely be “much lower” than the $40 million in losses identified by prosecutors, as the lawyers are wrangling over the value of the investors’ losses. In February, Carrier signed an asset liquidation agreement allowing prosecutors to oversee the sale of his remaining properties, with the proceeds going toward restitution.

Pappas said he expects Carrier will serve time in prison.

“Depending on the amount of the loss, there’s a strong possibility he may go to jail,” he said. “But again, we are doing everything we can to make everybody as whole as we can.”

This content originally appeared on ProPublica and was authored by by Anjeanette Damon and Mollie Simon.

"Mt. Everest of Corruption": Crypto Investors Buy Access to President

Democracy Now! — Wed, 28 May 2025 15:52:40 +0000

This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

“Mt. Everest of Corruption”: Crypto Investors Buy Access to President; Trump Expands Bitcoin Holdings

Democracy Now! — Wed, 28 May 2025 12:50:34 +0000

We speak with Robert Weissman of Public Citizen about Donald Trump’s various conflicts of interest after Trump hosted a private dinner at his Virginia golf club for the 220 top buyers of his $TRUMP cryptocurrency. The Trump family has also announced it is expanding its holdings in cryptocurrencies, with the Trump tech startup set to raise $2.5 billion to invest in bitcoin. “There’s millions of losers for every few winners in the crypto game. Trump is rigging the rules to make sure he’s on the winning side, but regular people are going to be hurt,” says Weissman, who was among protesters outside Trump’s crypto dinner. He adds that the Trump family’s crypto business is part of an “overall authoritarian mission” to reward the rich and powerful by skirting the rules while bringing the full weight of the government down on immigrants, protesters and other voices of dissent.

This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

“Incalculable” Damage: How a “We Buy Ugly Houses” Franchise Left a Trail of Financial Wreckage Across Texas

by Anjeanette Damon and Mollie Simon — Tue, 13 May 2025 09:00:00 +0000

by Anjeanette Damon and Mollie Simon

ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as they’re published.

Ronald Carver was skeptical when his investment adviser first tried to sell him on an “ugly houses” investment opportunity eight years ago. But once the Texas retiree heard the details, it seemed like a no-lose situation.

Carver would lend money to Charles Carrier, owner of Dallas-based C&C Residential Properties, a high-producing franchise in the HomeVestors of America house-flipping chain known for its ubiquitous “We Buy Ugly Houses” advertisements. The business would then use the dollars to purchase properties in which Carver would receive an ownership stake securing his investment and an annual return of 9%, paid in monthly installments.

“Worst case, I would end up with a property worth more than what the loan was,” Carver said of the pitch.

Carver started with a $115,000 loan in 2017. And sure enough, the interest payments arrived each month.

He had worked three decades at a nuclear power plant, and retired without a pension and before he could collect Social Security. He and his wife lived off the investment income.

The deal seemed so good, Carver talked his elderly father into investing, starting with $50,000. As the monthly checks arrived as promised, both men increased their investments. By 2024, Carver estimates they had about $700,000 invested with Carrier.

Then, last fall, the checks stopped. The money Carver and his father had invested was gone.

Carrier is accused of orchestrating a yearslong Ponzi scheme, bilking tens of millions of dollars from scores of investors, according to multiple lawsuits and interviews with people who said they lost money. The financial wreckage is strewn across Texas, having swept up both wealthy investors and older people with modest incomes who dug into retirement savings on the advice of the same investment advisor used by Carver.

As early as 2020, Carrier had begun taking out multiple loans on individual properties — some of which he never owned. In cases reviewed by ProPublica, as many as five notes were recorded against a single property, far exceeding the property’s value. Carrier also failed to properly record many deeds that were supposed to secure the loans, accumulating more debt than he could ever repay while investors remained unaware they had no collateral for their investments.

“It’s incalculable the amount of damage this guy did,” said one investor who lost about $1 million and asked not to be named to avoid embarrassment and not to interfere with a criminal investigation into Carrier’s scheme. “He’s ruined some lives.”

Carrier, who declined an interview request, said in a brief phone conversation that he’s not trying to avoid responsibility for the harm he caused. “When this thing finally stopped, it was completely driven by me saying ‘enough’ and going to the people and saying, ‘Here’s the mess I’ve created,’” he said. “This is a mess created by me.”

Investors also blame HomeVestors. For nearly two decades, Carrier used the company’s carefully cultivated brand as the “largest homebuyer in the United States” to gain investors’ trust. They accuse HomeVestors of failing to provide oversight that could have prevented the fraud, despite claiming to hold its franchises accountable for best business practices. In its answers to their lawsuits, HomeVestors has denied responsibility for Carrier’s actions, claiming its franchises are independently operated, despite earning hundreds of thousands of dollars from Carrier’s business.

HomeVestors revoked Carrier’s franchise on Oct. 24, about the time interest payments stopped arriving in investors’ accounts. The company said it had received a tip on its ethics hotline — created in 2023, after ProPublica detailed predatory buying practices by multiple franchises. When confronted by HomeVestors, Carrier admitted that “he and his business had entered into debts that they could not pay,” a HomeVestors spokesperson said. The company reported him to the FBI. In May, HomeVestors filed suit against Carrier for trademark infringement and for not indemnifying it against these lawsuits.

“We take all allegations of misconduct incredibly seriously as demonstrated by our decisive action,” the spokesperson said. “It is truly disheartening for us that anyone who lent Mr. Carrier money was misled or harmed by his alleged fraudulent activity.”

Now, Carrier is under investigation by the Department of Justice, according to a recording of an April call between the lead prosecutor and potential victims. (The FBI and DOJ declined to comment.) A judge in one of the many lawsuits against Carrier has deemed allegations of fraudulent loans to be true because Carrier never answered the complaint. And the investors are in a race with one another to recoup even a small amount of what they lost, by either waiting for the DOJ to pay restitution, suing Carrier or trying to foreclose on properties still left in his portfolio.

Just months after learning they had lost all of their investments, and before any restitution could be paid, Carver’s father died.

Five notes for a property on Glen Forest Lane in Dallas given to investors between 2019 and 2023. Two of the notes were not recorded until 2024. (Obtained, collaged and highlighted by ProPublica) A Top-Performing Franchise

In 2005, Carrier opened a HomeVestors franchise in Dallas, where HomeVestors is headquartered. In the early days, records show, he relied on a handful of institutional lenders to finance his house purchases. Soon, the Wharton School of Business MBA who had come to house-flipping following a career at Pepsi and a food service equipment company, started cultivating his wealthy friends for loans.

Carrier didn’t fit any stereotype of a glad-handing huckster with a bad loan to sell. Those who knew him describe him as a serious person, “cordial but very direct.” He always had files in front of him, constantly focusing on his business. It made him seem trustworthy, one investor said.

At HomeVestors, he was held up as a model franchise operator. C&C Residential Properties routinely made the top volume and top closer lists and was even named franchise of the year. Carrier led training sessions at company conferences and described his business as “the largest and most successful HomeVestors franchise in the United States” — a claim that remained on the website for Carrier’s business through early May.

“Chas Carrier, for maybe 15 years, was one of the golden boys at HomeVestors,” said Ben Ahern, who over two decades worked for a HomeVestors franchise and later owned one before leaving the company in 2021. “Internally, it was like, ‘Do whatever Chas Carrier’s doing.’”

It isn’t unusual for HomeVestors franchises to rely on private investors to finance their house-flipping. Banks aren’t typically interested in house-flipping loans, which are often short-term and riskier than a standard mortgage. Because of that risk, investors who lend to house-flippers earn a substantially higher return.

To further minimize their risk and ensure they had a legitimate ownership stake in the house, savvy investors would verify the transaction with an independent title company to research whether there were other liens against the property and then record the deed with the county recorder. But many of Carrier’s investors, after years of consistent payments led them to trust him, let Carrier handle recording the deeds and did not confirm that he’d done so.

As Carrier grew his business, he began relying more on individual investors. ProPublica identified through public records at least 124 people who have lent money to Carrier since 2009. Not all of them have lost money.

Carrier’s search for new investors was aided by Robert Welborn, an investment adviser in Granbury, Texas, southwest of Dallas. Welborn had built a network of clients in Granbury, a city of about 12,000 people on the Brazos River, through church, friendships and referrals. Many of his clients were older and had modest nest eggs, which Welborn said were “well diversified.” He said he built a relationship with Carrier in 2012, after researching his background for about two months. That Carrier was a successful franchisee lent him credibility, Welborn said.

“I never imagined the No. 1 franchisee with a fast-growing franchise company, HomeVestors,” would defraud investors, he said.

At the time, Welborn also solicited new investors with invitations to steak dinners where they would hear his pitch. An investment in Carrier’s business, according to Welborn’s sales material, which also featured the HomeVestors caveman mascot, Ug, was both lucrative and secure. “Your investment is protected,” the sales material assured potential clients.

For loans he sent Carrier’s way, Welborn earned a 2% commission, he said. Welborn had at least two dozen clients who invested with Carrier, most of whom had multiple loans to him, according to a public records search. He would not comment on how many of his clients invested with Carrier.

Many investors were happy for years — in some cases, more than a decade. The interest payments came in like clockwork. A lot of Welborns’ clients relied on the payments for retirement income.

“I was real tickled with it,” said Tom Walls, 85, who said he lost $50,000 of his retirement savings by investing with Carrier.

Some investors noticed small problems — a payment that arrived a few days late or an error on the paperwork to secure the loan. But Carrier always fixed the problems promptly, investors said.

“When you have this 10-year continuous, pleasant and mutually beneficial relationship, you build up a great deal of trust,” said John Moses, who estimates he lost more than $1 million to Carrier.

Looking back, the investors who spoke with ProPublica said they wished they had taken those warning signs more seriously.

(Max Erwin for ProPublica) “He Just Pencil Whipped Those Deeds”

By fall 2024, Carrier’s payments to his lenders stopped. That’s when the house of cards fell.

Carrier had spent that summer scrambling for money. Not only did Carrier have to make loan payments to scores of investors, but he also needed to keep up with the HomeVestors franchise fees and advertising payments. The company requires its franchises to make regular reports on sales and to open their books for audits, to provide financial statements when requested, and to report all assets and liabilities. Any of those reports could have called into question Carrier’s ability to stay solvent. But, according to former franchise owners and employees, HomeVestors’ audits of its franchises are mostly geared toward ensuring they’re paying all their franchise fees, which are based on sales.

Before Carrier’s tangle of fraudulent loans collapsed and was exposed in court, there were signs of trouble.

In 2016, Carrier was fined by the Texas Real Estate Commission for managing properties without a license. The HomeVestors franchise agreement requires owners to follow all laws and regulations, particularly real estate regulations. In 2020, two title insurance companies issued special alerts on Carrier’s business, advising their title officers not to enter into transactions with him without further legal and underwriting review. Carrier hasn’t paid taxes on some of his properties since early 2023, according to court and public records, another violation of his franchise agreement. Despite the apparent violations, HomeVestors didn’t terminate Carrier’s franchise agreement.

“I don’t really think they do have much in place to prevent something like this,” Ahern, the former HomeVestors franchise owner, said of the company. “HomeVestors at the time didn’t seem to have an internal system policing how franchises finance buying properties.”

A HomeVestors spokesperson said the company focuses on its franchise customers’ experiences selling their homes and does not “dictate” how franchises raise capital. “The more than 950 franchises of HomeVestors are independent businesses with a wide variety of finance options available to them,” the spokesperson said.

Last spring, Carrier began borrowing against his future receipts in exchange for cash advances with exorbitant fees and annualized interest rates that he later claimed ranged as high as 600%. Between May and October, he did this at least seven times, racking up more than $1.2 million in debt beyond what he owed his investors, exhibits included with court filings show. By fall, he owed more than $75,000 in payments a week, according to the original terms. Seven companies filed suit over the cash-advance agreements, accusing him of default. Carrier has denied the allegations of default and has countersued four of the companies, claiming he was charged unreasonably high interest rates.

The lending scheme appears to have fallen in a gray area for state and federal securities regulations. It’s unclear whether the promissory notes Carrier issued to investors meet the definition of a security, two experts told ProPublica.

In October, Carrier’s investors began to confront him about the missing payments, including Jeff Daly and Steve Needham, two of Carrier’s largest investors who had been lending him money for years. Carrier came clean to Daly, admitting he had been running a lending scheme for “several” years, according to a lawsuit Daly and Needham filed. He told Needham he had taken out multiple loans on individual properties without disclosing them to the investors, according to the lawsuit. The two men claimed in their lawsuit, which resulted in default judgments against Carrier, that combined they had lost $13.5 million to Carrier.

The investor who spoke to ProPublica and asked not to be named said in an interview that Carrier broke down in tears when confronted about losing more than $1 million of the investor’s money. Carrier admitted the loans paid for his operating expenses, not for buying and refurbishing houses, the investor said.

“He just pencil whipped those deeds at the end,” the investor said, explaining that Carrier drew up documents but didn’t record them. Because the deeds were never recorded, the investor had no lien on the properties and therefore no collateral. Some deeds were for houses that Carrier didn’t own or never bought, the investor said. “It was a complete fabrication.”

Welborn’s clients, who typically invested much smaller amounts with Carrier, also learned of the house-flipper’s collapse in the fall, when their payments stopped. Carver said that Welborn called him a couple of days after the October payment was due and said, “Hey, I’m sorry to tell you this, but Chas has called me and admitted to fraud.”

Carver said he got in the car and drove to Welborn’s office, where he learned the nightmarish truth that all the money Carrier had taken was gone.

“A Life-Changing Hit”

Investors are deploying a variety of strategies to get their money back — some of which pit bigger investors against smaller ones and early investors against more recent ones. Those who acted quickly are recovering some money through foreclosures and lawsuit settlements. Although Carrier is denying allegations in lawsuits brought by the cash-advance companies, he’s not fighting individual investors who are suing him. Three of their lawsuits have resulted in judgments against Carrier, and he has so far not defended himself against the others.

Welborn said he’s doing his best to help his clients recover their money by providing the necessary paperwork, connecting them with buyers for the houses used as collateral and researching lien histories on the homes. When he first learned of the scheme, Welborn tried to convince his clients to sign on with his lawyer to sue Carrier. The lawyer, Anthony Cuesta, hoped a court would seize Carrier’s assets to help recover the investors’ lost funds. But he quickly learned there were too many investors and not enough equity in the properties to fund the litigation. Now, many of Welborn’s clients are waiting for the FBI and DOJ to act, while wealthier investors are foreclosing on properties and making them ineligible to be used for restitution. Welborn said some of his clients have been paid restitution through a DOJ-appointed real estate agent’s sale of Carrier’s properties, but he declined to provide details.

Carver isn’t optimistic: “We are not going to get a dime.”

At least one investor went after Welborn individually. According to a Securities and Exchange Commission disclosure, the claim was settled for $130,000. In his response to the SEC disclosure, Welborn denied breaching fiduciary duty to the client and said he “resolved the claim to avoid controversy.” Welborn told ProPublica that $120,000 of the settlement came from the sale of the house used as collateral for the family’s loan and he paid $10,000 for their attorney fees.

Welborn said he’s “devastated” by the loss of his clients’ money. “But every day I drag myself to work with God’s help and spend most of my day helping lenders with their own personal restitution battles,” he said.

Some investors said they will have to go back to work after having retired or are scrambling to find some way to replace their lost income.

Carver wishes he had paid more attention to red flags, like paperwork errors. But the monthly checks were so reliable, he didn’t listen to his gut. Or his wife.

“Every time I added money, my wife would say, ‘Don’t do it,’” Carver said. “My mother, too. She would push on my dad not to add any more. But he liked getting the monthly check.”

Carver’s dad, Larry, believed it was the best performing investment he had ever made. When the money disappeared, Carver went to work trying to recoup some of it. Maybe he could write it off on his taxes, he thought. He wanted to get at least something back for his dad. But Larry was in ill health, and in February, he died.

“My dad passed thinking he lost all of his money to this guy,” Carver said, adding he hopes Carrier “goes to jail for a very long time.”

The investor who asked not to be named said the loss was “a life-changing hit.” He had retired at 53, after sticking it out in a job he hated until his stock options vested. When he finally quit, he put the money into Carrier’s business and lived off of the monthly payments. He may have to go back to work.

“He was an arrogant son of a bitch,” the investor said. “It was gone before he told anyone there was a problem. That’s the unforgivable piece. He squandered it all away. And he had to get backed into a corner before he admitted it was all gone.”

Byard Duncan contributed reporting.

This content originally appeared on ProPublica and was authored by by Anjeanette Damon and Mollie Simon.

Vietnam agrees to buy US F-16 fighters, defense website says

Mike Firn for RFA — Mon, 21 Apr 2025 05:22:26 +0000

BANGKOK – Vietnam has reached an agreement with the United States to buy F-16 fighter jets, a defense website said, citing industry representatives and a former U.S. government official.

Hanoi will acquire at least 24 of the Lockheed Martin single-engine fighters which, combined with other U.S. military ware, could add up to the biggest ever defense deal between two countries, 19FortyFive said Saturday. It is likely Hanoi will opt for the F-16 V model, which Lockheed calls the most advanced fourth-generation fighter, the site said.

The U.S. is also considering selling Lockheed Martin’s Hercules C-130 military transport plane to Vietnam, according to Reuters news agency. The U.S. lifted a longstanding arms embargo on its former enemy Vietnam in 2016.

In 2022, Hanoi said it was ready to reduce its heavy reliance on Russian arms, which accounted for around 80% of total weapons imports at the time.

A year later, during then-President Joe Biden’s visit to Hanoi, Vietnam and the U.S. began talking in earnest about a major deal.

It may have come to fruition this month, after Vietnam scrambled to cut its record trade surplus with the U.S. in the face of threatened 46% tariffs.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh said earlier in April that Vietnam would buy more American weapons as part of addressing the trade imbalance between the two countries.

The Vietnamese foreign ministry did not answer Radio Free Asia’s calls about the reported F-16 deal. An email to the U.S. State Department was unanswered at the time of publication.

US military trainers

In November last year, Vietnam received delivery of five Beechcraft single engine turboprop aircraft, the first batch of 12 ordered from the U.S.

The planes, built by Textron Aviation, are used to train fighter jet pilots, which sparked speculation a deal on the F-16 was close.

This photograph taken on Oct. 21, 2015 shows a Vietnam Air Force Sukhoi Su-30MK2 multirole fighter aircraft, similar to the jet fighter that disappeared off the Vietnamese coast on June 14, 2016.

(STR/AFP)

Russia has supplied most of Vietnam’s military planes, including 35 Sukhoi Su-30s and more than 30 Su-22s but there has been growing concern about safety and maintenance of the ageing fleet.

At the start of last year, a Vietnam Air Force Su-22 tactical fighter-bomber lost control and crashed during a routine training flight in Quang Nam province.

In November, a Russian Yak-130 training aircraft exploded mid-air in Binh Dinh province. Its two pilots ejected and survived.

Chinese concerns

Military deals with the U.S. could alarm Vietnam’s communist neighbor China, whose president and defense minister both visited Vietnam this month.

China’s state-backed Global Times newspaper was critical of possible U.S.-Vietnam military ties when the Biden administration raised the prospect of F-16 sales two years ago.

It cited defense experts as saying a deal “serving the U.S.’ hegemonic goals of containing China, would stir up troubles that sabotage peace and stability in the region.”

Edited by Taejun Kang and Stephen Wright

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Mike Firn for RFA.

Are the brands you buy profiting from prisons?

The Real News Network — Mon, 14 Apr 2025 16:53:33 +0000

This content originally appeared on The Real News Network and was authored by The Real News Network.

Elon Musk’s money can’t buy Wisconsin Supreme Court seat

Democracy Now! — Wed, 02 Apr 2025 15:43:37 +0000

This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

Elon Musk Fails In Attempt to Buy Wisconsin Supreme Court as Judge Susan Crawford Beats Brad Schimel

Democracy Now! — Wed, 02 Apr 2025 13:39:59 +0000

This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

Elon Musk Fails in Attempt to Buy Wisconsin Supreme Court as Judge Susan Crawford Beats Brad Schimel

Democracy Now! — Wed, 02 Apr 2025 12:15:10 +0000

We go to Madison, Wisconsin, to speak with The Nation's John Nichols about Tuesday's pivotal state Supreme Court election, in which liberal Judge Susan Crawford convincingly defeated conservative candidate Brad Schimel. Crawford’s election is a major victory for Democrats after billionaire Trump ally Elon Musk poured about $25 million into the Wisconsin race, helping to make it the most expensive judicial election in U.S. history. “This is a huge signal from a battleground state that Americans are genuinely upset, genuinely angry, I think, with Trump and with Musk,” says Nichols. Tuesday also saw a pair of special House elections in Florida where Republicans held both seats, helping to maintain the party’s narrow majority in Congress. While Democrats were unlikely to flip the deep-red districts, Nichols notes “there was a huge shift in both of the Florida districts toward the Democratic candidates.”

This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

Can Elon Musk buy Wisconsin?

Democracy Now! — Thu, 27 Mar 2025 20:00:33 +0000

This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

Can Elon Musk Buy Wisconsin? Ari Berman on Billionaire-Funded Attempt to Flip State Supreme Court

Democracy Now! — Thu, 27 Mar 2025 14:57:01 +0000

This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

Can Elon Musk Buy Wisconsin? Ari Berman on Billionaire-Funded Attempt to Flip State Supreme Court

Democracy Now! — Thu, 27 Mar 2025 12:26:04 +0000

After spending over a quarter of a billion dollars on Donald Trump’s presidential election campaign, Elon Musk is pouring money into a Supreme Court election in Wisconsin. Musk has spent more than $18 million to support Trump-backed candidate Brad Schimel over liberal Susan Crawford and has been paying Wisconsin voters $100 to help flip the state’s top court. This election could impact abortion rights, unions and Republicans’ ability to keep gerrymandered districts in place to control Congress. “The level of corruption at play here, the level of money at play here, really is a warning sign for what’s happening to our democracy,” says Ari Berman, voting rights correspondent for Mother Jones magazine.

This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick’s Call to Buy Tesla Stock Violates Federal Ethics Rules

Newswire Editor — Thu, 20 Mar 2025 20:01:58 +0000

In an appearance on Fox News yesterday evening, U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick encouraged viewers to buy stock in Tesla, the car company owned by Elon Musk, a “special government employee” advising the president and a leader of the so-called U.S. DOGE Service (DOGE).

This continues a worrying pattern, seen since Inauguration Day, of President Donald Trump and his allies attempting to manipulate the system to enrich wealthy donors. Thus far, the second Trump administration has opened the door to a culture of corruption that rewards wealthy special interests with political favors and extreme influence.

Even Trump’s first administration acknowledged that government officials are prohibited from endorsing “any product, service or enterprise” when White House ethics lawyers rebuked Kellyanne Conway for promoting Ivanka Trump’s products.

But the new administration has senior officials with thousands of documented conflicts of interest and apparently no ethics enforcement. By using a television appearance, while in his official capacity as Commerce secretary, to call on Americans to buy a specific stock, Secretary Lutnick has clearly violated well-established federal ethics rules.

Kedric Payne, vice president, general counsel, and senior director for ethics at Campaign Legal Center, issued the following statement:

“The president’s Cabinet members take an oath to serve the American people, and with that oath comes the ability and privilege to exercise a vast amount of power. Such power is intended to promote the public interest and is legally barred from promoting personal business interests.

“Secretary Lutnick’s actions violate the ethics rules that were enacted to hold public officials accountable to the American people. His statement is part of a pattern of behavior showing that Trump’s indifference to ethics is trickling down to his most senior officials.

“The American people deserve a government that prioritizes public good. Most people will conclude that promoting a stock is not tied to any public good and ethics laws agree. The Office of Government Ethics and Commerce ethics officials should hold Lutnick accountable and reassure the public that their officials will face consequences if they use their public office to enrich themselves or their allies.”

This content originally appeared on Common Dreams and was authored by Newswire Editor.

Ethically Challenged Commerce Sec. Lutnick Tells National TV Audience to Buy Tesla Stock As His Family Business Apparently Holds ~$840M In Tesla

Newswire Editor — Thu, 20 Mar 2025 19:39:37 +0000

During a March 19 national television appearance, billionaire Trump Commerce Secretary and “close” Elon Musk associate, Howard Lutnick, urged the public to “buy Tesla” stock -- a glaring ethics violation in light of government watchdog Accountable.US’ new analysis finding that Lutnick’s family-run financial services firm Cantor Fitzgerald reported holding nearly $840 million in Tesla Inc. in its most recent holdings report. Conveniently, Lutnick’s appeal to would-be average investors came on the same day Cantor Fitzgerald analysts upgraded Tesla to a “buy” rating.

“This is what abuse of power for personal and family gain looks like,” said Accountable.US Executive Director Tony Carrk. “When the billionaire Commerce Secretary used the Trump administration bully pulpit to try to rocket Tesla stock value, he conveniently forgot to mention his family business empire holds nearly $840 million in the company. While Secretary Lutnick is busy making TV appearances in a government capacity to potentially enrich his family business and his close ally Elon Musk, the rollercoaster Trump tariff policies he helped orchestrate are doing little to lower costs for working people – in fact quite the opposite.”

Accountable.US has previously documented billions of dollars of interests Cantor Fitzgerald is involved in that could directly benefit from his role as Commerce Secretary. While Lutnick has claimed he would divest from his business empire upon becoming Commerce Secretary, nearly two dozen of his associates have stated that his “grip on his various businesses is bolted tight” and “his knot of conflicts is unlikely to loosen easily.” After his confirmation, Lutnick then gave “control” of his businesses to his two 20-something-year-old sons.

This content originally appeared on Common Dreams and was authored by Newswire Editor.

Hungry North Korean soldiers sell military gear to buy food

Ahn Chang Gyu for RFA Korean — Sat, 15 Mar 2025 13:03:13 +0000

Read a version of this story in Korean

Hungry North Korean soldiers are selling some of their military equipment to buy food, prompting officials to conduct inspections that have caught some soldiers without all their issued gear, residents in the country told Radio Free Asia.

Though the country’s military is often said to be under-supplied, military-grade items tend to be of better quality than products civilians can obtain, so are viewed as desirable.

Weapons are used often during training, but personal gear like tents, lunch boxes, canteens and waterproof rice containers are not used as often, so some soldiers figure they won’t be missed.

RFA has reported in the past that soldiers often go hungry, and some of them even steal from residents get food.

The inspections began earlier this month, and will now happen on a regular basis, a resident of the northeastern province of North Hamgyong told RFA Korean on condition of anonymity for safety reasons.

“The authorities recently determined that some young soldiers are selling their military-issued gear or giving it to people they know because they are hungry and need money,” he said. “In fact, quite a few soldiers during this inspection were caught without their gear that they were supposed to have.”

Two items -- canteens and waterproof rice bags -- are particularly sought after, he said.

Those who were caught without all their issued gear were going to be severely punished, he said.

“They will be questioned about how they disposed of their military gear,” he said. “Measures will likely be taken such as having them bring back their gear or paying for the missing items.”

Not fed enough

A unit in the northwestern province of North Pyongan conducted the surprise inspection by instructing the soldiers to assemble for a combat exercise in an open field, a resident there told RFA on condition of anonymity to speak freely.

“I heard this from a soldier who frequently visits my house,” he said. “The items that were mainly raised during the inspection were military rice containers and personal tents. There was also unit that was missing several shovels.”

He said that the rice container is something that everyone needs, and that the tents can be used to cover holes in the roofs of homes and other buildings.

In North Korea, able-bodied men are required to serve 10 years in the 1.2 million-strong military after high school, from around age 18, while able-bodied women must serve seven years.

But rations can be small, and RFA has reported that new recruits plead with their parents for food soon after enlisting.

“Some newly enlisted soldiers are so hungry that they will secretly sell their military-issued supplies,” he said. “It will be difficult to completely eradicate this phenomenon unless chronic problems such as hunger are resolved.”

Translated by Claire S. Lee. Edited by Eugene Whong and Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Ahn Chang Gyu for RFA Korean.

Did Left Journalists Buy Into Right-Wing Ideology–or Were They Bought?

Ari Paul — Thu, 13 Mar 2025 19:35:52 +0000

Owned (Hachette, 2025), by Eoin Higgins, traces the relationship between tech industry barons and two former left-wing journalists.

Matt Taibbi, once a populist writer who criticized big banks (Rolling Stone, 4/5/10; NPR, 11/6/10), has aligned himself with Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, the kind of slimy protector of the ruling economic order Taibbi once despised. Putting his Occupy Wall Street days behind him, Taibbi has fallen into the embrace of the reactionary Young America’s Foundation. He recently shared a bill with other right-wing pundits like Jordan Peterson, Eric Bolling and Lara Logan. Channeling the spirit of Richard Nixon, he frets about “bullying campus Marxism” (Substack, 6/12/20).

Meanwhile, Glenn Greenwald, who helped expose National Security Agency surveillance (Guardian, 6/11/13; New York Times, 10/23/14), has buddied up with extreme right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, notorious for falsely claiming that the parents of murdered children at Sandy Hook Elementary were crisis actors. That’s in addition to Greenwald’s closeness to Tucker Carlson, the ex–Fox News host who has platformed the white nationalist Great Replacement Theory and Holocaust revisionism.

This is just a taste of what has caused many former friends, colleagues and admirers to ask what happened to make these one-time heroes of left media sink into the online cultural crusade against the trans rights movement (Substack, 6/8/22), social media content moderation (C-SPAN, 3/9/23) and legal accountability for Donald Trump (Twitter, 4/5/23).

Both writers gave up coveted posts at established media outlets for a new and evolving mediasphere that allows individual writers to promote their work independently. Both have had columns at the self-publishing platform Substack, which relies on investment from conservative tech magnate Marc Andreessen (Reuters, 3/30/21; CJR, 4/1/21). Greenwald hosts System Update on Rumble, a conservative-friendly version of YouTube underwritten by Peter Thiel (Wall Street Journal, 5/19/21; New York Times, 12/13/24), the anti-woke crusader known for taking down Gawker.

High-tech platforms

Some wonder if their political conversion is related to their departure from traditional journalism to new, high-tech platforms for self-publishing and self-production. In Owned: How Tech Billionaires on the Right Bought the Loudest Voices of the Left (2025), Eoin Higgins focuses on the machinations of the reactionary tech industry barons, who live by a Randian philosophy where they are the hard-working doers of society, while the nattering nabobs of negativism speak only for the ungrateful and undeserving masses. Higgins’ book devotes about a chapter and a half to Elon Musk and his takeover of Twitter, but Musk is refreshingly not the centerpiece. (Higgins has been a FAIR contributor, and FAIR editor Jim Naureckas is quoted in the book.)

The tech billionaire class’s desire to crush critical reporting and create new boss-friendly media isn’t just ideological. Higgins’ story documents how these capitalists have always wanted to create a media environment that enables them to do one thing: make as much money as possible. And what stands in their way? Liberal Democrats and their desire to regulate industry (Guardian, 6/26/24).

In Higgins’ narrative, these billionaires originally saw Greenwald as a dangerous member of the fourth estate, largely because their tech companies depended greatly on a relationship with the US security state. But as both Greenwald and Taibbi drifted rightward in their politics, these new media capitalists were able to entice them over to their side on their new platforms.

Capitalists buying and creating media outfits to influence policy is not new—think of Jeff Bezos’ acquisition of the Washington Post (8/5/13; Extra!, 3/14). But Higgins sees a marriage of convenience between these two former stars of the left and a set of reactionary bosses who cultivated their hatred for establishment media for the industry’s political ends.

Less ideological than material

Matt Taibbi (X, 2/15/24) learned the hard way that cozying up to Musk and “repeatedly declining to criticize” him was not enough not avoid Musk’s censorship on X.

Higgins is not suggesting that Thiel and Andreesen are handing Taibbi and Greenwald a check along with a set of right-wing talking points. Instead, Higgins has applied Noam Chomsky and Edward Herman’s propaganda model, which they used to explain US corporate media in Manufacturing Consent, to the new media ecosystem of the alt-right.

Higgins even shows us that the alliance between these journalists and the lords of tech is shaky, and the relationship can be damaged when these tech lords are competing with each other. For example, right-wing multibillionaire Musk bought Twitter, eventually rebranding it as X. Taibbi, who boosted Musk’s takeover and the ouster of the old Twitter regime, chose to overlook the fact that Musk’s new regime, despite a promise of ushering in an era of free speech, censored a significant amount of Twitter content. Taibbi finally spoke up when Musk instituted a “blanket search ban” of Substack links, thus hurting Taibbi’s bottom line. In other words, Taibbi’s allegiance to Musk was less ideological as it was material.

Greenwald and Taibbi have created a world where they are angry at “Big Tech,” except not the tech lords on whom their careers depend.

Lured to the tech lords

Owned addresses the record of these two enigmatic journalists, and their relationship to tech bosses, in splendid detail. In what is perhaps the most interesting part, Higgins explains how these Big Tech tycoons originally distrusted Greenwald, because of his work on the Snowden case. Over time, though, their political aims began to align, forging a new quasi-partnership.

As the writer Alex Gendler (Point, 2/3/25) explained, these capitalists are “libertarians who soured on the idea of democracy after realizing that voters might use their rights to restrict the power of oligarchs like themselves.” Taibbi and Greenwald, meanwhile, became disaffected with liberalism’s social justice politics. And thus a common ground was found.

In summarizing these men’s careers, Higgins finds that early on, both exhibited anger management problems and an inflated sense of self-importance. What we learn along the way is that there has always been conflict between their commitment to journalism and their own self-obsession. We see the latter win, and lure our protagonists closer to the tech lords.

Higgins charts Greenwald’s career, from a lawyer who ducked away from his duties to argue with conservatives on Town Hall forums, to his blogging years, to his break from the Intercept, the outlet he helped create.

We see a man who has always had idiosyncratic politics, with leftism less a description of his career and more an outside branding by fans during the Snowden story. Higgins shows how Greenwald, like so many, fell into a trap at an early age of finding the soul of his journalism in online fighting, rather than working the street, a flaw that has forever warped his worldview.

Right-wing spirals

As the lawyer for a white supremacist accused by the Center for Constitutional Rights of conspiring in a shooting spree that left two dead and nine wounded, Glenn Greenwald said, “I find that the people behind these lawsuits are truly so odious and repugnant, that creates its own motivation for me” (Orcinus, 5/20/19).

The book is welcome, as it comes after many left-wing journalists offered each other explanations for Taibbi and Greenwald’s right-wing spirals. Some have wondered if Greenwald simply reverted to his early days of being an attorney and errand boy for white supremacist Matt Hale (New York Times, 3/9/05; Orcinus, 5/20/19), when he used to rant against undocumented immigration because “unmanageably endless hordes of people pour over the border in numbers far too large to assimilate” makes “impossible the preservation of any national identity” (Unclaimed Territory, 12/3/05).

Higgins gives us both sides of Greenwald. In one heartbreaking passage, he reports that Greenwald’s late husband had even tried to hide Greenwald’s phone to wean him off social media for his own well-being.

In a less sympathetic passage, we see that of all the corporate journalists in the world, it is tech writer Taylor Lorenz who has become the object of his obsessive, explosive Twitter ire. Her first offense was running afoul of Andreessen, one of Substack’s primary financers. Her second was investigating the woman behind the anti-trans Twitter account, Libs of TikTok (Washington Post, 4/19/22).

In Taibbi, we find a hungry and aggressive writer with little ideological grounding—which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, except that it leaves one vulnerable to manipulative forces. Higgins shows us a son of a journalist who had a lot of advantages in life, and yet still feels aggrieved, largely because details of his libidinous proclivities in post-Soviet Russia made him vulnerable to the MeToo campaign (Washington Post, 12/15/17). It’s not hard to see how the sting of organized feminist retribution would inspire the surly enfant terrible to abandon a mission to afflict the comfortable and become the Joker.

Right-wing for other reasons

Naturally, Owned doesn’t tell the whole story. While Musk’s Twitter has become a right-wing vehicle (Atlantic, 5/23/23; Al Jazeera, 8/13/24; PBS, 8/13/24), a great many left and liberal writers and new outlets still find audiences on Substack. At the same time, many of the platform’s users threatened to boycott Substack (Fast Company, 12/14/23) after it was revealed how much Nazi content it promoted (Atlantic, 11/28/23). And while Substack and Rumble certainly harnessed Taibbi and Greenwald’s realignment, many other left journalists have gone right for other reasons.

Big Tech doesn’t explain why Max Blumenthal, the son of Clinton family consigliere Sidney Blumenthal, gave up his investigations of the extreme right (Democracy Now!, 9/4/09) for Covid denialism (World Socialist Web Site, 4/13/22) and a brief stint as an Assadist version of Jerry Seinfeld (Twitter, 4/16/23). Christian Parenti, a former Nation correspondent covering conflict and climate change (Grist, 7/29/11) and the son of Marxist scholar Michael Parenti, has made a similar transition (Grayzone, 3/31/22; Compact, 12/31/24), and he is notoriously offline.

Higgins’ book, nevertheless, is a cautionary tale of how reactionary tech lords are exploiting a dying media sector, where readers are hungry for content, and laid off writers are even hungrier for paid work. They are working tirelessly to remake a new media world under their auspices.

To remake the media environment

Taibbi, who once upon a time spoke at Occupy Wall Street, has lazily morphed into a puppet for oligarchic state power, using his Substack (2/16/25) to literally repost Vice President J.D. Vance’s speech in support of the European far right in, of all cities on earth, Munich.

Thiel, Andreessen and Musk have the upper hand. While X is performing poorly (Washington Post, 9/1/24) and Tesla is battered by Musk’s plummeting public reputation, Musk’s political capital has skyrocketed, to the point that media outlets are calling him a shadow president in the new Trump administration (MSNBC, 12/20/24; Al Jazeera, 12/22/24). Substack is boasting growth (Axios, 2/22/24), as is Rumble (Motley Fool, 8/13/24).

Meanwhile, 2024 was a brutal year for journalism layoffs (Politico, 2/1/24). It saw an increase in newspaper closings that “has left more than half of the nation’s 3,143 counties—or 55 million people—with just one or no local news sources where they live” (Axios, 10/24/24). A year before that, Gallup (10/19/23) found that

the 32% of Americans who say they trust the mass media “a great deal” or “a fair amount” to report the news in a full, fair and accurate way ties Gallup’s lowest historical reading, previously recorded in 2016.

The future of the Intercept, which Greenwald helped birth, remains in doubt (Daily Beast, 4/15/24), as several of its star journalists have left to start Drop Site News (Democracy Now!, 7/9/24), which is hosted on—you guessed it—Substack.

Rather than provide an opening for more democratic media, this space is red meat for predatory capital. The lesson we should draw from Higgins’ book is that unless we build up an alternative, democratic media to fill this void, an ideologically driven cohort of rich industrialists want to monopolize the communication space, manufacturing consent for an economic order that, surprise, puts them at the top. And if Taibbi and Greenwald can find fame and fortune pumping alt-right vitriol on these platforms, many others will line up to be like them.

What Higgins implies is that Andreessen and Thiel’s quest to remake the media environment as mainstream sources flounder isn’t necessarily turning self-publishing journalists into right-wingers, but that the system rewards commentary—the more incendiary the better—rather than local journalists doing on-the-ground, public-service reporting in Anytown USA, where it’s needed the most.

Greenwald and Taibbi’s stature in the world of journalism, on the other hand, is waning as they further dig themselves into the right-wing holes, and the years pass on from their days as scoop-seeking investigative reporters. Both ended their reputations as members of the Fourth Estate in favor of endearing themselves to MAGA government.

Taibbi has lazily morphed into a puppet for state power, using his Substack (2/16/25) space to literally rerun Vice President J.D. Vance’s speech in support of the European far right in, of all cities on earth, Munich. Greenwald cheered Trump and Musk’s destructive first month in power, saying the president should be “celebrated” (System Update, 2/22/25). Neither so-called “free speech” warrior seems much concerned about the enthusiastic censorship of the current administration (GLAAD, 1/21/25; Gizmodo, 2/5/25; American Library Association, 2/14/25; ABC News, 2/14/25, Poynter, 2/18/25; FIRE, 3/4/25; EFF, 3/5/25).

Past their sell-by date

And there’s a quality to Greenwald and Taibbi that limits their shelf life, a quality that even critics like Higgins have overlooked. As opposed to other left-to-right flipping contrarians of yore, the contemporary prose of Taibbi, Greenwald and their band of wannabes is simply too pedestrian to last beyond the authors’ lifetimes.

They value quantity over quality. There is no humor, narrative, love of language or worldly curiosity in their work. And they have few interests beyond this niche political genre.

Christopher Hitchens, who broke with the left to support the “War on Terror” (The Nation, 9/26/02), could write engagingly about literature, travel and religion. Village Voice civil libertarian Nat Hentoff, whose politics flew all over the spectrum, had a whole other career covering jazz. This made them not only digestible writers for readers who might disagree with them, but also extended their relevance in the literary profession.

By contrast, Taibbi’s attempts to write about the greatness of Thanksgiving (Substack, 11/25/21) and how much he liked the new Top Gun movie (Substack, 8/3/22) feel like perfunctory exercises in convincing readers that he’s a warm-blooded mammal. A Greenwaldian inquiry into art or music sounds as useful as sex advice from the pope. This tunnel vision increased their usefulness to the moguls of the right-wing media evolution–for a while.

Taibbi and Greenwald are not the true enemy of Owned; they are fun for journalists to criticize, but have slid off into the margins, as neither has published a meaningful investigation in years. The good news is that for every Greenwald or Taibbi, there’s a Tana Ganeva, Maximillian Alvarez, Talia Jane, George Joseph, Michelle Chen or A.C. Thompson in the trenches, doing real, necessary reporting.

What is truly more urgent is the fact that a dangerous media class is taking advantage of this media vacuum, at the expense of regular people.

This content originally appeared on FAIR and was authored by Ari Paul.

Vietnam to buy Israeli satellites to spy on China: media

RFA Staff — Tue, 04 Mar 2025 08:04:05 +0000

One of Israel’s largest aerospace companies, Israel Aerospace Industries, has secured a contract to supply Vietnam’s military with two surveillance satellites worth US$680 million, the newspaper Haaretz reported.

The observation satellites would help Vietnam “address China’s provocations against its neighbors in the South China Sea,” the Israeli paper quoted unidentified defense industry sources as saying.

Radio Free Asia was not able to independently verify the information.

A Vietnamese source, who declined to be identified due to the sensitivity of the subject, said the government-owned firm Israel Aerospace Industries, or IAI, had a long history of cooperation with Vietnam and news of negotiations over a satellite deal had surfaced as early as 2018.

According to Haaretz, besides IAI, France’s Thales and the U.S. company Lockheed Martin were also offering surveillance satellites to Vietnam and “there could still be problems” for the Israeli contractor.

The paper cited Israeli sources as saying Vietnam was “a tough customer” and agreements can fall through because of domestic rivalry or pressure from other foreign contractors.

The Vietnamese client is believed to be the so-called General Department II of the Vietnamese army, or the military intelligence department, the newspaper said.

Satellites ‘too expensive’

Haaretz said that under the secured deal, the Israeli firm would sell two satellites to Vietnam, including “an optical imagery photography satellite and a synthetic-aperture radar satellite that provides a picture of the ground even at night or through complete cloud cover.”

One of them could be the OptSat 3000, an advanced electro optical satellite, equipped with a 70 cm aperture telescope and sensitive sensor and capable of delivering “better than 50 cm high resolution imagery of locations on Earth,” according to IAI.

Each satellite would cost US$300 million without launch facilities, “a price that space experts say is excessive,” the paper said, noting that in Vietnam corruption remained “rampant, even at the top.”

An Israeli Spyder mobile air defense system at the Vietnam’s Defense Expo on Dec. 9, 2022.

(RFA)

A businesswoman, Nguyen Thi Thanh Nhan, who was believed to act as an intermediary for arms procurement from Israel to Vietnam, is on a Vietnamese wanted list for bid rigging and bribery but domestic media did not mention any defense deal.

Israel in recent years has become one of the top defense suppliers to Vietnam as it seeks to diversify its arms and military equipment procurement to reduce dependence on traditional partner Russia.

It is estimated that Vietnam has bought about US$2 billion worth of equipment from Israeli companies, including air defense systems, drones and radar systems.

“These technologies, especially radars, are what Israel is really good at,” said Yusuf Unjhawala, a defense analyst in Bangalore, India.

The satellites may be costly but Vietnam “needs its own tools of surveillance,” Unjhawala told RFA.

Vietnam and China are locked in a complex territorial dispute in the South China Sea, where China holds an expansive claim of up to 90% of the waterway.

IAI was present at several defense exhibitions in Hanoi to showcase its products and is reportedly aiming to establish a joint venture to manufacture military hardware in Vietnam.

Edited by Mike Firn

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by RFA Staff.

Bison, not prison: Activists buy a prison site to rewild the land

Katie Myers — Mon, 03 Feb 2025 09:30:00 +0000

On a freezing cold Wednesday afternoon in eastern Kentucky, Taysha DeVaughan joined a small gathering at the foot of a reclaimed strip mine to celebrate a homecoming. “It’s a return of an ancestor,” DeVaughan said. “It’s a return of a relative.”

That relative was the land they stood on, part of a tract slated for a federal penitentiary that many in the crowd consider another injustice in a region riddled with them. The mine shut down years ago, but the site, near the town of Roxana, still bears the scars of extraction. DeVaughan, an enrolled member of the Comanche Nation, joined some two dozen people on January 22 to celebrate the Appalachian Rekindling Project buying 63 acres within the prison’s footprint.

“What we’re here to do is to protect her and to give her a voice,” DeVaughan. “She’s been through mountaintop removal. She’s been blown up, she’s been scraped up, she’s been hurt.”

The Appalachian Rekindling Project, which she helped found last year, wants to rewild the site with bison and native flora and fauna, open it to intertribal gatherings, and, it hopes, stop the prison. The environmental justice organization worked with a coalition of local nonprofits, including Build Community Not Prisons and the Institute to End Mass Incarceration, to raise $160,000 to buy the plot from retired truck driver Wayne Whitaker. He’d only just purchased it as a hunting ground, and it was an easy sell. “There’s nothing positive we’ll get out of this prison,” he said.

The penitentiary has been a gleam in the eye of state and local officials and the Bureau of Prisons since 2006. It has always sparked sharp divisions in Roxana and beyond, and was killed in 2019 after a series of lawsuits, only to be quietly resurrected in 2022. Last fall, the bureau took the final step in its approval process, clearing the way to begin buying land.

Some in Letcher County, which saw 5.2 percent of its population leave between 2020 and 2023 and grapples with a 24 percent poverty rate, believe the prison will replace jobs and tax revenue lost with the decline of coal. Federal prison construction has boomed in central Appalachia as mining has faltered, with eight of the 16 penitentiaries built there, often atop mines, located in Kentucky alone.

“Those are all expressions of the economic crisis that has occurred due to the collapse of the coal industry, and for which the prisons and the jails are proposed,” said Judah Schept, a professor of justice studies at Eastern Kentucky University. In his book Coal, Cages, Crisis, Schept noted that mine sites are considered ideal locations for prisons or a dumping ground for waste, rather than places of ecological value, as some biologists have argued. The Roxana site has been reclaimed, meaning re-vegetated with a forest that now shelters a number of rare species, including endangered bats.

Opponents argue that a prison will bring more environmental problems than jobs. Letcher County is one of 13 counties ravaged by catastrophic flooding in 2022, a situation exacerbated by damage strip mining caused to local watersheds. The prison slated for Roxana will exacerbate the problem. The Bureau of Prisons estimates it will damage 6,290 feet of streams and about two acres of wetlands. (The agency has promised to compensate the state.)

The Federal Bureau of Prisons plans to build a penitentiary on land near Roxana that was leveled by strip mining. A coalition of nonprofits raised $160,000 to buy 63 acres, a move that could force the agency to revise its plans. Jordan Mazurek

DeVaughan said the purchase also is a step toward rectifying the dispossession that began with the forced removal and genocide of Indigenous peoples. The Cherokee, Shawnee, and Yuchi made their homes in the area before, during, and after colonization, and their thriving nations raised crops, ran businesses, and hunted bison that once roamed Appalachia. In all the time since, coal, timber, gas, and landholding companies have at times owned almost half of the land in 80 counties stretching from West Virginia to Alabama. Several prisons sprang from deals made with coal companies, something many locals consider the continuation of this status quo.

Changing that dynamic is a priority for the Appalachian Rekindling Project, which hoped to buy more land to protect it from extractive industries and return its stewardship to Indigenous and local communities. DeVaughn said Indigenous peoples throughout the region will be welcome to use the land as a gathering place.

The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, Cherokee Nation, and United Keetoowah Band did not respond to requests for comment.

DeVaughan sees its work establishing a new vision of economic transition for coalfields, one that relies less on “dollars and numbers” and more on “healing and restoration” of the land and the Indigenous and other communities that live there. She is working with the Cheyenne and Arapaho nations to acquire a herd of bison and plans to work with local volunteers, scientists, and students to inventory the site’s flora and fauna.

The plot sits at the edge of the 500-acre site outlined for the prison, which would hold over 1,300 people in the main facility and adjoining camp. A representative of the Bureau of Prisons told Grist land acquisition will continue.

This isn’t the first time the agency has hit such a pothole. Six years ago, Letcher County master falconer Mitch Whitaker refused to sell nearly 12 acres, requiring the agency to revise its plans. The prospect of doing so again led Representative Hal Rogers, who represents the area in Congress and has been the leading champion for the prison, to lambaste ARP and its allies.

“This land purchase comes as no surprise from a group led by Kentucky outsiders and liberal extremists,” he said in a statement.

But many of those on-hand that Wednesday to celebrate the sale were local residents like Artie Ann Bates, who grew up in Letcher County and saw waves of strip mining damage her family’s land. “It’s just really hard seeing a place you love be destroyed,” she said. The purchase is a “sign of progress,” she added, bundled up at the foot of the mine site alongside her neighbors.

This story was originally published by Grist with the headline Bison, not prison: Activists buy a prison site to rewild the land on Feb 3, 2025.

This content originally appeared on Grist and was authored by Katie Myers.

"We’re Not for Sale": Greenlandic Member of Danish Parliament Responds to Trump’s Vow to Buy Island

Democracy Now! — Fri, 27 Dec 2024 15:34:12 +0000

This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

“We’re Not for Sale”: Greenlandic Member of Danish Parliament Responds to Trump’s Vow to Buy Island

Democracy Now! — Fri, 27 Dec 2024 13:26:49 +0000

We speak with a Greenlandic member of the Danish Parliament, Aaja Chemnitz, about incoming U.S. President Donald Trump’s plans to make America larger, in part by taking ownership of Greenland, which is controlled by Denmark. Greenland’s prime minister rejected the idea this week, saying, “We are not for sale and will never be for sale.” Trump’s statement on Greenland was made as he announced he was picking PayPal co-founder Ken Howery as his pick for United States ambassador to Denmark. “We’re open for business. We’re not for sale,” says Chemnitz. “The decision on what should happen with the future of Greenland is up to the Greenlandic people.”

This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

Chinese women buy up sanitary products in Hong Kong amid safety fears

Wei Sze for RFA Cantonese — Mon, 02 Dec 2024 20:45:19 +0000

Mainland Chinese shoppers are once more converging on stores in Hong Kong, but this time, they’re not in search of infant formula, clean cooking oil or Yakult probiotic drinks.

They’re buying up large quantities of sanitary towels and other feminine care items, spurred by reports of contaminated and discolored cotton filling in similar products made just across the border in mainland China and sold in Chinese stores.

“The quality’s more acceptable,” a resident of neighboring Guangzhou city shopping for sanitary products at one store in Hong Kong told Radio Free Asia in a recent interview. “I’m not so worried about using them because there are guaranteed standards.”

“I wish Chinese state-owned enterprises and regulatory authorities would follow up on safety issues around Chinese sanitary towels,” said the woman, who gave only the surname Zhang for fear of reprisals.

“I don’t buy them there anymore,” a woman who gave only the pseudonym Chen told RFA. “I only buy them here.”

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More than 340 million women aged 15 to 49 use sanitary napkins in China, with sales of such products worth around 98 billion yuan, or US$13.4 billion.

Yet many mainland Chinese women don’t trust feminine care products that are made in China.

Chinese companies have been embroiled in a string of public health scandals affecting foodstuffs in recent years, including other incidents involving Sudan Red in foods, melamine-tainted milk, used “gutter” cooking oil and cadmium-tainted rice.

Skimping on quality

Women have been taking to social media in recent weeks to report quality issues in sanitary products made in mainland China, including reports of substandard cotton filling that has been recycled from questionable sources, is discolored or contaminated.

A social media video last month showed one raw material supplier telling a blogger that the recycled material being sold as filling for sanitary towel manufacturers “came from diapers.”

Another blogger cut open a Sanwu brand product on camera, finding “inexplicable black blobs and foreign objects” in the filling, including a human hair.

Chinese manufacturers have also been accused of skimping on quality, including supplying sanitary towels that are several centimeters shorter than their advertised length.

“It’s a hot topic on Douyin right now that some sanitary towels just aren’t long enough,” a Shenzhen resident who gave only the surname Shen for fear of reprisals told RFA in a recent interview. “Some have been said to be unhygienic, with filling that looks black when you shine a light on it.”

Following social media complaints on Douyin and Xiaohongshu, government-backed media The Paper tested 24 different brands, finding that 88% of them were at least a centimeter (0.4 inches) shorter than advertised.

Chinese industry standards allow a discrepancy of up to 4%, which would equate to about 10-15 millimeters, suggesting that the discrepancies may not be illegal.

A worrying situation

More worryingly, social media users carried out their own private laboratory tests on Chinese-made feminine care products, finding that many products currently on the market have excessive levels of bacteria, harmful chemicals or the wrong pH, and could be harmful to women, leading to health problems, including bacterial vaginitis and pelvic inflammatory disease.

The reports prompted many women to take to social media in the hope of locating “safe” brands of sanitary products, spawning a wave of sellers on the social media platform claiming to have goods made in Hong Kong and Japan.

Sanitary products sold in personal products stores like Hong Kong’s Watson’s are often made in Hong Kong or Japan, to far more stringent safety standards.

In one social media video, a customer service representative of feminine products manufacturer ABC told a customer who complained: “If you don’t think this is acceptable, you don’t have to buy them.”

The company’s products were later removed from the shelves of its Tmall flagship store following a social media outcry.

A number of Chinese companies have made public apologies, while ABC has said that it is “deeply sorry” for its “inappropriate” customer service response, according to multiple media reports.

Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Roseanne Gerin.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Wei Sze for RFA Cantonese.

Cosmic Jokesters Buy Cesspool of Hatemongering Psycopath Who Is Not Taking It Well

Abby Zimet — Tue, 19 Nov 2024 19:01:54 +0000

Oh sweet justice. We salute the supremely ironic sale of Alex Jones' vicious Infowars - now bankrupt thanks to the $1.4 billion he owes Sandy Hook families for claiming the massacre of their children was a hoax - to the satirical wise-acres of The Onion, working with those families. Aptly, The Onion's most iconic headline is on gun violence - "'No Way To Prevent This’, Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens"; it has run 37 times. They call their new buy "probably one of the better jokes we’ve ever told."

Surely there could be no riper moment for such schadenfreude than in these surreal times, when a sexual-assaulting Fox host may be running the Defense Department, a child-trafficking clown could be A.G., a road-kill-eating anti-vaxer might be making our health decisions, and the timeless question will resonate ever more deeply: Is this (mostly terrifying, occasionally uproarious) story real, or from The Onion? Of course the loopy meltdowns and fever dreams and new world order conspiracies of Jones' venomous show always seemed too weird to be real. Fake moon landing! Machete race war! Sex with goblins! Illuminati linked to Hillary and Lady Gaga! Often sobbing, he ripped off his shirt - Watch this! - screamed 1776 WILL COMMENCE AGAIN IF YOU TRY TO TAKE OUR FIREARMS, ranted the lining in juice boxes was making our children gay and the Pentagon-tested gay bomb on Eye-raq and our troops was doing it to adults and PUTTING CHEMICALS IN THE WATER TURNS THE FRIGGIN' FROGS GAY. "I'M SICK OF BEING SOCIAL ENGINEERED!" he shrieked. "ITS NOT FUNNY." No, it's not.

It was also not funny when he claimed America's bloody, ceaseless shootings - Gabbie Giffords, Boston Marathon et a l- were staged propaganda using "crisis actors" in order to wrest Americans' guns from their cold dead hands. Most grotesquely, he repeatedly claimed 2012's grisly murder of 20 first-graders, along with six educators, at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., was a hoax, as were all those small bodies mutilated beyond recognition and the grieving, ravaged families who had to endure them. Faced with those impossible losses as well as Jones' lies and threats from his followers, the Sandy Hook families sued him, for years keeping up a legal fight for "true accountability," aka "an end to Infowars and an end to Jones' ability to spread lies, pain and fear." Under relentless pressure - and after eventually acknowledging the shooting was real - he offered them more and more money if they'd let him stay on the air spewing vitriol; they rejected each offer because not doing so "would have put other families in harm’s way."

This fall, after the families won a $1.4 billion defamation judgment against Jones' "willful and malicious" actions, a U.S. bankruptcy judge finally ordered Infowars and its assets be sold off at auction, from its Austin studio, equipment, trademarks, video archive to its snake-oil nutritional supplement store. Last week, The Onion announced its parent company Global Tetrahedron was the winning bidder; they plan to relaunch a parody version of the site in January, thus seizing a fetid platform for hateful, right-wing skulduggery and turning it into its own mordant, smart-mouthed, big-hearted soapbox. In an "especially sweet bit of justice," they worked with Sandy Hook's non-profit Everytown for Gun Safety, which will contribute gun violence prevention stories to the site. "We thought it would be hilarious if we bought this thing," they said of a choice to leave Jones "unpunished for what he's done to these families, or we could make a dumb, stupid website, and we decided to do the second thing. We hope (the) families will be able to marvel at the cosmic joke we'll soon make of InfoWars."

It's a sublimely bonkers pairing for "America’s Finest News Source," which boasts of "rising from its humble beginnings in 1756" to grow into "the single most powerful organization in human history," with "a daily readership of 4.3 trillion people" supporting "over 350,000 journalism jobs in its news bureaus and labor camps around the world." Its headlines, often witlessly taken at face value, are its macabre crown jewels: "Planned Parenthood Opens $8 Billion Abortionplex," "Trump Boys Have Slap Fight Over Who Gets To Run Foreign Policy Meetings," "RFK Jr. Vows To Ban Soaps That Smell So Good You Eat A Little," followed by "RFK Jr. Performs "Self-Surgery To Extract Big Mac," which he ate on Trump's plane. They also offered civic lessons for Democrats from the last sorry election: "Lock in John Legend’s endorsement earlier," "Try to not already hold the presidency when a thing happens that voters dislike, "Appeal to other demographics beyond the Cheney family," "One more fundraising text would’ve done the job," and the reminder, "The soul of America is a black expanse."

They offer books - "Our Dumb Country" - and many videos: "Expert Explains Why Essentially You're Fucked," "U.S. Deploys Socially Awkward Men Along Border to Deter Migrants," "Neo-Nazi Pulls Off Surprise Victory In Longheld KKK District," "Conservative Man Proudly Frightened of Everything," from cartoons to Chinese babies to big coastal cities to languages that aren't English." There's even a horoscope - for Scorpios, "Stop avoiding conflict just because you're afraid of killing again" - and FAQs. "How can I bring The Onion to my event? The writers and editors are available for speaking engagements at universities, conferences and meet-ups for disgraced veterinarians." "What if I want to sue The Onion? Please do not do that." "Where can I find The Onion? The Onion is all around you." Given the nation's bloody history - at least 125 people a day killed by guns, twice as many wounded - their famous "No Way To Prevent This" headline was published "entirely too often," including the day after the Uvalde shooting, when its entire front page was plastered with reprints of 21 earlier iterations.

The gun-obsessed Jones was a frequent target. For the resolute, grieving families of Sandy Hook, his downfall is "the justice we have long awaited and fought for," said Robbie Parker, whose daughter Emilie was killed in the 2012 shooting. The families' attorney Chris Mattei called them "heroes" intent on bringing down Jones, "the perpetrator of the worst defamation in American history." John Feinblatt, the president of Everytown, praised their new partnership, including a multi-year advertising agreement. "It made all the sense in the world," he said, citing their access to gun violence research and data. He also nailed "really the bottom line here, and that is poetic justice." Having resumed his rabid show from a new studio and on X, Jones has reacted as gracefully as you'd expect, raging the sale is "a total attack on free speech," the auction was "rigged" with "money that isn't real," he's working with "good guy bidders" to keep him on the air, and with the inexplicable arrival of Elon Musk on the scene, "If you want a fight, you got one. "Trump is pissed," he snarled. "The cavalry is here."

Thursday, in a new legal wrangle, federal bankruptcy judge Christopher Lopez ordered a hearing to review the sale after a lawyer for the only other bidder alleged "fraud and impermissible collusion" in the auction. The bidder, First United American Companies, runs Jones' snake-oil business; their lawyer said their bid was higher, and auction trustee Christopher Murray violated earlier court-ordered rules by skipping an optional final round of bids. Calling the allegations "baseless" and "bullying from a disappointed bidder," he acknowledged their bid was higher: $3.5 million to The Onion's $1.75 million. But The Onion offered incentives by Sandy Hook families to forego up to 100% of the proceeds, enabling other Jones creditors to recover far more than under First United’s larger, but smaller-minded bid. "The sale is currently underway, pending standard processes," insisted Onion CEO Ben Collins, who used to write for NBC about paranoid quacks like Jones. "The idea he was just going to walk away (without) doing this sort of thing is funny in itself." Along with cash, he added, "We also accept Bitcoin."

In a Monday "editorial" about buying Infowars, Global Tetrahedron's "CEO" Bryce P. Tetraeder celebrated their "new addition" to the Global "family" whose members, like all families, are "abstract nodes (of) interchangeable assets for their patriarch to absorb and discard according to the opaque whims of the market." Buying Infowars was "an easy decision," he said, with its "true unicorn" mix of "delusional paranoia and dubious anti-aging nutrition hacks (to) make life both scarier and longer," and "a well-deserved victory for multinational elites." On Bluesky, Collins noted real media had requested interviews with "Tetraeder," who alas was "on his superyacht (to) do a quality control check at one of our 43,000 global puppy mills.” But The Onion is still churning out news. On Tuesday, it reported, "Trump Locks Bathroom Door So Elon Musk Can't Follow Him In" after "an audibly frustrated Trump" earlier stood up from the toilet to throw Musk out. "Bad Elon," he said. "Now, go to your kennel and lie down." Later, Trump reportedly sent Musk "to be neutered after he got out of his crate and impregnated dozens of female aides."

This content originally appeared on Common Dreams and was authored by Abby Zimet.

Taiwan to buy $2.2 bln of US weapons after Trump urged more spending

Alan Lu for RFA — Tue, 19 Nov 2024 08:50:15 +0000

TAIPEI, Taiwan – Taiwan plans to spend NT$70.6 billion (US$2.2 billion) on U.S. weapons next year, confirming recent speculation that it would make big new purchases to signal its commitment to President-elect Donald Trump’s suggestion that it pay more for U.S. “protection”.

Democratically governed Taiwan, which China claims to have sovereignty over, heavily relies on U.S. support to counter Beijing’s growing military pressure, although it lacks formal diplomatic ties with the United States, which adheres to a “one China” policy.

“Taipei has signed contracts with the U.S. for 21 procurement projects, totalling NT$716.6 billion, with final payments scheduled to be made in 2031,” said the island’s defense ministry on Monday.

“Of this total, approximately NT$373.1 billion has already been paid, while NT$343.5 billion remains unpaid and will be disbursed according to the payment schedule,” the ministry added.

Next year’s NT$70.6 billion budget will be spent on weapons including portable short-range air defense missiles and radar system upgrades, according to the ministry.

Soldiers stand next to M1167 TOW carrier vehicle at the Fangshan training grounds in Pingtung, Taiwan, Aug. 26, 2024.

A partnership between Washington and Taipei grew significantly during Trump’s first term and further deepened under President Joe Biden amid intensifying U.S.-China rivalry.

Former Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen made history with a landmark phone call to Trump following his 2016 election victory, sparking a strong backlash from Beijing.

Trump also bolstered ties by ramping up arms sales and increasing diplomatic engagement, with Taiwan purchasing US$18 billion in U.S. weapons during his first term – US$4 billion more than the two terms of the Obama administration.

However, during this year’s campaign, Trump adopted what media called “bluntly transactional diplomacy” and criticized Taiwan’s insufficient military spending and its semiconductor dominance, arguing it was “stupid” for the U.S. to provide free protection.

The president-elect also signaled doubt as to how quickly and effectively the U.S. could help defend the island against a Chinese invasion.

This sparked speculation in Taiwan that it may make significant new arms deals early under the next U.S. administration to demonstrate its commitment to addressing Trump’s concerns, with media reporting that Taiwan had approached Trump’s team regarding a possible US$15 billion weapons package.

The island’s defense minister, Wellington Koo, dismissed the report last week but said: “Communication and proposals for necessary weaponry would continue under the existing military exchange mechanisms with the future Trump administration.”

China’s Xi congratulates Trump, looks to increase cooperation in ‘new era’

Taiwan ‘determined’ to protect its democratic way of life

His ministry said on Monday that Taiwan’s arms purchases from the U.S. were based on assessments of enemy threats and informed by experience from recent global conflicts, such as the war in Ukraine.

“Budget allocations are determined based on annual defense funding availability, the progress of individual projects, and delivery schedules,” the ministry added.

In response to criticism from lawmakers about delayed deliveries of U.S. arms, the ministry said there had been disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, but noted manufacturing had gradually resumed post-pandemic, with delivery timelines accelerating.

A report by the Cato Institute, a Washington-based think tank, shows that as of August 2024, the cumulative value of U.S. arms sales to Taiwan that have yet to be delivered had reached $20.53 billion.

Shu Hsiao-Huang, an associate research fellow at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said some items requested by U.S. allies might not align with the current needs of the American army, which led to delays in production.

“Some new equipment faced integration issues, which requires system adjustments to meet customer demands,” said Shu, adding that certain weapons, such as Stinger missiles, had also become difficult to obtain due to high demand globally.

A recent proposal submitted to Taiwan’s legislature for review shows Taiwan’s weapon purchases from the U.S. included 108 M1A2T Abrams tanks, 66 F-16V fighter jets, 29 HIMARS rocket systems, and 100 Harpoon land-based missile systems.

Edited by Taejun Kang.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Alan Lu for RFA.

Public Citizen Files FEC Complaint Over Elon Musk Gimmick to Buy Votes

Newswire Editor — Wed, 23 Oct 2024 16:11:05 +0000

Public Citizen filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) today over billionaire Elon Musk’s pledge to award $1 million every day until Election Day to randomly selected registered voters who sign a petition launched by his PAC in seven swing states.

Craig Holman, Government Affairs Lobbyist with Public Citizen, issued the following statement:

“Elon Musk’s $1 million giveaway to registered voters – and only registered voters – in swing states is a not-so-disguised attempt to buy votes and it appears to veer smack dab into violating federal law against paying people to register and vote. Public Citizen is filing a complaint with the Federal Election Commission challenging Musk’s latest denigration of the right to vote freely and fairly.”

Read Public Citizen’s complaint here.

This content originally appeared on Common Dreams and was authored by Newswire Editor.

China investigates US company for refusing to buy Xinjiang cotton

By Uyghar for RFA Uyghur — Fri, 27 Sep 2024 20:09:49 +0000

Read RFA coverage of this story in Uyghur.

China has launched an investigation into PVH Corp., the U.S. parent company of fashion brands Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger, for suspected discriminatory measures by refusing to purchase cotton and other products from its northwestern region of Xinjiang, home to 12 million Uyghurs.

Analysts said the measure appears to be a retaliatory response by Beijing against companies complying with U.S. laws that ban the import of materials and products from Xinjiang suspected of using Uyghur forced labor.

“China is attempting to retaliate against U.S. sanctions on Xinjiang region by imposing its own sanctions on companies that follow U.S. sanctions,” said Anders Corr, principal of the New York-based political risk firm Corr Analytics. “It’s a very bad idea.”

“Beijing is trying to tell Calvin Klein not to follow U.S. law but to follow Chinese law,” he said.

China’s Ministry of Commerce said Tuesday that PVH Corp. must provide documentation and evidence within 30 days to show it did not engage in discriminatory practices over the past three years.

“The U.S. PVH Group is suspected of violating normal market trading principles and unreasonably boycotting Xinjiang cotton and other products without factual basis, seriously damaging the legitimate rights and interests of relevant Chinese companies and endangering China’s sovereignty, security and development interests,” the ministry said in a statement.

Earlier this month, China adopted a resolution condemning a series of U.S. sanctions against the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region and providing support for affected companies.

Uyghur rights advocates applaud addition of Chinese companies to US blacklist

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In response to the measure, Alison Rappaport, PVH’s vice president of external communications, said the company maintains strict compliance with relevant laws and regulations in the countries and regions where it operates.

“We are in communication with the Chinese Ministry of Commerce and will respond in accordance with the relevant regulations,” she said, without further comment.

Genocide

In 2021, the U.S. government declared that China’s repression of Uyghurs and other Muslims in Xinjiang, including mass detentions, the sterilization of women, forced labor and cultural and religious erasure, amounted to genocide and crimes against humanity. Legislatures in several Western countries passed similar declarations.

To punish China and get it to change its policies, the United States and other countries have banned the import of products from Xinjiang produced by Uyghur labor. About 90% of China’s cotton is produced in Xinjiang, most of which is exported.

Since June 2022, the U.S. government has blacklisted companies in China that make products linked to forced labor in Xinjiang under the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, or UFLPA.

The law also authorizes sanctions on foreign individuals and entities found responsible for human rights abuses in the northwestern region.

More than 80 companies are now on the entity list.

This May, the U.S. Homeland Security Department added 26 Chinese textile companies to the entity list under the act, restricting them from entering the U.S. market.

Consequences

Henryk Szadziewski, research director at the Uyghur Human Rights Project, said China is using the measure to lash back over criticism of its policies in Xinjiang.

“This is very much a message to multinational corporations that they should not comply with sanctions and other kinds of bans placed on entities operating in Xinjiang,” he said. “It definitely is a countermeasure to what is being done outside of China.”

Nevertheless, multinational companies that adhere to U.S. sanctions and exclude forced labor products from their supply chains could face repercussions in China, Szadziewski said.

“If you do want to operate in China, you really have to operate by their rules and not by the rules of elsewhere,” he said.

Translated by RFA Uyghur. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcom Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Uyghar for RFA Uyghur.

Vegan cheese won’t save the world — but this brand hopes you’ll buy it anyway

Frida Garza — Tue, 24 Sep 2024 08:30:00 +0000

A woman wearing what can only be described as rags struggles to push something large, round, and yellow up a mountain. She lets out a primal scream. A female comedian’s face appears overhead, shimmering through ominous clouds. This is not the cold open for a wacky alt-comedy web series — it’s an ad for a plant-based cheese company.

The company in question is called Plonts, and the large yellow thing is, of course, a humongous wheel of (plant-based) cheese. From here, things get weirder: The comedian whose face looms large in the sky is Kate Berlant, a performer known for her screwball and self-referential work. As Berlant quibbles with the woman on the mountain, her wry and goofy presence instantly sets the ad’s tone. With this tongue-in-cheek approach, Plonts seems to be saying that this is not a regular plant-based cheese brand — this is a cool plant-based cheese brand, one that doesn’t take itself too seriously and doesn’t want you, the consumer, too either. This ethos is aptly summarized by the ad’s tagline: Buying Plonts “won’t save the planet,” it reads. “But it probably won’t hurt.”

In the plant-based protein space, Plonts is zigging where other brands are zagging. Many plant-based brands — whether it’s oat milk or fake-beef burgers that really bleed — introduced themselves to consumers by hyping up the environmental benefits of a plant-based diet. But as they’ve learned that sustainability isn’t a deciding factor for most customers, alternative protein brands have pivoted in recent years, putting more emphasis on things like taste and nutritional benefits.

A grilled cheese made with Plonts. Stephanie Gonot / Plonts

Rather than relying too heavily on any of these messages, Plonts’ new ad makes a show of playfully shrugging off its climate advantages — and calling into question whether consumerism can really get us out of the climate crisis.

If nothing else, this tactic makes the company stand out. “The category of plant-based foods, I would say, has had a pretty uniform ethics or party line,” says Jason Moran, creative director on the marketing team at Red Antler, a branding agency.

That line has traditionally been hyper-focused on the environmental benefits of eating more plants and less meat. A vegan diet results in 75 percent fewer greenhouse gas emissions than a diet high in meat. Because animal agriculture tends to require both land for grazing and cropland to grow inputs for animal feed, livestock also uses a disproportionate amount of the earth’s agricultural land — about 80 percent.

These statistics once seemed like the key to swaying consumers to eat less meat. A decade ago, plant-based protein companies made an earnest case for the environmental benefits of fake meat. When Beyond Meat launched its “beef-free crumbles” in 2014, CEO Ethan Brown told reporters that addressing “all this doom and gloom about climate change” is “as simple as changing what’s at the center of your plate.” At times, plant-based companies doubled down on that rhetoric, practically pleading with audiences to see the writing on the wall. In a 2016 TED Talk introducing the world to Impossible Foods’ hyper-realistic veggie burgers, company founder Pat Brown (no relation) said that the global appetite for meat “is the main reason behind an ongoing wildlife holocaust.” Eliminating animal agriculture might sound like a tall order, Brown said, but it “has to be done.” The oat milk brand Oatly once took out a full-page newspaper ad on “how the pursuit of profit without consideration for the planet should be considered a crime,” according to the company’s creative director.

Now, the same companies are trying different approaches. Market research has shown that consumers are motivated by factors like taste, familiarity, price, and nutrition more than plant-based foods’ “altruistic attributes,” like sustainability. Earlier this year, Impossible Foods announced “a new brand identity inspired by the craveability of meat.” This kind of brand positioning alludes to meat’s climate impact without saying the word “climate” directly — and instead by repeating the word “meat.” (“[W]hy not solve the meat problem with MORE meat?” reads one page on the Impossible Foods website.) Oatly, meanwhile, has continued to highlight the environmental benefits of a plant-based diet, but in surprising, off-the-wall ways. The brand’s cheeky “Help Dad” campaign is aimed at convincing reluctant fathers to make the switch to oat milk, while its recent mock-exposé attacks “the dairy industry’s lack of transparency about the climate impact of its products.”

A Beyond Meat takeover of a fast food restaurant boasts the tagline, “You don’t have to make a change to make a difference.” Jesse Grant / Getty Images for Carl’s Jr.

Rarely, though, has a plant-based protein brand knowingly leaned into the ambiguity around consumerism as a meaningful lever for climate action, as Plonts is doing. In the ad, Berlant suggests that the woman on the mountain needn’t huff and puff on that ragged path upwards — an act meant to symbolize eating a plant-based diet to save the planet. Instead, the woman can buy Plonts. “Fighting climate change is too hard,” the company declares on its website. “Just eat some plant-based cheese instead.”

Here, Plonts takes an honest stab at having it both ways: The company acknowledges the environmental impact of eschewing dairy without overstating the power of individual choice. “It’s really frustrating to be up against this massive problem where, you know, realistically, our individual sacrifices aren’t going to move the needle on climate change,” said Sophie Moscovici-Troyka, brand manager at Plonts, who previously worked at Impossible Foods. “At the same time, you see a lot of mission-driven companies putting the pressure on consumerism as the answer to climate change, which has all sorts of paradoxes within it. We wanted to poke fun at that tension.”

To sidestep the guilt that can come with eating meat or dairy on a warming planet, “We definitely took inspiration from different comedians and brands,” said Moscovici-Troyka. On the comedy side, that includes comic and actor Julio Torres, who has joked that the hardest part of being vegan is all of the apologizing. (“People ask me if I miss meat or dairy,” the joke goes. “I mean, I miss being liked.”) On the brand side, Moscovici-Troyka cites Oatly and the canned water company Liquid Death for their arch, irreverent approaches to marketing.

Crypto Corporations Dump $119M Into Attempt To Buy 2024 Elections

Newswire Editor — Wed, 21 Aug 2024 12:11:42 +0000

Today, Public Citizen released a new report revealing that the cryptocurrency sector is exploiting the Citizens United ruling to an unprecedented degree, dwarfing direct corporate spending by Big Oil and other corporate sectors in the 2024 elections.

“That cryptocurrency companies like Coinbase and Ripple are able to spend over a hundred million dollars to silence crypto’s critics and elevate its backers embodies everything that is wrong with the Supreme Court’s disastrous Citizens United decision,” said Rick Claypool, research director at Public Citizen and author of the report. “Corporations can’t vote. But the sole reason crypto is a hot-button topic in this election cycle is that crypto businesses are spending eye-popping sums to make themselves impossible to ignore.”

Top findings of the report, which analyzes federal election data provided by OpenSecrets.org, include:

Crypto corporations are by far the dominant corporate political spenders in 2024 as nearly half (48%) of all corporate money contributed during this year’s elections ($248 million so far) came from crypto backers.
Direct corporate election spending at this scale is unprecedented. Crypto corporations’ total spending in the past three election cycles – $129 million – already amounts to 15% of all known corporate contributions since the Supreme Court’s 2010 ruling in Citizens United.
Since Citizens United, the crypto corporations are now second in total election-related spending, trailing only fossil fuel corporations, which have spent $176 million over the past 14 years, including $73 million from Koch Industries.
The crypto sector’s Fairshake PAC and its affiliates have received nearly $114 million directly from corporate backers, far more than any other outside spender this cycle.
Fairshake’s corporate backing is unprecedented. Though unlimited corporate contributions have been enabled since 2010 by Citizens United, this newcomer is already second only to the super PAC dedicated to electing Republicans to the U.S. Senate in terms of corporate money received. That super PAC, the Senate Leadership Fund, has received nearly $119 million directly from corporations over the past 14 years, largely from fossil fuel corporations but including many other sectors, including crypto, tobacco, and for-profit prisons.

“All this spending is a concern not just because the crypto companies may be able to buy deregulation,” Claypool added. “This direct spending by crypto corporations is shattering a longstanding norm – and is likely to set a precedent for vastly more direct spending by corporations in upcoming elections.”

This content originally appeared on Common Dreams and was authored by Newswire Editor.

Education, business expansion push Chinese nationals to buy Malaysian properties

By Minderjeet Kaur for BenarNews — Tue, 25 Jun 2024 19:16:48 +0000

High-end properties in Malaysian cities are attracting buyers from China as they move here for educational opportunities and to expand businesses, particularly in industries tied to efforts to establish a semiconductor hub in Southeast Asia, analysts said.

Post-pandemic sales have shown an influx in demand, causing property prices to surge by 15% since last year, according to the owner of a property firm in Penang, home to major global semiconductor factories. Other hot spots in Peninsular Malaysia are Johor Baru and Kuala Lumpur.

There has been an uptick in interest since early 2023, with roadshows and projects targeting international markets, said Tan Kian Aun, president of the Malaysian Institute of Estate Agents, or MIEA.

“In 2022, Chinese buyers were still reluctant, but since last year, we are seeing renewed interest,” he told BenarNews.

Earlier this year, local media reported that 24,765 Chinese nationals had participated in the Malaysia My Second Home program. It allows foreigners to get long-term visas to live in the country.

Penang is particularly attractive to Chinese buyers because of cultural amenities and because 40% of its population comprises ethnic Chinese Malaysians. The island has seen renewed interest in factories related to the manufacturing of batteries for electric cars, with Chinese businesses either renting or building new commercial properties, Tan said.

A crowd gathers at a shopping mall in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, April 26, 2023. (S. Mahfuz/BenarNews)

The 15% rise in property prices in upscale areas has been caused by increasing demand from students and businesses, according to Long Soo Keat, principal owner of Shijie Property, a Penang firm.

“We noticed this trend since last June, especially with students and businesses seeking to stay on the island,” Long told BenarNews, adding that Chinese customers prefer premium areas with modern amenities for food, entertainment, education and shopping.

“The properties cost over 1 million ringgit [US$212,200] or have rental prices starting at 4,000 ringgit [US$850] a month,” he said.

In the southern peninsular state of Johor, businesses from mainland China are keen on purchasing land for factory operations in the areas of Kulai and Pulai — mostly for microchips, said Chia Zi Jin, a Johor-based realty consultant.

He noted that favorable conditions for raw material sourcing and manufacturing were attracting Chinese investors.

“There has not been much interest yet to buy residential property in Johor but more Chinese nationals are looking to buy land, especially in the northern part of the state which is still cheaper than the southern part of the state, which is closer to Singapore,” he told BenarNews.

In July 2023, real estate analysts said they expected property values at the Forest City project in Johor to fall because Chinese developer Country Garden was facing financial woes that could disrupt resale and rental values.

However, in a Facebook post earlier this month, Johor Chief Minister Onn Hafiz Ghazi said Forest City’s Special Financial Zone was expected to be finalized in August. The zone is expected to attract financial institutions willing to invest in the project.

In May, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim announced plans by his government to invest 25 billion ringgit, or US$5.3 billion, in expanding the local semiconductor industry and to train 60,000 local engineers as part of this.

Link to Singapore

In Johor Baru, the upcoming Rapid Transit System, or RTS, link with its neighbor, Singapore, is driving property demand in the Malaysian coastal city.

Chia described it as a “game changer.”

Set to open in early 2026, the RTS is expected to integrate with the Thomson-East Coast Line on Singapore's Mass Rapid Transit system, significantly reducing travel time caused by traffic congestion at the Johor Causeway, which connects the Malaysian state with the Lion City.

A bus crosses the Johor-Singapore Causeway from Johor Bahru, Malaysia, Nov. 29, 2021. (Vincent Thian/AP)

Chia said Singaporeans and Chinese nationals who work in Singapore were buying properties in Johor because of the currency exchange rate ranging around one Singapore dollar to about 3.5 ringgits.

“With RTS, they could go to Singapore in five minutes rather than getting stuck in a causeway jam for three hours,” he said.

Meanwhile, Kuala Lumpur, the capital city of Malaysia known for the iconic Petronas Twin Towers and Merdeka 118 — the second tallest building in the world — continues to attract Chinese investors to expand e-commerce and to open data centers, MIEA’s Tan said.

Chinese investors are also buying and renting properties in Sepang, a township 50 kilometers (31 miles) from Kuala Lumpur, largely due to the presence of Xiamen University Malaysia which offers degrees in the sciences, cybersecurity and communications, according to Tan.

One of the main reasons to study in Sepang is the cheaper cost of living compared to big cities in Beijing or Shanghai.

“The students come here because the township has modern facilities and there is a community of students here,” Tan said.

About 2,200 Chinese are among the 7,500 students from 44 countries studying at Xiamen’s first branch outside of China, according to Malaysian state news agency Bernama.

Overinvestment

Economist Yeah Kim Leng of Sunway University attributed the increasing Chinese interest to trade and investment ties between Malaysia and China. But he also warned that overinvestment by the government could lead to resource shortages and increased prices.

Skyscrapers, including the Petronas Twin Towers (L, rear) fill the Kuala Lumpur skyline in Malaysia, June 7, 2023. (S. Mahfuz/BenarNews)

The Malaysian Investment Development Authority reported that Chinese investments in Malaysia had reached 11.6 billion ringgit, or US$2.5 billion, in the first nine months of 2023. This is a significant portion of the 225 billion ringgit, or US$47.8 billion, total approved investments in the country during this period.

“This favorable environment has led to an increased interest from Chinese investors in setting up their businesses in Malaysia, with property being a core part of their operations,” Yeah told BenarNews. “Real estate ownership serves as a base for their activities.”

Still, he said, adequate resources and skilled labor are essential to sustain the influx of investment without causing harm.

For instance, he said too many data centers and energy-intensive industries could cause water and energy shortages.

“We must be cautious of not overheating the market,” Yeah said. “Overinvestment could result in excessive demand and strain on resources and drive up the prices.”

BenarNews is an RFA-affiliated online news organization.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Minderjeet Kaur for BenarNews.

The Media Mogul Trying to Buy Baltimore’s Mayoral Race

Pete Tucker — Mon, 13 May 2024 17:58:37 +0000

Baltimore’s mayoral election tomorrow will be shaped by “the single biggest donation to a political campaign in city history,” but search campaign finance records, and you won’t find it anywhere. What you will find, however, are plenty of other donations from David Smith.

“Unfortunately, some members of the media use their platforms to push their own personal bias and agenda to control exactly what people think,” Sinclair chair David Smith told New York (4/2/18). “This is extremely dangerous to a democracy.”

Smith heads up the Sinclair Broadcast Group, and if Sinclair rings a bell, it’s likely from the Orwellian splash the network made six years ago when it required anchors at its local TV stations across the country to read from the same Trump-like anti-media script. This departure from journalistic norms was far from a one-off for Smith or his family’s network, which has quietly become the second-largest in the country, owning or operating 294 TV stations in 89 markets across the country.

“Smith may not be as identifiable as Rupert Murdoch or Jeff Bezos,” noted New York magazine (4/2/18), “but he’s as powerful.” And nowhere has Smith exercised his power more concertedly than his hometown of Baltimore, Maryland.

By “hometown,” I mean where Smith grew up, not where he lives. For many years, both Smith and his company have resided outside the city, in Baltimore County. But Smith still feels a certain kinship for the city where he grew up. Kinship, and a sense of ownership.

In his capacity as Baltimore’s self-appointed overlord, Smith has determined the city needs a new mayor. And he’s taken the liberty of selecting her.

The vetting process wasn’t extensive. Smith settled on his chosen candidate after she agreed to his “checklist” of demands, which included firing the police and schools chiefs, and dismantling a violence-prevention program.

That’s according to a jaw-dropping report by Mark Reutter at Baltimore Brew (1/17/24). Smith’s pick for mayor, Sheila Dixon, denies the Brew’s account. And Smith surely would, too, only he didn’t respond to the Brew—which isn’t surprising, considering Smith’s feelings about print media; they’re “so left wing as to be meaningless dribble,” he told New York.

But it’s undeniable that Smith is backing Dixon, a former mayor, in a big way. A super PAC supporting Dixon’s candidacy, the Better Baltimore PAC, has received $250,000 from Smith, plus another $100,000 from Smith’s nephew, Alex Smith (Baltimore Sun, 5/4/24). (The PAC’s third major donor, developer John Luetkemeyer, has contributed $350,000.)

‘Biggest donation…in city history’

Justine Barron (FAIR.org, 2/16/24): “Over the last 20 years, Smith and his family have become increasingly powerful in Baltimore’s political, corporate and media landscape, and they have used their local media holdings to promote their agendas.”

And Smith’s efforts on behalf of Dixon may not end there. As FAIR (2/16/24) reported, Dixon’s candidacy has been aided by her consistent presence on Fox 45, Sinclair’s flagship Baltimore station.

Controlling one of Baltimore’s major television stations, while simultaneously wielding hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations, adds up to serious political clout. But apparently it’s not enough for Smith.

In January, Smith personally purchased the Baltimore Sun, Maryland’s largest newspaper, for an undisclosed sum (FAIR.org, 2/16/24). (Smith claims he paid “nine figures,” meaning $100 million or more.) Smith bought the Sun from hedge fund Alden Capital, which had taken ownership of the paper in 2021, when it bought the Sun’s parent company, Tribune Publishing. (Alden, a hedge fund known for sucking newspapers dry, is now the second-largest newspaper chain in the country, a fact that depresses me to no end.)

Any hope that Smith would leave his right-wing politics at the Sun’s door was dashed in his first meeting with the paper’s staff. Smith encouraged Sun reporters to focus on the failures of Baltimore’s public schools, so its students don’t turn into “those people, that class of people” who are “always going to be on welfare” (Baltimore Banner, 1/18/24).

At the same meeting, Smith openly bragged about using Fox 45 to pressure elected officials. Naturally, he used a Baltimore Democrat as his example:

If I do a poll that asks a very simple question: Should [Maryland state senate president] Bill Ferguson be thrown under the bus? You know what the answer is? Unequivocally, yes…. You know what Bill Ferguson’s view of that poll is? It scares him to death. And you know what it says to him? Maybe I better rethink what my political posture is.

By adding the Sun to his Baltimore media holdings, Smith is that much closer to becoming the city’s kingmaker. “David has always thought of the Sun as an obstacle to Fox 45, so why not buy it and turn it into Fox 45,” a person with knowledge of Smith’s thinking told the Brew (1/17/24). “Who buys a major newspaper four months before a mayoral primary?” this person asked. He added that Smith’s purchase is “the single biggest donation to a political campaign in city history.”

‘Unprecedented territory’

Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott campaign said that Fox 45 had “showcased themselves to be entirely incapable of being impartial and ethical in their approach” (Baltimore Banner, 3/14/24).

The only thing standing in Smith’s way is the incumbent mayor, 40-year-old Brandon Scott, who narrowly defeated Sheila Dixon four years ago (in the Democratic primary, the election that matters in deep-blue Baltimore).

In their May 14 rematch, Scott won’t have the Sun’s endorsement, like he did four years ago (5/22/20). In fact, Smith’s media properties have been so biased against Scott that the mayor refused to participate in an April debate jointly hosted by the Sun and Fox 45. “We are truly in unprecedented territory,” Scott’s campaign manager said, “when the owner of the news outlet hosting a debate is also the leading political donor to one of the candidates participating in the same debate.”

The moderator for the debate only heightened Scott’s concerns: It was to be Armstrong Williams, and the event was to be branded “The Armstrong Williams Town Hall.”

A little history is in order. Williams first shot to fame when he was found to be in the pocket of the George W. Bush administration. In exchange for $240,000, Williams quietly agreed to provide Bush’s policies with positive coverage. Whenever I see Williams’ name, these details rush back to me. But there’s another aspect of the scandal that I’d forgotten, and it involves Smith.

To satisfy the terms of the secret deal, Williams had to reach a national television audience. “Fortunately for Williams,” noted Rolling Stone (2/24/05), “he was good friends with David Smith.” And Sinclair agreed to air Williams’ segments. (A Sinclair producer described one of them as “the worst piece of TV I’ve ever been associated with…. Clearly propaganda.”)

For his part, Smith claimed he didn’t know about Williams’ secret deal; but he was also untroubled by it, calling the controversy surrounding it “foolish.”

‘Only rank partisans’

“The residents of Baltimore deserve better than Scott’s revisionist crime data,” Armstrong Williams (Baltimore Sun, 4/29/24)—referring to Baltimore’s 20% drop in homicides in 2023.

In the subsequent two decades, Smith and Williams have remained personally and financially close. While maintaining a continued presence on Sinclair’s airwaves, Williams has purchased several divested Sinclair stations at suspiciously low prices; and also been made co-owner of the Sun.

But it wasn’t just Armstrong Williams’ shady past that made him an imperfect debate moderator; like Smith, he also appears to favor Dixon. In the buildup to her announcement, Dixon spoke with Williams on Fox 45 for a full hour (6/22/23).

“With his totally softball and praising interview, the host fulfilled what I assume was his assignment: promote Dixon as an alternative to the incumbent mayor,” Sun columnist Dan Rodricks (6/27/23) wrote, six months before Smith purchased the Sun.

Three months after Smith’s purchase, Williams penned his own Sun column (4/29/24) on the mayoral race, which noted Baltimore’s declining homicides and shootings, and asked, “But who deserves the credit?” One might think that the city’s top official deserves some of the credit—but Williams informed readers that “only rank partisans credit Mayor Scott.”

Anyway, Baltimore—a city with more than its fair share of challenges—finished 2023 with homicides under 300 for the first time in almost a decade. Meanwhile, Scott “also can tout a growing economy and robust employment rate,” according to the Baltimore Banner (12/7/23).

So, despite David Smith’s media empire aiming square at him, Mayor Scott has a fighting chance at winning reelection tomorrow, with polls showing him slightly ahead of Dixon.

Of course, when it comes to Baltimore, there’s a certain non-resident who feels entitled to having the last word. And I’d like to give it him—or, more specifically, to his well-coiffed, on-air captives, who in 2018 were required to read the following:

We’re concerned about the troubling trend of irresponsible, one-sided news stories plaguing our country…. Unfortunately, some members of the media use their platforms to push their own personal bias and agenda to control exactly what people think. This is extremely dangerous to a democracy.

The post The Media Mogul Trying to Buy Baltimore’s Mayoral Race appeared first on FAIR.

This content originally appeared on FAIR and was authored by Pete Tucker.

Chinese officials encourage citizens to buy new appliances to boost consumer spending

By Qian Lang for RFA Mandarin — Mon, 22 Apr 2024 18:03:00 +0000

Got the latest washing machine? How old is your fridge? It's a little hot in here -- are you sure you don't need air-conditioning?

These are all searching questions being asked by "grid workers," people hired by the local government to keep tabs on neighborhoods and report their findings.

In a bid to boost flagging economic growth and weak domestic demand, the Chinese government is tapping the grid workers to ask people to trade in their old cars, washing machines and other household appliances, and even to remodel their homes.

Ruling Chinese Communist Party officials once called on people to hand in their cooking pans and any items made of metal to smelt steel in backyard furnaces, in a bid to outpace the economies of Britain and the United States during the Great Leap Forward of the late 1950s.

Now, motivated by similar concerns, the authorities want them to buy all manner of consumer goods, get a fancier car and a home makeover instead -- all subsidized by the government, working in tandem with local businesses.

A man lies on the ground as his head is stuck in a washing machine in Fuqing county of Fuzhou, Fujian Province, China, May 29, 2016. (Stringer/Reuters)

A nationwide consumer goods trade-in program announced by the Ministry of Commerce on April 12 aims to boost the recycling of household appliances by 15% this year, compared with 2023, and the replacement rate of cars by 45%, tying in with fresh emissions standards that take effect in 2025.

"Replacing old consumer goods with new ones," is identified as a "key task" by 15 government departments this year, along with boosting trade in second-hand cars, according to a copy of the document posted to the Ministry of Commerce website.

The focus of the plan is "expanding domestic demand" and meeting people's need for a "better life," it said.

Since then, the Shijiazhuang branch of online retailers JD.com has teamed up with home appliance-makers to offer discounts of up to 35% on air conditioners, washing machines, refrigerators and other kitchen and bathroom equipment, according to a report last Thursday in the Hebei Daily newspaper.

Subsidies are also available to those buying new appliances of up to 1,000 yuan, the paper reported, while car sales and service centers in the Shijiazhuang Yuhua Automobile Park are also offering trade-in policies to boost new car sales.

A woman carries home a washing machine in Dali, Yunnan province July 30, 2013. (Reuters/Stringer)

Meanwhile, the grid workers are also carrying out surveys of the state of people's home appliances and plans to replacement, and getting households to enter all of the information the authorities want on a single form, according to screenshots posted by WeChat group users last week.

A resident of Shanghai who gave only the surname Liu for fear of reprisals said she had been approached by a community worker last week in a bid to get her to spend more money on new appliances.

"I said there was no need, as I can just use the ones I have now," Liu said. "They're just trying to get people to spend money."

"If people's appliances break down, then they will buy new ones of their own accord," she said. "You don't have to tell them to do it."

A resident of the northeastern city of Qingdao who gave only the nickname John for fear of reprisals said he has received a number of SMS text messages containing promotions for home appliances, while local residential communities have even started to sell new appliances themselves.

"They are trading in old cars and appliances for new ones, and promoting air conditioners in rural areas," John said. "The neighborhood committees are sending texts to people's phones, and a notice has been issued in our community WeChat group."

Customers inspect washing machines at a supermarket in Wuhan, Hubei province November 8, 2011. (Stringer/Reuters)

"There are even products right there that have been brought in for promotion by the neighborhood committees," he said.

John said he took advantage of the promotion to acquire a new air cooler/heater, marked down to just 399 yuan after discounts and subsidies from a listed price of 1,500 yuan.

"But then most people won't know what the original price was," he said.

A similar pilot is under way in Shandong's Weifang city, while Hunan province will be subsidizing local residents to buy cut-price TVs, air conditioners, refrigerators and other home appliances, state media reported.

Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Eugene Whong.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Qian Lang for RFA Mandarin.

Book Review: The Loophole that Allows the Government to Buy Your Data

Howard Schneider — Tue, 26 Mar 2024 17:39:42 +0000

Corporations collect consumers that the feds can then purchase without needing a warrant.

This content originally appeared on The Progressive — A voice for peace, social justice, and the common good and was authored by Howard Schneider.

Europe To Use Frozen Russian Profits To Buy Arms For Ukraine

News - Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty — Fri, 15 Mar 2024 19:04:40 +0000

Russians have begun a second day of voting in a presidential election that has seen sporadic protests as some, defying threats of stiff prison sentences, showed their anger over a process set up to hand Vladimir Putin another six years of rule.

By midday of March 16, Russian police had opened at least 15 criminal probes into incidents of vandalism in polling stations, independent media reported.

More than one-third of Russia's 110 million eligible voters cast ballots in person and online on the first day of the country's three-day presidential election, the Central Election Commission (TsIK) said after polls closed on March 15 in the country's westernmost region of Kaliningrad.

Balloting started up again on March 16 in the Far East of Russia and will continue in all 11 time zones of the country, as well as the occupied Crimean Peninsula and four other Ukrainian regions that Moscow partially controls and baselessly claims are part of Russia.

Putin is poised to win and extend his rule by six more years after any serious opponents were barred from running against him amid a brutal crackdown on dissent and the independent media.

The ruthless crackdown that has crippled independent media and human rights groups began before the full-scale invasion of Ukraine was launched, but has been ratcheted up since.

Almost exactly one month before the polls opened, Putin's most vocal critic, opposition leader Aleksei Navalny, died in an isolated Arctic prison amid suspicious circumstances as he served sentences seen as politically motivated.

Some Russians expressed their anger over Putin's authoritarian rule on March 15, vandalizing ballot boxes with a green antiseptic dye known as "zelyonka" and other liquids.

Among them was a 43-year-old member of the local election commission in the Lenin district of Izhevsk city, the Interior Ministry said on March 16.

The official was detained by police after she attempted to spill zelyonka into a touchscreen voting machine, the ministry said. Police didn’t release the woman’s name, but said she was a member of the Communist Party.

Similar incidents were reported in at least nine cities, including St. Petersburg, Sochi, and Volgograd, while at least four voters burned their ballots in polling stations.

In Moscow, police arrested a woman who burned her ballot inside a voting booth in the city’s polling station N1527 on March 15, Russian news agencies reported, citing election officials in the Russian capital.

The news outlet Sota reported that that woman burned a ballot with "Bring back my husband” handwritten on it, and posted video purportedly showing the incident.

There also was one report of a firebombing at a polling station in Moscow, while In Russia's second-largest city, St. Petersburg, a 21-year-old woman was detained after she threw a Molotov cocktail at an entrance of a local school that houses two polling stations.

"It’s the first time I've see something like this -- or at least [such attacks] have not been so spectacular before," Roman Udot, an election analyst and a board member of the independent election monitor Golos, told RFE/RL.

"The state launched a war against [the election process] and this is the very striking harvest it gets in return. People resent these elections as a result and have started using them for completely different purposes [than voting]."

Russia's ruling United Russia party claimed on March 16 that it was facing a widespread denial-of-service attack -- a form of cyberattack that snarls internet use -- against its online presence. The party said it had suspended nonessential services to repel the attack.

Meanwhile, Russian lawmakers proposed amendments to the Criminal Code to toughen punishments for those who try to disrupt elections "by arson and other dangerous means." Under the current law, such actions are punishable by five years in prison, and the lawmakers proposed to extend it to up to eight years in prison.

No Serious Challengers

Before his death, Navalny had hoped to use the vote to demonstrate the public's discontent with both the war and Putin's iron-fisted rule.

He called on voters to cast their ballot at 12 p.m. on March 17, naming the action "Noon Against Putin." HIs wife and others have since continued to call for the protest to be carried out.

Viral images of long lines forming at this time would indicate the size of the opposition and undermine the landslide result the Kremlin is expected to concoct.

Putin, 71, who has been president or prime minister for nearly 25 years, is running against three low-profile politicians -- Liberal Democratic Party leader Leonid Slutsky, State Duma deputy speaker Vladislav Davankov of the New People party, and State Duma lawmaker Nikolai Kharitonov of the Communist Party -- whose policy positions are hardly distinguishable from Putin's.

Boris Nadezhdin, a 60-year-old anti-war politician, was rejected last month by the TsIK because of what it called invalid support signatures on his application to be registered as a candidate. He appealed, but the TsIk’s decision was upheld by Russia's Supreme Court.

"Would like to congratulate Vladimir Putin on his landslide victory in the elections starting today," European Council President Charles Michel wrote in a sarcastic post on X, formerly Twitter, on March 15.

"No opposition. No freedom. No choice."

Ukraine and many Western governments have condemned Russia for holding the vote in regions it occupies parts of, calling the move illegal.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres added his voice to the criticism on March 15, saying he "condemns the efforts of the Russian Federation to hold its presidential elections in areas of Ukraine occupied by the Russian Federation."

His spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, added that the "attempted illegal annexation" of those regions has "no validity" under international law.

Many observers say Putin warded off even the faintest of challengers to ensure a large margin of victory that he can point to as evidence that Russians back the war in Ukraine and his handling of it.

With reporting by Reuters and AP

This content originally appeared on News - Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty and was authored by News - Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty.

North Korea forces residents to buy photos of recent satellite rocket launch

By Kim Jieun for RFA Korean — Wed, 07 Feb 2024 22:25:18 +0000

North Korea is forcing its citizens to buy large decorative photos depicting a recent rocket launch to display in their homes as a sign of patriotism. But the people are pushing back, saying the launches and the photos themselves are a waste of money that could be better spent on feeding the people, residents in the country told Radio Free Asia.

“On Jan. 28, each neighborhood-watch unit distributed decorative photos to each household which show scenes from the satellite launch,” a resident of the northeastern province of North Hamgyong, who requested anonymity for personal safety, told RFA Korean. “Residents who refused to receive the photo were forced to take them, saying it was an order from the Party.”

The vinyl-coated photo placards depict the night-time rocket launch of the country’s first military reconnaissance satellite, the Manrikyong-1, which was successfully launched into orbit in November, after failed launches in May and August, said a resident of the northeastern province of Ryanggang.

It’s rather large for a photo, 29 centimeters (11 inches) long and 19 centimeters (7.5 inches) wide, and is being sold for 1,500 won (18 US cents), a resident from the northern province of Ryanggang said. In the past, the government gave away more items for free to its people, but now it is struggling financially.

This is the first time that the government is distributing photos of satellite and missile launches.

The North Hamgyong resident said that people are complaining that they have seen enough news about the satellite in state-run TV and newspapers, and that posting them in their homes seems excessive.

“But the head of the neighborhood watch unit threatened the residents, saying ‘If the Party orders you to post them at home, you will follow the order at all costs,’” he said.

The war-like images on the placards also rubbed some residents the wrong way, the resident said.

“They dislike seeing missile launches because they believe that every time a missile or satellite is launched, several years’ worth of food for the people is thrown into the sky,” he said. “Launching missiles or satellites is an action that increases hunger among residents.”

For some of the poorer residents, the photos are expensive,” the North Hamgyong resident said.

“People would refuse them even if they were offered money to take the placards, but the authorities are going door to door asking us to pay for them,” he said. “Poor residents do not have even 1,000 won (12 cents). Some people are explicitly saying that they would rather receive food than satellite launch photos.”

People are not thinking about rockets, though, the Ryanggang resident said.

“For residents who urgently need to make a living, the military situation between North and South Korea must take a backseat,” he said.“No matter how much the Party emphasizes the military standoff and instills a warlike atmosphere, most people show no response or interest.”

Translated by Claire S. Lee. Edited by Eugene Whong.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Kim Jieun for RFA Korean.

“We Buy Ugly Houses” Company Overhauls Policies in the Wake of ProPublica Investigation

by Anjeanette Damon and Byard Duncan — Wed, 24 Jan 2024 10:00:00 +0000

by Anjeanette Damon and Byard Duncan

ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as they’re published.

HomeVestors of America, the self-described largest home buyer in the country, is continuing to reform some of its business practices in the wake of a ProPublica investigation last year that revealed predatory tactics used by the company’s franchises toward homeowners in vulnerable situations.

The company’s 1,100 “We Buy Ugly Houses” franchises will now be required to provide homeowners who sell to them with a simple disclosure. The disclosure provides a three-day window to terminate a sales contract — a safeguard that housing advocates say is critical to guarding against aggressive tactics often employed by cash homebuyers.

It also includes a resource for homeowners to evaluate their options for selling or keeping the home and encouragement to consult with a trusted family member or friend before finalizing a sale.

In addition, HomeVestors “made a series of updates” to its systems and standards, created an ethics hotline for franchise owners to report violations and changed how it trains its franchise owners, a company spokesperson told ProPublica. The company also created a team of “brand compliance auditors” to better police franchise activities, she said.

“HomeVestors takes very seriously the responsibility that comes with being the most recognized brand in residential real estate investing franchising,” the spokesperson said. “We will continue to work to ensure that our core values are reflected in everything we do.”

The changes come in response to ProPublica’s reporting last year that found some HomeVestors of America franchises used deception and aggressive sales tactics to persuade homeowners in vulnerable situations to sell their homes for far below market prices. Some franchises deployed legal maneuvers to make it nearly impossible to get out of a bad deal. While the company said at the time that it didn’t target homeowners based on age or other demographics, ProPublica found HomeVestors aimed its massive advertising apparatus at the types of houses often owned by people in desperate situations or who didn’t fully understand the value of their property.

HomeVestors said ProPublica’s reporting focused on a small fraction of the company’s overall transactions and that predatory behavior isn’t taught or tolerated. The company also moved immediately to prohibit franchises from recording notices on a homeowner’s title to make it more difficult for them to break a sales contract.

Its CEO, David Hicks, stepped down after the articles were published. Hicks said in a letter announcing his retirement that he had been planning it “for some time” but that “recent press” coverage had taken a “personal toll.”

HomeVestors’ new CEO, Larry Goodman, declined to speak with ProPublica. In an interview this month with Franchise Times, Goodman said the company has “formally prohibited franchisee advertising activities that are intrusive.”

The company’s spokesperson did not respond when asked for details on what kind of advertising is no longer allowed. She also declined to provide specifics on how its franchise training has changed under the new standards.

HomeVestors relies on ubiquitous billboards and broadcast and digital advertising. ProPublica’s reporting also found the company repeatedly sent mailers to people who had recently divorced or had a death in the family. Franchise owners also were taught to build relationships with nursing home administrators, divorce lawyers and probate officers to find people who may feel pressed to sell their home.

Burn scars, water shutoff notices, boarded-up windows and police tape represented opportunities to buy low, according to the company’s training materials. So did belongings piled on the curb: “Quickly pursue the property where the trash pile indicates eviction,” its manual instructed.

Ben Ahern, a former Los Angeles franchisee and chair of the company’s Franchise Advisory Council, called the new policies “good moves” that will “probably improve the overall health of the organization.”

"HomeVestors did seem to kind of move over the years into this lackadaisical approach to franchises that needed to be either reprimanded or booted out of the system," he said.

One housing advocate cautioned that the effectiveness of the new disclosure will depend on whether franchisees ensure homeowners fully understand the document. Sarah Bolling Mancini, co-director of advocacy at the National Consumer Law Center, said the disclosure and the cooling-off period are “positive developments.” She added that disclosures aren’t necessarily a panacea. (The disclosure is to be given to homeowners who aren’t represented by a real estate agent, but not more sophisticated sellers such as banks and real estate investors.)

“Context matters,” she said. “Written documents can only go so far. What they are told orally is very important. It’s still possible to give people a document, but to give them, overall, a misimpression of what the transaction is.”

The HomeVestors spokesperson said the single-page disclosure is an addendum to the contract that must be signed separately.

“By making this an addendum to the real estate contract, it keeps the content of the addendum from getting lost or misunderstood in the home sale process,” she said.

ProPublica’s reporting prompted calls from policymakers for better oversight of the cash-homebuying industry. U.S. Sens. Tina Smith, D-Minn., and Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., wrote a letter to the National Association of Attorneys General asking for more coordinated policing of the industry and passage of state-level homeowner protection laws.

While the cash-homebuying industry is subject to few federal or state regulations, some local governments have implemented tougher protections for homeowners. In Philadelphia, for example, cash homebuyers are required to provide a three-day cooling off period and make disclosures similar to what HomeVestors is now mandating.

Mollie Simon contributed research.

This content originally appeared on Articles and Investigations - ProPublica and was authored by by Anjeanette Damon and Byard Duncan.

Norfolk Southern Wants to Buy Cincinnati’s Publicly-Owned Railroad

Glenn Daigon — Wed, 01 Nov 2023 15:42:17 +0000

On November 7, voters will have a chance to stop the tracks from being privatized.

This content originally appeared on The Progressive — A voice for peace, social justice, and the common good and was authored by Glenn Daigon.

Exxon reinforces support for fossil fuels with deal to buy shale giant for $60 billion

Callum Jones — Sat, 14 Oct 2023 13:00:00 +0000

This story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration.

Oil giant ExxonMobil agreed to buy the shale group Pioneer Natural Resources for $59.5 billion in a deal that places a vast bet on a future for fossil fuel production in the United States.

America’s largest oil and gas deal in more than two decades will increase Exxon’s dominance in the Permian Basin shale field, at the heart of the country’s transformation into the world’s biggest oil producer.

Shares in Exxon have almost doubled over the past two years as oil and gas prices rose sharply. Its takeover of Pioneer – an all-stock transaction – capitalizes on this market rally.

While the Biden administration has sought to hasten the shift towards renewable energy in the face of the climate crisis, this acquisition underlines the confidence of America’s largest oil company that fossil fuel output will not be significantly hampered in the coming years.

With shareholders in Pioneer set to vote on the proposed tie-up, Scott Sheffield, the operator’s chief executive, declared the combined fracking giant would create value for them “for decades to come.”

Darren Woods, chief executive and chairman of Exxon, said: “Pioneer is a clear leader in the Permian with a unique asset base and people with deep industry knowledge. The combined capabilities of our two companies will provide long-term value creation well in excess of what either company is capable of doing on a standalone basis.”

This would be ExxonMobil’s biggest deal since Exxon’s $75 billion merger with Mobil Oil in 1998. Together, Exxon and Pioneer are set to have “the largest footprint of high-return wells in the Permian Basin,” Sheffield noted.

Exxon’s production in the Permian would more than double to 1.3 million barrels of oil equivalent per day following the purchase, it said. This is expected to rise to about 2 million barrels of oil equivalent per day by 2027.

The company is pitching the takeover as environmentally friendly, however. It pledged to leverage its “industry-leading” greenhouse gas reduction plans in the Permian, which Woods said will to “accelerate Pioneer’s net-zero plan from 2050 to 2035.”

The deal – expected to close in the first half of next year – is subject to regulatory approvals. The boards of Exxon and Pioneer have already granted the green light. It values Pioneer at $253 per share, which amounts to a 9 percent premium on where the operator’s stock was trading about a month before reports of takeover talks first surfaced.

Shares in Pioneer Natural Resources climbed 0.3 percent to $238.10 on Wednesday. Exxon dropped 4.8 percent to $105.11.

Unlike some of its rivals, Exxon has so far defied calls to move away from fossil fuels and concentrate on cleaner energy sources. Rather than place big bets on the shift to renewable energy, the oil giant has instead focused on its core business.

The company’s annual profits soared to a record $55.7 billion last year, after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine triggered a surge in oil prices. President Biden accused the industry of “war profiteering” as prices rose at the pump. Exxon claimed on Wednesday that its purchase of Pioneer would both strengthen energy security and bolster the US economy.

“ExxonMobil expanding is bad for people, communities, and our climate,” said David Tong, global industry campaign manager at nonprofit research and advocacy group Oil Change International. “Further consolidation of the fossil energy market into a smaller number of mega companies will not secure energy access for people or help achieve climate targets.”

A recent analysis by Tong’s group found that, despite their climate pledges, no major oil and gas company comes close to aligning with the 2015 Paris Agreement, a groundbreaking international treaty aimed at keeping global temperatures “well below” 2C above pre-industrial levels.

The non-profit environmental advocacy group Environmental Defense Fund has raised concerns that the deal will reduce transparency around methane emissions, which are 80 times more planet-warming than carbon emissions in the short term.

Pioneer has been an industry leader in methane reporting, but the group expressed fear that Exxon’s acquisition will likely mean that those practices “would likely revert to Exxon’s own outdated and inadequate practices.”

This story was originally published by Grist with the headline Exxon reinforces support for fossil fuels with deal to buy shale giant for $60 billion on Oct 14, 2023.

This content originally appeared on Grist and was authored by Callum Jones.

China trying to buy influence with Pacific media as it strengthens its presence in region

Pacific Media Watch — Wed, 02 Aug 2023 11:31:27 +0000

By Mackenzie Smith and Toby Mann of ABC Pacific Beat

Concerns have been raised about foreign influence in Pacific media after it was revealed Solomon Islands’ longest-running newspaper received funding from China in return for favourable coverage.

Earlier this week the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) revealed how China has been attempting to gain influence in media outlets in Palau and Solomon Islands.

In Palau, a failed media deal pushed by China has revealed how Beijing was seeking to exert its influence in the Pacific region by using political pressure and funding to capture local elites, including in the media.

The OCCRP report published in Asia Pacific Report on Monday. Image: OCCRP

The OCCRP said at least one front page story had been supplied by an initiative that was backed by investors with ties to China’s police and military.

China had even more success gaining favour in Solomon Islands, where it has steadily been increasing its presence and influence since the Pacific nation switched diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to China in 2019.

There, according to the OCCRP, the Solomon Star newspaper received Chinese money after giving assurances it would push messages favourable to Beijing.

Desperate for funding, editors at the Solomon Star wrote up a proposal to China’s embassy in Honiara in July last year.

Paper struggling to keep up
The paper was struggling to keep up and needed assistance — its printing machines were deteriorating and papers were often hitting the streets a day late, according to the proposal the Solomon Star sent to China.

Its radio station, Paoa FM, was having difficulty broadcasting into remote provinces.

“Reporters obtained a July 2022 draft funding proposal from the Solomon Star to China’s embassy in Honiara in which the paper requested 1,150,000 Solomon Islands dollars ($206,300) for equipment including a replacement for its ageing newspaper printer and a broadcast tower for its radio station, PAOA FM,” OCCRP said.

“The Solomon Star said in the proposal that decrepit equipment was causing editions to come out late and ‘curtailing news flow about China’s generous and lightning economic and infrastructure development in Solomon Islands’.”

According to the proposal, seen by the ABC’s Pacific Beat programme, China stood to gain “enormously”.

“The intended outcome of this project . . . is that Solomon Star newspaper will be produced on time for the benefits of its readers, subscribers and the advertising community,” it said.

“China’s timely intervention in Solomon Islands’ infrastructure and economic development will also benefit enormously as news about this new-found partnership is published.”

OCCRP has confirmed the printing equipment the Solomon Star wanted was delivered earlier this year.

Alfred Sasako, Solomon Star’s editor, said the newspaper maintained its independence.

He told the OCCRP that any suggestion it had a pro-Beijing bias was “a figment of the imagination of anyone who is trying to demonise China”.

Sasako told the OCCRP the paper had tried unsuccessfully for more than a decade to get funding from Australia.

Financial desperation drives ailing paper to Chinese backers
Ofani Eremae, a journalist and co-founder at In-depth Solomons who used to work at the Solomon Star, said it has been struggling financially since COVID, and the majority of staff have left.

“They are really in a very, very bad financial situation, so they are desperate,” he told the ABC.

“I think this is what’s prompting them to look for finances elsewhere to keep the operation going.

“It just so happens that China is here and they [Solomon Star] found someone who’s willing to give them a lot of money.”

The Solomon Star newspaper is based in Honiara. Image: OCCRP

Taking the assistance from China has raised questions about the paper’s independence, he said.

“It’s a paper with the reputation people trust but in situations like that, you lose your credibility, you lose your independence and of course you become some kind of organisation that’s been controlled by outsiders,” Eremae told the ABC.

Government spending on advertisements in the paper could help it somewhat, but Eremae said “democratic countries, especially the US” should step in and help.

‘Have to defend democracy’
“They have to defend democracy, they have to defend freedom of the press in this country,” he told the ABC.

“Otherwise China, which seems to have a lot of money, they could just easily come in and take control of things here.”

University of South Pacific associate professor of journalism Shailendra Singh said “the Chinese offer hit the right spot” with the paper facing financial challenges due to covid and advertising revenues going to social media.

“If you look across the region, governments are shaking hands with China, making all kinds of deals and also receiving huge amounts of funds,” he told the ABC.

Dr Singh said media outlets had become part of the competition between large countries vying for influence in the region and warned other struggling Pacific media companies could be tempted by similar offers.

“They would seriously consider surrendering some of their editorial independence for a new printing press, just to keep them in business,” he said.

“Let’s just hope that this does not become a trend.”

The concerns these kind of deals bring was clear.

‘Risk of compromising editorial independence’
“This is simply because of the risk of compromising editorial independence,” Dr Singh told the ABC.

“There is concern the country’s major newspaper is turning into a Chinese state party propaganda rag.”

If China managed to sway both the Solomon Islands government and its main newspaper, that would create an “unholy alliance”, Dr Singh said.

“The people would be at the mercy of a cabal, with very little — if not zero — public dissent,” he said.

Despite the concerns, Dr Singh said there were some sound reasons for the Solomon Star to enter the deal.

“If they don’t sign the deal they will continue to struggle financially and it might even mean the end of the Solomon Star,” he told the ABC.

Only the Solomon Star publisher and editor had a full grasp of the situation and the financial challenges the paper faced, he said.

‘Makes business sense’
“From our lofty perch we have all these grand ideas about media independence in theory, but does anyone consider the business realities?”

“It may not make sense to the Americans or the Australians, but makes perfect sense to the Solomon Star from a business survival point of view.”

Solomon Islands and Pacific outlets have been funded for media development by Australia and other governments.

Third party organisations such as the ABC International Development supports the media community across the Pacific to promote public interest journalism and hold businesses, governments and other institutions to account.

But Solomon Islands opposition MP Peter Kenilorea Junior said he was concerned by direct support given to the Solomon Star by a foreign government.

“It’s totally inappropriate for any government — let alone the Chinese government — to be involved in our newspaper publications, because that is supposed to be independent,” he told the ABC.

“I don’t think standards are kept when there is this, according to the report, involvement by the Chinese to try and perhaps reward the paper for saying or passing on stories that are positive about a particular country.”

Georgina Kekea, president of the Media Association of Solomon Islands, said the financial support did not come as a surprise as most businesses were struggling.

“It’s quite difficult for us to ensure that the media industry thrives when they are really floundering, where companies are finding it hard to pay their staff salary,” she told the ABC.

“Solomon Star condemns [unrelated] attack by US-funded OCCRP” reply by the main Honiara daily newspaper. Image: OCCRP

Solomon Star says ‘stop geo-politicising’ media
Following the OCCRP report, the Solomon Star on Tuesday published an response on page six headlined “Solomon Star condemns unrelated attack by US-funded OCCRP”.

“It is sad to see the US-funded OCCRP through its agent in Solomon Islands, Ofani Eremae, and his so-called ‘In-depth Solomons’ website making unrelented attempts to tarnish the reputation of the Solomon Star Newspaper for receiving funding support from China,” the paper said.

“One thing that Solomon Star can assure the right-minded people of this nation is that we will continue to inform and educate you on issues that matter without any geopolitical bias and that China through its Embassy in Honiara never attempted to stop us from doing so . . . Solomon Star also continued to publish news items not in the favour of China and the Chinese Embassy in Honiara never issued a reproachment.

“It is indeed sad to see the OCCRP-funded journalists in Solomon Islands and the Pacific trying to bring geopolitics into the Pacific and Solomon Islands media landscape and Solomon Star strongly urges these journalists and their financiers to stop geo-politicising the media.”

OCCRP said it “is funded worldwide by a variety of government and non-government donors”.

“OCCRP’s work in the Pacific Islands is currently funded by a US-government grant that gives the donor zero say in editorial decisions,” it said.

Dr Singh said whether aid came from China, the US or Australia: “There’s no such thing as a free lunch.”

The ABC has sought comment from the Solomon Star and the Chinese Embassy in Solomon Islands.

Republished from ABC Pacific Beat with permission.

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by Pacific Media Watch.

Homeowners Trying to Get Out of “We Buy Ugly Houses” Deals Find Little Relief in State, Federal Laws

by Anjeanette Damon and Byard Duncan — Wed, 02 Aug 2023 09:00:00 +0000

by Anjeanette Damon and Byard Duncan

ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as they’re published.

As soon as Lisa Casteel learned her 78-year-old mother had agreed to sell her Kansas City home to a “We Buy Ugly Houses” franchise for far below its market value, she contacted the buyer to halt the deal.

In her letter to the company, she invoked a Kansas state law that grants three days to cancel certain sales agreements. She believed it would protect her mother and any other vulnerable homeowners entangled by questionable real estate deals. Her mother had no other place to live and had recently been showing signs of dementia, she said.

But the representative of the franchise, Red Rock REI, refused.

The experience more than three years ago revealed a glaring hole in regulations meant to protect people from unfair and deceptive practices. Even though HomeVestors franchises are in the business of buying properties, they use many of the same methods found in high pressure sales. In Kansas and many other states, laws that require a grace period for getting out of such sales contracts don’t apply to real estate transactions. Neither does a federal law aimed at protecting people from predatory sales practices.

Only after the Kansas Attorney General’s Office intervened at Casteel’s request was her mom able to keep her home. The attorney general ultimately demanded that Red Rock REI release Casteel’s mother from the contract by relying on state laws that protect the elderly from deceptive practices. And while Casteel succeeded in saving her mother’s house, no other action was taken against the franchise.

“I feel bad for others out there who are getting taken advantage of,” Casteel said. “They’ve got no help. And they feel like there’s no place to turn but to go ahead and sell to Red Rock and Ugly Houses and people like that.”

Adam Hays, who owned Red Rock before selling the franchise in 2021, said his sales representative did not observe that Casteel’s mother had any cognitive issues. He said HomeVestors demanded its franchises maintain a “strict standard of integrity and honesty.”

He said his company did not easily release homeowners from contracts because that would make it difficult to stay in business. His practice was to conduct “due diligence” into a homeowner’s reason for backing out of a deal to ensure another party wasn’t interfering with the homeowner’s decision. He said when he received the letters from the attorney general’s office about Casteel’s mother, he realized she had a legitimate reason for canceling the contract.

A corporate spokesperson for HomeVestors said the company was unaware of Red Rock’s dealing with Casteel’s mother and that it is no longer a franchise. HomeVestors recently prohibited some of the tactics Red Rock used to tie homeowners to contracts.

An investigation this year by ProPublica found some HomeVestors of America franchises used deception and aggressive sales tactics to persuade homeowners in vulnerable situations to sell their homes for far below market prices. The investigation also found few jurisdictions have laws or regulations to protect homeowners from aggressive tactics that fall short of outright fraud or elder abuse.

There have, however, been a few attempts by policymakers to protect vulnerable homeowners. A first-of-its-kind law in Philadelphia regulates real estate investors that participate in wholesaling properties — meaning they buy houses and resell them without making improvements or sell purchase contracts signed by the homeowner to another investor.

“A high pressure sales technique isn’t new, and we’ve been trying to protect people against it in all sorts of areas for years,” said Kate Dugan, staff attorney at Community Legal Services in Philadelphia, which worked on the law.

The law attempts to address a flaw in most consumer protection laws: Because homeowners are being pressured to sell rather than to buy something, the laws don’t cover them as consumers.

“The harm is the same, though: Parties with unequal bargaining power are engaging in a transaction, and the less sophisticated party loses,” Dugan said.

Oklahoma recently became one of a few jurisdictions to require licenses for residential real estate wholesalers. Unethical behavior can put wholesalers’ licenses at risk.

“When you don’t have reasonable guidelines, or restrictions or regulations in place to protect very minimum standards of abuse, then you’re going to open up the door for rampant abuse, like we’re seeing right now,” said Grant Cody, executive director of the Oklahoma Real Estate Commission.

ProPublica spoke to experts, including advocates for homeowners, real estate lawyers, a regulator and an individual in the business of flipping houses, about policies that could better protect homeowners. Here are their suggestions for regulations policymakers could consider.

A Cooling-Off Period

Casteel was quick to answer when asked what policymakers could do to help people like her mother.

“There should be at least a cooling-off period,” she said. “And I don’t think three days is enough. Because for seniors who fall victim to this, they may not mention it to a family member within the first couple of days.”

Advocates for stronger homeowner protections agree the law should provide an efficient way to cancel a signed real estate contract within a set period under certain circumstances. Or, as an alternative, policymakers could adopt something similar to Philadelphia’s requirement that wholesalers give a homeowner three days to consider a contract before it’s signed.

Cooling-off periods are common in other transactions that involve high pressure sales or large assets. Many states, for example, have a right of rescission in timeshare sales, and a cooling-off period is built into many annuity purchases.

In particular, homeowners who have never publicly listed their houses for sale should be allowed a quick way out of a contract, said Sarah Bolling Mancini, co-director of advocacy at the National Consumer Law Center. Public listings attract competing offers and can better determine fair market value. Such a regulation would also protect homeowners from cash buyers who solicit sales.

Casteel said she’d also require that cash house buyers leave a copy of the contract with the homeowner along with the paperwork necessary to cancel it.

Asked by ProPublica whether HomeVestors would support such a regulation, a corporate spokesperson said the company is implementing a 72-hour cooling-off period requirement for its franchises.

“We require our franchisees to comply with our Systems and Standards, which generally go above and beyond state regulations, and we regularly update our standards to ensure our franchisees do the right thing and act to protect consumers,” she said.

Penalties for Persistent Solicitation

HomeVestors and its franchises spend heavily on advertising — peppering neighborhoods with billboards and sending postcards to thousands of addresses at a time, promising quick cash and a painless sale process. Other homebuyers call and text endlessly.

Many homeowners view these aggressive, ground-level marketing strategies as a nuisance. And in some cities, policymakers have taken steps to curb them.

In Houston, residents can report illegally placed “bandit signs” to the city’s Department of Neighborhoods. Violators there can face up to $500 in fines, lawsuits and even arrest. Following reporting from WABE, the Atlanta City Council in 2020 prohibited real estate investors from “repeated and unsolicited attempts” to contact a homeowner after being asked to stop. Such overtures now amount to a form of “commercial harassment.” Violators can face fines or up to six months in jail.

And Philadelphia’s “do-not-solicit” list, launched last year, allows residents to opt out of in-person sales pitches, emails, phone calls and mailers. Offenders face up to $2,000 in fines. The city can ask a judge to assess larger fines on repeat offenders.

Restrictions on Recording Claims on a Property Title

ProPublica’s investigation found some HomeVestors franchises routinely recorded documents against a homeowner’s title to trap them in a deal — a predatory practice known as “title clouding.” In response to ProPublica’s reporting, HomeVestors prohibited its franchises from clouding titles. But other cash homebuyers still do it.

Dugan said policymakers should consider restrictions on title clouding, including a waiting period between signing a contract and recording it and an easy way for a homeowner to contest the recording.

Many jurisdictions, including Philadelphia, allow homeowners to sign up to be notified when any document has been recorded against their title.

In many cases, months pass before homeowners learn that a contract had been recorded against the title. Sometimes the homeowner has died and their family must pay the house flipper to release the claim.

For example, six months passed before Casteel learned that Red Rock REI had recorded the sales contract against her mother’s title. When the Kansas Attorney General’s Office pressed Red Rock to remove the recording, the franchise owner tried to justify the action.

In an email to the attorney general’s office, the franchise owner said he recorded the contract to protect his interest in the property in the event Casteel’s mother “was being dishonest” and tried to sell the house to someone else.

Red Rock didn’t remove the recording until the attorney general’s office issued multiple warnings.

“It might discourage this predatory behavior if the bad actor knows that the homeowner will get notice immediately,” Dugan said.

Requiring a License

A professional license, such as those required for real estate agents, isn’t a guarantee against unethical behavior. But experts said licensing could require a basic education so that wholesalers know such things as real estate laws, what should be included in a contract and what disclosures homeowners are entitled to. A licensing board could investigate homeowner complaints.

Philadelphia’s licensing of residential real estate wholesalers has provided transparency into who is wholesaling, Dugan said. The law also allows homeowners to cancel contracts at any time before closing if they’ve sold to an unlicensed wholesaler, which is a strong incentive for wholesalers to become licensed.

Kevin Link, a former Financial Industry Regulatory Authority investigator who co-owns a house-flipping business in Maryland, said he would welcome more regulation of the industry to weed out bad actors and ensure that those in the business have a minimum level of real estate education.

“Right now, the only regulations in place are those that govern white-collar crime,” he said.

HomeVestors’ corporate spokesperson said the company isn’t opposed to requiring wholesaler licenses.

“We look forward to exploring this, as well as other constructive ideas, on how we can best protect consumers within our industry,” she said.

A Need for Federal Regulations?

Real estate regulation is largely the domain of cities, counties and states, creating a patchwork of policies and varying degrees of oversight and transparency. Because many regulatory bodies can only investigate licensed real estate activity, wholesalers often operate without the same guardrails as real estate agents.

Federal regulations to standardize local oversight, similar to the Secure and Fair Enforcement for Mortgage Licensing Act passed 15 years ago in the wake of the financial crisis, could help. The SAFE Act, which passed in 2008 after the explosion in predatory mortgage practices helped inflate a housing bubble and spark that year’s financial crisis, requires minimum local licensing standards for mortgage originators.

“I think a federal statute could be very helpful and meaningful,” Mancini said.

Rather than leaving it to states to enact a regulatory model, however, Mancini said federal rules could be applied to “we buy houses” transactions, such as by allowing a homeowner to cancel a sale if they have never publicly listed the home or obtained an appraisal, didn’t have a real estate agent or were directly solicited to sell the house.

She said states could also follow Maryland’s lead and ensure their unfair and deceptive acts and practices laws explicitly apply to real estate purchases in which high pressure sales tactics are used or a homeowner has been misled about the value or marketability of their house.

Mollie Simon contributed research.

This content originally appeared on Articles and Investigations - ProPublica and was authored by by Anjeanette Damon and Byard Duncan.

How One Woman Narrowly Avoided a Bad Deal With a “We Buy Ugly Houses” Franchise

by Anjeanette Damon — Tue, 18 Jul 2023 14:30:00 +0000

by Anjeanette Damon

ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as they’re published.

In the year since her husband died, Royanne McNair felt increasingly lonely in North Las Vegas. With most of her children and grandchildren in the Midwest, she decided to sell the house she and her husband had already paid off and move back to Ohio.

Her goal was to be there by July 29, the anniversary of her husband’s death.

Eager to find a buyer for the well-maintained, four-bedroom stucco house, she called a local HomeVestors of America franchise.

“I got a letter through the mail. That’s why I called them,” McNair, 69, said of the company known for its “We Buy Ugly Houses” slogan. “I just thought it would be easier for me to sell that way, not realizing how much money I would lose.”

A representative from the franchise, Black Rock Real Estate, came to her house and offered $270,000 on the spot. She signed a contract that evening.

But when McNair called one of her sons to share the news, he was dismayed. A quick internet search showed she could get much more for her home. So three days after signing the contract, she reached out to the company and said she wanted to cancel it.

The Black Rock representative countered by offering to raise the sales price by $14,000 — which McNair considered and even verbally agreed to, before calling again and asking to be let out of the deal. She said she didn’t hear back from the company after that.

An investigation by ProPublica this year found that HomeVestors franchises sometimes deploy aggressive tactics to bind homeowners to sales contracts, even when they no longer want to sell their homes, including filing lawsuits and recording documents on the property’s title. In response to ProPublica’s findings, HomeVestors prohibited its franchisees from clouding titles by recording documents to make it nearly impossible to sell to anyone else and cautioned that filing lawsuits to enforce a sales contract should only be done in rare circumstances.

Black Rock Real Estate — established in 2012 by Carl Bassett, a former appraiser — is among the most successful of HomeVestors’ 1,150 franchises. In 2021, it generated the company’s third-highest sales volume and won “Franchise of the Year.” Bassett, who has been recognized as one of the company’s “top closers,” also helps recruit and train new franchise owners.

McNair, believing she was free of her contract with Black Rock, listed her house with a real estate agent and within days received nearly 20 offers. She accepted one for $372,500 — more than $100,000 over Black Rock’s offer.

McNair was ecstatic. The new deal was set to close July 14. A search for lawsuits, liens and other obligations against the title that would prohibit the sale came back clear. She was on her way to getting to Ohio by the end of the month.

Then an envelope appeared at the office that was handling the sale’s escrow process. Inside was a copy of the Black Rock contract that McNair thought had been canceled. Its arrival immediately halted the sale.

In Nevada, and more than half of U.S. states, escrow offices, rather than lawyers, handle the process between the signing of a contract to sell a house and the deal closing. Escrow officers are neutral third parties who facilitate real estate transactions by ensuring no one else has a claim to the property and holding funds as the deal is executed. The escrow officer was duty-bound to freeze the process until a resolution was found for the competing contract to buy McNair’s home.

McNair was forced to hire a lawyer.

The escrow officer told McNair’s real estate agent, Ryan Grauberger, that the FedEx envelope had arrived without a name or return address, something Grauberger said he hadn’t seen in 24 years in the business. Neither had the escrow officer, he said.

“It’s a very dirty tactic,” Grauberger said.

After ProPublica contacted Bassett about McNair’s experience with Black Rock, he called her and promised to release her from the contract. He also offered to pay her legal expenses.

“Oh, he was so apologetic,” McNair said.

Among the reasons HomeVestors’ leadership gave for banning its franchises from clouding sellers’ titles and filing lawsuits excessively is that such practices create a public records trail that reporters and prosecutors can trace.

In McNair’s case, there was no public record trail to show who had sent the Black Rock contract to her escrow officer. In a brief phone conversation with ProPublica, however, Bassett acknowledged that his office did so. It did it because the escrow officer had refused to discuss the deal, noting that Black Rock wasn’t a party to the sale, he said.

“We believed we still had a contract with Ms. McNair,” Bassett said. “It had nothing to do with blocking the sale or trying to hurt her.”

Bassett said he never received the text message or the email McNair sent formally requesting to cancel the contract. He said Black Rock’s title company had reached out to her multiple times attempting to close the sale. (McNair said she was never contacted by Bassett’s title company.) Bassett said he learned of her desire to exit their deal when a ProPublica reporter emailed him.

“When we did get the opportunity, we did the right thing,” he said, chalking it up to a “misunderstanding.”

McNair provided copies to ProPublica of the text message and email she sent to Black Rock to cancel the contract. Unbeknownst to her, she had misspelled the recipient’s name on the email. The text message was sent to the office phone number, which Bassett said doesn’t receive text messages.

Asked about this transaction, a spokesperson for HomeVestors corporate office said: “Our priority was to make sure that the seller’s concerns were addressed and to ensure the seller is satisfied with the outcome of this process. We believe the franchisee achieved this by canceling the previously signed contract for the house. The other aspects of the transaction will be reviewed by HomeVestors.”

Steve Silva, a Nevada real estate lawyer since 2013, said he also has never heard of a contract appearing anonymously during escrow. The typical way of staking a claim to a property is a lawsuit demanding the seller be held to the contract, he said. That’s the type of action HomeVestors has told its franchises to take only rarely.

“Especially in light of the directive to not use the old tactic, it could be he was looking for a new way to try to find some pressure to get his agreement through,” Silva said.

Simply mailing a contract to an escrow officer could be a “risky move,” he added. Depending on how enforceable the contract is, such a tactic could open up a person to claims of interfering in a business deal or slandering title by making a false claim to the property, he said.

In McNair’s case, Grauberger said Black Rock did start an escrow process but never paid the $1,000 good-faith deposit required by the contract. “In my mind, it’s a dead contract,” he said.

Bassett declined to comment on why his company never made the deposit.

On July 14, McNair closed on the sale of her home arranged by her real estate agent and is on schedule to move to Ohio by the end of the month. “I’m exhilarated,” she said.

Bassett made good on his offer to pay McNair’s legal fees.

“I got a $600 check on my table,” she said.

But he also made another request. He told McNair that the Black Rock representative — a parent of five children — who got her to sign the contract could lose his job if ProPublica publishes a story about it. He asked McNair if he could record a statement from her and take her photograph. She said he wanted to publish his own story to “retract” what ProPublica reports. (Bassett said this is an inaccurate description of his conversation with McNair but declined to detail what he told her.)

“I’m not going to do it,” McNair said. “I don’t want to bother with HomeVestors any more.”

Byard Duncan contributed reporting. Mollie Simon contributed research.

This content originally appeared on Articles and Investigations - ProPublica and was authored by by Anjeanette Damon.

The Ugly Truth Behind “We Buy Ugly Houses”

ProPublica — Mon, 17 Jul 2023 23:09:10 +0000

This content originally appeared on ProPublica and was authored by ProPublica.

Saudi Arabia’s Huge U.S. Investments Lose Money — but Buy Influence

Ken Klippenstein — Fri, 14 Jul 2023 15:10:01 +0000

Congress’s investigation into Saudi Arabia’s acquisition of the PGA Tour golf league hints at the extent of Saudi government penetration into the U.S. economy, extending far beyond simply golf.

On Monday, the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations released a 276-page report detailing the PGA’s merger with LIV Golf, the entity bankrolled by the Public Investment Fund, Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund. The merger has been widely criticized as an attempt to “sportswash” Saudi Arabia’s sordid human rights record.

The report, however, also listed the Public Investment Fund’s other public equities, including considerable stakes in many of the U.S.’s largest corporations.

“What company will dare to cut ties with Saudi the next time its sociopathic leader goes on a wild killing spree?”

Experts interviewed by The Intercept warned that this growing Saudi role in the U.S. economy constitutes a new avenue for foreign influence in U.S. affairs.

“U.S. officials are deliberately keeping their heads in the sand about the national security implications of such massively expanded Saudi investments in every sector of our country’s economic, social, and cultural assets,” Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of the nonprofit human rights group Democracy for the Arab World Now, told The Intercept. “What company will dare to cut ties with Saudi the next time its sociopathic leader goes on a wild killing spree?”

Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund boasts $700 billion in assets, making it the sixth largest sovereign wealth fund on the planet, according to the Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute. The Public Investment Fund dramatically expanded its staff — from 50 in 2015 to almost 500 in 2018 — shortly after Mohammed bin Salman became crown prince, consolidating his role as Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler.

“I think he does have quite a bit of involvement,” Atlantic Council senior fellow Ellen Wald told The Intercept of the crown prince’s role in the sovereign wealth fund.

Wald pointed to the relationship between Yasir Al-Rumayyan, a Saudi businessman who serves as governor of the Public Investment Fund, and the crown prince, who is commonly known by his initials MBS. “Yasir Rumayyan used to be MBS’s personal banker,” she said.

Al-Rumayyan was directly involved in a 2017 purge orchestrated by MBS to consolidate his grip on power. In the purge, some 20 Saudi companies were seized and transferred to the sovereign wealth fund.

One of the firms was a charter jet company used in the murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, which U.S. intelligence concluded was ordered by MBS himself.

Al-Rumayyan sits on the board of directors of Uber, in which the Senate report notes that the Saudi fund has invested $2.3 billion.

Other Public Investment Fund investments include shares of Meta, Facebook’s parent company, as well as gaming companies like Activision and Electronic Arts.

MBS, reportedly an avid gamer himself, has overseen an unprecedented investment in gaming. Last year, Saudi Arabia invested $38 billion in gaming through its Public Investment Fund-backed conglomerate, the Savvy Games Group. Savvy CEO Brian Ward has said that the group enjoys the largest startup capital ever provided by the Saudi fund.

Technology firms are particularly well represented in the fund’s list of investments, with billions of dollars invested in Microsoft, Google’s parent company Alphabet, Amazon, Adobe, PayPal, and Pinterest.

Despite its vast holdings, the Public Investment Fund reported an $11 billion loss last year. “Berkshire Hathaway they are not,” Wald cracked.

For experts on Saudi’s influence campaigns, the losses raised questions about whether profit is the fund’s primary motive.

“I think it’s a good argument that their goal is influence and control as much if not more than profit,” Whitson said. “They have endless cash to burn — they don’t need money, they need influence and power.”

The Saudi fund invested $2 billion in a U.S investment fund run by former President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner; the cash infusion came just six months after Trump left the White House, where Kushner was both a top aide and conduit for MBS’s interests. Saudi bureaucrats objected to the investment in Kushner’s firm, citing the “inexperience” of the fund’s management as well as “risk,” but they were overruled.

The New York Times reported at the time that the investment “creates the appearance of potential payback for Mr. Kushner’s actions in the White House — or of a bid for future favor if Mr. Trump seeks and wins another presidential term in 2024.”

Similar concerns have been raised about LIV Golf, which has hosted golf events at Trump golf clubs. Earlier this week, LIV announced that it was relocating its championship from Saudi Arabia to Trump’s Doral golf course in Miami.

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This content originally appeared on The Intercept and was authored by Ken Klippenstein.

“We Buy Ugly Houses” CEO Steps Down Following ProPublica Investigation

by Anjeanette Damon and Byard Duncan — Wed, 28 Jun 2023 17:45:00 +0000

by Anjeanette Damon and Byard Duncan

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The president and CEO of HomeVestors of America announced Tuesday that he will step down this summer, after an investigation by ProPublica found some of the company’s homebuying franchises had deceived sellers and targeted people in vulnerable situations.

In a letter announcing his departure to owners of “We Buy Ugly Houses” franchises, David Hicks said retirement “has been on the horizon for some time,” but he added that “recent press” coverage had taken a “personal toll on me.”

Hicks will be replaced by Larry Goodman, the company’s chief operating officer, on Aug. 1.

“I know Larry will continue the tradition of ensuring that HomeVestors conducts all business with honor and excellence in giving homeowners an option for difficult-to-sell properties,” Hicks wrote.

“He is ready and it is time for me to spend more time focusing on my family and my health,” he added.

Hicks did not respond to a request for comment, and the HomeVestors spokesperson did not immediately respond to follow-up questions after sharing Hicks’ letter with ProPublica.

Hicks, who became co-president in 2009 and president in 2017, oversaw a period of tremendous growth at the company, which bills itself as the largest cash homebuyer in the country. The number of franchisees has increased from about 165 in 2009 to nearly 1,150. The company was also bought and sold multiple times during Hicks’ tenure. It is now owned by Bayview Asset Management, which acquired HomeVestors in 2022.

In previous interviews and in his retirement letter, Hicks has said he believes HomeVestors helps communities by purchasing difficult-to-sell properties and returning them to the market in an improved condition. “As CEO of HomeVestors, I have witnessed firsthand how we have been able to make a direct impact on people and communities in which we operate. It is this feeling of helping others that has kept me in this business for nearly 20 years,” he said in his letter.

ProPublica’s reporting, however, found HomeVestors focused its advertising campaigns on people in vulnerable situations and taught franchise owners how to “find the pain” of a homeowner in order to buy houses for rock-bottom prices. In some cases, franchisees targeted elderly homeowners who did not understand the contracts they signed. Others were in such dire financial situations that they became homeless after selling to a HomeVestors franchise.

In a 2020 interview, Hicks said houses targeted by his company smell so bad flippers want to take a shower after visiting them.

“That cat piss smell, you know what that smell is?” he said with a chuckle. “That’s money.”

In his retirement letter, Hicks said ProPublica’s reporting “mischaracterized our business,” drew “hurtful conclusions” and reflected a “miniscule portion of our transactions.”

But in a Zoom meeting before the story was published, he told franchise owners he also believed ProPublica’s investigation would “make us a better company.” He added that HomeVestors would change some practices in response to the reporting, while laying out a plan to “bury” the story.

A HomeVestors’ spokesperson said ProPublica’s investigation referenced a fraction of the company’s transactions. She touted an internally calculated 96% customer satisfaction rating. She also said that predatory behavior identified by ProPublica isn’t taught or tolerated and that “lying is against our code of ethics and our culture.”

Since the story’s publication, two U.S. senators and the head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau have called for more scrutiny of HomeVestors and companies like it. The HomeVestors spokesperson said the company is “committed to ensuring a fair and equitable homeowner customer experience” and welcomes policies that protect homeowners.

“Generally, when a CEO steps down, it opens the company up to self-reflection,” Evan Goldman, partner and co-chair of the franchise law group at the law firm Greenspoon Marder, said in an email. “Here, hopefully, the necessary parties will see the harm that HV has inflicted upon its franchisees and seek to right the ship for the future. More so, it’s my hope that the future generation of franchisees are in a better position — financially and otherwise — as a result of this change of leadership.”

Help ProPublica Investigate “We Buy Houses” Practices

This content originally appeared on Articles and Investigations - ProPublica and was authored by by Anjeanette Damon and Byard Duncan.

Investigating the Company Behind “We Buy Ugly Houses”

ProPublica — Tue, 27 Jun 2023 16:07:23 +0000

This content originally appeared on ProPublica and was authored by ProPublica.

Senators, Regulator Call for More Scrutiny of “We Buy Ugly Houses” Company

by Anjeanette Damon, Mollie Simon and Byard Duncan — Fri, 16 Jun 2023 18:10:00 +0000

by Anjeanette Damon, Mollie Simon and Byard Duncan

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The nation’s top consumer finance watchdog told a U.S. Senate committee this week that practices uncovered by ProPublica’s investigation into HomeVestors of America are “very troubling” and said the Department of Justice and state attorneys general should be made aware of such actions.

Rohit Chopra, the director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, also highlighted work his office is doing in the wake of reporting by ProPublica and Sahan Journal on predatory contract for deed practices targeting Minnesota’s Somali immigrant community.

At the CFPB’s semiannual report to Congress, U.S. Sen. Tina Smith, D-Minn., asked Chopra what his agency can do to better protect consumers from house-flipping franchises that can deploy deception and coercion while trying to buy homes from people in vulnerable situations at rock-bottom prices.

“Even where we might not have jurisdiction to go after a scam, we want to tell the Justice Department and tell the state AGs,” Chopra said. “A lot of people are looking at older homeowners who are sitting on a lot of equity.”

The day after the Senate hearing, U.S. Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., co-signed a letter with Smith to the National Association of Attorneys General asking for a more coordinated approach to preventing cash homebuyers from trapping sellers in unfair sales contracts. Smith and Lummis are the chairperson and ranking member of a Senate subcommittee on housing.

“I believe that homeowners should be protected from exploitation and I was deeply concerned by the practices uncovered by ProPublica’s investigation,” Smith said in a written statement. “The predatory tactics reportedly employed by HomeVestors to rip off vulnerable homeowners and communities must be stopped.”

In response to the letter, a HomeVestors corporate spokesperson said the company supports efforts to shield homeowners.

“As an organization committed to ensuring a fair and equitable homeowner customer experience, evidenced by our 96% customer satisfaction rating and strict code of conduct for our franchisees, we welcome initiatives to protect homeowners from unscrupulous actors,” she said.

ProPublica’s investigation into the “We Buy Ugly Houses” company found some HomeVestors franchisees used deception and targeted the elderly, infirm and people close to poverty. While the company said it doesn’t target any homeowner based on age or other demographics, ProPublica found HomeVestors aims its massive advertising apparatus at the types of houses often owned by people in desperate situations or who don’t fully understand the value of their home. The company also teaches its franchises to build relationships with nursing home administrators and probate lawyers and to scan neighborhoods for signs of desperation such as water shut-off notices, police tape and burn scars.

In response, HomeVestors’ spokesperson said ProPublica’s examples represented a fraction of the company’s transactions. She also said that such predatory behavior isn’t taught or tolerated and that “lying is against our code of ethics and our culture.”

In their letter, Smith and Lummis asked the nation’s attorneys general to consider alerting the public to these practices, work together to monitor trends and look for patterns at the local level. They recommended states create “cooling-off” requirements to give homeowners time to back out of contracts they regret. They also asked AGs to work with local officials to make it easier for homeowners to view real estate records online and be notified when documents are recorded that affect their properties.

ProPublica’s investigation found HomeVestors franchisees have often recorded notices on properties that make it nearly impossible to back out of a sales contract once signed — a practice the corporate office prohibited in reaction to ProPublica’s reporting.

During the Senate hearing, Chopra emphasized the importance of monitoring ground-level real estate activity and complaints for early warning signs of broader predatory practices.

In the run-up to the 2007 financial crisis, mortgage lenders issued predatory loans to people who couldn’t afford to pay them back. The ensuing wave of individual defaults sparked an escalating domino effect that brought the world’s largest banks to the brink of collapse.

“One of the big mistakes in the lead up to the financial crisis is federal regulators ignored stories from the ground, and that proved to be a pivotal mistake,” Chopra said.

Staci Schneider, a spokesperson for the National Association of Attorneys General, said the group doesn’t take positions without the direction of its members.

“We are in receipt of the letter and have circulated it to our attorney general members for their review and consideration,” she said.

Also during the hearing, Smith expressed concern about a tactic unrelated to HomeVestors: the targeting of Somali immigrants in her state by lenders offering “contract for deed” financing that avoids interest but often makes unsuspecting homebuyers responsible for an unaffordable balloon payment at the end of the contract’s term. When they can’t make the balloon payment, they lose the house and are unable to recoup the monthly payments they had been making on the contract. A ProPublica-Sahan Journal investigation last year shed light on the practice.

Smith said the CFPB’s complaint form, which is geared toward mortgages, makes it difficult to report predatory contract for deed practices.

“So what happens is folks can’t figure out how to use it … and so some people who have been victims are just sort of dissuaded from participating,” she said.

Chopra said his agency is working to improve the form by testing how it is used by people from various backgrounds.

This content originally appeared on Articles and Investigations - ProPublica and was authored by by Anjeanette Damon, Mollie Simon and Byard Duncan.