Media ArticlesExcerpts of Key Media Articles in Major Media
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On November 4, Abigail Spanberger, a CIA case officer in the Middle East from 2006 to 2014, was elected as Virginia's 75th governor. Spanberger's CIA background raises concern that she will appoint people who will advance the CIA's interests and ... enable greater CIA penetration of higher education. The latter is already a big problem, with the CIA planting professors, setting up journals and carrying out recruitment on many campuses, and even running covert operations through them. She also voted for massive military aid appropriations to Ukraine; pushed to have Russia designated as a state sponsor of terrorism; supported the U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear sites; supported sanctions against Russia, Syria, Venezuela and other countries that took a devastating humanitarian toll; and expressed vocal support for Israel as it was carrying out genocide in Gaza and bombed Syria, Iran and Lebanon. While the CIA may not have directly assisted her campaign, which would be illegal, her election can still be considered a violation of constitutional principles mandating a separation of powers given her presumed loyalty to an Executive Branch agency–the CIA. John Kiriakou, a CIA whistleblower who lives in Virginia, stated that "Spanberger's election as governor of Virginia is a real positive for the CIA, in that the CIA has countless facilities across the state and will be assured of continued cooperation with the Governor's Office. With that said, every Virginia governor, of both parties, has kowtowed to the CIA over the years, so don't expect any changes."
Note: As governor-elect, Spanberger appointed senior transition and security officials drawn from the national security apparatus and major Wall Street investment firms. Read the full article to learn more. Learn more about the dark history of the CIA in our comprehensive Military-Intelligence Corruption Information Center.
An FBI investigation into an alleged terror plot in Southern California bears the familiar hallmarks of the bureau's long-running use of informants and undercover agents to advance plots that might not otherwise have materialized. The limited details available suggest an investigation that leaned heavily on a paid informant and at least one undercover FBI agent [who] were involved in nearly every stage of the case, including discussions of operational security and transporting members of the group to the site in the Mojave Desert where federal agents ultimately made the arrests. It is still unclear how the FBI first identified the group or how long the informant had been embedded before the bomb plot emerged – a period defense attorneys say is central to any serious examination of entrapment, whereby defendants are coerced into crimes they would not otherwise commit, a frequent criticism of stings involving paid informants and undercover agents. Despite comments from Attorney General Pam Bondi, Patel, and others characterizing the Turtle Island Liberation Front as a coherent group ... there's little evidence that any group by that name exists beyond a small digital footprint and a handful of attempts at organizing community events, including a self-defense workshop and a punk rock benefit show. A previous sting operation [involved] the so-called Newburgh Four, in which an aggressive and prolific FBI informant steered four poor Black men into a scheme to bomb synagogues and attack an Air Force base. Years later, a federal judge granted the men compassionate release, describing the case as an "FBI-orchestrated conspiracy."
Note: The FBI has had a notorious history of manufacturing terrorist plots, often targeting vulnerable minors who have significant cognitive and intellectual disabilities yet no history of harming anyone. Read more about terrorism plots hatched by the US government, including cases in which alleged terrorists were acting on behalf of the CIA. This process not only pads arrest and prosecution statistics but also helps justify big budgets by misrepresenting the threat of terrorism.
Physics students learn about the basic stuff of reality–space and time, energy and matter–and are told that all other scientific disciplines must reduce back down to the fundamental particles and laws that physics has generated. This philosophy, called "reductionism," worked pretty well from Newton's laws through much of the 20th century as physicists discovered electrons, quarks, the theory of relativity, and so on. But over the past few decades, progress in the most reductionist branches of physics has slowed. Physicists largely ignored living systems. But today, many of my colleagues ... have come to believe that a mystery is unfolding in every microbe, animal, and human–one that challenges basic assumptions physicists have held for centuries, and could answer essential questions about AI. It may even help redefine the field for the next generation. Beginning in the 1980s, physicists ... began developing new mathematical tools to study what's called "complexity"–systems in which the whole is far more than the sum of its parts. Throughout the current AI boom, researchers and philosophers have debated whether and when large language models might achieve general intelligence or even become conscious. As the 21st century continues to unfold, my fellow physicists will undoubtedly continue to advance the study of black holes, quantum mechanics, and other traditional domains. The study of life, however, will take us to places we've never imagined, opening a path for the future of our field that, for once, unfolds on a level playing field with biologists, ecologists, neuroscientists, and sociologists. At its best, the pursuit of fundamental answers about the nature of living things might lead physicists not only to new scientific marvels, but also to an entirely new way of doing science.
Note: Explore more positive stories like this on the mysterious nature of reality.
"These plants are the winners, the ones that get to pass their genes on [to future generations]," says Lee DeHaan of the Land Institute, an agricultural non-profit based in Salina, Kansas. If DeHaan's breeding programme maintains its current progress, the descendant of these young perennial crop plants could one day usher in a wholesale revolution in agriculture. The plants are intermediate wheatgrass. Since 2010, DeHaan has been transforming this small-seeded, wild species into a high-yielding, domesticated grain crop called Kernza. He believes it will eventually be a viable – and far more sustainable – alternative to annual wheat, the world's most widely grown crop and the source of one in five of all calories consumed by humanity. Remarkably, DeHaan does not paint the current agricultural-industrial complex as the enemy. "Every disruptive technology is always opposed by those being disrupted," he says. "But if the companies [that make up] the current system can adjust to the disruption, they can play in that new world just the same." The Land Institute's strategy is redirection rather than replacement. "Our trajectory is to eventually get the resources that are currently dedicated to annual grain crops directed to developing varieties of perennials," says DeHaan. "That's our [route to] success." There are signs that this is already working, with the food firm General Mills now incorporating Kernza into its breakfast cereals.
Note: Explore more positive stories like this in on healing the Earth and technology for good.
On Thursday, lawmakers in the House approved a "pilot program" in the pending Pentagon budget bill that could eventually open the door to sending billions to big contractors, while providing what critics say would be little benefit to the military. The provision, which appeared in the budget bill after a closed-door session overseen by top lawmakers, would allow contractors to claim reimbursement for the interest they pay on debt they take on to build weapons and other gadgets for the armed services. One big defense contractor alone, Lockheed Martin, reported having more than $17.8 billion in outstanding interest payments last year, said Julia Gledhill, an analyst at the nonprofit Stimson Center. "The fact that we are even exploring this question is a little crazy in terms of financial risk for the government," Gledhill said. Gledhill said even some Capitol Hill staffers were "scandalized" to see the provision in the final bill, which will likely be approved by the Senate. The switch to covering financing costs seems to be in line with a larger push this year to shake up the defense industry. The Pentagon itself was dubious in a 2023 study conducted by the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment. The Pentagon found that policy change might even supercharge the phenomenon of big defense contractors using taxpayer dollars for stock buybacks instead of research and development.
Note: Read our concise summaries of news articles on government corruption.
New York State's Bedford Hills Correctional facility, Illinois' Pontiac Correctional Center and Albion Correctional Facility in New York State are the three U.S. prisons with the highest reported rates of sexual victimization. These are the findings of a new Department of Justice (DOJ) report about sexual victimization in state and federal prisons, as reported by inmates. The Justice Department carried out a National Inmate Survey in 177 federal prisons. The annual survey is required by the 2003 Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA). The survey of 27,541 state and federal inmates found that some 4.1 percent of adult prison inmates reported being sexually victimized in state and federal prisons during the prior 12 months. Furthermore, 2.3 percent of inmates reported sexual victimization by another inmate while 2.2 percent reported sexual victimization by facility staff. Meanwhile, 17 prisons had rates defined as high compared to other facilities. The data pertains to prisons that participated in the survey so the data may not accurately capture those with the highest sexual victimization in America. The prison with the highest proportion of prison inmates reporting sexual victimization was Bedford Hills Correctional Facility, a female prison in New York where 18.6 percent of inmates reported sexual victimization. Pontiac Correctional Center, a men's prison in Illinois was second, with 15.9 percent of inmates reporting sexual victimization.
Note: These numbers represent a small number of institutions that voluntarily provided survey data for this study. The actual incidence of sexual violence in correctional facilities may be much higher. To understand how disturbing and common sexual abuse in prison is, read this Human Rights Watch report that documents dozens of first-hand accounts of rape and sexual slavery in prison systems across 34 states. For more along these lines, read our concise summaries of news articles on prison system corruption and sexual abuse scandals.
A secret program, known as AAWSAP, was created in 2008 with support from Nevada Senator Harry Reid and became the largest UFO investigation ever undertaken by the U.S. Government. But the investigators for the program, all of whom had top-secret security clearances, encountered things that were far stranger than UFOs, phenomena that could be accurately described as "paranormal." AAWSAP, which stands for Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program, [found] that these unknown craft, whatever they are, seem to generate spooky phenomena that seemingly shouldn't exist. "We heavily went into Skinwalker Ranch, a property of Robert Bigelow's," [the program's director Dr. James] Lacatski said. The main focus was UFOs and UFO technology, but one smaller focus was measurable health effects on people who encountered a UFO and were physically harmed, or developed rare diseases, including psychological effects. "People who openly say â€I observed a UFO up close,' ... always seemed to have a paranormal connection," Lacatski said. Nearly everyone in AAWSAP who visited the Bigelow Ranch [experienced] what is now known as the hitchhiker effect. At least five highly experienced intelligence officers ... came into contact with paranormal phenomena, and then took it home with them. They and their families would see balls of light inside their homes, shadowy figures, even creatures that were physical.
Note: Our 26-minute video UFO Disclosure: Breakthrough Technology and Awakening Human Consciousness features interviews with leading experts along with well-sourced, verifiable information to help you make sense of this fascinating issue and its immense potential to transform our world. For more, explore the comprehensive resources provided in our UFO Information Center.
The American weapons maker Anduril ... is partnering with EDGE Group, a weapons conglomerate controlled by the United Arab Emirates, a nation run entirely by the royal families of its seven emirates that permits virtually none of the activities typically associated with democratic societies. In the UAE, free expression and association are outlawed, and dissident speech is routinely and brutally punished without due process. A 2024 assessment of political rights and civil liberties by Freedom House, a U.S. State Department-backed think tank, gave the UAE a score of 18 out of 100. The EDGE–Anduril Production Alliance, as it will be known, will focus on autonomous weapons systems, including the production of Anduril's "Omen" drone. The UAE has agreed to purchase the first 50 Omen drones built through the partnership. EDGE Chair Faisal Al Bannai explained in a 2019 interview that EDGE was working to develop weapons systems tailored to defeating low-tech "militia-style" militant groups. Nathaniel Raymonds, who leads the Humanitarian Research Lab at the Yale School of Public Health ... argued that "not since Operation Cyclone," the CIA effort to arm the Afghan mujahideen, "has there been a covert action by any nation state to arm a paramilitary proxy group at this scale and sophistication and try to write it off as just a series of happy coincidences."
Note: For more, read our concise summaries of news articles on war.
In 2011, the Army decided to get its soldiers new pistols. The Pentagon won't complete delivery until 2027 at the earliest. The story of the Pentagon's new pistols would be funny if it didn't point to a serious problem at the heart of America's military. The Department of Defense has built a gilded fortress of people and processes that is slow, wasteful and married to the past. Of all the obstacles to fielding the military that America needs, the Pentagon's bureaucracy may be the hardest to overcome. The byzantine system for buying and testing weapons isolates the military from the innovative parts of the American economy. Congress underwrites the dysfunction with appropriations that are designed to deliver wins for its members rather than for America's national security. As the House and Senate work toward the country's first trillion-dollar defense budget, over $52 billion is for things members of Congress added, unbidden, to the Pentagon's wish list, according to the independent budget watchdog Taxpayers for Common Sense. No one can keep track of where all the money goes. The Defense Department is the only major federal agency never to get a clean bill of health from outside accountants, and has failed its last seven audits in as many years. When the bean counters can follow the money, they often find it has been wasted. The system feeds on itself. Pentagon officials and congressional staff members have long migrated to the arms industry.
Note: Learn more about unaccountable military spending in our comprehensive Military-Intelligence Corruption Information Center. For more, read our concise summaries of news articles on military corruption.
Roderick Gadson, an Alabama prison guard, was questioned under oath about an incident in which he and other officers used such devastating force against a prisoner that the man had to be airlifted to hospital to treat his injuries. Gadson was shown a photograph of the man, Steven Davis. He was lying in an ICU bed breathing through a tube, his cadaverous face bruised and covered with blood, his eyes black and sunken. Gadson was asked whether he felt that the amount of force used had been appropriate, given the way Davis looked. He replied: "I don't feel like nothing. I just did my job." On 4 October 2019, Gadson and five other officers were called to respond to a security breach inside Donaldson correctional facility. Davis ... was lying prone and unresistant on the ground. Gadson took the lead. One of the witnesses said the officer hit Davis "with his metal stick in the head, picked him up, throwed him down. He stomped the dude with his size 15 boot. The guy's head bounced like a basketball." David died the following day. The cause of death was officially recorded as homicide caused by "blunt force injuries of head sustained in an assault". Despite evidence of a physical assault by Gadson and the other officers, they were all cleared after an internal investigation. Six months later, Gadson was promoted ... to sergeant. Then, in July 2021, he [was] promoted a second time, 21 months after a prisoner in his care had been beaten to death. Now he holds the exalted status of lieutenant.
Note: For more along these lines, read our concise summaries of news articles on prison system corruption.
Gangsters from MS-13, a Trump-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization, intimidated Hondurans not to vote for the left-leaning presidential candidate... in most cases urging them to instead cast their ballots in last Sunday's election for the right-wing National Party candidate [Nasry "Tito" Asfura, known as Papi a la Ă“rden or "Daddy at your service] – the same candidate endorsed by U.S. President Donald Trump. Gang members drove voters to the polls ... and threatened to kill street-level activists for the left-leaning Liberty and Refoundation, or LIBRE, party if they were seen bringing supporters to the polls. "A lot of people for LIBRE didn't go to vote because the gangsters had threatened to kill them," a resident of San Pedro Sula, the second-largest city in Honduras, told The Intercept. The MS-13 interference took place as the U.S. president, who has obsessed over the gang since his first term, extended an interventionist hand over the elections. On November 28, Trump threatened to cut off aid to Honduras if voters didn't elect Asfura while simultaneously announcing a pardon for Asfura's ally and fellow party member Juan Orlando Hernández, the former president of Honduras convicted in the U.S. on drug trafficking and weapons charges last year. Testimony at Hernández's trial indicated that members of MS-13 were subcontracted as early as 2004 through the corrupt, U.S.-allied police commander Juan Carlos "El Tigre" Bonilla to provide security for caravans of cocaine alongside soldiers. "The people in Honduras are afraid," [leader of the Honduran national emergency call system Miroslava Cerpas] said, "because organized crime has been emboldened by the pardon of Juan Orlando Hernández."
Note: As chief of the Honduran National Police, convicted drug trafficker Juan Carlos Bonilla ("El Tigre") oversaw TIGRES, a special unit within the National Police trained by US special forces and operating alongside Honduran officials trained at Fort Moore, Georgia (formerly known as The School of Americas) which graduated more than 500 individuals later implicated in widespread human rights abuses across Latin America including the killing, torture, and suppression of political activists. Read about the narco-state that the all US presidential administrations supported in Honduras.
Research on ALS, a debilitating condition also known as Lou Gehrig's disease that leads to muscle weakness and death, has found a link between exposure to pesticides and disease development. A new study led by ... Alison O'Neil provides insight into how a specific pesticide damages the nerve cells affected in ALS patients. The paper, published in the prestigious multidisciplinary journal PLOS One, is a follow up to another study O'Neil conducted on the pesticide known as cis-chlordane, which is banned but persists in the environment. "The goal of the study was to try to figure out why cis-chlordane is able to kill motor neurons," which are the nerve cells that die in ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), she said. "It turns out that [the pesticides] are affecting the mitochondria, which are the powerhouse of the cell," said O'Neil. Without mitochondria, the motor neurons weaken and die. This insight points to potential for more effective treatments for a disease when current therapies extend life by only a few months. "The implications of that finding helps us determine what kind of drugs people need," said O'Neil. Since there is clearly an environmental component in most cases of ALS, said Clackson, the research can help pinpoint what is contributing to the disease and potentially change disease trajectory. "If we see these early biomarkers, say pesticides in the blood, then we can perhaps treat them earlier and have a completely different outcome," he said.
Note: It's recently come out that the popular pesticide paraquat probably causes Parkinson's disease. For more along these lines, read our concise summaries of news articles on health and toxic chemicals.
The idea of a "right to repair" – a requirement that companies facilitate consumers' repairs, maintenance, and modification of products – is extremely popular, even winning broad, bipartisan support in Congress. That could not, however, save it from the military–industrial complex. Lobbyists succeeded in killing part of the National Defense Authorization Act that would have given service members the right to fix their equipment in the field without having to worry about military suppliers' intellectual property. The decision to kill the popular proposal was made public Sunday after a closed-door conference of top congressional officials, including defense committee chairs. For the defense industry ... the proposal threatened a key profit stream. Once companies sell hardware and software to the Pentagon, they can keep making money by forcing the government to hire them for repairs. Defense lobbyists pushed back hard against the proposal when it arose in the military budgeting process. The CEO of the Aerospace Industries Association claimed that the legislation could "cripple the very innovation on which our warfighters rely." The contractors' argument was that inventors would not sell their products to the Pentagon if they knew they had to hand over their trade secrets as well. As a piece of legislation, the right to repair has likely died until next year's defense budget bill process. The notion could be imposed in the form of internal Pentagon policies.
Note: For more along these lines, read our concise summaries of news articles on military corruption.
UFO whistleblower David Grusch says President Donald Trump has been fully briefed on secret UFO programs and information about extraterrestrials. Grusch made headlines when he went public saying the Pentagon is operating a secret UFO retrieval program, something the Defense Department has denied. But Grusch's statements prompted other whistleblowers to come forward and lawmakers in Congress to push for more transparency on the subject. Since he first spoke out, multiple hearings on UAPs have been held, and the Pentagon's UAP office has had a shake-up in leadership. Those who have come forward with allegations about government programs have also said the U.S. has retrieved both technology and biological remains from nonhuman intelligence. However, no definitive proof has been provided to back up allegations the government is keeping the existence of aliens a secret. The White House, Pentagon and NASA have all said there is no evidence that UAPs, including sightings that remain unexplained, are extraterrestrial in nature. Grusch suggested that Trump could become an extremely consequential president by revealing information on UAPs and any government programs dedicated to them that might exist.
Note: Our 26-minute video UFO Disclosure: Breakthrough Technology and Awakening Human Consciousness features interviews with leading experts along with well-sourced, verifiable information to help you make sense of this fascinating issue and its immense potential to transform our world. For more, explore the comprehensive resources provided in our UFO Information Center.
Imet my best friend, Ursula Guidry, in college. Ursula died from cancer when her children were in preschool. We'll never know if her death was pure "bad luck," or whether it had something to do with growing up amidst plastics-manufacturing facilities. What we know for certain is that the toxic chemicals emitted by those facilities can ravage the human body. It's against that backdrop that I watch Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin work feverishly to dismantle the safeguards protecting people from toxic chemical exposures. The U.S. averages one chemical spill, fire, or explosion every three days, but Zeldin's attacks almost guarantee an increase. Every part of the petrochemical supply chain puts communities at risk, including the nation's millions of miles of pipelines. In Satartia, Miss., a pipeline carrying carbon dioxide used in oil drilling ruptured from heavy rains and floods, spewing carbon dioxide for hours. The carbon dioxide displaced oxygen in the air, so car engines stopped running and people could not escape. Dozens were hospitalized. Acute CO2 emissions cause heart malfunction and death by asphyxiation. Extreme flooding can also submerge Superfund toxic waste dumps. Nearly 1 in 4 Americans live within three miles of a Superfund site. Zeldin's plans are a gift to the fossil fuel and petrochemical corporations. For the rest of us, they are an explosive and hostile attack on our children, our families, and our best friends.
Note: For more along these lines, read our concise summaries of news articles on health and toxic chemicals.
Young people have become powerless against the multibillion-dollar tech companies whose apps exploit adolescents' need for social acceptance. This is the backdrop against which my book, "The Anxious Generation," was published in 2024. The book helped fuel the movement to reclaim childhood from tech companies – a movement that has since spread, driven in part by the protective passions of parents. Already, a majority of states have enacted laws to limit phone use in school. Eighteen states and Washington, D.C., have gone all the way and enacted "bell-to-bell" phone restriction policies, which liberate students from the distraction of their phones for the entire school day. Outside of the United States, Brazil has made every school phone-free, and new school phone policies have passed in the Netherlands, Finland and South Korea, among other countries. We are just beginning to see some of the impacts: Children are more attentive in class and are reading more books; teachers have told me they hear more laughter in the halls and at lunch. Heavy social media use doubles the risk of depression for adolescents. Just as we have age limits in the real world for porn, gambling, alcohol, tobacco and many other products, countries have begun enacting policies to add age restrictions to social media. These things may seem small, but in terms of children's development ... they're enormous.
Note: Explore more positive stories like this on reimagining education.
Wade Milyard heard the voice from "out of nowhere" and knew he needed to listen–he thought it was God, or some other higher power. The former canine officer for the Frederick Police Department in Maryland was responding to a domestic dispute at a homeless camp. Soon after he investigated the disturbance, the voice rang out. "Ask them about their laundry." Milyard heeded the voice, asked the question, and unknowingly set the course for a prayer-fulfilling future. The homeless couple he interviewed told him they typically washed their laundry in a nearby creek. The cop never forgot that response, nor his call to service. He pooled multiple donations with some of his own money and went to work creating a full service laundromat on wheels. Fresh Step Laundry was born–with a mission "to help restore dignity to the unhoused community by providing free, accessible, and hygienic laundry." Since retiring from the police force in January, the 45-year-old has been traveling around his Maryland city, which is near D.C., making a difference–one load of wash at a time. He's set a schedule so people can meet him to take advantage of his laundry service, and his email is at the bottom of the web page. In the last several weeks alone, Fresh Step has washed more than 2,000 pounds of laundry and his next goal is to add a second vehicle so he can double the number of people he can serve.
Note: Explore more positive stories like this in on human interest stories and healing social division.
As lawmakers hope President Donald Trump will join efforts to create more transparency around government information on UFOs, they are also turning their attention to strange sightings in and around the ocean. Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., is one of a bipartisan group of lawmakers pushing the Pentagon for more information on alleged secret programs regarding UFOs. Several high-profile whistleblowers have come forward with allegations of secret programs, recovered UFO technology, and even alleging the government has remains of non-human intelligence. He is concerned not just about unexplained objects in the air but also those in the ocean. Burchett pointed out that many UFO encounters pilots have reported have been over the deep oceans, and there have been reports of things diving into the water. Much of the world's oceans remain unexplored, which Burchett noted would make an appealing location for any entity trying to go unnoticed. "You would go where you would be least disturbed," he said. Burchett said Navy officials who have broached the subject with him suggested the existence of five or six underground bases. Burchett says he will be meeting with the president soon, and it is one subject he hopes to discuss. "It still just bothers me that our government won't come forward with it," Burchett said. "I am part of the government, and I don't trust it. You have to ask yourself, why are we being told to keep quiet? Why the secrecy?"
Note: Read about the unidentified submerged object (USO) craft that Professor Bob McGwier of Virginia Tech and the Institute for Defence Analyses said was moving through the water faster than the speed of sound. Our 26-minute video UFO Disclosure: Breakthrough Technology and Awakening Human Consciousness features interviews with leading experts along with well-sourced, verifiable information to help you make sense of this fascinating issue and its immense potential to transform our world.
A scientific study that regulators around the world relied on for decades to justify continued approval of glyphosate was quietly retracted last Friday over serious ethical issues including secret authorship by Monsanto employees – raising questions about the pesticide-approval process in the U.S. and globally. The April 2000 study by Gary Williams, Robert Kroes and Ian Munro – which concluded glyphosate does not pose a health risk to humans at typical exposure levels – was ghostwritten by Monsanto employees, and was "based solely on unpublished studies from Monsanto," wrote Martin van den Berg, co-editor-in-chief of Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology. It also ignored "multiple other long-term chronic toxicity and carcinogenicity studies" that were available at the time. Some of the study authors may also have received undisclosed financial compensation from Monsanto, he noted. The retraction came years after internal corporate documents first revealed in 2017 that Monsanto employees were heavily involved in drafting the paper. "What took them so long to retract it?" asked Michael Hansen, senior scientist of advocacy at Consumer Reports. The ghostwritten paper is in the top 0.1% of citations among academic papers discussing glyphosate. The retraction exposes the flaws of a regulatory system that relies heavily on corporate research, and an academic publishing system that is often used as a tool for corporate product defense.
Note: Our latest Substack, "The Pesticide Crisis Reveals The Dark Side of Science. We Have The Solutions to Regenerate," uncovers the scope of Monsanto's media propaganda machine and the widespread conspiracy to poison our food, air, and along with the powerful remedies and solutions to this crisis. For more along these lines, read our concise summaries of news articles on toxic chemicals and corruption in science.
Few people wield more power in New York City real estate than Andrew Farkas. Mr. Farkas, 65, is the founder of Island Capital, a merchant bank, and has also been a powerful political benefactor, especially to former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, to whom he has donated millions and whom he employed in a lucrative role when Mr. Cuomo was out of office. He is also friendly with President Trump and has invested in projects of Jared Kushner, the president's son-in-law. But a 127-slip marina he owned in the U.S. Virgin Islands has put the billionaire real estate investor in a new and troubling spotlight. His co-owner was Jeffrey Epstein, whose private island served as the grim center of a sex-trafficking operation that was just a few miles south of the marina. Mr. Farkas's name appears in Mr. Epstein's personal emails. Mr. Epstein and Mr. Farkas had regular phone calls. Sometimes they met in person for breakfast in New York. And on one occasion, Mr. Epstein even offered the use of Mr. Farkas's plane to visitors in need. Mr. Epstein's stake in the marina was essentially unknown until 2018, when Jennifer Doelling, the chief financial officer of Island Global Yachting, revealed it during a deposition for a tax audit lawsuit. Mr. Epstein was first charged, on a single count of prostitution, in 2006, one year before the marina deal became final, although allegations had been swirling for years. The victim in the charge had been as young as 14 years old.
Note: Read our comprehensive Substack investigation covering the connection between Jeffrey Epstein's child sex trafficking ring and intelligence agency sexual blackmail operations. For more, read our concise summaries of news articles on Epstein's criminal enterprise.
Important Note: Explore our full index to key excerpts of revealing major media news articles on several dozen engaging topics. And don't miss amazing excerpts from 20 of the most revealing news articles ever published.