Farming For Free

 

Farmland Shock: Georgia Grower Drops 3,000 Acres, Warns Of Unplanted Ground in 2026

By Chris Bennett of Farm Journal

How deep is the farm crisis? Adios to acreage.

In November 2025, Alex Harrell, among the most highly reputed producers in the U.S., dropped an old-school grading scale, A to F, across his 6,000-acre operation and slashed almost half his ground, notifying 12 landlords in a three-week window. “I can’t speak to the rest of the country, but around here, generational growers are either cutting back, quitting, falling into Chapter 12, or grasping at straws.”

Spurred by crippling inputs, Harrell’s acreage drop is an alarming indication of an agriculture economy in dire straits. “There will be significant acres in my area that won’t be planted next year,” he says. “I’m seeing it with my own eyes in real time.”

“People don’t realize there was ground here in 2025 that didn’t get planted, but you can already see what’s developing for 2026. Guys are walking away.”

Down Comes the Ax 

No fat left to trim. Nothing to burn but muscle. No way to outyield cold math.

“Something has to give when you go three years and more just spinning your wheels on net profit,” Harrell, 36, explains. “The numbers aren’t complicated. When fertilizer, chemical, and machinery costs go up 300% over a short span of time, everything is upside down, especially when commodities go in the tank.”

“Guys are quitting and walking away, and that eventually leads to land that doesn’t get picked up … Cropland with no crop,” says Alex Harrell.(Photo courtesy of Harrell Farms)

In 2025, Harrell grew 6,000 acres of corn, soybeans, cotton, and wheat in southwest Georgia’s Lee County. “Breaking even is bad enough in farming, but we’re all way below that around here. We are literally paying to farm—not getting paid to farm. Every year, it costs more to farm input-wise, and unless something changes with these retailers, I don’t see things changing. Based on that, I took a long look at my operation.”

But what to do when there’s nothing left to cut on the farm? Cut the farm itself.

In November 2025, Harrell put his leased acreage under the microscope, under a seven-category lens subject to grades A through F:

1. How many miles away was the land?
2. How productive is the soil?
3. What was the water source (pond, creek, or well)?
4. How was irrigation powered (electric or diesel)?
5. On base acres, how productive was the farm related to PLC and ARC?
6. How did wildlife depredation factor for deer and wild pigs (and whether landowners allowed for shooting with deer permits)?
7. How much was rent?

Harrell axed any piece of ground that scored C through F in more than two categories. The reduction totaled 45% of his crop ground.

“It’s pretty straightforward. The only way I could figure out to make things work was to break down those farms individually and grade them on a scale. Then I dropped the ones that didn’t pass—and that included the very first irrigated farm I ever rented, and ground we’ve put 16, 17 crops on that I’ve been working for years. It was time to turn them loose. Like I said, that’s how bad the farm economy is around here. In some ways, I think the worst part is still to come, but people don’t realize that yet.”

No Bidding War 

Harrell’s acreage chop may go deeper. “I’ve still got considerations to make on some farms. I’ve still got ground flirting on the line. I may have to make more calls to landlords.”

Rent on irrigated ground in Harrell’s region typically runs $275-330 per acre. How did his landlords react when he dropped acres?

“I had one that offered to drop rent a little bit, but I understand because they’re used to having 10 guys sitting there waiting to rent that land. In my opinion, I don’t think they understand the shifting dynamic of the farm economy. This time, people are not going to be beating their doors down. I’m not saying their particular acres won’t get rented, but there’s definitely not going to be a bidding war.”

“Even last year in 2025, there was irrigated land down here that didn’t get worked. In 2026, there’ll be even more. I can’t speak for anyplace else in the U.S., but in southwest Georgia, this is what we’re seeing in farmland, especially marginal ground. It’s already happening.

Yield Forfeit 

Prior to Harrell’s acreage slash, his operation stretched 21 miles east, 30 miles west, 15 miles north, and 15 miles south.

Good Buddies

 

Sudden Change Of Heart By Colombia's Petro: 'Good Call' With Trump Leads To Planned WH Meeting

Another foreign leader and strident Trump critic has had a rapid about-face after coming under 'threat'. And this in turn has caused President Trump to cool his own condemnations and rhetoric. Colombia's president Gustavo Petro has long been among the fiercest opponents of the US President's Venezuela policy, and especially his weekend military action which ousted Nicolás Maduro. They've frequently clashed over several months of the American military build-up in the southern Caribbean, with Petro being the butt plenty of colorful Truth Social posts by Trump, including labeling Petro "sick".

Suddenly the Colombian leader has made nice after Trump went so far as to hint that his country could be among those facing potential anti-narco trafficking military action, with the NY Times now reporting, "The two leaders spoke for about an hour late Wednesday afternoon in a call facilitated by the US Embassy in Colombia, according to the Colombian presidency." It noted that "A US official also said the call lasted about an hour, which is unusually long for a call between Mr. Trump and another leader." The Colombian side had a similarly positive assessment, with the Foreign Ministry calling it a "good meeting".

Via Reuters

And it hasn't taken long, following Trump saying he appreciates Petro's "call and tone" - for him to even get a White House invite. Trump said Petro had "called to explain the situation of drugs and other disagreements that we have had."

Now a future meeting to further advance relations and cooperation is being arranged by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Colombia’s foreign minister, Trump confirmed, which he said he is looking forward to. "I appreciated his call and tone, and look forward to meeting him in the near future," Trump said in a fresh Truth Social post. The meeting will take place at the White House.

A mere days ago Trump had denounced Petro as heading up a "very sick" cartel infested country which he accused of "making cocaine and selling it to the United States" - and then this not very veiled threat and warning: "He's not going to be doing it very long, let me tell you." Trump even ominously responded to a reporter's question about potential military intervention in Colombia with, "Sounds good to me." He earlier said Petro must "watch his ass".

Petro himself is a former member of a guerrilla group and Colombia's first leftist leader in decades but he has sworn to "never to touch a weapon again" - but "for the homeland I would take up arms that I don't want."

Quick change of heart...

Now, Petro is pledging cooperation and blaming the cartels for causing the severely strained relations between Bogota and Washington. Singing a different tune amid the ratcheting Trump pressure he had said as follows:

"I talked about two things: Venezuela and the issue of drug trafficking," he told the crowd in downtown Bogotá, where demonstrators had just minutes earlier chanted slogans against the United States at Petro's behest. Petro explained to the audience that Colombian politicians allegedly linked to narco-trafficking misled the U.S. president about Petro's record to turn Trump against him.

Leaving

 

US To Withdraw From 66 International Bodies, Treaties

The Trump administration withdrew the United States from 66 international organizations, conventions, and treaties that it said go against the country’s interests, the White House announced on Jan. 7.

According to the presidential memorandum, 31 entities were tied to the United Nations, while 35 others were not.

“The Trump Administration has found these institutions to be redundant in their scope, mismanaged, unnecessary, wasteful, poorly run, captured by the interests of actors advancing their own agendas contrary to our own, or a threat to our nation’s sovereignty, freedoms, and general prosperity,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrote in a statement shortly after the list was revealed.

“President [Donald] Trump is clear: It is no longer acceptable to be sending these institutions the blood, sweat, and treasure of the American people, with little to nothing to show for it. The days of billions of dollars in taxpayer money flowing to foreign interests at the expense of our people are over.”

As Jacki Thrapp reports for The Epoch Times,The State Department was ordered to review the international intergovernmental organizations that “no longer serve American interests” in February 2025, per an executive order ​signed by President Donald Trump.

Rubio accused many entities of being “often dominated by progressive ideology and detached from national interests.”

“From DEI mandates to ‘gender equity’ campaigns to climate orthodoxy, many international organizations now serve a globalist project rooted in the discredited fantasy of the ‘End of History.’

“These organizations actively seek to constrain American sovereignty. Their work is advanced by the same elite networks—the multilateral ‘NGO-plex’—that we have begun dismantling through the closure of [the United States Agency for International Development].”

The U.N.-related entities that the Trump administration withdrew from include the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, International Law Commission, International Trade Centre, Peacebuilding Commission, Peacebuilding Fund, U.N. Democracy Fund, U.N. Energy, U.N. Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, and U.N. University.

The non-U.N. organizations included the 24/7 Carbon-Free Energy Compact and the Commission for Environmental Cooperation.

The memorandum cited over two dozen “hybrid threats,” such as the Forum of European National Highway Research Laboratories and the Global Community Engagement and Resilience Fund.

Send In The Clowns

 

Left-Wing Protest Industrial Complex Activates Across Multiple Cities After ICE-Involved Shooting In Minneapolis

It didn't take long. Within hours of an ICE-involved shooting in the Minneapolis area, the Democratic Party's protest industrial complex moved into action, quickly creating conditions for coordinated demonstrations across multiple cities. The rapid response suggested these nonprofit activist networks were on standby, waiting for a catalytic event, as an army of radicals intensified pressure campaigns against federal agents, blocking streets, harassing officers, and openly doxxing them.

Shortly after the ICE-involved shooting that left one woman dead, multiple videos of the incident went viral on X. In at least one video, she appears to be blocking the street with her vehicle in an attempt to impede ICE agents and is later shot and killed after advancing toward one of the agents. Numerous angles of the incident are circulating on X, offering competing narratives.

The Democratic Party's propaganda machine, desperately searching for the next narrative after the optically displeasing Somali-linked daycare fraud scandal, was quick to deploy a new storyline.

As we noted hours before protest activity erupted in the Minneapolis area (read here), the left-wing nonprofit Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee functioned as a rapid-response mobilization hub, coordinating a coalition of left-wing activist groups to flood the streets by late evening.

Footage of the demonstrations:

The Music Is Still Playing...For Now

 

Math Of A Debt Trap: Who's Gonna Bail First - US, UK, Or EU?

Authored by Alasdair Macleod via VonGreyerz.gold,

Stagnating economies, together with high government debt loads, inevitably create funding crises and debt traps. Nowhere is this problem more destructive than for the fiat dollar.

But it’s not just the dollar. Economies in the Eurozone and the UK have insufficient growth to support their colossal mountains of government debt. In this article, I explain the mechanics of a debt trap. And how a combination of rising interest rates reflecting growing risk and stagnating economies bring on debt traps, leading to yet higher interest rates making the situation even worse.

My memory is of the sterling crisis in 1976, when the IMF bailed out the British government, and the Bank of England had to fund medium-term debt with gilt coupons of over 15%. The Labour government was forced to cut its spending to resolve the situation. So I have a question for today: who is going to bail out first, the US Government, then the UK and Eurozone, and who is going to force them to cut spending on the edge of a recession?

Only the markets will do it: crisis first, and only if we are lucky, the solution follows.

Read on…

Introduction

Understanding debt, the counterpart of credit, is of increasing importance. For example, it is the other side of bank credit, and when banks become overleveraged, there comes a time when their managers become concerned about the risk to their balance sheets. In any economy, the risk is conventionally understood to be in private sector lending, and a recession is part and parcel of the withholding of further credit, leading to corporate and personal insolvencies. Under these circumstances, banks redirect their balance sheet assets from private sector loans and corporate bonds to government debt, which is seen as the risk-free asset in any currency.

There are signs that, with respect to some jurisdictions, these views are evolving, with the outlook for government debt being examined more closely. There is also little confidence in economic prospects for all the major economies, improving government budgets.

Given mounting government debts, debt is a problem no longer confined to private sectors which have suffered from the generally unexpected rise in interest rates over the last few years. And governments in the advanced economies appear to have little sense of the debt trap being sprung upon them, too. As well as the rate of nominal GDP growth, the interest rate matters and a combination of slowing economies moving into recession together with high interest rates is a lethal combination for government finances.

More specifically than growth in GDP, what matters is the growth in tax revenue required to fund the pace at which the combination of debt and interest is being rolled over. In Europe and the UK, tax rates are already so high that attempts to obtain more revenue by increasing them will almost certainly lead to lower revenues due to the Laffer curve effect. The US is probably not at that point yet tax-wise, but economic stagnation has the same effect.

The following table illustrates government indebtedness relative to GDP for the G7 nations and also relative to private sector GDP, which produces the revenue for governments upon which debt credibility depends.

Various papers have been written on this problem, all concluding that a debt trap occurs when the rate of GDP growth falls to below the rate at which the cost of funding the debt increases. But it is surely more correct to compare the rate of increase of tax revenues with the rate of increase of the debt: do tax revenues increase more rapidly than the debt, or does the compounding debt increase more rapidly than revenues?

How did governments cut the debt-to-GDP ratio following WW2?

Much of the complacency over government debt levels arises from the fact that high WW2 debt levels were reduced over the following two decades to manageable levels, fuelling a belief that it can be done again. America’s government debt to GDP in 1946 peaked at 120%, below current peace-time levels, falling to 35% in 1971 when Nixon suspended the Bretton Woods Agreement. The relevant figures are shown in the table below.

The increase in gross Federal debt was 142%, but the increase in GDP was 483%. And the increase in revenue, which ultimately pays for the debt, was slightly more than the increase in GDP. Therefore, revenue growth outpaced debt growth nearly three and a half times, leading to a significant reduction in debt to GDP. This was how the war debt relative to GDP was reduced, before the discipline of gold on government spending and interest rates was finally abandoned.

The common belief that debt reduction was due to financial repression, that is to say, the cost of funding was suppressed by central bank interest rate policies and yield curve control, is incorrect. To understand why, we need to address another point. And that is what happened to prices. The dollar and through the dollar all other currencies were tied to gold at $35 for the whole 25 years, but the CPI for Urban Consumers rose from 22 to 40, nearly doubling at an average annual rate of about 0.7%. Yet, measured in gold there should have been no inflation, because the expansion of economic activity under a gold standard is expected to lead to better manufacturing processes, product improvements, and a tendency towards falling prices.

The problems with a CPI measure are many. Logically, there is no such thing as a statistical measure of price inflation, the subjectivity of which has been clearly demonstrated in more recent decades by wildly differing estimates. Government intervention in the economy distorts outcomes, and the savings rate fluctuated, but not enough to explain the disparity between a steady gold standard and a statistical outcome.

A cleaner price comparison is found in commodity prices. Oil was pegged at $2.57 per barrel, increasing to $3.56, which held until 1973: that’s a 38% increase compared with a near doubling of US consumer prices. Copper was similarly more stable priced in gold, as the next chart demonstrates.

That both copper and oil did increase in price by either measure in the post war years can be explained by demand increasing for these commodities more rapidly than supply. But this does not get round the fact that with the dollar supposedly acting as a gold substitute at a fixed value of $35 per ounce there is an unexplained disparity in consumer price performance. The answer is that the Bretton Woods system ended up suppressing the value of gold, evidenced by the selling down of US gold reserves from 21,828.2 tonnes in 1949, representing over 70% of global official reserves and 45% of total above-ground stocks, to 9,069.7 tonnes, less than 25% of global official reserves and only 12% of above-ground stocks in 1971.

The suspension of the Bretton Woods Agreement in August 1971, far from removing gold from the monetary system, had the effect of releasing gold from its increasing suppression by US economic policies in the post-war years. It is important to understand this relationship in its proper context, now that in this new millennium US Government debt is spiralling out of control.

This millennium is different from the post-war years

The next table replicates the first table in this article, but for the 25 years of this current millennium.

Here, we can see that gross debt has been rising nearly three times faster than GDP, and even more so measured in the federal government revenues which are behind the sustainability of t

Going Down With The Ship

 

Tim Walz Activates Emergency Operations Center, Alerts National Guard After ICE-Involved Shooting Sparks Protest Threat

Update (1640ET):

Gov. Tim Walz activated Minnesota's Emergency Operations Center within hours of an ICE-involved shooting in south Minneapolis, as concerns grow that a coalition of left-wing activist groups could mobilize in the streets, evoking familiar and uneasy parallels to the unrest that followed the death of George Floyd.

"To Minnesotans, know that our administration is going to stop at nothing to seek accountability and justice," Walz told reporters at a press conference in the late afternoon hours.

He added, "We have soldiers in training and prepared to be deployed if necessary."

Walz's meeting with public safety officials and his comments to the press come shortly after citizen journalist Andy Ngo warned that far-left extremists could soon begin mobilizing.

"Far-left extremists in Minnesota have announced a vigil for their comrade who was shot dead after accelerating an SUV toward an ICE agent in Minneapolis. They're claiming the woman was a peaceful "legal observer." Video showed the car block DHS agents on the road before the driver accelerated at an agent," Ngo wrote on X.

Ngo posted a flyer about a vigil service that the left-wing nonprofit Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee (MIRAC) is expected to hold tonight at 1700 local time.

"EMERGENCY VIGIL IN RESPONSE TO ICE SHOOTING ICE shot and killed an observer today in Minneapolis. Say her name! We witnessed an atrocious attack on our community today. Community members were taken from us and an observer was shot dead. ICE OUT OF MINNESOTA NOW!" MIRAC's flyer read.

MIRAC is a left-wing grassroots immigrant-rights activist network based in Minnesota that focuses on direct action, protest organizing, and resistance to immigration enforcement rather than traditional policy advocacy.

Meet the warriors:

Worlds Biggest Asset Manager Is Put On Notice

 

Blackstone Craters After Trump Teases Institutional Ban On Single-Family Homes

Shares in Blackstone cratered on Wednesday after President Donald Trump announced that he would be 'immediately taking steps to ban large institutional investors from buying more single-family homes,' and will be calling on Congress 'to codify it.

"For a very long time, buying and owning a home was considered the pinnacle of the American Dream. It was the reward for working hard, and doing the right thing," Trump posted on Truth Social. "but now, because of the Record High Inflation caused by Joe Biden and the Democrats in Congress, that American Dream is increasingly out of reach for far too many people, especially younger Americans."

Trump said he would discus the topic - along with other cost-of-living initiatives, during a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos later this month.

"People live in homes, not corporations," Trump said in his post. 

The US president said last month he was planning to unveil “some of the most aggressive housing reform plans in American history” in the coming year.

The cost of housing has soared in recent years due to a historic supply shortage, after construction rates fell in the wake of the global financial crisis. A pandemic boom exacerbated the problem: As of August, the S&P Case-Shiller 20-City Composite Home Price Index had risen 68% since January 2020.  

Both parties have been keen to show they take the housing problem seriously heading into the November midterms. -Bloomberg

Shares of Blackstone, widely considered the nation's largest landlord, were off to the tune of 9.3% on the news.

Developing, stay tuned for more...

Fraud In The Heartland

 

Immigration Agents Surge Into Minneapolis In 'Largest Operation Ever'

Authored by Jill McLaughlin via The Epoch Times,

The Trump administration has launched what officials described as the largest immigration enforcement operation ever Tuesday in the Minneapolis–St. Paul area, initiating the deployment of federal agents and officers in a crackdown tied to widespread fraud investigations allegedly involving mainly Somali residents.

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem participating in an immigration enforcement operation in Minnesota with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers on Jan. 6, 2026, that resulted in the arrest of Tomas Espin Tapia, a fugitive wanted for murder and sexual assault in Ecuador. (DHS)DHS

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was on the ground early Tuesday as the sweep started, adding to the number of top federal officials focused on the state as federal investigations expand this week.

The Department of Homeland Security has made more than 1,000 arrests of illegal immigrants, many with criminal convictions, in Minnesota, including 150 in Minneapolis Monday, the agency reported.

“We have the largest immigration operation ever taking place right now,” acting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director Todd Lyons told Newsmax on Tuesday.

Federal agents and officers were going door to door at businesses in the area suspected of being involved in illegal hiring and fraud, Lyons said.

“We’re not leaving until the problem is solved,” DHS wrote on X Tuesday.

DHS and ICE did not return requests to confirm how many agents and officers were involved in the operations.

According to Noem, Minnesota authorities are not allowing immigration officers to access state detention centers to detain illegal immigrants with pending deportation orders. A large number of federal officers was needed after a lack of local support, Noem indicated in a social media post Tuesday.

“You won’t steal from Americans or break our laws and get away with it,” Noem said.

Included in Tuesday’s arrests was Tomas Espin Tapia, a fugitive wanted for murder in Ecuador, DHS reported.

Tapia illegally entered the U.S. in October 2022 and was released into the country by the Biden administration, according to the agency.

Tapia’s criminal history also includes sexual assault in Connecticut and previous convictions in Ecuador for robbery and extortion.

Mong Cheng, a criminal illegal immigrant from Laos who was convicted of homicide, vehicle theft, possession of stolen property, assault, and arson, was also among those arrested Tuesday, DHS reported.

Immigrant rights groups and elected officials in the Twin Cities area reported an increase in sightings of federal agents, especially around St. Paul.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz blasted the immigration operation, calling it “ridiculous.”

“Nobody is fooled into thinking this bafoonery [sic] is a reasonable use of taxpayer dollars,” Walz wrote on X. “It should not take 50 ICE agents to arrest one guy in a library.”

Walz dropped his reelection bid Monday as federal agencies expanded investigations into alleged systemwide social services fraud in the state.

The former vice presidential candidate said he needed time to concentrate on combating fraud.

That Old Feeling Is Coming Back

 

Donroe Doctrine: US Seizes Russian-Flagged Tanker In Atlantic, Intercepts Dark-Fleet Ship In Caribbean

Update (1014ET):

"Donroe Doctrine" to clean up the Western Hemisphere was busy Wednesday morning, with the seizure of the Russian-flagged oil tanker Marinera (formerly Bella 1) in the North Atlantic, followed by U.S. forces seizing a stateless dark-fleet tanker in the Caribbean region.

The seizure of Marinera is the headliner this morning, given that Russian warships and a submarine are nearby, raising the risk that the situation could spiral out of control after Moscow warned the Trump administration in recent days to back off the tanker.

Within the last hour, U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) wrote on X that U.S. forces "apprehended a stateless, sanctioned dark-fleet motor tanker without incident." SOUTHCOM said, "The interdicted vessel, M/T Sophia, was operating in international waters and conducting illicit activities in the Caribbean Sea. The U.S. Coast Guard is escorting M/T Sophia to the U.S. for final disposition."

SOUTHCOM concluded the post by signaling the Donroe Doctrine: "Through Operation Southern Spear, the Department of War is unwavering in its mission to crush illicit activity in the Western Hemisphere. We will defend our Homeland and restore security and strength across the Americas."

Welcome to the era of the Donroe Doctrine.

*   *   * 

Update (0920ET):

U.S. European Command (EUCOM) confirmed on X that the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security, in coordination with the Department of Defense, seized the Russian-flagged oil tanker Marinera (formerly Bella 1) for violating U.S. sanctions.

"The vessel was seized in the North Atlantic pursuant to a warrant issued by a U.S. federal court after being tracked by the USCGC Munro," EUCOM said.

EUCOM continued...

Read the earlier updates: Russian warships and submarines are nearby.

*   *   * 

Update (0855ET):

NBC News reports that the U.S. Special Forces operation in the North Atlantic to seize a Russian-flagged oil tanker, the Marinera (formerly Bella 1), was successful.

U.S. officials told the outlet that the Marinera "has been secured" following a dramatic, weeks-long chase on the high seas.

The U.S. seized two oil tankers off the coast of Venezuela last month as part of President Trump's gunboat diplomacy. But why would a U.S. Coast Guard cutter and surveillance planes chase an empty, rusted, Russian-flagged tanker across the Atlantic unless there was potentially something far more valuable on board?

*   *   * 

Update (0814ET):

The Russian outlet RT News has posted footage that appears to show U.S. military forces attempting to board the Russian-flagged tanker Marinera early Wednesday morning in the North Atlantic.

United In Fraud

 

Somali UN Ambassador Linked To Ohio Health Care Company Sanctioned For Medicaid Fraud, HHS Says

Authored by Tom Ozimek via The Epoch Times,

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has confirmed that Abukar Dahir Osman, Somalia’s permanent representative to the United Nations and the current president of the U.N. Security Council, is associated with an Ohio-based home health care company that the federal government previously took action against following a Medicaid fraud conviction.

“I can confirm public speculation that Ambassador Abukar Dahir Osman, Permanent Representative of Somalia to the UN and President of the Security Council, is in fact associated with Progressive Health Care Services, a home health agency in Cincinnati,” HHS Deputy Secretary Jim O’Neill said in a Jan. 5 post on X.

“HHS has previously taken action against Progressive in response to a conviction for Medicaid fraud. More to come.”

O’Neill and HHS did not immediately provide details about the nature of the Medicaid fraud case or specify what enforcement actions were taken against Progressive Health Care Services.

The Epoch Times has contacted Progressive Health Care Services for comment, including details about the referenced Medicaid fraud conviction, any enforcement actions taken, and the company’s current regulatory status. No response was received by publication time.

Osman’s ties to the Ohio company drew widespread attention last week after people on social media circulated records suggesting he held a senior corporate role while simultaneously serving as Somalia’s top diplomat to the United Nations.

Screenshots of Osman’s LinkedIn profile, shared by the Libs of TikTok social media account, list him as having served as “Managing Director” of Progressive Health Care Services from 2014 to May 2019—overlapping with his tenure as Somalia’s permanent representative in New York. Other publicly available records indicate he was also listed as president and chief executive officer of the company.

Libs of TikTok further reported that the firm’s National Provider Identifier appeared on a federal exclusion list under a code associated with Medicare and Medicaid-related crimes. HHS has not publicly confirmed those specific details.

Osman is serving as president of the U.N. Security Council for January 2026, a rotating position held by member states on a monthly basis.

The Epoch Times has reached out to Somalia’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations seeking comment from Osman on the HHS statement and his association with Progressive Health Care Services. No reply was received by publication time.

Context of Broader Fraud Investigations

The disclosure involving the U.N. ambassador comes as federal and state authorities investigate what officials have described as large-scale fraud schemes involving government-funded programs across several states.

In Minnesota, the Feeding Our Future case—now the largest pandemic-related fraud prosecution in U.S. history—has resulted in dozens of convictions. Federal prosecutors allege that organizers falsely claimed to provide meals to children while diverting hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer funds.

Additional investigations into Medicaid-funded services, including home health care and autism therapy programs, are ongoing. Federal officials have said the total fraud exposure across just a subset of Minnesota’s Medicaid programs could exceed $9 billion.

President Donald Trump and senior administration officials have recently taken enforcement action against Minnesota, including freezing federal child care funds after alleged fraudulent day care schemes were uncovered.

FBI Director Kash Patel recently revealed that federal officials have indicted dozens of people in an alleged $250 million scheme in Minnesota that allegedly included crimes such as wire fraud, money laundering, and conspiracy.

The Small Business Administration recently suspended nearly 6,900 Minnesota borrowers from future federal loan programs after reviewing pandemic-era Paycheck Protection Program and Economic Injury Disaster Loan approvals. SBA Administrator Kelly Loeffler said the borrowers had received roughly $400 million in loans now under investigation.

Amid mounting scrutiny, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat, announced on Jan. 5 that he would not seek reelection, saying he wanted to focus on combating fraud instead of campaigning.