Over the past four years, the Ukrainian government "systematically sabotaged" oversight of the country's state-owned companies and weapons procurement processes, "allowing graft to flourish," a freshly published New York Times investigation has revealed.
The investigation details how the government of Volodymyr Zelensky sidelined outside experts from the US and EU serving on advisory boards responsible for monitoring spending, appointing executives, and preventing corruption.
"President Volodymyr Zelensky's administration has stacked boards with loyalists, left seats empty, or stalled them from being set up at all. Leaders in Kiev even rewrote company charters to limit oversight, keeping the government in control and allowing hundreds of millions of dollars to be spent without outsiders poking around," the NYT report says.
The investigation was published amid a corruption scandal centering on close associates of the Ukrainian president. Anti-corruption authorities have accused members of Zelensky's inner circle of embezzling $100 million from the state-owned nuclear power company, Energoatom.
"Mr. Zelensky's administration has blamed Energoatom's supervisory board for failing to stop the corruption. But it was Mr. Zelensky's government itself that neutered Energoatom's supervisory board," the NYT writes.
The investigation also found that Zelensky sidelined the supervisory boards of the state-owned electricity company Ukrenergo and Ukraine's Defense Procurement Agency.
European leaders have justified funneling billions of dollars in taxpayer funds to Ukraine despite knowledge of the systematic corruption and theft plaguing the country. "We do care about good governance, but we have to accept that risk," said Christian Syse, the special envoy to Ukraine from Norway.
"Because it's war. Because it's in our own interest to help Ukraine financially. Because Ukraine is defending Europe from Russian attacks," he added.
Zelensky's chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, resigned late last month amid the Energoatom corruption scandal and just hours after police raided his home. Ukrainska Pravdareported that he had left for Israel, of which he is a citizen, just hours before the raid.
Yermak is widely considered the second-most-powerful official in the country, with influence over domestic politics, military issues, and foreign policy, Axiosnoted.
Across the American political spectrum, support for the State of Israel is steadily eroding. With the long-running, staggeringly expensive redistribution of American wealth and weapons to one of the world’s most prosperous countries under unprecedented threat, Israel’s advocates inside the United States are growing increasingly desperate to suppress the facts, opinions, questions and imagery that are causing this sea change.
Pro-Israel forces have long worked to limit and shape US discourse to Israel’s advantage. However, the intensity and novelty of what’s taking place in 2025 — from the government-coerced transfer of a social media platform to pro-Israel billionaires, to the jailing and attempted deportation of a student for writing an opinion piece, and more — deserves the attention of every American who values free expression, an enlightened electorate, and independence from foreign influence.
Many Americans know that Congress and President Biden teamed up in 2024 to force the Chinese company ByteDance to divest its US operation of the popular video-sharing app TikTok, yet few realize this unusual intervention was motivated in large part by a desire to serve the interests of Israel.
Though politicians pointed to the supposed Chinese menace lurking inside the app — while revealing their lack of sincerity by continuing to use it themselves — the catalyst for the extraordinary TikTok ban's passage was a sea of viral content illuminating Israel’s rampage in Gaza, casting Palestinians in empathetic light, and questioning the legitimacy of the political philosophy that is Zionism.
The idea that passage of the ban was largely about Israel is no conspiracy theory. American politicians who supported the compelled divestiture of TikTok have candidly said so themselves. Sharing a stage with Biden Secretary of State Antony Blinken in 2024, then-Senator Mitt Romney said:
“Some wonder why there was such overwhelming support for us to shut down, potentially, TikTok or other entities of that nature. You look at the postings on TikTok and the number of mentions of Palestinians relative to other social media sites — it’s overwhelmingly so among TikTok broadcasts, so I’d note that’s of real interest to the president, who will get the chance to take action in that regard.”
Similarly, Rep. Mike Lawler of New York told a webinar that pro-Palestinian student protests were “exactly why we included the TikTok bill…because you’re seeing how these kids are being manipulated by certain groups or entities or countries to foment hate on their behalf and really create a hostile environment here in the US.”
Of course, mere divestiture wouldn’t guarantee that TikTok would start suppressing anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian content in the United States. To have the desired effect, the buyer — who required White House approval — would have to be an ardent supporter of Israel. That’s just how things played out. In September, President Trump approved the sale of TikTok’s US operations to a joint venture led by Larry Ellison, the founder of tech-titan Oracle and the fourth-richest man in the world.
Ellison has expressed his “deep emotional connection to the State of Israel” and has been a major benefactor of the Israeli Defense Forces, via donations to IDF-supporting organizations. He spent at least $3 million on Marco Rubio’s failed 2016 presidential campaign, after being assured by Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations that Rubio would “be a great friend to Israel.” There are other Israel-favoring billionaires in the consortium now controlling TikTok’s American presence, among them NewsCorp head Rupert Murdoch and investment trader Jeff Yass.
Americans were propagandized into fearing Chinese control of TikTok users’ data. Now that data will be controlled by Oracle, a firm whose founder has described Israel as his own nation, said “there is no greater honor” than supporting the IDF, and invited Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to take a seat on the board. It’s also a firm with strong business ties to the Israel government, and a firm whose Israel-born executive vice chair and former CEO last year declared, “For [Oracle] employees, it’s clear: If you’re not for America or Israel, don’t work here.”
A few months before the TikTok divestiture was finalized, the company installed former IDF soldier and self-described “passionate” Zionist Erica Mindel as TikTok’s hate speech manager in July. Weeks later, and just days before the transfer of TikTok’s US operation was approved, the platform posted new guidelines on Sept 13 about what’s allowed on the platform.
Soon after the change, users and content creators began sharing examples of content being deleted by TikTok, with the platform exploiting its vague new rules about “conspiracy theories” and “protected groups” to reject negative content about Israel — wielding the threat of demonetization of repeat offenders. In a recent appearance on the Breaking Pointspodcast, Guy Christensen, who has 3.4 million TikTok followers, shared his experience:
“What all these videos have in common that have been removed since Sept 13 are that I am talking about Israel, I’m talking about AIPAC’s influence, I’m talking about Larry Ellison and the attempt to put TikTok under Zionist control — I’m criticizing Israel in some way. It’s the same thing I’ve heard from my audience, my friends who are creators. Ever since Sept 13, they’ve had the same exact experience. Videos that are more informational and critical of Israel get removed.”
In a late-September meeting with pro-Israel social media “influencers,” Netanyahu hailed the transfer of TikTok’s US ownership. “We have to fight with the weapons that apply to the battlefield with which we’re engaged, and the most important ones are in social media. And the most important purchase that is going on right now is TikTok. Number one.” Expressing hope that, by “talking” with Elon Musk, his X platform could be reshaped to be more Israel-protective too, Netanyahu added, “If we can get those two things, we can get a lot.”
NEW - Netanyahu mission-briefed American influencers today, stating TikTok is the "most important" weapon in securing Israel's right-wing support: "Weapons change over time... the most important ones are the social media," he said. "The most important purchase that is going on… pic.twitter.com/EeszHlcZmN
Journal Retracts 'Ghost Written' Monsanto Study Claiming Glyphosate Is Safe
Over the past year massive scandals involving academic research have come under the microscope, after dedicated researchers uncovered rigged studies that made it through peer-review with flying colors, and are now being retracted.
On Friday, the Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology journal announced that it has retracted a review, safety evaluation, and risk assessment of the herbicide Roundup and its active ingredient, glyphosate, after it emerged that Monsanto was heavily involved in its production.
"This decision has been made after careful consideration of the COPE guidelines and thorough investigation into the circumstances surrounding the authorship and content of this article and in light of no response having been provided to address the findings," the journal said in a statement.
"Litigation in the United States revealed correspondence from Monsanto suggesting that the authors of the article were not solely responsible for writing its content," and contributions by Monsanto employees were not disclosed, including in the acknowledgements section of the review.
The journal also said that the authors may have been paid by Monsanto - which was also not disclosed.
The Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology had been frequently cited in defending glyphosate, an ingredient in Roundup, including citations on Wikipedia, researchers said in a paper published in September. Since 2017, multiple juries have concluded that Roundup exposure has resulted in non-Hodgkin lymphoma in people. Bayer took over legal cases involving the matter after it purchased Monsanto in 2018, including a case that may be adjudicated by the Supreme Court. -Epoch Times
Meanwhile the study's lead author, Gary Williams - a former pathologist at New York Medical College, is MIA, according to an Epoch Times inquiry.
An internal email from February 2015 presented as evidence in a 2017 court case revealed that Monsanto employees worked with the authors of the review, with one employee writing that it would be expensive to involve experts from all major areas in a review - and would be cheaper to simply involve certain experts and "we ghost-write" other sections.
"We would be keeping the cost down by us doing the writing and they would just edit & sign their names so to speak. Recall that is how we handled Williams Kroes & Munro, 2000," the employee wrote.
So of course, the journal retracts the dodgy study almost 10 years later - even as other journals - including Critical Reviews in Toxicology, attached expressions of concern co-authored by Williams because they said they authors didn't disclose the involvement of Monsanto employees and contractors in authoring their research.
Generational Betrayal: HUD Reveals Biden Gave Illegal Aliens FHA-Backed Mortgages
HUD Secretary Scott Turner told Fox Business on Friday that illegal aliens received federally backed mortgages during the Biden–Harris regime years. Turner characterized this as a significant policy failure by the previous administration and evidence of what he called misplaced priorities that favored illegals over American homebuyers.
"You know, during the Biden Administration, there were over 12 million illegal aliens that came over the border, straining our housing supply and making the costs go up," Turner told Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo.
He continued, "And so we worked with Secretary Noem at DHS, as you alluded to, to make sure that only American citizens are living in HUD-funded housing. We also took away FHA-backed mortgages from illegal aliens. During the Biden Administration, they turned a blind eye. But we're going to keep the law to make sure these mortgages, which are backed by the taxpayer, go only to the American people."
"And lastly, we're mandating every public housing authority give us a comprehensive account of who's living in every unit and every taxpayer-funded HUD property."
In March, Turner's team at HUD began terminating the Biden-era policy that allowed illegals to receive taxpayer-backed FHA mortgages. In very simple terms, this means taxpayers are no longer subsidizing government-insured home loans for illegals.
Biden's policy amounted to a generational betrayal of citizens and prospective homebuyers, who were pushed aside over the last four years amid the worst housing affordability in a generation, driven by out-of-control climate crisis spending and an invasion of illegals that strained an already tight housing market.
Let this sink in: illegals were able to access government-backed mortgages and receive generous taxpayer-funded benefits - from housing assistance to food and healthcare - while citizens endured the highest inflation in a generation.
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said on Dec. 3 that it has launched an investigation into a school that officials said illegally vaccinated a child without parental consent.
HHS did not name the school. The department said it is in the Midwest and acted illegally in part because it ignored a religious exemption for the vaccination that had been filed pursuant to state law.
The HHS Office for Civil Rights will be looking into the matter to ascertain whether the school failed to comply with a requirement under the federal Vaccines for Children Program. The program, which provides vaccines to various institutions, mandates that immunization providers comply with state law surrounding exemptions from mandated vaccines.
“To protect the integrity of the investigation, HHS cannot share additional details at this time,” an HHS spokesperson told The Epoch Times in an email.
Officials also released a letter on Dec. 3 to doctors and others, informing them that they must generally provide parents access to the medical records of children, with limited exceptions. The letter warned that HHS was making access to minor records a priority and that the agency will use tools it has at its disposal, including fines, to ensure compliance.
“Today, we are putting pediatric medical professionals on notice: you cannot sideline parents,” HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in a statement. “When providers ignore parental consent, violate exemptions to vaccine mandates, or keep parents in the dark about their children’s care, we will act decisively. We will use every tool at our disposal to protect families and restore accountability.”
Jim O'Neill, deputy HHS secretary and acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said the Vaccines for Children Program “should never circumvent parents’ rights.”
The program, which began operations in 1994, sends vaccines to providers to administer to children at no cost. The program “reduces disparities in child vaccination rates, ensuring that any child can access recommended vaccines regardless of income or geography,” the CDC states on its website.
Schools across the country mandate multiple vaccines for school attendance, based on the CDC’s immunization schedule.
Exemptions are granted in all 50 states on medical grounds. Most states also allow exemptions for religious reasons.
HHS officials also said on Dec. 3 that they directed the Health Resources and Services Administration, which is part of the department, to start requiring that grant recipients adhere to both federal and state parental consent laws for any health care services at health centers supported by the administration. That includes obtaining parental consent before a minor receives medical or dental work.
Anti-Free-Speech War Escalates As EU Unleashes DSA On Musk's X
For years, many in the free speech community (most vehemently, Jonathan Turley) have warned about the threat of the European Union to free speech, particularly in the enactment of the infamous Digital Services Act (DSA).
The EU has virtually declared war on free speech and is targeting American companies.
That war just began with the first DSA fine.
Not surprisingly, X was the chosen target - a company blamed by many in the EU and the U.S. for rolling back free-speech protections.
In essence, it’s punishment for not bending the knee to the EU’s iron-fisted control over online content.
As Modernity.news' Steve Watson points out, the fine reeks of the same vindictive playbook the EU has used since Musk took over Twitter in 2022. It’s no coincidence; Brussels has been gunning for him precisely because he’s turned the platform into a haven for unfiltered discourse, refusing to censor at the whim of unelected technocrats.
This isn’t a one-off slap; it’s the culmination of years of threats and harassment. Back in January 2023, EU Commission Vice-President Vera Jourová openly warned Musk that his “freedom of speech absolutism” wouldn’t fly, declaring the “time of the Wild West is over” and threatening sanctions if Twitter didn’t comply with DSA rules. She conflated illegal content with anything the elites deem offensive, setting the stage for today’s fine.
In October 2023, EU Commissioner Thierry Breton fired off a letter demanding X address “illegal content and disinformation” related to the Gaza conflict. Musk fired back, demanding a specific list of violations so the public could judge for themselves.
Breton’s vague accusations—citing repurposed images and unverified claims—highlighted the EU’s preference for opacity over accountability. Musk called it out: “List the violations you allude to on X, so that the public can see them.” The EU’s response was not forthcoming, but the threats continued.
Further, Musk brings receipts showing the European Union sent him a formal letter demanding that he censor Donald Trump during the 2024 US presidential election.
Democrats are melting down over Trump’s targeted strikes on narco-terrorists, yet a freshly resurfaced clip shows Joe Biden demanding the same aggressive action decades ago, proving their opposition is pure partisan sabotage as cartel poison floods America unchecked.
A 1989 C-SPAN clip of then-Senator Joe Biden has gone viral amid the Trump administration’s boat strikes on drug runners, highlighting the glaring double standard from Democrats who now baselessly cry “war crimes” over actions Biden once championed.
In the speech, Biden urged, “Let’s go after the drug lords where they live with an international strike force. There must be no safe haven for these narco-terrorists …”
What changed? Under Biden’s presidency, fentanyl deaths skyrocketed, with cartels controlling swaths of the border and trafficking exploding to record levels. Now, as Trump delivers on promises to hit back hard, Dems side with the traffickers out of sheer Trump derangement.
The clip, from a February 7, 1989, Senate hearing on crime and drugs, shows Biden pushing for swift, severe punishment of dealers and international operations to dismantle cartels before they infiltrate the U.S.
He emphasized, “We have to join together to ensure that drug dealers are punished swiftly surely and severely.”
This echoes Trump’s designation of cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, a move Biden never pursued despite his tough talk.
Fast-forward to 2025, and Trump’s team is executing precision strikes on vessels linked to Venezuela’s Maduro regime and cartel operations, destroying drug cargoes and neutralising threats in the Caribbean.
Top Obama DEA Official Charged With Laundering Money For Mexican Drug Cartel
A former Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) official appointed as deputy chief of the Office of Financial Operations during the Obama administration - and who still holds a security clearance - was indicted on Friday on charges of agreeing to launder $12 million for the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) - which was designated a Foreign Terrorist Organization in February of this year.
Paul Campo, who oversaw the FBI's money laundering operations and resigned in January 2016 ahead of Trump's inauguration, laundered around $750,000 for the cartel by converting cash into cryptocurrency, and agreed to launder far more - totaling over $12 million, according to the indictment.
Campo's hoome was raided by federal agents on Thursday.
Campo also provided a payment for around 220 kilos of cocaine on the understanding that the drugs had been imported into the USA, the indictment further states.
He was able to do this after spending 25 years at the DEA, rising to a high-level position which he used to sell himself to CJNG as someone who could;
"Widespread Misconduct": Trump Admin Orders All Beneficiaries Of Nation's Largest DEI Program To Surrender Financial Records
The Daily Wire has learned that the Small Business Administration has ordered all 4,300 firms in its 8(a) "socially disadvantaged" program, which receive no-bid federal contracts, to turn over their financial records, including general ledgers, bank statements, payroll files, subcontracting agreements, and other internal documents, by January 5 or face removal from the program.
SBA's crackdown on one of Washington's oldest DEI initiatives follows mounting evidence that some 8(a) firms have become a major pipeline for fraud, pass-through schemes, and artificially inflated contract costs.
Late last month, Peter Schweizer, president of the Government Accountability Institute and the investigative journalist who broke the Clinton Cash corruption story, published a reportexposing the cronyism and corruption inside the 8(a) program, where pass-through firms handed bidless contracts on silver platters while quietly outsourcing the real work to major consulting companies.
"For years, DC insiders have exploited a federal DEI contracting program that provides windfalls to Beltway elites. This open secret isn't about helping the downtrodden; it's about bagging no-bid paydays. The SBA's 8(a) program is long overdue for reform," Schweizer wrote on X.
There was also a recent U.S. Treasury Department investigation into $9 billion in small-business contracting, amid alarming concerns from Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and others about rampant fraud and abuse in preference-based programs. In other words, meritocracy will return under the Trump administration.
Everyone in the DC consulting world understands how the game works: set up a compliant 8(a) "small business," win the no-bid award, and let the big consulting firms do all the work.
8(a) was DC's best-kept secret - until journalist James O'Keefe blew the lid off the DEI program. O'Keefe went undercover and captured video of an individual linked to ATI Government Solutions bragging about keeping $65 million of a $100 million contract while subcontracting out the work.
FBI Pipe Bomber Breakthrough Exposes Biden Era Failures After Four Years
More than four years after pipe bombs appeared outside the RNC and DNC headquarters on January 5, 2021, and less than a month after The Blaze fingered a former Capitol Police officer in a now-retracted report (that their sources still stand by), the Trump administration announced the arrest of Brian Cole Jr., 30, of Woodbridge, Virginia, on Thursday. Cole has been charged under 18 U.S.C. § 844 for deploying an explosive device.
During a press conference the day of the arrest, Attorney General Pam Bondi made it clear how this cold case was finally solved. According to Bondi, no new tips or witnesses led to the breakthrough - just persistent investigation and teamwork.
“Today's arrest happened because the Trump Administration has made this case a priority. The total lack of movement on this case in our nation's capital undermined the public trust of our enforcement agencies,” she said. “This cold case languished for four years until Director Patel and Deputy Director Bongino came to the FBI. The FBI, along with US Attorney Pirro and all of our prosecutors, have worked tirelessly for months sifting through evidence that had been sitting at the FBI with the Biden administration for four long years.”
Deputy Director Bongino also appeared on Fox News Thursday night. He explained to Sean Hannity that the truth about the J6 pipe bomber case had been sitting in plain sight for years, and the problem wasn’t a lack of evidence but a lack of leadership. “It's almost like they were intentionally trying to decimate faith in institutions,” he said.
“It's horrifying,” he added. “I don't know what they were doing.”
He explained that right after being sworn in - “probably 15 minutes later,” as he put it - he told the team, “When I get in there, I want a full brief on this pipe bomber case on day one.” Once he heard what had been done, he saw that the agents had put in real work, even “a pretty extensive amount of work,” but the case still needed urgent direction.
