Top management at a state grain corporation and a foreign company colluded to seize shipments without payment, investigators say An alleged corruption scheme involving the embezzlement of $17.7 million worth of grain has been uncovered in Ukraine, implicating senior officials of a state grain corporation and an unnamed foreign company. The US-backed National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO), leading the probe, said on Thursday that the scheme dates back to 2021, when the State Food and Grain Corporation of Ukraine (SFGCU) signed four contracts to supply corn to a foreign buyer. The contracts required full prepayment. Instead, officials and the company allegedly colluded to hand over control of shipments without payment, investigators said. NABU said no payment was made. Despite this, the corporation allegedly transferred key shipping documents to the buyer, giving it control over the cargo. Read more US advis...
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The outgoing DOJ chief faced mounting scrutiny over inconsistent messaging and unanswered questions tied to the late sex offender Acting US Attorney General Todd Blanche has dismissed reports that President Donald Trump fired former AG Pam Bondi over her botched handling of the Epstein files. Blanche made the remarks on Fox News on Thursday, hours after Trump announced that Bondi, who had served since early 2025, was out. The president called her a “Great American Patriot” but offered no explanation for the dismissal. “I have never heard President Trump say that the attorney general was – that anything that happened to her – had anything to do with the Epstein files,” he said, referring to the controversy surrounding the late sex offender’s ties to powerful figures. Blanche also rejected reports that Trump believed Bondi had tipped off Democratic congressman Eric Swalwell about an FBI plan to release files on an alleged Chinese spy with whom the lawmaker had ties a decade earlier...
US intelligence findings are said to differ from official claims about Operation Epic Fury’s effectiveness Around half of Iran’s missile launchers and kamikaze drones remain intact despite a month of US-Israeli strikes, CNN reports, citing a military intelligence assessment. The report, published on Friday, says Iran still possesses a considerable stockpile of missiles, citing three sources familiar with classified findings. Earlier reporting by Reuters also indicated that Tehran’s capabilities may be less degraded than publicly stated by US officials. CNN claimed that some Iranian weapons could currently be inaccessible, as US and Israeli strikes have targeted the entrances of a tunnel network used to conceal them, which Tehran had built in preparation for bombings. In addition, Iran is believed to retain much of its short-range cruise missile arsenal positioned along the coastline. It also claims to have “hundreds, if not thousands” of small vessels and surface drones, which cou...
Gen. Randy George was dismissed after he clashed with the US secretary of war over promotions for black and female army officers, the report claims US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has fired Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George, the service’s top uniformed officer, in a lingering row over promotion linked to race and gender, the New York Times reported on Thursday. Hegseth also reportedly dismissed two other generals in a purge which is feared to be undermining the US war on Iran. Sources familiar with the matter told the paper that Hegseth ordered George, a 61-year-old veteran who served both in Iraq and Afghanistan, to retire immediately, describing the move as rooted not in policy disagreements but in the secretary’s “long-running grievance with the army and its leadership” and a troubled relationship with Army Secretary Daniel P. Driscoll. Hegseth did not give the reason for the dismissal, but previously vowed to cleanse the department of “woke” culture and fight the practice...
The German chancellor said 80% of Syrians could return home within three years, attributing the figure to Ahmed al-Sharaa Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa has denied claims that he told German Chancellor Friedrich Merz that up to 80% of Syrians living in Germany could be convinced to return home within three years. Merz cited the figure and timeline on Monday during a joint press conference with al-Sharaa, a former jihadist commander who seized power in 2024 after overthrowing the previous government. Following criticism, including from within his own political camp, Merz claimed on Tuesday that the estimate had originated from al-Sharaa. Speaking later that day at an event hosted by the London-based think tank Chatham House, al-Sharaa dismissed the claim as “exaggerated” and said it did not reflect his position. He emphasized that any repatriation effort would depend heavily on Syria’s economic recovery. Read more US ‘worked directly’ with terrorists in Syria on Israel’s behalf –...
Tour guides on Himalayan treks reportedly defrauded several British and Australian insurance companies. Several tour guides in Nepal ran a fake helicopter rescue racket to defraud insurance companies in Australia and the UK, The Kathmandu Post has reported. Investigations by the paper revealed that the guides first staged a medical emergency, called in a helicopter, and checked tourists into a hospital. An insurance claim was then filed, which made it difficult for the foreign insurers, mostly operating from Australia and the UK, to verify incidents that purportedly happened at altitudes of 3,000 meters above sea level in remote Himalayan locations, according to the report. The newspaper first published an investigative report in 2019 about the alleged scam. While Nepalese authorities did not immediately act on the allegations, in 2025 the Nepal Police’s Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) reopened the case and found that the practice is widespread. Nepal charges...