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Putin, a shop cleaner and a Monte Carlo mystery Oct 06, 2021

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Secret money, swanky real estate and a Monte Carlo mystery: Pandora Papers documents tie a woman allegedly in a secret, years-long relationship with Putin to a luxury Monaco apartment.
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There’s little about the humble background of Svetlana Krivonogikh to indicate that she had the means to acquire luxury property in Monaco, a playground for the world’s elite. The Russian woman reportedly grew up in a crowded communal apartment in St. Petersburg and held jobs that included cleaning a neighborhood shop.
But previously undisclosed financial records – combined with local tax documents – show that she became the owner of a luxury apartment in Monaco through an offshore company created just weeks after she gave birth to a girl. That child was born at a time when, according to a Russian media report last year, she was alleged to be in a secret, years-long relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Those involved in arranging the Monte Carlo purchase for Krivonogikh took measures that ensured that her name did not appear on public records.
The clues connecting Krivonogikh to the Monaco property are contained in a massive new repository of financial materials called the Pandora Papers, which expose a hidden world that has allowed government leaders, a monarch, billionaires and criminals to shield their assets.
And the material in the Pandora Papers on Russian officials and oligarchs, Paul Sonne reports,reinforces the depiction of Russia as a country where elites close to government power make millions of dollars and safeguard that personal wealth using opaque financial structures overseas.

King Abdullah’s secret splurges Oct 05, 2021

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While billions of dollars in American aid poured into Jordan over the past decade, a secret stream of money was flowing in the opposite direction as the country’s ruler, King Abdullah II, spent millions on extravagant homes in the United States.

In the past decade, King Abdullah II of Jordan used an extensive network of offshore accounts to disguise multimillion-dollar purchases of lavish homes in the United States and Britain. Reporter Greg Miller on how the lavish purchases sit in stark contrast to Jordan’s recent economic and political struggles.

These findings are revealed in a new investigation, the Pandora Papers, that exposes a hidden world that has allowed government leaders, a monarch, billionaires and criminals to shield their assets.

The Washington Post and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists gained unprecedented insight into the money flowing into U.S. trusts through a trove of more than 11.9 million documents — among the largest of its kind — maintained by financial services providers around the world.

A tax haven in America’s heartland Oct 04, 2021

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The United States has long condemned secretive offshore tax havens where the rich and powerful hide their money. But a burgeoning American trust industry now shelters the assets of wealthy foreigners by promising even greater secrecy and protection. That same secrecy has insulated the industry from meaningful oversight and allowed it to gain new footholds in states like South Dakota and Alaska.

The Washington Post and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) gained unprecedented insight into the money flowing into U.S. trusts through a trove of more than 11.9 million documents, among the largest of its kind, maintained by financial services providers around the world.

Their findings are revealed in a new investigation, the Pandora Papers, that exposes how foreign political and corporate leaders or their relatives moved money and other assets from long-established tax havens to obscure trust companies in the United States. In many cases, the assets were connected to individuals or companies accused of fraud, bribery and human rights abuses in some of the world’s most vulnerable communities.

In this audio report, Post reporter Debbie Cenziper, producer Ted Muldoon and ICIJ reporter Will Fitzgibbon travel from the sugar cane fields of the Dominican Republic to the beaches of California to back rooms of Sioux Falls to examine how this industry came to be, who profits from it and whom it harms.

The anti-vax wellness influencers Oct 01, 2021

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How wellness influencers are fueling the anti-vaccine movement.
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For many people, the term “misinformation” conjures up images of conspiracy-theorist chat rooms and Russian bots. But as Ashley Fetters Maloy reports, an alarming amount of misinformation about the coronavirus is coming from wellness influencers.
Today on Post Reports, the social media influencers questioning the wisdom of vaccination –– and how their messaging is increasing the threat of the virus mutating and keeping the pandemic raging.

On the death of species Sep 30, 2021

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This week, the Fish and Wildlife Service proposed taking 23 animals and plants off the endangered-species list — because none can be found in the wild. What this tells us about climate change, and things to come.
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The ivory-billed woodpecker is officially extinct, along with 22 other species of plants and animals.
“Just having to write those words was quite difficult,” Fish and Wildlife Service biologist Amy Trahan told climate reporter Dino Grandoni, choking up. “It took me a while.”
The woodpecker was known as the “Lord God Bird” because it was supposedly so beautiful that anyone who saw it would blurt out the Lord’s name.
Grandoni said that some scientists think the Endangered Species Act came too late to save a lot of animals. But maybe not all hope is lost.
“My inbox today, after publishing the story online, is full of photos from amateur photographers in their backyards of woodpeckers, asking me if this is the bird that people are saying has gone extinct,” Grandoni said. “This might spur some interest in people going on and understanding the birds and other animals that are still with us.”

Can military leaders answer for Afghanistan? Sep 29, 2021

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This week in Congress, top military officials are testifying on what went wrong in the U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan. Will anyone in the government be held accountable?

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark A. Milley, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and U.S. Central Command chief Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie are on Capitol Hill testifying in front of the Senate and House Armed Services committees on the fall of Kabul and the disastrous U.S. exit from Afghanistan.

As lawmakers press for answers, Alex Horton reports on whether this hearing will result in accountability for the years of government missteps in handling the end of America’s longest war.

Sex-trafficked — and jailed Sep 28, 2021

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For years, allegations that R. Kelly was abusing young women and girls swirled. This week, the singer was found guilty of sex trafficking in federal court. But not all child sex-trafficking victims get justice — instead, many of them are arrested.
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Jessica Contrera has done a lot of reporting on child sex trafficking in the United States. When she saw the R. Kelly verdict this week, the cases of hundreds of other sex-trafficked children came to mind.
“People were finally praising and recognizing these Black girls who came forward again and again and went through the grueling process of what it takes to testify in a case like this, and thanking them for coming forward and for their bravery,” Contrera says. “But it’s important to remember the context that Black girls who are sex-trafficking victims are also the most likely to be treated as criminals for being sold for sex.”
Every year, Contrera says, dozens of teenagers are locked up despite being victims of a crime. In Las Vegas, Contrera went on a ride-along with a vice unit as it arrested child sex-trafficking victims, and she reports on what it was like for these youths to be sent to detention centers rather than given help.

What we know about Havana Syndrome Sep 27, 2021

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What you need to know about “Havana Syndrome,” the mysterious illness affecting U.S. officials stationed around the world — and whether there’s anything the United States can do about it.
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“Havana Syndrome” first popped up in 2016 when a group of people at the U.S. embassy in Cuba reported a wide-ranging set of debilitating symptoms such as headache, nausea, tinnitus and memory loss.
Five years later, 200 people are known to have shown symptoms of the mysterious illness. The Washington Post broke the news that the head of the CIA station in Vienna was recently recalled for allegedly failing to take the “Havana Syndrome” seriously.
Intelligence reporter Shane Harris explains what we know about the strange syndrome, and the possible political repercussions if it is the result of a deliberate attack from a foreign adversary.

Gabby Petito, and the victims left out of headlines Sep 24, 2021

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How Gabby Petito case galvanized sleuths across the Internet. And, how her disappearance and death highlight media failures in covering cases about missing women of color.
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Washington Post “Tik Tok Guy” Dave Jorgenson explains the Internet’s fascination with Gabby Petito’s disappearance and how the online attention has magnified the media coverage of her case.
Plus, how the groundswell of news coverage has people wondering: What about other people who have gone missing — especially marginalized people and people of color? investigative reporter Connie Walker, host of “Stolen: The Search for Jermain” and other crime podcasts, explains the black hole of coverage when Indigenous people disappear.

Hooked on a ceiling Sep 23, 2021

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Deadlines are looming large for Congress. If policymakers fail to act, the United States could face unprecedented economic catastrophe.

Time is running out to fund the federal government, which could shutter by Oct. 1. It all has to do with a bigger fight on the debt ceiling — the government’s borrowing limit. Democrats in Congress want to suspend the debt ceiling until next year, but Republicans aren’t playing ball and are threatening a government shutdown in opposition.

But what does that all mean for Americans outside of Congress — for federal workers, for critical government services and for pandemic relief? Tony Romm reports on the stakes of the political fight on Capitol Hill, and the economic crisis waiting on the other side.

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