In The News

Identity Politics, Corruption, Insecurity: Brave New World

John Githongo March 10, 2015
The phrase “identity politics” describes a range of political activity focused on shared experiences of injustice and marginalization, suggests the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. A global challenge emerges in addressing the activities, whether peaceful protests associated with the Arab Spring or the rise of vicious Islamic State and Nigerian Boko Haram extremists. Partisanship, neglect and...

Stream of Foreign Wealth Flows to Elite New York Real Estate

Louise Story and Stephanie Saul February 16, 2015
Purchase of high-cost US real estate has become less transparent even as the nation tries to battle tax evasion with overseas accounts. Louise Story and Stephanie Saul investigate purchases of elite condos by foreign billionaires in the heart of Manhattan for the New York Times. The source of money for such sales is difficult to identify with US laws permitting movement of funds through shell...

US Government Faces Pressure After Biggest Leak in Banking History

Paul Lewis February 9, 2015
A huge leak of undeclared bank accounts will prompt regulators and justice officials to explain the investigation’s status and punishments. The data suggest that suggests the Swiss offices of HSBC helped clients – hedge fund managers, athletes, fashion models, entertainers and royalty, including the king of Jordan – hide more than $100 billion in assets. So far, 61 of 106,000 clients have been...

How US Policy Responses Are Helping, Hurting and Can Be Improved

Cristina Eguizábal, Karise M. Curtis, Matthew C. Ingram, Aaron Korthuis, Eric L. Olson and Nicholas Phillips January 30, 2015
The unprecedented number of migrants fleeing Central America’s so-called Northern Triangle – El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras – highlights regional challenges: unparalleled levels of organized crime, gang violence, and corruption – problems all fueling and being fueled by lack of economic opportunity. The public generally assumes that drug trafficking is behind the violence, but rampant...

Shadow Aid to Syrian Refugees

Elizabeth Dickinson January 5, 2015
The challenges of delivering aid to war zones and makeshift refugee camps are immense. Elizabeth Dickinson describes an unofficial shadow aid system for Syrian refugees in Jordan for the Middle East Research and Information Project: “Across the Middle East, the United Nations is coordinating the largest operation in its history to help nearly 3 million Syrian refugees at a cost of $4.2 billion in...

The FBI Used the Web’s Favorite Hacking Tool to Unmask Tor Users

Kevin Poulson December 29, 2014
Anonymity on the Tor network may be compromised: “FBI agents relied on Flash code from an abandoned Metasploit side project called the ‘Decloaking Engine’ to stage its first known effort to successfully identify a multitude of suspects hiding behind the Tor anonymity network,” reports Kevin Poulson for Wired. “Tor, a free, open-source project originally funded by the US Navy, is sophisticated...

Pakistan Taliban: Peshawar School Attack Leaves 135 Dead

Aamer Ahmed Khan December 16, 2014
Pakistan Taliban attacked an army-run school in Peshawar leaving near 150 dead, most children. Many of the students were children of military personnel. A Taliban spokesman suggested the attack was in retaliation for hundreds of recent deaths of Taliban fighters in North Waziristan and the Khyber area, reports BBC News. Some in Pakistan’s military and intelligence services have regarded...