Al Jazeera's Investigative Unit has exposed massive corruption at the top of the Maldives government, including theft, bribery and money laundering. President Abdulla Yameen is accused of receiving cash in bags filled with up to $1m - so much that it was "difficult to carry", according to one of the men who delivered the money.
A new documentary, Stealing Paradise , provides an unprecedented insight into how international corruption is carried out. The story is told through data obtained from three of former Vice President Ahmed Adeeb's smartphones and dozens of confidential documents. It also features secretly recorded confessions of three men who embezzled millions and delivered the stolen cash on the orders of the president and his deputy.
Maldives president's corruption revealed
Alex Baer: The Excellence of Less
"We hate all the press," I was told upon confirming the invitation details, "because they always insist on quoting what Mr. Trump actually says, which simply isn't fair." Apparently, random drawings for unknown interviewers were seen by the campaign as being no worse than selecting known individuals by name, media outlet, or audience.
Trump surrogate admits to falsifying biographical claims
A Donald Trump surrogate who spoke at the Republican National Convention admitted he "overstated several details" of his biography after a CNN segment fact-checked claims made by the pastor.
In a pre-recorded interview with Victor Blackwell on "New Day Weekend," Pastor Mark Burns was asked about his online bio, which included claims that he graduated from North Greenville University, that he served in the Army Reserves, and was a member of Kappa Alpha Psi, a historically African-American fraternity.
Alex Baer: Let's Pretend Words Still Have Meaning
When there are no major upheavals on the scene, and things are percolating along on a restful plateau, I doubt we're all paying a high degree of attention. Perhaps we've all just gotten used to being torn to shreds, politically and psychologically, then heaving ourselves up on the bank for a bit, gasping and panting, trying to suck down more air and stay alive, for the next round.
It feels like that most days, since this presidential election contest began, back in May of 1862. Which is to say, it just feels like that. Or, maybe, I heard someone say that -- I'm not saying it, myself, you understand me -- I'm only saying I think I heard someone say that, and I think recently, but I am not sure I can be sure...
Alex Baer: Stay Calm, We Have a White Flag
Add another quote, maybe, to the lexicon of our self-confusion: "We have met the enemy, and we went through the looking-glass anyway."
This explains an awful lot, to my own satisfaction, from a run-on Trump to runaway tire-fires. We humans are our own best friends and our own worst enemies.
There's a whole growth industry now in trying to explain away human mishaps and miseries, from unexpected dumpster fires with elaborate comb-overs, to the hiring of newly-minted experts who can explain to us, on teevee, why it is that we are being bombarded by flaming drone-shrapnel wreckage and bowling balls -- or are about to be.
Alex Baer: Tales of the Orange Piñata
Another day, another passel of brain cells slaughtered by Reality.
Take Trump, for example -- please. And never give him back, so that we might yet sleep safely again at night, after we decontaminate our politics, our minds, our children, our clothing...
Today, as you know, Mr. Wonderful is in Mexico, at a splendid invitation from its president -- to the stunned disbelief of its multiply-insulted citizenry.
Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto gets world-class points in patience and, in, well, class, in having The Orange Buffoon visit.
Alex Baer: Crazy Is As Crazy Does
The Big Crazy seems to have settled in for a while.
I'd hoped The Big Crazy might move on, spooked, when the six "Mars Mission" crew members were released from their habitat in Hawaii after a 365-day simulation. I thought having that much Actual Science back in the atmosphere again, all at once, might cause The Big Crazy to at least retreat a bit. Nope.
A check of the headlines tells me The Big Crazy has dug in for the long haul. Take your pick:
City fights Trump over new D.C. hotel's tax bills
The city of Washington, D.C., is fighting Donald Trump's legal drive to cut his tax bills for the luxury hotel he's set to open in the Old Post Office Building next month.
Lawyers for the city are arguing that part of the suit Trump filed in June challenging assessments related to the new hotel was brought too late and the rest was brought too soon, according to a motion the city submitted Monday asking to throw the case out.
Alex Baer: 2016, a Wonder Year
If it were possible, I'd have Perry Mason voted in as President, and be done with it -- even though the intellectual giants on the right would no doubt fear Perry's last name, and start up a whirlwind of vaprous Illuminati rumors.
With Perry, there would be no lack of adjectives describing his countless strengths, for any slogans and logos: Infallible, fair, energetic, driven, brilliant, supremely knowledgeable, not easily outwitted, modest, humane -- the litany could go on like that for days.
Perry, though. Not Raymond Burr, mind you, even if that fine actor were still with us, but Perry Mason, the character we saw portrayed on The One-Eyed Know-It-All which invaded American households so long ago.
Page 185 of 1155
