The 2023 edition of the Freedom in the World report, produced by US nonprofit Freedom House, was released today. This is the 50th year of the study, which tracks global trends and compiles individual country reports on political rights and liberties.
The Biden White House spotlighted its support for investigative journalism as part of a new strategy for fighting corruption around the world. To strengthen the investigative capacity of journalists, it is funding the USAID’s PROSAFE project, helping to “create a regional clearinghouse for investigative journalism that provides a publishing outlet for stories too dangerous to be published with an individual byline, and providing an umbrella organization for security, mentoring, and collaboration among journalists.”
State-embedded actors are the most dominant criminal actor type in the world. The degree to which criminality permeates state institutions varies, from low-level corruption to full state capture, but across the spectrum this involvement has implications for countries’ capacity to respond to organized crime.
The federal indictment of Stephen Bannon, President Donald Trump’s former senior campaign advisor, provides a chilling case study in how fraudsters can exploit the fervor of political supporters in a partisan landscape.
In a sweeping set of charges, federal officials announced “the largest college admissions scam ever prosecuted by the Department of Justice.” Dubbed “Operation Varsity Blues” by the FBI, prosecutors used RICO — federal anti-racketeering laws — to allege that some 50 people conspired to cheat on standardized tests or bribe coaches and other school officials to accept students into elite colleges. At the alleged center of the conspiracy: a for-profit college prep agency and an associated nonprofit foundation.
