super yacht kaos vandalised

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Yacht called Kaos vandalized by climate activists in Ibiza

By Emily Mae Czachor

July 17, 2023 / 4:00 PM EDT / CBS News

Spanish climate activists defaced a multimillion-dollar superyacht docked in Ibiza over the weekend, a social media video shows. The yacht, a sprawling vessel called Kaos, is reportedly owned by Nancy Walton Laurie, a billionaire Walmart heiress. 

Activists from Futuro Vegetal , an environmental group that aims to fight climate change, shared a video on Twitter Sunday morning showing them standing in front of the Kaos yacht and holding a poster that reads, "You Consume Others Suffer." At least one portion of the boat's exterior, the one closest to land, is seen covered in a mixture of red and black spray paint.

Members of Futuro Vegetal pointed out that carbon emissions across the board are highest among the world's richest people.

"The richest 1% of the world population pollutes more than the poorest 50%," the activists are heard saying in the video. 

"They are condemning us to a future of pain, misery and desolation," they continued. "They are destroying our planet, compromising the habitability of the land and everything, to lead a standard of living that goes beyond the limits of reason."

The two climate activists who appeared in Futuro Vegetal's social media video were detained on Sunday, according to the group, which said in an update shared on Twitter that the pair would likely be released on Monday afternoon. 

No podemos seguir así, es una cuestión de vida o muerte. Escúchanos, comparte nuestro mensaje! Actualización de las compañeras: siguen detenidas desde esta mañana y se prevee que sean trasladadas al juzgado, siendo puestas en libertad mañana a mediodía. APÓYANOS. pic.twitter.com/Bx0IJjER06 — FuturoVegetal🍒 (@FuturoVegetal) July 16, 2023

According to  Yacht Bible , an industry news site that says it tracks yacht purchases and ownership globally, Kaos belongs to Laurie, the  granddaughter of Walmart cofounder  Bud Walton. Laurie inherited a stake in Walmart from her father and received enough stock in the company when he died in 1995 to make her a billionaire, according to Forbes. She took the 268th spot on the magazine's billionaires list in 2023, and her net worth is valued at around $8.7 billion, according to Forbes . 

Grassroots climate activists, climate scientists and world leaders have for years been calling on the rich to reduce carbon emissions, as they point to the disproportionate greenhouse gas contributions from wealthy countries, like the United States, and individuals. In 2020, the United Nations urged the world's richest 1% to cut their carbon footprints by around 97% in order to stave off ongoing climate change. 

Its report that year warned that the global emissions gap, meaning the "difference between where we are likely to be and where we need to be" on climate policy, was dangerously large, and the wealthy were primarily responsible. At the time, the U.N. report said just 10% of the world's population emitted nearly half of the world's carbon pollution.

In a report published in September 2020, the Stockholm Environment Institute estimated that the richest 10% of people, globally, contributed to roughly 50% of worldwide carbon emissions in the years 1995 and 2015 — the timeframe in which the institute conducted its study. By comparison, the poorest 50% were responsible for 7% or 8% of emissions. 

Citing portions of that study in its own report on greenhouse gases and climate change, the International Energy Agency noted that the world's richest 0.1% contribute more to global carbon emissions each year than the rest of the wealthiest 10% combined, with the richest 1% polluting roughly 1,000 times more than the poorest 1%. Another report by Oxfam last November suggested that just 125 of the world's wealthiest billionaires emit 3 million tons of carbon dioxide per person, on average, each year, which is about a million times higher than the average annual emissions of the bottom 90%.

CBS News reached out to Walmart and to Laurie but did not receive immediate replies.

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Emily Mae Czachor is a reporter and news editor at CBSNews.com. She covers breaking news, often focusing on crime and extreme weather. Emily Mae has previously written for outlets including the Los Angeles Times, BuzzFeed and Newsweek.

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Climate activists blast paint on walmart heiress’ $300 million yacht in ibiza.

A group of climate change activists trashed a $300 million superyacht owned by billionaire Walmart heiress Nancy Walton Laurie on the Spanish island of Ibiza by blasting it with paint.

The Futuro Vegetal group, which translates to Future Vegetable, said on Twitter that two members used fire extinguishers filled with red and black paint to deface the “Kaos” superyacht Sunday morning.

Futuro Vegetal also uploaded pictures of two members standing in front of the luxury yacht with signs that read “You Consume Others Suffer.”

“The only reason we continue to maintain an economic system that leads us to eco-social collapse is to sustain the privileges of this small privileged class,” the group said in a statement about the vandalism. “The mega-rich live off the suffering of others.”

The Spanish Civil Guard said two people were arrested at the docks this morning over the incident, local Periodico de Ibiza reports.

Sources told the Spanish newspaper that the yacht was actually scheduled to leave Ibiza on Sunday, with the spraypainting taking place just as the crew was preparing to depart.

The Futuro Vegetal group said they specifically targeted Laurie’s yacht as she is one of the wealthiest women in the world, with Bloomberg’s Billionaire Index pinging her net worth at $7.77 billion.

Laurie’s yacht made headlines in May with a series of features about the impressive 361-foot ship, which sports its own swimming pool, aquarium and helipad.

The superyacht also holds its own cinema, spa facilities, gym and even a small hospital for medical emergencies at sea.

The vandalism came following a call from the Extinction Rebellion Ibiza group, an activist organization demanding the ban of private jets and luxury yachts over emission concerns .

The group called on a campaign to specifically target such jets and yachts in Ibiza, with a private jet spray painted in a similar fashion by activists last week at Ibiza’s airport.

Futuro Vegetal said they were proud to have joined the campaign in Ibiza in order to raise awareness for their cause. The group touts itself as a civil disobedience and direct action group fighting against climate change .

Representatives for Laurie did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.

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Two arrested following Kaos vandalism in Ibiza

Two people have been arrested after vandalising the 110-metre motor yacht Kaos while she was manoeuvring into port in Ibiza on 16 July. 

A video shared by the organisation responsible for the stunt shows two individuals spraying red and black paint onto the yacht's stern while she was pulling into port, while a third member of the organisation filmed the incident. 

Members of the deck crew were quick to act, deterring the activists with a waterhose and then hosing down the paint, which is understood to be biodegradable. 

The local Policía Nacional has since arrested two individuals. According to the activist group, the pair were detained overnight in Ibiza and are due to be released today (17 July), following which they will be expected to appear in court.

Kaos departed the port after the incident and has since arrived in the bay of Palma, according to BOATPro data. The extent of the damage is not clear.

A spokesperson for Oceanco , which delivered Kaos as Jubilee in 2017, declined to comment on the incident.

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Billionaire Walmart heiress’s $300m superyacht splattered with paint in Ibiza attack

Members of spanish group futuro vegetal sprayed paint across the stern of nancy walton laurie’s yacht, kaos, article bookmarked.

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Climate activists have attacked a superyacht belonging to Walmart heiress Nancy Walton Laurie, spraying red and black paint across the stern.

The vessel was vandalised on Sunday in Ibiza by members of the Spain -based environmental group Futuro Vegetal.

Two activists were photographed holding a sign that read: “You Consume Others Suffer”.

A crew member can be seen behind them hosing the paint off the side of the boat.

Both of the demonstrators were arrested.

The group posted images and videos of the attack on Instagram, writing: “The only reason we continue to maintain an economic system that leads us to eco-social collapse is to sustain the privileges of this small privileged class.”

View this post on Instagram A post shared by FuturoVegetal🍒 (@futurovegetal)

“The mega-rich live off the suffering of others. It is the people who are at the top of the social pyramid who put all life on the planet at their service, forcing us to work to sustain their system, exploiting animals and destroying the territory no matter how much suffering and death it implies.”

Just two days before, the group had also sprayed a private jet with black and yellow paint.

Ms Laurie, the owner of the yacht, inherited a stake in Walmart in 1995 from her father, Bud Walton, who built the brand into the retail empire it is today with his brother.

According to Forbes, Ms Laurie is worth approximately $8.7bn.

Her yacht, “Kaos”, is worth $300m and is 361 feet long with four decks, accommodation for 31 guests and a 45-person crew.

Featuring full spa facilities, an aquarium and a cinema, there are also separate gyms for guests and crew and a small hospital for onboard emergencies.

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Climate Activists Deface Walmart Heiress’ $300M Superyacht

They used fire extinguishers to drench the stern in paint.

Erik Uebelacker

Twitter/@FuturoVegetal

A group of climate activists vandalized the $300 million superyacht of Walmart heiress Nancy Walton Laurie in Ibiza on Sunday, drenching the craft’s stern in black and red paint shot from fire extinguishers.

Two demonstrators—from the Spain-based Futuro Vegetal environmental group—then displayed a sign that read “You Consume Others Suffer,” which they proudly posted to their Twitter account.

Police said that those two demonstrators have been arrested.

“The only reason we continue to maintain an economic system that leads us to eco-social collapse is to sustain the privileges of this small privileged class,” Futuro Vegetal said of the stunt in an Instagram pos t. “The mega-rich live off the suffering of others.”

The group performed a similar act just two days prior, soaking a private jet in yellow and black paint before donning a sign with a similar message.

Laurie, their latest target, inherited a stake in Walmart in 1995 from her father Bud Walton, who built the brand into retail royalty alongside his brother. She is reportedly worth more than $8 billion, making her one of the richest 300 people in the world, according to Forbes .

Her yacht, named Kaos, is a whopping 361 feet long, features four decks, and has room for 31 guests and a 45-person crew.

The boat’s amenities include an on-board aquarium , full spa facilities, and a large cinema. There’s even a separate gym for the ship’s crew and a small hospital for at-sea medical crises.

Laurie did not respond to The Daily Beast’s requests for comment.

Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast  here .

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Spanish activists vandalise superyacht in Ibiza believed to belong to billionaire Walmart heiress

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€300m superyacht Kaos attacked by climate change protestors

Eco protesters sprayed paint on a superyacht in Spain.

The superyacht Kaos, said to be worth €300m ($337M), has been attacked with paint sprayed by fire extinguishers in Ibiza Port by the Spanish climate change protest group Futuro Vegetal.

The 110m (360ft)  Oceanco  vessel is reportedly owned by Walmart heiress Nancy Walton Laurie. After spraying the white yacht’s stern with red and black paint, protestors held up a sign claiming “You consume, others suffer.” Two protestors were arrested at the scene yesterday (July 16th)

The attack follows a similar action against a private jet at Ibiza Airport on Friday (July 14th). A statement on the protest group’s website admitted: “We spray paint using fire extinguishers against the 300 million euro mega-yacht of Nancy Walton, heiress to Walmart and one of the richest women in the world with a fortune of 8.7 billion dollars.”

The yacht protest marked the end of its current campaign, said the group . “The action puts the finishing touch to the “Jets and Yachts, the party is over” campaign, convened by @XRIbiz /Extinction Rebellion Ibiza, who demand a ban on private jets and an end to luxury emissions,” according to its website. (Image courtesy of Futuro Vegetal).

The attack on the yacht and the private jet before it sparked a range of comment on social media platforms such as Twitter. (See below).

Superyachts are no stranger to paint-based protest action. In February this year, protestors painted the words Pandemic Profiteer on the 40m (131ft) sailing yacht Lady M belonging to the Scottish entrepreneur and baroness Michelle Mone. The action, in a harbour near Barcelona, Spain by the protest group Led by Donkeys, followed allegations that the Conservative peer may have made undue profits linked to the provision of personal protective equipment (PPE) during the global pandemic. Mone has consistently denied any wrong doing.

Kaos Super-yacht Vandalised in Ibiza Port. About Kaos Yacht Formerly known as Jubilee, the 110m Kaos delivered in 2017 was not only the largest yacht ever built at Oceanco, but the largest yacht ever built in the Netherlands. pic.twitter.com/e6Ekf6dRjH — Private Security Ibiza ltd (@PSIBIZA) July 16, 2023

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Walmart Heiress Nancy Walton Laurie’s $330m Kaos Superyacht Vandalised In Ibiza

It's a bad time to be a billionaire's superyacht.

Superyacht Kaos

Climate activists targeted a USD 330 million superyacht of Walmart heiress Nancy Walton Laurie in Ibiza, Spain, to register their protest against carbon emissions for luxury lifestyles.

From Jeff Bezos $700m behemoth hiding dark and bloody secrets to the ill-fated Honolulu that was burned to a crisp , it’s a hard time to be a billionaire’s superyacht.

The Climate Protest On Kaos

The 361-foot vessel, Kaos , was docked in the popular Mediterranean resort island when two activists from a Spanish organization, Futuro Vegetal , approached the superyacht and sprayed its stern with red and black paint using fire extinguishers last year. A video shared on social media by the organization shows that the ship’s crew quickly attempted to undo the damage of the paint by pouring water on it.

WATCH: The protest unfolding last year

After the vandalism, the activists displayed a sign that stated, “You Consume, Others Suffer,” criticizing capitalism.

Futuro Vegetal asserts that carbon emissions are unacceptably high among the world’s wealthiest individuals.

The group posted on X (formerly Twitter):

“We cannot continue like this; it is a matter of life or death. Listen to us, share our message!” 

A second post noted, “The only reason we continue to maintain an economic system that leads us to eco-social collapse is to sustain the privileges of this small privileged class. The mega-rich live off the suffering of others.”

The group also confirmed that the authorities arrested the activists and would be appearing in court on Monday.

This incident is part of a growing pattern where climate protests target the luxury assets of the ultra-rich.

Just two days earlier, members of Futuro Vegetal had sprayed yellow paint on a private jet at an Ibiza airport.

Similar protests were conducted in northern Germany in June by the German climate activist organization Last Generation .

They spray-painted a private jet orange and held signs that said “Your Luxury = Our Drought” and “Your Luxury = Our Crop Failures.”

Walmart Heiress Nancy Walton Laurie

The owner of the vandalized superyacht Kaos , Nancy Walton Laurie is a billionaire heiress to the Walmart.

Being the youngest daughter of Walmart co-founder James “Bud” Walton, she inherited her father’s share in the company upon his death in 1995.

Walton Laurie is ranked 268th on Forbes ‘ list of 2023 billionaires, with an estimated net worth of $8.7 billion.

Previously known as Al Menwar during its ownership by the Qatari royal family, the Kaos now stands as a symbol of extreme wealth but is a target for those protesting inequality and environmental impact.

Walton Laurie bought the superyacht in 2019, which underwent a complete renovation in 2020 by Luerssen in Hamburg, Germany.

The Walmart heiress also owns another superyacht named “Secret,” per Robbreport .

Kaos: A Floating Palace of Luxury

Just like Serene , a $400 million superyacht owned by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman, and Koru , a $500 million vessel owned by the Amazon billionaire, the Kaos is a marvel of engineering.

According to the Yacht Bible, the yacht has four decks that can hold 31 guests and a crew of 45. Its other features include a swimming pool, aquarium, big screen theatre, sauna, complete spa services, helipad, jacuzzi, and space for a smaller boat.

The vessel’s yearly operational costs are estimated to be between $20 million and $30 million USD.

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By SuperyachtNews 17 Jul 2023

Oceanco yacht Kaos vandalised

Climate activists spray paint over 110m vessel in ibiza….

The 100m Oceanco-built superyacht Kaos (formerly known as Jubilee ), owned by Walmart heiress Nancy Walton Laurie, was defaced in red and black paint by two climate activists using fire extinguishers. In their latest action, the Futuro Vegetal protestors were seen holding up a sign reading ‘You Consume Others Suffer’ as crew on board attempted to wash the paint off with water.

Futuro Vegetal, which describes itself as a collective of civil disobedience and direct action fighting against climate crisis, claimed responsibility for the stunt on social media, asserting: “The mega-rich live off the suffering of others”.

The group said it specifically targeted Laurie’s yacht as she is one of the wealthiest women in the world, with Bloomberg’s Billionaire Index putting her net worth at $7.77 billion. It performed a similar act just two days prior, covering a private jet in yellow and black paint, before showing a sign with a similar message.

The demonstrators were quickly arrested at the marina by the Spanish Civil Guard, according to Spanish newspaper Periodico de Ibiza . The spray-painting reportedly took place just as the crew was preparing to depart Ibiza but the vandalism is likely to cost ‘millions’ to repair.

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110-meter Superyacht Kaos Vandalized in Ibiza

M/y kaos , a 110-meter oceanco, was vandalized on sunday in ibiza..

Protestors from the Futuro Vegetal (Vegetable Future) group vandalized M/Y Kaos with paint on Sunday, July 17 in Ibiza, Spain.

After using fire extinguishers to spray paint across the vessel, the protestors held a sign that read, “You Consume Others Suffer.” M/Y Kaos is owned by Nancy Walton Laurie, the daughter of Walmart co-founder James Walton.

Futuro Vegetal is, “a collective of civil disobedience and direct action that fights against the Climate Crisis by adopting a plant-based agri-food system,” according to their website . The group later confirmed that two of their climate activists were the paint sprayers on their Twitter account .

The two activists were arrested after the act, according to Daily Mail . The Futuro Vegetal Twitter account later tweeted that they expect the two activists to be released on Monday at noon.

This wasn’t the first pricey mode of transportation that Futuro Vegetal painted with fire extinguishers. The group sprayed yellow paint on a private jet at the Ibiza airport just days prior to doing the same to M/Y Kaos .

Read Triton ‘s current issue here .

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Tagged ibiza , kaos , vandalized

About Kevin Maher

Kevin Maher is Triton's editor-in-chief.

View all posts by Kevin Maher →

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Luxury yachts and other myths: How Republican lawmakers echo Russian propaganda

Two senior Republican lawmakers, the chairs of the House Intelligence and Foreign Affairs committees, say their colleagues are echoing Russian state propaganda against Ukraine.

Researchers who study disinformation say Reps. Mike Turner, R-Ohio, and Michael McCaul, R-Texas, are merely acknowledging what has been clear for some time: Russian propaganda aimed at undermining U.S. and European support for Ukraine has steadily seeped into America’s political conversation over the past decade, taking on a life of its own.

McCaul, chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told Puck News he thinks “Russian propaganda has made its way into the United States, unfortunately, and it’s infected a good chunk of my party’s base.”

Turner, chair of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, told CNN that anti-Ukraine messages from Russia are “being uttered on the House floor.”

For the past decade, since Russia’s first military incursion into Ukraine in 2014, Moscow has spread propaganda and disinformation in a bid to undercut U.S. and European military support for Ukraine, according to U.S. and Western officials.

Some of the arguments, distortions and falsehoods spread by Russia have taken root, mostly among right-wing pro-Trump outlets and Republican politicians, researchers say, including that Ukraine’s government is too corrupt to benefit from Western aid and that the Biden family has alleged corrupt ties to Ukraine.

Russia, in keeping with traditional propaganda techniques, seeks to make its case and tarnish Ukraine through a mixture of outright falsehoods, half-truths, inferences or simply amplifying and promoting arguments already being made by American or European commentators and politicians, researchers say.

The propaganda is sometimes spread covertly, through fake online accounts, or openly by Russian officials and state media. As a result, the origin of some allegations or criticisms is often opaque, especially when a certain accusation or perception has gained wide acceptance, leaving no clear fingerprints.

Early in the war, a false story boosted by Russian propaganda — that the U.S. had helped Ukraine build biological weapons labs — gained traction on right-wing social media and was touted by then-Fox News host Tucker Carlson.

Russia also is conducting a parallel propaganda campaign in Europe. Belgium’s prime minister said Thursday that his government is investigating alleged Russian bribes to members of the European Parliament as part of Moscow’s campaign to undermine support for Ukraine. Czech law enforcement officials last month alleged that a former pro-Russian member of Ukraine’s parliament, Viktor Medvedchuk, was behind a Prague-based Russian propaganda network designed to promote opposition to aiding Ukraine.

Here are some examples of Republican lawmakers using arguments often promoted by Russian propaganda:

Buying yachts

When Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with members of Congress behind closed doors in December to appeal for more U.S. help for his country’s troops, some lawmakers raised questions about Ukraine allegedly buying yachts with American aid money.

Zelenskyy made clear that was not the case, according to Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, a strong supporter of arming Ukraine. “I think the notion of corruption came up because some have said we can’t do it, because people will buy yachts with the money,” Tillis told CNN. “[Zelenskyy] disabused people of those notions.”

Where did the yacht rumor come from?

Pro-Russian actors and websites promoted a narrative alleging Zelenskyy bought two superyachts with U.S. aid dollars. One Russia-based propaganda site, DC Weekly , published a story last November that included photos of two luxury yachts, called Lucky Me and My Legacy , which it alleged were bought for $75 million.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., a vocal opponent of military aid to Ukraine, in November retweeted a post about the alleged yacht purchase from the Strategic Culture Foundation, a Russian-based propaganda outlet directed by Russia’s intelligence services, according to the Treasury Department. The U.S. has imposed sanctions on the organization, accusing it of spreading disinformation and interfering in U.S. elections.

Another outspoken critic of aid to Ukraine, Republican Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio, also made a similar claim.

In a December interview with former President Donald Trump’s White House adviser Steve Bannon, Vance claimed that members of Congress wanted to cut Social Security benefits to provide more aid to Ukraine, and that money would allegedly be used for Zelenskyy’s ministers to “buy a bigger yacht.”

“There are people who would cut Social Security, throw our grandparents into poverty. Why? So that one of Zelenskyy’s ministers can buy a bigger yacht?” Vance said. “Kiss my ass, Steve. It’s not happening.”

The tale of Zelenskyy’s luxury yacht, however, turned out to be totally false . The yachts cited in the DC Weekly article remain up for sale , the owners told The Associated Press.

Two academics at Clemson University, disinformation researchers Darren Linvill and Patrick Warren, found that DC Weekly ran numerous stories copied from other sites that were rewritten by artificial intelligence engines. The articles had bylines with fake names along with headshots copied from other online sites. DC Weekly appeared to be a Russian effort to launder false information through a seemingly legitimate news site as part of an attempt to undermine U.S. support for Ukraine, according to the researchers .

Asked by reporters about Vance’s comments, Tillis said: “I think it’s bullshit. ...If you’re talking about giving money to Ukrainian ministers — total and unmitigated bullshit.”

Greene’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

Vance’s spokesperson said the senator was making a rhetorical point about how he opposed sending U.S. assistance to what he sees as a corrupt country, but was not asserting the yacht stories online were accurate.

Vance’s office referred NBC News to an earlier response to the BBC on the same topic:

“For years, everyone in the West recognized that Ukraine was one of the most corrupt countries in the world. Somehow everyone forgot that just as we started sending them billions of dollars in foreign aid.”

Enabling ‘corruption’

Russian state media for years has painted Ukraine as deeply corrupt, and has argued that the U.S. and its allies are wasting money and military hardware by assisting such an allegedly corrupt government.

“This is absolutely a line that they have pushed, and then once it appears in the Western ecosystem, other [Russian] media picks it up and it gets recycled back,” said Bret Schafer, a senior fellow at the Alliance for Securing Democracy.

This line of argument has gained traction partly because Ukraine does face a genuine corruption problem.

Russia’s effort to focus attention on corruption in Ukraine reflects a long-established propaganda method of using facts or partial truths to anchor a broader assertion or accusation, sometimes making a leap in logic, Schafer and other researchers said. Russia’s message amounts to: Ukraine is corrupt, therefore U.S. and Western aid will be stolen and wasted.

Schafer said it was ironic for Russia, a country mired in corruption and kleptocracy, to be leveling accusations about corruption.

Republican Rep. Mary Miller has said she strongly opposes more assistance for Ukraine because it amounts to sending cash to “corrupt oligarchs.”

“With Zelensky coming to DC this week to ask for more money, I will continue to vote AGAINST sending your tax $$ to corrupt oligarchs in Ukraine for a proxy war that could have ended in ‘22,” Miller wrote in a post on X in December.

The Illinois lawmaker also echoed another assertion that often appears in Russian media, that the Biden administration allegedly undermined efforts by Russia to avoid war with Ukraine.

 “A peace deal was on the table that [Ukraine] and [Russia] were both ready to sign, but Biden said NO,” she wrote.

There was in fact no proposed peace agreement that Russia and Ukraine were prepared to sign before Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, according to U.S. and European officials. As Russian troops massed on the border of Ukraine, Western governments urged Russia not to invade and warned there would be economic and diplomatic consequences.

Reuters has reported that Russian President Vladimir Putin rejected a possible deal to avert a war that had been discussed with Kyiv by Russia’s envoy to Ukraine. The Kremlin said the report was inaccurate and has said Russia tried for years to arrive at an understanding with Ukraine.

As for corruption in Ukraine, Zelenskyy has vowed to tackle the problem, sacking senior officials in some recent cases. But some civil society groups have criticized his approach and Ukrainians say corruption is the country’s second-most serious problem, after the Russian invasion, according to a poll conducted last year.

In an annual survey, Transparency International said Ukraine made progress toward addressing the issue and now ranks 104th out of 180 countries on its Corruption Perceptions Index , climbing 12 places up from its previous ranking.

Ukraine is not alone among countries that receive U.S. and other foreign aid but struggle with corruption. Supporters of assisting Ukraine argue it would undermine America’s influence in the world and its humanitarian efforts if Washington withheld foreign aid from every country where there were reports of corruption.

Miller’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

The Biden family and Ukraine

Republicans have repeatedly alleged that President Joe Biden and his son Hunter have corrupt ties to Ukraine, and that they sought $5 million in bribes from the Ukrainian energy company Burisma to protect the firm from an investigation by Ukraine’s prosecutor general.

There is no credible evidence for the allegations. A key source for the accusations against the Bidens is a former FBI informant, Alexander Smirnov, who was arrested in February on federal charges of fabricating the bribery claims. Smirnov says he was fed information by Russian intelligence.

Republicans had heavily promoted Smirnov’s allegations against the Bidens, seeing them as crucial to a planned impeachment effort against the president that has since fizzled .

“In my estimation, that is probably the clearest example of Russian propaganda working its way into the American political system,” said Emerson Brooking, a resident senior fellow at the Digital Forensic Research Lab of the Atlantic Council.

GOP Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona cited the false bribery allegations in expressing his opposition to providing assistance to Ukraine.

“In exchange for … bribe money from Ukraine, Joe Biden has dished out over $100 billion in taxpayer money to fund the war in Ukraine. I will not assist this corruption by sending more money to the authoritarian Ukrainian regime,” Gosar said in a statement in October.

Gosar’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

Dan De Luce is a reporter for the NBC News Investigative Unit. 

Syedah Asghar is a Capitol Hill researcher for NBC News and is based in Washington, D.C.

Katie Couric Calls Out CBS for Hiring Two Men to Replace Norah O’Donnell as ‘Evening News’ Host: ‘Disappointing…Odd and More Than a Little Out of Touch’

By Zack Sharf

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Katie Couric wrote a guest essay for The New York Times in which she called out CBS for replacing Norah O’Donnell as the host of “ CBS Evening News ” with two men, Maurice DuBois and John Dickerson. Couric hosted “CBS Evening News” herself for five years from 2006 to 2011. Her issue is not with the new anchors themselves, as she’s a fan of both DuBois and Dickerson, but with their hiring now making the evening news on broadcast television a male-dominated space as Lester Holt already hosts “NBC Nightly News” and David Muir helms “ABC World News Tonight.”

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Couric praises Cipriano for always having her back during her own tenure on “CBS Evening News,” but she notes that “male writers occasionally have blind spots” and draws attention to the fact that the evening news will be dominated by male points of view during a year “that could result in the election of the first woman president, and first woman of color as president.”

“It’s a potentially historic story — one that needs a diverse group of journalists covering it,” Couric argues.

“Nearly 20 years ago, I wanted to be the face of ‘CBS Evening News’ because I knew that for the audience — especially little girls and little boys watching at dinner time — the image of a solo woman anchor could be game changing,” Couric writes later in the guest essay. “Whether it’s in politics, sports or other once-male-dominated fields, seeing diversity in leadership inspires our imagination about who can and should fill these roles.”

CBS announced July 30 that O’Donnell will be stepping down as host of “CBS Evening News” after the 2024 presidential election in favor of a new role as a senior correspondent who will seek out big interviews and opportunities for deeper reporting. The network then announced A u g . 1 that DuBois and Dickerson would replace her.

Head over to The New York Times’ website to read Couric’s guest essay in its entirety.

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