Category: Security

This article was originally published by Radio Free Asia and is reprinted with permission.

The shadow of Chinese interference ‘looms large’ over democratic Taiwan, according to the island’s foreign minister, whose warning came amid reports that the Chinese Communist Party is wooing district-level politicians in a bid to wield influence in the run-up to presidential elections in January.

“China’s interference looms large, even as we celebrate Taiwan’s democratic development,” Taiwanese Foreign Minister Joseph Wu told a forum in Taipei on Tuesday. “Standing on the front line against authoritarian expansionism, Taiwan faces Chinese coercion and gray-zone tactics on a daily basis.”

“We are not only the constant target of China’s intimidation and political coercion, but also a testing ground for China’s cognitive warfare.”

Wu’s comments came amid media reports that Chinese officials across the country targeted Taiwanese politicians with highly subsidized junkets ahead of the elections, as part of a highly organized soft power influence campaign.

“In preparation for Taiwan’s elections early next year, China once again aims to exploit Taiwan’s open society, through hybrid means,” Wu warned. “It is using military threat, economic coercion, disinformation campaigns and illegal financial flows to try and shape the outcome of our election.”

The Chinese Communist Party recently “upgraded” its influence operations, according to a report published Tuesday by Taiwan’s Mirror Media. 

“Taiwan Affairs Offices in each region are now targeting the heads of villages across Taiwan in a point-to-point approach, to go to China to take part in United Front work,” the report said, in a reference to the Chinese Communist Party’s outreach and overseas influence arm.

“For example, Shanghai is assigned the Taipei municipality, and invites all of the leaders in Da’an district on a trip … providing free food, drink and entertainment in the form of on-site hospitality, and even contact with people on the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress,” the report said.

“It’s not so much election influence that the United Front is engaging in — it feels like a disguised form of bribery.”

“These 5-day and 4-night trips only cost 10,000 Taiwan dollars (US$317), with food, accommodation, entertainment and a bunch of souvenirs included,” it said. “You can even get a refund when you arrive in China.”

‘External hostile forces’

The approach is starkly different from earlier tactics, in which Chinese officials tried to woo retired Taiwanese generals or former senior officials from the opposition Kuomintang, which favors closer ties with Beijing.

The report followed a similar expose by Reuters on Dec. 1, which said around 1,000 village chiefs and borough heads had recently visited China on such trips, quoting one official as saying the campaign was a form of “election interference.”

Taiwanese law forbids election campaigns from receiving money from “external hostile forces,” including China, and prosecutors in southern Taiwan this week said they were investigating 22 people, including grassroots politicians, for potential violations of election and security laws, Reuters reported.

It quoted a security official as saying that the island’s security services are now investigating more than 400 visits to China during the past month.

According to Puma Shen, who heads Taiwan’s influence tracking think tank Doublethink Lab, and who is running as a ruling Democratic Progressive Party lawmaker, China is also using social media platforms to reach younger Taiwanese, particularly Tik Tok.

He said some China-friendly groups in Taiwan were joining in with the social media offensive ahead of the election.

Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council, the main agency in charge of China-related matters, has said it is “self-evident” that Beijing is trying to sway the elections in its favor.

“They have already made it clear that a so-called ‘right choice’ has to be made, meaning choosing candidates that the Chinese Communist Party prefers,” the council’s minister Chiu Tai-san said recently in comments cited by Reuters.

Foreign minister Wu agreed that Chinese interference is “intensifying” ahead of the January elections for the presidency and Legislative Yuan, “creating social distrust and divisions to undermine Taiwan’s democratic system.”  

“We should not let authoritarian China get away with it, and then get its way, whether in Taiwan or anywhere else,” he told the China In The World forum in Taipei, adding that the government has set up a cross-agency mechanism for reporting, verifying and rapidly clarifying disinformation.

“Taiwan’s public and private sectors are working together to combat cognitive warfare used by authoritarian regimes,” Wu said, calling for international efforts to resist “China’s malign influence” both on Taiwan’s democratic way of life and on international organizations.

“As China’s expansionist ambitions grow, so have its efforts to expand its influence worldwide through military, economic, technological and cognitive means,” he told the forum. “Only by enriching our toolbox can we prevent democracy from gradually being discredited, eroded and divided.”

Junkets are effective

Shen said his organization aims to archive Chinese data and disinformation, quantifying into a “China Index” for people to gauge the extent of Chinese influence anywhere in the world.

“This is not an academic exercise,” Shen told the forum. “We try to include people on the frontlines, journalists, and human rights defenders, and serve as an international hub for cross-regional collaboration.”

Gong Yujian, a Chinese dissident who now lives in Taiwan, said the junkets targeting low-ranking politicians were highly effective.

“I’ve seen that a lot of Taiwanese change their view of China greatly after going there and seeing it with their own eyes,” Gong said. “They see all of the highways, the high-speed rail, the superficial prosperity of things like Alipay and the skyscrapers.”

“They are surprised at the so-called wealth and power of China,” he said.

But he said they rarely get a glimpse of what it’s like to live under such a regime.

“There may be countless bones buried under the foundations of those high-rise buildings,” he said. “China’s rapid development has sacrificed the environment, human rights and labor rights.”

Even if only 5% of village chiefs are changed by their China trip, that will count as a victory in United Front terms, Gong said, adding that the goal of such trips is to lull Taiwanese into believing that the Chinese Communist Party has changed.

He said local governments will be happy to oblige, as they are confident of being able to get funding for anything related to United Front work.

Doublethink’s Shen, meanwhile, warned that such operations could be under way anywhere in the world, in particular in poorer countries.

“Many countries with a high GDP may experience a lot of pressure from China that can result in little effect,” he told the forum. “However, those countries with a lower GDP, such as Egypt, exhibit an opposite effect with little pressure, resulting in a high degree of influence.”

Shen called on parliamentarians around the world to use the China Index to quantify China’s impact on their country, so they can develop ways of protecting themselves.

Stephen Colbert is taking more time off to recover from appendix surgery, resulting in another week of cancellations for CBS’ “The Late Show.”

“I’m listening to my doctors and continuing to rest and heal. Thank you for all your well wishes and I’ll see you soon,” the Emmy Award winner wrote Monday on Threads, confirming that he would not be returning to work this week.

The news comes after “The Daily Show” veteran revealed on Nov. 27 that his appendix had ruptured, requiring surgery around Thanksgiving weekend.

“I’m sure you’re thinking, ‘Turkey overdose, Steve? Gravy boat capsize?’ Actually, I’m recovering from surgery for a ruptured appendix,” he wrote at the time, adding that he was grateful to his doctors for their care and to his wife, Evie, and their kids “for putting up with me.”

“Going forward, all emails to my appendix will be handled by my pancreas,” the 59-year-old quipped.

James Smartwood of “Tooning Out the News” calls U.S. Senate candidate Herschel Walker for some help.

“The Late Show,” which had only returned in October after a five-month blackout due to the Hollywood writers’ strike, will air repeat episodes for the remainder of the week, CBS said in a Monday statement. Those repeats include episodes filmed in October and November.

Actors Maria Bamford, Sarah Paulson, Mark Ruffalo, journalist Jonathan Karl, Rep. Liz Cheney and musicians Jason Isbell, Daniel Caesar, Sara Bareilles and Nicki Minaj were slated to appear on the show this week.

The “Strike Force Five” podcast host has previously canceled the show due to health complications. In May 2022, the former Comedy Central fixture took several days off to treat a bout of COVID-19, as well as a COVID recurrence. It is unclear when Colbert will return to his famous TV desk; representatives for “The Late Show” did not immediately respond Tuesday to The Times’ requests for comment.

Last week, “The Late Show” had to do without scheduled guest spots with Barbra Streisand, Jennifer Garner, Patrick Stewart and Baz Luhrmann. Clips from Colbert’s prerecorded interview with Streisand have since been posted online.

Musician Jon Batiste, who is up for the Grammys’ album of the year trophy, also was scheduled to return to the show last week — marking his first time back since he left the CBS show in 2022 after seven seasons as its bandleader.

Before the holiday break, longtime “Late Show” host David Letterman returned to the show as a guest for the first time since he left in May 2015. When remarking on the many upgrades to the Ed Sullivan Theater in New York — including the dressing room, which Letterman said was “nicer than the nicest hotel I’ve ever stayed in” — the former host joked, “I’ll be here through Christmas.”

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© 2023 Los Angeles Times

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

The Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to ban rodeos in the city despite opposition by some in L.A.’s Latino equestrian community, who painted the crackdown as an attack on their culture.

Councilmember Bob Blumenfield, who represents the west San Fernando Valley, led the council in passing the ban, describing in graphic detail the broken bones and pain endured by rodeo animals.

The vote, 14 to 0 with Councilmember Nithya Raman absent, asks the city attorney’s office to draft an ordinance outlawing rodeos in the city.

Just before the vote, Blumenfield introduced an amendment that was co-sponsored by the most public opponent of the measure, Councilmember Monica Rodriguez, who represents the east Valley.

The amendment attempted to assuage concerns that the ban would prevent cultural events, such as charrería, which is popular in Mexico, as well as the Bill Pickett rodeo, a national event for Black riders scheduled for February in the City of Industry.

It carved out exceptions for equestrian and cultural events, including charrería, as long as participants didn’t engage in events where there is bareback bronc riding, saddle bronc riding, bull riding, calf roping, steer wrestling, team roping or “other events or activities that involves physically taking down an animal, roping an animal, or attempting to ride a bucking animal.”

Rodriguez appeared at a rally opposing the ban just before the council meeting where dozens of rodeo aficionados — some on horses, some wearing traditional rodeo attire — trotted up and down Main Street.

At a news conference before the vote, Rodriguez said the proposed ordinance would be “far more inclusive and impactful to communities of color and cultural practices that have long been treasured here.”

More than 100 people signed up to speak before the vote in council chambers, many wearing cowboy hats and boots.

Jane Velez-Mitchell, a resident of Los Angeles, expressed outrage that concern for animals was pitted against cultural sensitivity.

“I was appalled and assaulted and just baffled that pro-rodeo forces are trying to turn this into a cultural issue. As a proud Latina, I can tell you that I know that torture is not entertainment,” she said during the public comment period.

A caller who did not identify himself pleaded in a quavering voice for the council to oppose the ban.

“I am a proud Angeleno. I was born and raised here. My father rode bulls here, my uncle rode bulls here, and those animals are not abused,” he said. “As an African American born and raised in the city of Los Angeles, please do not ban rodeo.”

A rodeo ban was first proposed by Blumenfield in 2021.

“These animals aren’t part of a show — their torture is the show,” Blumenfield said in an interview Monday. People are being entertained by witnessing animals writhing in pain because a flank strap is tightly wrapped around their belly, he said.

Other jurisdictions throughout the state and nation have put limits on or banned rodeos, including San Francisco, San Juan Capistrano and Pasadena, as well as Pittsburgh; Baltimore County, Md.; Leesburg, Va.; and Fort Wayne, Ind.

California law already regulates rodeos, requiring a veterinarian to be present or nearby and “on-call.” Injury reports must be sent to the state’s veterinary medical board.

A 2022 Times review of those reports showed that since 2001, when the law went into effect, more than 125 animal injuries were reported. The reports were written by attending or on-call veterinarians and submitted to the California Veterinary Medical Board.

The reports documented injuries ranging from superficial abrasions suffered as panicked animals rushed out of their chutes, to crushed skulls, broken legs, gored flanks and snapped spines.

Experts, activists and records prepared by veterinarians at events say these numbers are likely conservative and underrepresent the extent of injuries that happen at rodeos.

In response to concerns that a ban would be akin to an attack on Latino culture, Blumenfield said, “This is not about culture. This is about animal cruelty.”

“There are Black rodeos. There are Latino rodeos. There are gay rodeos … nobody is trying to go after a culture. We’re saying that animal cruelty is something that we, in 2023, should not be supporting,” he said.

Opponents said that they would seek to alter the law when it turns to the City Council for a final vote.

Longtime equestrian Geronimo Bugarin said there are nine elements of charrería, including bull riding, mare riding and calf roping, and appeared dismayed at the prospect of not being able to continue those activities.

“If we lose one of our key elements of charrería, it’s like you don’t have a charrería,” Bugarin said.

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© 2023 Los Angeles Times

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Yanqing Wang had a bad feeling.

He had not heard from his sister in days, and his calls were going unanswered. Then, he went to her WeChat social media profile and discovered that all her friends and photos, dating back 10 years, had been deleted.

Where was she? What was going on?

Wang got the grim news a day later, on Nov. 8. His sister, Yanxiang Wang, 64, and her husband, Li Gaoshan, 72, were missing. Their daughter, Mei Haskell, 37, was presumed dead after authorities said her torso was found in a dumpster. And the daughter’s husband, Samuel Bond Haskell IV, 35, was arrested on suspicion of murder.

The gruesome case has made international headlines. But for Wang, 59, and other family members, coming to terms with what happened — and why — has been impossible.

Wang said he saw no hints of problems at the Tarzana home the two couples shared. Haskell’s three children, who were at school when police got involved in the case, were found safe and are now in foster care, according to Wang.

Law enforcement sources not authorized to publicly discuss the case told the Los Angeles Times that they believe Haskell killed his wife and in-laws and dismembered their bodies. They say he dumped Mei’s torso in an Encino trash bin and his in-laws’ bodies somewhere else. Two vehicles that had been missing from the Haskells’ Tarzana property — a white Volkswagen Tiguan and a white 2014 Nissan Pathfinder — were found in the San Fernando Valley.

Wang and his extended family, many of whom live in China, are distraught. One of five siblings, Wang said he still hasn’t told his two older sisters that Yanxiang is missing and was likely killed.

And he’s frustrated that law enforcement hasn’t offered more answers. Wang has tried calling police and left messages, but he says no one has gotten back to him. He wonders whether a language barrier is hindering communication.

“They have been missing for 20 days,” Wang said. “How can he hide it so well for so long?

“If he murdered three people, he must have a deep-seated hatred,” Wang said in Mandarin, shaking his head in disbelief.

Robert Schwartz, Haskell’s lawyer, did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Haskell, who remains in jail in lieu of $2 million bail, is scheduled to appear in court Friday. He has not entered a plea to any of the charges against him.

Haskell, the son of a well-known Hollywood executive, started dating Mei when the two were students at Cal State Northridge, her uncle said.

The young woman moved to the United States in the mid-2000s to study accounting; her mother and stepfather had to sell their house in China to afford her tuition. Wang, who lives in Monterey Park, started working at a local restaurant to help pay for her education.

Mei wanted her uncle to approve of her partner and introduced him to Haskell, whom Wang described as “strange” and “quiet and reserved” but also a seemingly “good guy.” He said they didn’t speak much because Wang doesn’t speak much English.

The couple married after graduation, and following the birth of their first child 13 years ago, Mei’s mother and stepfather moved from China to live with the Haskells, Wang said.

As the family grew to include two more children, Mei’s parents helped look after the kids while she worked. They all lived together in a single-story home in the 4100 block of Coldstream Terrace in Tarzana.

Although Wang never heard of any fights between the couple or any talk of divorce, he said his sister complained that Mei was the only one paying for their $7,000-a-month mortgage and that Haskell hadn’t offered financial support when they were looking to buy a house three years ago.

He said his sister had a stroke a few years ago, which made it more difficult for her to walk. But she still did a lot of the cooking and cleaning, as well as looking after the children.

Meanwhile, to afford their monthly house payments, Wang said Mei had to work multiple jobs, including at a consulting business for families who want their children to study in the United States.

Little is known about what led up to the violence.

Inside the Haskells’ Tarzana home, detectives discovered blood and other evidence consistent with death and dismemberment, Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney Beth Silverman said.

Authorities say Haskell first tried to dispose of human remains on Nov. 7, when he hired day laborers to remove bags from his property. The workers, who were paid $500 and initially told they were hauling away rocks, then Halloween decorations, said the bags felt soggy and soft, like meat. They quickly realized what they had loaded into the back of their truck was body parts and they hurried to return the bags — and the money — before reporting the incident, according to KNBC-TV Channel 4. But by the time police arrived, the bags were gone.

Haskell later was caught on video dumping a large bag from the back of his Tesla about five miles from his home, authorities said. A man scavenging for recyclables in a dumpster in an Encino strip mall found a duffel bag containing a human torso the following morning.

Los Angeles police Capt. Scot Williams of the Robbery-Homicide Division said the torso is assumed to be that of Mei, who has not been located. But forensics will be needed to confirm the identity.

LAPD Detective Efren Gutierrez said efforts to reach the woman’s parents have also yielded no results.

Mei and her parents continue to be the focus of intense search efforts. Williams said police have scoured “all the places we believe (Haskell) may have gone in the days leading up to his arrest.”

But Silverman thinks the three are dead and said Haskell disposed of their bodies. “He had several days and drove through Los Angeles County,” she added.

Silverman said earlier this month that no other bags containing body parts or remains have been recovered.

“But I don’t need a body to charge a murder,” the prosecutor said.

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© 2023 Los Angeles Times

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

A high-ranking American diplomat who once served at the U.S. mission in Havana appears to have been a spy for Cuba during one of the worst diplomatic crises in years between the two countries.

Manuel Rocha, a former U.S. ambassador to Bolivia who has been arrested in Miami and charged with secretly working for Cuba as a covert agent, was a principal deputy in 1996 at the U.S. Interests Section in Havana when the Cuban government shot down two planes belonging to the Miami exile organization Brothers to the Rescue. Four people were killed in the Feb. 24, 1996, incident, prompting the Pentagon to draft plans about how to retaliate.

That was not the only time he might have provided crucial information to the government of Fidel Castro.

Rocha also headed the Office of Inter-American Affairs at the National Security Council between July 1994 and July 1995, putting him in a unique position to shape the Clinton administration’s response to the balsero crisis, when 35,000 Cubans tried to reach South Florida in rafts after Castro opened up the island’s borders following a rare anti-government protest in August 1994.

In meetings with undercover FBI agents in Miami, Rocha, 73, said he had been working for Cuban intelligence for over 40 years, according to a criminal complaint made public on Monday. “What we have done…is enormous. More than a grand slam,” he is quoted saying of his work for Cuba to an FBI undercover agent posing as a Cuban intelligence officer.

U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said Rocha’s work for Cuba was “one of the highest-reaching and longest-lasting infiltrations of the United States government by a foreign agent.”

The State Department said it is assessing what damage Rocha’s actions might have caused to U.S. national security. If the accusations are true, Rocha may turn out to have been one of Cuba’s most successful secret agents.

“He was in a position sufficiently high that he could have done more damage to American policy and even to American intelligence activities than any previous Cuban spy. And I say that potentially because we don’t know yet,” said Brian Latell, a former CIA analyst who was the National Intelligence Officer for Latin America between 1990 and 1994.

Though Rocha has not been formally accused of espionage, the criminal complaint says that “by his own admission, beginning no later than approximately 1981, and continuing to the present, Rocha secretly supported the Republic of Cuba and its clandestine intelligence-gathering mission against the United States by serving as a covert agent of Cuba’s intelligence operations.”

At a hearing Monday in Miami, prosecutors said they may file other charges against Rocha.

Several intelligence experts who spoke to the Miami Herald said the complaint was unusual in that it lacks details of the information authorities believe Rocha might have passed to the Cuban intelligence services. The complaint says Rocha took positions within the U.S. government that allowed him to access classified information and influence foreign policy to help Cuba.

“They are calling him a spy without really saying it,” said Peter Lapp, a former FBI special agent who arrested Ana Belén Montes, the analyst who spied for Cuba during her 17 years at the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency.

“There’s no distinction between Rocha and Montes,” Lapp said. “He openly admitted to espionage, but they don’t appear to have enough to charge him for espionage like we were able to with Montes. It’s really quite unusual. Remarkable.”

The Department of Justice charged Rocha with defrauding the United States and acting as an illegal foreign government agent, a violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act that requires those working under the control of foreign governments to notify the Attorney General’s office.

Those charges have been used to prosecute lobbyists and officials who have done the bidding of a foreign government without reporting it. But in Rocha’s case, the Department of Justice claims he did more than that, accusing him of working as an undercover agent of the Cuban General Directorate of Intelligence, known as the DGI for its initials in Spanish.

“From a government perspective, there are easier ways to get a spy out of the game without having to tip your hand into as to what they did. Think of it as getting Al Capone for tax evasion,” said Chris Simmons, a former Defense Intelligence Agency spycatcher who helped identify Montes as a Cuban mole at the Pentagon.

The intelligence experts believe that one of the reasons the Rocha case will be complex to prosecute is that the acts he allegedly committed to help Cuba happened many years ago. The FBI likely could not get direct evidence of his communications with Cuban intelligence agents or the secrets he passed to them. The experts believe the approach taken by the FBI — setting up an undercover operation to get Rocha to admit he worked for Cuba and that he was still willing to work for the Cuban intelligence services — also meant to bring the case to the present to comply with the five-year statute of limitations for violations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act.

Rocha told the FBI undercover agent that his last contact with the DGI was during a trip to Havana “in 2016 or 2017,” according to the federal complaint.

Damage assessment

The complaint does not say what prompted the investigation, nor does it describe what kind of sensitive information he could have accessed in the several positions he held while working at the State Department. Still, Latell said Rocha had access to highly classified materials.

As ambassador to Bolivia, a position Rocha held between 2000-02, he would have had some knowledge of U.S. intelligence operations in the country, intelligence experts say. But he would also receive a digest of developments in the region, said Otto Reich, former assistant secretary of state for the Western Hemisphere.

Simmons said Rocha’s career at the State Department seems to have been “scripted in Havana:” He held posts in Honduras, in Mexico City — believed to be a significant operation hub for Cuban intelligence — and at the Interests Section in Havana during the shoot down of the planes, a moment of “tension” he referenced in one of the meetings with the FBI undercover agent, claiming he was “in charge” of the U.S. mission at the time.

After Rocha left the foreign service, the complaint says, he was a special advisor to the head of the Pentagon’s Southern Command, based in Doral, between 2006 and 2012, another position in which he could get valuable knowledge and exert influence on behalf of Cuban intelligence services.

Beyond the secret documents he might have stolen, Rocha also socialized among people in Washington who could inadvertently provide insights into policies toward Cuba.

“All kinds of people like me…” said Latell, the former CIA analyst. “And when we met, we would usually talk about Latin America. And he was probably informing the Cubans.”

Latell, who developed a friendship with Rocha since they met in 1981 and was present during his swearing-in ceremony as ambassador, said the news about Rocha’s clandestine intelligence activities took him by surprise and that he never suspected his friend could be a spy.

“What is so terrible about his betrayal of the United States is that he received so many special benefits from the United States,” Latell said, retelling a story he heard from Rocha about how he came to the country from Colombia with his mother with few resources and later received scholarships to attend a college-preparatory school in New England and to attend Ivy League universities.

“An American aristocrat”

People who knew or interacted with Rocha describe him as highly confident and even arrogant. Latell said Rocha learned to dress and speak “as an American aristocrat.”

A person who interacted with Rocha frequently after he left the State Department and held profitable private jobs in business said he sometimes came across as pompous. Still, he was thoughtful and showed a nuanced understanding of U.S. politics, the person said, adding that as of late, Rocha was sharing “pro-Trump and anti-Biden” content.

Rocha told the FBI undercover agent that he had constructed “the legend of a right-wing” person while working for the DGI. But there were a few times he signaled otherwise.

In an event in 2009 at the University of Florida, he asked to make his remarks off the record. Still, a small business publication, Cuba News, reported without quoting him that Rocha “gave a specially insightful presentation calling for more openness toward Cuba.”

Yleem Poblete, a former assistant secretary of state for Arms Control, Verification and Compliance, wrote on X that she was “not surprised” by Rocha’s arrest given her interactions with him when she was a House Republican staffer, “as his bias toward such communist, socialist regimes was evident.”

In another post, Poblete wondered how many foreign policy issues Rocha might have had his fingerprints on.

But a damage assessment seems almost “pointless,” Simmons, the former Pentagon analyst, says, noting the several years he carried on his alleged spying undetected.

“The bottom line is that this was an epic failure, which is going to be celebrated as a success,” he said. “Normally, I would say, any success is a success. But in this case, it’s too late.”

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© 2023 Miami Herald

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Tim Sloan, a former Wells Fargo CEO, is suing the bank for more than $34 million for allegedly withholding pay after he retired in 2019, according to a lawsuit filed last Friday in California state court.

The San Francisco-based institution, which has its largest employment hub in Charlotte, North Carolina, saw Sloan retire following a major scandal over fake customer accounts set up by employees to reach sales goals. Sloan said Wells Fargo promised him multiple stock awards and bonuses, according to the complaint.

He stated that the scandals started before his time as CEO and that he tried to fix them before he left the company. Sloan said at the time that Wells Fargo would benefit from a new CEO with fresh perspectives to move the business forward.

Wells Fargo promoted Sloan to CEO in 2016 to replace John Stumpf, who had resigned in the wake of revelations that employees opened millions of accounts without permission from customers.

Sloan’s retirement in 2019 came just a little over two weeks after being scolded during congressional hearings for 3.5 million bank and credit card accounts being opened without permission from customers.

More details in the Wells Fargo lawsuit

In his lawsuit, Sloan stated he served Wells Fargo for more than three decades and rose to the occasion. He claimed an equity grant was unlawfully canceled in the face of intense political pressure.

“Wells Fargo canceled the grant and used Mr. Sloan as a scapegoat even though he was not responsible for the sales practices that prompted the congressional review,” Sloan claimed in his lawsuit, “and despite the energy and resources he committed to meeting regulatory demands and righting the ship.”

Sloan also is seeking damages from unspecified emotional distress, among other claims for damages.

When asked about the lawsuit, Wells Fargo defended itself, stating, “Compensation decisions are based on performance, and we stand behind our decisions in this matter.”

Fallout from the Wells Fargo scandal

Federal regulators filed charges against former Wells Fargo executives for the reported misconduct.

Stumpf was banned from the banking industry and fined $17.5 million by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. Carrie Tolstedt, former head of Wells Fargo’s consumer bank, also faced a $25 million fine and an industry ban. In September, she was sentenced by a federal judge to three years’ probation, including six months of home confinement, for her role in misleading investors.

Employees said they had unreasonable sales goals, regulators said. One example in the 2013 OCC report was an employee writing to CEO’s office and saying, “I had less stress in the 1991 Gulf War than working for Wells Fargo.”

Wells Fargo serves 69 million customers in 28 countries and operates in more than 5,500 locations. The financial services company employs over 247,000 people, with about 27,000 jobs in Charlotte.

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© 2023 The Charlotte Observer

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a 2024 independent presidential candidate, admitted Tuesday that he flew two times on Jeffrey Epstein’s private jet and that his former wife had a “relationship” with Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s partner.

During a Tuesday interview on Fox News, Jesse Watters asked Kennedy if he had ever flown on Epstein’s private jet. Epstein was charged for sex trafficking underage girls at his private island and died while in jail in 2019.

“I was on Jeffrey Epstein’s jet two times,” Kennedy said. “I was on it in 1993 and I was on it in — and I went to Florida with my wife and two children to visit my mom over Easter. My wife had some kind of relationship with Ghislaine Maxwell, and they offered us a ride to Palm Beach.”

According to The New York Post, Epstein’s private jet was nicknamed “Lolita Express” due to its reputation for transporting underage girls to the sex trafficker’s private island.

Kennedy told Watters that he also flew on the plane a second time for a weekend with his wife and four of his children to Rapid City, South Dakota, in order to “go fossil hunting.” “Otherwise, I was never on his jet alone,” Kennedy added.

During Tuesday’s interview, Kennedy claimed that he has been “very open” about his association with Epstein throughout his presidential campaign.

“This was in ’93, so it was 30 years ago — it was before anybody knew about Jeffrey Epstein’s nefarious issues,” Kennedy told Watters.

READ MORE: Trump Jr. calls 2024 presidential candidate a ‘Democrat plant’

While Kennedy claimed he has been “very open” about his connection with Epstein, the independent candidate’s account that he presented Tuesday on Fox News appears to conflict with the account that a spokesman for his campaign shared with Newsweek in November.

Last month, a Kennedy spokesman claimed that the independent candidate had “flown one time on Jeffrey Epstein’s private plane,” in order to visit his mom for Easter. Detailing the Easter trip to see his mom.”Mary knew Epstein’s girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell, who learned that they were going to Palm Beach for Easter and offered [the] family a ride,” the spokesperson said.

In addition to defending his own connection with Epstein, Kennedy told Waters that the American people should have access to information regarding Epstein’s political and social connections.

“I agree with you that all of this information should be released, and we should get real answers on what happened to Jeffrey Epstein and any of the high-level political people that he was involved with, all of that should be open to the public,” he stated. “It should absolutely be transparent, and I don’t see why any of those records would have any redactions in them. Why would we be hiding that from the American public?”

Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) announced on Wednesday that he is retiring from Congress and will leave office by the end of the month. McCarthy’s surprise decision comes after he was ousted from the speakership in October.  

“As the son of a firefighter from Bakersfield, my story is the story of America. For me, every moment came with a great deal of devotion and responsibility. Serving you in Congress and as the 55th Speaker of the House has been my greatest honor,” McCarthy said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

As the son of a firefighter from Bakersfield, my story is the story of America. For me, every moment came with a great deal of devotion and responsibility.

Serving you in Congress and as the 55th Speaker of the House has been my greatest honor. pic.twitter.com/jNnYQ8UO4k

— Kevin McCarthy (@SpeakerMcCarthy) December 6, 2023

McCarthy, who was first elected to the House of Representatives in 2006, wrote in an op-ed published in the Wall Street Journal that he was proud of what he accomplished over his 17 years in Congress.

“No matter the odds, or personal cost, we did the right thing. That may seem out of fashion in Washington these days, but delivering results for the American people is still celebrated across the country. It is in this spirit that I have decided to depart the House at the end of this year to serve America in new ways. I know my work is only getting started,” McCarthy wrote.

“I will continue to recruit our country’s best and brightest to run for elected office. The Republican Party is expanding every day, and I am committed to lending my experience to support the next generation of leaders,” he continued.

“I never could have imagined the journey when I first threw my hat into the ring. I go knowing I left it all on the field—as always, with a smile on my face. And looking back, I wouldn’t have had it any other way,” McCarthy added. “Only in America.”

In a forest in southern China, a parasitic creature flew through the air. Suddenly, a net enveloped the animal. Scientists looked at their successful catch — and discovered a new species.

Equipped with bug-catching nets, researchers ventured into a forest in Guangzhou in 2022, according to a study published Dec. 1 in the European Journal of Taxonomy. While there, they captured a spotted wasp.

Intrigued, researchers searched for any records of similar-looking wasps and found seven more specimens in archive collections, the study said. They studied the insects and realized they’d discovered a new species: Serratichneumon maculatus, or the spotted parasitic wasp.

Spotted parasitic wasps have a body about 0.5 inches in length and slightly shorter wings, researchers said. Their faces are “flat,” and their mouths have two “distinctly separated teeth.”

A photo shows a spotted parasitic wasp. It has a black body with lighter-colored patches that researchers described as “drop-shaped” and “large white and red spots.” Its six legs are reddish-brown.

A close-up photo shows the wasp’s wings. The wings are a translucent yellow with dark brown veins and a glossy appearance.

Male spotted parasitic wasps have “serrated” antennae, the study said. A photo shows these antennae which seem to have a similar shape to a leafy plant.

Researchers have not identified the spotted parasitic wasp’s host animal, the study said. Based on the wasp’s anatomy, they suspect its host is a type of butterfly or moth larvae.

So far, spotted parasitic wasps have been found in China, Vietnam and Indonesia.

Researchers said they named the new species after the spots on its body.

The new species was placed in a new genus and identified by its antennae shape, unique teeth, body shape and other subtle physical features, the study said. Researchers did not provide a DNA analysis of the new species.

The research team included Mao-Ling Sheng, Matthias Riedel and Zhong Wang.

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Denny Laine, who co-founded British bands The Moody Blues and Wings, died early Tuesday morning. He was 79.

The death of the two-time Grammy Award winner followed a battle with “unpredictable and aggressive” interstitial lung disease (ILD), from which he was originally expected to recover, said his widow, Elizabeth Hines. She wrote on a GoFundMe in September that Laine’s illness began over the summer, following a “short bout with COVID last year.”

“My darling husband passed away peacefully early this morning,” Hines announced in a statement on the musician’s verified Facebook page. “I was at his bedside, holding his hand as I played his favorite Christmas songs for him. He’s been singing Christmas songs the past few weeks and I continued to play Christmas songs while he’s been in ICU on a ventilator this past week.”

“He fought everyday. He was so strong and brave, never complained,” Hines continued. “All he wanted was to be home with me and his pet kitty, Charley, playing his gypsy guitar. … My world will never be the same. Denny was an amazingly wonderful person, so loving and sweet to me. He made my days colorful, fun and full of life — just like him.”

Hines requested “the time and privacy” for Laine’s friends and loved ones to “grieve for our loss.”

Laine — who was born in the Channel Islands and raised in Birmingham, England — helped found The Moody Blues in 1964 as a guitarist and vocalist after his local band, Denny and the Diplomats, struggled to find success.

Though Laine was with The Moody Blues for their first hit, the cover of “Go Now,” he left the group in 1966 ahead of two of their most notable songs, “Nights in White Satin” and “Tuesday Afternoon.” However, in 2018, he was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as part of the band.

Laine joined forces with Paul and Linda McCartney in 1971 to form Wings — for which he sang and played guitar and bass. He played on the likes of “Band on the Run,” “Live and Let Die” and helped pen “London Town” and “Don’t Let It Bring You Down.”

Laine eventually moved on to a solo career, during which time his 1980 album “Japanese Tears” even featured a reunion with McCartney on the track “Send Me the Heart.”

Though Laine released his last solo album, “The Blue Musician,” in 2008, he was still touring until shortly before his death.

In addition to Hines, Laine is survived by five children.

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