Tag: billionaires

The billionaire family poised to rewire U.S. media in Israel’s favor

In early September, the Hollywood producer Lawrence Bender — known for his work with Quentin Tarantino on films including “Pulp Fiction” and “Inglourious Basterds” — had what he later described as “a really tough conversation” with the investors in “Red Alert,” an Israeli miniseries that dramatizes the Hamas attacks of October 7, 2023.

With just weeks remaining before the anticipated release on the second anniversary of the attacks, the show, produced by Israeli mass media company Keshet Media Group, was struggling to secure distribution outside of Israel. The news environment was far from favorable: Israeli fighter jets had just attacked a residential compound in Qatar, and a pledge to boycott Israeli film institutions that were “implicated” in the genocide in the Gaza Strip had collected thousands of signatures in Hollywood.

“No one’s going to want to buy something from the Israelis,” Bender, an executive producer of “Red Alert,” told the investors, as he recalled on stage at a Jewish National Fund–USA conference the following month. Among those investors was the Israel Entertainment Fund, which JNF–USA established last year with the Israeli streaming service Izzy to produce television and film for international audiences, with a focus on projects filmed in the “Gaza Envelope” region of southern Israel. “We were pretty stressed about what we were going to do,” Izzy CEO Nati Dinnar‏, interviewing Bender on stage, recalled.

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‘Fourth Reich’: Musk Strikes Back At EU ‘Tyrants’ After X Fine

Elon Musk is not taking the outrageous fine from Brussels bureaucrats lying down, lashing out at EU officialdom for taking on Nazi characteristics and oppressing their own citizens’ best interests…

As Catherine Salgado reports for PJMedia.com, Musk also re-shared a post about Irish teacher Enoch Burke, who was jailed for refusing to use transgender pronouns, and later replied to another user, “So many politicians in Europe who are traitors to their own people.”

And Musk highlighted the fact that Meta has a verification program similar to X’s, yet the EU hasn’t onerously fined the more censorship-prone Meta.

Musk reposted and reiterated his previous explanation of why he bought X (then Twitter) in the first place.

“I didn’t do the Twitter purchase because I thought it was a great way to make money. I knew that there would be a zillion slings and arrows coming in my direction.

It really felt like, there was a civilizational danger that unless one of the major online platforms broke ranks, then, because they’re all just behaving in lockstep along with the legacy media.

Literally there was no place to actually get the truth. It was almost impossible. So everything was just getting censored. The power of the censorship apparatus was incredible,” Musk said.

The EU seems to be borrowing ideas from 20th century Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler… 

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The Seven Richest Billionaires Are All Media Barons

Trump loyalist and CIA contractor Larry Ellison’s purchase of CNN appears imminent, and marks the latest venture into media for the world’s second-richest individual. But Ellison is not alone. Indeed, the world’s seven richest individuals are all now powerful media barons, controlling what the world sees, reads, and hears, marking a new chapter in oligarchical control over society and striking another blow at a free, independent press and diversity of opinion.

Media Monopoly

Paramount Skydance– an Ellison-owned company– is in pole position to purchase Warner Brothers Discovery, a conglomerate that controls gigantic film and television studios, streaming services like HBO Max and Discovery+, franchises like DC Comics, and TV networks such as HBO, TNT, Discovery Channel, TLC, Food Network, and CNN. This lead is largely due to Ellison’s proximity to President Trump, who will ultimately have to sign off on such a deal.

Ellison has already spoken to senior White House officials about axing CNN hosts and content that Trump is said to dislike, including anchors, Erin Burnett and Brianna Keilar. It is this willingness to completely reorientate the network’s political direction that has made him the White House’s preferred purchaser of Warner Brothers Discovery. He is reportedly so wealthy that he can afford to pay in cash.

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WHO–Gates Unveils Blueprint For Global Digital ID, AI-Driven Surveillance, & Life-Long Vaccine Tracking For Everyone

In a document published in the October Bulletin of the World Health Organization and funded by the Gates Foundation, the World Health Organization (WHO) is proposing a globally interoperable digital-identity infrastructure that permanently tracks every individual’s vaccination status from birth.

The dystopian proposal raises far more than privacy and autonomy concerns: it establishes the architecture for government overreach, cross-domain profiling, AI-driven behavioral targeting, conditional access to services, and a globally interoperable surveillance grid tracking individuals.

It also creates unprecedented risks in data security, accountability, and mission creep, enabling a digital control system that reaches into every sector of life.

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He Says No Threat Exists, Then Tries to Block the Sun

Gates Tones Down the Scare Talk, Then Reaches for the Sky Controls

For years, Bill Gates pushed the idea that climate change ranks among the biggest challenges facing mankind. He wrote books about it and toured the world, urging nations to spend trillions on new energy systems. He stood with the crowd that warned of danger at every turn.

Then, without warning, he released a memo claiming that climate change won’t end humanity, calling for calm thinking and saying fear does more harm than good.

People who never bought into climate panic thought he had finally caught up with reality.

Afterwards, they watched him push the strangest idea yet: supporting research to dim the sun. Reports laid it out in detail, while describing his plan to scatter sunlight away from Earth.

What better way of describing a man who now downplays climate danger: funding a plan meant for a world on the verge of collapse.

Like Stephen Curry switching hands, it reads like someone who switched talking points without changing direction.

He Calms His Voice Yet Builds a Project Fit for Panic

“Stop panicking!” cries the man who panicked for years. He is claiming the world will adapt, while telling leaders to focus on fighting poverty and disease instead of chasing perfect temperature goals. A message that many people believe sounds reasonable.

Hidden behind that tone is an idea borrowed from a plot in a climate disaster movie. Solar geoengineering aims to weaken sunlight, an idea Gates has backed for nearly 20 years through scientists who want to spray particles into the sky to reflect the light. Gates supports research that many climate activists call reckless.

A strange picture emerges from his pivot: he’s telling people to relax while he pays for a project built for a world on fire.

As his words drift one way, while his money drifts the other, what path do you think people will follow?

Earth Needs Steady Light More Than It Needs Tech Experiments

Plants don’t vote, trees don’t care about debates, and algae in the ocean don’t follow climate politics. There’s one significant thing they share: they all need sunlight.

Algae alone produce a large share of the oxygen we breathe. That tiny life floating near the surface depends on a stable source of light to survive. Shade the planet, and algae shut down, breaking food chains, changing fish stocks, and sliding the weather balance out of whack. Heck, even a slight drop in sunlight worsens harvests, shifts rainfall, and hurts the poorest regions first.

Gates fixes software issues with updates, solving them in days, while mistakes with sunlight can last for generations, if we’re lucky.

His plan treats the Sun like a variable light switch he can dial back when he feels like it.

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Armed Robber Targets Sam Altman’s Ex-Boyfriend’s House, Forces Transfer Of $11 Million In Crypto

A thief barged into a house owned by Lachy Groom – a wealthy tech investor who once dated OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, tied up a victim, and made off with $11 million in Crypto Saturday evening in San Francisco, the NY Post reports.

Dressed as a delivery worker, the armed robber rang the door at Groom’s $4.4 million home on Dorland Street while carrying a white box, asks for Joshua – who lives with Groom – while claiming to be a UPS driver. The victim answers the door and identifies himself as Joshua. 

The thief then asked for him to sign for the package – asking if he can borrow a pen. The suspect then followed Joshua inside when a loud bang can be heard. 

According to the report, the suspect pulled a gun, tied up the victim with duct tape, and then stole $11 million worth of Ethereum and Bitcoin (exact method unknown), in what is believed to have been a hit by an organized crime group that the suspect was part of.

The suspect then tortured the victim, beating him while he held a phone up on loudspeaker as foreign voices on the line repeated his personal information that they had obtained. The thief then poured liquid on the victim before the crypto wallets were emptied.

The whole thing took around 90 minutes. 

Homeowner Lachy Groom, 31, is a venture capitalist and the ex-boyfriend of Open AI’s Altman, 40, who dated the billionaire sometime before he got married in 2024, sources with knowledge of their relationship said. Groom bought the property from Altman’s brother in 2021 for $1.8 million, property records show. Details of their relationship have not previously been reported. Attempts to reach Groom were not returned.

The Post has learned Joshua is a fellow tech investor who lives with Groom at the 4-bedroom Dorland Street home. 

Altman and Groom have invested together in various companies. Groom, a native Australian, has founded four startups and sold three before he turned 18. 

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Report: U.S. Is the World’s Largest Debtor to China — Thanks to Amazon, Disney, and Tesla

A report published on Tuesday by the AidData research lab at William & Mary university in Williamsburg, Virginia, found that the United States is the largest recipient of loans from China.

The report, entitled Chasing China: Learning to Play by Beijing’s Global Lending Rules, found that 1,193 Chinese banks, investment companies, and government institutions loaned $2.2 trillion to recipients in 179 countries between 2000 and 2023.

AidData researchers drew two surprising conclusions from their research: “China’s overseas lending portfolio is vastly larger than previously understood,” and its loans to the developed world are an order of magnitude larger than widely believed.

The common image of Chinese loans is banks pumping huge loans to Third World countries through China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). The ostensible purpose of BRI was to help developing countries build vital infrastructure, but the projects are often criticized as unprofitable “debt traps” approved by spendthrift local governments that saddle the borrowing nations with debts to Beijing they can never repay.

Whatever the flaws of BRI might be, AidData determined that only about 20 percent of China’s titanic lending portfolio involves infrastructure projects in developing nations. Meanwhile, the amount China loans to developed nations “skyrocketed from 12% to 76%” between 2000 and 2023. Ten of the top 20 destinations for Chinese loans are “high-income” countries.

“Another major discovery is that Chinese state-owned creditors have bankrolled approximately 10,000 projects and activities in 72 high-income countries to the tune of nearly $1 trillion,” the report said.

“Much of the lending to wealthy countries is focused on critical infrastructure, critical minerals, and the acquisition of high-tech assets like semiconductor companies,” noted AidData’s lead author, Brad Parks.

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Soros funded NGO that tried to ‘kill Musk’s Twitter’ – media

A grantmaking network created by billionaire investor George Soros funded a controversial UK-based NGO which seeks to “kill” Elon Musk’s X media platform and censor conservative media, the Washington Free Beacon reported on Monday.

According to the database of Soros’ Open Society Foundation (OSF), the charity gave the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) a $250,000 grant last year “to provide general support.” While the nonprofit stipulates that its goal is to hold social media companies “accountable” for spreading hate, in practice, it has pressured advertisers to censor companies and lobbied to deplatform and cancel news organizations it found offensive, the paper said.

According to the outlet, the CCDH, founded by former Labour Party operative Imran Ahmed, has targeted conservative outlets such as The Federalist and the Daily Wire over alleged racist content. The nonprofit also reportedly tried to persuade US policymakers to create an “independent digital regulator.”

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Same Game, Different Name: ‘Radioactive’ Arabella Advisors Announces Rebrand to ‘Sunflower Services’ as Prominent Donors Flee

Arabella Advisors, the shadowy for-profit consulting firm that managed a multibillion-dollar network of liberal dark money groups, is now Sunflower Services. The company announced Monday it has rebranded and sold off its fiscal sponsorship business to a new firm amid a series of high-profile investigations into its finances and billionaire Bill Gates’s decision to end a longstanding partnership with the organization.

Now, a public benefit corporation called Sunflower Services will manage fiscal sponsorships for the dark money network. It’s a new name, but the same players are involved. Allan Williams, who served as senior vice president for partner solutions at Arabella, will serve as CEO of the new entity. New Venture Fund, Windward Fund, and Hopewell Fund are the “founding owners” of Sunflower Services, the new firm said in a press release.

It’s unclear if the Sixteen Thirty Fund, the primary political arm of the Arabella network that raised $275 million in 2024, will work with Sunflower Services. The Sixteen Thirty Fund did not return a request for comment.

Arabella CEO Himesh Bhise posted on LinkedIn that the firm sold only its fiscal sponsorship business to Sunflower Services. Arabella also provided more traditional and uncontroversial nonprofit HR and accounting services, and will continue to do so under its new name, Vital Impact. Bhise will serve as Vital Impact’s CEO.

The move from Arabella indicates the firm felt the need to quarantine its fiscal sponsorship business amid the threats of investigations from President Donald Trump, who issued a memorandum in September directing several federal agencies to investigate nonprofit organizations allegedly involved in political violence and the “organized structures, networks, entities, organizations” and funding sources behind them.

Trump’s memo had a “chilling effect” on major liberal foundations across the country, the Free Press reported.

Arabella also received scrutiny from the left. In 2023, D.C. attorney general Brian Schwalb (D.) launched an investigation and issued subpoenas to Arabella Advisors following a series of Washington Free Beacon reports on the firm’s practices. Schwalb closed his investigation in 2024, saying it found no evidence of a legal violation.

Still, the scrutiny from both sides of the political aisle appears to have damaged its relationships with some of its major donors. In June, the Gates Foundation, the influential philanthropy of Microsoft founder Bill Gates, said it would cease using Arabella Advisors as a middleman to handle many of its grants. The foundation called it a “business decision that reflects our regular strategic assessments of partnerships and operating models.”

The Gates move, which the New York Times called a “significant blow” to Arabella’s operations, spooked other nonprofits that work with Arabella over concerns of friction with the Gates Foundation, which had donated $450 million to Arabella’s dark money network. Other Arabella clients have pulled back from a partnership with the organization out of fear that the Trump administration will go after them for working closely with the progressive group, the Times reported.

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‘Deeply ashamed’: Larry Summers steps away from public life after Epstein emails

Larry Summers, a former Treasury secretary under President Bill Clinton and the former president of Harvard University, said he’s stepping back from public life after his apparent conversations with Jeffrey Epstein were released last week by the House Oversight Committee.

“I am deeply ashamed of my actions and recognize the pain they have caused. I take full responsibility for my misguided decision to continue communicating with Mr. Epstein,” Summers said in a statement on Monday.

Summers is currently a member of Harvard’s faculty, according to the Harvard Crimson.

“While continuing to fulfill my teaching obligations, I will be stepping back from public commitments as one part of my broader effort to rebuild trust and repair relationships with the people closest to me,” he said.

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