Today, we took a very close look at the short news items we publish and carefully chose them: This is what a Kaizen workday looks like alongside all the other articles - maybe it also helps explain why we need support.
At the same time, investigations, risk, court cases, victim support, travel, fact-checking, writing, translating, image work, and publishing continue every single day. Often from early morning until late at night, many times for 24 hours straight and beyond.
But now to the short news - or to a workday, depending on how you want to look at it.
Today, among other things, we are covering the death of Lianyong Wei just hours after he was taken into ICE custody, a young woman in Russia who was abducted and threatened with electric shocks after turning down a soldier, and protected migrants whom the Trump administration is deporting to countries they have absolutely no connection to.
There is also a Russian bot network using fake celebrity videos to interfere in the U.S. election campaign. Putin has suddenly discovered a fairer world order and is demanding more countries from the Global South on the UN Security Council, while preferring not to talk about Russia's own veto seat. And Revolut handed sensitive customer data directly to scammers after a fake government request apparently looked convincing enough.
Lianyong Wei Entered ICE Custody Alive - By the Next Morning, He Was Dead
Lianyong Wei was 51 years old when ICE took him into custody on Saipan on August 22. The next morning, an employee at the Northern Mariana Islands Department of Corrections found him unresponsive. Wei was taken to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead. To this day, the public knows little more about what happened that night. ICE has not disclosed whether Wei received a medical examination after intake, whether he reported any symptoms, or whether he showed signs of health problems. It also remains unknown when he was last seen responsive or what kind of monitoring took place during the night. The agency said Wei had been found unresponsive during the morning check. First aid was then provided before he was taken to the hospital. The cause of death is under investigation. Only a few hours passed between his arrival and his death, and the agency responsible for him during that time is the very agency that remains silent about what happened.
From the moment the cell door closed, Wei could no longer make his own decisions about medical care. He could not leave the facility, see a doctor of his choosing, or go somewhere else for help if his condition got worse. Whether anyone noticed warning signs, whether those signs were documented, and when someone last checked on him should all be reflected in the detention facility's records. Those records have not been made public. Then there is the strange handling of his death. Authorities in the Northern Mariana Islands announced it on August 24. ICE itself took more than 1 week. A federal agency takes a man into its custody, he dies just hours later, and the public initially learns about it from somewhere else.
Wei is at least the 5th Chinese national since March 2025 to die in the custody of ICE or U.S. Border Patrol. Since the beginning of 2025, dozens of deaths have also been recorded in ICE detention. Chinese consular officials are demanding a full investigation and the release of its findings. They are calling for support for Wei's family and measures to prevent another death like this. The public still does not have his medical records, the records from that night, or a final cause of death. Lianyong Wei was brought in alive. By the next morning, he was dead. What ICE did, failed to do, or noticed in the hours in between needs to be fully disclosed. Our investigation is continuing.
She Said No to a Soldier - 2 Days Later, Angelina Was Abducted and Threatened With Electric Shocks
Angelina did not want to get to know a strange man. Two days later, she was sitting in a car with a bag over her head being interrogated. On September 8, the young woman had encountered a man around 40 to 50 years old in military uniform in a parking lot in a major Russian border city. He wanted to get to know her and suggested they go for a drive somewhere. She turned him down. He then began examining her tattoos and claimed he had spotted "Nazi symbols" among them. Angelina denies that. She ended the conversation and later drove away. The man's car followed her for a while. She later wrote about the encounter in her private Telegram channel.
On September 10, several men were waiting in a parking lot near her gym. Two of them were wearing military uniforms and masks. They grabbed Angelina, shoved her into a car, and took her phone. A bag was put over her head. She believes they drove her out of the city. A man in civilian clothes reportedly introduced himself as an employee of a government agency and briefly showed her an ID card. Then the interrogation began. They claimed there had been a report that she planned to join the Freedom of Russia Legion. The men asked about possible connections to Ukraine and about her relatives. They also brought up details of her private life that Angelina said she had never made public.
Later, another man got into the vehicle. He threatened her with handcuffs and electric shocks if she did not talk. Angelina asked whether all of this had something to do with the man she had turned down 2 days earlier. She describes the men's reaction as laughter. Eventually, the car started moving again. They let Angelina out near her home, gave her phone back, and handed her 500 rubles for a taxi. They reportedly advised her not to go to the police. One no in a parking lot, 2 days later a bag over her head. In this Russia, even refusing to get acquainted with someone can suddenly end in an interrogation.
Trump Is Deporting Protected Migrants to Countries They Never Called Home
People who had already been granted protection in the United States from being sent back to countries where they faced persecution or torture were deported anyway. The Trump administration took a different route: It sent people to the Central African Republic, a country many of them had no connection to whatsoever. On June 11, 18 migrants were taken in restraints to the airport in Alexandria, Louisiana. Several reported being severely beaten. Two of them said that after refusing to board the deportation plane, they were placed in full-body restraints. A U.S. official denied the allegations of abuse. Some did not even know where they were being taken during the flight. One woman reportedly learned the destination only from the screen in front of her seat: Bangui, Central African Republic. Others had never even been to Africa before.
After they arrived, things hardly became any clearer. Those affected reported having little electricity and dealing with huge numbers of mosquitoes. Malaria was reportedly a constant risk, along with the fear of even leaving their accommodations. Their visas were only temporary. Nobody knew what would happen after that. Some continued to fear that they would eventually be sent back to the very countries U.S. courts had protected them from. That is exactly what makes this practice so harsh: A protection order blocks direct deportation to 1 dangerous country, while still allowing the government to send a person to another country willing to accept them.
How these agreements are reached remains largely hidden. U.S. diplomats traveled to the Central African Republic shortly before the first deportation flight. At the same time, U.S. funding for migration and aid programs there rose sharply: $85 million for programs run by the International Organization for Migration, plus another $50 million for the country's humanitarian fund. A direct connection between that money and the acceptance of deportees has not been established. The Trump administration has, however, now entered into more than 35 agreements with third countries and sent more than 23,000 people to 26 countries. Economic pressure and visa restrictions have reportedly been used, along with financial assistance. People who had to fight in U.S. courts to win protection from persecution can still be shipped off to a country they never chose and may not even have known existed.
Germany should stay alert when looking at images like these. The AfD now openly campaigns for "remigration" and a much tougher deportation policy; in Saxony-Anhalt, it has announced immediate deportations if it enters government. What has long since become government practice in the United States is already being offered here as a political program. The CDU/CSU is also showing increasingly troubling tendencies.
To be continued ...
Exposed: Russian Bot Network Interferes in U.S. Election Campaign - Fake Celebrities Attack Democrats
The Russian bot network "Matryoshka" has launched a campaign against the Democratic Party just weeks before the U.S. midterm elections. Researchers with the Bot Blocker project documented at least 16 manipulated videos within 2 days. At least 8 posts appeared on X, each containing 2 videos. In them, supposed U.S. celebrities tell Americans why they should not vote for Democrats on November 3. Footage of Alyson Hannigan and Eric Roberts was used. Jeri Ryan and Ed Begley Jr. also appear. Other videos feature Sarah Jessica Parker and Lea Thompson, as well as Melora Hardin and Christopher Lloyd. Julia Roberts was used too. All of the videos carry the logo of a major American news network that is often seen as politically sympathetic to Democrats. They also include hashtags for the midterm elections and the claim that all Democrats are criminals.
The fabricated statements go far. Democrats are called "pedophiles" and attacked over hormone treatments. Other videos claim they use children "for their own purposes." There are also attacks over support for the Ukrainian government, along with claims that Democrats promote abandoning family and faith. Individual candidates are targeted directly. Democratic Senate candidate Roy Cooper is falsely portrayed as wanting to bring another 15 million migrants into America. Almost every video follows the same basic sequence: A famous person supposedly "learns" something about Democrats and can no longer bring themselves to vote for them. At the end comes a call to spread the video and refuse to support the Democratic Party in the upcoming election.
According to the researchers, the accounts involved were traced to the "Matryoshka" network. Direct links to the posts are not being shared so the fakes do not gain even more reach. Behind "Matryoshka" is a Russian operation that pushes large amounts of fake content through coordinated bot accounts. Profiles pretend to be ordinary users or independent organizations and copy the language and behavior of the environment they claim to belong to. At the same time, identical content is pushed across different platforms. Logos from Western media outlets and human rights organizations are used to make the fakes look credible. The timing is hardly accidental: The House and Senate elections take place on November 3. Democrats currently have a strong chance of taking control of the House, while the Senate fight is tighter. Republican numbers are falling at the same time. Donald Trump even recently promised every adult American $5,000 if his party keeps both chambers. Now a Russian bot network is jumping into the mix as well, using stolen faces to tell voters who they are supposed to see as "pedophiles" and "criminals."
To be continued ...
Political Comedy From Moscow: Putin Suddenly Discovers a Fairer World Order and Wants More of the Global South on the UN Security Council
Vladimir Putin wants to expand the UN Security Council. At the 18th BRICS summit in New Delhi, the Russian president called for more seats for countries from Asia and Africa. Latin America should also have greater representation. According to Putin, attempts to contain rising geopolitical competitors are causing disruptions in the international system and weakening the effectiveness of multilateral institutions. Moscow, he said, attaches "exceptionally great importance" to preserving the central role of the United Nations in world affairs. Together with the other BRICS countries, Russia wants to work on improving the UN's effectiveness. Expanding the Security Council could help accomplish that.
Putin traveled to India on Friday for a 3-day working visit. The summit is taking place on September 12 and 13, and India holds the BRICS presidency in 2026. BRICS was founded in 2006 by Russia and China, along with India and Brazil. South Africa joined in 2011. Since the beginning of 2024, the group has expanded to include additional countries. That growing ambition is exactly what makes the demand for a changed UN Security Council politically interesting: An increasingly large part of the world is no longer willing to accept that permanent power there still largely reflects the order created after World War II.
Putin's demand is hardly new, however. BRICS has been talking for years about giving the Global South greater representation on the Security Council. In practical terms, very little has changed. The group can make demands and apply political pressure, but it cannot itself make binding decisions about the makeup of the Security Council. So once again in New Delhi, a big demand is sitting on the table while the seat being argued over remains exactly where it has been for decades. Putin just prefers not to talk about Russia's own veto seat.
To be continued ...
Revolut Handed Customer Data Directly to Scammers - After a Fake Government Request
Revolut handed personal customer data to scammers because their request looked like a letter from a government agency. The message even came from a real government email address and contained credentials that Revolut had previously verified. The bank initially saw nothing suspicious. So the requested documents were sent out. Only afterward did Revolut contact the agency that supposedly made the request. Nobody there knew anything about it.
Far more than names and addresses ended up in the wrong hands. Passports and driver's licenses were affected. Identification selfies were handed over as well. Dates of birth and email addresses were included. Phone numbers and international bank account numbers were also among the information disclosed. Even transaction histories were exposed, including information about Bitcoin activity. Revolut acknowledged the incident but stressed that its own systems had not been breached. Customer funds were not affected either. That is probably pretty thin comfort for people whose identity documents are now in the hands of criminals.
Revolut did not disclose how many customers were affected. According to the company, all affected customers were notified. The crypto investigator known as ZachXBT currently believes the scale of the leak was limited. In his assessment, the scammers appear to have targeted particularly wealthy Revolut customers. Technically, they did not have to hack the bank's software. All they needed was a convincing government request with genuine credentials - and a bank that waited until after handing over the data to ask whether the government agency had actually sent the request.
