David Kenner

2 weeks ago | icij.org | David Kenner

Over the past two years, the Med Sea Eagle has become a floating symbol of the lawlessness and impunity that have dogged commercial shipping on the high seas. The cargo ship’s then-owners abandoned it in June 2023, and conditions grew so dire that one crew member attempted suicide. Then, last summer, a company that chartered the Med Sea Eagle allegedly bribed its crew to deliver high-speed boats and “military tactical” vehicles to Libya, according to leaked emails written by the ship’s owner.

1 month ago | icij.org | David Kenner

A case that the Justice Department has described as one of the largest tax evasion prosecutions in U.S. history culminated on Wednesday with businessman Douglas Edelman pleading guilty in a Washington courtroom to conspiracy and making false statements to U.S. authorities, along with several other criminal charges.

2 months ago | inkyfada.com | David Kenner

Last spring, a Cameroonian-flagged cargo ship, the Barbaros, steamed through Istanbul’s Bosphorus Strait. The Barbaros had begun its journey in Russia and was en route to a port in eastern Libya controlled by a warlord whose forces have been accused of crimes against humanity by a U.N. fact-finding mission. Click here to access the original story on the ICIJ website.

Mar 13, 2025 | icij.org | David Kenner

Last spring, a Cameroonian-flagged cargo ship, the Barbaros, steamed through Istanbul’s Bosphorus Strait. The Barbaros had begun its journey in Russia and was en route to a port in eastern Libya controlled by a warlord whose forces have been accused of crimes against humanity by a U.N. fact-finding mission. As the Barbaros crossed the Bosphorus in April, an eagle-eyed observer — Yörük Işık, who runs a consultancy analyzing maritime activity on the strait — got a view of its cargo.

Feb 13, 2025 | icij.org | David Kenner |Sam Ellefson

Investigative news organizations across the globe are scrambling to survive and fearing a backlash from authoritarian regimes following the Trump administration’s foreign assistance freeze and other moves to dismantle the U.S. Agency for International Development. The United States allocated $268 million in 2025 to support independent media and the free flow of information. A USAID fact sheet from 2023 that was on its website before the site went dark on Feb.