内容摘要：In 2024, Trump hinged his pitch for re-election on an appeal to working-class voters, including those in the Rust Belt region, a manufacturing hub that has declined in the face of the shifting industry trends and greater overseas competition.

In 2024, Trump hinged his pitch for re-election on an appeal to working-class voters, including those in the Rust Belt region, a manufacturing hub that has declined in the face of the shifting industry trends and greater overseas competition.

The investigation reveals how these gangs have turned Western sanctions meant to target Zimbabwe’s government into an opportunity to smuggle large quantities of gold and launder hundreds of millions of dollars through a complex web of companies and bribes.Al Jazeera reporters, posing as Chinese nationals who were looking to launder large sums of money, were offered several ways to remove all stains of corruption from their dirty cash.

Among those mechanisms was the use of Angel’s diplomatic clout. Officially, the pastor-diplomat is tasked with finding investors to come to Zimbabwe. However, Angel made it clear that he was willing to help smuggle gold and launder money.Zimbabwe needs dollars because the country’s own currency has lost its value in international trade due to hyperinflation. A commodity like gold is a good way to earn dollars, but international sanctions imposed on the country make it difficult for the government to export gold because of the additional scrutiny on officials in power.“So you have to figure out other ways to do that,” Karen Greenaway, a former FBI investigator who tracks international money laundering schemes, told Al Jazeera. One way around: individual gold miners, who don’t face those restrictions.

This scenario makes Zimbabwe fertile ground for money launderers who can help the country earn dollars in exchange for gold.The president’s niece

Central to Angel’s gold-for-dirty money operations is Henrietta Rushwaya, president of the Zimbabwe Miners Association. Rushwaya, who is also President Mnangagwa’s niece, told Angel and the reporters on a phone call that smuggling 100kg of gold each week would be no problem.

The scheme would need an initial investment of $10mn of dirty cash into the government’s gold refinery, Fidelity. Of that, $5mn would be held in reserve by Fidelity for the duration of the scam, with the rest being used every week to buy gold."And if you had water, you would also need electricity or a fuel source, which have both been completely cut off entirely from Gaza," he said.

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) is a newly established, US- and Israeli-approved organisation that is distributing food to Palestinians in Gaza. The organisation has already been marred with delays and difficulties, with the United Nations saying the group does not have the ability to deal with the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza, following Israel’s three-month blockade of supplies into the besieged Strip.Under increasing pressure to lift the blockade on Gaza and allow essential supplies in, Israel has attempted to present a solution by distributing aid via the US-backed GHF. However, Jake Wood, a US military veteran overseeing the organisation, has already resigned, saying it would not be able to fulfil the principles of "humanity, neutrality, impartiality, and independence".

The GHF “restricts aid to only one part of Gaza while leaving other dire needs unmet”, UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher said at the Security Council last week. “It makes aid conditional on political and military aims. It makes starvation a bargaining chip. It is a cynical sideshow. A deliberate distraction. A fig leaf for further violence and displacement.”The UN and other humanitarian organisations have refused to work with the GHF on the basis that it would compromise values and put their teams and those receiving aid at risk. They have said the GHF can be used by Israel to forcibly displace the population by requiring them to move near a few distribution hubs or else face starvation. The UN has also opposed the use of facial recognition to vet those receiving aid.