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Sasha Chavkin Profile picture
Sasha Chavkin
@sashachavkin
Senior reporter covering the food industry @examinationnews. Also @Rainforest_RIN Fellow hosted by @AP. Past: Ted Scripps Fellow, reporter @ICIJorg.
Apr 3 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
NEW: The food industry is capitalizing on the anti-diet movement, a social media juggernaut that often disputes the health risks linked to obesity

Our @examinationnews investigation in partnership with @washingtonpost
theexamination.org/articles/as-ob… Cereal giant General Mills is leading the way.

The company is funding research on “food shaming,” using anti-diet arguments to fight federal regulation, and showering giveaways on influencers who tout its cereals with the slogan #DerailtheShame
washingtonpost.com/wellness/2024/…
Sep 13, 2023 • 7 tweets • 3 min read
NEW: The multi-billion dollar food industry is shaping the eating habits of a new generation by paying dietitians to push products and messages on social media.

Our investigation for the launch of @examinationnews, in partnership with @washingtonpost
theexamination.org/articles/the-f… Dietitians are trusted health professionals.

But industry has paid dietitian influencers for posts encouraging viewers to eat more sugar & candy, or use unproven supplements - messages that run counter to decades of scientific evidence
washingtonpost.com/wellness/2023/…
Nov 2, 2021 • 9 tweets • 4 min read
More than 100 world leaders are pledging at #COP26 to end deforestation by 2030.

It’s a bold promise, but one that so far doesn’t address a crucial element of the threat to forests exposed in our @OCCRP investigation yesterday: state corruption (thread)
occrp.org/en/investigati… First, the good news: leaders of countries representing 85% of forests are promising action, backed by more than $19 billion in funding

That includes Brazil, Indonesia and the DRC, which are home to most of the world’s rainforests
bbc.com/news/science-e…
Nov 1, 2021 • 9 tweets • 5 min read
NEW: Nicaragua is losing its forests faster than any other country in the world – an ecological disaster fueled by corruption in its forestry agency & enabled by the ruling Ortega family

A thread on our @OCCRP investigation w @MiamiHerald @mongabay & more
occrp.org/en/investigati… First, some background:

If you've read about Nicaragua this year, it's probably about how dictator Daniel Ortega is violently crushing opposition ahead of this week's election.

@60Minutes gave an overview last night:
cbsnews.com/news/nicaragua…
Dec 14, 2020 • 7 tweets • 3 min read
More fallout from #ParadisePapers: a 150+ page report from the Commerce Dept inspector general reveals it investigated Wilbur Ross for years after the project's revelations in Nov 2017.

It found that he breached federal ethics rules in several ways...

oig.doc.gov/OIGPublication… The findings include glaring omissions in his financial disclosures.

Our story below for @ICIJorg found that Ross retained a stake in Navigator Holdings, a shipping company that did business w Putin cronies, through a chain of offshore entities.

icij.org/investigations…
Sep 23, 2020 • 14 tweets • 11 min read
The new @ICIJorg investigation - #FinCENFiles - is making waves across Latinamerica.

From Mexico to Argentina, our partners have revealed the shady payments that flowed through banks in the region.

Here is a thread of #FinCENFiles stories in Latinamerica. In Colombia, iconic artist Fernando Botero received $500k from a shell company linked to Odebrecht and its bribery division.

Botero isn't under suspicion... but what did Odebrecht want with his art?

@ConnectasOrg has the story:

connectas.org/arte-sin-rastr…
Sep 21, 2020 • 7 tweets • 5 min read
Cómo los bancos ayudaron a los “Boliburgueses” venezolanos a sacar fortunas del país

Nueva investigación #FinCENFiles con @Pmarcano11 @TamoaC @KevinGHall y otros mas muestra cómo miles de millones de dólares de recursos públicos se esfumaron de Venezuela

infobae.com/america/venezu… Los #FInCENFiles revelan 4 mil 800 millones de dólares en transacciones sospechosas relacionadas con Venezuela. Casi 70% de este monto involucró recursos públicos Image
Sep 21, 2020 • 6 tweets • 4 min read
BREAKING: Venezuelan tycoons with close ties to the Maduro regime moved vast sums of public money out of the country - and banks in Europe and the US helped them do it.

Our #FInCENFiles investigation w @ArmandoInfo @UnivisionNews @MiamiHerald & more
icij.org/investigations… The #FinCENFiles reveal $4.8 billion in suspicious transactions linked to Venezuela, nearly 70 percent of which involved public money.

“What happened was really the sacking of a country,” former anti-corruption prosecutor @MundarayZair told us Image
Sep 20, 2020 • 7 tweets • 4 min read
BREAKING: New ICIJ project #FinCENFiles reveals the world's biggest banks defied money laundering crackdowns to move staggering sums of dirty money for criminals and corrupt regimes (1/x)

icij.org/investigations… The project, the largest collaboration in ICIJ history, is based on 1000s of secret bank reports to US authorities obtained by @BuzzFeedNews.

It reveals the complete and systemic failure of the global anti-money laundering regime

icij.org/investigations…
Aug 4, 2020 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
New #ImplantFiles:

The makers of Essure systematically failed to report injury complaints to the FDA, allege plaintiffs in recently unsealed court documents

icij.org/investigations… The documents include a statistical analysis by experts who reviewed more than 5k complaints, and conclude:

24% should have been reported to the FDA, but only 5.5% were actually reported

89% were noncompliant in some way with FDA rules

icij.org/investigations…
May 18, 2020 • 6 tweets • 3 min read
New: Worker safety program slashes rates of deadly kidney disease afflicting sugarcane workers by half

Some good news about a lethal international epidemic, with lessons for Covid-19 (thread)

icij.org/investigations… I've covered CKD among tropical workers for a decade now, and it's one of the most awful diseases I've seen - taking young, healthy workers from the poorest communities & draining the life out of them.

Its causes have baffled scientists for years...

icij.org/investigations…
May 4, 2020 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
New: We rounded up the unproven and sometimes dangerous COVID-19 treatments being disseminated around the world.

“We’re in the Wild West in terms of the public susceptibility to unsafe, unproven drugs or tests," @LawrenceGostin told us

icij.org/blog/2020/05/i… The story reinforced one of the biggest lessons from ICIJ's #ImplantFiles investigation:

However urgent the need, untested medicine places patients at risk and is ripe for abuse by industry and politicians

icij.org/investigations…
Nov 24, 2019 • 6 tweets • 3 min read
NEW: ICIJ's #ChinaCables investigation reveals the chilling operations manual behind China's mass internment camps in Xinjiang
icij.org/investigations… The internment camp manual, along with bulletins giving directions for sweeping up citizens without judicial proceedings using a predictive policing app, offer an terrifying inside view of 21st century totalitarianism
icij.org/investigations…
Nov 13, 2019 • 12 tweets • 7 min read
Covering today’s FDA hearing on immune responses to metal-containing devices for ⁦@ICIJorg⁩. The hearing will address Essure, metal hips, dental implants & more, but will focus on larger question of risks from metals that can cause immunological reactions Image @ICIJorg Risk of corrosion in metal devices is tested in labs (in vitro) and commonly used metals like titanium and cobalt do well, says Dr. David Saylor of the FDA. But in vitro tests don't capture mechanical stress or inflammatory responses, and far less data on corrosion in the body
Sep 24, 2019 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
One element of the Trump Ukraine story that the media needs to make clearer: there's no evidence whatsoever that Joe Biden did anything wrong. Here's Fox News' Shep Smith explaining this
None of the main accusations against Biden hold up to scrutiny: the prosecutor Biden wanted dismissed was widely believed not to be tackling corruption, his probe of the company where Biden's son was on the board was already dormant when Biden made his recommendation, etc etc
Jul 26, 2019 • 5 tweets • 5 min read
The US just sanctioned businessman Alex Saab for "wide-scale corruption" in food programs meant to help the Venezuelan people. The news shows the power of investigative journalism - and the courage of ICIJ members @jopoliszuk @Ewalds6 (thread)
nytimes.com/2019/07/25/wor… @jopoliszuk @Ewalds6 Their outlet @ArmandoInfo published stories showing that Saab, working w cronies in senior posts in the Maduro regime, were ripping off food programs even as children in Venezuela were dying of hunger. Here's one of their stories
armando.info/Reportajes/Res…
Jul 24, 2019 • 5 tweets • 3 min read
We've updated our story on today's major #ImplantFiles news of Allergan's global recall of Biocell implants. Here are few important points we added after hearing from the FDA & other experts (thread)...
icij.org/investigations… A key factor in FDA's decision was a recent surge of BIA-ALCL death reports, from 9 deaths in February to 33 today. Almost 2/3 of the 33 deaths were outside the US. In other words, an influx of new reports from outside US (not clear where) was crucial
fda.gov/medical-device…
Jun 26, 2019 • 6 tweets • 4 min read
New ICIJ investigation #BriberyDivision reveals undiscovered payments across Latin America made by Odebrecht's bribery unit. Here's what 50+ journalists across the Americas found in Odebrecht's secret files... 🧐
icij.org/investigations… In the Dominican Republic, we found over $39 million in payments linked to the Punta Catalina power plant, despite two official investigations that found no evidence of corruption. ICIJ all-star @AliciaOrtegah uncovers what Dominican prosecutors couldn't
noticiassin.com/filtracion-rev…
Apr 5, 2019 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
Today is the last day of @SGottliebFDA's very eventful two year tenure as FDA Commissioner. We've covered the FDA closely during that time for the #ImplantFiles, and I had a few thoughts on his departure...
nytimes.com/2019/04/04/hea… For one thing, I was very glad to cover an agency that responded to investigative journalism by trying to fix the problems, rather than lashing out at the media. That kept the focus where it belongs - on the public interest & patient health and safety
Mar 28, 2019 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
Latest from the #ImplantFiles - The FDA says it will disclose information on millions of medical device complications buried for nearly two decades under "alternative summary reporting." Big win for patients & transparency
icij.org/investigations… There are also some limitations. The FDA will disclose past and future summary reports, which condense large numbers of incidents into one submission. That's not the same as individual reports of each incident. We're looking into the details & will share as we know more
Mar 26, 2019 • 7 tweets • 3 min read
Our latest #ImplantFiles story reveals that the FDA kept hundreds of thousands of breast implant incident reports out of public sight. It also raises some pretty basic questions about a major FDA program called alternative summary reporting (thread)
icij.org/investigations… Alternative summary reporting is a program that lets medical device makers report many adverse events in non-public quarterly summaries. At least 1.1 million incidents were kept from public view by ASR since 2016, @By_CJewett revealed this month
khn.org/news/hidden-fd…