Event: Colombian

AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTYou have a preview view of this article while we are checking your access. When we have confirmed access, the full article content will load.Gold is viewed as a safe place for people to park their money during unstable times. But it can also be its own engine of instability. When the price climbs high enough, all sorts of sketchy characters are drawn into a shadowy industry where laundering illegally mined gold into legal bullion is as simple as melting and mixing it.And when the price is as high as it is today — almost $5,000 an ounce — even the most prestigious players in the gold industry can get sucked into indirectly doing business with drug dealers and dictators. Today, my colleague Justin Scheck writes about the remarkable investigation he and other colleagues published this week, on how the U.S. and Canadian mints ended up buying gold that comes from a Colombian drug cartel.ImageCredit...Federico Rios for The New York TimesWhy the U.S. Mint buys drug cartel goldBy Justin ScheckAt this point, we’re 25 years into a gold frenzy.It’s fanned by media personalities like Tucker Carlson — who is now selling gold — and by more staid institutions like central banks and big investment managers in wealthy countries. They’re selling to customers who are all buying for essentially the same reason. They’re afraid everything else — stocks, bonds, even dollars — might lose value in the face of various forms of instability, like war or terror attacks.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe.Related ContentAdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENT

AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTYou have a preview view of this article while we are checking your access. When we have confirmed access, the full article content will load.Have a Canadian Great-Great Grandparent? It Could Make You Canadian.Canada has opened a route to citizenship for people who can prove they have a Canada-born ancestor. Millions could qualify, and Americans are already lining up to apply.A citizenship ceremony for new Canadians last year in Montreal.Credit...Andrej Ivanov/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesApril 27, 2026Ellen Arthur, a 79-year-old retired family lawyer in Lexington, Va., has decades of experience digging up personal records for her clients. But surfacing a century-old baptismal ledger kept by a Catholic church in Montreal, where her mother was born, was a first.That dusty old record is what Ms. Arthur is leaning on to seek Canadian citizenship for her two adult sons.They are among thousands of Americans using a new stipulation in Canada’s citizenship rules that came into effect in December, under which people who can prove a direct Canada-born ancestor — a grandparent, great-grandparent, or someone even further back — can officially become Canadian.Ms. Arthur had already been eligible for citizenship as the daughter of a Canada-born Canadian, but had not pursued it. Under the old policy, known as the first-generation rule, her sons would not have been able to inherit citizenship because neither she, nor they, were born in Canada.Now, the access to being Canadian can theoretically stretch generations back, if one can prove they are a direct descendant of someone born in Canada.And while the process is bureaucratic and Ms. Arthur’s case has been stalled by clerical and administrative hiccups, it is already attracting hopeful Canadians, most from the United States.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your…

AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTYou have a preview view of this article while we are checking your access. When we have confirmed access, the full article content will load.We ended up in a Colombian mine controlled by a drug cartel.This illegal mine near Caucasia, Colombia, sells gold into the Royal Canadian Mint’s supply chain.Credit...Federico Rios for The New York TimesApril 27, 2026In the shadowy global gold industry, where terrorists, drug dealers and dictators launder illegally mined gold into the mainstream market, one major supplier says buyers can count on its product to be clean and ethically sourced.The Royal Canadian Mint says it can trace all of its gold back to its origins, with cutting-edge technologies including a Bitcoin-like software it calls Bullion Genesis. The Mint, which is backed by the Canadian government, assures buyers that it does not refine gold linked to “illegitimate nonstate armed groups.”“It’s all North American, predominantly Canada,” the Mint’s refining chief, Rob Sargent, said in an interview.But what the Canadians call North American includes gold from a swirl of faraway sources — including Colombian mines controlled by the Clan del Golfo drug cartel.A New York Times investigation recently showed that Canada’s counterpart in Washington, the United States Mint, has been buying gold that originated in a cartel mine.But unlike the Americans, who have gone decades without tracking their gold supplies, the Canadians have known that they were getting it from a country where cocaine trafficking, paramilitary violence and the gold trade are intertwined.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe.Related ContentAdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENT

AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTUnited’s chief acknowledged for the first time that he had broached the idea of a merger with American, which was unwilling to consider it.Scott Kirby, chief of United Airlines, said a merger with American Airlines would have generated significant economic benefits for the United States.Credit...Patrick T. Fallon/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesApril 27, 2026The chief executive of United Airlines said on Monday that the carrier was ending an attempt to negotiate a merger with American Airlines that would have created the world’s largest carrier by far.In a statement on Monday, United’s chief, Scott Kirby, acknowledged for the first time that he had broached a merger, which he claimed would have generated significant economic benefits for the United States. But, Mr. Kirby said, American was unwilling to entertain his idea. After reports surfaced this month that Mr. Kirby had floated the proposal to President Trump, American shot down the prospect of a merger.“I was confident that this combination, which would have been about adding and not subtracting, creating a truly great airline that customers love, could get regulatory approval,” said Mr. Kirby, who was a senior executive at American before joining United. “I was hoping to pitch that story to American, but they declined to engage and instead responded by publicly closing the door. And without a willing partner, something this big simply can’t get done.”ImageMr. Kirby used to be a senior executive at American before he joined United. He is standing near American’s chief executive, Robert Isom, in this picture.Credit...Kevin Dietsch/Getty ImagesThe combination would have helped to close what Mr. Kirby described as a “trade deficit” with foreign airlines, which he said carried a disproportionate share of Americans flying to the United States from far-flung destinations, he said.In its statement this month, American said: “While changes in the broader airline…