The FBI sprang into motion inside hours of the New York Put up reaching out to Hunter Biden for touch upon his scandalous laptop computer, pressuring Twitter’s prime watchdog to launch non-existent data on international hacking and warning social media executives, with out proof, that the laptop computer’s discovery was a part of a Russian “hack and leak” operation.
That’s a key discovering of the newest installment of Elon Musk’s “Twitter Information” revealed Monday by unbiased journalist Michael Shellenberger, who experiences that then-Twitter Head of Website Integrity Yoel Roth was prepped on censoring The Put up’s exposé by attending a “tabletop train” on hacked supplies, organized and attended by media elites.
The inner Twitter paperwork launched Monday present that an FBI agent contacted Roth hours earlier than The Put up printed its Oct. 14, 2020 piece about Hunter Biden’s questionable abroad enterprise dealings. That was lower than a month earlier than the election pitting Hunter’s dad, Joe Biden, towards incumbent President Donald Trump.
FBI San Francisco Particular Agent Elvis Chan despatched 10 paperwork to Roth and at the least one different particular person on the evening of Oct. 13, 2020, by way of a particular one-way communications channel, based on unbiased journalist Michael Shellenberger. Chan requested Roth and his colleagues to substantiate they’d obtained the paperwork.
Questions have been raised on what the FBI instructed Twitter about The Put up’s Hunter Biden story.
Roughly two-and-a-half hours earlier, Shellenberger went on, Hunter Biden lawyer George Mesires had known as and emailed Delaware pc restore store proprietor John Paul Mac Isaac after studying from The Put up that the primary article primarily based on information recovered from the deserted laptop computer can be printed the following day.
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“I’m a lawyer for Hunter Biden and I recognize you reviewing your information on this matter,” Mesires wrote to Mac Isaac.
It’s not clear what was within the paperwork Chan emailed to Roth, who performed a key function in suppressing The Put up’s bombshell.
However the timing is uncanny and, as Shellenberger reported, Chan’s motion was in step with a bigger effort by the FBI to squelch speech on the platform within the title of guarding towards “international interference in elections.”
Unbiased journalist Michael Shellenberger revealed that the feds primed Twitter execs to dismiss experiences of Hunter Biden’s laptop computer as a “Russian ‘hack and leak’ operation.” Twitter/@ShellenbergerMD
Unbiased journalist Michael Shellenberger revealed that the feds primed Twitter execs to dismiss experiences of Hunter Biden’s laptop computer as a “Russian ‘hack and leak’ operation.” Twitter/@ShellenbergerMD
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Unbiased journalist Michael Shellenberger revealed that the feds primed Twitter execs to dismiss experiences of Hunter Biden’s laptop computer as a “Russian ‘hack and leak’ operation.” Twitter/@ShellenbergerMD
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In July 2020, Chan had organized “for momentary Prime Secret safety clearances for Twitter executives in order that the FBI can share details about threats to the upcoming elections,” Shellenberger wrote, as he printed a screenshot of the FBI agent’s e-mail to Roth in regards to the association.
Roth mentioned three months later in a sworn declaration that the feds had primed him to dismiss experiences of the soon-to-be first son’s laptop computer as a “Russian ‘hack and leak’ operation,” however Chan later admitted underneath oath that the warnings have been overblown, Shellenberger wrote on Twitter Monday.
“By our investigations, we didn’t see any related competing intrusions to what had occurred in 2016,” Chan mentioned in a sworn deposition final month in reference to a lawsuit filed by Missouri and Louisiana alleging the federal authorities and Biden administration leaned on social media firms to suppress speech.
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Chan additionally insisted that nobody had talked about Hunter Biden’s laptop computer to him earlier than The Put up broke the story and that he had not mentioned it with anybody at Twitter.
Atone for Twitter’s censorship of The Put up’s Hunter Biden laptop computer story
Inner paperwork printed by Shellenberger revealed that Roth had pushed again towards Chan’s considerations of international election meddling within the months earlier than the 2020 contest, and “resisted FBI efforts to get Twitter to share knowledge outdoors of the traditional search warrant course of” early that 12 months.
Roth responded to a Chan inquiry about an NBC report of foreign-controlled bots spreading misinformation a few purported authorities communications blackout amid civil rights protests in Washington DC in June of that 12 months.
“We haven’t seen something to help that declare. Our assessment to date exhibits a small-scale home troll effort that was amplified in some inventive methods by actual folks – however not a major bot or international angle,” Roth wrote to the agent on June 2, based on Shellenberger.
On Aug. 31, Roth instructed Chan that there was no proof to help a Washington Put up story that made “numerous insinuations about international interference” on political messaging on the platform.
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The FBI continued to “repeatedly” request data from Twitter that firm executives refused to volunteer, earlier than arranging for the Prime Secret safety clearances, emails launched within the knowledge dump revealed.
Hunter Biden lawyer George Mesires had known as and emailed Delaware pc restore store proprietor John Paul Mac Isaac after studying in regards to the Put up story. Twitter/@ShellenbergerMD
Twitter’s former Head of Website Integrity Yoel Roth made a sworn declaration that the FBI had alerted Twitter in regards to the Hunter Biden report. Twitter/@ShellenbergerMD
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Invoice from the Delaware laptop computer restore store addressed to Hunter Biden. Twitter/@ShellenbergerMD
The Put up printed its first exposé about Hunter Biden’s questionable abroad enterprise dealings in October 2020.
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Three months earlier than the election, Chan shared data with Roth “referring to the Russian hacking group, APT28,” and in September Roth “participated in an Aspen Institute “tabletop train” on a possible “Hack-and-Dump” operation referring to Hunter Biden,” Shellenberger wrote.
“The aim was to form how the media lined it — and the way social media carried it,” the writer mentioned.
It was organized, experiences Shellenberger, by Vivian Schiller, a former prime government at media organizations comparable to NPR, the New York Occasions and NBC Information, along with Twitter. Attendees included Fb’s head of safety coverage and the highest nationwide safety reporters for The Occasions and the Washington Put up, Shellenberger said.
The paperwork have been launched as a part of Twitter proprietor Musk’s efforts to drag again the curtain on how the social community has dealt with high-profile content material moderation choices, together with banning then-President Donald Trump after his supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Over the previous two weeks, Musk has been releasing inside paperwork to a handpicked group of journalists who’re digging by way of them and posting excerpts on Twitter.
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Musk and his allies promote these tweet threads — dubbed the “Twitter Information” — as bombshell revelations proving that Twitter deliberately muzzled conservatives due to their political beliefs.
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
India’s former prime minister Manmohan Singh, who liberalised the economy and then led the country through a period of strong economic growth, has died.
Singh, 92, was being treated for age-related medical conditions, the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi said, as it announced his death on Thursday.
The Oxford university-educated economist set India on a path to becoming a fast-growing economy as finance minister from 1991 to 1996, when he opened up the country to more foreign trade and private investment.
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Considered a political lightweight by some in India at that time, Singh was a surprise choice by the Congress party to be prime minister after it won parliamentary elections in 2004.
Alongside a growth rate of almost 7 per cent, Singh’s decade as premier was marred by allegations of widespread corruption against his party’s leaders, although his personal integrity was rarely questioned.
Singh was accused of inaction and opposition parties claimed he was subservient to Congress’s chief at that time, Sonia Gandhi.
Shortly before Congress lost elections to Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata party in 2014, Singh said in a speech to parliament that “history would be kinder to me than the contemporary media, or for that matter opposition parties”.
Prime Minister Modi on Thursday described Singh as one of India’s most distinguished leaders, saying he left a “strong imprint on our economic policy over the years” and had “made extensive efforts to improve people’s lives” as premier.
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Rahul Gandhi, a senior member of the Congress party, paid tribute to Singh, saying he had lost a “mentor and guide” whose “humility and deep understanding of economics inspired the nation”.
A member of parliament for more than three decades, Singh retired from active politics earlier this year.
The mild-mannered Singh, who belonged to India’s minority Sikh community, was born to a humble family in 1932 in a village in India’s Punjab prior to the country’s independence, which is now part of Pakistan.
Singh rose to become one of India’s most successful economists, serving the government in various capacities, including as head of the country’s central bank in the 1980s.
Tom Homan, President-elect Trump’s “border czar,” floated the idea of putting the children of illegal immigrants in halfway homes as part of the incoming administration’s mass deportation plan.
“As far as U.S. children — children, that’s going to be a difficult situation, because we’re not going to detain your U.S. citizen children, which means, you know, they’re going to be put in a halfway house,” Homan told NewsNation on Thursday, The Hill reported
.CALIFORNIA GOV. NEWSOM’S TEAM CONSIDERING WAYS TO HELP ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS AHEAD OF SECOND TRUMP ADMIN: REPORT
Incoming Trump ‘border czar’ Tom Homan speaks with Fox News.(Fox News)
“They can — or they can stay at home and wait for the officers to get the travel arrangements and come back to get the family,” he added.
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As part of his plan to address the border crisis, Trump has said he plans to deport large numbers of illegal immigrants.
One of the administration’s priorities will be to find the hundreds of thousands of migrant children unaccounted for in the United States.
MIGRANT CRIME WAVE DURING BIDEN-HARRIS ADMIN UNDER SCRUTINY AMID SERIES OF ASSAULTS, MURDERS: A TIMELINE
“We’re going to ask the American people to take notice: see something, say something and contact us,” Holman told Kellyanne Conway on “Hannity.” “If one phone call out of a thousand saves a child from sex trafficking or forced labor, then that’s one life saved.”
Homan acknowledged it would be a “daunting task,” but “we’re going to give it everything we’ve got.”
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During his interview with NewsNation, Homan said giving birth to children born in the U.S. won’t spare illegal immigrants from being deported.
“Having a U.S. citizen child does not make you immune to our laws, and that’s not the message we want to send to the whole world, that you can have a child and you’re immune to the laws of this country,” Homan said.
Migrants line up outside a migrant re-ticketing center at St. Brigid School on E. 7th St. Friday, Jan. 5, 2024, in Manhattan, New York City. (Barry Williams/New York Daily News/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)(Barry Williams/New York Daily News/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
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In addition to mass deportations, Trump has threatened to go after birthright citizenship, which automatically grants American citizenship to those born in the country.
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
Finnish authorities are investigating an oil tanker that is part of Russia’s shadow fleet over whether it cut an electricity cable between Finland and Estonia.
The Eagle S was stopped by Finnish authorities after the Estlink 2 subsea electricity cable in the Gulf of Finland was disconnected on Wednesday. The tanker, which is registered in the Cook Islands and is carrying oil from Russia to Egypt according to ship tracking data, was seen passing over the cable at the time of the incident.
The aged tanker is part of Russia’s shadow fleet and is the focus of Finland’s investigation, according to people familiar with the probe. The Eagle S is also under investigation over whether it cut three communications cables in the Gulf of Finland, the people added.
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The shadow fleet is a group of old and often poorly maintained ships used by Russia to circumvent international sanctions on its oil exports.
The Christmas Day incident appears to be the latest in a series of pipelines and cables being targeted in the Baltic Sea by foreign vessels, sparking fears of deliberate attacks on critical infrastructure between Nato countries.
“We must be able to prevent the risks posed by ships belonging to the Russian shadow fleet,” said Finland’s President Alexander Stubb in a post on X after a meeting with security chiefs on Thursday.
Last year a Chinese container ship, the Newnew Polar Bear, cut a gas pipeline between Finland and Estonia but was not stopped by authorities as it was in international waters.
A Chinese bulk carrier, the Yi Peng 3, last month passed over two data cables between Finland and Germany and Sweden and Lithuania about the times they were severed. It stopped for a month in international waters between Denmark and Sweden.
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Chinese investigators finally boarded the ship last week, with Swedish, Danish, German and Finnish representatives present as observers. But Sweden’s foreign minister criticised Beijing for not allowing the lead Swedish investigator to board or to inspect the vessel, which has now left the region.
The Eagle S case is different as the ship voluntarily stopped inside Finnish waters, according to people familiar with the investigation, leaving no question as to jurisdiction. Ownership of the Eagle S is murky but it appears to be the only vessel owned by a Dubai company. Attempts to reach the owner on Thursday were unsuccessful.
Authorities have not determined the cause of the disconnection of the Estlink 2 cable. Estonia has also said it will not affect its electricity supply. The cable is used to export electricity from Finland, which recently brought its latest nuclear power plant online, to Estonia.
Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo said the country’s electricity supply would not be affected.
Finnish authorities are keeping an open mind on the latest incident, not least because dozens of poorly maintained vessels in the shadow fleet sail in the Baltic Sea.
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Environmental campaigners have issued repeated warnings about the dangers in the region and elsewhere of the dilapidated vessels.
In the Mediterranean, a Russian cargo ship under US sanctions for working with the Russian military sank between Spain and Algeria on Tuesday.
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