onthedarkside

UPDATE: Twitter Fails to Remove Hate Speech by Blue-Check Users: Report Twitter is failing to remove 99 percent of hate speech posted by Twitter Blue users, new research has found, and instead may be boosting paid accounts that spew racism and homophobia. Researchers at the Center For Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) flagged hate speech to the company in tweets from 100 Twitter Blue subscribers. Four days later, they say, 99 percent of the tweets were still up and none of the accounts had been removed. The tweets, which included examples of neo-Nazism, antisemitism, racism, and homophobia, violate Twitter’s own hate speech policies, the researchers say. READ MORE https://www.thedailybeast.com/twitter-fails-to-remove-hate-speech-by-blue-check-users-says-report-from-center-for-countering-digital-hate

Governor JB Pritzker is expected to sign a bill that would make Illinois the first state to legislate to end book bans – by punishing publicly-funded institutions that attempt to censor in that way. A bill is on Pritzker’s desk after passing the state legislature that would block essential state funding for public libraries and public schools in Illinois that ban books. Only libraries in the state that adhere to the American Library Association’s Library Bill of Rights, which states that reading materials should not be removed or restricted because of partisan or personal disapproval, or develop a written statement prohibiting the practice of banning books within a library system will continue to get its state funding. READ MORE https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/may/30/illinois-book-bans-bill-libraries-schools

WASHINGTON - Donald Trump has turned on another former loyalist, this time former White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany. "The RINOS & Globalists can have her. FoxNews should only use REAL Stars!!!" Trump said late Tuesday on his Truth Social website, drawing criticism from conservatives who have normally been sympathetic to the uber-aggressive former president. "He’s completely unhinged," tweeted Marc Thiessen, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a Washington Post columnist and a Fox News commentator who has also drawn Trump's wrath. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2023/05/31/donald-trump-attacks-kayleigh-mcenany/70272269007/ https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/110460432234131249

Federal prosecutors have obtained an audio recording of a summer 2021 meeting in which former President Donald Trump acknowledges he held onto a classified Pentagon document about a potential attack on Iran, multiple sources told CNN, undercutting his argument that he declassified everything. The recording indicates Trump understood he retained classified material after leaving the White House, according to multiple sources familiar with the investigation. On the recording, Trump’s comments suggest he would like to share the information but he’s aware of limitations on his ability post-presidency to declassify records, two of the sources said. READ MORE https://edition.cnn.com/2023/05/31/politics/trump-tape-classified-document-iran-milley/index.html

The special counsel investigating former President Donald J. Trump’s efforts to cling to power after he lost the 2020 election has subpoenaed staff members from the Trump White House who may have been involved in firing the government cybersecurity official whose agency judged the election “the most secure in American history,” according to two people briefed on the matter. The team led by the special counsel, Jack Smith, has been asking witnesses about the events surrounding the firing of Christopher Krebs, who was the Trump administration’s top cybersecurity official during the 2020 election. Mr. Krebs’s assessment that the election was secure was at odds with Mr. Trump’s baseless assertions that it was a “fraud on the American public.” READ MORE https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/31/us/politics/trump-aides-subpoenaed-special-counsel.html NO PAYWALL ARCHIVE LINK

This month, the largest homeowner insurance company in California, State Farm, announced that it would stop selling coverage to homeowners. That’s not just in wildfire zones, but everywhere in the state. Insurance companies, tired of losing money, are raising rates, restricting coverage or pulling out of some areas altogether — making it more expensive for people to live in their homes. “Risk has a price,” said Roy Wright, the former official in charge of insurance at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and now head of the Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety, a research group. “We’re just now seeing it.” READ MORE https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/31/climate/climate-change-insurance-wildfires-california.html NO PAYWALL ARCHIVE LINK

An inflammatory post and a troll post by the same member removed. Continue and face a suspension. Comment on moderation removed. Any alleged factual claims must be supported by a valid link to an approved credible source.

This topic is not a Russia/Ukraine war thread. Any more posts on this will be removed

Off topic trolling post making unsubstantiated claims removed. Replies leading off it also removed

Some racial slur posts have been removed along with replies: 15. You will not discriminate or post slurs, degrading or overly negative comments on the basis of race, gender, age, religion, ethnicity, nationality, disability, medical history, marriage, civil partnership, pregnancy, maternity, paternity, gender identity, sexual orientation or any other irrelevant factor.

Off topic troll post removed

A couple of troll posts has been removed, please keep it civil, stay on topic or move on. Trump vows to end birthright citizenship for children of unauthorized immigrants if he wins in 2024

Troll posts removed. Topic of discussion is: Biden Accuser Tara Reade Claims She Fled to Russia Fearing for Her Life

Tara Reade, who accused Joe Biden of sexual assault, defects to Russia Tara Reade, a former Senate staffer who in 2020 accused Joe Biden of sexual assault, said on Tuesday she had defected to Russia. “I’m still kind of in a daze a bit but I feel very good,” Reade told Sputnik, a Russian press outlet supportive of President Vladimir Putin, while sitting with Maria Butina, a convicted Russian agent jailed in the US but now a member of parliament in Russia. “I feel very surrounded by protection and safety,” Reade said. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/may/30/tara-reade-defects-russia-biden

The family of an 11-year-old boy shot by police sued the city of Indianola, Mississippi, as well as the police officers they allege are responsible in a $5 million lawsuit filed in federal court on Tuesday. Court documents filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi said the boy, Aderrien Murry, was turning the corner of his home's hallway when he was "instantly shot" by Greg Capers, one of the responding officers, after police were called to the family home at about 4 a.m. on May 20 to investigate reports of a domestic disturbance. Aderrien's mother, Nakala Murry, told CBS News that she gave her cell phone to her son and asked him to call her mother and the police after her daughter's father knocked on the door and "stated he was irate." https://www.cbsnews.com/news/family-11-year-old-mississippi-boy-shot-by-police-sues-5-million/

Artificial intelligence could lead to the extinction of humanity, experts - including the heads of OpenAI and Google Deepmind - have warned. Dozens have supported a statement published on the webpage of the Centre for AI Safety. "Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war" it reads. READ MORE https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-65746524

Dozens of defendants have set up online fundraising appeals for help with legal fees, and prosecutors acknowledge there's nothing wrong with asking for help for attorney expenses. But the Justice Department has, in some cases, questioned where the money is really going because many of those charged have had government-funded legal representation. Most of the fundraising efforts appear on GiveSendGo, which bills itself as “The #1 Free Christian Fundraising Site” and has become a haven for Jan. 6 defendants barred from using mainstream crowdfunding sites, including GoFundMe, to raise money. https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/government-claw-back-money-jan-6-rioters-profit-99660355

South Africa plans to change its law so that it has the power to decide whether or not to arrest a leader wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC), a deputy minister has told the BBC. Obed Bapela's remarks come amid intense speculation over whether South Africa stands by its invitation to Russia's President Putin to visit in August. The ICC has issued an arrest warrant for Mr Putin over the Ukraine war. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-65759630

Twitter link: https://twitter.com/igorsushko/status/1663622433029623808

Tara Reade, a former Senate aide who accused President Joe Biden of sexual assault, announced Tuesday she defected to Russia. The shocking confession was made during a Russian state press conference, where Reade was sitting next to alleged Kremlin spy—and pal—Maria Butina. Reade told the pro-Putin press the “very difficult” decision to move came after the realization that she no longer feels safe in Biden's America. READ MORE https://www.thedailybeast.com/joe-biden-accuser-tara-reade-claims-she-defected-to-russia-after-sexual-assault-allegations

Another reminder of the topic: Students Fatally Stab Each Other at Sisaket Province School It has nothing to do with any alleged violent incidents in the UK, US, Scotland or any other country, those deflection posts and replies have been removed.

Exclusive: Evan Corcoran said he was steered away from Trump’s office, where the FBI later found the most sensitive materials Donald Trump’s lawyer tasked with searching for classified documents at Mar-a-Lago after the justice department issued a subpoena told associates that he was waved off from searching the former president’s office, where the FBI later found the most sensitive materials anywhere on the property. The lawyer, Evan Corcoran, recounted that several Trump aides had told him to search the storage room because that was where all the materials that had been brought from the White House at the end of Trump’s presidency ended up being deposited. Corcoran found 38 classified documents in the storage room. He then asked whether he should search anywhere else but was steered away, he told associates. READ MORE https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/may/30/evan-corcoran-trump-lawyer-waved-off-secret-document-search

Donald Trump Jr. and Kimberly Guilfoyle are predictably going all in attacking Ron DeSantis (R) after the Florida governor jumped into the 2024 race against former President Donald Trump. Donald Trump Jr., the former president’s eldest son, on Friday tweeted a deepfake video of DeSantis as Steve Carell’s Michael Scott in “The Office” in a scene in which he is mocked for accidentally wearing a woman’s pantsuit: Guilfoyle, meanwhile, adopted a more aggressive tone on Newsmax. READ MORE https://news.yahoo.com/donald-trump-jr-kimberly-guilfoyle-093430128.html

Criminal proceedings could be taken against the government if they do not hand over unredacted WhatsApp messages sent by Boris Johnson during the COVID inquiry, according to a top barrister. A deadline of 4pm on Tuesday looms for the Cabinet Office to pass the communications - as well as other documents - to inquiry chair Lady Hallett in an unredacted form after she made an order under section 21 of the Inquiries Act 2005. If the Cabinet Office do challenge the order, a legal battle looms between the government and Lady Hallett. https://news.sky.com/story/covid-inquiry-government-faces-criminal-proceedings-as-deadline-looms-to-hand-over-boris-johnsons-whatsapps-12892892

Report implicates Wagner group fighters in Moura atrocity, including the torture and rape of civilians. Published last week after an extensive human rights fact-finding mission conducted over several months by UN staff in Mali, the report gives an hour by hour account of events during a five-day military operation in Moura in March 2022, giving details of the worst single atrocity associated with the Kremlin-linked Wagner group outside Ukraine. Investigators from the UN human rights office concluded that there are strong indications that more than 500 people were killed – the majority in extrajudicial killings – by Malian troops and foreign military personnel believed to be from Wagner, a mercenary outfit run by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a close ally of the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, which was linked to the massacre by internal messages obtained by the Guardian last year. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/may/20/russian-mercenaries-behind-slaughter-in-mali-village-un-report-finds