Latest news with #conspiracy theories
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Science
- Yahoo
Conspiracies about extreme weather spread faster than life-saving alerts on social media, says study
False information and conspiracy theories about extreme weather events spread faster than life-saving alerts on some social media platforms, according to a new study. Research by the Centre for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) claims that Meta, X and YouTube threaten public safety by enabling misleading claims during catastrophic weather events. The CCDH says this practice has resulted in 'impeded emergency response and erosion of public trust in disaster relief efforts' in some cases. 'The rapid spread of climate conspiracies online isn't accidental' CCDH researchers analysed 300 viral posts containing false or misleading information on Meta, X and YouTube during recent extreme weather events, including the LA wildfires and Hurricanes Helene and Milton. The report claims that in the wake of these events, social media platforms 'amplified conspiracy theorists while sidelining vital emergency information.' The researchers analysed five different types of misleading claims: about the causes of severe weather events; about disaster relief aid; about emergency responses; about the impact of climate change; and about political responses. They found that Meta (which operates Facebook and Instagram) lacked fact-checks or community notes on 98 per cent of posts analysed. Related Europe's summer heatwaves: Should you cancel your holiday when extreme weather hits? 'Where conflict, poverty and climate collide': Number of internally displaced people tops 80 million X lacked fact-checks or community notes on 99 per cent of posts analysed, and YouTube had zero fact-checks or community notes on 100 per cent of posts analysed. Instead, the overwhelming majority of posts spreading misleading information about disaster response, climate change causes, and emergency aid were left unmoderated before being algorithmically boosted and monetised, the study claims. 'While families mourned and first responders combed through wreckage after climate disasters in Texas and California, social media companies shamelessly exploited these catastrophes for profit,' says Imran Ahmed, CEO of CCDH. 'The rapid spread of climate conspiracies online isn't accidental, it's baked into a business model that profits from outrage and division.' Social media posts claim hurricanes were 'geo-engineered weapons' The CCDH says recent disasters revealed a dangerous pattern where falsehoods outpaced facts on social media during weather disasters. Following Hurricanes Helene and Milton in late 2024 and the LA fires in early 2025, conspiracy theories flooded platforms. These included claims that hurricanes were "geo-engineered weapons" and wildfires were ignited by "government lasers". Posts also sparked public anger by claiming that migrants were prioritised for aid, while scammers exploited survivors through adverts impersonating federal assistance programs. The research found that this false information spread faster than updates from emergency officials and reliable news outlets. High-profile and verified users spread most false information The report's authors warn that the influence of high-profile conspiracy theorists during climate disasters is drowning out emergency response efforts. During the LA wildfires, American far-right radio show host Alex Jones posted several false claims, including conspiracies about food confiscation and 'globalist' plots. These amassed more views on X than the combined reach of FEMA, the LA Times, and ten major news outlets and emergency agencies from 7 to 31 January 2025, the research found. The study also found that verified users who receive enhanced visibility and monetisation privileges are among the worst offenders. Related British potatoes and Spanish olives: How climate extremes are pushing up food prices Climate shelters: When the heat is on, where can you escape to? 88 per cent of misleading extreme weather posts on X, 73 per cent on YouTube and 64 per cent on Meta were from verified accounts. 'It is appalling to see how the climate science deniers and conspiracy theorists are manipulating extreme weather events to disseminate their fact-free fallacies,' says Sam Bright, international journalism organisation DeSmog's UK deputy editor. 'However, perhaps even more shocking is that social media companies are actively profiting from the disinformation that spreads like wildfire on their platforms. 'This report unequivocally shows that climate disinformation costs lives. As extreme weather events become more and more frequent, these falsehoods will only get more dangerous.' Euronews Green has reached out to Meta and YouTube for comment.
Associated Press
6 days ago
- Politics
- Associated Press
A timeline of the Jeffrey Epstein investigation, now 20 years old
Interest in the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking investigation has exploded over the past month even as President Donald Trump urged the public and media to move on from a saga he sees as ' pretty boring.' Conspiracy theories and outrage have swirled around Epstein since 2006, when the financier first faced criminal charges related to sexual exploitation of underage girls. He killed himself after more charges were brought in 2019. Fascination with the case reached new heights after Attorney General Pam Bondi suggested she had an Epstein 'client list' on her desk but then didn't release documents with any new information. Here is a timeline of the criminal cases against Epstein and his former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison for helping him abuse teenage girls. ___ March 2005: Police in Palm Beach, Florida, begin investigating Epstein after the family of a 14-year-old girl reports she was molested at his mansion. Multiple underage girls, many of them high school students, would later tell police Epstein hired them to give sexual massages. May 2006: Palm Beach police officials sign paperwork to charge Epstein with multiple counts of unlawful sex with a minor, but the county's top prosecutor, State Attorney Barry Krischer, takes the unusual step of sending the case to a grand jury. July 2006: Epstein is arrested after a grand jury indicts him on a single count of soliciting prostitution. The relatively minor charge draws almost immediate attention from critics, including Palm Beach police leaders, who assail Krischer publicly and accuse him of giving Epstein special treatment. The FBI begins an investigation. 2007: Federal prosecutors prepare an indictment against Epstein. But for a year, the money manager's lawyers engage in talks with the U.S. attorney in Miami, Alexander Acosta, about a plea bargain that would allow Epstein to avoid a federal prosecution. Epstein's lawyers decry his accusers as unreliable witnesses. June 2008: Epstein pleads guilty to state charges: one count of solicitating prostitution and one count of soliciting prostitution from someone under the age of 18. He is sentenced to 18 months in jail. Under a secret arrangement, the U.S. attorney's office agrees not to prosecute Epstein for federal crimes. Epstein serves most of his sentence in a work-release program that allows him to leave jail during the day to go to his office, then return at night. July 2009: Epstein is released from jail. For the next decade, multiple women who say they are Epstein's victims wage a legal fight to get his federal non-prosecution agreement voided, and hold him and others liable for the abuse. One of Epstein's accusers, Virginia Giuffre, says in her lawsuits that, starting when she was 17, Epstein and his girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, set up sexual encounters with royalty, politicians, academicians, businessmen and other rich and powerful men, including Britain's Prince Andrew. All of those men deny the allegations. November 2018: The Miami Herald revisits the handling of Epstein's case in a series of stories focusing partly on the role of Acosta — who by this point is President Donald Trump's labor secretary — in arranging his unusual plea deal. The coverage renews public interest in the case. July 6, 2019: Epstein is arrested on federal sex trafficking charges after federal prosecutors in New York conclude they aren't bound by the terms of the earlier non-prosecution deal. Days later, Acosta resigns as labor secretary amid public outrage over his role in the initial investigation. Aug. 10, 2019: Guards find Epstein dead in his cell at a federal jail in New York City. Investigators conclude he killed himself. July 2, 2020: Federal prosecutors in New York charge Ghislaine Maxwell with sex crimes, saying she helped recruit the underage girls that Epstein sexually abused and sometimes participated in the abuse herself. Dec. 30, 2021: After a monthlong trial, a jury convicts Maxwell of multiple charges, including sex trafficking, conspiracy and transportation of a minor for illegal sexual activity. June 28, 2022: Maxwell is sentenced to 20 years in prison. January 2024: Public interest in the Epstein case surges after a judge unseals thousands of pages of court records in a civil lawsuit involving one of his victims. Almost all of the information was already public and the dayslong document dump proves disappointing to people who hoped it would spill new secrets about wrongdoing by the rich and powerful. But it fuels demands for even more records to be made public. 2024: Trump, who was in office when Epstein was arrested, suggests during the presidential campaign that he'd seek to open the government's Epstein files. February 2025: Attorney General Pam Bondi suggests in a Fox News Channel interview that an Epstein 'client list' is sitting on her desk. The Justice Department distributes binders marked 'declassified' to far-right influencers at the White House, but it quickly becomes clear much of the information had long been in the public domain. July 7, 2025: The Justice Department says Epstein didn't maintain a 'client list' and it won't make any more files related to his sex trafficking investigation public. July 17, 2025: The Wall Street Journal describes a sexually suggestive letter that the newspaper says bore Trump's name and was included in a 2003 album for Epstein's 50th birthday. Trump denies writing the letter, calling it 'false, malicious, and defamatory.' The next day Trump sues the paper and media mogul Rupert Murdoch. July 18, 2025: The Trump administration asks a federal court to unseal grand jury transcripts related to Epstein's case in an effort to put a political crisis to rest. July 23, 2025: A judge rejects a Trump administration request to unseal transcripts from the Epstein grand jury investigation in Florida but similar requests for grand jury transcripts in the cases against Epstein and Maxwell in New York remain pending. Meanwhile, a House Oversight subcommittee voted to subpoena the Justice Department for files. The full committee issued a subpoena for Maxwell to testify before committee officials in August.
CTV News
22-07-2025
- Entertainment
- CTV News
Infamous ‘grassy knoll' site of JFK assassination recreated in Manitoba park
The real 'grassy knoll' (left) in Dallas, Texas, pictured on Nov. 22, 1963, compared to the movie set (right) created in Manitoba's Birds Hill Provincial Park in July 2025. (Left: Mary Moorman public domain image / Right: submitted photo) Manitoba's Birds Hill Provincial Park is being transformed into the infamous 'grassy knoll'—a site that has sparked countless conspiracy theories surrounding the assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy. The elaborate reconstruction is all part of the film production for November 1963 – a mob movie starring John Travolta that retells the story of Kennedy's assassination. READ MORE: 'This is really the untold true story': A behind-the-scenes look on the set of November 1963 grassy knoll Crews recreated the 'grassy knoll' in Manitoba's Birds Hill Provincial Park in July 2025 for the film production of November 1963. (submitted photo) The real-life 'grassy knoll' is an unassuming mound overlooking Elm Street in Dallas, Texas, across from Dealey Plaza. An 'X' on the road directly in front of the knoll marks the spot where Kennedy was fatally shot on Nov. 22, 1963. In the decades since, conspiracy theorists have poured through photographs and released documents. Many claim photos show a second gunman perched atop the grassy knoll, though these theories have largely been debunked. READ MORE: JFK files have been released. Here's what you need to know The grassy knoll isn't the only JFK landmark to be recreated for the film. Crews built a replica of the entrance to the Texas School Book Depository—the building where Lee Harvey Oswald worked and where police discovered evidence of a sniper on the sixth floor. Behind the scenes of 'November 1963' A behind the scenes look on the set of November 1963 on Friday July 11, 2025. (Joseph Bernacki/CTV News Winnipeg) Film crews have been spotted all over Winnipeg and the surrounding areas—including the Exchange District, the University of Manitoba campus, and the Norwood Flats neighbourhood. November 1963 does not yet have a release date, but Nicholas Celozzi, the film's screenwriter and producer, tells CTV News he hopes it will be out next year.
Yahoo
18-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Most Americans think Trump administration is covering up evidence in Epstein case, new poll finds
Most Americans think the Trump administration is covering up evidence in the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein's federal case, according to a new poll. A poll conducted by The Economist and YouGov from July 11 to 14 found 67 percent of Americans believe the government is hiding evidence related to the late financier, who died in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal charges related to the sexual abuse of dozens of minor girls. He had pleaded guilty in 2008 to Florida charges of soliciting and procuring a minor for prostitution. After Epstein's death — which the Justice Department and FBI confirmed was a suicide in a memo released earlier this month — conspiracy theories swirled about the late financier's life, including the powerful people who are speculated to have partaken in his crimes. Conspiracy theorists also weren't convinced Epstein killed himself. The feds' memo also said there was never any Epstein client list and, 'There was also no credible evidence found that Epstein blackmailed prominent individuals as part of his actions.' Most Americans think the Trump administration is covering up evidence in convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein's federal case, according to a new poll () Only 8 percent of respondents in the new poll believe the government is not covering up evidence about Epstein, while 25 percent are unsure. When asked if the government should release all documents relating to the feds' Epstein case, 79 percent of respondents said it should. Only 5 percent said the government shouldn't release the files, and 17 percent were unsure. The feds' memo sparked backlash from Trump's base, who were promised the Epstein files. In February, Attorney General Pam Bondi told Fox News evidence of a client list was 'sitting on my desk right now to review.' In February, Attorney General Pam Bondi told Fox News evidence of a client list was 'sitting on my desk right now to review' () When the feds' evidence came up short, people started to ask questions. 'They've got videotape and all a sudden they don't,' Podcaster Joe Rogan said on his show Tuesday. Rogan name-dropped Bondi, saying, 'Why'd they say there was thousands of hours of tapes of people doing horrible s***? Why'd they say that? Didn't [Attorney General] Pam Bondi say that?' Bondi told reporters in May, 'There are tens of thousands of videos of Epstein with children or child porn and there are hundreds of victims,' according to the Miami Herald. Epstein died in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal charges related to the sexual abuse of dozens of minor girls (New York State Sex Offender Registry via AP) The feds' memo said there was 'a large volume of images of Epstein, images and videos of victims who are either minors or appear to be minors, and over ten thousand downloaded videos and images of illegal child sex abuse material and other pornography.' But the memo fell short of incriminating anyone else who may have been associated with Epstein. Trump had socialized with Epstein decades ago when he was a New York real estate mogul. The president was accused of being on Epstein's client list by tech billionaire Elon Musk, whose relationship with the president turned sour after his short stint at the White House, leading the Department of Government Efficiency. Musk did not provide any evidence to prove Trump was on any suspected list. Trump had socialized with Epstein decades ago when he was a New York real estate mogul (NBC News) House Democrats tried to advance a procedural motion that would have cleared the way for lawmakers to vote to release the Epstein files, but Republicans blocked it on Tuesday. When asked about the memo at a recent Cabinet meeting, Trump said, 'Are you still talking about Jeffrey Epstein? This guy's been talked about for years.' 'I mean, I can't believe you're asking a question on Epstein at a time like this, where we're having some of the greatest success and also tragedy with what happened in Texas. It just seems like a desecration,' Trump said, referring to the July 4 flooding disaster along the Guadalupe River. Trump defended Bondi to reporters Tuesday, saying she handled the review of the Epstein files 'very well.' When asked if his name appeared in any documents, he said, 'No.' Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
16-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Right-Wing Media Is Now Falling In Line With Trump On Epstein
Conservative media's outrage over Attorney General Pam Bondi saying she wouldn't release more Jeffrey Epstein files appears to have been short-lived. After President Donald Trump stomped his feet and told his supporters to move on over the weekend, his base seems to have fallen in line. An assessment by the journalism watchdog group Media Matters found that Fox News has largely stopped talking about Epstein over the past two days. By noon on Monday, the network had mentioned Epstein zero times, the group found. That's compared to 46 mentions of former President Joe Biden in that window. The morning wasn't a fluke. By the end of the day, the tracking effort found that the network had racked up 158 mentions of Biden and only eight of Epstein, the disgraced financier who died in jail while awaiting trial on sweeping sex trafficking charges. The pattern continued on Tuesday, Media Matters senior fellow Matt Gertz reported. Fox News didn't comment when asked about the absence of Epstein mentions. The shift follows Trump's lengthy Truth Social post from Saturday, lashing out at his base for their furor over the unreleased Epstein files ― documents many on the right believed would legitimize their conspiracy theories about a 'deep state' coverup, and that both conservatives and liberals believed may expose public figures' connections to Epstein. 'What's going on with my 'boys' and, in some cases, 'gals?'' Trump wrote. 'They're all going after Attorney General Pam Bondi, who is doing a FANTASTIC JOB! We're on one Team, MAGA, and I don't like what's happening.' 'For years, it's Epstein, over and over again,' Trump continued. 'Why are we giving publicity to Files written by Obama, Crooked Hillary, Comey, Brennan, and the Losers and Criminals of the Biden administration.' Laura Ingraham was among the Fox News hosts to pull an about-face. Last week, she said on her show that the Bondi closing the case contributed to the 'confusion' and 'doubt' about the Trump administration's promises to be fully transparent with the Epstein files. She also asked the crowd at Friday's Turning Point USA conference if they were 'satisfied' with the decision, setting off mass boos from the audience. But on her show Monday, Ingraham suddenly seemed to be reprimanding Trump supporters for questioning him, describing the fallout as 'conservative influencers... eating their own about Epstein' while the focus should be on the one-year anniversary of Trump's shooting. Fox News host Bret Baier did bring up the ordeal during Tuesday's episode of 'Special Report,' suggesting he'll keep discussing it. 'This story does not go away here,' he told correspondent David Spunt, who described Trump as 'tamping down the Epstein story.' Another sudden shift came from right-wing activist Charlie Kirk, who spent Friday riling up his followers about the remaining Epstein files days after the Justice Department said it was reversing course and would not be releasing them. 'How many of you think the Epstein thing is a big deal? Raise your hand.' Kirk asked the crowd at his Turning Point USA event, the same one Ingraham attended. 'Every hand has gone up,' he remarked. But Kirk said Monday he'd be moving on for now ― a day after CNN reported that President Donald Trump had called him to quell some of the criticism. 'Honestly, I'm done talking about Epstein for the time being,' Kirk said on his talk show. 'I'm going to trust my friends in the administration. I'm going to trust my friends in the government to do what needs to be done, solve it. Ball's in their hands. I've said plenty this last weekend.' But after that clip from his show went viral, Kirk returned to talking about Epstein on Tuesday's episode and railed against the media for allegedly misrepresenting what he'd said Monday. Kirk said he'd simply needed to focus on updates on Russia, Ukraine and NATO in that episode but reiterated he trusts members of Trump's administration to handle the Epstein files properly. It remains to be seen how Kirk proceeds with the subject, but the back-and-forth suggests these may be choppy waters for MAGA influencers to navigate. Trump Says Comey, Biden And Obama 'Made Up' The Epstein Files Democrats Push For House Vote Forcing Pam Bondi To Release Epstein Files MAGA, Elon Musk Torch Trump Over Pam Bondi Defense And Epstein Files
