‘Vulture' is a scorched-earth critique of war reporting
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Bloomberg
10 hours ago
- Bloomberg
Singapore Targets Vaping With Stiffer Penalties, Jail Time
Singapore will introduce stiffer penalties for vaping offenses, including possible jail time for 'severe' violations, Prime Minister Lawrence Wong announced on Sunday. 'So far we've treated vaping like tobacco — at most we impose a fine, but that's no longer enough,' he announced during a national address. 'We will treat this as a drug issue and impose much stiffer penalties.'
Yahoo
10 hours ago
- Yahoo
At least $2m lost in S'pore to govt official impersonation scams involving cryptocurrency in Q1
SINGAPORE – At least $2 million was lost to government official impersonation scams involving cryptocurrency in the first three months of 2025. The police said on Aug 11 that the losses from January to March involved at least 19 reported cases. In this scam variant, victims would receive unsolicited calls from scammers impersonating representatives from banks, insurance companies, payment institutions, airlines or telecommunications companies. The conmen would claim that the victim had conducted banking or financial transactions or had outstanding premiums associated with a new or expiring insurance policy. They may also claim that the victim had phone numbers or other registered personal banking information that was found to have been involved in fraudulent activities. When victims deny involvement in such activities, they would be transferred to another scammer impersonating a government official from the Monetary Authority of Singapore, the Singapore Police Force (SPF), Ministry of Law or the Chinese police, for example. This scammer would accuse the victims of being involved in criminal activities such as money laundering. Scammers would then ask victims to perform cryptocurrency transfers to a 'safety account' for alleged investigation purposes. The conmen would instruct victims to download cryptocurrency applications such as Coinbase, OKX or StraitsX, said the police in their statement. The scammers would then ask victims to buy and transfer cryptocurrencies to a cryptocurrency wallet address. In some cases, the scammers would provide victims with specific e-mail addresses and passwords to set up accounts with. Victims would realise they had been scammed only when the conmen became uncontactable or when victims seek verification from SPF. The police urge the public not to transfer or give out valuables such as cryptocurrencies to people they do not know. They added that government officials will not require the public to disclose personal information over phone calls, or ask them to transfer money. Government officials will also not transfer calls to the police or ask the public to install applications from unofficial app stores. For more information on scams, visit Source: The Straits Times © SPH Media Limited. Permission required for reproduction Discover how to enjoy other premium articles here
The Hill
11 hours ago
- The Hill
Russiagate scandal demands prosecutions, overhaul of the FBI and CIA
Once again, newly released documents and damning evidence conclusively substantiate what many Americans have long suspected. Russiagate was a conspiracy — hatched, implemented and relentlessly promoted by top officials in the CIA, FBI and across the Obama-Biden-Clinton political machine to rig a presidential election and undermine a duly elected president. It also corrupted the very institutions essential to protecting American liberty. Despite the mountain of evidence and exhaustive investigations, those responsible for this travesty remain unpunished. Former CIA Director John Brennan and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, among other intelligence officials, have lied to Congress and the American public about their reliance on the discredited Steele dossier — a report paid for by the Clinton campaign and the DNC — while simultaneously engineering different versions of critical intelligence assessments to cover their tracks. Although the intelligence community and its leaders publicly maintained that the notorious dossier played no role in the official assessment concerning ' Russian Activities and Intentions in Recent U.S. Elections,' newly declassified oversight reviews flatly contradict these claims. The record shows that Brennan and Clapper prepared a classified, compartmented version of the assessment specifically for President Obama and senior officials, which cited the dossier to bolster key judgments about Russian election interference. Later, when sanitized versions were released to Congress and the public, all references to the dossier had been scrubbed away. Special Counsel John Durham's investigation verified that Brennan, Clapper, then-Vice President Joe Biden, Attorney General Loretta Lynch, and FBI Director James Comey were all briefed, even before the 2016 election, on the Clinton campaign's plan to concoct a false Trump-Russia narrative. Still, the FBI — with full knowledge that the Steele dossier was riddled with falsehoods — deployed it to secure baseless FISA warrants against Trump advisor Carter Page and launch the Crossfire Hurricane investigation (the FBI'S codename for the operation), with the intent of sabotaging Trump's campaign and subsequent presidency. Judicial Watch's Freedom of Information Act litigation exposed much of this corruption years before the Durham report. Court-obtained documents, such as the 'electronic communication' that launched Crossfire Hurricane, revealed the flimsy and third-hand nature of the intelligence used as pretext. Other records uncovered by Judicial Watch showed how high-ranking Justice Department officials, such as Bruce Ohr, maintained close ties with Christopher Steele and Fusion GPS, acting as a conduit for anti-Trump smears even after Steele was fired as an informant by the FBI for leaking to the media. Ohr's communications disclosed that so-called 'intelligence' on Trump-Russia ties was being laundered to the Clinton campaign and other government insiders. It goes deeper. Declassified supplements to the Durham report lay out how activists tied to George Soros' Open Society Foundations, aided by operatives within the Obama FBI and intelligence community, sought to plant and spread the bogus narrative about Trump colluding with Russia even before the FBI operations officially began. Hacked emails and foreign intelligence corroborated this extraordinary collusion between campaign operatives, federal law enforcement, and the media — a clear case of government being weaponized for partisan ends. Leaders at the FBI — Comey, Andrew McCabe, Peter Strzok — and at the CIA, and their superiors in the Obama White House, knew precisely what was unfolding. They were using the intelligence community's credibility to spread what they knew to be their own fiction as if it were truth. Yet, they pressed ahead anyway, smearing Trump and creating excuses to spy on his campaign. Their collusion made a mockery of the rule of law, resulting in illegal warrants, fabricated evidence, and years of phony investigations. Recent Judicial Watch lawsuits have further exposed how shamelessly courts and legal systems were deceived, with virtually no oversight or meaningful hearings. For all it revealed, the Durham investigation resulted in one modest plea deal and few and failed prosecutions. If no one is held to account, Americans' confidence in government will be shaken by the toxic message that in Washington, the bigger the crime, the less likely it is to be punished. The FBI and Justice Department, and their enablers in the Obama White House, engineered the most egregious abuse of power and corruption in modern American history. The public deserves justice — not just in the form of reports and hearings, but through criminal prosecution of the officials who orchestrated and covered up this conspiracy. Brennan, Clapper, Comey, McCabe, Strzok, and every enabler involved must be brought before a court of law. No spin can excuse years of perjury, abuse, and violations of civil liberties. It is not enough to claim that 'mistakes were made' or offer platitudes about trust. Laws were broken. Rights were trampled. Our democracy was threatened. News of criminal referrals for perjury by some of the players is a good start, but only that. Nor will prosecution alone suffice. The FBI and CIA need fundamental reform. Trump's recent executive orders aimed at ending the 'weaponization of government' are steps in the right direction. These agencies have proven incapable of policing themselves. From rubber-stamp FISA courts to politicized counterintelligence and persecution of whistleblowers, these agencies are built on unaccountable power. Significantly cutting back the Justice Department and dismantling the FBI should be on the table. America is a republic, not a banana republic. It's time for accountability, reform and a sharp reminder to the deep state: in America, the people are sovereign, not unelected bureaucrats.
