An American man is arrested in Indonesia for allegedly selling porn videos on social media
Taylor Kirby Whitemore was arrested on March 25 by the Intelligence and Immigration Enforcement team when he was about to leave Bali's Ngurah Rai international airport for Malaysia, immigration official Yuldi Yusman said.
Authorities said Whitemore was linked to accounts on X and the Telegram messaging app that promoted and processed transactions for paid pornographic content, Yusman said.
He was moved to a detention center in the capital, Jakarta, on May 16, for further investigation.
The case went unreported until authorities on Wednesday presented Whitemore at a news conference in Jakarta. Wearing an orange vest and a mask and with his hands tied, he did not make any statement.
'The immigration office had successfully identified Whitemore, a tourist visa holder who stayed in Bali,' Yusman told a news conference.
He said an investigation conducted by the digital forensic team at his office since Feb. 17, using face recognition technology integrated with the immigration system, has led to Whitemore's arrest.
'We strongly suspected that the promoted videos he produced were taken in Indonesia,' Yusman told reporters, adding that Whitemore has violated Indonesia's Pornography Law and Immigration. He faces up to five years in prison and a fine up to 500 million rupiah ($30,540) if found guilty.
Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim-majority country, has strict laws against narcotics and the production and distribution of pornography. Authorities in 2019 arrested a British man in Bali after he sold explicit videos of himself online to fund an extravagant lifestyle on the island.
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Politico
20 minutes ago
- Politico
Playbook: Trump's crackdown hits Washington
Presented by With help from Eli Okun, Bethany Irvine and Ali Bianco Good morning. I'm Zack Stanton. Get in touch. DRIVING THE DAY THE IN-BETWEEN: Yesterday morning, just off of 14th Street NW, a group of masked law enforcement officers arrested a moped driver. Onlookers stood near a coffee shop and the entrance to a luxury condo building, recording the altercation on their phones; WaPo reporter Dan Rosenzweig-Ziff was among them. Shouts from the crowd that the officers — whose vests read simply 'police' — identify the agency with which they were affiliated were dismissed. 'Do I have to answer to you?' one officer barked back, his question rhetorical. 'You've gotta answer to somebody,' yelled a pedestrian. The officers never identified themselves, never provided their badge numbers, never revealed their agency. They took the moped driver into an unmarked SUV and spirited him off, destination unknown. A block away, the weekend brunch service at Le Diplomate continued without interruption. Welcome to the first weekend of President Donald Trump's crackdown on Washington, D.C., which, serious as it has been, is just a prelude — and things could quickly get much more intense. Three Republican-led states — West Virginia, Ohio and South Carolina — 'said Saturday they will send up to 750 National Guard troops to join 800 already mobilized in D.C.,' WaPo's Karen DeYoung and Gaya Gupta report. It's not a leap to imagine that other GOP states will scramble to follow suit, given the chance to publicly and tangibly show their support for the Trump administration: 'Trump: Yes or no?' continues to be the dividing line defining American politics. And troops deployed to DC 'are preparing to start carrying weapons in the coming days,' WSJ's Vera Bergengruen and colleagues scooped, 'a major shift that comes days after President Trump said he was deploying them to 'take back' the capital from what he described as violent criminals.' Broadly, there is agreement that this is a city on the brink. The real differences come over why and what sits on the other side. These are the in-between times, when we're in transit from the world that was to the world that will be. For critics of the president, of whom there are many in Washington, what has happened in the city — the effective sidelining of locally elected officials, the federal takeover of the city's police, the surge of National Guard troops, the masked and unidentified federal police officers, the Humvees parked outside Union Station, conveniently located for the cameras — is enough to draw suggestions of creeping authoritarianism. … And yet, for all the outrage, yesterday's protest march from Dupont Circle to the White House numbered only in the 'scores' of demonstrators, per NYT's Alyce McFadden. For supporters of the president's actions, crime in the district is a blaring crisis that merits an overwhelming federal response to avoid something like failed-state status. They point out that crime, while on a downward trend, is unacceptably commonplace (the district's homicide rate is still 'almost as high as New York's at its most dangerous, in 1990,' NYT's Maureen Dowd notes). It demands a round-the-clock response, with FBI agents patrolling the street on foot. … And yet, much of the federal response has been concentrated in some of the safest areas of the city rather than those neighborhoods most devastated by crime. More than half of the district's homicides last year occurred across the Anacostia River in Wards 7 and 8, The Atlantic's Michael Powell writes; as recently as Friday, they had yet to see much of a federal response, per USA Today's Josh Meyer. Which inevitably raises a question: How much of this is for the spectacle? 'What's happening here in Washington, DC, is just a stunt,' Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said this morning on NBC's 'Meet the Press.' 'Trump didn't like the fact that the walls were closing in on him … and so, true to form, he just decided to create a new news cycle.' There may be an element of that, but the argument also presents something of a messaging difficulty for Democrats: If it's a distraction, why should Americans take it seriously? SUNDAY BEST … — Secretary of State Marco Rubio on the war in Ukraine and potential consequences for Russian President Vladimir Putin, on ABC's 'This Week': 'I think ultimately, if this whole effort doesn't work out, then there is going to have to be additional consequences to Russia. But we're trying to avoid that by reaching a peace agreement. … The problem is this: the minute you levy additional sanctions, strong additional sanctions, the talking stops. … You've probably just added six, eight, nine, 12 more months to the war, if not longer. … That's what happens if you do that.' — Special envoy Steve Witkoff on the war in Ukraine and the details of a potential peace deal, on 'Fox News Sunday': '[Trump] understands that it is for the Ukrainians to decide how they might land swap, how they might make a deal with the Russians on different territories there. … I think the president supports a peace deal … and he got through almost all of it in Alaska.' On security guarantees: 'It means that the United States is potentially prepared to be able to give Article V security guarantees but not from NATO, directly from the United States, and other European countries.' — Witkoff on the potential trilateral to end the war in Ukraine, on CNN's 'State of the Union': 'My belief, my view is that we are going to get to a trilateral. And what we're trying to accomplish on Monday is get some consensus from President Zelenskyy and his team. We had some really good, specific, granular conversation on the plane ride home with President Zelenskyy about what he would be seeking.' — Jake Sullivan, former national security adviser, on the war in Ukraine and a potential peace deal, on 'Fox News Sunday': 'I think we will all see what comes out of that meeting on Monday. But critically, handing away more Ukrainian territory than Russia has been able to take militarily, giving it to Russia diplomatically, I think this would, as President Zelensky has said, just set Russia up to attack Ukraine in the future.' TOP-EDS: A roundup of the week's must-read opinion pieces. 9 THINGS FOR YOUR RADAR 1. TO RUSSIA, WITH LOVE: European and NATO leaders announced today that they'll also be flying to Washington for Trump's meeting tomorrow with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. European leaders hope their rally-around-Zelenskyy effort will help prevent a repeat of February's Oval Office blowup, AP's Samya Kullab and John Leicester report. Who's coming: European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said she will join the peace talks at Zelenskyy's request. Also joining: French President Emmanuel Macron, British PM Keir Starmer, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Finnish President Alexander Stubb, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte. Why they're coming: Trump already backed away from the idea of a ceasefire first, so Europe wants to make sure Ukraine's key red lines aren't crossed — namely, that it won't have to cede huge swaths of territory in the name of peace, POLITICO's Gabriel Gavin and colleagues write from Europe. Ukraine is ready to talk territorial concessions, Zelenskyy told reporters today, but only starting from the contact line of fighting (meaning: not the ever-envied eastern Donetsk region). More from our colleagues in Europe The cause for concern: When Trump called Zelenskyy yesterday, he said Russian President Vladimir Putin would respect the existing frontlines IF Ukraine agreed to cede all of the Donetsk region — which Zelenskyy rejected, Reuters' Steve Holland and colleagues report. Putin seemed ready to concede the current frontlines in Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, but on the whole, the proposal leaves Putin with the upper hand, Axios' Barak Ravid and Dave Lawler write. Trump also said he could see a trilateral meeting with both Zelenskyy and Putin happening as soon as Friday. A silver lining: Trump told the European leaders yesterday during their post-summit call that he's open to U.S. security guarantees in Ukraine, saying that Putin understood that peace in Ukraine would require Western troops on the ground, WSJ's Bojan Pancevski and colleagues scooped. Big read: 'How Will the War in Ukraine End? 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On the ground: Israel is readying plans for a mass movement of Palestinians southward as it prepares to launch its military offensive in Gaza City and greater central Gaza, per AP's Natalie Melzer. Hamas rejected Israel's plans today, calling the relocation a new wave of genocide and displacement,' per Reuters. The plans come as Israeli families grow concerned the new offensive could risk the lives of the hostages who are still alive — a worry that has helped propel a nationwide strike in Israel today, NYT's Johnatan Reiss and Aaron Boxerman report. The crisis continues: 'Gaza's Other Crisis — Not Enough Clean Drinking Water,' by WSJ's Margherita Stancati and Abeer Ayyoub 3. RED LIGHT REDISTRICTING: Texas Democrats are expected to return to the state legislature tomorrow following weeks of protest and a weekend that saw more than 150 rallies across 34 states at which activists blasted Trump's moves to draw new red seats, POLITICO's Shia Kapos reports. 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ELECTION DAY IN BOLIVIA: 'A Latin American experiment in socialism could be nearing its end,' by WaPo's Samantha Schmidt and Gabriel Díez Lacunza: 'For nearly two decades, politics in Bolivia has been dominated by one man[:] Evo Morales, acolyte of Fidel Castro and Hugo Chávez, antagonist of the United States … But the movement he built now verges on collapse. The economy, now in the hands of a former protégé, is struggling through its worst crisis in decades … The presidential election on Sunday could mean the end of a socialist era. Two right-leaning candidates are leading in the polls. And for the first time since Morales was elected president in 2005, neither he nor a stand-in will be on the ballot.' 6. CUTTING DEEP: North Carolina was the latest state to pass a Medicaid expansion, but budget challenges and cuts from Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act mean the state is slashing Medicaid funding to doctors, hospitals and other providers, WaPo's Paige Winfield Cunningham reports. Devdutta Sangvai, North Carolina's top health officer, said the cuts will have 'serious and far-reaching consequences.' … In another swing state, a mix of bad weather and cuts to agricultural research and farm programs are blighting Michigan's cherry farmers, Reuters' P.J. Huffstutter writes. 7. TRADING PLACES: The US-EU trade deal is being held up by disagreements on language involving the EU's digital rules, FT's Alice Hancock and colleagues report. A formal statement was expected to land just days after Trump and von der Leyen announced the deal, but the U.S. has been trying to keep the door open to cracking down on the Digital Services Act, the landmark regulation on Big Tech that the EU isn't budging on. On the domestic side, six months after Trump announced his plans to manage tariffs through an 'External Revenue Service' the agency's creation has been stalled — in part because tariff revenue has 'fallen short of the president's forecasts,' POLITICO's Ari Hawkins writes. 'They haven't figured out what they want,' one person close to the White House told Ari. 8. FIT FOR A PRINCE: 'Blackwater's Erik Prince Muscles Back Into the Mercenary Business,' by WSJ's Benoit Faucon and Vera Bergengruen: '[Erik] Prince showed drone footage of his mercenaries in Haiti helping hunt and kill alleged gang members under a government contract he struck in March. For an asking price of at least $10 million a year … Prince said he could do the same in Peru's gold country … Prince, who is back in the good graces of the White House, believes his mercenaries can pick up the slack for international security jobs the Trump administration would prefer not to pay for. He says he wants to turn a profit in countries desperate for U.S. assistance.' 9. 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MEDIA MOVE — Claire Heddles is joining the Miami Herald as senior political correspondent. She previously was a fellow at NOTUS. BIPARTISAN WEDDING — Meg Makarewicz, chief of staff to Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.), got married to Mike Rorke, chief of staff to Rep. Tim Walberg (R-Mich.), on Saturday at Saint John's Resort in Plymouth, Michigan. Both Makarewicz and Rorke are proud Michigan grads. Pic, courtesy of Rep. Dingell … Another pic. HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Sen. Dave McCormick (R-Pa.) (6-0) … Jon Lovett of Crooked Media … ABC's Brittany Shepherd … Louisa Terrell … former Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.) … Jamie Gillespie … former Rep. David Price (D-N.C.) … Ron Bonjean of Rokk Solutions … Sonali Dohale … Daniel Penchina … Sabrina Schaeffer of the R Street Institute … Mike Buczkiewicz of 'Morning Joe' … Caroline Boothe Olsen … Philip de Vellis of Beacon Media … Elise Foley … Ben Brody … Fox News' Will Ricciardella … American Trucking Associations' Jessica Gail … Nick Hawatmeh … Andrea Christianson … Diane Shust … Dave Toomey … David Kusnet … Dynamic SRG's Darren Rigger … Rebecca Alcorn of Mindset … Belgian Embassy's Maite Morren … Natalia Latif of New Heights Communications … The Guardian's Ella Creamer Send Playbookers tips to playbook@ or text us on Signal here. Playbook couldn't happen without our editor Zack Stanton, deputy Garrett Ross and Playbook Podcast producer Callan Tansill-Suddath.
The Hill
32 minutes 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.
The Hill
2 hours ago
- The Hill
Hong Kong pro-democracy activists granted asylum in Australia and Britain
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — A Hong Kong pro-democracy activist and a former lawmaker who are wanted by the city's authorities have been granted asylum in Great Britain and Australia, respectively. Tony Chung, an activist who was imprisoned under Hong Kong's sweeping national security law, and Ted Hui, a former lawmaker who was facing trial for his role in anti-government protests in 2019, both announced over the weekend that they have received asylum in the countries where they now live. They are among dozens of activists on the run from Hong Kong authorities. Civil liberties in the city have been greatly eroded since Beijing in 2020 imposed a national security law essentially criminalizing dissent in the former British colony. Both Beijing and Hong Kong have hailed the security law as bringing stability to the financial hub. Hui, who fled Hong Kong in December 2020, is part of a group of overseas activists who are targeted by police bounties of up to 1 million Hong Kong dollars ($127,800). The former lawmaker is now working as a lawyer in Adelaide. He announced on Facebook on Saturday that he and his family have been granted protection visas. 'I express my sincere gratitude to the Government of Australia — both present and former — for recognising our need for asylum and granting us this protection,' Hui wrote. 'This decision reflects values of freedom, justice, and compassion that my family will never take for granted.' While in Hong Kong, Hui had been an outspoken pro-democracy lawmaker. He was also known for disrupting a legislative session after he threw a rotten plant in the chamber to stop a debate of the national anthem bill — controversial legislation making it illegal to insult the Chinese national anthem. He was subsequently fined 52,000 Hong Kong dollars ($6,600) for the act. Chung, who had advocated for Hong Kong's independence, was sentenced to almost four years in prison for secession and money laundering in 2020. He was released on a supervision order, during which he traveled to Japan, from where he fled to Britain seeking asylum. In a post on social media platform Threads on Sunday, he expressed his excitement at receiving refugee status in Britain along with a five-year resident permit. He said that despite his challenges over the past few years, including persistent mental health problems, he remains committed to his activism. British and Australian authorities didn't immediately comment on the activists' statuses. Hong Kong's government did not comment directly on the cases but issued a statement on Saturday condemning 'the harbouring of criminals in any form by any country.' 'Any country that harbours Hong Kong criminals in any form shows contempt for the rule of law, grossly disrespects Hong Kong's legal systems and barbarically interferes in the affairs of Hong Kong,' the statement read.
