TRUMP RAMPS UP PROBE OF INTEL AGENCIES
President Donald Trump on Thursday granted Attorney General William Barr new powers to review and potentially release classified information related to the origins of the Russia investigation, a move aimed at accelerating Barr’s inquiry into whether U.S. officials improperly surveilled Trump’s 2016 campaign.
Trump directed the intelligence community to “quickly and fully cooperate” with Barr’s probe. The directive marked an escalation in Trump’s efforts to “investigate the investigators,” as he continues to try to undermine the findings of special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe.
Modi surges to victory on Hindu-first platform.
Narendra Modi, India’s charismatic but polarizing prime minister, was headed Thursday for a landslide election victory, propelling his Hindu nationalist party to back-to-back majorities in parliament for the first time in decades. With most of the votes counted, Modi’s stunning re-election mirrored a global trend of right-wing nationalists sweeping to victory, from the United States to Brazil to Italy, often on a platform promoting a tough stand on national security, protectionist trade policies and putting up barriers to immigration.
American who joined the Taliban is released from prison.
John Walker Lindh, the Californian who took up arms for the Taliban and was captured by U.S. forces in Afghanistan in 2001, got out of prison Thursday after more than 17 years, released under tight restrictions that reflected government fears he still harbors radical views.
President Donald Trump reacted by saying, “I don’t like it at all.”
Lindh, 38, left a federal penitentiary in Terre Haute, Ind., after getting time off for good behavior from the 20-year sentence he received when he pleaded guilty to providing support to the Taliban.
Faked Pelosi videos, slowed to make her appear drunk, spread across social media.
Distorted videos of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., altered to make her sound as if she’s drunkenly slurring her words, are spreading rapidly across social media, highlighting how political disinformation that clouds public understanding can now spread at the speed of the web.
The video of Pelosi’s speech Wednesday at a Center for American Progress event, in which she said President Trump’s refusal to cooperate with congressional investigations was tantamount to a “coverup,” was subtly edited to make her voice sound garbled and warped.
It was then circulated widely across Twitter, YouTube and Facebook.
One version, posted by the conservative Facebook page Politics WatchDog, has been viewed more than 1.4 million times, been shared more than 32,000 times, and garnered 16,000 comments with users calling her “drunk” and “a babbling mess.”