October 2018

Hands typing on laptop; code appears on the screen.

Special Counsel’s Office Asks FBI to Investigate Smear Scheme

Special Counsel Robert Mueller has referred a possible scam to the Federal Bureau of Investigation after a number of reporters were contacted by someone apparently shopping a story about him sexually assaulting unidentified women: 13 days ago I received this tip alleging an attempt to pay off women to make up accusations of sexual misconduct …

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Donald Trump.

Is the United States the Only Country that Offers Birthright Citizenship?

On October 30th, 2018, three days after a Pennsylvania white supremacist stormed a Pittsburgh synagogue with guns and murdered eleven people during a service and four days after a Florida man was arrested for mailing a series of glass-packed pipe bombs to public figures, United States President Donald Trump spoke out at length not against …

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Yellow tape bearing the word "CAUTION."

The Florida Mail Bombs Are Not ‘False Flags’

In the final days of October 2018, after a series of glass-packed pipe bombs were delivered to high-profile critics of United States President Donald Trump, rumors ran wild about who the suspect was and what he wanted. Few of these theories were organic, and instead appeared to have originated from the usual suspects — throwaway …

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Suspect in Attempted Bomb Attacks Had History of Crime, Conspiracy Theories

An unsettling week of threats and bombs sent to various high-profile political figures and pundits culminated in the arrest of a suspect in south Florida, a reckoning online, and a whole slew of conspiracy theories around the bombs and the culprit. Cesar Sayoc, Jr. already had a long list of convictions by the time he …

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About That Perfectly Rectangular Iceberg…

In October 2018, an image floating around the internet caused a stir. The photograph appeared to show something statistically implausible, if not impossible — a perfectly rectangular iceberg like a tabletop, serenely circling Antarctic waters: Iceberg floating in Antarctica is perfect rectangle | https://t.co/uqJjOnWrqT pic.twitter.com/7lNUMQ4xwM — RTÉ News (@rtenews) October 25, 2018 Although the oddly-shaped …

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Did a Caravan of Central Americans Beat Up Police in Mexico?

As a group of desperate women, men, and children traveled north from Central America to try to turn themselves in at the United States border in the hopes of receiving asylum, disinformation and smears about the group and their motives flew thick and fast: The caravan is not an invasion? Look what they do to …

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Will Hurricane Willa Hit a Refugee Caravan in Mexico?

As a caravan of thousands of hopeful asylum-seekers from Central America continued to swell as the annual pilgrimage entered Mexico, so did rumors about them in the United States. One such rumor appeared on October 21, 2018, just after the group left Guatemala and entered Mexico: It appears that the migrant caravan, which has been …

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Map of the world with silhouettes of people seeking refuge superimposed over it.

Rumors About Caravan of Asylum-Seekers Reach New Heights

As a caravan consisting of thousands of asylum-seekers from Central America drew ever closer to Mexico’s border with the United States to prepare to turn themselves in to border authorities en masse and request asylum, the usual fearmongering suspects did what they do best: whipping up racial hatred with disinformation and propaganda. “Democrat approved migrant …

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Russian president Vladimir Putin,

Did Vladimir Putin Say the United States’ Influence in the World Is ‘Waning’?

Russian president Vladimir Putin criticized the United States in his annual address to the nation in October 2018, saying that American influence in the world has irrevocably waned. Left-leaning political news site AmericanIndependent.com reported on his comments in a story that was later picked up by Shareblue.com: Speaking about the position of the U.S. on …

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