
I'm hesitating to read or listen to this for fear it oversimplifies. I worked for about a year @NYPDnews on this. We learned a LOT. Most of the $320 million I estimate was lost by New Yorkers on Cyber-enabled scams in 2019 began with voice calls to set the hook...




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A quick thread on the new variant, pulling together information from news sources, twitter, genomic databases, and word from well-placed peers.
The new variant in the UK consists of several mutations in the spike protein, including ΔH69/ΔV70 deletions & other receptor binding domain mutations such as N501Y.
The variant is described here in this pre-print from @GuptaR_lab.
https://t.co/ui2U1r1ANA
The ΔH69/ΔV70 variant continues to increase quite rapidly as a proportion of overall positives (roughly doubling in the last 2 to three days), and is apparently now the dominant strain in test positives in some regions.
Extensive efforts have gone into enhanced surveillance for the ΔH69/ΔV70 deletion with and without RBD mutations, and it is good that we are aware of this.
There is a need for calm and rational thinking, and more evidence is needed.
But the early data is certainly concerning
Cabinet has been summoned for call at lunchtime. Lots of concern about new data on virus in parts of England, feels like fast moving situation. https://t.co/308YsJEVGw
— Nick Eardley (@nickeardleybbc) December 19, 2020
The new variant in the UK consists of several mutations in the spike protein, including ΔH69/ΔV70 deletions & other receptor binding domain mutations such as N501Y.
The variant is described here in this pre-print from @GuptaR_lab.
https://t.co/ui2U1r1ANA

The ΔH69/ΔV70 variant continues to increase quite rapidly as a proportion of overall positives (roughly doubling in the last 2 to three days), and is apparently now the dominant strain in test positives in some regions.
Extensive efforts have gone into enhanced surveillance for the ΔH69/ΔV70 deletion with and without RBD mutations, and it is good that we are aware of this.
There is a need for calm and rational thinking, and more evidence is needed.
But the early data is certainly concerning
This week marks 12 months since Josephine Cashman supplied Andrew Bolt with a letter falsely attributed to a Yolngu lawman that Bolt published via NewsCorp on Jan 26 as parcel of his persecution of Bruce Pascoe. Cashman & Bolt still haven’t provided a satisfactory explanation
Terry Yumbulul didn’t write the letter and didn’t agree with its content. He said so himself in a video published the next day https://t.co/IJ6ricZeRi and in a written statement published later the same day
The weird thing was, it soon emerged that large sections of the letter had been cribbed from other sources. Weird because as a Yolngu lawman, Terry didn’t need to borrow his knowledge from unrelated, alternate sources ... pretty much verbatim
The fallout was swift. Bolt was compelled to do a correction on his column and Cashman was just as swiftly dumped from her position of the Morrison government’s Senior Advisory Group for an Indigenous Voice to Government
There was no apology from either of them or from NewsCorp tho, and with the assistance of Sky News After Dark they desperately attempted to obfuscate the reality that everybody involved had been caught out and left red faced
Terry Yumbulul didn’t write the letter and didn’t agree with its content. He said so himself in a video published the next day https://t.co/IJ6ricZeRi and in a written statement published later the same day

The weird thing was, it soon emerged that large sections of the letter had been cribbed from other sources. Weird because as a Yolngu lawman, Terry didn’t need to borrow his knowledge from unrelated, alternate sources ... pretty much verbatim
The fallout was swift. Bolt was compelled to do a correction on his column and Cashman was just as swiftly dumped from her position of the Morrison government’s Senior Advisory Group for an Indigenous Voice to Government
There was no apology from either of them or from NewsCorp tho, and with the assistance of Sky News After Dark they desperately attempted to obfuscate the reality that everybody involved had been caught out and left red faced
.@louiscasiano from @FoxNews reached out to ask if we are actually planning on contaminating the hotel rooms of Proud Boys with bedbugs. The short answer is no, we don't even know if that's possible. But here's our full response.
That post was clearly satire. We have no idea how one would actually go about the activity that was suggested.
What is not satire are the numerous death threats that were sent to us by Trump supporters in the lead up to the November election.
Here are a few tweets depicting detailed and credible death threats that you didn’t ask for comment on:
https://t.co/UiI12M0Aey.
https://t.co/PPe75XWImX
https://t.co/4Ia8659wK8
https://t.co/n5ov6R8Gyh
Each of those tweets includes the email address of the sender. We wish you luck in reaching out to them for comment.
Further, the hate crimes committed by the Proud Boys during their last visit to DC were not satire. A marauding band of drunk white nationalists stormed through our city, tearing down and burning religious symbols declaring respect for Black lives.

That post was clearly satire. We have no idea how one would actually go about the activity that was suggested.
What is not satire are the numerous death threats that were sent to us by Trump supporters in the lead up to the November election.
Here are a few tweets depicting detailed and credible death threats that you didn’t ask for comment on:
https://t.co/UiI12M0Aey.
https://t.co/PPe75XWImX
https://t.co/4Ia8659wK8
https://t.co/n5ov6R8Gyh
Yup. They have no interest in public safety. Inspector Glover is doing everything he can to support @realDonaldTrump's coup. @MayorBowser get your cops in line. pic.twitter.com/VAAu58v7N5
— ShutDownDC (@ShutDown_DC) November 15, 2020
Each of those tweets includes the email address of the sender. We wish you luck in reaching out to them for comment.
Further, the hate crimes committed by the Proud Boys during their last visit to DC were not satire. A marauding band of drunk white nationalists stormed through our city, tearing down and burning religious symbols declaring respect for Black lives.
As someone who's spent, conservatively, thousands of hours reporting on and thinking about Seth Rich, Fox News, and conspiracy theories, the timing of the settlement highlighted in @benyt's new column doesn't infuriate me as much as the substance of it 1/x
What's infuriating is the absence of any contrition, apology, or remediation by Fox, especially @seanhannity.
As I've reported, Hannity arguably did more than anyone else to amplify the baseless, discredited, and cruel conspiracy theories about Seth. 2/x
.@seanhannity hyped it on multiple nights on his Fox show, on his radio show, and on Twitter. We're talking about a combined potential audience here of ~tens of millions of people.~
Imagine one of the loudest voices in TV saying the following about your dead brother or dead son:
Even after https://t.co/jg1xOw4YqF retracted its original story about Seth and WikiLeaks, Hannity kept hammering away.
“All you in the liberal media,” he said on his radio show, “I am not https://t.co/YVoDTvSQbr or https://t.co/jg1xOw4YqF. I retracted nothing.” 4/x
Only when Aaron, Seth's brother, pleaded with Hannity and one of his producers, Porter Berry, did Hannity back down.
Even then, he didn't retract or apologize.
Instead he said: “Out of respect for the family’s wishes, for now, I am not discussing this matter at this time.” 5/x
What's infuriating is the absence of any contrition, apology, or remediation by Fox, especially @seanhannity.
As I've reported, Hannity arguably did more than anyone else to amplify the baseless, discredited, and cruel conspiracy theories about Seth. 2/x
.@seanhannity hyped it on multiple nights on his Fox show, on his radio show, and on Twitter. We're talking about a combined potential audience here of ~tens of millions of people.~
Imagine one of the loudest voices in TV saying the following about your dead brother or dead son:

Even after https://t.co/jg1xOw4YqF retracted its original story about Seth and WikiLeaks, Hannity kept hammering away.
“All you in the liberal media,” he said on his radio show, “I am not https://t.co/YVoDTvSQbr or https://t.co/jg1xOw4YqF. I retracted nothing.” 4/x

Only when Aaron, Seth's brother, pleaded with Hannity and one of his producers, Porter Berry, did Hannity back down.
Even then, he didn't retract or apologize.
Instead he said: “Out of respect for the family’s wishes, for now, I am not discussing this matter at this time.” 5/x
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THREAD PART 1.
On Sunday 21st June, 14 year old Noah Donohoe left his home to meet his friends at Cave Hill Belfast to study for school. #RememberMyNoah💙
He was on his black Apollo mountain bike, fully dressed, wearing a helmet and carrying a backpack containing his laptop and 2 books with his name on them. He also had his mobile phone with him.
On the 27th of June. Noah's naked body was sadly discovered 950m inside a storm drain, between access points. This storm drain was accessible through an area completely unfamiliar to him, behind houses at Northwood Road. https://t.co/bpz3Rmc0wq
"Noah's body was found by specially trained police officers between two drain access points within a section of the tunnel running under the Translink access road," said Mr McCrisken."
Noah's bike was also found near a house, behind a car, in the same area. It had been there for more than 24 hours before a member of public who lived in the street said she read reports of a missing child and checked the bike and phoned the police.
On Sunday 21st June, 14 year old Noah Donohoe left his home to meet his friends at Cave Hill Belfast to study for school. #RememberMyNoah💙

He was on his black Apollo mountain bike, fully dressed, wearing a helmet and carrying a backpack containing his laptop and 2 books with his name on them. He also had his mobile phone with him.
On the 27th of June. Noah's naked body was sadly discovered 950m inside a storm drain, between access points. This storm drain was accessible through an area completely unfamiliar to him, behind houses at Northwood Road. https://t.co/bpz3Rmc0wq

"Noah's body was found by specially trained police officers between two drain access points within a section of the tunnel running under the Translink access road," said Mr McCrisken."
Noah's bike was also found near a house, behind a car, in the same area. It had been there for more than 24 hours before a member of public who lived in the street said she read reports of a missing child and checked the bike and phoned the police.