Remember that letter Trump swore doesn’t exist? Well, the Epstein estate just released it.
At the height of Donald Trump’s scandal surrounding notorious late sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein, the Wall Street Journal in July reported that the president had written a cryptic message wishing Epstein a happy 50th birthday in 2003. The note was reportedly contained within a marker drawing of a woman’s naked torso.
Trump insisted this was a “fake thing.” “I never wrote a picture in my life. I don’t draw pictures of women,” he told the Journal. “It’s not my language. It’s not my words.” Vice President JD Vance called it “complete and utter bullshit.”
The president filed a lawsuit against the newspaper in hopes of, in his words, suing owner Rupert Murdoch’s “ass off, and that of his third rate paper.”
Murdoch and the Journal’s asses may live to see another day, as the paper on Monday released a photo of the letter.
WSJ: Lawyers for Jeffrey Epstein’s estate have given Congress a copy of the birthday book put together for the financier’s 50th birthday, which includes a letter with Trump’s signature that he has said doesn’t exist. pic.twitter.com/D07zIL4g2K
Orcas discuss how Trump was re-elected and him being an insane, xenophobic Fascist.Donald Trump urges you to be a Climate Science denier like him. He says that he makes millions and millions for destroying the planet, Burn, Baby, Burn and Flood, Baby, Flood.Donald Trump decrees forbidden terms denying sexual diversity
Climate science deniers are flooding social media with false claims during extreme weather events, drowning out reliable information and putting lives at risk.
A new report by the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), which researches and campaigns against online hatred and disinformation, finds that anti-climate figures are increasingly spreading false information about wildfires and hurricanes fuelled by climate change.
CCDH looked at some of the most popular misleading social media posts spread by influential climate science deniers between April 2023 and April 2025, using DeSmog’s climate disinformation database to identify the most prominent deniers.
Analysing Facebook, Instagram, X, and YouTube, it found that three quarters of the most popular misleading posts about extreme weather events focused on hurricanes and wildfires.
These posts received hundreds of million of views across the two year period, spreading doubt about the causes of the disasters and even maligning the work of emergency responders.
The wildfires in Los Angeles (LA), California, earlier this year, which killed at least 30 people and destroyed thousands of homes, accounted for 38 percent of the posts. Hurricane Helene, which hit south-eastern U.S. in September 2024 and caused more than 250 deaths, accounted for 14 percent of the posts.
Baseless claims made by U.S. conspiracy theorist Alex Jones during the LA wildfires received 408 million views on X. Jones claimed without evidence that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was “confiscating food” and that the fires were a “globalist” plot.
These posts received more views on X than the information distributed on the platform by 10 key emergency response accounts – including FEMA, the fire department, and local government – and the 10 largest U.S. news outlets.
Those behind the false information were “preventing informed debate and risking lives during crisis events,” the report states.
CCDH also found that online platforms often boosted these false claims, while almost all of the posts were allowed to remain on the platforms without being fact-checked.
It follows an investigation by Media Matters last month finding that half of the top 10 most popular online shows – including those hosted by ex-mixed martial arts fighter Joe Rogan and disgraced former comedian Russell Brand – spread misinformation or false narratives about Hurricane Helene.
“While families mourned and first responders combed through wreckage after climate disasters in Texas and California, social media companies shamelessly exploited these catastrophes for profit. The rapid spread of climate conspiracies online isn’t accidental, it’s baked into a business model that profits from outrage and division,” said Imran Ahmed, CEO of CCDH.
“When distraught people can’t distinguish real help from online deception, platforms become complicit in the suffering of innocent people.”
Wildfire of Disinformation
The report notes that accurate information is being buried by false claims in online spaces.
UK accounts also played a part. A video by the right-wing broadcaster GB News posted in January entitled “The truth behind the LA Fires: DEI and Left-wing policies burned LA” dismissed the role of climate change in the disaster – calling it “bogus nonsense”.
A study by scientists at the World Weather Attribution found that climate change made the LA wildfires 35 percent more likely.
The CCDH report said that “superspreader” Alex Jones – who in 2022 was ordered to pay $1.3 billion (around £964.6 million) to the families of the Sandy Hook school shooting after claiming it was a hoax – had “drowned out credible information on LA wildfires”.
“When inaccurate information spreads in an acute weather crisis, it can put lives at risk, misleading people about the danger they are in”, it notes. “It can also endanger first responders, disrupt life-saving decisions, and mislead people about the aid that they need.”
The Role of Social Media Platforms
The report also notes that false claims are being boosted by online platforms.
Eighty-eight percent of the posts identified on X were from “verified users” as were 73 percent on YouTube, and 64 percent on Meta platforms. Whereas X’s blue verification stamp was previously given to those who were considered to be high-profile or a public authority, the badge can now be bought by anyone.
One in three misleading YouTube videos recommended more climate denial content next to them.
The platforms also profited from this misinformation. YouTube placed adverts next to 29 percent of its misleading extreme weather videos. Five of the accounts on X spreading false information about extreme weather were signed up for the site’s paid subscription services.
Meta also shares advertising revenue with three accounts that have spread misleading information – including MAGA influencer Charlie Kirk, and Fox News host Laura Ingraham – via a programme that allows users to make money from ads shown alongside their videos.
Following Donald Trump’s victory in November’s U.S. presidential election, Meta owner Mark Zuckerberg also announced that his platforms would abandon the use of independent fact-checkers.
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Israeli occupation soldiers move through agricultural lands during an Israeli raid in the rural areas of Tulkarm Refugee Camp in Tulkarm, West Bank on February 05, 2025 [Nedal Eshtayah/Anadolu Agency]
An investigation by Israel’s public broadcaster, KAN, has revealed that the Israeli military fabricated the discovery of a tunnel in the Philadelphi Corridor along the Gaza-Egypt border, claiming the structure was, in fact, a shallow canal, Anadolu Agency reports.
Last August, the army published photos of an alleged tunnel in the demilitarised area along the border.
“There was never a tunnel, but a canal covered in dirt,” KAN said.
The purpose of this lie “was to exaggerate the importance of the Philadelphi Corridor and delay a hostage deal,” it added.
According to KAN, former Israeli Defence Minister, Yoav Gallant, backed the findings, saying, “It was not a tunnel, but rather an attempt to prevent a ceasefire agreement.”
Gallant clarified that the structure was only about one meter deep and was misleadingly presented to the public as a deep tunnel. “It was promoted to the public as a deep tunnel to prevent reaching a deal with Hamas,” he added.
The Palestinian Resistance group, Hamas, demands a full ceasefire and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza in return for any hostage swap deal.
There was no immediate comment from the army on the report.
The Israeli army resumed its assault on Gaza on 18 March, shattering a 19 January ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreement.
Israel has killed more than 51,200 Palestinians in the enclave since October 2023, most of them women and children.
The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants in November for Netanyahu and his former Defence Minister, Yoav Gallant, for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Genocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpAUK Foreign Minister David Lammy confirms that UK government and military are active participants in Israel’s genocides and that the F-35 parts that they suspended from supplying to Israel are instead simply diverted via the United States. He says see https://youtu.be/QILgUHrdWRE
In short, this doesn’t happen and is part of a frenzy of demonization of disabled benefits claimants whipped-up by the right-wing including Labour Health Secretary Wes Steeting. The Guardian explains:
Queen Elizabeth inspects the classic Invacar, as she hosts a ceremony to celebrate the 40th Anniversary of Motability, at Windsor Castle in 2017. Photograph: Richard Pohle/AFP/Getty Images.
A common refrain in the coverage – “Do you want a free new car?” the Times’ Alice Thomson asked – but one which misses a central point: the Pip funding that goes to Motability is money that customers would have been getting anyway.
If they weren’t getting a car, they’d have it to spend on something else. And if they want a more expensive car – perhaps needing a bigger vehicle for essential equipment, perhaps shockingly able to have preferences despite also having a disability – they have to make a down payment out of their own pocket.
The cars are new, meanwhile, so that they retain a significant resale value at the end of the lease. “It’s just not true that it’s ‘free’,” Carew said. “And because it comes out of an existing Pip award, it’s at no additional cost to the taxpayer.” Scrapping Motability wouldn’t save a penny from the benefits bill.
…
So where did this story come from?
Allegations that Motability is infested with people making bogus claims have existed for manyyears. Hardy perennial though the story is, it’s also worth tracking the genesis of the latest iteration. Part of the timeline is familiar enough: first a fascinating Bloomberg piece focusing on Motability’s impact on the car market, then the Daily Mail, then everyone else.
Before that, though, the story gained momentum in a stranger corner of the internet – through a couple of rightwing X accounts, @loftussteve and @maxtempers, with fewer than 28,000 followers between them. The anonymous user behind Max Tempers, in particular, has been banging the drum since at least December, when he suggested that claimants should only be allowed to drive a hideous old car with MOTABILITY written on it. A few weeks later, a post of his about grooming gangs was shared by Elon Musk, and became the ground zero of a whole other dodgy social media frenzy.
As the Motability story went viral, it got picked up by accounts like Politics UK, a popular X news source, and later by prominent users like GB News’ deputy political editor Tom Harwood, who even borrowed Max Tempers’ idea for a car of shame. With crushing inevitability, after the Daily Mail piece, Wes Streeting told GB News the story showed why the welfare system needs reform.
