‘I created Steve Bannon’s psychological warfare tool’: meet the data war whistleblower
For more than a year we’ve been investigating Cambridge Analytica and its links to the Brexit Leave campaign in the UK and Team Trump in the US presidential election. Now, 28-year-old Christopher Wylie goes on the record to discuss his role in hijacking the profiles of millions of Facebook users in order to target the US electorateby Carole Cadwalladr
The first time I met Christopher Wylie, he didn’t yet have pink hair. That comes later. As does his mission to rewind time. To put the genie back in the bottle.
By the time I met him in person, I’d already been talking to him on a daily basis for hours at a time. On the phone, he was clever, funny, bitchy, profound, intellectually ravenous, compelling. A master storyteller. A politicker. A data science nerd.
Two months later, when he arrived in London from Canada, he was all those things in the flesh. And yet the flesh was impossibly young. He was 27 then (he’s 28 now), a fact that has always seemed glaringly at odds with what he has done. He may have played a pivotal role in the momentous political upheavals of 2016. At the very least, he played a consequential role. At 24, he came up with an idea that led to the foundation of a company called Cambridge Analytica, a data analytics firm that went on to claim a major role in the Leave campaign for Britain’s EU membership referendum, and later became a key figure in digital operations during Donald Trump’s election campaign.Gaza’s Hamas rulers shut offices of mobile provider after explosion struck convoy carrying Palestinian prime minister
Rami Hamdallah was not injured by the roadside bomb, but some of his security guards were injuredDaniel Khalili-Tari
An investigation by Hamas into an explosion that targeted the visiting Palestinian prime minister in Gaza, has led to the closure of the offices of a mobile phone provider.
Described as an assassination attempt, by the Palestinian Authority, a roadside bomb struck a convoy carrying Rami Hamdallah earlier this week, after he crossed into the territory from Israel.
Some of his bodyguards were injured by the blast. A second bomb that failed to detonate contained a SIM card from the Wataniya phone company.
From Russia with DeathA Soviet Nerve Agent Triggers a New Cold War
The poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter earlier this month has significantly worsened already tense relations between Moscow and the West. The crime marks the first chemical weapons attack on Western Europe since the end of World War II. By DER SPIEGEL Staff
Vil Mirzayanov's home is located at the edge of a forest near Princeton, New Jersey. There's no buzzer, just a gate and behind it a long driveway leading up to the residence. The trees are still covered with snow. The gate opens and a man with a high forehead and white hair stretches out his hand in greeting. It's Mirzayanov, one of the creators behind the poison.
The 83-year-old wearing professorial eyeglasses walks cautiously. He invites the reporter into his living room and takes a seat in a leather armchair. He is ready, he says, to talk about the poison that he helped develop in the late 1980s and early 1990s for the Soviet government. A poison that was recently used in the first neurotoxin attack seen in Western Europe since the end of World War II. The substance is known as Novichok (Russian for "newcomer") and it is used for an entire group of nerve agents. All of them are deadly. In fact, it is one of the most dangerous toxins ever to have been produced by humans.
Manic morning raises stakes for Mueller probe
Updated 0127 GMT (0927 HKT) March 18, 2018
Watergate had the Saturday Night Massacre. Now, this generation's White House scandal has its own iconic moment — the Saturday Morning Meltdown.
The firing of former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe in the pitch dark of a Washington night unleashed a sudden chain of barely believable consequences and revelations in a frenzied few hours on Saturday.
The capital reverberated with claims by McCabe that President Donald Trump orchestrated his ouster to cover up his own obstruction of justice. Trump himself presented the episode as purging the stench of corruption at the tip of the Washington establishment, consistent with his mission to "drain the swamp." "There was tremendous leaking, lying and corruption at the highest levels of the FBI, Justice & State," Trump tweeted, consciously escalating his war with what supporters see as a "deep state" dedicated to his destruction.
Free Syrian Army group 'captures' Afrin city
Videos shared by Turkish-backed FSA fighters on social media show them in residential streets of Afrin's city centre.
The Free Syrian Army (FSA) opposition group, backed by Turkey, have captured the city centre of Afrin in Syria, which was previously controlled by Kurdish fighters, according to the Turkish military forces.
"The Turkish armed forces and Free Syrian Army have taken the control of Afrin's city centre," the Turkish military said in a tweet, adding that experts were searching for landmines and other sort of explosive traps in the area.
Videos and photos shared by the Turkish-backed FSA fighters on social media showed them in residential streets, making victory signs and waving flags. Al Jazeera cannot independently confirm their authenticity.
Aum spinoffs persist two decades after sarin attack
By Miwa Suzuki
More than two decades after Japan's Aum Shinrikyo cult plunged Tokyo into terror by releasing a nerve agent on rush-hour subway trains, its spinoffs continue to attract new followers.
Cult head Shoko Asahara is on death row, along with 12 of his disciples, for crimes including the subway attack, which killed 13 people and injured thousands.
He was arrested in 1995 in the wake of the sarin attack, but the Aum cult survived the crackdown, renaming itself Aleph and drawing new recruits into its fold.
Aleph officially renounced ties to Asahara in 2000, but the doomsday guru retains significant influence, according to Japan's Public Security Intelligence Agency.
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