Elise Thomas
LightNews LightNews
banner
elisethomas.bsky.social
Elise Thomas
@elisethomas.bsky.social
8.6K followers 1.6K following 880 posts

Senior OSINT Investigator at @cen4infores.bsky.social. Former disinfo and extremism researcher. Opinions, hot takes, mistakes all my own. https://www.clippings.me/elisethomas

Videos
Sociology 33%
Political science 33%
Posts Replies Media Videos

elisethomas.bsky.social
Elise Thomas @elisethomas.bsky.social · 3h
www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...
Nauru president accused in parliament of corruptly siphoning off millions of Australian funding
Senator uses parliament to accuse Albanese government of knowing David Adeang was ‘seriously corrupt’ yet still signing $2.5bn deportation deal
www.theguardian.com

elisethomas.bsky.social
Elise Thomas @elisethomas.bsky.social · 2d
It's rare to find consensus on anything these days but I am completely sure that if you asked Australians, "would you prefer BOM spent ~$100 million on maintaining free flood warnings or on revamping their website" you would get total unanimity across the nation.

www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...
BoM move to axe free flood warning tool has ‘potentially deadly consequences’, Queensland councils say
Bureau of Meteorology says current system will be phased out as it no longer meets ‘cybersecurity, stability and resilience’ standards
www.theguardian.com

elisethomas.bsky.social
Elise Thomas @elisethomas.bsky.social · 2d
I was going to crack a joke about this but I'm actually too genuinely disgusted. Government spending on consultancies is obscene and a crime against Australian taxpayers. Hire your own people, do it in-house, it'll be cheaper and you'll retain the capability. www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...
BoM asked to explain ‘what happened here’ after cost of website redesign revealed to be $96.5m
Environment minister Murray Watt ‘not happy’ with cost blowout and has shared concerns with new Bureau of Meteorology boss
www.theguardian.com

Reposted by Joe R. Feagin, Simon Lester, Elise Thomas

marisakabas.bsky.social
Marisa Kabas @marisakabas.bsky.social · 2d
“we need to be nicer to men” bro they didn’t let women have their own credit cards til 50 years ago

Reposted by Elise Thomas

ruthdeyermond.bsky.social
Ruth Deyermond @ruthdeyermond.bsky.social · 2d
Have been thinking about comments from people saying the "peace plan" also includes things that Russia won't like, and citing the use of Russia's frozen assets for reconstruction of Ukraine. But nothing in the plan says the money couldn't be spent in Russian-occupied Ukraine.

Reposted by David Darmofal, Elise Thomas

ms-rg.bsky.social
Ms. RG @ms-rg.bsky.social · 3d
A very good piece. “The fact that many men believe they no longer even have to pretend to respect women in order to participate in public life makes it unlikely that anything will change anytime soon.”
President Piggy
This is what consequence-free misogyny looks like.
www.theatlantic.com

elisethomas.bsky.social
Elise Thomas @elisethomas.bsky.social · 3d
www.reuters.com/investigatio...
Meta is earning a fortune on a deluge of fraudulent ads, documents show
Meta projected 10% of its 2024 revenue would come from ads for scams and banned goods, and it internally estimates that its platforms show users 15 billion scam ads a day, company documents show.
www.reuters.com

elisethomas.bsky.social
Elise Thomas @elisethomas.bsky.social · 3d
"10% of our revenue will come from criminals paying us for access to our customers" is an astonishing thing to put in writing
henrymance.ft.com Henry Mance @henrymance.ft.com · 3d
"Meta internally projected late last year that it would earn about 10 per cent of its overall annual revenue — or $16bn — from running advertising for scams and banned goods, internal company documents show" - Reuters www.ft.com/content/4560...
We have to be able to hold tech platforms accountable for fraud
Algorithms ensure that people who click on scams are likely to see more of them
www.ft.com

Reposted by Jan W. Mueller, Mark Petticrew, Gerald Friedman , and 2 more

henrymance.ft.com
Henry Mance @henrymance.ft.com · 3d
"Meta internally projected late last year that it would earn about 10 per cent of its overall annual revenue — or $16bn — from running advertising for scams and banned goods, internal company documents show" - Reuters www.ft.com/content/4560...
We have to be able to hold tech platforms accountable for fraud
Algorithms ensure that people who click on scams are likely to see more of them
www.ft.com

elisethomas.bsky.social
Elise Thomas @elisethomas.bsky.social · 4d
The sheer venality

elisethomas.bsky.social
Elise Thomas @elisethomas.bsky.social · 4d
This is gobsmacking.

Reposted by Elise Thomas

financialtimes.com
Financial Times @financialtimes.com · 4d
Annotated: the full text of Trump’s 28-point Ukraine-Russia peace plan on.ft.com/3XtPapn
Annotated: the full text of Trump’s 28-point Ukraine-Russia peace plan
Draft agreement has shocked Europe and is unlikely to satisfy Kyiv or Moscow
on.ft.com

Reposted by Meredith Broussard, James M. Bullock, Elena Litchman , and 20 more

us.theconversation.com
The Conversation U.S. @us.theconversation.com · 4d
Relying on ChatGPT to teach you about a topic leaves you with shallower knowledge than Googling and reading about it, according to new research that compared what more than 10,000 people knew after using one method or the other.

Shared by @gizmodo.com: buff.ly/yAAHtHq

elisethomas.bsky.social
Elise Thomas @elisethomas.bsky.social · 4d
He did just suggest that Ukraine resolve the whole invasion shebang by just leasing a chunk of its country to Russia, also.

elisethomas.bsky.social
Elise Thomas @elisethomas.bsky.social · 6d
I mean bsky.app/profile/esgh...
esghound.com Rude Law Dog @esghound.com · 6d
hahahahaha

elisethomas.bsky.social
Elise Thomas @elisethomas.bsky.social · 6d
I can’t decide what would be funnier, if Musk had an actual conversation with his employees about how their AI needed to extol his own personal physical hotness, or if they just did it on their own hoping the boss would like it.
esghound.com Rude Law Dog @esghound.com · 6d
oh my god i take it back, grok is amazing

Reposted by Manuel Puppis, Elise Thomas

esghound.com
Rude Law Dog @esghound.com · 6d
hahahahaha

Reposted by Rebecca Solnit, Brendan Nyhan, Steve Peers , and 2 more

esghound.com
Rude Law Dog @esghound.com · 6d
oh my god i take it back, grok is amazing

elisethomas.bsky.social
Elise Thomas @elisethomas.bsky.social · 6d
Why would a bank hire a thief to run a payments company?

This was the question which I kept returning to while investigating the massive Russian sanctions evasion network, A7.

I think I worked it out. Here's me in @lawfaremedia.org www.lawfaremedia.org/article/to-e...
To Evade Sanctions, the Kremlin Turns to a Convicted Money Launderer
Ilan Shor claims his Russian sanctions evasion network, A7, has moved $86 billion. Here’s how—and what can be done to stop it.
www.lawfaremedia.org

elisethomas.bsky.social
Elise Thomas @elisethomas.bsky.social · 6d
Surely this is just the animals working out that buttons = attention

Reposted by Elise Thomas

lawfaremedia.org
Lawfare @lawfaremedia.org · 7d
In her latest investigation, @elisethomas.bsky.social found that A7, a Russian cross-border payments service run by convicted criminal fraudster and money launderer Ilan Shor, has helped the Kremlin work to avoid sanctions—and looked at what can be done about it.
To Evade Sanctions, the Kremlin Turns to a Convicted Money Launderer
Ilan Shor claims his Russian sanctions evasion network, A7, has moved $86 billion. Here’s how—and what can be done to stop it.
www.lawfaremedia.org

elisethomas.bsky.social
Elise Thomas @elisethomas.bsky.social · 7d
How cooked are we when even the banks are like “we’re making too much money off house prices”

Reposted by Elise Thomas

reuters.com
Reuters @reuters.com · 7d
Commonwealth Bank, Australia's biggest lender, says home loan demand is too high reut.rs/4oMXbBN
Commonwealth Bank, Australia's biggest lender, says home loan demand is too high
Commonwealth Bank of Australia , the country's largest lender, believes demand for home loans is too high and is helping to push property prices up, Chief Executive Matt Comyn said on Tuesday.
reut.rs

elisethomas.bsky.social
Elise Thomas @elisethomas.bsky.social · 7d
Cool cool seems legit tass.com/society/2044...

elisethomas.bsky.social
Elise Thomas @elisethomas.bsky.social · 8d
A small side note but I love how he keeps emphasizing the ages of her other men - 34 and 32 years older than her! Compared to his mere and youthful 19 years older than her! Outrageous.

Reposted by Elise Thomas

atrupar.com
Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 8d
Trump: "They saw a lot of unbelievable activity at the McDonald's next to the base where they take off. The McDonald's was doing -- right? -- 5 times, they were going crazy. So they say 'there's something going on over there.' The biggest activity that McDonald's had ever had. It was a nice story."