(NewsNation) — Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, told embattled Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y., he shouldn’t have attended the State of the Union address, much less positioned himself near the center of the House aisle to shake hands, slamming the New York Republican as “an embarrassment.”

Romney appeared to have a heated encounter with the disgraced first-term lawmaker as he walked down the aisle to take his seat for Biden’s address.

“I don’t know the exact words I said. He shouldn’t have been there. Look, he’s a sick puppy. He shouldn’t have been there,” Romney told reporters after the speech.

“I don’t think he ought to be in Congress, and he certainly shouldn’t be in the aisle trying to shake the hand of the president of the United States and dignitaries coming in. It’s an embarrassment,” he added.

“He says that he embellished his record. Look, ’embellishing’ is saying you get an A when you get an A-minus. Lying is saying you graduated from a college you didn’t even attend,” Romney said, knocking down Santos’ attempt to characterize his conduct. 

“He shouldn’t be in Congress, and they’re going to go through the process and hopefully get him out,” he added. “If he had any shame at all, he wouldn’t be there.”

Santos claimed he graduated from Baruch College and described himself as a star on the school’s volleyball team, but school officials have no record of his attending the institution and former team members don’t remember ever playing with him.  

The congressman later told the New York Post he was guilty of “embellishing” his resume. 

Romney said he didn’t hear Santos’ reply during their exchange, but Santos later punched back on Twitter.

“Hey @MittRomney just a reminder that you will NEVER be PRESIDENT!” he tweeted. 

Romney said he didn’t intend to confront Santos, but couldn’t avoid him. 

“He was standing right there in the aisle shaking hands with everybody,” he said. 

Asked if he was disappointed that Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., has yet to call on Santos to resign, Romney responded, “Yes.”

All of this comes as Santos is facing ethics complaints from fellow members of Congress, but the House Ethics Committee has not yet been organized for the next two years and thus cannot launch any potential investigation, an aide to McCarthy said on Tuesday.

“There’s no investigation, as the Ethics Committee hasn’t organized yet. But it has received complaints,” the spokesman said of the situation surrounding Santos, who has admitted he fabricated much of his resume.

Santos apologized for “embellishing” his resume but has rebuffed calls for his resignation from constituents and fellow New York state Republicans, saying he would vacate his seat only if he loses the next election, in 2024.

Last week, McCarthy said Santos had asked if he could recuse himself from his committee assignments while he works to clear up an ethics cloud.

Among other claims, Santos said he had degrees from New York University and Baruch College, despite neither institution having any record of his attending. He claimed to have worked at Goldman Sachs and Citigroup, which was also untrue.

Reuters contributed to this report

Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt has unveiled a new podcast with an unlikely co-host: Nick Cannon. The podcast is called 2 Hate Or Not 2 Hate.

Cannon, best known for acting in movies such as Drumline and hosting America’s Got Talent and The Masked Singer, infamously unleashed a torrent of antisemitic remarks on an episode of his podcast Cannon’s Class in 2020. Among the statements were praise for Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, promotion of conspiracy theories around the Rothschild family and saying that Black people are “the true Hebrews.” When he made the comments, Cannon was speaking to Professor Griff, the rapper famously fired from pioneering hip-hop group Public Enemy for making antisemitic statements in 1989. 

Cannon quickly apologized for the episode and met with a representative for the Simon Wiesenthal Center.  

In the inaugural episode of 2 Hate Or Not 2 Hate, Cannon said the idea for the podcast came from his having built a relationship with Greenblatt in the years since his remarks. In tweets promoting the podcast, Greenblatt repeatedly referred to Cannon as his “good friend.”

I’m excited to co-host the #2HateOrNot2Hate podcast with my good friend @NickCannon. We will have difficult but necessary dialogues about hate in each episode, joined by guests. Be sure to check it out & subscribe on your preferred podcast platform: https://t.co/iVixhsHCF3

— Jonathan Greenblatt (@JGreenblattADL) February 5, 2023

The pair said the goal of the podcast is not to police speech or engage in cancel culture, but to help guide people through thorny issues. 

“I think we’re in this moment now where our conversations are so charged, everything is so politicized. Issues of race, issues of faith, issues of gender, issues of identity. These are fissures and it seems like there’s a fuse that’s ready to explode,” said Greenblatt, adding he hopes the podcast will be a place to discuss those issues in a calm, constructive way. 

It’s unclear how much traction the podcast has gotten with listeners since its January launch. Podcast platforms such as Spotify do not release download or subscriber data for podcasts. On YouTube, the first episode has had fewer than 700 views in the three weeks since it was released. The most recent episode, released on Sunday, has only 191 views as of Wednesday morning. 

The ADL did not immediately reply to an email requesting comment.

The post 2 listen or not 2 listen? ADL chief launches new podcast with Nick Cannon appeared first on The Forward.

The art of cyber crime is in a constant state of flux and evolution. Simply staying on pace with these trends is a significant part of the CISO’s job.

Today’s modern CISO must ensure they are always prepared for the next big trend and remain ahead of adversaries.

As we begin to navigate 2023, the security landscape has transformed from a year ago, let alone a decade ago. The Russian invasion of Ukraine, emerging technologies like Web3 and AI, and new, post-pandemic ways of organizing the workforce have all led to significant shifts in the world of hacking.

In this article, we’ll look at how hacking is different in 2023, some of the key threats CISOs must contend with and some of the best defenses available.

What Does Modern Hacking Look Like? 

Before we start, it’s worth noting that even the term “hacker” has undergone some evolution over the years. Once largely associated with hostile actors, many security professionals now refer to themselves as hackers. The term “white hat hacker” also exists; this refers to hackers using the same methods as cyber criminals to carry out ethical tasks like pressure-testing security systems.

So what are the concrete ways hacking has changed today compared to five, ten and even twenty years ago? There are several significant trends to highlight that look set to dominate the cybersecurity conversation in 2023.

A Lower Barrier to Entry

In the past, threat actors needed highly developed skill sets honed over many years. Hacking, especially targeting high-level organizations with valuable assets, wasn’t something just anyone could do — the bar was set high.

Today, with the emergence and growth of DIY hacking kits and services — available in places like the dark web — even fairly low-skilled cyber criminals can inflict damage and successfully commit crimes. This is concerning news because it means the pool of potential attackers is soaring.

Taking Advantage of the Shift to Remote Work

Although the COVID-19 pandemic is now receding, many effects still linger. One of the most notable is the sustained shift to remote working patterns. While more remote work options come with great employee benefits such as work-life balance and productivity, this style of working also carries inherent security risks.

With millions of companies now operating either partially or fully remote, along with escalating levels of cloud adoption, security teams have the challenging task of defending sensitive information and assets. Employees access all this data from a wide range of locations — including unsafe wireless networks and even public places.

Emerging Technologies Will Play a Greater Role

Emerging technologies like blockchain, the internet of things and artificial intelligence are expected to play a more prominent role in our lives in 2023, making them a more attractive target for attackers.

We’ve already seen a number of high-profile attacks on Web3 infrastructures, like the 2022 hacking of the Binance exchange for $570 million. Threat actors can also turn new technologies to their own advantage; for example, by harnessing AI tools to automate their attacks and quickly identify easy targets.

Bigger Targets and Heavyweight Players

The invasion of Ukraine in early 2022 sparked a new era of geopolitics, shifting the cybersecurity landscape. Russia has been targeting critical infrastructure in Ukraine with cyberattacks. As tensions between the West and its adversaries reach the highest point in decades, it’s realistic to expect more such attacks against Western targets.

CISOs at all levels must prepare for attacks by nation-state actors, which could even target assets like regional power grids.

What Will Be the Most Popular Hacking Methods of 2023?

Which techniques will malicious actors use to achieve their goals in 2023? While it’s difficult to predict, we’ll likely see a continuation of recent trends. 

• Phishing. Despite  — or perhaps because of — its simplicity, phishing remains an extremely effective method for threat actors of all types. Tricking victims into sharing sensitive data, including company information, is a tried-and-tested attack vector that organizations must prepare for with widespread employee education and more robust password policies.

• DDoS attacks. Distributed Denial of Service attacks work by overwhelming the target’s servers with traffic, causing them to crash. In many cases, attackers are using cloud infrastructure to bolster their DDoS attacks.

• Ransomware. This method has been skyrocketing year over year and will probably trend upward in 2023. During an attack, malicious actors seize an organization or individual’s data, encrypt it and demand a ransom for its return. Ransomware can be devastating, leading to enormous financial losses and irreparable reputation damage.

• Targeting missing patches. Many threat actors are actively searching for security patches that organizations have failed to keep up to date. Then, they take advantage of those vulnerabilities. 

What Does Defense Against Hacking Look Like in 2023?

As hacking continues to evolve, so do the methods cybersecurity teams are deploying to combat those threats. 

Here are some of the key trends in defense against hacking to be aware of in 2023:

Automation and AI

AI is being harnessed by cyber criminals more and more, but when used correctly, it can also be a powerful tool for defense. AI algorithms are excellent at analyzing huge datasets and making accurate predictions about when and where attacks will take place, giving security teams a valuable advantage. 

According to research by IBM, companies that use AI and automation to defend against data breaches save an average of $3.05 million compared to those that don’t — a difference of 65.2%.

Secure Cloud Assets

As cloud assets and infrastructure become increasingly popular targets, companies will focus on defending in this area. Stricter security controls, greater enforcement of access requirements and better education and coordination between teams are all excellent places to start.

Make Cybersecurity a Priority

The past few years have seen a growing trend of organizations taking a much more focused approach to cybersecurity with company-wide education policies and growing cyber spending. 

As we enter 2023 and beyond, companies look certain to continue along this path, emphasizing security responsibility for everyone in the organization, not just security teams.

The post What CISOs Should Know About Hacking in 2023 appeared first on Security Intelligence.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York.

Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

• A former top Twitter official said the social network bent its rules for Trump’s 2019 racist tweet.
• At the time, Trump told four Democratic lawmakers of color to “go back” to the countries they came from.
• Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, one of the targets of the tweet, was clearly animated by what she learned.

Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Wednesday lit into complaints about anti-conservative bias on Twitter after a former Twitter employee testified that the social network changed its policies in 2019 to accommodate President Donald Trump’s racist tweets that told four Democratic congresswomen of color to “go back” to where they came from.

“My team made the recommendation that for the first time, we find Donald Trump in violation of Twitter’s policies and use the public interest interstitial,” former Twitter employee Anika Navaroli, who worked on the company’s content moderation team, testified to lawmakers. 

Ocasio-Cortez, who was one of the four congresswomen Trump was attacking, was clearly outraged over how the social network later decided to bend its policies to allow the president’s message. Navaroli testified that her team’s finding was overruled by Twitter’s vice president of trust and safety Del Harvey. 

“So much for bias against right-wing on Twitter,” Ocasio-Cortez said, concluding the line of questioning. 

—CSPAN (@cspan) February 8, 2023

 

Democrats and some Republicans criticized Trump for the 2019 tweet, which targeted “the Squad,” a group of progressive Democratic lawmakers composed of Reps. Rashida Tlaib, Ayanna Pressley, Ilhan Omar, and Ocasio-Cortez. What was particularly galling about Trump’s message is that he said the congresswomen “originally came from countries whose governments are a complete and total catastrophe.”

Navaroli also said that at the time Twitter included an example of using the phrase “go back to your country” in a list of banned language against immigrants. She said that this content moderation guidance was suddenly changed in the days after Trump’s tweet was allowed to stand unchanged. The recommendation had been for Trump’s tweets to be labeled but allowed to remain on the platform since he was a public figure.

Trump was mostly mistaken; three of the lawmakers were born in the US. While Omar fled Somalia as a child before becoming a naturalized citizen as a teenager. Regardless, there is a long and ugly history behind telling people of color to go back to another country.

House Republicans, who now hold a slight majority in the chamber, summoned Navaroli and other top former Twitter officials to testify before the House Oversight Committee about the social network’s handling of The New York Post’s initial report about Hunter Biden’s laptop. 

Twitter was repeatedly criticized for allowing Trump’s tweets to stand. Following the January 6, 2021 Capitol riot, the social network banned the president “due to the risk of further incitement of violence.” Elon Musk allowed Trump back on the platform after the Tesla CEO paid $44 billion to take over the company and make it private.

The now-former president has yet to use his account. Current Twitter representatives did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.

FG Trade/Getty Images

• In 2022, some states opted to give residents checks or tax rebates to offset the cost of inflation.
• Now, the IRS is looking into those payments and their taxability, and advising taxpayers who received them to wait on filing their federal returns.
• Waiting on guidance might mean taxpayers get refunds later, since they had to wait to file.

Last year, to offset rising costs, many states stepped in to give residents some extra money in their pockets. Now, it’s unclear whether those checks might lead to a surprise tax burden, and even the IRS isn’t sure.

In a statement on February 3, the agency said it was “aware of questions involving special tax refunds or payments made by states in 2022,” and said it was “working with state tax officials as quickly as possible to provide additional information and clarity for taxpayers.”

In the meantime, the filers who received checks should hit pause and wait to file their federal returns. The IRS said that, for filers who aren’t sure whether their state payments will be taxed, they recommend waiting until there’s more guidance.

“For taxpayers and tax preparers with questions, the best course of action is to wait for additional clarification on state payments rather than calling the IRS,” the IRS said in its statement. It also does not recommend submitting an amended return for 2022.

Insider reached out to the IRS to ask if it had any additional guidance; they did not immediately respond.

As the Wall Street Journal reports, that question of checks being taxable will particularly fall on the shoulders of Californians. By the state’s accounting, its Middle Class Tax Refund — which ranged from $350 to $1,050 — reached over 31 million taxpayers and dependents. The state distributed around 9.5 million debit cards, and made just under 7.2 million direct deposits; that adds up to over 16 million payments that could be affected by the IRS’ new guidance in California alone.

Per the Wall Street Journal, some confusion abounded after Californians who got over $600 received 1099-MISC tax reporting forms, which are typically used to report income from things like royalties or prizes. But, even so and despite the IRS’ guidance, H&R Block and TurboTax are still filing for taxpayers who received the payments, holding the belief that the checks from the state are not taxable, according to the Journal.

California isn’t alone in issuing one-off payments. At least 18 states sent out checks or offered rebates to some residents, with many citing high inflation and robust state coffers as reasons to distribute more.  

Now, though, that assistance might mean filers have to wait before they finish their taxes. For many, waiting to file is more than just putting off a burdensome task. It will also keep filers from their refund checks for longer, which, while likely to be smaller this year, are still an important economic lifeline for many. With the IRS still struggling against a backlog of returns, many filers in recent years found their checks delayed by months, leaving them scrambling to cover essential bills. And, with many states targeting their checks by income, that could mean lower-income residents will have to wait even longer before receiving a refund. 

Demetrius Haley is one of five former Memphis police officers charged with murder in Tyre Nichols’ death.

Memphis Police Department via AP

• Former Memphis officer Demetrius Haley never told Tyre Nichols why he was pulled over.
• Department records say Haley approached Nichols while talking on the phone in a black hoodie.
• He yelled profanities, despite no evidence that Nichols ever swore at or threatened officers.

When Tyre Nichols was pulled over at E. Raines and Ross roads in Memphis on January 7, a Memphis officer wearing a black hoodie jumped out of his unmarked car and approached him yelling profanities while talking on the phone, according to a police decertification record provided to Insider.

Then-officer Demetrius Haley, who has since been fired and charged with Nichols’ murder, never told the 29-year-old driver why he stopped his car, according to the records, which were provided to Insider in response to a public records request.

“You exited your unmarked vehicle stopped in an opposing traffic lane and you forced the driver out of his vehicle while using loud profanity and wearing a black sweatshirt hoodie over your head,” a statement of charges sent to Haley on January 14 reads. “You never told the driver the purpose of the vehicle stop or that he was under arrest.”

A day after Nichols’ beating, the department released a statement describing a “confrontation” with an alleged reckless driver, later identified as Tyre Nichols. Police Chief CJ Davis later said there was no evidence that Nichols ever drove recklessly.

Haley — who joined the department in August 2020 and was a member of the now-disbanded SCORPION unit — is one of the five officers charged with the murder of Nichols.

Haley, along with Tadarrius Bean, Justin Smith, Emmitt Martin III, and Desmond Mills Jr., pulled Nichols over less than 100 yards from his mother’s home on Jan. 7 and beat him so severely he died in the hospital three days later.

Nichols’ death and the release of the video of his brutal beating prompted national protests against police brutality and led to the disbandment of the SCORPION unit.

Within 20 days, the five officers were charged with murder. Two other officers have been on paid administrative leave, and seven remain under investigation by the department on internal charges. 

The Memphis police department’s internal charges against Haley, which resulted in his termination, said that Haley and the other officers were caught on body-worn camera making unprofessional comments, including “that muthafucka made me spray myself,” as they laughed and bragged about their involvement. 

“Your conversation and lack of concern for the injured subject was witnessed by a civilian who took photographs and cell phone video,” the report said.

There was no audio on the body camera that indicated Nichols ever used profanity or any violent threats toward the officers, according to the report.

“You also were on an active cell phone call where the person overheard the police encounter,” the record said. 

By the time of Nichols’ beating, Haley had already racked up a short list of departmental violations, including a failure to write up a use of force report after his colleague ripped a woman out of her car in 2021 just for laughing inside with her aunt. 

Video from the scene of Nichols’ killing showed the group of officers kicking, punching, and pepper spraying Nichols as he told them he was trying to get home and called out for his mom. 

An attorney for Martin had previously said that none of the officers intended for Nichols to die, but an attorney for Nichols’ family told Insider in Memphis that their “actions were designed to kill.” 

Sam Altman took at dig at Google’s search engine in a recent interview.

Ramin Talaie/Getty Images and Kimberly White/Getty Images for GLAAD

• OpenAI CEO Sam Altman called Google a “lethargic search monopoly” in an interview on Tuesday.
• Altman said he sees tremendous potential for his company’s AI technology to change the way people find information online.
• Google has said it’s own ChatGPT rival, Bard, will be coming to the public in a matter of weeks.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman took a subtle dig at Google, which he called a “lethargic search monopoly,” during an interview on Tuesday.

Altman said he sees tremendous upside to Microsoft’s decision to incorporate OpenAI’s technology into its search engine. Microsoft announced the integration of an AI language model into its “new Bing” search engine on Tuesday. It said the AI tool is “more powerful than ChatGPT.”

ChatGPT, which has generated headlines for its ability to do anything from write an essay to provide coding advice, is an AI chatbot that can answer questions in a clear, conversational manner.

“We’re going to discover what these new [search engine business] models can do, but if I were sitting on a lethargic search monopoly and had to think about a world where there was going to be a real challenge to the way that monetization of this works and new ad units, and maybe even a temporary downward pressure, I would not feel great about that,” Altman said in an interview with Ben Thompson in his newsletter Stratechery.

Microsoft CTO Kevin Scott told Stratechery he thinks the company is well positioned to sell the new technology to the masses, adding that the “search business that you have now is very different from the search business that we had twenty years ago,” when Google was just starting out.

“There’s so much value here, it’s inconceivable to me that we can’t figure out how to ring the cash register on it,” Altman said.

Though, the OpenAI CEO added it’s hard to say how Google will adapt to the technology.

A spokesperson for Google did not respond to a request for comment ahead of publication.

Google appears to be equally as concerned about maintaining its search dominance. Google’s search engine represented over 91% of the global search market in the past 12 months, while Bing accounted for about 3%, according to data from SimilarWeb. 

The company is sounding the alarm on ChatGPT. In December, Google reportedly issued a “code red” over the chatbot. Since the latest version of ChatGPT was released on November 30, Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Google and its parent company, Alphabet, has participated in several meetings around Google’s AI strategy in response to the threat the chatbot represents to the company’s search engine, The New York Times reported.

The company also called in Google cofounders Larry Page and Sergey Brin to help address the issue, the Times reported in January. Last week, Gmail creator Paul Buchheit warned that Google’s search business was only one to two years away from “total disruption” due to AI chatbots like ChatGPT.

Most recently, Google announced its plans on Monday to unveil its ChatGPT rival, Bard. Pichai said Bard was open to “trusted testers” and would open to the public in the coming weeks. Though, the chatbot took an early stumble out of the gate. On Wednesday, Google shares slumped more than 8% after Bard made a factual error in its first demo video.

By Reva Dhingra

The 7.8-magnitude earthquake that struck the Turkish-Syrian border on Sunday evening has leveled buildings and devastated communities across southeastern Turkey and northwestern Syria. While a complete picture of casualties will not be available for weeks, the death toll has already soared past 11,000. Every hour brings news of hundreds of more deaths, even as rescuers work tirelessly to pull survivors from the rubble.

In rebel-controlled northwestern Syria, the earthquake has wrought disaster on communities already devastated by over a decade of civil war. More than 4.1 million of the area’s 4.5 million population are dependent on humanitarian aid. Over 2.8 million people were already internally displaced from other parts of Syria — 1.7 million of whom were in some ways spared the worst of the earthquake by living in camps in situations of abject deprivation. Buildings across northwestern Syria were severely damaged before the earthquake by years of shelling by the Syrian government, and survivors of building collapses are being displaced to city streets and already overstretched IDP camps in freezing temperatures. Since early 2015, the border between Turkey and northwestern Syria has been effectively closed to refugees, meaning that communities displaced by the earthquake have nowhere to go.

Immediate international assistance for northern Syria is crucial, in both rebel-held and government-controlled areas hit by the earthquake such as Aleppo. Yet getting aid to northwestern Syria in particular has been stymied by political dynamics that have wasted crucial time needed to rescue survivors. Russian veto power at the U.N. Security Council has choked the flow of humanitarian aid to northwestern Syria to a single crossing, the roads to which have been heavily damaged by the earthquake and rendered impassable. While other crossings exist, they have yet to be opened three days after the earthquake. And Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s well-documented history of aid diversion has made Western governments wary of bending to pressure from the Syrian government to direct aid for northern Syria through regime authorities instead. Indeed, one of the first statements made by the Syrian government following the earthquake was to demand that all aid for the earthquake response be channeled through government authorities, even aid intended for areas outside of its control. The Syrian government has received support from countries including Russia, Iran, and a host of Arab countries who have sought normalization with the regime, though there is little evidence that this will reach rebel areas soon enough for rescues.

Instead, local humanitarian organizations already on the ground in northwestern Syria have effectively had to fend for themselves. Organizations such as the White Helmets, long accustomed to rescuing victims of bombings, have become largely responsible for rescue efforts, along with family members and friends of those trapped. Without the equipment or vehicles necessary for rescues, however, countless individuals are being lost who might’ve been saved with earlier interventions.

Across the globe, being in a conflict zone creates both heightened exposure to natural disasters and compounds their effects, particularly for already-displaced populations. A 2019 report by the Overseas Development Institute highlighted how communities displaced by violence in Colombia subsequently fell victim to deadly landslides after settling in a highly landslide-prone area. In the aftermath of the disaster, many survivors remained in the area, unable to return to their communities of origin.

In the case of earthquakes, it is impossible to predict exactly when they will strike again. Sunday’s earthquake was the strongest to hit the Turkish-Syrian border in almost a century. But the deep devastation has underscored that residents and IDPs in northwestern Syria will likely remain in damaged buildings and in dire humanitarian conditions because they simply have nowhere else to go. This situation requires concerted international efforts to facilitate assistance for search and rescue efforts and humanitarian aid as well as progress beyond the current disastrous status quo.

Immediately opening additional crossing points for international assistance to reach northwestern Syria is the first necessary step. Analysts have called for two crossings at the Turkish-northwestern Syria border to be opened as well as crossings from Kurdish-controlled northeastern Syria. With every minute these borders remain closed, hope diminishes for rescuing earthquake victims alive. Other analysts have called for exploring other aid delivery options, including potentially through regime areas even given the risks of aid co-optation.

Second, while facilitating expeditious search and rescue efforts, these expanded crossings must be used to coordinate shelter and assistance for newly displaced communities. Over 90% of Syrians in the northwest are reliant on humanitarian aid. A single crossing and the paltry level of aid that existed prior to the earthquake are insufficient to meet the population’s humanitarian needs. A widescale emergency shelter construction effort will be crucial in the coming weeks and months, particularly given freezing temperatures across the region.

Third, a concerted international funding effort needs to be made for earthquake survivors in both rebel-held and regime-held areas. Before the earthquake, Syrians were suffering the effects of economic implosion, regime bombardment, sanctions, and the infrastructural destruction of over a decade of war. In 2022, the response plan for Syria was less than 50% funded, and the Russian invasion of Ukraine has diverted global attention from other conflicts. Yet in government areas, international support for earthquake survivors will almost certainly be co-opted by the Syrian government, as it has done for a decade of relief efforts. And while the United States and other donors fund humanitarian relief in rebel-held northwestern Syria, analysts have pointed out that the approach was deeply unsustainable even prior to the earthquake disrupting the single humanitarian crossing. Navigating this environment while rapidly assisting earthquake survivors will require a determined diplomatic effort and political will that appear largely absent for the moment.

Finally, newly-homeless earthquake victims in northwestern Syria should be allowed to seek shelter in Turkey. Southeastern Turkey is suffering the devastating effects of the earthquake, with roads destroyed and countless buildings collapsed. But given access challenges to northwestern Syria and the ongoing Syrian regime shelling of earthquake-affected rebel areas, the border area would more easily serve as a hub for mobile and camp shelters and assistance for earthquake survivors of both countries. The Turkish public holds largely negative opinions toward the approximately 3.6 million Syrian refugees in Turkey, and politicians across the spectrum have argued that refugees should be repatriated. Erdoğan is also politically navigating the earthquake response within Turkey, and admitting refugees even temporarily would be unpopular. As such, this option may be politically infeasible. Yet the current situation necessitates a dramatic response and the option of safety for communities that have now suffered the devastating effects of both war and natural disaster. While the Turkish government is deeply stretched by the earthquake response in Turkey, it is also responsible to ensure international assistance gets to Syrian communities given its extensive military presence in northern Syria. At a minimum, if refugees are not being allowed into Turkey, Ankara needs to expand access to areas effectively controlled by the Turkish army in the north for displaced communities and support shelter coordination. As the international community responds, the needs of Syrians trapped in northwestern Syria as well as displaced in Turkey cannot be forgotten.

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Former President Donald Trump; Chrissy Teigen

Drew Angerer/Getty Images; Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP

• An ex-Twitter employee said Trump’s White House asked the company to take down a tweet.
• The expletive-filled tweet, written by Chrissy Teigen, insulted Trump.
• “They wanted it to come down because it was a derogatory statement,” the ex-official said.

President Donald Trump’s White House asked Twitter to take down a 2019 tweet posted by celebrity Chrissy Teigen that insulted him, a former employee at the social media company testified before a congressional committee on Wednesday.

“I do remember hearing that we had received a request from the White House to make sure that we evaluated this tweet, and that they wanted it to come down because it was a derogatory statement directed towards the president,” Anika Collier Navaroli, previously a senior expert on Twitter’s US Safety Policy Team, told lawmakers on the House Oversight Committee.

In the September 9, 2019 tweet, Teigen called Trump “a pussy ass bitch” — an apparent response to a Trump tweet roughly an hour before deriding Teigen’s husband, musician John Legend, as “boring” and her as his “filthy mouthed wife.”

Navaroli confirmed on Wednesday that Teigen’s expletive-filled tweet was what the White House asked to be removed, though Twitter declined the request.

The revelation came as the committee’s Republicans led a hearing titled, “Protecting Speech from Government Interference and Social Media Bias,” featuring testimony from Navaroli along with three former Twitter executives.

The hearing focused on how Twitter blocked the distribution of a 2020 New York Post story about emails claimed to be retrieved from a laptop belonging to Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden. Twitter executives had limited the story’s reach over concerns of a foreign disinformation campaign a month before the 2020 election, but later allowed the story to be shared and said the company mishandled the situation. Other news outlets, including The Washington Post and The New York Times, confirmed the New York Post’s reporting months later.

Conservatives have long claimed that social media platforms like Twitter are biased against them, censor their speech and favor liberals. At the start of Wednesday’s hearing, Chairman James Comer praised Twitter’s new CEO, Elon Musk, saying he brought to light the platform’s alleged suppression of conservative voices. 

—Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 9, 2019

—chrissy teigen (@chrissyteigen) September 9, 2019

Yet the GOP’s push to discuss alleged social media bias against conservatives seemingly backfired during Navaroli’s testimony about the Trump White House seeking to remove Teigen’s tweet.

“My, my, my, what happens when you hold a hearing and you can’t prove your point,” said Democratic Rep. Gerry Connolly of Virginia, who led the line of questioning toward Navaroli. 

Three of the four former Twitter officials also testified they had no evidence that Biden’s White House had ever asked the company to remove content. 

“But there’s plenty of evidence Donald J. Trump tried to do that,” Connolly said. “And if we’re gonna have a hearing about the misuse of social media and the intrusion of government in the content on social media, we’ve got an environment-rich target but it’s not Joe Biden. It’s Donald J. Trump.”

Teigen quickly reacted to the testimony on Wednesday, tweeting: “oh my god” with a laughing emoji. Trump’s office did not immediately return Insider’s request for comment.