The News Not Noise Letter: Bad News for Giuliani
A bad day in court for Rudy Giuliani and a good one for Prince Harry; plus, the US agrees the war in Gaza will last months and an interview with an expert in online extremism.
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Today we lead with news involving Giuliani, abortion and the biggest developments from the war in Gaza. At the end of this newsletter we’re including an interview with Sasha Havlicek, an expert in online extremism.
Here are this week’s biggest headlines:
Giuliani Must Pay: Former Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani must pay $148 million in damages for defaming two Georgia poll workers, mother and daughter Ruby Freeman and Wandrea ArShaye “Shaye” Moss. Giuliani falsely claimed that they participated in a scheme to steal the 2020 election – he was found liable for defamation in August. The award far exceeds the amount the plaintiffs initially sought, which was less than $50 million. CNN reports even the judge seemed surprised by the figure.
Impeachment Inquiry & Hunter Biden: The AP published a new investigation finding Rep. James Comer, the Republican leading the investigation into Hunter Biden, has his own shell company. This, as the House voted on party lines to formalize the impeachment inquiry into President Biden and whether he benefited from his son Hunter’s business dealings. Some Senate Republicans say they haven’t seen “any evidence” to justify the inquiry. Also this week, Hunter Biden, defied a subpoena from the House, insisting he’d be happy to testify in public but won’t comply with their demand to grill him behind closed doors. With the impeachment vote, the House will have the power to enforce its subpoena.
Harry vs Tabloids: Prince Harry won a case against a major British tabloid publisher. The London High Court ruled the tabloids illegally hacked Harry’s voicemail between 2003-2009 and that Harry-and-Meghan-nemesis Piers Morgan knew (he denies this).
SCOTUS 2024: The US Supreme Court agreed to hear two cases that could be major flashpoints in the 2024 election: one case will determine whether and to what extent women can access the abortion pill mifepristone, and the other will determine whether Jan. 6 rioters, including Donald Trump, can be prosecuted for disrupting Congress.
Texas Abortion Update: This week the Texas Supreme Court denied an abortion to Kate Cox, a 31-year-old mother whose fetus was diagnosed with a fatal condition. In Texas, abortions are technically allowed when a woman experiences a “medical emergency,” but the Court denied Cox’s request though she’d visited the emergency room four times in her 20-week pregnancy. She left Texas to get medical care out of state; read Cox’s op-ed here. Many doctors say they fear prosecution for performing medically necessary abortions in states hostile to abortion, and as a result women with painful, life-threatening conditions find themselves denied abortion care until they are on death’s door.
War in Gaza to Will Last Months, Transition: National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan has been meeting with leaders in Saudi Arabia, Israel, and the West Bank. Here’s news from his press conference from Jerusalem:
War Plans: Sullivan said the US agrees with Israeli officials that the war will last months, not weeks. But he said it will transition from the current “high intensity phase with ongoing ground operations” to a phase “focused in more precise ways on targeting [Hamas] leadership and intelligence driven operations,” which should lead to significantly fewer civilian deaths. Axios reports Sullivan told Israel that shift should happen within weeks.
Civilian Deaths: The US is encouraging Israel to use different tactics and munitions in Gaza to better distinguish between Hamas and civilians.
Day After: The US believes the Palestinian Authority must be “revamped and revitalized…” if it’s to govern the Palestinian people after the war. Sullivan said he and PA President Mahmoud Abbas discussed increasing humanitarian aid for Gaza, “enhancing the protection of civilians,” and a path to a two-state solution.
Saudi Arabia’s Role: Sullivan also met Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Salman. I’ll share my reporting here: multiple current and former senior US officials tell me the Saudis remain committed to normalization and privately support Israel’s war against Hamas, though that’s not a position they take publicly.
Second Gaza Border Crossing Opens: Israel is temporarily opening the Kerem Shalom border – from Israel to Gaza – to allow increased delivery of humanitarian aid. It has greater capacity than the Rafah crossing into Egypt and should speed delivery of aid to Gazans in the South; keep in mind many Gazans are still in the North despite evacuation orders. Sullivan said, “we welcome this significant step” and that President Biden made this request of PM Netanyahu personally.
Humanitarian Updates: The WHO reports “increased rates of infectious diseases” among Palestinian civilians in Gaza and over 50,000 patients hospitalized in just 14 partially-functional hospitals.
Hostages Killed: The IDF announced Israeli soldiers mistakenly shot and killed three Israeli hostages in Gaza. They were men ages 19, 26, and 29. The IDF said, “...the three fled or were abandoned by terrorists who held them captive. There was a tragic error here that we will investigate fully.” The IDF also recovered the bodies of five additional hostages – two on Tuesday and three on Friday. At time of writing, 110 hostages have been freed, and an estimated 130 hostages remain in Gaza – at least 20 of whom are believed dead.
Ukraine in the Lurch: These are worrying days for Ukraine. War funding from both the US and EU remains stalled. In the US, Republicans are demanding major concessions on border security. And in the EU, Putin ally and Hungarian PM Viktor Orban is blocking approval. The (very faint) silver lining: the EU agreed to begin talks on extending membership to Ukraine – but this process takes years.
Putin Critic Missing: Lawyers for imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, say they have not seen him for over a week. The Russian prison system explains Navalny is being transferred to another prison. That can take weeks. The timing is notable: Putin just announced plans to “seek” another term as president. We’ll keep you posted on Navalny.
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Combating Extremism Online with the Institute for Strategic Dialogue
There’s so much misinformation and disinformation online right now, it can be challenging to determine what’s real, what’s fake, and what’s coming from hostile states like Iran and Russia (the answer might surprise you.) I spoke with Sasha Havlicek, Cofounder and CEO of the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD). ISD has been analyzing and responding to extremism since 2006 — a decade before this was headline news. You can check out ISD’s work here.
In this excerpt, Havlicek talks about the sudden and enormous surge in online hate and terrorist content since 10/7, and how tech giants have – and haven’t – responded:
Paid subscribers, check out the full video at the bottom of this newsletter. In the full conversation, we talked about the explosion of hate and misinformation, Russia and Iran’s roles, and how governments, companies, and you can respond.
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