Elise Thomas

Sponsored Hate: How Politicians Paid for Meta Ads to Attack Journalists - VSquare.org Across the Visegrád countries, politicians have increasingly used paid social media ads to attack journalists, human rights activists, and civil society organizations.

💥🔎💰NEW INVESTIGATION: Across the Visegrád countries, politicians use paid social media ads to attack journalists, human rights activists, and NGOs – while Meta & Google profit from this #SponsoredHate. Such ads reach tens of thousands of users while evading platform moderation. @vsquare.bsky.social

Wi$h Li$t is extremely funny in the context of being written by a billionaire making five versions of the same album in an attempt to wring every last dollar out of her fans

Kremlin-backed crypto coin moves $6bn despite US sanctions A7A5 token enables Russian financial flows after Washington cracks down on related exchange

Relatedly, a @financialtimes.com investigation published today found that A7 has moved another ~$6 billion through A7A5 since new sanctions were imposed www.ft.com/content/5eff...

A7 Abroad: Sanctions evasion as a service A7, led by convicted fraudster Ilan Shor and backed by sanctioned Russian banks, claims to have moved over $86 billion in less than a year. CIR’s investigation details how A7 uses shell companies and ...

If you’re interested in sanctions evasion, money laundering, Russian foreign interference or the broader economic battle between Russia and the West, go check out the full report! www.info-res.org/reports/a7-a...

What’s different about A7, however, is that it’s officially backed by Russian state institutions and it’s trying to operate as a legitimate business within Russia while operating illicitly outside of Russia.

That, I think, may prove to be a fatal weakness – or could, with a little help.

I found this investigation fascinating from multiple angles. What they’ve created is essentially a money-laundering network along the lines of other large-scale Russian criminal money laundering networks investigated by @icij.org @occrp.org @frederikobermaier.com and others.

However, there are also some reasons to suspect that A7’s network may be being used in support of Russia’s broader geostrategic goals.

Primarily, A7 is geared towards enabling sanctions evasion and propping up Russia’s worsening economy. Putin’s personal involvement in the Vladivostok office opening underscores that this is a political as well as commercial endeavour.

The A7 leaks: The role of crypto in Russian sanctions evasion and election interference Discover how Russia-backed groups uses cryptocurrency to evade sanctions and interfere in elections, backed by insights from leaked data on Ilan Shor's operations and A7's crypto transactions.

All of the research in our report is based on OSINT. However, hacked A7 internal files published by Elliptic and others appear to confirm some of our findings. www.elliptic.co/blog/the-a7-...

Our investigation found that enabling trade with China while evading sanctions is a major focus of A7’s activity, making up roughly 78% of A7’s import payments.

We also found indications that the UAE and Kyrgyzstan appear to be used as key jurisdictions for A7’s operations.

A7A5 is only one of the ways in which A7 is moving money illicitly, or illegally, across borders. Our new investigation uncovers how A7 is using a network of shell companies around the world to move money via methods which are effectively forms of trade-based money laundering.

A7 claims to have moved about US$86 billion in less than a year, and has set up offices across Russia. In September, Putin himself officially opened A7’s new Vladivostok office to focus on Asian trade.

Weeks later, A7 also opened offices in Nigeria and Zimbabawe.

A7A5 is operated by A7, a Russian cross-border payment company owned by Moscow-backed Moldovan oligarch Ilan Shor and Russian state-owned military bank Promsvyazbank. A7 specifically advertises itself as a sanctions evasion service for international money flows.

A few months ago, we put out a report on A7A5, a cryptocurrency registered in Kyrgyzstan. The clear goal of this stablecoin pegged to the Russian rouble is to enable large-scale Russian sanctions evasion around the world. bsky.app/profile/elis...

A7 Abroad: Sanctions evasion as a service A7, led by convicted fraudster Ilan Shor and backed by sanctioned Russian banks, claims to have moved over $86 billion in less than a year. CIR’s investigation details how A7 uses shell companies and ...

New @cen4infores.bsky.social investigation: Sanctions, shell companies and Russian state-backed money laundering.

Here’s how Ilan Shor and the Kremlin are laundering tens of billions of dollars around the world.

www.info-res.org/reports/a7-a...

I think it hinges pretty heavily on what you mean by 'collapse.' As in, will it recede back to the status quo pre-Trump, probably not. Will it fracture into three or four chaotic factions in varying states of war or alliance with each other, probably yes, IMO.

Almost aspirational levels of pettiness here. I too would like a pillar erected to my personal gripes.

For displaying a Pride flag on his desk *last year*. Not even recently. Not even under the Trump administration.

The Albanian Prime Minister picked up on the theme of "ending the war between 'Aber-Baijan' and Albania." Edi Rama joked while greeting French President Emmanuel Macron and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.

I've also kept the West German oregano. It's what she would have wanted. Eventually my grandchildren can donate it to a museum or eat it and develop superpowers or something.

Ukraine warns of ‘critical’ situation as Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant left without external power for a week — Meduza The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in the Ukrainian city of Enerhodar, which is under Russian control, has been without external power for a week. Shelling cut it off from the grid, forcing…

Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, which is under Russian control, has been without external power for a week. “The generators and the plant were not designed for this,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned.
meduza.io/en/news/2025...

Property prices rise as buyers try to beat rush of first home buyers Home values have gained for the eighth month in a row. Experts warn that a rush of first home buyers signing up to the Home Guarantee Scheme will only fuel price growth.

Winners: investors, banks.

Losers: home buyers, taxpayers. www.abc.net.au/news/2025-10...

Some people remember their grandmothers through recipes or jewelry or beautiful family rituals.

I’m remembering mine by working my way through using the huge stash of stationery she stole from the work cupboard in the 1960s. This feels appropriate for us both.

oh my god

I have no context for this and yet immediately assume it is about the President of the United States on the basis that it's a thing he would do

Both sides of the YIMBY/NIMBY debate are just this tweet

If there's one thing we do well in this country, it's using government policy to enable massive transfers of wealth from millennials and Gen Z to boomers with investment properties.

It’s about to get easier to buy your first home as Australia’s first home guarantee expands The guarantee slashes the deposit requirements for a loan, reducing the savings wait time for people earning enough to pay off a home loan

Oh good, another scheme with the ultimate effect of raising house prices at the expense of young people and taxpayers. That's what the housing market really needs right now. www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

It’s 2025. Do you know how secure your newsroom is? "It was a lot easier, in some ways, for journalists back in the 80s and 90s, before all of these cloud platforms existed."

Journalists talk to colleagues on Slack, reach sources via phone, email, and messaging apps, and file in Google Docs.

But as the U.S. government ramps up its attacks on American journalism, it’s a good time to ask: How secure are the tools we take for granted?

www.niemanlab.org/2025/09/its-...

Let me pose the obvious question: why are US military officials showing their supposedly secret documents from months ago to Australian journalists right at this particular moment?

The obvious answer: they want to generate headlines like this, because they sense domestic pressure to dump AUKUS.