The United States has directed every American embassy and consulate across the world to launch coordinated campaigns against foreign propaganda and endorses Elon Musk’s Twitter/X as an “innovative” tool to help do it.
The cable, signed by the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, on Monday and obtained by the Guardian, also suggests embassies and consulates work alongside the US military’s psychological operations unit to address the problem of rampant disinformation. It lays out a sweeping set of instructions for how embassy staff should push back against what it describes as coordinated foreign efforts to undermine American interests abroad.
The cable also endorses Musk’s platform X by name – specifically its Community Notes feature – as an “innovative” and “crowdsourced” instrument to cull disinformation in “countering anti-American propaganda operations without compromising free speech or privacy”.
It comes as the United States is at war with Iran, whose government has for decades operated one of the world’s most sophisticated and prolific state disinformation apparatuses, and as Russian and Chinese influence operations continue to target American allies across Europe, Asia and Latin America.
US directs its embassies to wage campaign against foreign ‘hostility’ – with Musk’s help
The cable, signed by the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, tells diplomatic offices to coordinate their work with “the Department of War’s Psychological Operations” – the military unit more commonly known as Miso, or Military Information Support Operations, formerly Psyop, which is part of the Pentagon.
Trump appears to relax de facto oil blockade on Cuba as Russian oil tanker arrives
Donald Trump has signalled a new flexibility in allowing oil into Cuba, hours before a Russian oil tanker under US sanctions arrived in the Caribbean island amid a de facto oil blockade imposed by Washington.
Speaking to reporters onboard Air Force One, the US president said: “If a country wants to send some oil into Cuba, right now, I have no problem whether it’s Russia or not.”
Trump to revoke protections for endangered species in Gulf of Mexico
Donald Trump is dispatching a so-called “God squad” of top officials to revoke protections for endangered species in the Gulf of Mexico, purportedly to protect national security by expanding oil and gas industry operations.
If successful, the administration may kill off dozens of protected species – from Rice’s whales and whooping cranes to sea turtles.
TSA employees receive back pay after Trump’s executive order
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) issued its employees back pay on Monday, after Donald Trump signed an order for them to be paid even as a partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security drags on, with no end in sight.
Trump threatens to ‘obliterate’ Iran’s energy grid if ceasefire not reached ‘shortly’
Donald Trump has threatened to “obliterate” Iran’s power stations and fresh water plants if Tehran does not agree to peace terms “shortly”, even as he claimed diplomatic progress in ending the war that was instigated by the US and Israel.
Two-year-old held by ICE sick and not getting adequate care, Democrat warns
A two-year-old detained in a family detention center in Dilley, Texas, is sick and not getting adequate help, said Joaquin Castro, a Democratic congressman from San Antonio. The boy, Kaleth, has a fever and is not eating the food served at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center, which Castro said detainees have complained of having mold and worms.
US judge calls aspects of new Pentagon press policy ‘weird’
Federal judge Paul Friedman seemed skeptical of the new press policy implemented by the Pentagon last week, calling aspects of it “weird” and Kafkaesque. Friedman struck down key aspects of the previously implemented Pentagon media policy on 20 March, but at the latest hearing on Monday stopped short of ruling on a motion filed by the New York Times to force compliance of his decision.
What else happened today:
Catching up? Here’s what happened Sunday 29 March.
