Month: October 2022

On Sunday, new Twitter owner Elon Musk tweeted and deleted a link to an article pushing an unfounded conspiracy theory about the attack on Paul Pelosi.  In the since deleted tweet responding to a tweet from Hillary Clinton, Musk wrote: “There is a tiny possibility there might be more to this story than meets the eye,” with a link to a story from the right-wing website Santa Monica Observer — a site that has pushed an anti-LGBT conspiracy theory regarding the attack.

Clinton had tweeted a link to a story in The Los Angeles Times about 42-year-old David Wayne DePape, the man suspected of beating House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband, Paul Pelosi, with a hammer inside the Pelosi’s San Francisco home on Friday. Clinton tweeted: “The Republican Party and its mouthpieces now regularly spread hate and deranged conspiracy theories. It is shocking, but not surprising, that violence is the result. As citizens, we must hold them accountable for their words and the actions that follow.”

DePape allegedly broke into the Pelosi’s home on Friday and was immediately apprehended by police and will be charged with attempted homicide, assault with a deadly weapon, elder abuse, burglary and several additional felonies, according to authorities.  A review of suspected social media posts by DePape shows him spreading conspiracy theories about Holocaust denial, pedophiles in the government, and claims that Democratic officials run child sex rings.

Musk’s deleted tweet was sent days after the Tesla CEO officially took control of the social media platform earlier this week after purchasing it for $44 billion. The tweet raises concerns about the type of content that will be allowed on the social media site under his control.

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Two American college students were identified Sunday as being among the 153 people killed in a stampede during Halloween festivities in Seoul, South Korea. Kennesaw State University student and Georgia native Steven Blesi, 20, was spending the semester studying abroad in the South Korean capital, and Anne Gieske, 20, a student in her third year at the University of Kentucky, died in the crowd surge Saturday night.

President Biden tweeted that he and first lady Jill Biden are “devastated to learn that at least two Americans are among so many who lost their lives in Seoul. Our hearts go out to their loved ones in this time of grief, and we continue to pray for the recovery of all who were injured.”

Bless and Gieske’s schools both issued statements confirming the deaths on Sunday. University of Kentucky President Eli Capilouto said in a letter to the community that Gieske was a nursing student in her junior year from Northern Kentucky, who had been studying abroad in South Korea for the semester.

The crowd surge is one of South Korea’s worst disaster in years. As of Sunday evening, officials put the death toll at 153 and the number of injured people at 133, and the death count could further rise as 37 of the injured people were listed in serious conditions. More than 80% of those killed were in their 20s and 30s, and at least four were teenagers.

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