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Life Just Got Much Worse for Alleged Palisades Fire Arsonist As Grand Jury Drops Major New Charges

Things just got a whole lot worse for the Uber driver charged with starting a fire that eventually led to the almost total destruction of the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles. The area still looks like a war zone as little reconstruction is underway despite some 6, 837 structures being burned and at least 12 people losing their lives (although some experts claim a much higher, unknown number may have perished due to health issues from smoke and chemical inhalation). It is officially the most expensive wildfire in U. S. history.

disinformationinternational relationslawmediaPolitics

BEST OF THE WEB: Pekka-philia: disgraced porn profiteer turned pro-Ukraine ‘disinfo expert’ could face legal action

Faux disinformation expert Pekka Kallioniemi gained notoriety by smearing critics of the Ukraine proxy war. Since being unmasked for peddling pornographic representations of minors, Kallioniemi has been caught promoting fraudulent KGB documents to slander a journalist as a Russian spy. In October 2024, mainstream Canadian defense journalist David Pugliese suffered “the political equivalent of a drive-by shooting,” according to a local publication called The Walrus. Citing alleged KGB documents, a prominent lawmaker accused Pugliese of being a longstanding Soviet/Russian spy during a parliamentary hearing on “disinformation.” Those files turned out to be blatant forgeries, but parliamentary privilege insulated the accuser from a defamation suit. However, the same protections do not apply to a self-proclaimed “disinformation expert” named Pekka Kallioniemi, who simultaneously promoted the fraudulent material.