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Lighthouse Reports

@lighthousereports.com

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Radically collaborative journalism. Working with the world’s leading media on deeply reported, public interest investigations. http://bit.ly/LHR-newsletter

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Lighthouse Reports @lighthousereports.com · Sep 11

When Assad’s security state collapsed, locked doors opened, spilling decades of secrets.

Among them: 100s of stolen children, hidden in orphanages & used to blackmail parents. We’ve done the deepest dive yet into this cruel system. Here’s what we found 🧵

www.lighthousereports.com/investigatio...

Syria’s Stolen Children

Under the Assad regime, hundreds of Syrian children were hidden in orphanages to extort their parents. Families still have few answers from the new government or the international charity that kept it...

www.lighthousereports.com

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Lighthouse Reports @lighthousereports.com · 5h

In Norway, NRK’s @cbjoerke.bsky.social shows how Altamides zeroed in on a top telecom executive

NRK avslører: Tidligere Telenor-topp blant tusenvis utsatt for sporing

Mobilen hans var skrudd på. Det var alt som skulle til for å finne ut hvor Telenor-topp Sigve Brekkes telefon befant seg.

www.nrk.no

Lighthouse Reports @lighthousereports.com · 5h

In Austria, @laurinlorenz.bsky.social @derstandard.at found a spate of tracking at Red Bull, which employees described as “eerie and shocking” and “a disgrace”

Big Brother aus Österreich: Die Firma, die Handys weltweit überwachte

Eine verdeckte Recherche legt offen, wie mit der Technik eines deutsch-österreichischen Unternehmens Politiker, Journalisten und Prominente getrackt wurden

www.derstandard.at

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Lighthouse Reports @lighthousereports.com · 5h

In Indonesia, First Wap’s base, Raymundus Rikang reports for Tempo on people targeted for political activities

Investigasi: Jejak Pelacakan Nomor Telepon Aktivis dan Tokoh Publik

First Wap melacak belasan ribu nomor telepon aktivis dan tokoh publik. Kolaborasi Tempo dan Lighthouse Reports.

www.tempo.co

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Lighthouse Reports @lighthousereports.com · 5h

ZDF Frontal explores how Italian investigative reporter Gianluigi Nuzzi was heavily tracked as he released an explosive book on Vatican corruption, with his locations presented to pope’s police force

Heimlich überwacht? Dein Handy als Spion | frontal

YouTube video by frontal

www.youtube.com

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Lighthouse Reports @lighthousereports.com · 5h

The firm says its tech is used by law enforcement to fight crime & it has no knowledge of its use after installation. It says it doesn’t do business with sanctioned clients

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Lighthouse Reports @lighthousereports.com · 5h

First Wap’s tech proliferated beyond legal boundaries. @gabrielgeiger.bsky.social & @cr0ft0n.bsky.social found how a UK corporate investigation firm used it to dig dirt for private clients while a Russian businesswoman was stalked by her driving instructor

The surveillance empire that tracked world leaders, a Vatican enemy, and maybe you

Inside the hidden world of First Wap, whose untraceable tech has targeted politicians, journalists, celebrities, and activists around the globe.

www.motherjones.com

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Lighthouse Reports @lighthousereports.com · 5h

Ex-employees told us there were no red lines. We went undercover to the world’s biggest spy trade fair. On hidden camera, First Wap execs explained how a mining company could use their tool to monitor eco-activists & laughed about breaking sanctions

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Lighthouse Reports @lighthousereports.com · 5h

Targets incl: Asmaa al-Assad, wife of Bashar, Hollywood star Jared Leto, Blackwater founder Erik Prince, Austropop star Wolfgang Ambros, 23andMe co-founder Anne Wojcicki, an ex PM of Qatar & an editor at Indonesian media partner Tempo.

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Lighthouse Reports @lighthousereports.com · 5h

We analysed 1.5m rows of data, and with 13 partners spoke to 100+ victims, obtained confidential docs, showing use by authoritarian govts and corporations. Stories in the data stretched from Red Bull to Rwanda

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Lighthouse Reports @lighthousereports.com · 5h

We started with an unprecedented trove of data from the deep web. When decoded it contained 1,000s of phone numbers of journalists, activists, businesspeople, politicians. All with times, dates & locations

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Lighthouse Reports @lighthousereports.com · 5h

Surveillance Secrets breaks the story of a European-led phone tracking firm whose hidden history rewrites what we thought we knew, spilling all over the world from the Vatican to Silicon Valley, led by @lighthousereports.com & @papertrailmedia.de

Surveillance Secrets

Trove of surveillance data challenges what we thought we knew about location tracking tools, who they target and how far they have spread

www.lighthousereports.com

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Lighthouse Reports @lighthousereports.com · 5h

🧵What’s the biggest lie the surveillance industry tells? That they only sell to legal clients. That there are red lines. But what do these companies say when they think nobody is watching? We went undercover to find out

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Lighthouse Reports @lighthousereports.com · 21d

Read more, plus links to further reporting and credits, here www.lighthousereports.com/investigatio...

Blair and the Billionaire

Insiders reveal how Larry Ellison’s money turned Blair’s institute into a tech sales and lobbying operation for Oracle

www.lighthousereports.com

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Lighthouse Reports @lighthousereports.com · 21d

Another, Martin Akuagwuagwu, said TBI would push technology & AI solutions on countries with more fundamental issues to contend with

‘They have issues around hunger, poverty, mass unemployment – & we’re getting them to commit towards some fancy projects like using drones and AI’

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Lighthouse Reports @lighthousereports.com · 21d

Beyond Britain, ex TBI staff described a sea change in culture following Ellison's cash injection, w/ AI boosterism that silenced nuance & forced them to engage in ‘tech sales’ for Oracle

‘It felt icky,’ said one. Another said the focus became 'more tech, big tech, all the time’

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Lighthouse Reports @lighthousereports.com · 21d

Critics say this 'major influence operation' could culminate in US tech firms taking control of UK's most valuable data, the NHS

'This govt has failed to understand the value of Britain’s data.. they listen to what TBI says - and what Oracle wants,’ says Baroness Beeban Kidron

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Lighthouse Reports @lighthousereports.com · 21d

TBI staff have been brought into govt. Tom Westgarth was seconded to Dsit to work on the AI Opportunities Action Plan, with his salary paid by TBI

More recently, Kirsty Innes, who worked for TBI for 4 years, has been appointed special advisor for new tech secretary Liz Kendall

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Lighthouse Reports @lighthousereports.com · 21d

We reveal how TBI privately lobbied UK ministers for Oracle & had its policy proposals taken up by the govt

Correspondence obtained via FOI show meetings in which ministers seek advice on tech & AI from TBI staff, who in turn push Oracle’s interests

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Lighthouse Reports @lighthousereports.com · 21d

TBI has ballooned in recent yrs to 900+ staff across the globe, coinciding w/ a surge in funding from Ellison

TBI insists it operates separately from Oracle – but we found the 2 entities share board members & hold joint retreats. Ex TBI staff characterise the 2 as ‘inseparable’

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Lighthouse Reports @lighthousereports.com · 21d

Ellison, 81, described by Trump as ‘CEO of everything’, co-founded cloud computing giant Oracle & is now the world's 2nd richest man after only his friend Elon Musk

Since 2021, Ellison has donated or pledged £257m to the TBI

We spent months trying to find out what it bought him

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Lighthouse Reports @lighthousereports.com · 21d

By speaking to 29 Tony Blair Institute insiders & obtaining FOI docs, @lighthousereports.com & Democracy for Sale provide 1st insider account of TBI’s symbiotic relationship w/ Ellison & his firm Oracle – & how this has transformed Blair’s org into a vehicle for AI boosterism & ‘tech sales’

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Lighthouse Reports @lighthousereports.com · 21d

Revealed: How Tony Blair is lobbying on behalf of tech billionaire Larry Ellison

We expose former PM’s unprecedented influence over the UK govt & how this is shaped by the interests of his Institute’s largest donor & one of the world’s richest men www.newstatesman.com/politics/202...

Thread

Inside the Tony Blair Institute

Who really benefits from the former PM’s tech evangelism?

www.newstatesman.com

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Reposted by Lighthouse Reports

Fundación porCausa @porcausa.org · 29d

La policía francesa provocó decenas de ahogamientos al interceptar violentamente pequeñas embarcaciones que intentaban llegar al territorio de ultramar de Mayotte.
Nueva investigación coordinada por @lighthousereports.com
www.lighthousereports.com/investigatio...

“They hit us and watched us drown”

French police cause dozens of drownings with violent tactics against small boats trying to reach overseas territory Mayotte. Similar tactics are being proposed for the Channel.

www.lighthousereports.com

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Lighthouse Reports @lighthousereports.com · 28d

Read the story in English in the @thetimes.com www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/...

French police ‘illegally’ ram migrant boats in overseas territory

France has said it can’t intervene in the Channel but police routinely use deadly tactics to stop boats reaching the Indian Ocean island of Mayotte, an investigation found

www.thetimes.com

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Lighthouse Reports @lighthousereports.com · 29d

Watch the documentary on @artefr.bsky.social www.arte.tv/fr/videos/12...

Mayotte, la mer de tous les dangers - Une enquête en partenariat avec Lighthouse reports - Regarder le documentaire complet | ARTE

Le média d'investigation Lighthouse reports et un consortium de 5 médias européens - dont ARTE est partenaire - révèlent aujourd'hui les méthodes dangereuses et illégales de la police française au lar...

www.arte.tv

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