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Trump himself was prone to bizarre conspiracy theories, including the absurd notion that President Obama had been born in Kenya and not the United States.Ī flood of false news on the Internet has made even that seem mundane. False news stories emanating from a wide variety of sites, including Macedonia, may have contributed even more to the election outcome than the leaked emails. In the US, it only required a barrage of social media altering a percentage point or two of the vote in critical swing states to shift the electoral college in Trump’s favour. In today’s computerized modern world, the effects can be much subtler. In the old days, Soviet disinformation was a well-established practice. No one has suggested that Trump is actually working for the Russians, but it is obvious that Moscow has a great deal to gain if it can convince Trump to weaken American policy by disrupting commitments to NATO and abruptly overturning long standing relationships. The story focused on the son of a politically powerful family who is brainwashed into becoming a presidential candidate while he is in fact an unwitting agent for a foreign power. The suggestion of foreign intervention recalls the Manchurian candidate, a Richard Condon spy novel, which was turned into a Hollywood blockbuster in 1962 and updated in 2004, with Denzel Washington in the starring role. McConnell’s colleagues may not be so forgiving. Mitch McConnell, the senate majority leader, was secretly briefed on the Russian interference early on but dismissed the connection as largely circumstantial. Given the traditional Republican caveat against going soft on Communism, the unexpected help from Moscow is embarrassing to say the least. The prospect of releasing the information has nevertheless put the Republicans in a tough spot.
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Obama says he doesn’t expect the report to affect the election outcome. Pressure from the Senate, and particularly from Lindsay Graham, a Republican senator from South Carolina, has now convinced Obama to demand a report on alleged Russian intervention to be completed before he leaves office on January 20. President Barack Obama was clearly reluctant to release the information during the campaign, fearing that it might be dismissed as an administration attempt to influence the election.
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They were provided to Wikileaks through a series of cutouts, but intelligence agencies have reason to believe that the campaign had its roots in the Kremlin. The actual contents of the emails may have been altered to make them even more politically damaging. The primary vehicle appears to have been the staged release of some 30,000 stolen emails via Wikileaks, which ended up serving as an information laundromat. Norton made clear he was not a eremite, obsessional writer focused entirely on a definitive project, but let the work mature in its own time.False news and conspiracy theories are so rampant these days that it is hard to know what to believe, yet US intelligence authorities are now clearly convinced that Russia actively attempted to help Trump win the US presidency. The actor initially decided to make the film in 1999 – the same year as Fight Club was released – but has happily been frustrated in the passion project by offers from notable directors. Norton spoke to PA news agency ahead of the UK release of Motherless Brooklyn, which follows a detective with Tourette syndrome as he investigates the death of a friend. “I think sometimes those films are best when we’re feeling it, when we’re feeling very uncomfortable about what’s going on, out of sight from us.” He added: “Post-2016, post-Brexit, the idea of the danger of power being in place that we can’t see, of people who are inclined from their positions of power to view other people as invisible, these are timeless themes of noir, what goes on in the shadows. Writer, director and leading man Norton said of Mr Trump’s tenure: “I call this The Manchurian Candidate presidency.” He said the two-decade preparation for the film meant it arrived after the the Brexit referendum and the US election, making its themes more relevant.
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Norton spoke after starring in the modern noir Motherless Brooklyn, playing an outsider tackling the potency of secretive power. The actor also said the post-Brexit era was primed for the shady, power-hungry themes of classic film noir. Leading man Norton has said there are comparisons to be made with the presidency of Mr Trump.