The COVID-19 pandemic has caused unique societal stress as governments worldwide and their citizens have struggled to work together to contain the virus and mitigate its economic impact. This has been a trying time for democracies, testing the capacity of democratic governance to mobilise state and citizenry to work together. It has also tested the integrity of open information environments and the ability of these environments to deal with the overlapping challenges of disinformation, misinformation, election interference and cyber-enabled foreign interference.
This essay will analyse some of these emerging challenges while looking at both state and non-state actors manipulating the global information environment, with a particular focus on the Chinese state’s rapidly expanding interference and disinformation efforts. It also includes a series of recommendations for policymakers around the world.
Newton County Sheriff Billy Rowles said Monday that five people went to jail, but several more escaped into the woods when he and his deputies raided a dog fight.
Rowles said the department received information about a dog fight occurring in the Call Community. However, Rowles said they arrived just a little too early and found that the dogs were still in cages in the back of pickup trucks.
According to Rowles, numerous people began fleeing on foot into the woods, but they managed to catch a few of them.
Their names have not yet been released.
In March 2019, Candi McKee s car was found burned in the Call Community in Newton County, TX. McKee s body was found in the Sabine River.
Kevin Bylerly of Newton, TX, was accused of stabbing her to death and dumping her body under the Highway 63 bridge at Burr Ferry, TX, between Burkeville, TX, and Leesville, LA.
The investigation revealed McKee had just broken off a relationship with Byerly a few days before.
Byerley was in the District Courtroom in Jasper Country yesterday. His guilty plea and sentencing of 50-years in prison came shortly after 2:00 p.m.
As part of the deal struck between the prosecution and defense, Byerly also pleaded guilty to an indictment charging him with Indecency with a Child in an unrelated incident that was alleged to have occurred in May of 2018.