Deluge

Meta anticipated earning about 10% of its total annual revenue, or $16 billion, from advertising for scams and banned items, according to internal documents reviewed by Reuters. The documents reveal that for at least three years, the company failed to stop a significant number of ads exposing its billions of users on Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp to fraudulent schemes, illegal casinos, and banned medical products. On average, around 15 billion “higher risk” scam ads, showing clear signs of fraud, were displayed daily on these platforms. Meta reportedly generates about $7 billion annually from these scam ads.

Many of these ads were linked to marketers flagged by Meta’s internal systems. However, the company only bans advertisers if fraud is at least 95% certain according to its systems. If less certain but still suspect, Meta imposes higher ad rates as a penalty instead of outright banning them. This approach aims to deter dubious advertisers without fully eliminating them. The company’s ad-personalization system also ensures that users who click on scam ads see more of them based on their interests.

The documents create an image of Meta grappling with the extent of abuse on its platforms while hesitating to take stronger actions that could impact its revenue. The acceptance of revenue from suspicious sources highlights a lack of oversight in the advertising industry, as noted by fraud expert Sandeep Abraham. Meta’s spokesperson, Andy Stone, counters that the documents provide a biased view and argues that the actual share of revenue from scam ads would be lower than estimated. He claimed the plan aimed to validate investments in combating fraud.

Stone mentioned that Meta has significantly reduced user reports of scam ads globally and removed millions of scam ad content in recent efforts. The company aims for major reductions in scam ads in the upcoming year. Despite this, internal research indicates that Meta’s platforms are central to the global fraud economy, with one presentation estimating they contribute to a third of all successful fraud in the U. S. Competitors were noted to have better systems to combat fraud.

As regulators step up pressure for stronger consumer protections, the documents reveal the U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating Meta for financial scam ads. In Britain, regulators identified Meta as the source of over half of the payment-related scam losses in 2023. The company has acknowledged that addressing illicit advertising may hurt its revenue.

Meta is investing heavily in technology and has plans for extensive capital expenditures in AI. CEO Mark Zuckerberg reassured investors that their advertising revenue can support these projects. The internal documents suggest a careful consideration of the financial impact of increasing measures against scam ads, indicating that while the company intends to reduce illicit revenue, it is wary of the potential business implications.

Despite planning to diminish scam ads’ revenue share, Meta is bracing for regulatory fines, estimating penalties that could reach up to $1 billion. However, these fines are viewed as comparatively minor against the income from scam ads, which already generates significant revenue. The leadership’s strategy shows a tendency to react to regulatory pressure rather than implementing proactive measures to vet advertisers effectively. Stone disputed claims that Meta’s policy is to act only under regulatory threat.

Meta has set limits on how much revenue it can afford to lose from actions against suspect advertisers. In early 2025, a document revealed that the team reviewing questionable ads was restricted to a loss of no more than 0.15% of company revenue, which equated to around $135 million from Meta’s total of $90 billion in the same period. A manager noted that this revenue cap included both scam ads and harmless ads that might be mistakenly blocked, indicating strict financial boundaries in their approach.

Under increasing pressure to manage scams more effectively, Meta’s executives proposed a moderate strategy to CEO Mark Zuckerberg in October 2024. Instead of a drastic approach, they suggested targeting countries where they anticipated regulatory action. Their goal was to reduce the revenue lost to scams, illegal gambling, and prohibited goods from approximately 10.1% in 2024 to 7.3% by the end of 2025, with further reductions planned for subsequent years.

A surge in online fraud was noted in 2022, when Meta uncovered a network of accounts pretending to be U. S. military members trying to scam Facebook users. Other scams, such as sextortion, were also rising. Yet, at that time, Meta invested little in automated systems to detect such scams and categorized them as a low-priority issue. Internal documents showed efforts were mainly focused on fraudsters impersonating celebrities, which threatened to alienate advertisers and users alike. However, layoffs at Meta affected the enforcement team, as many working on advertiser rights were let go, and resources shifted heavily toward virtual reality and AI projects.

Despite layoffs, Meta claimed to have increased its staff handling scam advertising. However, data from 2023 revealed that Meta was ignoring about 96% of valid scam reports filed by users, suggesting a significant gap in their response to customer concerns. The safety staff aimed to improve this by reducing the number of dismissed reports to no more than 75% in the future.

Instances of user frustration were evident, such as a recruiter for the Royal Canadian Air Force who lost access to her account after being hacked. Despite multiple reports to Meta, her account remained active, even sharing false cryptocurrency investment opportunities that defrauded her connections. Reports indicated that she had many people flag her account, but it took about a month before Meta finally removed it.

Meta refers to scams that do not involve paid ads as “organic,” which include free classified ads, fake dating profiles, and fraudulent medical claims. A report from December 2024 stated that users face approximately 22 billion organic scam attempts each day, alongside 15 billion scam ads, highlighting the company’s ongoing struggle to manage fraud effectively. Internal documents suggest that Meta’s efforts to police fraud are not capturing much of the scam activity occurring across its platforms.

In Singapore, police shared a list of 146 scams targeting local users, but Meta staff found that only 23% of these scams broke the platform’s policies. The remaining 77% went against the spirit of the rules but not the exact wording. Examples of unchecked scams included fake offers on designer clothes, false concert tickets, and job ads pretending to be from major tech firms. In one case, Meta discovered scam ads claiming to belong to the Canadian prime minister, yet the existing rules wouldn’t flag the account.

Even when advertisers are found to be scamming, the rules can be lenient. Small advertisers need to be flagged for scams eight times before being blocked, while larger ones can have over 500 complaints without being shut down. Some scams generated significant revenue; for example, four removed ads were linked to $67 million monthly.

An employee initiated reports highlighting the “Scammiest Scammer” each week to raise awareness, but some flagged accounts remained active for months. Meta tried to deter scammers by charging them more in ad auctions, labeling this practice “penalty bids. ” Advertisers suspected of fraud would have to bid higher amounts, thus reducing competition for legitimate advertisers. Meta aimed to decrease scam ads from this approach, which showed some success, resulting in fewer scam reports and a slight dip in overall ad revenue.

With information from Reuters

Like a teenager armed with their first smartphone, President Trump’s masked immigration enforcers love nothing more than to mug for friendly cameras.

They gladly invite pseudo-filmmakers — some federal government workers, others conservative influencers or pro-Trump reporters — to embed during raids so they can capture every tamale lady agents slam onto the sidewalk, every protester they pelt with pepper balls, every tear gas canister used to clear away pesky activists. From that mayhem comes slickly produced videos that buttress the Trump administration’s claim that everyone involved in the push to boot illegal immigrants from the U.S. is a hero worthy of cinematic love.

But not everything that Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Border Patrol and its sister agencies do shows up in their approved rivers of reels.

Their propagandists aren’t highlighting the story of Jaime Alanís García, a Mexican farmworker who fell 30 feet to his death in Camarillo this summer while trying to escape one of the largest immigration raids in Southern California in decades.

They’re not making videos about 39-year-old Ismael Ayala-Uribe, an Orange County resident who moved to this country from Mexico as a 4-year-old and died in a Victorville hospital in September after spending weeks in ICE custody complaining about his health.

They’re not addressing how ICE raids led to the deaths of Josué Castro Rivera and Carlos Roberto Montoya, Central American nationals run over and killed by highway traffic in Virginia and Monrovia while fleeing in terror. Or what happened to Silverio Villegas González, shot dead in his car as he tried to speed away from two ICE agents in suburban Chicago.

Those men are just some of the 20-plus people who have died in 2025 while caught up in ICE’s machine — the deadliest year for the agency in two decades, per NPR.

Publicly, the Department of Homeland Security has described those incidents as “tragic” while assigning blame to everything but itself. For instance, a Homeland Security official told the Associated Press that Castro Rivera’s death was “a direct result of every politician, activist and reporter who continue to spread propaganda and misinformation about ICE’s mission and ways to avoid detention” — whatever the hell that means.

An ICE spokesperson asked for more time to respond to my request for comment, said “Thank you Sir” when I extended my deadline, then never got back to me. Whatever the response would’ve been, Trump’s deportation Leviathan looks like it’s about to get deadlier.

As reported by my colleagues Andrea Castillo and Rachel Uranga, his administration plans to get rid of more than half of ICE’s field office directors due to grumblings from the White House that the deportations that have swamped large swaths of the United States all year haven’t happened faster and in larger numbers.

Asked for comment, Tricia McLaughlin, Homeland Security assistant secretary for public affairs, described The Times’ questions as “sensationalism” and added “only the media would describe standard agency personnel changes as a ‘massive shakeup.’”

Agents are becoming more brazen as more of them get hired thanks to billions of dollars in new funds. In Oakland, one fired a chemical round into the face of a Christian pastor from just feet away. In Santa Ana, another pulled a gun from his waistband and pointed it at activists who had been trailing him from a distance in their car. In the Chicago area, a woman claimed a group of them fired pepper balls at her car even though her two young children were inside.

La migra knows they can act with impunity because they have the full-throated backing of the White House. Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller crowed on Fox News recently, “To all ICE officers: You have federal immunity in the conduct of your duties.”

That’s not actually true, but when have facts mattered to this presidency if it gets in the way of its apocalyptic goals?

Greg Bovino, El Centro Border Patrol sector chief, center, walks with federal agents near an ICE detention facility in Broadview, Ill.

(Erin Hooley / Associated Press)

Tasked with turning up the terror dial to 11 is Gregory Bovino, a longtime Border Patrol sector chief based out of El Centro, Calif., who started the year with a raid in Kern County so egregious that a federal judge slammed it as agents “walk[ing] up to people with brown skin and say[ing], ‘Give me your papers.’” A federal judge ordered him to check in with her every day for the foreseeable future after the Border Patrol tear-gassed a neighborhood in a Chicago suburb that was about to host its annual Halloween children’s parade (an appeals court has temporarily blocked the move).

Bovino now reports directly to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and is expected to pick most of the ICE field office directors from Customs and Border Protection, the arm of the federal government that the Border Patrol belongs to. It logged 180 immigrant deaths under its purview for the 2023 fiscal year, the last year for which stats are publicly available and the third straight year that the number had increased.

To put someone like Bovino in charge of executing Trump’s deportation plans is like gifting a gas refinery to an arsonist.

He’s constantly trying to channel the conquering ethos of Wild West, complete with a strutting posse of agents — some with cowboy hats — following him everywhere, white horses trailed by American flags for photo ops and constant shout-outs to “Ma and Pa America” when speaking to the media. When asked by a CBS News reporter recently when his self-titled “Mean Green Machine” would end its Chicago campaign — one that has seen armed troops march through downtown and man boats on the Chicago River like they were patrolling Baghdad — Bovino replied, “When all the illegal aliens [self-deport] and/or we arrest ‘em all.”

Such scorched-earth jibber-jabber underlines a deportation policy under which the possibility of death for those it pursues is baked into its foundation. ICE plans to hire dozens of healthcare workers — doctors, nurses, psychiatrists — in anticipation of Trump’s plans to build more detention camps, many slated for inhospitable locations like the so-called Alligator Alcatraz camp in the Florida Everglades. That was announced to the world on social media with an AI-generated image of grinning alligators wearing MAGA caps — as if the White House was salivating at the prospect of desperate people trying to escape only to find certain carnage.

In his CBS News interview, Bovino described the force his team has used in Chicago — where someone was shot and killed, a pastors got hit with pepper balls from high above and the sound of windshields broken by immigration agents looking to snatch someone from their cars is now part of the Windy City’s soundtrack — as “exemplary.” The Border Patrol’s peewee Patton added he felt his guys used “the least amount of force necessary to accomplish the mission. If someone strays into a pepper ball, then that’s on them.”

One shudders to think what Bovino thinks is excessive for la migra. With his powers now radically expanded, we’re about to find out.

Rains sweep away villages in worst-hit Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province as rescuers search for 150 missing people.

At least 20 people have been killed when new monsoon rains caused flooding in northwestern Pakistan, local officials say, as the region is ravaged by an unusually intense and deadly monsoon season.

“A cloudburst in the Gadoon area of Swabi completely destroyed several houses, killing more than 20 people,” a local official in the district told the AFP news agency on Monday. Local Pakistani media also reported on the latest deaths due to the flooding.

Three to five villages were wiped out by the huge amount of rain falling in a short period of time, a second official said, confirming the death toll in the worst-hit Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

The new deluge comes as rescuers continue to search for 150 people still missing in several districts across the province.

More soon.

A frantic search for survivors is under way in central Texas after flash floods killed at least 43 people, including 15 children.

Many were asleep when the Guadalupe River rose more than 26 ft (8m) in less than an hour in the early hours of Friday.

Officials in Kerr County have said 27 children are missing from a Christian youth camp located along the river. Some 850 people have been rescued so far.

Weather forecasts suggest that more rain and, potentially, more flooding could be on the horizon for the area.

Among the areas most severely hit by the floods were mobile homes, summer camps and camping sites where many had gathered for 4 July holiday celebrations.

At a press conference on Saturday afternoon, Texas Governor Greg Abbott said he had signed an expanded disaster declaration to boost search efforts.

He said officials would be relentless in ensuring they locate “every single person who’s been a victim of this event”, adding that “we will stop when job is completed”.

It remains a search and rescue mission, officials said, not a recovery effort.

They said rescuers were going up and down the Guadalupe River to try to find people who may have been swept away by the floods.

Much of the rescue has focused on a large all-girls Christian summer camp called Camp Mystic.

The camp, where 27 remain missing, is on the banks of the Guadalupe River near Hunt, Texas.

Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick told the BBC’s Radio 4 PM programme that of the 27 children missing from Camp Mystic “many of these girls are younger girls under the age of 12”.

He also said that many more people were likely to remain unaccounted for across the region, because some were visiting for the holiday weekend.

In an email to parents of the roughly 750 campers, Camp Mystic said that if they haven’t been contacted directly, their child is considered missing.

Some of the families have already stated publicly that their children were among those who were found dead.

US President Donald Trump has said his administration is working closely with local authorities to respond to the emergency.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the president was “devastated” by the loss of life and promised full federal support.

Noem joined Governor Abbott at Saturday afternoon’s press conference and said the federal government would soon be deploying the Coast Guard to help search efforts.

Elsewhere in central Texas, in Travis County, officials say another two people have died and 10 are missing because of the flooding.

Forecasters have warned that central Texas may see more flooding this weekend.

The National Weather Service (NWS) said the area could see 2 to 5in (5cm to 12cm) of rain on Saturday.

Up to 10in of rain was possible in some areas that are still reeling from Friday’s deluge.

Some parents were the lucky ones, having received confirmation on Friday morning that their children were safe.

They awaited their children’s return at the reunification centre.

Rachel Reed drove five hours from Dallas to pick up her daughter. She told the BBC that members of her church and children’s school district were among the girls dead and missing.

“The families of those campers are living every parents’ worst nightmare,” she said. “My heart is just broken for those families, just in pieces. Our whole community is just in pieces.”

“Of course,” she added, “it could have been me.”

Others started returning home in the flooded area, and the damage was enormous.

The floor of Anthony’s apartment in Kerrville was full of mud and debris. His refrigerator fell on the floor, and belongings were not salvageable, except a box holding childhood photos and his baby blanket.

“I lost everything I own,” he told the BBC.

Anthony had sought food supply from a Red Cross shelter; he said he had no family in the area.

“Now I’m trying to figure things out,” he said.

Flash floods triggered by heavy rains have devastated a central Nigerian state, killing at least 150 people and displacing thousands since Thursday, and rescue workers say the toll could rise.

Search and rescue operations are ongoing as roads have been damaged and homes destroyed while bodies are believed to have been swept down the Niger River.

Here is what to know about the floods and how prone Nigeria is to such events.

What areas in Nigeria are flooding?

Flash floods hit Mokwa, a market town located in Nigeria’s north-central Niger State. It followed intense rainfall that began about 3am (02:00 GMT) on Thursday, according to the Nigerian Red Cross Society.

Mokwa is a key meeting and transit point for traders from the south and food growers in the north. It is about 350km (217 miles) by road east of Nigeria’s capital, Abuja. Mokwa has an estimated population of 400,000 while Niger is the country’s fourth largest state by size, covering more area than Belgium or Switzerland.

How many people have died?

More than 150 people have been confirmed killed while rescue teams continue to recover bodies and search for missing people.

The actual death toll is likely higher as many victims are believed to have been swept down the Niger River, Al Jazeera’s Ahmed Idris said, reporting from Mokwa.

“The usual thing is when an official tells you 151 are dead or missing, you are likely to multiply that by two, three or four,” he said.

At least 3,018 people have been displaced, 265 houses destroyed and two bridges washed away in the floods, according to Ibrahim Audu Husseini, a spokesman for the Niger State Emergency Management Agency.

Of those injured, 121 were in hospital, and more than 100 people were missing, Gideon Adamu, head of the Red Cross in Niger State, told the AFP news agency on Saturday.

“We can’t give up the search as long as there are families crying out,” Adamu said.

Farida Auwalu, the lone survivor from a family of 16, lost seven children in the deluge. The bodies of four of Farida’s children have been found and buried.

“My hope is to see the remaining bodies and give them a decent burial and have closure,” she told Al Jazeera.

What caused the flooding in Nigeria?

Experts said the frequency and severity of floods in Nigeria have increased due to climate change, unregulated construction and poor drainage infrastructure.

Mokwa residents also believe the flooding was caused by “a bigger problem upstream, maybe a dam burst, but up to now, officials are not confirming that”, Idris said. Niger State has three major dams – Kainji, Jebba and Shiroro – while a fourth is under construction.

Despite flood risks being identified, there has been a lack of political will to implement the solutions for them, according to Ugonna Nkwunonwo, a flood risk analyst at the University of Nigeria. “The amount of rain you expect in a year could probably come in one or two months, and people are not prepared for that kind of rainfall,” he told Al Jazeera.

Many areas in the country lack proper drainage systems, and existing ones are often clogged with waste, causing water to accumulate on the streets during heavy rains. Additionally, rapid urban development without proper planning has led to the construction of buildings in flood-prone areas, reducing the land’s natural ability to absorb water. Deforestation for agriculture and development further reduces the land’s capacity to soak up rainfall, increasing the flow of water over the land.

Local leaders and residents are calling for state and federal authorities to intervene with long-term support and infrastructure to rebuild their communities and protect them from flooding.

“Warnings have been put out by authorities for people exposed or communities living along river banks to move to higher ground, especially when the rains start to peak, but every year, we continue to see more and more lives and property damaged because of rainfall,” Idris said.

How are authorities responding?

Emergency services – including the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), the Niger State Emergency Management Agency, the Nigerian Red Cross and local volunteers – are engaged in search and rescue operations.

President Bola Tinubu has also ordered an emergency response, including the provision of aid and temporary shelter.

“Search-and-rescue operations are ongoing, and all relevant federal agencies have been mobilised to support the state government’s efforts,” Tinubu wrote in a social media post on Saturday.

However, damaged roads and bridges have complicated rescue and recovery efforts.

Some flood survivors are struggling to get basic aid. “No one brought any money or food to help the victims. As you can see, many don’t have a place to sleep,” Hassan Umar told Al Jazeera in Mokwa.

A key bridge that connects the northern and southwestern parts of the country collapsed, leaving motorists stranded and disrupting movement of vehicles across the region.

What was the most recent natural disaster in Nigeria?

In September, severe flooding in the northwestern city of Maiduguri in Borno State submerged two-thirds of the city, killed at least 30 people and displaced nearly half a million.

More than 200 inmates also escaped from a flood-damaged prison. The disaster was triggered by weeks of intense rainfall and the collapse of the Alau dam in northeastern Nigeria.

Across the country in 2024, flooding killed more than 1,200 people and displaced 1.2 million in at least 31 of 36 states, according to NEMA.

Which states in Nigeria are prone to flooding?

The Nigerian Meteorological Agency has warned of possible flash floods in 15 of Nigeria’s 36 states, including Niger, from Wednesday to Friday.

In the south, low-lying states like Bayelsa, Rivers and Delta in the Niger Delta region experience frequent flooding due to their coastal locations. In the north, Kogi, Benue and Borno states are also prone to floods because they are on major rivers.

The country’s rainy season typically begins in April to mid-May and lasts through October while August is the wettest month. Heavy rainfall during this period causes problems every year because it destroys infrastructure and is exacerbated by inadequate drainage.

Although flooding is common during Nigeria’s rainy season, now is not the peak of the rains, Idris said. “In some states, the rains have only been there for a month, and yet we’re seeing this.”