First stop – the park to find the dog walkers. The first man I met, with his dog, was called Bruce.
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0:31
‘They’re eating pets in Springfield’
“I’ve heard about it…” he told me when I asked if he could verify the Trump claim. “…but I haven’t seen anything really.”
“You’re not worried about your dog?” I asked. “No.”
“You should ask them…” he then said, pointing to a man in a municipal vehicle.
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He didn’t want to be filmed but was happy to chat. He said how the duck and geese numbers had fallen. Maybe they were being eaten he said, or maybe they were just migrating elsewhere.
“What about the pets?” I asked him. And that’s when I got the first hint of how conspiracies are seeded.
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“I’ve never seen nothing going on with the dogs and cats, except what I’ve seen on TikTok with the Springfield police arresting a lady for eating a cat. She was from Haiti wasn’t she,” he said.
Image: Dogs in Springfield, Ohio
The video he’d seen has been doing the rounds for the past week in the conspiracy incubator that is social media.
It is police bodycam footage of a woman being arrested a few weeks ago for allegedly killing and eating a cat.
But she isn’t a Haitian migrant. She was born in America. And the incident didn’t happen in Springfield either. The local police have confirmed all these facts to be true.
Across Springfield we have not found anyone who has seen pet-eating immigrants.
Driving the streets and talking to the residents I can confirm that the dogs seem safe; the cats are roaming loose.
The instinct then maybe to laugh at the peak-Trump nonsense. Indeed, the Haitians of Springfield can see the funny side too.
“The Haitians don’t eat cat and dog. No. It’s not the culture to eat that,” Viteo Lawway, 24, told me, with a laugh.
But within this cat and dog story there are some actual truths. There are huge challenges over immigration in America and they are acute in Springfield.
Viteo Lawway is one of 15,000 to have arrived here in Springfield from war-torn, gang-run Haiti since 2020. The pressures on services and society are obvious.
Springfield is a small place with an existing population of under 60,000.
“How did you feel when you heard Donald Trump’s words?” I asked Casey Rollins the executive director of the St Vincent de Paul centre which helps newly arrived migrants.
“I was physically ill. Still am. I can’t even react. I can’t even repeat it. It’s just unfathomable to me, but that’s what happens when hysteria is spread, you know, and all kinds of fictional narratives and it’s really doing harm to our world.”
We looked at another view from another Springfield resident that’s gone viral online.
The woman in the video, who appears to be addressing a community group, is heard saying: “I feel like we have been invaded by some sort of pest.
“I am angry that my friends and family are packing up and moving away. I am angry that foreigners are using up the resources they were set up for the Americans who reside here.”
The clip went on to allege and amplify the pet-eating migrant story.
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“Every community, every culture has its myth and its folklore. I guess this is one,” Casey said to me in response.
The tensions in the town are clear but they are being fanned.
An accident last year between a car and a school bus in Springfield was caused by a Haitian driver. There is a particular concern that the newly-arrived Haitians do not drive well.
An 11-year-old boy died in the crash. Donald Trump’s running mate, JD Vance, has cited the tragedy but has framed it a particular way. The boy, Vance said on X last week, was “murdered by migrants”.
A Trump campaign social media page weighed in too: “REMEMBER: 11-year-old Aiden Clark was killed on his way to school by a Haitian migrant that Kamala Harris let into the country in Springfield, Ohio.”
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0:59
‘Don’t spin my son’s death towards hate’
The boy’s father has hit back.
Nathan Clark told a city commission meeting this week that he wished for “the incessant group of hate-spewing people would leave us alone”.
He continued: “My son Aiden Clark was not murdered. He was accidentally killed by a migrant from Haiti. This tragedy is felt all over this community, the state and even the nation. But don’t spin this towards hate.”
Baseless, evidence-free, racist conspiracies usually stay deep down rabbit holes where they belong.
But Donald Trump inhabits these rabbit holes. He is led down them by people in his inner circle, like Laura Loomer, a known conspiracy theorist who regularly travels in Mr Trump’s entourage.
Rumours which would usually only exist in small echo chambers precisely because there is no evidence no support them, suddenly get massively amplified when Donald Trump mentions them.
This is a country where too often people no longer believe their own l neighbours, their own instinct or their own eyes. And that applies to both sides in this divided country. That’s the problem.
Its Black Mirror type stuff – a conspiracy about cats and dogs. Fantasy world stuff but with real world consequences.
Police in Tennessee have discovered 14 improvised explosive devices in a man’s home as they were arresting him, the local sheriff’s office said.
Officers were executing a warrant in the home of Kevin Wade O’Neal in Old Fort, about 45 miles (70km) east of Chattanooga, after he had threatened to kill public officials and law enforcement personnel in Polk County.
After arresting the 54-year-old, officers noticed “something smouldering” in the bedroom where he was found.
Image: Kevin Wade O’Neal. Pic: Polk County Sheriff’s Office
On closer inspection, they discovered an improvised explosive device and evacuated the house until bomb squad officers arrived at the scene.
Fourteen devices were found inside the property – none of which detonated.
Image: Improvised explosive devices were found in Kevin Wade O’Neal’s home. Pic: Polk County Sheriff’s Office
Image: Kevin Wade O’Neal’s home in Old Fort, Tennessee. Pic: Polk County Sheriff’s Office
O’Neal was charged with 11 counts of attempted first-degree murder, corresponding to nine officers and two other people inside the property when the suspect tried to detonate the devices.
He also faces 14 counts of prohibited weapons and one count of possession of explosive components.
Donald Trump says he has ordered two nuclear submarines to be positioned in the “appropriate regions” in a row with former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev.
It comes after Mr Medvedev, who is now deputy chair of Russia‘s Security Council, told the US president on Thursday to remember Moscow had Soviet-era nuclear strike capabilities of last resort.
On Friday, Mr Trump wrote on social media: “Based on the highly provocative statements of the Former President of Russia, Dmitry Medvedev, who is now the Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, I have ordered two Nuclear Submarines to be positioned in the appropriate regions, just in case these foolish and inflammatory statements are more than just that.
“Words are very important, and can often lead to unintended consequences, I hope this will not be one of those instances. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
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0:37
Trump: ‘We’re going to protect our people’
Speaking outside the White House later in the day, Mr Trump was asked about why he had moved the submarines and replied: “We had to do that. We just have to be careful.
“A threat was made and we didn’t think it was appropriate, so I have to be very careful. So I do that on the basis of safety for our people. A threat was made by a former president of Russia and we’re going to protect our people.”
The spat between Mr Trump and Mr Medvedev came after the US president warned Russia on Tuesday it had “10 days from today” to agree to a ceasefire in Ukraine or face tariffs, along with its oil buyers.
Moscow has shown no sign that it will agree to Mr Trump’s demands.
Trump’s move appears to signal a significant deterioration in relationship with Putin
Normally it’s Moscow rattling the nuclear sabres, but this time it’s Washington in what marks a dramatic escalation in Donald Trump’s war of words with the former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev.
More importantly, it appears to signal a significant deterioration in his relationship with Vladimir Putin.
The US president’s patience with the Kremlin was already at its thinnest earlier this week, when he shrank his deadline for progress towards a peace deal from 50 days to 10.
But Russia’s lack of outward concern with this stricter ultimatum – which has swung from dismissive to (in Medvedev’s case) insulting – seems to have flicked a switch.
For this is the first time Trump’s pressure on Moscow has amounted to anything more than words.
We don’t know where the subs are, or how far they had to move to get closer to Russia, but it’s an act that sits several rungs higher than the usual verbal threats to impose sanctions.
How will Russia respond? I’m not sure Vladimir Putin has ever caved to an ultimatum and I doubt he’ll start now.
But I don’t think he’ll want the situation to deteriorate further. So I suspect he’ll make another offer to the US, that’s dressed up as a concession, but in reality may prove to be anything but.
It’s a tactic that’s worked before, but the stakes have suddenly got higher.
On Thursday, Mr Medvedev reminded Mr Trump that Russia possessed a Soviet-era automated nuclear retaliatory system – or “dead hand”.
Mr Medvedev, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, was referring to a secretive semi-automated Soviet command system designed to launch Russia’s missiles if its leadership was taken out in a decapitating strike.
He made the remarks after Mr Trump told him to “watch his words” after Mr Medvedev said the US president’s threat of hitting Russia and its oil buyers with punitive tariffs was “a game of ultimatums” and added that “each new ultimatum is a threat and a step towards war” between Russia and the US.
Image: Dmitry Medvedev. Pic: Reuters
Mr Medvedev served as Russia’s president from 2008 and 2012, when Mr Putin was barred from seeking a third consecutive term, but then stepped aside to let him run again.
As deputy chair of Russia’s Security Council, he has become known for his provocative and inflammatory statements since Moscow invaded Ukraine in 2022.
Donald Trump has said “nobody has asked” him to pardon Ghislaine Maxwell, but insisted he has “the right to do it” as US president.
Jeffrey Epstein’s former girlfriend is currently serving a 20-year sentence after being convicted of helping the paedophile financier traffic and sexually abuse underage girls in 2021.
Prosecutors have said Epstein’s sex crimes could not have been done without Maxwell, but her lawyers have maintained that she was wrongly prosecuted and denied a fair trial, and have floated the idea of a pardon from Mr Trump.
Last week, they asked the US Supreme Court to take up her case.
When pressed on the possibility of pardoning Maxwell, Mr Trump told reporters: “I’m allowed to do it, but nobody’s asked me to do it.”
He continued: “I know nothing about it. I don’t know anything about the case, but I know I have the right to do it. I have the right to give pardons, I’ve given pardons to people before, but nobody’s even asked me to do it.”
Mr Trump also said he would not pardon Sean “Diddy” Combs, who was convicted in July on two charges of transportation to engage in prostitution.
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4:28
Trump ‘never visited Espstein island’
His comments came shortly after the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) said Maxwell has been moved to a minimum-security prison camp in Texas.
She was being held at a low-security prison in Tallahassee, Florida, that housed men and women, but has now been transferred to a prison camp in Bryan, Texas.
When asked why Maxwell was transferred, BOP spokesperson Donald Murphy said he could not comment on the specifics, but that the BOP determines where inmates are sent based on such factors as “the level of security and supervision the inmate requires”.
Maxwell’s lawyer confirmed the move but also declined to discuss the specific reasons for it.
The Texas camp houses solely female prisoners, the majority of whom are serving time for nonviolent offences and white-collar crimes, Sky’s US partner NBC News reports.
Image: Trump and Epstein at a party together in 1992. Pic: NBC News
Minimum-security federal prison camps house inmates considered to be the lowest security risk and some facilities do not even have fences.
A senior administration official told NBC: “Any false assertion this individual was given preferential treatment is absurd.
“Prisoners are routinely moved in some instances due to significant safety and danger concerns.”
Maxwell has received renewed attention in recent weeks, after the US Justice Department said it would not be releasing the so-called ‘Epstein files’.
The department said a review of the Epstein case had found “no incriminating ‘client list'” and “no credible evidence” the jailed financier – who killed himself in prison in 2019 – had blackmailed famous men.
Officials from the Trump administration have since tried to cast themselves as promoting transparency in the case.
Last month, they lodged a request to unseal grand jury transcripts – which was denied – and Maxwell was last week interviewed by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche.
Epstein survivor’s family criticises move
Maxwell’s move to a lower security facility has been criticised by the family of Epstein abuse survivor Virginia Giuffre, who died in April, and accusers Annie and Maria Farmer.
They said in a statement: “It is with horror and outrage that we object to the preferential treatment convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell has received.
“Ghislaine Maxwell is a sexual predator who physically assaulted minor children on multiple occasions, and she should never be shown any leniency.
“Yet, without any notification to the Maxwell victims, the government overnight has moved Maxwell to a minimum security luxury prison in Texas.”
The statement concluded: “This move smacks of a cover up. The victims deserve better.”