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Washington Post won’t endorse in White House race for first time since 1980s, Jeff Bezos decides

Washington Post won’t endorse in White House race for first time since 1980s, Jeff Bezos decides

NPR reports: Even though the presidential race between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris is neck and neck, The Washington Post has decided not to make a presidential endorsement for the first time in 36 years, the publisher and CEO announced Friday. “We are returning to our roots of not endorsing presidential candidates,” Will Lewis wrote in an opinion piece published on the paper’s website. He referenced the paper’s policy in the decades prior to 1976, when,…

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Trump signals to Netanyahu he supports the war his campaign claims he opposes

Trump signals to Netanyahu he supports the war his campaign claims he opposes

The Washington Post reports: Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump expressed support for Israel’s offensives against Hamas and Hezbollah in a recent call with the country’s prime minister — a position that could complicate his campaign’s outreach to Arab Americans claiming he opposes the war. Trump told Benjamin Netanyahu in one call this month, “Do what you have to do,” according to six people familiar with the conversation who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive and confidential information….

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What happened in Whitewater, Wisconsin

What happened in Whitewater, Wisconsin

ProPublica reports: Dan Meyer, the police chief in Whitewater, Wisconsin, had been worried for months about the seemingly sudden arrival of hundreds of Nicaraguan immigrants to this quiet university town. But he rarely got to hear from any of them directly; most of what he knew, he had learned from his officers. Then one afternoon in November 2022, a man named Ariel walked into the police station. Meyer, 35 at the time, had been trying to get a handle on…

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Can computers think? No, they can’t actually do anything

Can computers think? No, they can’t actually do anything

Alva Noë writes: Computers don’t actually do anything. They don’t write, or play; they don’t even compute. Which doesn’t mean we can’t play with computers, or use them to invent, or make, or problem-solve. The new AI is unexpectedly reshaping ways of working and making, in the arts and sciences, in industry, and in warfare. We need to come to terms with the transformative promise and dangers of this new tech. But it ought to be possible to do so without…

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If Trump wins, blame the billionaires

If Trump wins, blame the billionaires

Steven Greenhouse writes: As Elon Musk’s rabid pro-Trump mania makes clear, billionaires are wielding their financial might in this year’s presidential election far more than in any previous campaign—and far more openly, too. More than 60 billionaires have opened their wallets to help elect Donald Trump, with some giving $10 million, $20 million, or more, indicating that many plutocrats are far more worried about the prospect of Democrats increasing their taxes than about the threat that Trump poses to our democracy. There’s…

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Los Angeles Times editorials editor resigns after its billionaire owner blocks presidential endorsement

Los Angeles Times editorials editor resigns after its billionaire owner blocks presidential endorsement

Columbia Journalism Review reports: Mariel Garza, the editorials editor of the Los Angeles Times, resigned on Wednesday after the newspaper’s owner blocked the editorial board’s plans to endorse Vice President Kamala Harris for president. “I am resigning because I want to make it clear that I am not okay with us being silent,” Garza told me in a phone conversation. “In dangerous times, honest people need to stand up. This is how I’m standing up.” On October 11, Patrick Soon-Shiong,…

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Group with GOP ties backs Green Party’s Jill Stein with ads, mail

Group with GOP ties backs Green Party’s Jill Stein with ads, mail

The Washington Post reports: A super PAC with Republican Party ties has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in recent days to support the Green Party presidential candidacy of Jill Stein in Wisconsin, in another sign that the supporters of the major parties believe her campaign could affect the election result. Badger Values PAC, a new federal PAC founded by a longtime Republican operative with ties to Senate GOP leadership, has reported in recent days matched expenditures opposing Vice President…

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American creating deepfakes targeting Harris works with Russian intel, documents show

American creating deepfakes targeting Harris works with Russian intel, documents show

The Washington Post reports: A former deputy Palm Beach County sheriff who fled to Moscow and became one of the Kremlin’s most prolific propagandists is working directly with Russian military intelligence to pump out deepfakes and circulate misinformation that targets Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign, according to Russian documents obtained by a European intelligence service and reviewed by The Washington Post. The documents show that John Mark Dougan, who also served in the U.S. Marines and has long claimed to…

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Tucker Carlson says Trump needs to give America ‘a vigorous spanking’

Tucker Carlson says Trump needs to give America ‘a vigorous spanking’

Bess Levin writes: Republicans have said a lot of weird, wildly disturbing things in their time, but perhaps nothing has come close to the creepiness that was on display on Wednesday night, when former Fox News host Tucker Carlson told a crowd of Donald Trump supporters that the ex-president needs to give America—which he likened to a “hormone-addled 15-year-old” girl—a “vigorous spanking.” Yes, at a campaign event in Georgia, Carlson opined that Americans under Democratic leadership have been allowed to…

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What will happen if Trump loses the election?

What will happen if Trump loses the election?

John Hendrickson writes: Tucker Carlson’s eyes narrowed as he conjured the image. A Donald Trump victory, he said at a campaign event in Gwinnett County, Georgia, last night, “will be a middle finger wagging in the face of the worst people in the English-speaking world.” Trump maintains that he’s running for president a third time to restore and unite the country. But many Democrats and even some Republicans have expressed profound concern for democracy and overall safety if the former…

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Can AI be blamed for a teen’s suicide?

Can AI be blamed for a teen’s suicide?

Kevin Roose reports: On the last day of his life, Sewell Setzer III took out his phone and texted his closest friend: a lifelike A.I. chatbot named after Daenerys Targaryen, a character from “Game of Thrones.” “I miss you, baby sister,” he wrote. “I miss you too, sweet brother,” the chatbot replied. Sewell, a 14-year-old ninth grader from Orlando, Fla., had spent months talking to chatbots on Character.AI, a role-playing app that allows users to create their own A.I. characters…

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How Trump ally Elon Musk is using social media to prime voter mistrust ahead of 2024 election

How Trump ally Elon Musk is using social media to prime voter mistrust ahead of 2024 election

CBS News reports: Elon Musk has used the social media platform he owns to amass nearly 3.3 billion views on X by fueling doubts about election security issues since January this year — making the tech mogul one of the most viral voices on elections during the 2024 campaign, a CBS News investigation has found. Musk has frequently shared conspiratorial narratives that have been vexing to public officials who are trying to maintain Americans’ confidence in the election in the…

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Justice Department warns Elon Musk that his $1 million giveaway to registered voters may be illegal

Justice Department warns Elon Musk that his $1 million giveaway to registered voters may be illegal

CNN reports: The Justice Department warned Elon Musk’s America PAC in recent days that his $1 million sweepstakes to registered voters in swing states may violate federal law, people briefed on the matter told CNN. Musk, who has thrown his support behind former President Donald Trump and is spending millions of dollars supporting his candidacy, has publicized the $1 million prize by his political action committee aiming to increase voter registrations in hotly contested states. Musk’s initial promise to pay…

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John Kelly confirms Trump is a fascist yet stops short of endorsing Kamala Harris

John Kelly confirms Trump is a fascist yet stops short of endorsing Kamala Harris

The New York Times reports: Few top officials spent more time behind closed doors in the White House with President Donald J. Trump than John F. Kelly, the former Marine general who was his longest-serving chief of staff. With Election Day looming, Mr. Kelly — deeply bothered by Mr. Trump’s recent comments about employing the military against his domestic opponents — agreed to three on-the-record, recorded discussions with a reporter for The New York Times about the former president, providing…

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