One Boat in the Sea

The other day, waiting for the race to start, I wandered in the rain down along a path I haven’t traveled in a while, when I spotted this boat cutting through the surf. Chrissy Field, as this area is known, is a stretch of bay-front wetlands along the north edge of the old Presidio army base.

Nowadays, it is a national park.

The boat was small in that setting, though through my zoom lens, it appears here as more prominent than it was in fact. Everything and everyone is small when you get far enough away from them. When scientists discovered that the universe is expanding at ever greater rates some years ago, they confounded some of our assumptions about the nature of life.

How could everything be getting further away from everything else?

Unless you work very hard and patiently at it, human society can often seem to be following the same law of the universe. People can seem to be getting further and further away from one another.

Small things lead to cracks in relationships, cracks deepen into huge gaps, and silence eventually is all that remains.

Among the calamitous events that eviscerate our social connectedness are breakups and job losses. For people who invest a lot in their primary relationships, this can be especially true.

I count myself in this category. As I stood alone, shivering in the rain, looking at the boat, I started thinking about my partners, and how every time I tried not only to have a person to live with, but a best friend, and a keeper.

By keeper I mean becoming the keeper of each other’s stories. To me, this is a vital part of life, and this is what long-term partners can do for one another.

There are, of course, other options. Friends can serve as documentarians for you, as you can for them. Family plays an important role, but if your siblings are far away, as is the case with me, you too rarely can get together or even talk to penetrate far below the surface of life’s constantly shifting surface.

Your children are your children. Although you share everything you can with them, it’s not their role to be your best friend. They need you to be their parent, which itself is extraordinarily complex work.

In recent years, I have devoted myself to being the best parent I can be, even to the exclusion of other needs. I don’t regret it, and I hope I won’t regret it, even if it turns out that I end up living alone from here on out.

(This is an excerpt from a much longer essay I published 15 years ago on this date.)

HEADLINES:

• Trump suggests letting Iran ‘take out’ Los Angeles and San Diego at campaign rally (LAT)

• New Supreme Court term begins with justices stumped by climate change case (NBC)

• Police fire tear gas at crowds as tens of thousands join school demonstrations in France (BBC)

• The Battle for the Post-Trump Right (New Yorker)

• Trump’s immigration crackdown divides rural voters as midterms approach, AP-KFF poll finds (AP)

• Facing Backlash, Trump Says His Super PAC Will Pay for Taxpayer-Funded Ads (NYT)

• Yemeni government forces drive Houthis from Bab el-Mandeb Strait (Reuters)

• Pentagon officials’ heated debates foreshadowed problems in Iran (WP)

• Middle East oil exports surpass pre-war levels despite tensions, data shows (Al Jazeera)

• Brazil’s presidential race goes to second round as Flávio Bolsonaro leads incumbent Lula (Guardian)

• What prompted the US bombers to leave RAF Fairford? (BBC)

• Potential Iranian Drone Attack Led to Exit of U.S. Aircraft From British Air Base (NYT)

• The U.S., Denmark, and Greenland reached a security deal. Here’s what to know. (NBC)

• Spain's housing protests have spurred an early election call, (Reuters)

• U.S. officials seeking details of reported Russian plague death, quarantines (WP)

• Egypt arrests entire editorial team of one of the country’s few independent media (AP)

• Parti Québécois Returns to Power, Reviving Quebec Sovereignty Push (NYT)

• On the Money: Rigging an election is bad for business (Money Trail)

• Superpowers Race to Put Nuclear Reactors on the Moon (NYT)

• Soldiers, Gold Star families question Army leadership after deadly Iranian drone strike (AP)

• Wall Street Journal editorial board knocks Hegseth’s ‘weirdos’ line in speech (The Hill)

• Paramount Closes Deal for Warner Bros. Discovery, Creating Media Behemoth (NYT)

• Ellison retains Thompson as CNN chief, unveils Skydance leadership team (Reuters)

• How pneumonic plague spreads, and how it is and isn’t like COVID (Axios)

• Hochul Declares a Measles Emergency as Cases Rise in Rural New York (NYT)

• Cornell Jane Doe has received multiple threats, her lawyer says (USA Today)

• What to know about the Kelvin wave raising the sea level along the West Coast (AP)

• Trump Drops Bombshell Evidence Biden Actively Campaigned Against Him (Onion)

LATEST AI NEWS:

• Anthropic expected to IPO despite market uncertainty, AI slowdown calls (CNN)

• The ‘WarGames’ problem: Computer science has long understood what it takes to keep AI under control (The Conversation)

• China’s AI Safety Money Problem (China Talk)

• AI researcher says an ‘intelligence explosion’ could lead to ‘Mythos-level’ moments every month (BI)

• OpenAI and Anthropic execs donate millions to political causes. One billionaire stands apart (SFC)

• Meta and Microsoft Work to Wean Staff Off Anthropic’s Claude (The Conversation)

  The dangerous myth behind AI agent hacks (FT

  AI industry insiders voice alarms to NYC council as local governments take up safety concerns (AP)

• The dangerous myth behind AI agent hacks (FT)

• AI industry insiders voice alarms to NYC council as local governments take up safety concerns (AP)

The Insider

“This is how elected autocrats subvert democracy—packing and “weaponizing” the courts and other neutral agencies, buying off the media and the private sector (or bullying them into silence), and rewriting the rules of politics to tilt the playing field against opponents. The tragic paradox of the electoral route to authoritarianism is that democracy’s assassins use the very institutions of democracy—gradually, subtly, and even legally—to kill it.”
― Steven Levitsky, How Democracies Die

Levitsky’s quote is a reminder that the elected autocrat we have in the White House has spent the first two years of his term not in defending democracy but in dismantling it.

We still have courts that rule against Trump’s most egregious acts, reporters who accurately report his moves and hold him accountable, and an opposition political party poised to hand him defeat in the midterm elections now underway.

But collectively, it may not be enough to stop him from stealing the election through one corrupt mechanism or another.

Growing up, I was taught in school to respect the heroes who defeated the enemies overseas who sought to destroy our democracy, but I was taught very little about how to defeat an enemy within.

HEADLINES:

• U.S. Rushes to Withdraw Bombers From U.K. Air Base After New Threats (NYT)

• Yemeni and Saudi forces launch counteroffensive against the Houthis (Axios)

• Iraq says it transported 2 million barrels of crude through Strait of Hormuz (Reuters)

• Lula and Bolsonaro Son Head to Runoff for Brazil’s Presidency (NYT)

• Lab worker ‘possibly’ dies of plague in Siberia, prompting quarantine measures (Guardian)

• Ukraine’s surprise robot offensive exposes a vulnerability in Putin’s war machine (CNBC)

• Despair over future fuels political anxiety for college students on the cusp of adulthood (AP)

• Trump’s opponents are planning efforts to reverse his changes to presidency (WP)

• The next crash could be an economic bloodbath (The Hill)

• ICE Is Everywhere and Acting with Impunity (New Yorker)

• 'Jane Doe' solidarity posts flood social media after Cornell rape lawsuit (AP)

• The Battle to Pass a Billionaire Tax (New Yorker)

• Letterboxd Holds Seance To Ask James Dean His 4 Favorite Movies (Onion)

LATEST AI NEWS:

• Trump announces formation of AI “Super Intelligence Force” (CBS)

• Who should be held liable when AI causes harm? (WP)

• These AI Experts Want to Do High-Stakes Research Out in the Open (Wired)

• It may soon be possible to create “mirror life” (Economist)

• Anthropic Is Aiming To Transform Healthcare—Here’s How (Forbes)

• Legal risks pile up for Altman as OpenAI uncovers dozens of hacks (FT)

• Should We Ban AI for Kids? (Atlantic)

• Why AI has trouble predicting the intensity of hurricanes (WP)

• Trump names national intelligence director Jay Clayton to lead a new federal AI task force (AP)

 

Votes Streaming IN

So far over a million citizens have voted in this year’s midterm elections, with Election Day still a month away. 

Polls indicate that surprisingly Democratic candidates for the U.S. Senate have pulled even or just ahead of Republicans in the red states of Texas, Alaska, Kansas, Iowa and Ohio.

This means that if the polls prove to be accurate, Democrats could take control of the Senate. They are broadly expected to easily win the House, where all 435 seats are up for grabs.

The top issue in the election appears to be the cost of living, which Trump promised to bring down in his 2024 victory over Kamala Harris. But prices remain high, partly due to Trump’s war on Iran.

HEADLINES:

• The Student Journalists Who Never Let the Cornell Assault Case Go (NYT)

• Cornell rape allegations reignite debate over laws on intoxication and consent (WP)

• Details emerge in case of former Cornell student alleging gang rape by fraternity members (CBS)

• D.A. in Cornell Rape Inquiry Declined to Review Additional Evidence (NYT)

• New Fox Poll—a Disaster for Trump—Rattles Fox Anchors: “Wake Up!” (TNR)

• Voters favor Democrats on key issues but lack faith in either party to solve problems: AP-NORC poll (AP)

• Senate Races in Republican States Tilt Toward Democrats, Polls Find (NYT)

• Not To Alarm You, But Trump’s Brain Is Melted (Bulwark)

• Agents alarmed as Patel points FBI toward elections: report (MS NOW)

• What if the polls are wrong again? (Silver Bulletin)

• What a hiring slowdown signals about the state of the U.S. economy (PBS)

• What the bond market reveals about Congress, the national debt and the middle class—and where America goes from here (Fortune)

• U.S. Marine arrested on suspicion of killing Japanese woman in Okinawa (NBC)

• Saudis plan assault on Houthis (Reuters)

• FlyDubai plane attack by co-pilot was an attempted ‘terrorist’ act, UAE says (CNBC)

• America’s New Relationship With Israel…It’s Complicated (Reveal)

• Tens of thousands protest against Spain’s housing crisis following eviction of 87-year-old woman (Sky)

• Tennessee’s prisons chief is resigning after failed execution of Christa Pike (AP)

• ‘Digger’ Prosthetic Artist Recalls Grueling Process Of Having Tom Cruise Sit Still (Onion)

LATEST AI NEWS:

• An OpenAI safety employee has quit and is sounding the alarm (Verge)

• Some topics are off limits inside popular Chinese-made free AI, researchers find (CBS)

• America’s data center fight is a preview of what’s to come for the rest of the world (CNBC)

• Rogue AI agents expose internet’s frail foundation (Axios)

• AI Agents Are Going Rogue. Novel Legal Battles Are Next (The Information)

• ‘This Matters’: Researchers Identify Thousands of New Tells in AI Writing (Gizmodo)

• His Novel Had a Shot at a Top Book Prize. Then Someone Ran an A.I. Test. (NYT)

• The volunteer internet sleuths hunting down rogue AI agents (WP)

Why Trump Might Do It

Yesterday’s scenario, “What May Come” is explored in depth by Myra Adams of The Hill:

• No president has ever invoked the Insurrection Act in connection with an election, but Trump could be the first.

• The Insurrection Act authorizes the domestic deployment of the U.S. military or the federalization of the National Guard to suppress violent, out-of-control situations, such as rebellions, riots, protests, or insurrections.

• From Trump’s perspective, mounting Republican fears of midterm losses might present a historic opportunity to use force, or even federalize the elections…With so much at stake, might Trump trigger an event like the 2021 Capitol riot?

• Losing signals weakness, which is not in Trump’s DNA, and clashes with his persona as the strongest, most powerful man in the world.

• Trump led his loyal supporters in repeating, “I pledge to the greatest president in the history of the United States, …that I will go out [to vote] with my family, my friends. I’ll do it anyway, I don’t care if I’m registered or not, I’m going to try and cheat like hell like they [Democrats] do.”

• The president called all Democrats “communists” and urged cheating to defeat them. If the “communists” win, it would mean they cheated, and the election was rigged, stolen, or infiltrated by foreign voters, justifying Trump in declaring a national emergency, authorizing force, and potentially invoking the Insurrection Act.

• In May, on Truth Social, Trump proclaimed that he would deploy an “Election Integrity Army in every single State to preserve the sanctity of each legal vote.” Soon, the Department of Justice will deploy 1,000 poll monitors.

• This week, a stern directive from the secretary of Defense to protect and defend the election from “foreign actors,” coupled with recent statements by the FBI director and the secretary of Homeland Security signals a willingness to secure the election by force if there is a “threat” or “violation of the law” — exaggerated, imagined or manufactured by Team Trump.

• From the military perspective, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine responded to questions from Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.). His answers, in part, read: “The Joint Force has no plans to send federal military personnel or federalized members of the National Guard to polling places during the 2026 elections … no plans to seize ballots, voting machines, or other election-related material. I have neither received nor anticipate receiving any unlawful order concerning the role of the Joint Force in the upcoming November 2026 midterm elections.”

*** We are only a month away from Election Day. Voting by mail is underway. I think we should all be aware of Trump’s threats and prepare for another hazardous election period like in 2020-’21, when Trump incited the Capitol riots.

Only this time it could be worse.

HEADLINES:

• Why Trump might invoke the Insurrection Act before, during, or after the midterms (The Hill)

• New aircraft carrier, 10,000 US troops: Is the Iran war about to escalate? (Al Jazeera)

• Fact check: Trump’s attempt to pretend he didn’t say the Iran war would last mere ‘weeks’ (CNN)

• Why the War in Iran Is Likely to Heat Up Again (New Yorker)

• Europe Weighs Tapping Diesel Reserves (WSJ)

• U.S. and Allies Agree to Release Diesel Reserves as Prices Soar (NYT)

• Flydubai pilot attacked captain with cockpit’s crash axe in attempted terrorist attack, UAE official says (NBC)

• Indian pilot tells PM Modi he opened flydubai cockpit door during attack (Reuters)

• Retired major general: Hegseth ‘playing Russian roulette’ with US security (The Hill)

• As Prospects Dim, G.O.P. Pulls Money Out of North Carolina Senate Race (NYT)

• The GOP’s Culture-War Hail Mary (Atlantic)

• Fed seen skipping October rate hike as job market cools (Reuters)

• Paramount-WBD Will Now Be Called Skydance, David Ellison Reveals (Deadline)

• Hochul Rebukes Prosecutor’s Handling of Cornell Case (NYT)

• What’s next for Christa Pike after surviving lethal injection (CNN)

• About 400 schools in France are expected to remain closed after student protests over teacher shortages and dilapidated school buildings turned violent in some ‌places. (Reuters)

• ‘It’s radical to release a film called Girls Like Girls in this climate’ (Guardian)

• Unsupportive Parents Eat Crow After Son Makes It As Beetlejuice Impersonator (Onion)

LATEST AI NEWS:

• Don’t be fooled—LLMs don’t reason (TR)

• How Meta Uses A.I. Data Centers to Avoid Billions in Federal Taxes (NYT)

• The volunteer internet sleuths hunting down rogue AI agents (WP)

• How China’s Token Resellers Create an Anthropic Gray Market (The Information)

• Retailers From QVC to Kohl’s Are Split on Agentic Shopping (WSJ)

• Chinese hackers impersonated an Anthropic exec to get information about AI (CNN)

• A.I. Anxiety Is Spilling Into the Therapist’s Office (NYT)

• AI Can Now Rebuild Images From Brain Scans. What If Your Dreams Don’t Stay Private? (Popular Mechanics)

• Can Google’s new model really catch up to OpenAI and Anthropic at the frontier? (CNBC)

• Trump’s AI rebrand may stop at the White House (Politico)

• A.I. Is Going Rogue. Who Should Be Held Responsible? (NYT)

• An OpenAI Engineer and His Friends Debate the Future (New Yorker)

 

What May Come

Even a casual listener to Trump can devine his intention.

The election in November is not going to be a good one for the President’s party. Democrats are going to sweep to at least a 30-seat majority in the House and they probably will squeak out a slight advantage in the Senate as well.

Regardless of the specifics, Trump will no longer be able to exert control over a compliant Congress if the results are allowed to stand.

Tyrant that he is, Trump will not accept those results. He’ll say the election was “rigged.” He’ll may use one of several options to block the results from being certified, freezing Congress in the process.

There will be mass protests, of course. Americans will not take lightly the negation of their votes. In response, Trump will use the Insurrection Act or declare martial law to call out troops and restore “order.”

And so democracy’s flame will extinguish as the autocrat attempts to establish an emergency government.

But that will not be the end. It will only be the beginning. 

HEADLINES:

• Renee Good’s family sues US, ICE officers over fatal shooting (USA Today)

• ‘She was pure love’: Renee Good’s partner makes first public comments as family sues U.S. government, ICE officer over her killing (NBC)

• What Trump Misunderstands About Modern Media (Atlantic)

• Taking On Trump Immigration Agenda, Justices Will Review Migrant Detention Policy (NYT)

• Trump doesn’t rule out invoking Insurrection Act around election (USA Today)

• Christa Pike’s failed execution puts lethal injection in focus (Axios)

• Israel’s Netanyahu: Co-pilot of flydubai plane underwent radical Islamist indoctrination (Reuters)

• Third aircraft carrier and thousands of troops head to Mideast as Trump weighs new Iran strikes (AP)

• Moroccan intelligence uses surveillance to ‘silence’ journalists: Amnesty (Al Jazeera)

• U.K.-Iranian Man Arrested in London in Connection to Air Base Incident (NYT)

• China’s new infrastructure push will help itself and the world (Economist)

• Newsom, Eager for a Higher Perch, Climbs the Golden Gate Bridge (NYT)

• California bans child marriage, a practice still legal in 32 US states (BBC)

• Most Americans blame Trump for higher prices as his economic approval hits a new low, a new AP-NORC poll shows (AP)

• 5 Takeaways From the Debate for California Governor (NYT)

• Why did Ohio stop being a swing state? (Silver Bulletin)

• Trump’s Threat to Ban Diesel Exports Sets Off Global Alarms (NYT)

• Judge says U.S. can’t prosecute ex-Olympian again in Reflecting Pool case (WP)

• David Ellison Asks CNN CEO to Stay After Paramount-Warner Deal Closes (WSJ)

• Cornell Jane Doe’s attorney says she told police in 2024: ‘I was raped’ (NPR)

• US social media users urge Koreans to unmask Cornell sexual assault suspect Winston Lee (South China Morning Post)

• Judge rules officers have no standing to sue over Capitol Jan. 6 plaque (The Hill)

• A Cancer Test Has Investors Betting Big. But Will Insurers Pay? (WSJ)

• Hegseth announced that Tesla CEO Elon Musk was poised to take on another role in the administration and help co-lead a Pentagon initiative on the "future of warfare." (Reuters)

• Are US Military Veterans Training Russians to Fight in Ukraine? (Military.com)

• A ‘tsunami’ of church closings is poised to remake America (CNN)

• The era of cheap water is over (Money Trail)

• Almost everyone naturally turns left when walking – and we still have no idea why (The Conversation)

• Dude Wipes Introduces New Flushable Khakis (Onion)

LATEST AI NEWS: 

• AI agents tried to hack a Canadian government website, researchers say (WP)

• Anthropic Said to Target Mega-IPO Before Thanksgiving Holiday (Bloomberg)

• Trump + AI = Blue Tsunami (Bulwark)

• Broadcom to lend Anthropic up to $42 billion to lease its chips, filing says (CNBC)

• Introducing Quine: An AI research system designed for the complexity of biology (Microsoft)

• Mirror life is dangerous. Regulators must act before it becomes real (Economist)

• Is circular financing in AI a problem? (FT)

• Anthropic's IPO pitch embraces AI's promise and peril. (Reuters)

• On AI, a light touch is the right touch (WP)

• Trump’s Voluntary A.I. Policing Echoes What Biden Did. But Is It Enough Today? (NYT)

 

Working Class Hero

 (The following is an excerpt from an essay I wrote in 2009 after Michael Moore released his documentary titled “Capitalism: A Love Story.”)

***
It’s a pretty big stretch to try and take on capitalism in an era when the alternative methods of organizing an economy have been so thoroughly discredited. But Michael Moore has never been one to avoid stretch goals ever since I first got to know him as an underground newspaper editor in our mutual homeland of Flint, Michigan.

Okay, so Flint wasn’t exactly my homeland, though my parents did live and work there after I left home, plus I grew up, first down the road a ways, and then, up the road a ways, in very similar environments to Flint’s all during my formative years.

My family included autoworkers just as his did. Only difference: Mine were first-gen immigrants.

I liked Michael from the first because of his spirit. I’d already heard of the controversy he’d been causing back home, and it resonated with me due to my own past efforts trying to forge coalitions in the 1960s between antiwar and civil rights activists on campus with striking autoworkers in and around Detroit.

Later, during a more problematic period for Michael, when he was trying to live and work out here in San Francisco, I tried to help him manage the cultural transition from the Midwest to the Left Coast. 

That one didn’t work out so well. And, in my view, he drew all of the wrong conclusions as a result.

Then, as a fellow journalist, I also couldn’t help but notice certain methodological flaws in his work. Over the years, as his career as the most successful documentary film maker in history has progressed, I sometimes took issue with his work.

He cut corners I wouldn’t cut, edited in ways I’m not sure were ethical, and fell back on more of a propaganda-type style than I could ever feel comfortable with, among other things.

But that’s the micro-version of how I view his work. On the macro-level, I respect him deeply. We share a lot of common values, and his last two documentaries, “Sicko” and this new one, “Capitalism: A Love Story,” have re-opened my eyes to the true brilliance of the man. His art of connecting with working people is truly inspiring.

This new film has an additional component: It is moving. What has happened to ordinary people in our time is criminal. There have not been many willing to stand up for the common person, but Michael Moore is one of them.

HEADLINES:

• ‘Hero’ pilot, plumber and dentist among those who saved flydubai flight to Israel (Guardian)

• Passengers overcame pilot who tried to crash flydubai flight, Israel says (Reuters)

• Tennessee twice botched a convicted murderer’s execution last night. (WP)

• Hegseth accuses media of treason in pugnacious annual address (Axios)

• UK believes Iran involved in RAF Fairford incident, Burnham says (BBC)

• U.S. forces exit Iraq amid Iran war. (NPR)

• Iran says it receives US response to latest proposal as Washington pulls out of Iraq (Reuters)

• Middle East Crude Oil Exports Back at Prewar Levels, Analysts Say (WSJ)

• Hegseth expected to fire more top-ranking US military (BBC)

• How Ukraine’s Naval Drones Are Remaking War at Sea (NYT)

• EPA to ‘reconsider’ air quality rules as Texas faces diesel price ‘disaster’ (The Hill)

• A ‘freaked out’ US food industry is hitting back at Maha – with social media influencers (Guardian)

• Legal Immigrants Lose Medicaid Coverage Under Trump’s Bill (NYT)

• Senate reaches bipartisan deal on permitting bill to speed approvals of new energy projects (AP)

• Democrats block bill restricting lawmakers from trading stocks (The Hill)

• The Kennedy Center was solvent when Trump took over. Then its finances collapsed. (WP)

• Rahm Emanuel, Eyeing 2028, Makes His 2026 Play (NYT)

• Vacation homes were once real estate’s hottest play. Now they’re a nightmare to sell. (BI)

• Judge approves Paramount's settlement with states over Warner buyout, allowing merger to soon close (AP)

• The three most chilling words in the Cornell rape case texts (WP)

• Psychologists identify the musical triggers of beauty and the sublime (PsyPost)

• Nation Horrified To Think Sexual Assault Could Happen On College Campus (Onion)

LATEST NEWS ON AI:

• Will A.I. Kill Us? Can It Hack My Bank Account? Your A.I. Questions Answered (NYT)

• OpenAI sued by safety group over autonomous hack of Hugging Face (ABC)

• OpenAI is sued over rogue AI Hugging Face cyberattack (CNBC)

• Bill Gates’s Blunt Warning on A.I. (NYT)

• Trump mocked for embarrassing spelling error on ‘super intelligence’ pact (Independence)

• Liberated by technology (again) (FT)

• Jimmy Fallon Pokes Fun at America’s New A.I. Chatbot (NYT)

• A timeline of developments in AI safety since the attack on Hugging Face (AP)

• OpenAI Ignored Employees Who Warned It Wasn’t Doing Enough About Security (NYT)

• Google Is Paying About 100 Digital Publishers for AI Overviews (The Information)

• AI agents have a normal-people problem (Axios)

• Can companies like OpenAI keep getting away with what they are doing? An interview with Fordham law professor Zephyr Teachout (Marcus)

• China's AI agents can lie and scheme like their US rivals (Reuters)

• Religious Scholars Met With Anthropic. What They Heard Stunned Them. (NYT)

• FTC is investigating OpenAI and Anthropic over possible risks to consumers (AP)

The Road Splits

Today, as an experiment, I am separating the news headlines into two batches — general news and news about AI. This reflects the growing significance of AI in our lives. 

The idea is that on any given day I may include links to an expanded cross-section of news and views of this revolutionary technology. Why? Because we literally cannot go on living without understanding AI.

I know that some of my long-time readers don’t like AI and have been resisting getting to become familiar with it as a result. So I’m making it easy — just read through the headlines each day, perhaps click on one story that intrigues you, and Presto! In a month you’ll know more about AI than 90 percent of the politicians we need to persuade to do something about it.

We’ll see if this works. AI has the potential to solve many of our problems, such as a cure for cancers of all kinds, but it needs strict regulation as fiercely as nuclear weapons.

To get from here to there, we have to educate our elected officials. And to do that, we first have to educate ourselves.

HEADLINES:

• Media outlets say White House will impose a ‘complete ban’ if Trump wins legal battle (Independent)

• Israeli officials say diverted flydubai incident may be attempted ‘terror attack’ (Reuters)

• Supreme Court allows Trump’s ‘third country’ deportation policy (NBC)

• America’s Canadian import restrictions come into force. Here are the products barred from entry (CNBC)

• How Paxton vs. Talarico compares to Cruz vs. O’Rourke (Axios)

• Midterm waves are the rule, not the exception (Silver Bulletin)

• Ex-Trump prosecutor Smith forcefully defends investigations as Republicans assail his team's tactics (AP)

• Jack Smith clashes with senators over Trump probes, says he will not be silenced (WP)

• Hegseth says national security, military cyber forces will guard US election systems during midterms (AP)

• Federal prosecutors charge Venezuelan man shot by ICE agent in Texas with assaulting an officer (CNN)

• How did the RAF Fairford incident go from ‘suspected bomb plot’ to police bail? (BBC)

• US forces exit Iraq after two decades, leaving opening for Iran (Reuters)

• How Trump’s sweeping changes are remaking Washington (WP)

• China unveils mortgage subsidies to boost economy (FT)

• After 58 years, the man behind ‘got milk?’ is walking away from advertising (SF Standard)

• Nation’s 93-Year-Olds Announce Plan To Crash Car Into Side Of Bank (Onion)

LATEST AI NEWS:

• OpenAI delays latest model over security concerns, as industry faces new safety pressures (AP)

• Trump’s meeting with tech leaders leaves AI safety more unsettled than ever (CNBC)

• Trump signs executive order to launch AI-powered ‘America.gov’ (Politico)

• In the latest AI news, Anthropic's IPO prospectus shows a sweeping AI vision and surging costs. (Reuters)

• Trump gathers with AI leaders, floats ‘self-regulation’ as the way to deal with the technology’s dangers (Yahoo)

• Trump says top tech firms have signed accord to 'self-police' AI development (AP)

• OpenAI was warned, months before the Hugging Face incident (Marcus)

• OpenAI Ignored Employees Who Warned It Wasn’t Doing Enough About Security (NYT)

• Timnit Gebru Believes There Is No ‘Existential Threat’ From AI (Wired)

• Urging a wary public not to fear AI, Trump launches government chatbot (WP)

• Trump’s New America.Gov Chatbot Contradicts His False Claims—Says Biden Won 2020 Election (Forbes)

• ‘Things Will Never Be Chill Again’: The Doomers Who Shaped the AI Safety Freakout (WSJ)

• Mistral CEO accuses competitors of ‘negligence’ (Politico)

• Using AI to Write at Work Is Basically Fine — Unless You’re a Writer (Bloomberg)

• Walmart bans AI slop signs in stores (BI)

• Hot take on a weak White House Accord on “Super Intelligence” (Marcus)

• A.I. Groups Are Spending Millions to Influence the Midterms (NYT)

• Bill Gates warns of ‘a billion’ deaths if AI goes wrong (WP)