On a Free Press

• “The moment we no longer have a free press, anything can happen. What makes it possible for a totalitarian or any other dictatorship to rule is that people are not informed. … If everybody always lies to you, the consequence is not that you believe the lies, but rather that nobody believes anything any longer.” — Hannah Arendt, political theorist

• “In the First Amendment, the Founding Fathers gave the free press the protection it must have to fulfill its essential role in our democracy. The press was to serve the governed, not the governors. The government’s power to censor the press was abolished so that the press would remain forever free to censure the government. The press was protected so that it could bare the secrets of government and inform the people.” — Hugo Black, U.S. Supreme Court justice

• “Power can be very addictive. And it can be corrosive. And it's important for the media to call to account people who abuse their power.” — George W. Bush

• “Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost.” — Thomas Jefferson

• “Without debate, without criticism, no administration and no country can succeed — and no republic can survive. ... And that is why our press was protected by the First Amendment – the only business in America specifically protected by the Constitution – not primarily to amuse and entertain, not to emphasize the trivial and the sentimental, not to simply ‘give the public what it wants’ — but to inform, to arouse, to reflect, to state our dangers and our opportunities, to indicate our crises and our choices, to lead, mold, educate and sometimes even anger public opinion.” — John F. Kennedy

• “But somewhere I read of the freedom of assembly. Somewhere I read of the freedom of speech. Somewhere I read of the freedom of press. Somewhere I read that the greatness of America is the right to protest for right.” ― The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

HEADLINES:

• Trump says planned arch will be ‘military complex’ for drones, snipers (WP)

• Trump’s proposed Washington arch to become sniper, drone facility (Axios)

• Inside the White House media ban (Politico)

• News Outlets Express Solidarity After Trump Bars Some Reporters (NYT)

• Google’s Gemini AI hacked into other companies, adding to ‘rogue’ AI incidents (WP)

• Trump says he’s creating an AI force and appointing a czar amid concerns over the rapidly developing tech (NBC)

• Will AI models achieve the ability to improve autonomously? Leading labs say the scenario is near (AP)

• Democrats dump on data centers (Reuters)

• Trump Calls A.I. Fears a Hoax. Inside the White House, the Debate Is More Complex. (NYT)

• Behind Trump’s public confidence, his private view of midterms is sobering (WP)

• Republicans Reel on the Midterm Map as Deep-Red Areas Come Into Play (NYT)

• ‘Musk’ film is terrifying and engrossing, and has drawn the tech titan’s ire (WP)

• Civil Rights Groups Sue to Keep Armed Agents Away From Voting Sites (NYT)

• North Korea fires two ballistic missiles off east coast in three hours (Reuters)

• Houthis say they targeted Saudi capital with ballistic missiles (BBC)

• UN report details sexual violence in Ukraine war (Reuters)

• Largest attack on Moscow sees Ukraine fire hundreds of drones, mayor says (BBC)

• Israel’s Qatargate Scandal (New Yorker)

• USPS’ cost cuts come with a price: Slower mail (Axios)

• Higher interest rates and AI safety fears put the stock market to the test last week (CNBC)

• The Goal of Contemporary Journalism (Atlantic)

• China’s embodied intelligence is moving from stage to factory floor (Global Times)

• AI-Generated ‘Actress’ Tilly Norwood Starts Rambling in Cantonese During Piers Morgan Interview (Gizmodo)

• Small AI models let drones autonomously identify and attack battlefield targets (ArsTechnica)

• My AI assistant is deeply annoying — and that’s the least of it (WP)

• Olivia Rodrigo Releases Fantasy Tabletop Game ‘The High Winter Elves Of Girlville’ (Onion)