Extra, Extra
Talking Thru It: “Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah pulled back after an exchange of heavy fire over the weekend that briefly raised fears of an all-out war.” Interestingly, the planned ceasefire talks went on as scheduled in the hours after the exchange. In WaPo, David Ignatius says the momentum for a cease-fire is building. “What was striking about this past weekend was that what the region had feared most finally happened — and yet the momentum toward peace continues.” (From everything I’ve read, it seems like the Americans are more bullish about progress than the other negotiating teams.)
+ Gov For Sale: Money can’t buy you love. But it can buy you gov. “The 50 biggest donors this cycle have collectively pumped $1.5 billion into political committees and other groups competing in the election.” WaPo: Meet the megadonors pumping millions into the 2024 election. “The vast majority of money from top donors has gone to super PACs, which can accept unlimited sums from individuals and often work closely with campaigns despite rules against coordinating their advertising.”
+ Debate and Switch: “We’re thinking about it. We’re thinking about it. They also want to change the rules. You know, the deal was we keep the same rules. Now, all of a sudden they want to make a change in the rules because she can’t answer questions. … Why doesn’t she do something like I’m doing right now? She can’t talk. We can’t have another dummy as a president.” It’s starting to look like Trump wants to back out of the presidential debate. (The only thing that would be more humiliating to Trump’s campaign than dropping out of the debate would be actually participating in it.)
+ Floating an Idea: “The captain of a luxury yacht which sank in a storm off the coast of Sicily last week, killing the British tech magnate Mike Lynch and six others, has been placed under investigation for charges of manslaughter and shipwreck, Italian media have reported.” And in a truly bizarre coincidence, Stephen Chamberlain, Mike Lynch’s co-defendant in US fraud trial that just ended, was fatally struck by car while jogging.
+ Kept in the Loop: “A.I.-generated information can make it harder for us to know what’s real. And it also poses a problem for A.I. companies. As they trawl the web for new data to train their next models on — an increasingly challenging task — they’re likely to ingest some of their own A.I.-generated content, creating an unintentional feedback loop in which what was once the output from one A.I. becomes the input for another.” NYT (Gift Article): When A.I.’s Output Is a Threat to A.I. Itself.
+ Straight and Arrow: “She raises the bow with her right leg, pulls back the string using her right shoulder and releases the arrow using the strength of her jaw.” The Indian archer without arms shooting for a gold.
+ Course Corrections: “A state prison in northeast Ohio says that for the first time in the state’s history, a five-course meal has been served to members of the public with food prepared by incarcerated men from fruits and vegetables grown in the prison garden.” Ohio prison holds first-ever five-course meal open to public on facility grounds.
