Extra, Extra
Call Me Maybe: “U.S. President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke on Wednesday amid tensions with Iran while Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said an Israeli strike against Iran will be ‘lethal, precise and surprising.'” Here’s something else pretty surprising. “The call, confirmed by both countries, was the first known chat for Biden and Netanyahu since August.”
+ Split Decision: “Now that Judge Amit Mehta has found Google is a monopolist, lawyers for the Department of Justice have begun proposing solutions to correct the company’s illegal behavior and restore competition to the market for search engines.” A Google breakup is on the table, say DOJ lawyers. (It’s ironic that talks of a Google break-up are coming at the very time AI is changing the game when it comes to search and other forms of internet discovery.)
+ Mitt’s Kid Gloves: Mitt Romney “has never before implied so strongly that he’s actively rooting for Harris. What remains fascinating is that he still won’t say it out loud. He says his reticence is deliberate. “There’s a good shot that the Republican party is going to need to be rebuilt and reoriented, either after this election, or if Donald Trump is reelected, after he’s the president … I believe I will have more influence in the party by virtue of saying it as I’ve said it. I’m not planning on changing the way I’ve described it.” Even now, guys like Romney and George W Bush won’t fully endorse Kamala. (We’re living in the age of delusional cowardice.) Meanwhile, should it bother us that we’re more likely to believe the Kremlin’s version of events over Trump’s? Kremlin refutes Trump denial on sending Putin COVID tests. (Kamala Harris wants to expand health care to more Americans. Donald Trump wants to expand health care to Vladimir Putin.)
+ Protein Titans: “The Nobel Prize in chemistry was awarded Wednesday to David Baker, Demis Hassabis and John Jumper for their breakthrough work predicting and designing the structure of proteins, the building blocks of life.” Meanwhile, “a US scientist who won the 2024 Nobel physics prize for his pioneering work on artificial intelligence said Tuesday he found recent advances in the technology ‘very unnerving’ and warned of possible catastrophe if not kept in check.”
+ Poll Survivor: “After years of growing strife, the nerdy business of building polling models has gotten truly nasty.” Everyone is fighting about the election. Even election modelers. When Election Modelers Attack.
+ Who Died and Made You Bling? “It was the biggest estate-tax payment in modern history, but no one knew who made it. Then an anonymous phone call pointed to one man.” Who died and left the US $7 billion?
