Extra, Extra
What Elon Strange Trip It’s Been: Something is pretty wrong in American politics if the best we can hope for is that our billionaires will outspend their billionaires. “In the final weeks of the presidential campaign, the richest man in the world has involved himself in the U.S. election in a manner unparalleled in modern history. He has effectively moved his base of operations to Pennsylvania, the place that he has recently told confidants he believes is the linchpin to Mr. Trump’s re-election. He has relentlessly promoted Mr. Trump’s candidacy to his 201 million followers on X, the social platform formerly known as Twitter that he bought for $44 billion and has used to spread conspiracy theories about the Democratic Party and to insult its candidate, Vice President Kamala Harris.” NYT (Gift Article): Musk Is Going All In to Elect Trump. (If he wins, the billions he blew ruining Twitter will seem like a bargain.)
+ Princess Diaries: “Hala said that she and three of her sisters—Sahar, Maha, and Jawaher—were being held captive in the villa. They had been there since their mother, one of the King’s wives, absconded to London to escape his control years earlier. Burdick offered to try to find a way to help, and the princess agreed to return the knife to the kitchen. ‘I did my method of sedating a patient, which is to talk with them,’ he said.” The New Yorker: The Texan Doctor and the Disappeared Saudi Princesses. “Four daughters in the royal family were kept drugged and imprisoned for almost two decades. A physician who tried to free them speaks out for the first time.”
+ Not the Hummer They Had in Mind: “In Granbury, Texas, residents can hear the sound of money being made at all hours of the day, but it’s not making them rich. Instead, neighbors in the town southwest of Fort Worth say that the persistent low hum emanating from the Bitcoin mine operated by Marathon Digital has caused them stress, loss of sleep and other unexplained ailments.” Neighbors of Bitcoin mine in Texas file nuisance lawsuit over incessant humming.
+ Aisle Be Seeing You in All the Old Familiar Places: Want to feel better about grocery prices in America? Check out grocery prices basically everywhere else in the world.
+ The Calgorithm: The remaking of college athletic divisions will result in more money for participants, but it is also making for some crazy travel for the so-called student-athletes. Cal taps NASA specialist amid concerns over ACC travel.
+ If the Spirit Moves You: Spirit Halloween is transforming some of its stores into a Christmas spinoff. (In the end, the only things that will survive are cockroaches and Spirit pop-up stores.)
