Extra, Extra
Let the Chips Fall Where They May? “Mr. Huang has not received a defensive briefing, warnings sometimes given to Americans who are being targeted by foreign intelligence services, people briefed on the surveillance said.” NYT (Gift Article): Nvidia Chief Seen as Target of Chinese Spy Plot. “A Chinese businesswoman who had a close relationship with Jensen Huang was found to be passing intelligence to Beijing. President Trump was briefed and took no action.” (So this is allowed to go on, but I can’t drive a Polestar?)
+ FlaviOMG: “Less than 24 hours after losing Brazil’s presidential election, Flávio Bolsonaro appeared to vanish into a convoy of four dark cars. After pulling away from his home in Brasília on Monday evening, the vehicles split in different directions, leaving journalists and authorities scrambling to determine which one carried Bolsonaro. By the next afternoon, the former presidential candidate’s allies were telling reporters he had already reached Florida.” WSJ (Gift Article): How Bolsonaro Fled Brazil: Decoys, a Private Jet and a Friend in the White House.
+ Watch, and Listen to, Your Six? “Some hosts and many guests argue that the United States was defeated in Afghanistan because our presidents and generals, more concerned with politics and optics than the realities of the battlefield, imposed crippling restrictions on Special Operations. Freed from constraints, they say, the lethal raiding machine that Team 6 was a part of — with its exquisite training, cutting-edge technology and overwhelming firepower — might have simply killed its way to victory.” A very interesting piece on why some vets think America is losing wars — it’s an argument that has a lot of influence on the current administration. NYT Mag (Gift Article): They Were the Military’s ‘Quiet Professionals.’ Now They’re Talking. Meanwhile, we’re in a war right now, and Hegseth just fired another top general.
+ Damn Daniel: After Trump made the demand on social media, “Republican Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy has ordered an investigation into the Democratic candidate running for the U.S. Senate in the state after revelations that her campaign appeared to be involved in recruiting another candidate with the same name as Republican incumbent Dan Sullivan.”
+ Strength Avenue Freeze Out: “One of the officials said the military investigators were in touch with their French counterparts about a similar cyberattack on commercial freezers that disrupted supermarkets there earlier this month.” Pentagon treating military base freezer malfunctions as suspected cyberattack.
+ Google Bugle Call: AI fears hammer Google parent’s stock, erasing $500 billion in value. Google is mostly getting stung financially because a lot of ad space goes away (for now) when it answers so many search results with AI. But everyone knows there’s a correction coming. Will Google’s bad day be the trigger? In other tech news, DoorDash to acquire Instacart for $17B. (If they had used Dashpass, they could have closed the deal for $16.9B…)
+ Behind the Eight Ball: However the midterms play out, there’s no denying that Trump has become much less accomplished when it comes to being terrible. “Many Republicans, and even some in Trump’s orbit, don’t quite get it. What has happened, they ask, to the instincts of the man who authored two of the most improbable victories in American political history? Trump’s superpower was his intuitive understanding of what motivated his supporters. Many Republicans privately tell me that he’s lost that feel. Trump now lives, they think, in a gilded bubble, palling around with billionaires, oblivious to—and, even worse, uncaring about—the problems facing so many voters.” The Atlantic (Gift Article): Trump Is Closing From Behind. (I guess that explains why he keeps talking about people’s asses…)
