OUR PICKSElection Deniers Aren’t Waiting for November | Anthrax Redux: Did the Feds Nab the Wrong Guy? | Trump and the Spy Agencies on a Collision Course, and more
• Election Deniers Aren’t Waiting for November
A toxic mix of disinformation, digital tools, and generative AI is challenging election officials across the country
• House Passes 2-Year Surveillance Law Extension without Warrant Requirement
Speaker Mike Johnson scaled back the measure to two years from five after Donald J. Trump had urged Republicans to “kill” it. An effort to require warrants to search for Americans’ messages failed on a tie
• Change Healthcare Faces Another Ransomware Threat—and It Looks Credible
Change Healthcare ransomware hackers already received a $22 million payment. Now a second group is demanding money, and it has sent WIRED samples of what they claim is the company’s stolen data
• Campaign Puts Trump and the Spy Agencies on a Collision Course
As president, Donald Trump never trusted the intelligence community. His antipathy has only grown since he left office, with potentially serious implications should he return to power
• How Election Deniers Became Mainstream—and Are Weaponizing Tech
Election deniers are training others to challenge voter rolls and overwhelm election officials. And they’re using tech to do it
Immigrants in Maine Are Filling a Labor Gap. It May Be a Prelude for the U.S.
A wave of rapid immigration is taxing local resources around the country and drawing political ire. But it might leave America’s economy better off
• N.Y.C. Schools Chief to Testify as Congress Expands Antisemitism Inquiry
A congressional committee that questioned college presidents about how they have handled protests over the Israel-Hamas war is now focusing on K-12 school districts
• Anthrax Redux: Did the Feds Nab the Wrong Guy?
Ten years ago, letters laced with anthrax killed five people. But did the Feds trace the spores to the wrong man?
Election Deniers Aren’t Waiting for November (Makena Kelly, Wired)
Since 2020, Donald Trump and his devotees have sown doubt over election results and spread dozens of election conspiracies. Some of these election deniers have become elected officials themselves, serving as governors and US senators. Others, like Mike Lindell, have spent millions of dollars in hopes of overturning the 2020 election.
On WIRED.com and in our new podcast, the WIRED Politics team reported that many of these election deniers on both the national and grassroots level have been training others to challenge voter rolls and overwhelm election officials even before polls open in November. And they’re using tech to do it.
Election denial groups seem more prevalent and organized than ever. Since the midterms, one of these groups, True the Vote, has hosted webinars for activists to learn about challenging the election, my colleague David Gilbert reported earlier this week. The group is also relaunching a software called IV3 that provides anyone with the ability to review and challenge voter rolls in counties across all 50 states. The software works by comparing names on voter rolls to a US Postal Service database. Dhruv Mehrotra, my colleague on WIRED’s Security desk, investigated IV3 in 2022 and found that the tool was built on shoddy data—but that hasn’t stopped True the Vote from organizing “overbooked” webinar trainings on how to use it.
House Passes 2-Year Surveillance Law Extension without Warrant Requirement (Charlie Savage and Luke Broadwater, New York Times)
In a major turnaround, the House on Friday passed a two-year reauthorization of an expiring warrantless surveillance law that had stalled this week amid G.O.P. resistance — but only after narrowly rejecting a bipartisan effort to restrict searches of Americans’ messages swept up by the program.
The bill would extend a provision of law known as Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, that is set to lapse next Friday. House passage was a remarkable resuscitation of the measure from a collapse just days ago on the House floor after former President Donald J. Trump had urged Republicans to “kill” FISA. (Cont.)
