OUR PICKSSeventy Miles in Hell | The U.S. Navy Has an 'Achilles Heel' | The U.K. Admits Failure in Pandemic Response, and more
· Kamala Harris’ Rally Crowds Aren’t AI-Generated. Here’s How You Can Tell
Conspiracy theories have shot up around images of surging crowds for Harris-Walz campaign events. But all it takes is a little research to prove the photos are real
· Trump’s Big Lie About Harris’s Crowds
Trump is helping his supporters build a rationale for rejecting the election results if Harris wins
· The U.K. Admits Failure in Pandemic Response and Offers Preparedness and Resilience Lessons
Had the U.K. been better prepared for and more resilient to the pandemic, some of the financial and human cost may have been avoided
· Seventy Miles in Hell
The Darién Gap was once considered impassable. Now hundreds of thousands of migrants are risking treacherous terrain, violence, hunger, and disease to travel through the jungle to the U.S.
· Forget Aircraft Carriers: The U.S. Navy Has an ‘Achilles Heel’
The U.S. Navy faces significant challenges, including a shortage of sailors and shipyards. Recruiting and retaining personnel has become difficult, leading to operational and safety concerns
Kamala Harris’ Rally Crowds Aren’t AI-Generated. Here’s How You Can Tell (Kyle Orland, Ars Technica / Wired)
Donald Trump may have coined a new term in his latest false attack on Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign. In a pair of posts on Truth Social over the weekend, the former president said that Vice President Kamala Harris “A.I.’d” photos of a huge crowd that showed up to see her speak at a Detroit airport campaign rally last week.
“There was nobody at the plane, and she ‘A.I.’d’ it, and showed a massive ‘crowd’ of so-called followers, BUT THEY DIDN’T EXIST!” Trump wrote. “She’s a CHEATER. She had NOBODY waiting, and the ‘crowd’ looked like 10,000 people! Same thing is happening with her fake ‘crowds’ at her speeches.”
The Harris campaign responded with its own post saying that the image is “an actual photo of a 15,000-person crowd for Harris-Walz in Michigan.”
Trump’s Big Lie About Harris’s Crowds (Michelle Goldberg, New York Times)
When Donald Trump says something ludicrous and unhinged, it is often difficult to tell if he is acting out of feral political calculation or narcissistic injury. We saw this on Sunday, when he claimed that Kamala Harris had used A.I. to fake an image of an enthusiastic crowd greeting her when she arrived in Michigan.
“There was nobody at the plane, and she ‘A.I.’d’ it, and showed a massive ‘crowd’ of so-called followers, BUT THEY DIDN’T EXIST!,” Trump wrote on his vanity website Truth Social.
His argument, such as it was, was based on a conspiracy theory floating around febrile corners of the internet that purported to find evidence of Harris’s deception in a reflection on her plane. “Same thing is happening with her fake ‘crowds’ at her speeches,” Trump added. “This is the way the Democrats win Elections, by CHEATING — And they’re even worse at the Ballot Box. She should be disqualified because the creation of a fake image is ELECTION INTERFERENCE.”
