Election Interference, Crypto, Lithium Mining, & The Olympics

July 31, 2024

Hello, readers – happy Wednesday! Today, we’ll be talking about election interference, Israel’s multiple wars, cryptocurrency, lithium mining, social media laws, Project 2025 winding down, and the Olympics.

Here’s some wildfire-related good news: an emergency responder ran 1.5 miles to rescue a dog and her puppies from the Park Fire. Also, a mother bear and her two cubs managed to survive the Jasper National Park fire.

“So many of our dreams at first seem impossible, then they seem improbable, and then, when we summon the will, they soon become inevitable.” – Christopher Reeve

The Trump Tug-O-War

(Trump by Brandon Bell via Getty Images)

According to a joint election security briefing released by three U.S. intelligence agencies, Iran is attempting to undercut the Trump campaign, while Russia has continued its strategy of pushing pro-Trump propaganda.

“Since our last update, the [intelligence community] has observed Tehran working to influence the presidential election,” said a senior official with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), adding, “Iran’s preference is essentially a reflection of its desire to not worsen tensions with the United States, and Iran is opposing the candidate that Iran’s leaders perceive would increase those tensions.” Without naming names, the report referred to a 2020 briefing which also showed that Iran was working against Trump.

Moscow, meanwhile, has maintained its pro-MAGA machinations. Russia has built on its well-oiled propaganda machine for this election, contracting it out to privately owned Russian companies to cover its tracks. Much of the Kremlin’s propaganda is spread through fake websites and AI-made social media profiles. Through those channels, propagandists can sway real Americans into spreading their talking points, increasing division as we head into November.

Things Get A Bit Too Real In Israel

Things in the Middle East are blowing up this week – literally and figuratively. In response to a Hezbollah strike on the occupied Golan Heights on Saturday, the IDF launched missiles at the Lebanese capital of Beirut yesterday. According to Israel, the strike killed Hezbollah’s most senior military commander, though the Lebanese Health Ministry claimed that the attack killed three people, including two children, and injured 74 others. The strike marks a major escalation in the Lebanon-Israel conflict, though the U.N. has urged both countries to “exercise maximum restraint” to stop a wider war.

Inside Israel’s borders, things are also getting hairy. Israeli military police detained at least 9 IDF reservists over the weekend on suspicions that they had abused and raped a Palestinian prisoner being held in one of Israel’s controversial desert detention facilities. Multiple far-right members of Israel’s government, accompanied by their supporters, broke into multiple IDF bases in response to the arrests. The riots, supported by senior members of the Israeli government including National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, forced the IDF to divert troops from Gaza to defend their bases from their own citizens.

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Putin Crypto On The International Map

(Putin by Mikhail Klimentyev via Getty Images)

In the face of waves of international sanctions cutting Russia off from much of the global economy, Moscow has resorted to taking cryptocurrency payments to keep its economy running. The move is a response to Western regulators holding the threat of sanctions over banks in China, India, and the UAE, delaying payments from many of Russia’s remaining trade partners.
“We are taking a historic decision in the financial sphere,” said the head of Russia’s lower legislative house before the bill passed in parliament. The new rules will establish an “experimental” infrastructure for Russia’s central bank to monitor and regulate cryptocurrency payments, though details on the plan have yet to be released.

What’s Mined Is Ours

On Monday, thousands of people in cities across Serbia took to the streets in protest of the country’s new lithium mining deal with the E.U. The mining agreement would bring the Balkan state, which has close ties with China and Russia, closer to Brussels, though environmentalists and local opposition groups say that increased lithium mining will cause irreparable damage to the country’s environment.
Lithium is a key component in producing rechargeable electric batteries, making it a key resource as renewables and the EV industry continue to grow. The deal with Serbia would make the E.U. less reliant on lithium exported by China.
While that sounds like a sweet deal for the E.U., the biggest lithium reserve in the country is located in Western Serbia near a key river and a high concentration of fertile farmland. Digging up the mineral might provide profits for the British mining company in charge of the project and create some mining jobs in the area, the possible contamination of the area isn’t a good tradeoff for Serbians.

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Big Tech Gets Big-Time Checks

The Senate passed legislation 91-3 yesterday that will require companies to take precautions that protect minors from harm on online platforms. As we all know, such bipartisan agreement isn’t common these days, but supporters of the bill hope that the overwhelming support will encourage the House to take up the issue soon.
If it becomes law, companies would be required to mitigate harm to children, including bullying and violence, the promotion of suicide, eating disorders, substance abuse, sexual exploitation, and ads for illegal products. Platforms would have to allow minors to disable addictive product features and opt out of personalized algorithmic recommendations.
They would also be required to limit other users from communicating with children and limit features that “increase, sustain, or extend the use” of the platform — such as autoplay for videos or platform rewards. “The message we are sending to big tech is that kids are not your product,” Senator Blackburn said at a news conference.

Hindsight Is 2025

Yesterday, Project 2025 director (and former Trump administration official) Paul Dans announced he would be stepping down from his role. The Heritage Foundation, which is responsible for the blueprint designed for the next Republican president, also distributed new talking points to encourage people to remind audiences that the idea isn’t associated with former President Trump or his ongoing presidential campaign.
Trump senior adviser Susie Wiles repeatedly called Heritage leaders instructing them to stop promoting Project 2025. “Reports of Project 2025’s demise would be greatly welcomed and should serve as notice to anyone or any group trying to misrepresent their influence with President Trump and his campaign — it will not end well for you, Wiles said yesterday.

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Gold For The Golden Girls

Olympics time! There’s still a week and a half left for the Paris games, but events like gymnastics, table tennis, and skateboarding are already wrapping up. Currently, Japan still leads the gold medal race with seven first-place awards, while China and Australia trail close behind with six golds apiece. In the overall hardware race, the U.S. has a healthy lead with 26 total medals (four gold, 11 silver, and 11 bronze). Host country France has the second-highest medal total, with 18 (five gold, nine silver, and four bronze).
So far, the biggest story of the Paris games has been the U.S. women’s gymnastics team. The squad, led by Simone Biles, is the oldest-ever gymnastics team (Biles revealed that the team has been calling themselves the “Golden Girls”) that the U.S. has ever sent to the Olympics – despite that, the team was able to secure a gold medal with 171.296 points, well ahead of runners-up Italy and Brazil.
Japan continued its streak of skateboarding dominance, winning gold medals in both the women’s and men’s street-style competitions. Another highlight of the games took place at the surfing competition in Tahiti, French Polynesia. On a day marked by massive swells, Brazilian surfer Gabriel Medina scored two victories off of one wave. Taking on one of the biggest waves of the day, Medina fell just one-tenth of a point shy of a perfect 10 and also was photographed mid-air in one of the most iconic images of this year’s games so far.

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