Congressional Spending, AI In The Military, Google’s Lawsuit, & Apple’s Reveals

September 10, 2024

Hello, readers – happy Tuesday! Today, we’ll be talking about the spending showdown in Congress, Algeria’s elections, AI in the military, Venezuela’s presidential candidate fleeing the country, another lawsuit against Google, Truth Social’s valuation, and Apple’s announcements.

Here’s some good news: New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu used the Heimlich maneuver to rescue a man who was choking on a lobster roll. Also, new government data has revealed that fewer adolescents are vaping this year than at any point in the last decade. 

“Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work at hand. The sun’s rays do not burn until brought to a focus.” – Alexander Graham Bell

Congress Is Back, And So Are Budget Deadlines

Congress returned to work yesterday, and, like anybody returning to their desks after a long break, they were immediately slammed with a wave of problems. Hopefully, their negotiation muscles haven’t gotten too weak over the summer – funding for the federal government will end on September 30, giving lawmakers less than a month to hammer out a budget agreement for the next fiscal year.

As usual, lawmakers are looking to punt as the budget deadline approaches – Congress is mainly considering a temporary funding bill called a continuing resolution (CR) to keep the lights on at the Capitol while they work on a longer-term budget deal. House Republicans, led by House Speaker Mike Johnson, have already proposed an unusually long six-month CR, but Biden, House Democrats, and even some senior Republicans have already voiced their opposition to the plan. 

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has also said that passing a six-month CR would prove devastating for the military. On top of that, under a CR, government agencies aren’t allowed to spend money on new projects, and Austin said a six-month stopgap budget would stall out over $4.3 billion in research and development projects and about $10 billion worth of new construction. “Asking the department to compete with (China), let alone manage conflicts in Europe and the Middle East, while under a lengthy CR, ties our hands behind our back while expecting us to be agile and to accelerate progress,” wrote the Pentagon chief in a letter to lawmakers.

An Election So Fishy Even The Winner Couldn’t Accept It

Have you ever won so hard that you questioned how it could have happened? We haven’t, but the president of Algeria has. On Saturday, incumbent Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune won his country’s presidential elections in a massive landslide victory, securing 94.7% of ballots while his next-closest competitors won just 3.2% and 2.2%. On Sunday, those political rivals were quick to pounce on the vote tallies, saying they contradicted earlier numbers announced by Algeria’s election authority. Tebboune eventually added his voice to theirs, with all three campaigns issuing a joint statement criticizing the country’s election authority for switching up its vote tallies.

Tebboune was expected to secure an easy win over the weekend, but not to this extent. His 94.7% marks the largest margin of victory out of all elections held this year, even topping Vladimir Putin’s 87% win in Russia’s March elections. The massive gap is only likely to further perceptions in Algeria that the electoral system is being abused to keep the country’s political elite in power. It’s unclear how much more apathetic Algerian voters can become – voter turnout plunged to a new low over the weekend, with just 5.6 million of the country’s roughly 24 million voters submitting ballots. 

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This Non-Binding Agreement Could’ve Been An Email

• Yesterday, officials from around the globe met at a summit in South Korea to establish a global agreement on the use of AI in military applications. Over 90 countries, including the U.S. and China, sent representatives to the two-day conference, though the meeting will likely only produce a non-binding agreement (if it produces anything at all). A possible agreement – which, again, would be non-binding – might include mechanisms to ensure that AI isn’t allowed to make any life-or-death decisions or legal guardrails to ensure that AI complies with international law.
• “Recently, in the Russia-Ukraine war, an AI-applied Ukrainian drone functioned as David’s slingshot,” South Korean Defence Minister Kim Yong-hyun said in the summit’s opening remarks, referring to the biblical story of David and Goliath. “As AI is applied to the military domain, the military’s operational capabilities are dramatically improved. However it is like a double-edged sword, as it can cause damage from abuse.” Very insightful.

The Rain In Spain Is A Welcome Sight For Asylum Seekers

• On Sunday, Venezuelan presidential candidate Edmundo González landed in Spain after fleeing his home country. While Western governments insist that González – and not sitting president Nicolás Maduro – was the rightful winner of the country’s presidential election earlier this summer, his flight out of Venezuela will significantly hurt his chances of ever becoming president.
• González decided to flee the country in the face of an arrest warrant accusing him of multiple crimes including conspiracy, falsifying documents, and usurpation of powers. He was spirited away by a Spanish Air Force plane, which was allowed safe passage by Maduro’s government to preserve “the country’s political peace and tranquility.”

More Mixed Nuts

• Russian drone that crashed in Latvia carried explosives, Latvian military says (Reuters)
• Whale alleged to be Russian ‘spy’ died after stick became lodged in its mouth, say police (Guardian)
• Dozens of people and cattle killed as fuel tanker collides with another truck in Nigeria (CBS)
• El Salvador’s police director and a fugitive banker are among 9 dead in a helicopter crash (ABC)
• Sudan rejects UN call for peace force to protect civilians (BBC)
• Britain’s local governments at risk of ‘financial collapse’ (CNN)

Ad-ing Insult To Injury

• The DOJ is pursuing another lawsuit against Google just a few weeks after the tech giant’s search business was declared to be a monopoly. On Monday, the DOJ and 17 states claimed that Google broke antitrust laws with its $31 billion advertising business as well. From mergers to bullying, Google is accused of driving up prices for advertisers and choking out competition. 
• This portion of Google’s site matches website publishers with advertisers – basically, when you see those banner ads at the top of a site, Google picked it. Google’s not taking the suit lying down, though – one of the company’s attorneys, Karen Dunn, said the government’s lawsuit “is like a time capsule, where if you break it open there would be a BlackBerry, an iPod and a Blockbuster Video card.” Harsh. 

$DJT Is Going Down

• Shares of Trump Media & Technology Group dropped last week to their lowest level since going public this spring, and the company has now lost about 72% of its value since the end of March. Former President Trump’s dominant stake of 114.75 million shares was valued at $6.2 billion on May 9 but is now down to about $2.1 billion.
• The $4 billion loss has taken Trump off the Bloomberg Billionaires Index of the world’s 500 richest people. Experts have warned that the company’s valuation is blown out of proportion. “If this wasn’t Trump, this thing would be trading at $1,” Matthew Tuttle, CEO of Tuttle Capital Management, told CNN in a phone interview.  

More Nuts In America

• Mom of Georgia school shooting suspect: ‘If I could take their place, I would’ (ABC)
• Bryan Kohberger: Change of venue granted for trial of suspect in Idaho student killings (CNN)
• Tropical Storm Francine forms in Gulf, headed toward US landfall as a hurricane (USA Today)
• Line and Davis fires grow in California and Nevada, displacing thousands (CNN)
• To the World, He Is an Anti-Trafficking Hero. Women Tell a Different Story. (NYT, $)
• Trial begins in alleged ‘Trump Train’ ambush of Biden-Harris bus in 2020 (Guardian)

Apple Takes A Bite Of The AI Pie

• Apple kicked off the week with its ‘It’s Glowtime’ event yesterday, announcing its new iPhone 16 lineup, a new Apple Watch, and the AirPods 4. The main takeaway from the event? AI, AI, and more AI (and also about 30 minutes spent on the new iPhone 16 Pro’s ability to take really good pictures and videos).
• At a high level: the new Apple Watch 10 is bigger and thinner; the Airpods 4 will come with transparent audio and active noise cancellation (the second feature will cost a bit more); the new iPhones will use AI to be more helpful; and the new phones will also come with a new camera button, which can be used to take pictures and quickly adjust settings like zoom, exposure, and depth of field. In a twist, the tech giant announced its AirPods Pro 2 will soon receive a wide range of hearing health features, including an interactive test as well as the ability to act as “clinical grade” hearing aids for people with mild-to-moderate hearing loss. The feature is still awaiting FDA approval.
• Investors were probably most hyped about the suite of Apple Intelligence features announced for the new iPhone, which will help users interact with Siri more fluidly, look up things like plants and dogs with the snap of the camera, and more easily search through photo libraries. Apple claims users won’t be farmed for their data, with queries using the new phones’ AI-focused onboard chips as well as private requests to remote Apple computers, which will (supposedly) never store your data.

More Loose Nuts

• Catherine, Princess of Wales, ‘doing what I can to stay cancer free’ after finishing chemotherapy (CNN)
• ‘It’s okay to poo at work’: Australian health department praised for tackling taboo with humorous campaign (Guardian)
• A capsule has been propelled through a hyperloop test tube in a step forward for the transit system (AP)
• Tommy Hilfiger revives nautical theme for show on old Staten Island ferry (Guardian)
• Beyoncé shut out of Country Music Award nominations (NBC)

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Team Thoughts

Kayli – I would almost feel bad for Google dealing with all these lawsuits if they weren’t worth, like, over a trillion dollars. 

Marcus – Turning Airpods into hearing aids is honestly pretty cool! Which I can’t really say about any other features that came out of Apple’s event yesterday.