"Research published Friday shows that Instagram is “actively boosting” Bolsonaro and conservative content in the days ahead of the country’s high-stakes runoff election."
https://www.commondreams.org/news/meta-algorithm-brazil-election?share_id=10135526
4/n
"Two US State Department officials led a campaign to restore the right-wing Bolsonaro clan to power in Brazil and successfully pushed for sanctions aimed at tilting the election in their favor, according to 10 current and former US officials with direct knowledge of the matter."
NYT Editorial Board -
"What Mr. Trump does not seem to understand is that the global standing of the United States benefits when our leaders attempt to live up to the highest American ideals. Mr. Trump disdains those ideals and cares mostly about himself. Along the way, he is damaging other countries and sapping American power."
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/25/opinion/trump-should-stay-out-of-brazilian-politics.html
2/n
Presidential election in Brazil today.
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva vs Senator Flavio Bolsonaro.
Bolsonaro beta Lula 47.03% to 45.16% in the first round election on Oct 4.
Polls close at 5 p.m. local (20:00 UTC, 4 p.m. ET).
Liveblog at https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2026/10/25/brazil-election-2026-live-lula-and-bolsonaro-in-tight-race
1/n
At what point do people realize that trump and oil companies are making a freaking fortune ... off their backs?
How exactly does every American contributing to trump's and oil companies' fortunes make America strong?
And he doesn't give a damn.
Should be a no-brainer.
#UsPol
1/n
Torsten Slok, Chief Economist, Apollo:
"AI may be a great calculator, but in business, intelligence is mostly judgment. Judgment depends on context, and the answer varies with which human or which model you ask. Perhaps most importantly, AI does not understand accountability, trust, culture, unwritten rules, ethical trade-offs or fairness, all of which shape reputational risk and ultimately drive revenue growth and profit margins."
Obama this evening in Detroit, Michigan stumping for Abdul El-Sayed and Jocelyn Benson.
Here are renderings of the SpaceX HLS lander and the Blue Origin Mark 2 lander on the surface of the moon.
Both contractors are required to demonstrate the full mission profile with an uncrewed lander.
The crewed mission is still ambitiously targeted for 2028.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starship_HLS
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Moon_(spacecraft)
3/n
The CONOPs for NASA Artemis IV mission to the moon using Blue Origin -
- No in-orbit refueling
- Launch of 3 transfer stages, which together operate as a multistage rocket
- Launch of the Mark 2 lander
- Docking with transfer stages in low earth orbit
- Travel to lunar elliptical polar orbit
- SLS and Orion separately travel to lunar orbit
- Orion docks with lander
- Mark 2 landing with 2 astronauts
- Mark 2 launch and docking with Orion
- Orion ride back home
NASA yesterday unveiled revised plans for Artemis IV human landing missions to the moon, using SpaceX and Blue Origin spacecraft.
The SpaceX mission CONOPs -
- Up to 22 refueling launches to a low orbit depot (Musk says 6-8).
- Launch of Starship Lander (HLS)
- Launch of Orion aboard SLS
- Propellant transfer to HLS
- Docking of Orion with HLS
- Travel to low moon orbit
- HLS landing with 2 crew members
- HLS launch and docking with Orion
- Orion ride back home
Bill Clinton: "I think Congress made a mistake not protesting turning the Rose Garden into what looks like the entrance to Liberace's bathroom"
😅
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/_ezGDM1fxXE
#UsPol
2/n
Obama, with his signature style, rallying with Amy Acton and Sherrod Brown in Ohio today.
“He’s got the White House looking like Saddam Hussein opened up a Cheesecake Factory.
How much time do you think this defense secretary spends looking himself in the mirror in the morning? You know he's working his hair, 'cause that's how warriors look! These are not serious people. And the problem is, you end up having to pay the price for their lack of seriousness!”
Weekend reading:
I wrote about the key challenge of finding the balance between being justifiably alarmed – and drowning in doomsaying and defeatism, which is exactly what the Trumpists rely on to bring the system down.
This week’s piece:
https://steady.page/en/democracyamericana/posts/1ebfca62-2ac4-4cd7-be24-1e888437c208
The Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Thomas G. DiNanno did lodge a tepid complaint about the Russian Cosmos 2612 satellite's incursion into ICEYE-X36's space ... at the United Nations and posted a tweet on X, but besides that it is business as usual.
7/n
"The principles and strategies that over multiple generations have made the U.S. the world’s leading nation in effect are on the ballot, and these midterms mark a potential turning point.
Let’s focus on three pillars that explain the rise, strength and resilience of our nation -
1. Education
2. Immigration
3. The norms that govern our politics, economics and society."
All have been pulverized by Trump.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/24/opinion/midterms-trump-america.html?unlocked_article_code=1.LFE.yo9q.vM5qPEaOjOe6&smid=url-share
https://bsky.app/profile/nickkristof.bsky.social/post/3mymrg4bbos2c
#UsPol
1/n
Another major scoop by the NYT -
"A Russian energy giant has secretly moved to acquire a position in a massive Alaska gas project. It's part of talks between Witkoff/Kushner and Putin to end the war in Ukraine. CEO of US company resigned after learning of Russian money in the project."
It's Kleptocracy all the way down.
https://bsky.app/profile/ericlipton.nytimes.com/post/3mylgluqqbc2a
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/23/us/politics/in-us-gas-talks-with-kremlin-hidden-financing-for-alaska-project-emerges.html
#UsPol #Corruption
1/n
Clyde Holliday, an instrument specialist at APL, well understood the importance of the photos for the study of Earth.
Holliday wrote in a Nat Geo article in 1950 - "Results of these tests now are pointing to a time when cameras may be mounted on guided missiles for scouting enemy territory in war, mapping inaccessible regions of the earth in peacetime, and even photographing cloud formations, storm fronts, and overcast areas over an entire continent in a few hours."
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/air-space-magazine/the-first-photo-from-space-13721411/
2/n
The first photograph of Earth from outer space was taken OTD on 24 October 1946, from rocket V-2 No. 13 launched from the White Sands Missile Range in White Sands, New Mexico.
The rocket reached a max. altitude of 105 km.
The DeVry 35-mm motion picture camera was placed in the rocket by Clyde Holliday of JHU-APL.
The V-2 was developed during WWII in Nazi Germany as a "vengeance weapon" and assigned to attack Allied cities.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V-2_No._13
https://www.postwarv2.com/usa/ws/uars/uars13.html
1/n
NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory ended its science mission on Oct. 20. The atmospheric drag at the current altitude of ~275 km affects spacecraft control and pointing stability. The spacecraft has been passivated.
"The Swift archive contains nearly 22 years of brightness measurements of all kinds of cosmic outbursts, multiwavelength spectra, more than 1.5 million images from its Ultraviolet/Optical Telescope, and much more."
You did well.
https://science.nasa.gov/missions/swift/nasas-swift-mission-ends/
28/n
NY Times' 6 month-long investigation built on more than 10,000 pages of FOIA records pinpoints the locations of the 71 coal plants, 71 chemical plants, 40 sterilizers, 19 steel-related facilities and 1 copper smelter exempted from clean-air regulations.
"The exemptions represent the biggest presidential intervention in enforcement of the Clean Air Act in the half-century since President Nixon signed the bedrock environmental law."
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/24/climate/trump-epa-chemical-air-pollution.html?unlocked_article_code=1.LFE.oERv.sDOtmwuSmKWz&smid=nytcore-android-share
#UsPol
2/n
