Donald Trump and the Republican Party had a triumphant Election Day, gaining ground in all parts of the country and among almost all voting sectors. He won all seven of the ballyhooed swing states, by comfortable margins except in the blue-wall states of Wisconsin (where his margin of victory was 0.9%), Michigan (1.4%), and Pennsylvania (1.8%). Still, he won all three blue-wall states twice—in 2024 as in 2016—something no Republican had managed since Ronald Reagan. Trump regains office alongside a Republican-controlled Senate and House of Representatives, too, the trifecta of what political scientists call “undivided government,” not enjoyed by Republicans since the first two years of his own first term.
Times Literary Supplement (November 27, 2024): The latest issue features ‘Mutti Knows Best?’ – Angela Merkel’s triumph and tragedy; Gaughin’s uncensored thoughts; Gladiator II; C.S. Lewis’s Oxford and “The Magic Mountain” at 100…
MIT Technology Review (Novemer 24, 2024): This week’s round up includes Google DeepMind has a new way to look inside an AI’s “mind”. Inside Clear’s ambitions to manage your identity beyond the airport. Who’s to blame for climate change? And more.
How this grassroots effort could make AI voices more diverse A massive volunteer-led effort to collect training data in more languages, from people of more ages and genders, could help make the next generation of voice AI more inclusive and less exploitative.
The rise of Bluesky, and the splintering of social You may have read that it was a big week for Bluesky. If you’re not familiar, Bluesky is, essentially, a Twitter clone that publishes short-form status updates.
THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE (November 2, 2024): The 11.24.24 Issue features Philip Montgomery on two weeks in the life of Pennsylvania’s Luzerne County before, during and after the election; Emily Bazelon on how the abortion rights movement won in many states in the election; Tomas Weber on how Ozempic is turning people off from eating junk food; and more.
Facing an eight-year prison sentence, Mohammad Rasoulof had to make the most difficult decision of his life. We spent two weeks there before and after the election to understand what’s driving these changes.
The company is facing pressure on two fronts—the government and a host of new AI-powered search rivals. It has the capacity to meet both challenges and continue to prosper.
Wall Street is making a push for more extended hours in the stock market, and Trump’s incoming regulators are likely to approve. What to know so you don’t lose your shirt.
John Williams, who heads the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, says 2% is the rate that can best balance the Fed’s employment and price stability goals.
Smithsonian Magazine (November 21, 2024) –The latest issue features ‘The Hidden History of Bermuda’ – New archaeological finds are reshaping our views of early colonial life in the Americas…
What excavations in Bermuda are revealing about one of Britain’s first settlements in the Americas—and the surprising ways it shaped the New World. By Andrew Lawler. Photographs by Nicola Muirhead
The untold story of Matilda Gage, the freethinker who inspired her son-in-law L. Frank Baum’s classic novel “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz”. By Evan I. Schwartz