From Jenna Orkin Trump 2.0: Who would be in the running for top jobs in Trump's second administration? The Americans Prepping for a Second Civil War Voting technology is more secure than it’s ever been. This is the result of a shift in American voting procedures more than two decades in the making: Most people now vote by machines that efficiently scan paper ballots. Or they use touch screens and other forms of direct-recording electronic machines (“DREs”), which also generate backup paper records. Those physical paper trails are an election safeguard—ballots are verifiable, auditable and recountable, as I wrote on Saturday. In October, amateur mathematician Luke Durant discovered a new prime number, and it’s 41 million digits long. Yup, the number has 41,024,230 digits (for comparison, the approximate number of total atoms in the observable universe is only about 80 digits long). A prime number is a number that can be divided only by itself and 1; so 3, 7, 13, 17, and 19 are all primes, whereas 15 is not. How he did it: Prime number hunters use a computing trick devised by 17th-century French mathematician Marin Mersenne, who discovered that multiplying 2 by itself some number of times (2^n) and then subtracting 1, you sometimes get a prime number. Durant assembled a global supercomputer across 17 countries by buying processing time from various cloud GPU providers to crunch through larger and larger iterations of the Mersenne calculation, churning through about 12 times as many numbers as every other computer involved in the Mersenne prime search combined. Ukraine says it attacked North Korean troops for the first time Masking Returns Looking to Move Abroad From the US? Here’s How Specialists that help Americans move to places like Portugal and Spain are busier than ever. Blame election stress. A robot retrieves the first melted fuel from Fukushima nuclear reactor U.S. Trump sues CBS News over 60 Minutes interview with Harris; network says suit is "completely without merit" Betting it all on fluoride: Trump takes a risky final gamble to let RFK Jr. “go wild” on health

From Jenna Orkin Bird flu was detected in a pig, and it could be a tipping point threatening more human transmission Gun death rates in some U.S. states comparable to conflict zones, study finds China built a $50 billion military stronghold in the South China Sea Trump, Harris campaign in the West as polls show tie just 5 days out How Pro-Trump Activists Hijacked Georgia’s Election Board The Economic Philosophy of Donald Harris What Nate Silver Has Said About Donald Trump's Chances Harris takes slim lead over Trump in final Iowa Poll before 2024 election Last New York Times/Siena poll of the 7 battleground states released: See the results Disputes in South China Sea could disrupt trade lanes, lead to war, experts say

From Jenna Orkin The Trump Show Comes to Madison Square Garden The rally featured Hulk Hogan, Rudy Giuliani, “Y.M.C.A.,” and a thrum of American nativism. Hezbollah named its new leader, a long-serving deputy, after Israel killed his predecessor VW Seeks Unprecedented Plant Closings as Auto Crisis Deepens What to know about Elon Musk’s reported phone calls with Putin and why it matters Onagawa plant's No.2 reactor to resume operations Bezos Editorial Majority of swing-state voters say they fear violence if Trump loses An examination of 47,282 tree species finds that one in three tree species are at risk of extinction. Global temperatures through September point to 2024 topping 2023 as the hottest year on record. How Binyavanga Wainaina Wrote About Africa

From Jenna Orkin 10 countries join BRICS as partners Xiaomi tapes out China’s first 3nm smartphone SoC and plans to launch Xiaomi 15 series next week TD Bank pleads guilty in money laundering case, will pay $3 billion in penalties American creating deepfakes targeting Harris works with Russian intel, documents show China Enlarging Nuclear Forces With Eye on America: US Intel Supreme Court ignites wave of lawsuits against federal regulations China now has the biggest navy in the world Chinese hackers said to have collected audio of American calls A new storm may be brewing in the Caribbean. What to know. According to so-called moral framework theory, which identifies major principles that determine social behavior, people are more likely to align with more conservative ideals during the spring and fall.

From Jenna Orkin The U.S. Spies Who Sound the Alarm About Election Interference Lost Silk Road cities mapped using remote sensing Researchers screened microbe communities living in wastewater and found four strains of Acetobacterium that could digest "forever chemicals," or PFASs for perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances. Central Asia Emerges as Epicenter of Rare Earth Mineral Rush Bezos faces a Washington Post revolt after he reportedly blocked the paper from endorsing Harris Dollar dominance to end? BRICS launches symbolic banknote; Putin says, ‘They used it as weapon…’ Can the tire industry be sustainable? Guayule farmers say yes. Israel limited its attack on Iran, hoping to ease tensions for now Elon Musk, enemy of ‘open borders,’ launched his career working illegally L.A. Times Editor Quits after Publication’s Owner Strikes Down Kamala Endorsement

From Jenna Orkin What Happens to Hamas and Hezbollah Now That Their Leaders Have Been Killed? Opinion: Sloan Kettering’s hardball negotiation tactics threaten to hurt its patients Pharma Paid $1.06 Billion to Reviewers at Top Medical Journals Moldova barely approves its EU referendum amid allegations of Russian interference Environmentalists long decried the impact of rubber production. This small shrub may offer an alternative. Bill Gates privately said he donated $50 million to a pro-Harris super PAC, report says TRUMP: ‘I NEED THE KIND OF GENERALS THAT HITLER HAD’ Wyoming has found a way to mitigate forest fires: Stop blowing up dead horses Cow-dung Powered Ships Long-extinct animals could be resurrected as robots to shed light on evolution

From Jenna Orkin Why some families will pay $500,000 for Ivy League admissions consulting: ‘It’s worth the investment’ A Telegram group posted what it calls 'highly classified' US documents about Israel's attack plans Attempted Assassination of Netanyahu Newsom on SpaceX rejection: ‘I’m with Elon’ Maryland detectives nabbed gold bar thief using fake UPS package from Kentucky India Says It has Resolved Border Dispute with China Sovereignty for Sale It goes way beyond tax havens and offshore banking. Enterprising countries have figured out how to put their legal systems at the disposal of corporate interests. The Tight-Knit World of Kamala Harris’s Sorority Water Contamination Warning for North Carolina After Hurricane Helene Experiment Confirms 50-Year-Old Theory on Extracting Energy from a Black Hole Large Areas of South America Lacking Groundwater

From Jenna Orkin African Nations Plan To Launch Their Own 'Energy Bank' Meloni: Italy imposed full arms embargo on Israel over Gaza ground op The 20 Countries With the Lowest Fertility Rates (2024) This tiny country says it will give $500 to every adult as an Exxon oil boom supercharges its economy South Korea says at least 1,500 North Korean special forces in Russia Long COVID may be contributing to record low standardized test scores in kids, What the Closeness of This Election Suggests About the Future of American Politics What to know about the potential $30 million whale moving betting markets toward Trump New Hampshire Attorney General John M. Formella announces that New Hampshire Supreme Court Associate Justice Anna Barbara Hantz Marconi has been indicted by the Merrimack County Grand Jury for two felonies and five misdemeanors relating to her attempts to interfere with a criminal investigation into her husband, Geno Marconi. Penguin Random House books now explicitly say ‘no’ to AI training

From Jenna Orkin The Sahara Desert flooded for the first time in decades. Here’s what it looks like Trump Gives Ominous Clue About What May Happen If He Loses Ghostly white giant worms appear to be reproducing under the seafloor where tectonic plates meet Will There Be a Second Stone Age? Kamala Harris’s Hundred-Day Campaign Tim Cook is having a great week as Apple stock hovers within reach of record high Orange Juice Climbs as Hurricane Milton Shrinks Florida Crop India Plans $109 Billion of Grid Investments to Boost Renewables This Is How Oil Ends How Alarmed Should We Be If Trump Wins Again?

From Jenna Orkin Pakistan’s internet slows to a crawl as suspicion falls on government How 24-year-old cloud-seeding wunderkind Augustus Doricko plans to save the world Jeffrey St Clair: Phoenix, AZ, just set their daily high temperature record for Oct 13th–102.5F. This is their 20th consecutive daily record high temperature. Every day since September 24 has set a new daily record. Biden sends antimissile system and 100 troops to Israel, deepening U.S. role Trump chips away at Harris’s national advantage, two new polls show Hurricane recovery officials in N.C. relocated amid report of ‘armed militia,’ email shows All eyes are on Pennsylvania this election cycle. Erie County demonstrates why Norway Wants to Strengthen Consumers’ Right to Pay Cash US election live: Trump refuses to say if he has talked to Putin since leaving office but insists it would have been ‘smart thing’ to do Migrant deaths in New Mexico have increased tenfold in last two years Walgreens to shut 1,200 US stores with stock trading near 30-year lows