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| Presented By Meta |
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| Axios AM |
| By Mike Allen · Oct 30, 2022 |
| 👻 Happy Halloween Eve. - 🇧🇷 Polls close at 4 p.m. ET in Brazil's polarizing Bolsonaro-Lula presidential runoff. Latest, by Marina E. Franco of Noticias Telemundo, for Axios.
Smart Brevity™ count: 1,082 words ... 4 minutes. Edited by Donica Phifer. |
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| 1 big thing: Musk tweets Pelosi rumor |
| Via Twitter It's been just two days since Elon Musk officially bought Twitter. Already, the billionaire businessman is using the platform to spread speculation to his 112 million followers — about the biggest U.S. news of the weekend, Axios' Sara Fischer reports. - Why it matters: Musk is instantly imprinting himself on his acquisition — including spreading misinformation on the powerful platform in just the way critics had expected.
Early today, Musk cited a widely-discredited website that implied the brutal attack on Speaker Pelosi's husband, Paul, wasn't carried out by an unhinged far-right blogger — but rather was linked to an anti-LGTBQ "theory" about a skirmish at a local bar. - "There is a tiny possibility there might be more to this story than meets the eye," Musk said in response to a tweet from Hillary Clinton.
Clinton had tweeted a Los Angeles Times article about the suspect, David DePape, 42, who spread QAnon and other far-right conspiracies online and added: - "The Republican Party and its mouthpieces now regularly spread hate and deranged conspiracy theories. It is shocking, but not surprising, that violence is the result."
Musk linked to an article from the Santa Monica Observer, a website known for years for publishing false stories. - The site "is anything but trustworthy," according to an executive at NewsGuard, a company that uses trained journalists to rate news and information sites.
- The site gets a red-rating and a warning for readers that says: "Proceed with caution: This website fails to adhere to several basic journalistic standards."
👀 What we're watching: The Santa Monica site went down early this morning shortly after the tweet was published — apparently due to an influx of traffic from Musk's tweet. |
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| 2. Source: Pelosi attacker carried zip ties |
This is a 2013 photo of David DePape, the suspect in the attack on Paul Pelosi, recording a " nude wedding" outside San Francisco City Hall. Photo: Eric Risberg/AP A source briefed on the investigation tells me Paul Pelosi's attacker had a bag containing zip ties, in a disturbing "echo of January 6th." - Why it matters: The presence of zip ties, which can be used to immobilize a victim, add to the menacing circumstances surrounding the home invasion.
The suspect, David DePape, 42, tried to tie up the husband of Speaker Pelosi, two sources told CNN's Jamie Gangel. |
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| 3. Affirmative action at death's door |
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| Illustration: Shoshana Gordon/Axios |
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| The end of affirmative action, at least on college campuses, is almost certainly near, Axios' Sam Baker writes. - Why it matters: The Supreme Court said in 2003 that colleges could consider race as a factor when deciding which students to admit, for the sake of building a diverse student body. Now, the much more conservative court appears to be changing its mind.
The court is set to hear oral arguments tomorrow over admissions processes at Harvard and UNC, both of which give a little extra weight to applicants who come from certain underrepresented groups. - Life is full of surprises. But the court has sent every conceivable signal that it's likely to put a stop to those sorts of policies.
Context: Harvard and UNC — supported by a host of other schools, as well as business organizations — argue that diversity is essential to the educational experience, and that the only effective way to ensure diversity is to make it an explicit part of the admissions process. - But they'll be making that argument to a court that is extremely skeptical of any sort of racial preference.
🔎 The intrigue: This is all largely one man's doing. Conservative activist Ed Blum has organized and funded a slew of high-profile lawsuits explicitly designed to get the court to strike down affirmative action. - Blum is open about the fact that this is, effectively, a campaign, and that he is the campaign manager. "I'm a one-trick pony," Blum told Reuters. "I hope and care about ending these racial classifications and preferences in our public policy."
A ruling is expected by summer. |
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| A message from Meta |
| Future surgeons will get hands-on practice in the metaverse |
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| Surgeons will engage in countless hours of additional low-risk practice in the metaverse. The impact: Patients undergoing complex care will know their doctors are as prepared as possible. The metaverse may be virtual, but the impact will be real. See how Meta is helping build the metaverse. |
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| 4. ⛽ Charted: Pump relief |
 Data: U.S. Energy Information Administration. Chart: Tory Lysik/Axios Visuals |
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| 5. 📊 Polls of the day |
| Graphic: ABC News An ABC News/Ipsos poll released this morning on "This Week with George Stephanopoulos" finds 50% of independent registered voters cite the economy or inflation as their single most important issue. Graphic: CBS News A CBS News/YouGov Battleground Tracker survey of 2,119 registered voters finds "those more concerned about democracy are backing Democrats ... Republicans draw most of those more concerned about a strong economy, echoing the messages of the parties' campaigns." Graphic CBS News In the CBS News poll, 80% of likely voters describe America as "out of control" — and Republicans are winning those voters by 20+ points. |
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| 6. 🇰🇷 Seoul's Halloween tragedy |
| Photo: Yonhap via Reuters A street in Seoul's Itaewon nightlife district was full of people (above) before a stampede during Halloween festivities that killed at least 153. - Most were in their 20s but some were teens, emergency officials told Reuters.
Investigators inspect the scene in Seoul today. Photo: Kim Hong-ji/Reuters Many of the partiers were wearing costumes. The crowd surged in an alleyway, which became filled with people crying for help. - Emergency workers desperately sought to free trapped bodies and perform CPR on people splayed across the debris-littered ground.
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| 7. 🐦 Spotted: Tesla armada @ Twitter HQ |
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| Photo illustration: Annelise Capossela/Axios. Photo: Theo Wargo/WireImage |
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| Shortly after Elon Musk took over, the garage at Twitter HQ in San Francisco began filling with Teslas in the reserved spots, parked in a row, a source told Axios' Sara Fischer. - The sources said Musk has begun bringing in Tesla engineers to interview Twitter engineers and begin looking through the company's products and code.
Why it matters: Musk is beginning to bring in his close friends and colleagues from his inner circle to rewire the company. ⚡ The latest: After firing much of Twitter's senior management team, Musk now plans to cut up to 30% of staff in certain departments, beginning this weekend, Sara Fischer reports. - The layoffs are slated to begin this weekend, and it will be "a bloodbath — like 15-30%+" in the product organization, one source said.
- Cuts are expected to be made ahead of Tuesday, when most employees' quarterly grants of stock options are scheduled to vest.
💭 Our thought bubble: Musk's breakneck pace shows his determination to reshape Twitter's organization — and is producing chaos inside the company. |
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| 8. 📷 You @ work tomorrow |
| Photo: Sam Craft/AP Texas A&M freshman Evan Stewart makes a one-handed catch in the corner of the end zone for a touchdown against Ole Miss yesterday in College Station, Texas. - No. 15 Mississippi edged A&M, 31-28.
Video of the play. |
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| A message from Meta |
| Students will be able to explore outer space in the metaverse |
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| With the metaverse, students in a classroom will be able to travel to the depths of our galaxy, helping them get up close to the planets and gain a deeper understanding of how our solar system works. The metaverse may be virtual, but the impact will be real. See how Meta is helping build the metaverse. |
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