The Many Red Flags Over Elon Musk’s Million-Dollar Daily Petition Prize

Elon Musk is at it again. As part of the tech billionaire’s ongoing effort to exert his influence over the presidential election, Musk pledged this weekend to give $1 million a day to randomly selected swing state voters who sign a petition circulated by his political action committee. But there’s a catch – one that has raised serious questions about the legality of his latest effort. Musk, an ardent supporter of former President Donald Trump, said the vaguely worded petition was to support the Constitution. And on its face, that appears to be the case. The giveaway is only open to those in Nevada, Arizona, Michigan, Wisconsin and North Carolina and Pennsylvania – perhaps the biggest electoral prize still up for grabs in November. In fact, registered voters in Pennsylvania get an additional incentive, according to the America PAC website: $100 to sign the petition and $100 to refer someone to the petition, which coincidentally champions very Republican-friendly constitutional provisions like the right to bear arms and the recent GOP rallying cry of freedom of speech against so-called Democratic “censorship.”

U.S. investigating possible leak of ‘top secret’ documents about Israel

U.S. officials are investigating the apparent leak of two top-secret U.S. documents that show American spy agencies tracking possible Israeli preparations for conducting an attack on Iran, three U.S. officials said. The region has been on edge awaiting Israel’s response to an Iranian missile barrage launched on Oct. 1, which Iran said was in response to Israel’s invasion of Lebanon and the assassination of its allies, including Hamas’ Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran and Hezbollah’s powerful leader, Hassan Nasrallah, in Beirut. Two U.S. officials said that the leaked documents appear to be authentic. The damage to national security appears to be limited in scope though the assessment is still ongoing, according to a U.S. official. Both documents have markings on them that say they are “Top Secret.” The heading on one of the documents reads, “Israel: Air Force Continues Preparations for Strike on Iran and Conducts a Second Large-Force Employment Exercise 15-16 October 2024.” The second document is labeled “National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency,” the name of the American spy agency that specializes in analyzing satellite imagery and other sources of intelligence. The heading on the document states, “Israeli Defense Forces Continued Key Munitions Preparations and Covert UAV Activity Almost Certainly for a Strike on Iran, 16 October 2024,” referring to unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones.

A SpaceX capsule is coming back to Earth. Boeing Starliner’s astronauts aren’t on it

The two test pilots for the inaugural crewed flight of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft — NASA’s Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore — left Earth for the International Space Station under the impression their trip would last only about one week. Months later, after determining that the technical issues the Starliner experienced on the first leg of their journey posed too much of a risk, NASA decided to return Williams and Wilmore home aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule. But that did not mean the astronauts would get the first flight back to Earth. Notably, the four astronauts that are assigned to Crew-8’s mission — NASA’s Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt and Jeanette Epps as well as Alexander Grebenkin of the Russian space agency, Roscosmos — have been on the ISS since March 5, roughly three months longer than Williams and Wilmore. That’s because the Crew-8 team is part of a regular crew rotation at the orbiting laboratory, and routine missions typically last about six months. The team disembarked from the ISS Wednesday afternoon and is heading for a splashdown off the coast of Florida. That’s slated to happen on Friday at 3:30 a.m. ET, according to NASA. Williams said at the same news briefing that she missed her family and pets and that she was disappointed to miss some family events this fall and winter. But, she added, “This is my happy place. I love being up here in space. It’s just fun. You know, every day you do something that’s work, quote, unquote, you can do it upside down. You can do it sideways, so it adds a little different perspective.”