1. McKay Coppins:
Governor Spencer Cox (R-UT) told me he had no doubt the alleged shooter’s worldview had been warped in some very dark corners of the internet. And watching the online discourse around Kirk’s murder this week only underscored the damage done by algorithmically incentivized ghoulishness. “Discord, 4chan, Twitter, Bluesky—these things are really hacking our brains and hijacking our agency,” he told me. “The worst of humanity is in our pockets.” Even the most carefully constructed sanctuary can’t withstand an onslaught like the one generated by Silicon Valley. (Source: theatlantic.com)
2. Voters in North Rhine-Westphalia head to the polls on Sunday for local elections. The poll is the first local election since Chancellor Friedrich Merz took office in May. The vote is being seen as a gauge of Merz's coalition government, which is made up of his conservative CDU/CSU alliance and the center-left SPD. Observers will also be closely watching the performance of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) — which has been classified as "right-wing extremist" by the country's domestic intelligence agency. The AfD has made historic gains in recent elections, becoming the second-strongest political force at the national level this year. Although its voter base is mainly from states in eastern Germany, the AfD is hoping to capitalize on the shift towards the right in western Germany. (Source: dw.com)
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