📰 Save for later: On Google News, see all the stories you’ve used the heart icon to mark as favorites. Go to google.com/interests/liked to check yours. In the Apple News app, hit the ribbon in the top right to save a story, and then you’ll find it under Saved Stories.
🤖 People don’t want robots reporting the news: A pair of AI news anchors are #opentowork after just two months at a Hawaiian newspaper. The duo, James and Rose, read articles in a virtual studio. Viewers felt more creeped out than informed as they mispronounced Hawaiian names and hardly blinked. Definitely not anyone’s ohana!
AI will watch everything you do
Are you behaving badly? Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison predicts that AI will soon keep you in line. In other news: MoviePass fraud exposed, Snapchat uses your face for ads, and the story behind the viral ‘Hawk Tuah’ girl.
26 years later
A guy dislodged a Lego brick stuck up his nose. When he was 6, he wedged a plastic brick and a Lego man up his nostrils. Mom removed the Lego man but didn’t know about the individual brick. All that time, the 32-year-old dealt with congestion, asthma and sleep apnea. Watch the news about this crazy story!
📘 It’s fundamental, Watson! Project Gutenberg has 70,000 e‑books free for the taking — legally. Don’t have a Kindle or e‑reader? Put one on your phone and read instead of scrolling through the news. Here’s “The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.”
🚨 North Korean hackers are targeting Macs: It starts with an email containing a fake crypto news headline, like “Hidden Risk Behind New Surge of Bitcoin Price,” and includes a link to a PDF. The link actually leads to a malicious app that lets the sender take control of your system. If you’ve clicked on a random PDF link recently, scan for malware ASAP.
2 in 3 Americans
Experience cognitive decline by age 70. Good news: Eating more eggs could help fight that. Choline, found in egg yolks, is linked to healthy cognition. Talk to your doc before making any major dietary changes. Why should you be careful what you say around egg whites? They can’t take a yolk.
🌺 Hula you kidding? A newspaper in Hawaii just “hired” AI reporters that analyze news articles and transform them into “live broadcasts.” Look close and you’ll notice they don’t blink, their mouths are out of sync and they don’t actually answer each other’s questions. Those AI bots need to go back to school: Kamana Wanna Lei U. (Oh, I heard you laugh!)
⚠️ Scammers can be victims, too: A woman calling herself “Sara” told ABC News her heartbreaking story. She was living in South Africa and applied for a customer service job in Bangkok. Before she knew it, she was taken to a compound in Myanmar, where her passport was taken and her cellphone’s SIM card was destroyed. She was held prisoner, told to play the part of an Asian woman and forced to scam others online. She escaped but not everyone does.
🧑🚀 All suited up with no space to go: Two NASA astronauts are stranded on the ISS because of ship thruster issues. One return plan was for the pair to hitch a ride on SpaceX’s Crew Dragon. Bad news: Their spacesuits aren’t compatible. Even if they were, the Dragon capsule is full with no room to plug in.
48% of TikTok users
Under age 30 use it to keep up with politics and news. Frightening. This is why it’s so important to understand the role Communist China has in this app and its data. The older Americans get, the less they rely on TikTok for news; 36% of 30- to 49-year-olds get their news from TikTok, as do 22% of those ages 50 to 64 and 24% of folks 65 and older.
Soap-erstar: Jessica Serfaty of “Days of Our Lives” fame discovered a hidden tracker in her Range Rover. Her iPhone tipped her off about an Apple AirTag nearby that was news to her. She called the cops because, you know, stalker vibes, but they couldn’t find it. Here’s help if you get an alert like this.
🇷🇺 Confirm before you share: Meta says the Kremlin is the No. 1 source of AI-created misinformation ahead of the upcoming U.S. presidential election. The most common trick on Facebook? Imaginary “journalists” who write bogus news stories. Meta says they’re trying to stop the Russian propaganda. Oh, Crimea river!
Unwitting Americans and the election
With the election nearing, foreign entities are spreading fake news online. Here’s how to stay sharp and protect yourself from propaganda.
Morning news, your way: If you ask Alexa for the news, the default is an NPR briefing. You can change that. Open the Alexa app, then go to More > Settings > News. Options include ABC, Associated Press, Fox News and The Wall Street Journal, among others.
🧈 This gold scam panned out: A 74-year-old Maryland man bought gold bars with his life savings and handed them over to a fraudster to “protect his bank account.” After, he saw a story on the local news about a woman losing $1 million dollars to this same scam. He contacted the police, who set up a trap and arrested the scammer. Unfortunately, the gold was long gone.
Free ways to stream movies
Tired of those expensive streaming subscriptions? You’re not alone. Good news: there are plenty of free streaming options like Freevee, Pluto, Tubi, and more!
🗞️ Trust fall: Science says you’re more likely to believe fake news from an acquaintance than your best friend. That’s why so many scammers pose as long-lost classmates or distant relatives. Focusing instead on who’s sharing — not what’s being shared — could be the best way to stop fake news.
9 a.m. Monday or Tuesday
For the best Goodwill deals (or whenever your local thrift store opens). People tend to drop off donations over the weekend after cleanouts or garage sales. That means you’ll find a better selection on mornings early in the week. Should I start featuring a thrifting segment? I’d call it secondhand news.