Tech war. Updating coverage: In an unprecedented attack using “advanced technology,” hundreds of pagers in Lebanon and Syria—many carried by Hezbollah members—exploded, killing at least eight and injuring dozens thousands of people, including Iran’s ambassador.
■ In February, a Hezbollah leader urged members not to use mobile phones, which he labeled “a deadly agent.”
■ Israel’s military pointedly said it wouldn’t be commenting.
■ But while we’re talking about mobile tech …
iPhone updates. Wirecutter spotlights “the best new features” of Apple’s (free) new software.
■ It includes an anti-theft option that makes sensitive apps—like banking services—inaccessible to thieves.
■ The Verge: “You can ugly up your homescreen in unprecedented ways.”
■ Macintosh computers get updates, too.
■ TidBITS explains why you might not want to opt in right away …
■ … or instead might want just to go with security updates for older operating systems.
■ Update or not, keep your Apple gear away from helium.
12 hours. That’s how long court documents filed yesterday contend a man suspected in an assassination attempt on Donald Trump camped outside Trump’s golf course.
■ The Internet Archive has preserved the suspect’s Twitter exploits beginning in 2020.
■ Jimmy Kimmel: “He tweeted earlier this year that his dream ticket would be Nikki Haley and Vivek Ramaswamy, which is how you know he’s nuts.”
■ Robert Kuttner at The American Prospect: “Are we so inured to the premise that nothing can be done about mass ownership of military weapons that gun control has vanished from discourse and debate?”
■ The Onion: “Trump Defiantly Pumped Fist For 20 Minutes After Assassination Attempt Searching For Camera.”
Not a great way to ‘tone down the rhetoric.’ Vice-presidential candidate JD Vance promised to do that yesterday in Atlanta, where he also said, “The big difference between conservatives and liberals is that no one has tried to kill Kamala Harris in the last couple of months.”
■ Without evidence (as usual), Trump himself blamed Harris and President Biden for inspiring the apparent assassination attempt.
■ Pulitzer-winning cartoonist and columnist Jack Ohman: “If anyone is responsible for lighting up American rhetoric, you don’t need a Zapruder film to see shadows on the grassy knoll. He’s right there … wearing a red cap and a red tie.”
■ Columnist Julia Gray: “It was another white guy who made the second assassination attempt on Trump? … Yet, MAGA still has a massive hard-on for people of color, women, drag queens, LGBTQ+ folks and immigrants and is blaming THEM.”
■ Columnist Neil Steinberg: “No liberal wants Trump dead; we want him to live … and then go to prison. He can’t do that if he’s killed.”
‘Hey, Elon Musk, assassination jokes aren’t funny.’ Poynter media writer Tom Jones: “What he did Sunday night was dangerous.”
■ Wired senior editor Andrew Couts: “Musk is a national security risk.”
‘Megyn Kelly owes Taylor Swift an apology.’ Popular Information: Everything the NBC and Fox News refugee said about LGBTQ legislation signed last year by vice-presidential candidate and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz was a lie.
■ Stop the Presses columnist Mark Jacob: “Fox keeps getting better—at lying.”
■ Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin: “Vance had better buckle up: His debate might go as badly as Trump’s”—which Jack Ohman recalls thusly:
‘How reassuring it is to know that this election may ultimately hinge on thoughtful, deliberative voters such as yourself.’ Tom Tomorrow spotlights the undecided voter.
■ Vice President Harris makes good on a pledge to match Trump’s time with the National Association of Black Journalists—remember “she happened to turn Black”?—with an in-person conversation this afternoon in Philadelphia at 1:30 Chicago time.
■ Politico’s Shia Kapos: “The presidential candidates aren’t doing much to drive turnout in Illinois.”
Banned on Facebook. Meta—parent to Facebook, Instagram, Threads and more—says Russian state media RT and other Kremlin-controlled networks aren’t welcome anymore.
■ Chicago Public Square’s still awaiting an explanation of Facebook’s censorship of its post.
‘Unnecessary college degree requirements.’ Former U.S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich says it’s time to drop those—for government and private-sector jobs.
■ Insider: Amazon’s back-to-the-office order to employees—“the way we were before the onset of COVID”—looks like “the nail in hybrid work’s coffin.”
‘Why Johnson is choosing this particular hill to defend so vehemently is a puzzle.’ Columnist Eric Zorn questions the decision by Chicago’s mayor to kill the city’s ShotSpotter gunfire detection system.
■ The City Council’s set for a showdown tomorrow over tech the mayor’s derided as “a walkie-talkie on a pole.”
■ His comments followed by just hours a case in which ShotSpotter sent police to a man who’d been shot in the head.
■ The council’s Black Caucus hopes to save the deal.
■ Underwriting the cost of Square’s production—even as little as $1, once—gets you a coupon code to save $5 off any purchase. And you can use that repeatedly.
‘A South Loop fantasy camp.’ That’s the Sun-Times’ take on a blatant push for public cash to build a new stadium: The White Sox invited state lawmakers to round the bases at a mockup baseball field near Roosevelt Road and Clark Street.
■ Block Club: Chicago stinks right now—and it’s probably for lack of rain.
Last call. Squarewear’s due for an overhaul. Time’s almost up for this lineup of Chicago Public Square sweatshirts and hoodies.
■ This week: Sign up at the Devotee level or better and get one of those things free.
A Square public service announcement
Square columnist Charlie Meyerson will be one of the evening’s storytellers.