I often ponder the economics of my lunch...

https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/who-put-tariffs-in-my-20-burrito/

Who Put Tariffs in My ($20!) Burrito?

… Start with the wrapper. Aluminum foil carries a 50 percent tariff imposed on imported metals under Section 232. So does the steel can that holds the chipotles. When the Can Manufacturers Institute asked the White House to exempt filled food cans, the request was, in the institute’s words, “completely denied.” So before you take your first bite, tariffs have already taken theirs.

Next, the filling. In July 2025, the Commerce Department imposed a 17 percent duty on Mexican tomatoes, which account for roughly 90 percent of American tomato imports. Tomato prices this spring ran 40 percent above their level a year earlier, rising faster than any other grocery store staple. One sandwich chain reported that the price for a case of tomatoes rose from $27 to $93.

Then there’s the beef itself. Ground beef reached $6.89 a pound in July, up 57 percent from five years ago.

Same servers? Article does not say.

https://www.reuters.com/technology/pentagon-treating-military-base-freezer-malfunctions-suspected-cyberattack-2026-10-29/

Pentagon treating military base freezer malfunctions as suspected cyberattack, officials say

The Pentagon is treating the spate of mysterious freezer malfunctions that spoiled food at military bases across the United States in August as a suspected hack, according to four officials familiar with the matter.

One of the ‌officials said the military investigators were in touch with their French counterparts about a similar cyberattack on commercial freezers that disrupted supermarkets there earlier this month.

… The root problem was that controllers that were initially conceived as isolated interfaces that would be serviced by an in-person technician were increasingly being connected to the internet, said Bill Moore, the chief executive of industrial cybersecurity firm Xona Systems. Concerns about online exposure were not unique to cooling systems, he said, but they could have particularly serious consequences there.

Some will, some won’t. None should.

https://www.theregister.com/security/2026/10/29/shortlist-of-age-checks-for-the-uks-under-16-social-media-ban-is-out-some-adults-will-need-verifying/5306282

Shortlist of age checks for the UK's under-16 social media ban is out, 'some' adults will need verifying

The UK’s comms watchdog has put forward four methods of checking netizens aren't kids – dubbed highly effective age assurance (HEAA) – as it prepares for the proposed under-16 social media ban.

The regulator says some adults may not need to prove their over-16-ness to social media platforms that will make inferences about their age based on previous activity, but confirmed that "many" are likely to have to undergo the same verification process.

Resource.

https://www.bespacific.com/books-and-teaching-resources-on-ai-in-legal-practice/

Books and teaching resources on AI in legal practice

Rebecca Fordon: “A reading list for people teaching AI in legal practice or legal education, including non-JD programs: textbooks, casebooks, study aids, open materials, and course sites, with tables of contents for most of the books. Pick a topic on the left to see which books have a chapter on it, or use the + beside another topic to find the books that cover both. Search covers titles, authors, descriptions, chapter titles, and topics, and each result says where the match was found. The filters narrow by how a title can be obtained and what kind of book it is. Titles marked Subscription are in the West Academic Study Aids package many law libraries license. Prices and dates are as of the last check.”

Of little importance but perhaps Trump will use it to prove the election was rigged?

https://www.reuters.com/technology/hacker-trying-breach-us-federal-election-commission-system-email-shows-2026-10-27/

Hackers target US FEC system, disrupting campaign finance disclosures days before midterms

The US Federal Election Commission's website was targeted by a hacker or hackers, according to an email seen by Reuters, disrupting the agency's electronic filings system a week before the November 3 elections.

… The FEC does not play a role in administering US elections and the outage should have no effect on voters' ability to cast ballots.

The outage does prevent organizations from filing the FEC's 24-hour and 48-hour spending reports, which show how much political groups and others are spending on specific races.

Seems a touch biased…

https://www.bespacific.com/border-searches-of-laptops-phones-up-32-this-year/

Border Searches of Laptops, Phones Up 32% This Year

Gizmodo: “It’s been hard to keep track of all the ways in which America has been speedrunning toward a full-blown fascist surveillance state over the first two years of the second Trump administration. That’s partially due to the disorienting, shock-and-awe nature of each fresh injustice. But it’s mostly because of just how many they’ve been throwing at beleaguered Americans in rapid-fire succession. In the runup to the midterm elections, which polls suggest will deliver a debilitating blue tsunami to MAGA’s vitality, the chaos has only intensified as the incumbents make it clear there’s nothing they’re not prepared to do to cling to power. ICE began a fresh campaign of raids in blue state “sanctuary cities.” DHS has been targeting election centers in historically Dem-voting counties of battleground states with demands for voting records and voters’ confidential personal information under the pretext of investigating voter fraud. And early voter reports that their poorly-calibrated touchscreen machines keep glitching out—not unlike the President himself — have many fearing full-bore election rigging…”

Increased capabilities means new problems…

https://fpf.org/blog/ai-hallucination-goes-to-court-a-global-mapping-of-emerging-legal-issues/

AI Hallucination Goes to Court: A Global Mapping of Emerging Legal Issues

AI hallucination was once treated largely as a quirk of generative systems: occasionally amusing, often embarrassing, and generally filed away as an unavoidable technical limitation. That framing is now wearing thin.

… This blogpost takes stock of these emerging developments at a global level. In the absence of a centralised database or other comprehensive source (note that existing databases of AI hallucinations like here and here mainly document fake citations or unreliable AI-generated materials submitted in judicial proceedings which fall outside the scope of this blogpost), the cases discussed here were assembled through ongoing monitoring of legal and policy developments, targeted searches, and the routine tracking of professional and social-media feeds. This exercise does not amount to a systematic review in the strict academic sense, nor does it claim to have captured every relevant dispute. Its purpose is to map a fast-moving field and identify the legal fault lines along which AI hallucination is beginning to be framed as a governable problem. 

Makes one question the neutrality of the programming. (Could be programmer bias they don’t even realize.)

https://www.bespacific.com/change-one-label-flip-the-verdict/

Change One Label, Flip the Verdict

Election Truth Alliance: “We tested 45 AI models on identical election data. When we identified it as a U.S. election, the models changed their answers. This report was prompted by:

1. People reading our reports, asking large language models (ChatGPT, Claude, etc.) for their interpretation, and sharing the responses they received back with us; and,

2. Persistent discrepancies observed by our team in how large language models interpreted charts showing U.S. election data depending on whether or not the chart was labelled.

Our recent report on the 2024 Georgia Presidential Election, and the finding that demographics can’t explain away the anomalies identified in that state, provides relevant additional context for those interested.

Executive Summary – We tested 45 large language models (LLMs) from 19 vendors to see whether they described findings from an analysis of election data differently if U.S. identifiers were included, and how the models self-reported the reasons for their own potential bias when asked. Given identical plots and the same analytical task, most models’ conclusions shifted depending on whether the election was identified. When identifying election information (year, geography) was withheld, the models analyzed the charts on their own terms: they applied the forensic methods as designed and drew conclusions from the patterns in the data, without importing assumptions about which election it was. Once the data was identified as belonging to a U.S. election (i.e., the 2024 general election in Georgia), the AI models grew more elusive and tended to shift their analysis in the same direction, consistently: away from reading the data as a sign of large-scale coordinated interference as seen in Russia or Uganda, and toward reading the data as being produced entirely by ordinary politics and/or demographics. This shift was specific to data identified as concerning a U.S. election, compared against the same data with no state or election identifier attached; and, it took a recognizable, consistent form. Asked to interpret the findings with no geographic or election identifiers, models often characterized the pattern as suspicious and often cited empirical methods for detecting systematic election irregularities to support this. Yet, when presented with the same findings labelled as a U.S. election, they recast it as normal, and reframed those same established forensic methods as claims circulating online rather than as published, peer-reviewed techniques. Asking a model to identify its inconsistent behavior and examine its own bias did not fix the problem. Models could often name a plausible source of bias, yet their self-assessments did not match what they had actually done, and a model’s fluent account of its own neutrality proved not to be neutral. A practical conclusion is to judge an AI model by what it does, not by what it says about itself. Since this effect surfaces in identifiable situations, users can test for it directly: run the same question twice, changing only the framing, and watch for the inconsistencies set out in our field guide provided in Table 5…”

Large retail stores in the logistics chain? Russia must have realized how much Ukraine’s drone hits hurt.

https://kyivindependent.com/in-less-than-24-hours-russia-hits-4-hypermarkets-belonging-to-one-of-ukraines-largest-retail-chains/

In less than 24 hours, Russia hits 4 hypermarkets belonging to one of Ukraine's largest retail chains

Russian attacks hit four Epicentr hypermarkets in less than 24 hours, the company said on Oct. 25.

The latest wave of strikes highlights Russia's campaign of terror against civilians, with stores, shopping centers, and other civilian infrastructure among the targets. Epicentr, one of Ukraine's largest home improvement and retail chains, has been particularly hard hit.

Tools & Techniques. Might be fun if you could create one of these yourself.

https://www.bespacific.com/local-wikipedia/

Local Wikipedia

LOCAL WIKIPEDIA – The Encyclopedia For Local People. Your town, area, landmark or postcode. Local Wikipedia is Wikipedia, but only for things a half hour walk from you. Local content is direct from Wikipedia – geocoded pages only. If there are fewer than 25 things close to you, it takes the closest 25 things within about 6 miles. If there are more than 500 things only the closest 500 will be included. Your location stays in this browser: links you share don’t include it. This site has no affiliation with the actual Wikipedia.

A unique approach?

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=7613699

AI Consciousness and the Law: Towards an AI Consciousness Legal Protocol

Artificial intelligence is not yet shown to be conscious, but law cannot wait for science to settle the question, and it cannot settle the question by decree. This paper proposes an AI Consciousness Legal Protocol: defined technical and legal parameters that must be met before law recognises the consciousness of an AI system, an independent body to apply them, and rules that govern AI in the meantime. The central position is that recognition of consciousness, criminal capacity and legal personhood are three separate questions, and that human accountability for AI survives all three.

Resource?

https://ojs.bonviewpress.com/index.php/JCLLT/article/view/12557

Inaugural Editorial: Charting New Frontiers at the Intersection of Law, Technology, and Computation

I am very pleased to introduce the inaugural issue of the Journal of Computational Law and Legal Technology (JCLLT). This journal is founded at a remarkable moment in history, when advances in computation, artificial intelligence, data science, and digital technologies are transforming not only how law is practised but also how legal systems are conceived, interpreted, and governed.

AI Law: a field in change.

https://lawjournals.celnet.in/index.php/jltcpl/article/view/2202

TORTIOUS LIABILITY FOR CYBER HARASSMENT AND VIRTUAL HARM: REIMAGINING THE LAW OF TORTS IN THE DIGITAL AGE

The transformation of social interaction from the physical world to the digital environment has generated forms of injury that were largely unknown when the modern law of torts developed. Cyber harassment, cyberstalking, doxxing, cyberbullying, online defamation, impersonation, non-consensual dissemination of intimate images, deepfake abuse, identity manipulation and persistent digital surveillance can cause profound injury without any physical contact between the wrongdoer and the victim. The consequences may include loss of reputation, invasion of privacy, psychological suffering, disruption of family and professional relationships, physical-security risks and economic loss.

… This article examines whether and how the law of torts can accommodate cyber harassment and virtual harm. It develops the concept of the “digital personality” as an extension of the legally protected personality of the individual and argues that privacy, reputation, dignity, informational autonomy and digital identity should receive meaningful tortious protection.

One question answered, if we can trust his word.

https://thehill.com/policy/international/6170415-musk-starlink-ukraine-slowdown/

Musk says he was behind Starlink’s slowdown in Ukraine

…  Musk initially claimed that the decisions to restrict the speed or usage of Starshield are made by the U.S. military and, ultimately, the president.

He maintained his claim in Saturday’s post saying Starshield “is controlled by the US government. What they decide to do is up to them.”

… “Either the President was lying or Musk was lying, but the decision to slow down satellite speed and access has life or death consequences for Ukraine,” Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) wrote on social media. “This deserves a full investigation by the Senate. Elon Musk should be compelled to testify before Congress and under oath.”

Shoot the cash cow to starve your opponent.

https://nationalsecurityjournal.org/ukraine-might-have-found-putins-weakness-and-wont-stop-hitting-it-with-drones-and-missiles/

Ukraine Might Have Found Putin’s Weakness and Won’t Stop Hitting It With Drones and Missiles

Ukraine’s strike campaign is hitting Russia’s oil industry where it is weakest, its aging fields and strained repair capacity. Now, one analyst argues, both Trump and Putin want Kyiv to ease up, as The Wall Street Journal reports the White House and Musk coordinated on throttling Starshield ahead of the midterms.

I am no longer a teenager. Why do I have to prove that?

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/10/two-states-can-now-restrict-social-media-access-heres-what-do-next

Two States Can Now Restrict Social Media Access—Here’s What To Do Next

Last week, two federal appeals courts issued opinions that will allow Florida and Georgia to start enforcing laws that will age-gate and block young people from accessing social media. The laws do not adequately respect minors’ rights to play, speak, and learn online. More fundamentally, these laws don’t help young people stay safe online—a goal that lawmakers should pursue.

Because of the new laws, some young people will lose their ability to access lawful information, find their online communities, and even engage with school board members. Others will need parental permission to stay online. And adults will face increased demands to prove their age, which will put their privacy at increased risk simply to continue to use the services they already use. 

We opposed these laws because they threaten the free expression and privacy of both minors and adults.  Even though these lawsuits are not over, the injunctions that paused enforcement have been lifted, and the states of Florida and Georgia will now be able to enforce broad restrictions on social media use. 

Ukraine hits data centers, harming only Russia. This could have global impacts.

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/iran-has-detailed-plans-hit-gulf-undersea-cables-if-war-resumes-officials-say-2026-10-23/

Iran has detailed plans to hit Gulf undersea cables if war resumes, officials say

Tehran has drawn up detailed plans to target undersea communications cables in the Gulf if the United States and Israel attack Iran again, two senior Iranian security officials told Reuters.

Their comments followed warnings by Iranian officials that undersea cables in the region could become targets in any renewed conflict if diplomacy with Washington ‌collapses.

Will no one take the time to get it right? This is how AI will exterminate us...

https://www.foxnews.com/live-news/ai-hallucination-appeals-court-mississippi-dei-law

Appeals court tosses Mississippi DEI ruling marred by AI hallucinations

A federal appeals court overturned an order blocking Mississippi's ban on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in public schools and universities after a district judge acknowledged his staff used artificial intelligence to help draft a ruling found to be riddled with errors.

In an opinion released Thursday, U.S. Circuit Judge Jerry Smith called Judge Henry Wingate's ruling a "botch job" after Wingate said a law clerk used AI to write a draft of the order that was mistakenly docketed.

… He continued: "Those included mention of plaintiffs and defendants not in the complaint, supposed 'declarations' from non-existent or never-present individuals, false quotations purporting to be taken from the text of H.B. 1193, and several erroneous claims that the law had already led to the demise of apparently fictitious programs."

Should we expect deployment of the 82^nd Airborne?

https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/articles/trump-humiliated-bombshell-crypto-lawsuit-001429492.html

Trump Humiliated in Bombshell Crypto Lawsuit

Donald Trump was sued Thursday by a cryptocurrency company that claims he violated the Constitution by profiting from deals with a United Arab Emirates official while in office.

… "The President himself has openly admitted that the lack of consequences emboldens him, not only to continue using his high office to enrich himself, but to expand the fortune he is extracting from the trust the American people placed in him."

(Related)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2026/10/22/trump-says-he-called-google-ceo-sundar-pichai-discuss-renaming-atlantic-ocean/

Trump says he called Google’s CEO to discuss renaming Atlantic Ocean

The president said he discussed renaming the Atlantic Ocean with Google CEO Sundar Pichai, who replied: "Please don't ask us to do that."