"Campbell Brown, Facebook's top news executive, left the company this month. Twitter, now known as X, removed headlines from the platform days later. The head of Instagram's Threads app, an X competitor, reiterated that his social network would not amplify news.

"Even Google -- the strongest partner to news organizations over the past 10 years -- has become less dependable, making publishers more wary of their reliance on the search giant. The company has laid off news employees in two recent team reorganizations, and some publishers say traffic from Google has tapered off.

"If it wasn't clear before, it's clear now: The major online platforms are breaking up with news."

Read the entire article here.

"The Biden administration is facing an onslaught of opposition to its proposed fuel economy standards, which critics say would increase consumer costs and unfairly burden U.S. businesses.

"The Department of Transportation's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) received more than 62,900 public comments related to the fuel economy regulations it issued in late July during its comment period, which ended Monday. The so-called Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards received opposition letters from a wide range of stakeholders, including 26 states and the energy, agriculture and automotive industries.

"'NHTSA's proposal is yet another attempt by the Biden administration to restrict Americans' freedom to decide what vehicle fits their needs and budget,' Will Hupman, the American Petroleum Institute's (API) vice president of downstream policy, said in a statement.

"'Combined with EPA's proposed tailpipe emissions standards, these rules amount to a de facto ban on cars and trucks using liquid fuels, which can and should be a part of the solution to reduce carbon emissions,' he continued."

Read the entire article here.

"The shocking news came just over a week ago, on October 7: Iran's proxy terror force Hamas had flooded across Israel's border and within hours had slaughtered hundreds of Israelis.

"While the Biden administration was no doubt shocked too, it shouldn't have been surprised that its relentless appeasement of Iran is now exposed for the folly it is.

"Others are noticing as well, which is why Biden is being pressured to re-freeze the $6 billion hostage ransom payment made to Iran last month. A good start perhaps, but it doesn't address Biden's months-long Iran sanctions relief campaign totaling more than $50 billion that only emboldened Tehran's commitment to sponsor terrorism.

"Congress should now demand an end to all of it, not just the $6 billion."

Read the entire article here.

"The virulent anti-Israel protests across America and Europe throw a glaring light on the bizarre alliance between left-wing activists and militant Muslims. That odd combination has been the bedrock of political activism at universities and in the streets for years. It began in universities, where it now dominates political discourse, threatens Jewish students, and intimidates anyone brave enough to voice their dissent. We can now see how it has spread far beyond the campus.

"What makes the alliance so strange are the deep-seated differences between leftists and Muslim fundamentalists over core beliefs."

Read the entire article here.

"The House was thrown into even more chaos after House Republicans' speaker designate, Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA), withdrew from the race once it became clear he had no path to win the election, leaving the House leaderless for a 10th straight day.

"GOP lawmakers are set to meet for their fifth consecutive day of closed-door meetings on Friday as they plot a path forward and try to coalesce around a candidate who can get the 217 votes necessary to become speaker on the House floor. Members are expected to reconsider a number of rule changes that could dictate how they choose their next speaker, but it remains unclear when the chamber will vote on its next nominee.

"After a day of meeting behind closed doors with the full conference and those opposed to his speakership, Scalise announced Thursday night he would be withdrawing his name from the running."

Read the entire article here.

"This Sunday, hours after Hamas's first attack on Israel, Biden's National Security Council promised that the $6 billion ransom Biden agreed to pay in exchange for five hostages had not yet been released to Iran. The money sat in a Qatari bank where it had been transferred from South Korea where it had been held at Washington's request as part of sanctions on Iranian oil sales.

"'Not a single cent from these funds has been spent,' an NSC spokeswoman said, 'and when it is spent, it can only be spent on things like food and medicine for the Iranian people.'

"But if the Biden administration can monitor the $6 billion and make sure it is spent only on food and medicine, surely it must also have the ability to refreeze the money if the terms are violated. Otherwise, the terms were useless from the start. ...

"Obama's vision for a rebalanced Middle East built around a civilized and responsible Iranian regime was vaporous wish fulfillment. The nuclear deal was a terrible mistake. Biden's decision to relax oil sanctions to revive it was bone-headed. Biden's decision to unfreeze $6 billion compounded the litany of errors.

"All these huge blunders contributed to the war now unleashed on Israel. Biden can begin to undo the damage he and Obama did to the region by refreezing the $6 billion. It won't make everything right, but it would be a start."

Read the entire article here.

"As evidence of civilian atrocities mounted, President Joe Biden emerged in public to unequivocally denounce the Hamas terror attacks as 'pure unadulterated evil' but his repudiation cannot hide the long embrace by his party's liberals of the two main actors behind the staggering violence that rocked the Middle East: the political and military leadership in Palestine and their backers in Iran. ...

"Security experts said the weekend attacks exposed the peril of a decade-long Democrat pursuit of an elusive deal to end Iran's nuclear and terrorist activities combined with a romanticism in liberal academic and political circles of a Palestinian 'struggle.'

"That 'struggle' "has repeatedly resorted to inflicting terrorist casualties on innocent civilians dating to the days of Yasser Arafat and the Achille Lauro ship hijacking, where a wheelchair-bound American Jew was executed and thrown overboard."

Read the entire article here.

"It wasn't just a crime against Israel -- it was a crime against all humanity.

"Among other atrocities, Hamas terrorists waited in vans to slaughter 260 Jews who were among the thousands attending a music festival -- a genocidal crime that was the largest single murder of Jews since the Holocaust.

"The mostly young people who were murdered in that ambush, and the many elderly people, women and children killed in Hamas attacks across southern Israel, were not part of any military operation nor caught in any crossfire. They were deliberately targeted -- on the streets, at a bus stop, or in their homes -- for brutal killings and kidnappings that we are only now learning about. It was easy to do because it was inconceivable that such war crimes would be committed by supposed freedom fighters.

"Now we have learned from the Wall Street Journal that Iran was at the heart of the planning, funding and approval of this operation -- making a mockery of an American administration that freed up to $6 billion in exchange for the release of five hostages. Already, more Americans have been reported lost in this fighting than were recovered by that deal and, of course, new hostages -- reportedly including more Americans -- have been taken."

Read the entire article here.

"The Harris Ranch Tesla Supercharger station is an impressive beast. With 98 charging bays, the facility in Coalinga, California, is the largest charging station in the world. ...

"Superchargers charge vehicles up to the 80% sweet spot in as little as 20 minutes, but to provide that kind of power for nearly 100 bays takes something solar can't provide -- diesel generators.

"Investigative journalist Edward Niedermeyer discovered that the station was powered by diesel generators hidden behind a Shell station. Reporters at SF Gate tried to find out how much of the station's electricity was from the generators, but couldn't get a response from Tesla.

"The station isn't connected to any dedicated solar farms, which means that absent the diesel generators, the station is powered by California's grid."

Read the entire article here.

"California is raising the minimum wage for fast-food workers from $15 an hour to $20. Wouldn't it be nice if we could all get 33% raises?

"But we can't. Not even California's fast-food workers will all get them. Despite the Left Coast's magical thinking, it is impossible to wave a magical legislative gavel and increase everyone's pay. Twenty dollars an hour will price some workers out of the market, and being unemployed, they will earn the real minimum wage, which is zero. Fast-food chains will replace them with machines to take customers' orders.

"Democrats seem never to understand that raising the price of everything doesn't increase the value of anything. Burgers and fries won't be worth more just because Sacramento decrees it. Prices will go up, people will buy less, fewer staff will be needed, jobs will be lost.

"As Thomas Sowell wisely wrote in his latest book, Social Justice Fallacies, which came out last month, 'People tend to buy less at a higher price. If so, then employers -- not being inert chess pieces [to be moved around at the whim of government] -- tend to hire less labor at a higher price, imposed by minimum wage laws, than they would hire at a lower price, based on supply and demand.'"

Read the entire article here.