around the traps

• Peter Dutton denies having access to sensitive information as Labor questions personal investments | Peter Dutton | The Guardian: on 23 January 2009 [...] Dutton bought shares in Commonwealth Bank, National Australia Bank and Westpac Bank. All three companies reported record lows on this day. On 24 January, the Rudd government announced the Australian Business Investment Partnership. This stimulus package was never introduced as it was opposed in parliament, but did move markets in the short term. It's incredible that this story just slid past.
• Elon Musk's foray into politics met with protest that's hurting Tesla worldwide - ABC News: he now is caught in a pincer movement — between an increasingly hostile customer base, and a sudden lift in competition from Chinese and European rivals. ...and investors are not happy: Early Tesla investor calls for Elon Musk to resign amid stock slump | Mashable: It's gotten so bad that one of Tesla's earliest investors has called for Musk to step down. Ross Gerber said in an interview with Sky News that Musk's role in the U.S. government — notably the (extremely) divisive Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) — and close ties to President Donald Trump have damaged Tesla. ...and meanwhile the panels are falling off Cybertrucks because they're glued on with glue that doesn't work: Elon Musk's Cybertrucks suffer another setback in the US. Will we ever see them in Australia? - ABC News: This thin stainless steel strip, known as a "cant rail assembly", sits between the windshield and the roof on both sides. It's bound to the truck with a structural adhesive. But there are concerns this glue can essentially be broken down by cold and hot weather.
• How the political debate over an antisemitic caravan bomb hoax consumed parliament - ABC News: "Almost immediately, experienced investigators within the joint counterterrorism team believed that the caravan was part of a fabricated terrorist plot, essentially a criminal con job," AFP Deputy Commissioner National Security Krissy Barrett says.
• Volkswagen reintroducing physical controls for vital functions | Autocar: physical buttons for the five most important functions – the volume, the heating on each side of the car, the fans and the hazard light
• The Unbelievable Scale of AI's Pirated-Books Problem - The Atlantic: Meta employees turned their attention to Library Genesis, or LibGen, one of the largest of the pirated libraries that circulate online. It currently contains more than 7.5 million books and 81 million research papers. Eventually, the team at Meta got permission from “MZ”—an apparent reference to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg—to download and use the data set. This act, along with other information outlined and quoted here, recently became a matter of public record when some of Meta’s internal communications were unsealed as part of a copyright-infringement lawsuit brought against the company by Sarah Silverman, Junot Díaz, and other authors of books in LibGen.
• U.S. to reduce capabilities of new jet purchased by allies: President Donald Trump has announced that any new U.S. F-47 fighter jets sold to allied nations will be deliberately downgraded by 10%, citing potential future changes in alliances. I'm not an expert but it seems weird to consider buying jets off a guy who is already talking about shooting them down.

• ...and because you're going to want the link: SRL - Survival Research Labs