A Surge of Russian Sabotage Attacks in Europe, and Musk’s Political War Chest

From the New York Times, it's the headlines. I'm Will Jarvis, Infra Tracey Mumford. Today's Friday, September 4th, here's what we're covering. Over the past few years, across Europe. A railway line linking Warsaw to Southeastern Poland was damaged by a weakened explosion that the officials have been sounding the alarm about a dramatic and escalating series of sabotage attacks that they say are being carried out by Russia. There's a wider plot where Russia's scheme to send the incendiary devices through a commercial carrier on planes that would potentially end up in the United States. The attacks began just after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine as part of Russia's attempts to bring the war to the West more broadly. One of the drones equipped with military-grade explosives bounced off the wing of a plane on the Tarmac, but security officials tell the Times that they're now becoming more intense and more frequent in just the past week. German officials announced that Russia was behind a failed drone attack this summer at an airport. Polish officials said a fire at a drone factory was most likely caused by sabotage. And Denmark said Russia is recruiting people there to attack defense companies. So for the moment, nobody's been killed or seriously injured in these attacks, but the more frequently these things occur, the more that becomes a possibility. My colleague Michael Schwartz covers global security issues. He says the attacks pose a real challenge for NATO specifically, because the alliance was formed to deter or respond to a major land invasion, and not this kind of incremental sabotage. Russian President Vladimir Putin has been very careful to pursue a campaign that seems to fall well below the threshold of a war, well short of Article 5, which is the central tenant of NATO that an attack on one is attacking against all. And this is left NATO struggling to respond. They've kicked out diplomats, they've been posed sanctions, but they've realized that this is really doing little to blunt this Russian campaign. And so they are starting to experiment with some new ideas recently. In August, in fact, the German government authorized its spy services for the first time since World War II to carry out what are called active measures. So this is sabotage, cyber attacks, things like that, directed at Russia. But experts and officials are telling me that even these kinds of more aggressive measures are not going to be enough, then so for the time being, they expect these attacks simply are going to continue. Now three updates on the Trump administration. First, at the White House yesterday. Vice President JD Vance tried to downplay the war in Iran, saying he doesn't currently consider it a war at all. His comments came as the U.S. and Iran have both launched airstrikes over the past week, attacks that shattered a nearly month-long pause in active fighting. And you ask, when will this end? You're asking me a question, when will the Iranians stop shooting at ships? I think the reality is, I don't know the answer to that question. Vice President also said he did not have a timeline for how long the war will stretch on, suggesting that was up to Iran. Vance spoke from the White House briefing room, the first administration official to do that in weeks. White House press secretary Caroline Levitt recently stepped down from the role, and the White House has not announced anyone to replace her. The Times has learned that hundreds of federal agents from the Department of Homeland Security have been reassigned to scour the country's voter rolls for people who aren't citizens. The administration has launched the intensive operation, despite the fact that there's no evidence of widespread voter fraud. A database from a conservative think tank lists only about 100 instances of non-citizens voting over the past quarter century. But President Trump has fixated on the issue, claiming without evidence that tens of thousands of non-citizens are registered to vote. Now, the administration has pulled DHS agents away from their normal duties, like investigating trafficking and terrorism. It's not clear what they will find in the voter rolls, or what would be done with that information. One former immigration official called the effort a "political fishing expedition" meant to "intimitate people from exercising their right to vote." In a statement, DHS said that ensuring the integrity and security of American elections is one of its top priorities. And President Trump is about to break ground on construction of the 250-foot tall gold-topped arch he's been talking about for months. It's moving forward even before a federal commission has approved the project, and before it's been reviewed under the National Historic Preservation Act, both of those are legally required. The project is also facing a challenge in the courts. A group of Vietnam veterans has sued to stop the plan construction, arguing that the massive arch would disrupt historic views from Arlington National Cemetery, and that it should have been approved by Congress. It's just the latest major construction project Trump has rushed to get underway, including his demolition of the White House East Wing to build a new ballroom. Experts say they see a pattern of Trump trying to basically outrun any scrutiny by the courts by building as quickly as possible. One quick update now on the midterms. Elon Musk, the world's richest person, is cracking open his war chest to try and help Republicans win in the midterm elections. According to people briefed on his plans, he could spend up to $120 million. This week campaign finance reports showed that his super PAC has started deploying the first wave of that money in more than a dozen races across the country, including in Texas, Michigan, and Iowa. Among other things, the group has started running Facebook and Google ads focused on voter registration and portraying Democrats as radical socialists. During the last election cycle in 2024, Musk was actually the single biggest donor spending close to $300 million. But until recently, there were questions about how much he'd get involved this year, after his public falling out with President Trump and his threat to start his own political party. In Nepal this morning, officials said that two people were rescued from a tunnel at a hydro-power facility, after being trapped there more than a week by a sudden, devastating flood. The flood killed more than 1,300 people, and thousands more are still missing, including many who had been working on the multiple energy projects in the region. Rescuers have spent days working around the clock to try and bore into tunnels and dig through a dense mix of sludge and mud, trying to access the underground facilities. Some of them had been completely filled in by debris. They've also been pumping air into at least one of the tunnels in case people were still alive. According to people briefed on the rescue operations at the tunnel today, dozens of other workers are still thought to be inside, and rescuers working at the site have been hearing some of their voices. You can find a live coverage of the ongoing rescue effort at nytimes.com. And finally… If you were to walk down the street in Beijing right now, you would just be bombarded by AI. There are cleaning robots just roaming around malls. There is a camera that claims to use facial recognition to tell if you were j-walking and identify who you were, so that potentially you could be fine. There are trash cans that claim to be AI-powered to help you sort garbage. Or humanoid robots that try to sell you coffee, but really have trouble grabbing onto anything. There's just advertising for AI absolutely everywhere. Vivian Wang covers China for the times, and she's part of a team that's been looking at how the country is going all in on artificial intelligence. The technology has sparked growing concerns about privacy, unemployment, and other hot-button issues. But Vivian says China is pushing ahead. This proliferation of AI really speaks to a few different things in China. So while in the U.S., AI companies are really focused on building the most cutting-edge models. Chinese companies and the Chinese government have really emphasized the importance of just putting AI everywhere as quickly as possible. They want it to be shaping people's lives so that they're seeing it in classrooms, in factories, in hospitals. They really want people to feel that AI is useful to their lives practically. The other thing it shows is that people in China are just generally much more optimistic about AI than people in the U.S. One survey recently showed that about one-third of Americans think that the benefits of AI outweigh the risks. But in China, that's actually about two-thirds of people. So there's just a lot more sense that AI is going to be exciting or at least bring something good to people's lives. Those are the headlines. If you'd like to play the Friday news quiz, stick around. It's just after these credits. One quick thing. If you are not a time subscriber yet, you can get a full month of free access to everything we publish when you download the Times app now. This show is made by Margaret Kadefa, Jake Lucas, Tracy Mumford, Yann Stewart, and me, Will Jarvis, original theme by Dan Powell. Special thanks to Isabella Anderson, Sam Dolnick, Miles McKinley, Alyssa Moxley, Zoe Murphy, and Chris Wood. [music] Now, time for the quiz. Every week we ask you a few questions about stories the times has been covering. Can you get them all? [music] First up. The United States Aircraft Carrier, the USS Abraham Lincoln, made its way into port. This week, the crew of the USS Lincoln got their first time off in more than 280 days after their deployment to the Middle East dragged on way longer than expected. Now, on their way back to the US, they're getting some overdue time off in a beach town known for its nightlife and free-wheeling atmosphere. Your question, where has the ship docked? Don't worry about the city name. We're just looking for the name of the country. As a hint, here are some of the rules the military has specifically put in place for the shoreleave, no parasailing, no jet skiing, and no consuming marijuana, even though it's legal in the country and widely available. The answer? Thailand. The USS Lincoln is docked near the beach town of Pataya, which has been an R&R spot for US soldiers going back decades to the Vietnam War. The ship is set to leave on Sunday when it'll head back toward its home port of San Diego. Next question. This week, a major fashion giant went public in a closely watched stock market debut that turned out to be a flop. We see shares falling by about 2% at the open, and then those losses are sending to as much as 10%. That would have been almost unthinkable just a few years ago when the company was valued at $100 billion. It had become a household name during the pandemic when people started buying and buying and buying online, but the company's value has since plunged. Your question, what company is it? The answer? Yeah, there we go. Sheen, as Anthony was pointing out, losing a bit of sheen. The fast fashion brand Sheen, which revolutionized the clothing industry. At one point, the company was creating over 4,500 new styles a day, in part by using algorithms to predict what would be a hit with shoppers. But when the White House cracked down on trade loopholes that had let sheen ship mountains of cheap clothes from China, it was forced to raise prices. Revenue's dropped, and investors say the company has not yet laid out a clear plan for how it will bounce back. And last question. This week, the Billboard Hot 100 announced that Choosing Texas, Ella Langley's twangy tale of a Texas Tennessee love triangle, broke the record for the most weeks at the top of the chart. There's one asterisk here, we will get to that later. Now Choosing Texas has been in the number one spot for a whopping 20 weeks, edging out to other country-infused mega hits, which had been tied for the record. We're going to play you a short bit of those two songs, see if you can name each one. First, this song was originally released in 2018. That was Lil Nas X's old town road, and here is the other song that spent months and months in the number one slot. That one was a bar song, "Tipsy" by Shibuzi. Now to that asterisk, Choosing Texas, old town road, and tipsy have all held the record for non-holiday hits, the ultimate chart topper is Mariah Carey, whose inescapable holiday earworm all I want for Christmas is you, has spent a total of 22 weeks at the top of the Billboard chart. Whoa, whoa, whoa, too early, too early, please cut it off. I know we just hit September, guys, but we got a weed at least a few more weeks, right? That is it for the news quiz. If you want to let us know how you did, our email is the headlines at nytimes.com. I'm Will Jarvis, the show will be back on Tuesday. Have a great holiday weekend.