Cryptocurrency, Investing, Money, Economy, Business, and Debt:
El Salvador Now Holds Over 6,000 Bitcoin
The ChatGPT maker is considering turning its for-profit arm into a Delaware Public Benefit Corporation amid ongoing criticism of its legal structure.
Coronavirus News, Analysis, and Opinion:
Ex-Covid response chief says US setting itself up for another potential pandemic
Politics:
Russia Treating North Korean Troops as ‘Expendable’
“It is clear that Russian and North Korean military leaders are treating these troops as expendable and ordering them on hopeless assaults against Ukrainian defenses.”
This would surprise anyone? The Russian leadership treats Russian troops as expendable.
How Putin Tapped a Well of Ethnic Hatred in Russia
How did radical nationalists so fully infiltrate Russia’s police and politics?
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MAGA Is Already Eating Its Own
Like many observers, I expected severe buyers’ regret fairly early in the second Trump administration. After all, many Americans who voted for Trump did so because they believed he would bring down grocery prices. He was never going to be able to deliver on that promise and stopped talking about the subject as soon as the election was over; sooner or later, voters were going to notice.
I did not, however, expect a MAGA civil war weeks before Trump had even taken office. But in retrospect I should have seen it coming.
Cocaine Trafficking Defies Decades of Anti-Drug Efforts
For decades, cocaine consumers were primarily Americans, and interdiction was a U.S. government priority. But despite the tens of billions of dollars spent in the U.S. war on drugs in Latin America, the industry has not only grown, it has globalized, with new routes, new markets and new criminal enterprises.
Nearly every one of Latin America’s mainland nations has become a major producer or mover of the drug, with Ecuador now one of the most important cocaine transit points in the world. Demand is soaring in Europe, which rivals the United States as the world’s top cocaine destination.
Trump Lets Mike Johnson Twist in the Wind
A week has now passed since Congress cleared a government funding bill that ignored Trump’s central demand of Johnson — a debt ceiling increase. And with just six days until the House votes on the next speaker, Trump has been conspicuously silent on Johnson’s fate.
Why does that matter? Because a host of MAGA voices have filled the void to suggest that Johnson isn’t the right leader for the House GOP. It’s not just the debt-ceiling faceplant. It’s also the deal Johnson cut with Democrats (and later withdrew) that sent Elon Musk and many other Trump allies into a rage.
So how to interpret Trump’s silence? If Johnson is feeling optimistic, he can lean on the fact that Trump has backed him for months and if he truly wanted a change to House leadership he might have said so at any time. (Or he might have sent another message, like not inviting Johnson on a whirlwind post-election weekend or to his box at the Army-Navy football game earlier this month.)
Elon Musk Doubles Down on German Far-Right Party
Elon Musk reiterated his support for the far-right Alternative for Germany party, or AfD, in an opinion piece published by the Welt am Sonntag newspaper less than two months before Germans go to the polls.
Judge Signals Giuliani May Lose Contempt Hearing
A federal judge is signaling that Rudy Giuliani’s contempt hearing next Friday might not end so well for the former New York City mayor and onetime personal lawyer for President-elect Donald Trump as two Georgia election poll workers try to collect a $148 million defamation award they won against him.
Serendipity:
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