EXCLUSIVE @TheAtlantic On multiple occasions Patel’s security detail had difficulty waking him because he was seemingly intoxicated, according to info supplied to DOJ and White House officials. A request for “breaching equipment”was made because Patel had been unreachable behind locked doors. https://t.co/Ater7LRQ2H
“I’m always at your service”: leaked calls between Lavrov and Hungary’s FM
Recordings of conversations between Sergey Lavrov and Péter Szijjártó suggest the Hungarian minister was willing to advance Moscow’s interests within the EU.
In one call, Lavrov asks for sanctions on oligarch Alisher Usmanov’s sister to be lifted — Szijjártó responds that Hungary, together with Slovakia, is already preparing a proposal.
She was later removed from the EU sanctions list.
Before ending the call, Szijjártó also mentioned visiting Gazprom’s new headquarters and added: “I’m always at your service.”
According to European intelligence officials, the tone of the exchanges resembles that of a “handler and source” rather than two equal officials.
There have also been previous reports that Hungary shared details of closed EU discussions with Moscow.
I spoke to Anthropic’s AI agent Claude about AI collecting massive amounts of personal data and how that information is being used to violate our privacy rights.
What an AI agent says about the dangers of AI is shocking and should wake us up.
BREAKING: Barak Ravid shared live with @KateBolduan that the Israeli air force struck the building housing Iran's Council of Experts to disrupt the process of appointing a new supreme leader.
📺: @NewsCentralCNN | @BarakRavid | @axios
The 2nd U.S. Air Force F-15 Eagle has been shot down over Kuwait 🚨
Important Note: There are "atleast" two [can be three] seperate incidents, involving 2x F-15 being shot down.
Press release by Kuwaiti Defense Ministry also indicates towards that: "Several U.S. military aircraft crashed this morning, but all their crews survived".
Pres Trump told me tonight the US had identified possible candidates to take over Iran, but they were killed in the initial attack.
"The attack was so successful it knocked out most of the candidates," Trump told me. "It's not going to be anybody that we were thinking of because they are all dead. Second or third place is dead."
WATCH: After meeting with Vice President JD Vance, Oman’s Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi – a key mediator in the U.S.-Iran nuclear talks – tells @margbrennan "the peace deal is within our reach.” He also said, “I don't think any alternative to diplomacy is going to solve this problem.”
See the full interview.
When you read in a Russian newspaper that Moscow was “restoring constitutional order in Hungary in 1956 & in Czechoslovakia in 1968,” that tells us something about Russia in 2026 and the reinterpreting of history. #ReadingRussia
BREAKING: US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee tells Tucker Carlson that Israel has the Biblical right to take over all of the Middle East.
“It would be fine if they took it all.”
This video should unsettle anyone who takes the United States seriously as a nation.
Because it exposes something dangerous: the trivialization of the world's most consequential office. It shows how carelessly the power, credibility, and accumulated moral authority of a superpower can be squandered for a few seconds of viral attention.
In any other major democracy, this behavior from a head of state would trigger a constitutional crisis. Paris would burn. Berlin would convene emergency sessions. In the Nordic countries, resignation would follow within hours. Across functioning democracies, the public, institutions, and political class would recognize this for what it is: an assault on the dignity of the state itself. Leaders are not free to perform as entertainers without consequence. National honor is not personal property, it's held in trust.
But the United States is not just another country with a provocateur in charge. It is the linchpin of global order. It maintains formal alliances and security guarantees with forty to fifty nations. It underwrites the financial architecture, trade systems, and diplomatic frameworks that billions of people depend on daily. When the American president speaks—or posts—it doesn't land as satire, meme, or personal whim. It reads as a signal about what the country is becoming.
American power has never relied solely on carrier strike groups or economic output. It has rested on something more fragile and more valuable: trust. The belief that beneath domestic turbulence lies institutional seriousness, predictability, and a baseline commitment to dignity. That belief is now disintegrating in real time.
Millions of American companies operate globally. They negotiate multibillion-dollar contracts in environments where reputation is currency. Boardrooms in Frankfurt, Singapore, and Dubai aren't debating whether a post was clever—they're asking whether the United States remains a reliable partner. Whether agreements signed today will be honored tomorrow. Whether American leadership has devolved from institutional to purely theatrical.
Consider tourism, which sustains millions of American jobs—airlines, hotels, restaurants, museums, entire regional economies. Soft power isn't an abstraction. It materializes in flight bookings, conference locations, study-abroad programs, and decades of accumulated goodwill. A quiet, decentralized boycott doesn't require government action—only a collective sense that a nation no longer respects itself.
Now picture this image being studied by foreign ministers, central bank governors, defense strategists, and sovereign wealth fund managers. Picture them asking a coldly rational question: How do we write binding thirty-year agreements with a country whose public face will be this, relentlessly, for years to come? How do we plan for the long term when the tone is impulsive, mocking, and unbound by the gravity of office?
This is where the real calculus begins. Trillions in foreign capital depend on confidence that America is stable, credible, and rule-governed. That confidence is now being traded for what, exactly? Applause from an online mob? A dopamine rush from manufactured outrage? Content designed to dominate the news cycle rather than serve the national interest?
Every serious nation eventually confronts this choice: burn long-term credibility for short-term spectacle, or safeguard the reputation previous generations bled to build. The United States spent eighty years constructing an image of reliability, restraint, and leadership under pressure. That image wasn't born from perfection—it came from a visible commitment to standards that transcended impulse.
This isn't a partisan issue. Europeans who value democratic norms recognize something ominously familiar here. Americans—Democrat and Republican alike—who believe in responsibility and restraint should see it too. Power attracts scrutiny. Leadership demands discipline. A superpower cannot behave like a reality TV contestant without paying a price.
The presidency is not a personal broadcast channel. It's a symbol carried on behalf of 330 million people and countless international partners who never voted but whose lives are shaped by American decisions anyway. Every post either reinforces or erodes the idea that America can be counted on when it matters most.
So the question is no longer whether this is offensive. The question is whether this is who America chooses to be: a nation that trades a century of hard-won reputation for viral moments. A country that replaces statecraft with content creation. A republic governed like a season of reality television.
History offers a harsh lesson here. Great powers don't fall because enemies mock them. They collapse when they begin mocking themselves—publicly, proudly, and without grasping the cost until it's far too late.
Stay connected,
Follow Gandalv @Microinteracti1
Spanish PM Pedro Sánchez:
Starting next week, my government will implement the following actions:
First, we will change the law in Spain to hold platform executives legally accountable for many infringements taking place on their sites.
Second, we will turn algorithmic manipulation and amplification of illegal content into a new criminal offense.
Third, we will implement a hate and polarization footprint system to track, quantify, and expose how digital platforms fuel division and amplify hate.
Fourth, Spain will ban access to social media for minors under the age of 16. Platforms will be required to implement effective age verification systems — not just checkboxes, but real barriers that work.
Fifth and last, my government will work with our public prosecutor to investigate and pursue the infringement committed by Grok, TikTok, and Instagram.
You've heard of Stephen Miller. Where did he come from? And how much power does this unelected white nationalist really have? Even more than you'd think.
In “Reading Russia Weekend Extra”: news about Russia’s economy, an interview with a newspaper chief, plus details of our film for BBC Panorama: ‘Our Man In Moscow’ is on @BBCOne at 8pm on Feb 2nd. Also on @BBCiPlayer
If you haven’t seen this bit from Saturday Night Live from last night yet, you absolutely have to. It’s hilarious and at the same time extremely therapeutic. Even if it’s not real. “DO YOU WANT THIS TO BE REAL?”
Canada isn’t longer than Chile, Europe nearly fits inside Brazil, and Greenland is nowhere near Africa’s size. This is how map projections distort our view of the world.