Podcasts about Venezuela

69 MinutesNSFWThe men minus DE reconvene to talk about our continuing occupation and its consequences.DE's Telegram ChannelFundamental Principles PodcastCharles' Book - The Holistic Guide to SuicideJose's SubstackJose's Venezuela articles on Occidental ObserverJose on unz.comPete and Thomas777 'At the Movies'Support Pete on His WebsitePete's PatreonPete's Substack Pete's SubscribestarPete's GUMROADPete's VenmoPete's Buy Me a CoffeePete on FacebookPete on TwitterBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-pete-quinones-show--6071361/support.

En este episodio, exploramos cómo el país ha pasado de un aislamiento profundo a convertirse nuevamente en el foco de atención de inversionistas y actores geopolíticos internacionales. Analizamos las cifras clave para este año:Crecimiento proyectado del 12%.Impulso del sector petrolero entre 25% y 30%.Desaceleración de la inflación, con una meta cercana al 150% frente al 480% del año anterior.También conversamos sobre la realidad del consumo, el manejo de expectativas frente a los "charlatanes" de redes sociales y los retos estructurales que aún persisten en la economía venezolana.¡Suscríbete y activa la campana!

President Donald J. Trump delivers remarks at the first Shield of the Americas Summit, bringing together heads of state and regional leaders from across the Western Hemisphere to launch a new security and economic partnership focused on combating transnational crime and strengthening cooperation in the region. During the summit, President Trump announces the creation of the America's Counter Cartel Coalition, a multinational military partnership aimed at dismantling violent criminal cartels and terrorist networks operating throughout the hemisphere. Leaders from multiple nations gather to coordinate intelligence, security cooperation, and joint military capabilities designed to confront drug trafficking, human smuggling, and organized crime. The president also discusses broader geopolitical developments, including military operations against Iran, cooperation with regional allies, and recent security actions targeting cartel leadership and criminal networks. Additional remarks highlight U.S. border enforcement progress, international partnerships in Venezuela, and economic agreements related to energy and mineral resources. The summit concludes with the formal signing of a proclamation establishing the coalition, as leaders commit to expanded cooperation to restore law and order, strengthen sovereignty, and promote stability across the Americas.

As seen on Gutfeld!, Trump made some rather interesting comments about Cuba. After Iran and Venezuela, is Cuba the next regime to go? Greg sure hopes so. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

American forces have now hit more than 3,000 targets across Iran, according to U.S. Central Command in an update seven days into the fighting. President Trump spoke by phone with CNN's Dana Bash today, telling her that he must be involved in picking a new leader for Iran, and saying  "It's gonna work very easily. It's going to work like it did in Venezuela." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Jordi Visser is a veteran macro investor with 30+ years of experience and the author of the VisserLabs Substack. In this conversation, we unpack the chaos hitting markets in 2026—from weak jobs data and Fed uncertainty to private credit cracks, AI-driven disruption, and the collapse of old economic playbooks. We also discuss software repricing, energy infrastructure, synthetic media, portfolio positioning, and why Jordi believes bitcoin is the truest AI trade in a world moving faster than ever.======================Need liquidity without selling your crypto? Take out a Figure Crypto-Backed Loan (https://figuremarkets.co/pomp), allowing you to borrow against your BTC, ETH, or SOL with 12-month terms, 8.91% interest rates, and no prepayment penalties. Or check out Democratized Prime (https://figuremarkets.onelink.me/Plnq/pompdp) and earn ~8.5% APY on real world assets, paid hourly. Unlock your crypto's potential today at Figure! https://figuremarkets.co/pomp. Disclosures: Figure Lending LLC dba Figure. Equal Opportunity Lender. NMLS 1717824. Terms and conditions apply.======================This podcast is sponsored by Abra.com. Abra is the secure way to access crypto and crypto based yield and loan products through a separately managed account structure.Learn more at http://www.abra.com.======================Bitget (https://bitget.com/promotion/futures-tradfi?channelCode=regd&vipCode=nkew) is the world's largest Universal Exchange (UEX) (https://bitget.com/promotion/futures-tradfi?channelCode=regd&vipCode=nkew), serving over 125 million users with access to over 2M+ crypto tokens, and TradFi markets such as 100+ tokenized stocks, ETFs, commodities, FX and precious metal like Gold. At launch, users can trade 79 instruments with USDT directly with the App. Users can also enjoy high liquidity and low slippage, while trading these assets with up to 500x leverage. For more information on Bitget TradFi, visit this article (https://bitget.com/support/articles/12560603846859). For more information, visit: Website (https://bitget.com/) | Twitter (https://x.com/bitget) | Telegram (https://t.me/BitgetENOfficial) | LinkedIn (https://linkedin.com/company/bitget-global/) | Discord (https://discord.com/invite/bitget)For media inquiries, please contact: media@bitget.com======================Arch Public is an agentic trading platform that automates the buying and selling of your preferred crypto strategies. Sign up today at https://www.archpublic.com and start your automated trading strategy for free. No catch. No hidden fees. Just smarter trading.======================0:00 - Intro0:53 - The current state of the U.S. economy5:18 - Does the jobs report force the Fed to cut rates?8:28 - How do the Iran, Venezuela, & Cuba situations end?14:00 - Is the speed of military & government action changing?19:12 - What is happening in private credit right now?25:04 - Should investors run toward distressed private credit or avoid it?28:47 What happens to a traditional 60/40 portfolio over the next decade?32:27 -  Is Jordi still bullish on energy infrastructure & power demand?35:37 - What Jordi's AI setup looks like43:13- How will AI-generated content & synthetic media change content creation?49:50 - When will society normalize humans working alongside AI assistants?52:20 - Is Jordi nervous or excited for rest of 2026?

Ralph welcomes sociologist and historian Behrooz Ghamari-Tabrizi to discuss the United States' war of aggression on Iran.Behrooz Ghamari-Tabrizi is an Iranian-born American historian and sociologist. He is a Research Fellow at the Center for Place, Culture, and Politics at the CUNY Graduate Center. He was the Chair of the Department of Near Eastern Studies and Director of the Sharmin and Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Iran and Persian Gulf Studies at Princeton University. He is the author of four books on different aspects and historical context of the Iranian revolution of 1979 and its aftermath.The only countries that I see that are in constant violation of international law is the United States and Israel. And frankly, I am speechless, although I'm speaking, but I am speechless—in what universe can this war be justified as self-defense? You listened to Secretary Rubio's speech in Munich where he laments 400 years of colonial rule being lost to this international law and laws of fighting wars because they want to go back to the way things were in the 18th and 19th century. This is a naked expansionist, extortionist administration here, and that's the only reason they have launched this war, and there is absolutely no justification for it.Behrooz Ghamari-TabriziFor years and years, the Israelis have been assassinating Iranian scientists. They were sabotaging Iranian industries. And actually, the Iranian government showed tremendous restraint in responding to these Israeli provocations because they didn't want to create the situation in which we find ourselves today. But then at the end of the day, calling Iran the aggressor here I think is a total ignorance of history and the context in which this war has started.Behrooz Ghamari-TabriziAll these things are not to suggest that the Iranian government in any form or shape is a democratic and just state. But the question here is about the sovereignty of the Iranian state. And the only inheritance of the revolution that has been kept throughout these forty-odd years was the question of sovereignty. Because that was one of the demands of the revolution. The question of social justice was thrown out of the window after the revolution. The question of civil liberties was thrown out of the window after the revolution. The only thing that is left is Iranian sovereignty. And according to every single intelligence study, what Iranians do outside their borders is a defensive posture. Iran does not have an expansionist agenda.Behrooz Ghamari-TabriziNews 3/6/26* Last week, Bill and Hillary Clinton testified before the House Oversight Committee on their respective relationships with financier and sexual predator, Jeffrey Epstein. Hillary Clinton, in a deposition described as contentious, maintained that she had virtually zero connections with Epstein, stating at one point “I am so tired of answering that question,” per PBS. Former President Bill Clinton meanwhile, tried to downplay his relationship with Epstein, describing it as “cordial,” and claiming that he had come to an arrangement with Epstein where the financier provided his private jet for humanitarian trips in exchange for Clinton discussing politics and economics with him. The committee pressed Clinton on this point, noting that Epstein visited the White House numerous times during Clinton's presidency and that there are photos of the two men shaking hands. Clinton told lawmakers he “did not recall those interactions.” These answers leave much to be desired.* Meanwhile, another Epstein associate occupies the Oval Office today – Donald Trump – and on February 26th the Wall Street Journal reported that the Department of Justice, under the stewardship of Attorney General Pam Bondi, has been withholding interviews with a woman who accused President Donald Trump of sexual assault back in the 1980s. As the Journal writes, the suppression of this interview “raises new questions about the Justice Department's handling of the Epstein files release and the pages that have been kept private.” The Journal adds that “Trump officials initially opposed the release of the files and then fumbled their response, including inconsistent redactions that exposed dozens of Epstein victims and initially kept some prominent men's names hidden.” However, on March 5th, POLITICO reported that the FBI has now published a trio of FBI interviews with the woman who accused the president of sexually assaulting her in collusion with Jeffrey Epstein. Trump and his allies categorically deny any wrongdoing on the part of the president, with White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt calling the allegations “completely baseless…backed by zero credible evidence, from a sadly disturbed woman who has an extensive criminal history.” This story also highlights what is sure to be the next flashpoint in this saga: on Wednesday, a House committee voted to subpoena Attorney General Pam Bondi to testify about her handling of the Epstein files.* Turning to media news, last week we covered how Paramount-Skydance, led by the Ellison family and backed by the Trump administration, outmaneuvered Netflix to close a deal acquiring Warner Bros. Discovery – including CNN. Throughout this process, many have raised the alarm that if the Ellisons were to get their hands on CNN, they would turn it over to their ideological attack dog, Bari Weiss, as they did with CBS News. Variety is now echoing those concerns, reporting that “It's expected that Weiss will have a big role in steering CNN.” Just what exactly this role will be remains to be seen, but given her tenure as editor-in-chief of CBS News, there is much cause for concern.* In related news, Variety reports Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav has filed to sell 4,004,149 shares – over $114 million worth of stock – in the company following the announcement of the sale to Paramount, including Paramount's eye-popping offer of $31 per share. Zaslav retains additional stock and options which he could cash out as the deal moves forward. Curiously, even as the Trump administration backed the Paramount buyout over the Netflix deal, the president himself continues to bank on the fiscal stability of the streaming giant, with the Hollywood Reporter documenting that Trump bought between $600,000 and $1.25 million worth of Netflix debt in January, adding to the $500,000 to $1 million in Netflix bonds that he purchased in December. This story notes that while the Netflix-Warner deal fell through, Netflix walked away with a $2.8 billion “break-up fee,” and an investment grade credit rating, unlike both WBD and Paramount.* Looking at domestic politics, this week primaries were held in Texas and North Carolina which yielded the nomination of James Talarico in Texas, beating out Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett for the Democratic nod, and the razor thin victory of incumbent Valerie Foushee over her progressive challenger Nida Allam in the Durham-Chapel Hill region. But many more primary battles lay ahead, perhaps the most interesting of which is unfolding in Maine, where the Bernie Sanders-backed veteran-turned-oysterman Graham Platner is duking it out with Chuck Schumer's preferred candidate, outgoing Governor Janet Mills. Platner, despite damaging stories, has continued to draw massive crowds and enjoys a huge polling advantage. Last week, Platner's allies, led by United Autoworkers President Shawn Fain, staged a sort of intervention with Schumer, with Fain lambasting the “shortcomings” in Democratic leaders' approach to the 2026 midterms, “particularly their failure to adequately listen to working-class voters.” Michael Monahan, a high-level official in the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, also sent a letter to the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee strongly urging the DSCC to “refrain from intervening further in [the Maine] primary.” A mid-February independent poll found Platner with a 38-point lead over Mills among likely Democratic primary voters, yet the party continues to back Mills to the hilt. This from NBC.* Our remaining stories this week concern foreign affairs. First, in South Africa, it seems the forces of the Left are looking to pool their support by entering into a political alliance. According to TimesLIVE, a prominent South African online newspaper, the country's largest standalone Left party, the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) has convened with the South African Communist Party (SACP) to discuss such an electoral pact. The SACP has long participated in a tripartite alliance with the African National Congress party (ANC), which has ruled South Africa since the end of Apartheid, but recently announced they would contest elections independently. The EFF and SACP emphasized that their priorities align on the “deep crises confronting South Africa: de-industrialisation, austerity-driven fiscal consolidation, collapsing energy security, mass unemployment, and extreme poverty.”* In another major political realignment, the Green Party of England and Wales is surging as the Labour Party, under the centrist leadership of Prime Minister Keir Starmer, continues to lose ground to the Nigel Farage-led far right party, Reform UK. The rise of the Green Party has been bubbling for some time, as progressive voters feel betrayed by Labour and the momentum behind Jeremy Corbyn's “Your Party” has fizzled, but the first major test occurred recently in the Labour stronghold riding of Groton and Denton in Greater Manchester. According to the BBC, this marks the first ever win for the Greens in a by-election, with 34-year-old plumber Hannah Spencer becoming the party's first ever MP in northern England. Reform ran second, with Labour dropping by 25% into third place. Moreover, Zeteo reports the Greens have leapfrogged ahead of Labour in national polling, second only to Reform and has become the single most popular party among voters under 50. For the past five months, the Greens have been led by self-described “eco-populist” Zack Polanski, and have espoused policies including giving councils the power to control rents, extending free school meals to all children, and imposing a new ‘wealth tax' on assets above £10m.* In Congress, Representative Ro Khanna has introduced the West Bank Human Rights Resolution to Condemn Israeli Settlement Expansion. This resolution is described as utilizing far more specific language to condemn “Israeli settler violence and referencing potential sanctions tools while also calling for a review of US policies that may indirectly subsidise settlement activity,” per the Middle East Eye. In part, this resolution is a response to the Israeli government's February 8th approval of “sweeping changes to land registration and civil control in Areas A and B of the West Bank, which Palestinians say breach the Oslo Accords and advance de facto annexation.” This resolution was drafted in conjunction with Cameron Kasky, the survivor of the 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting who has become a leading activist on rights for Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. In a statement upon the introduction of this resolution, Kasky wrote “this is a necessary measure for Democrats and Republicans to unite behind the upholding of international law. Democrats and Republicans can agree that U.S. taxpayer money being used to subsidize the violation of international law is an outrage.”* Our final two stories concern the U.S. attacks on Iran. First, a bizarre sequence of conflicting claims between the U.S. and Spain have left many observers puzzled. First, on March 3rd, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez addressed the Iberian nation, saying “Very often great wars start with a chain of events spiralling out of control due to miscalculations, technical failures, and unforeseen circumstances. Therefore, we must learn from history and cannot play Russian roulette with the fate of millions.” Sánchez warned of “repeating the mistakes of the past,” and drew a comparison with the invasion of Iraq, concluding his government's position is “No to war,” per CNBC. More pointedly, the Spanish government prevented two jointly operated bases in its territory from being used in the strikes on Iran. Trump responded on the 4th by vowing to cut off all trade with Madrid, saying “Spain has been terrible…We don't want anything to do with Spain.” Then, on March 5th, Karoline Leavitt told the press that “With respect to Spain, I think they heard the president's message yesterday loud and clear, and it's my understanding, over the past several hours, they've agreed to cooperate with the U.S. military.” Yet, the Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares immediately responded that “The Spanish government's position on the war in the Middle East ... and the use of our bases has not changed at all.” This also from CNBC. Trump's threat to cut off trade with Spain would be difficult to follow through on, given that the 27 nations in the European Union negotiate trade agreements collectively,* Finally, far from assuaging concerns about the attacks on Iran leading to blowback, the Hill reports that, when asked during a phone call with Time magazine about whether Americans should be worried about a potential strike on the homeland, Trump replied, “I guess.” Trump went on to say “We think about it all the time. We plan for it. But yeah…we expect some things…some people will die. When you go to war, some people will die.” Stunningly, despite Trump openly declaring that we are at war with Iran sans congressional authorization and even casually admitting Americans could be killed on home soil, the feckless Congress has voted down War Powers resolutions in the House and Senate. In the upper house, the bill introduced by Democratic Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia, failed 47-53, with Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky crossing party lines to support it while Senator John Fetterman of Pennsylvania crossed party lines to vote nay, per the AP. A similar measure in the House, introduced by Reps. Ro Khanna and Thomas Massie – the duo behind the Epstein Files Transparency Act and other war powers resolutions including on Venezuela – failed by a vote of 212-219. In addition to Massie, Republican Rep. Warren Davison of Ohio voted in favor of the resolution, while four House Democrats voted nay, per Axios. Again the question is presented to us, if this won't shock Congress to action, what will?This has been Francesco DeSantis, with In Case You Haven't Heard. Get full access to Ralph Nader Radio Hour at www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/subscribe

The "Yunarmiya" or 'Youth army' is a movement that was founded in January 2016 by the Russian government. In total, more than 1.8 million children in Russia have joined the movement. As of May 2025, more than 120,000 Youth Army graduates served in the Russian army and other security forces. The Youth Army is also actively recruting Ukrainian children in occupied regions of the country. This began in parts of Ukraine even before Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022, in places like Crimea and Donbas. The children are taught to sing the Russian national anthem; kiss the Russian flag; dig trenches and handle guns. Zhanna Bezpiatchuk of BBC Ukrainian has been looking into how these Youth Armies operate in occupied regions of Ukraine. Simon Bolivar was a nineteenth century soldier and statesman who led six countries - Venezuela, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia and Panama - to independence from the Spanish empire and earned himself the title of ‘El Libertador', the liberator. He left a huge legacy in South America and is still considered by many as a revolutionary hero. Growing up in Venezuela, Juan Alosno of BBC Mundo was very familiar with Bolivar's mythology, because it was taught to him in school. Even as a child, there were a couple of details that just didn't stack up for him.... so he set out to investigate. At the end of January this year, 6 people were caned in public for violating Sharia law in Aceh, Indonesia. Caning is a common punishment for breaking Islamic law in religiously conservative Aceh, although the practice has drawn criticism from rights groups who say it's cruel. Aceh has a unique identity within Indonesia, and is the only part of the country to practice Sharia. Astudestra Ajengrastri of BBC Indonesian explains Aceh's history and why it chooses to be different from the rest of Indonesia. This episode of The Documentary comes to you from The Fifth Floor, the show at the heart of global storytelling, with BBC journalists from all around the world. Presented by Faranak Amidi. Produced by Laura Thomas and Caroline Ferguson(Photo: Faranak Amidi. Credit: Tricia Yourkevich.)

Cuidado con las batatas y a subirse a la moto.

Cuba is facing the greatest existential threat it has seen in decades. Trash is filling streets, because garbage trucks can't make the rounds. Rolling blackouts, rising food prices and cuts to transportation, university classes, and hospitals amid a gas shortage, the likes of which the country hasn't seen in years.US President Donald Trump, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and other officials have made it clear that they aren't interested in anything less than regime change. And they're going after that goal full throttle. The United States is now imposing an oil blockade on the island nation that is pushing it to the brink – and hitting its most vulnerable residents the hardest.In this episode, we look at Cuba, the history of the more than 65-year-old US embargo on Cuba and Trump's actions, which are pushing the country to the brink.This is Episode 7 of Under the Shadow, Season 2.Under the Shadow is an investigative narrative podcast series that walks back in time, telling the story of the past by visiting momentous places in the present. Season 2 responds in real time to the Trump administration's onslaught on Latin America.Hosted by Latin America-based journalist Michael Fox.Many thanks to Belly of the Beast for the interview with Liz Oliva Fernandez and the use of the sound from several of their videos.This podcast is produced in partnership between The Real News Network and NACLA.Theme music by Michael Fox's band, Monte Perdido. Monte Perdido's 2024 album Ofrenda is available on Spotify, Deezer, Apple Music, YouTube or wherever you listen to music.Other music from Blue Dot Sessions.Guests: Liz Oliva Fernandez with Belly of the BeastCamila PineiroMedea Benjamin with Code PinkPeter Kornbluh with National Security ArchivesGreg Wilpert, founder of VenezuelanalysisScript editing by Heather Gies. Hosted, written, produced, mixed and edited by Michael Fox.Resources Please visit Belly of the Beast for their excellent coverage of the situation in Cuba. You can see a copy of the Mallory Memo on the National Security Archive's website: https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/cuba/2022-02-02/cuba-embargoed-us-trade-sanctions-turn-sixty This is the 1960 document that created the justification for the Eisenhower's first sanctions on Cuba. Here is the link to Peter Kornbluh's co-authored book, Back Channel to Cuba: The Hidden History of Negotiations between Washington and Havana https://www.amazon.com/Back-Channel-Cuba-Negotiations-Washington-ebook/dp/B00W1VH9LETo get involved in the flotilla to carry aid to Cuba this month, you can find out more on the Code Pink website, here: https://www.codepink.org/convergecubaUnder the Shadow, Season 1: You can check out the first season of Under the Shadow by clicking hereThe Beginning: Monroe and migration | Under the Shadow, Episode 1Panama. US Invasion. | Under the Shadow, Episode 13The legacy of Monroe | Under the Shadow, Bonus Episode 4 Michael Fox's recent reporting on the boat strikes and the ramp-up for war in Venezuela: With the strike on a ‘drug-carrying boat,' Trump returns to a dangerous US policy for Latin AmericaCaribbean leaders call for unified Latin American resistance to US attacksTrump's Monroe Doctrine 2.0 outlines imperial intentions for Latin AmericaYou can check out Michael's recent episode of Stories of Resistance about the protests against US intervention in Venezuela.NACLA's Curated Guide to the US Attack on Venezuela Truthout's ongoing reporting on War and Peace and the US invasion of VenezuelaVisit TRNN for all of TRNN's coverage on this and so much morePlease consider supporting this podcast and Michael Fox's reporting on his Patreon account: patreon.com/mfox. There you can also see exclusive pictures, video, and interviews.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-real-news-podcast--2952221/support.Help us continue producing radically independent news and in-depth analysis by following us and becoming a monthly sustainer.Follow us on:Bluesky: @therealnews.comFacebook: The Real News NetworkTwitter: @TheRealNewsYouTube: @therealnewsInstagram: @therealnewsnetworkBecome a member and join the Supporters Club for The Real News Podcast today!

SummaryClayton Cuteri traces the full chain of events that led to the current U.S. war with Iran, starting with Britain's control of Iranian oil in 1901 through Operation Ajax in 1953, the hostage crisis, the Iran-Iraq war, Clinton-era sanctions, and the JCPOA nuclear deal that was working until Trump withdrew in 2018. Clayton lays out exactly how this single decision triggered Iran's nuclear escalation, Israel's Operation Rising Lion, the assassination of Ayatollah Khamenei, and a war that has killed over 1,300 Iranians and 165 schoolgirls in a precision airstrike. Clayton exposes the real motivations behind the war: the petrodollar system and Iran's financial independence from the IMF and Western banking. He reveals the pattern connecting Iraq, Libya, Venezuela, and now Iran as countries targeted after abandoning the U.S. dollar for oil trade. The episode closes with a powerful spiritual framework connecting Israel's past-based thinking, Trump's future-based fear, and the only real solution: present-moment consciousness.BONUS: Clayton discusses some Indigo Education knowledge.Clayton's NewsletterJoin HereClayton's Social Media LinkTree | Instagram | X (Twitter) | YouTube | Rumble | FaceBookTimecodes 00:00 - Intro 01:53 - How Britain Stole Iran's Oil06:00 - The Original Sin: Operation Ajax11:00 - The Hostage Crisis and Reagan18:00 - The JCPOA Deal That Was Working24:00 - Operation Rising Lion and the War30:00 - 165 Schoolgirls Killed in a Precision Strike37:00 - The Petrodollar Pattern They Hide43:00 - Iran vs. the IMF and World Bank53:00 - The Spiritual Framework: Past, Future & PresentIntro/Outro Music Producer: Don Kin Instagram | Spotify Super grateful for this guy ^Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/traveling-to-consciousness-with-clayton-cuteri--6765271/support.Listen to the Podcast AD-FREE HERE for $4.95/monSign Up for my Newsletter HEREALL Indigo Education Podcasts HEREMy Book: The Secret Teachings of Jesus HEREOfficial Traveling to Consciousness Website HERE

On today's episode, we discuss whether some of the wildest headlines in geopolitics and technology could actually be part of a deeper, coordinated plan. Charlotte joins the crew over cups of PJ's Roast 35 to kick around theories about Cuba's collapsing infrastructure, who really benefits from keeping the island poor, and whether the mafia could theoretically run it better. They revisit the recent story of would‑be Cuban “insurgents” in a small boat and use it as a springboard to talk about how quickly certain news items disappear from the cycle. From there, the conversation jumps to reports that China's most advanced weapons underperformed in Venezuela and Iran, fueling Chinese fears that the U.S. might be decades ahead militarily—or even secretly working with extraterrestrials. The panel weighs whether this is clever American psyops or genuine technological leapfrogging, pulling in older examples of autonomous weapons and battlefield robots that run on “organic material.” Throughout, they lace the speculation with humor, pop‑culture references like Get Smart, and plenty of skepticism about what governments and media are really telling us. Don't miss it!

¿Es este el mejor equipo dominicano de la historia? Mientras el Trabuco de RD debuta en Miami con figuras como Juan Soto y Julio Rodríguez, surge una pregunta dolorosa: ¿Por qué no jugamos en casa? En ESTO NO TIENE NOMBRE, analizamos la crisis del Estadio Quisqueya, los detalles del nuevo proyecto en terrenos del Bandex y la baja de Jeremy Peña. Además, la presencia de Luis Abinader en el Clásico y el análisis del Grupo D contra Venezuela. ¡El orgullo está en juego en este 2026!

Hoy nos acompaña una de las voces más fuertes, directas y respetadas del análisis político en Estados Unidos: Ana Navarro. Analista política, inmigrante orgullosa, republicana incómoda para algunos y demócrata sospechosa para otros… pero siempre auténtica. Ana llega al My Cultura Podcast Network con su nuevo podcast “BLEEP”, producido por su amiga Eva Longoria, donde promete conversaciones sin filtros y temas que muchos prefieren evitar. En esta conversación hablamos de: Su nuevo podcast y de qué trata realmente “BLEEP” Si alguna vez se ha sentido censurada en los medios Sus críticas al presidente Donald Trump y si ha temido represalias La polarización política en Estados Unidos Su identidad como republicana y latina El poder político de la comunidad latina Y hasta entramos en el debate viral sobre oler la comida antes de comerla. Además, nos cuenta cómo es ser la única latina en la mesa de The View y cómo maneja el costo personal de decir siempre lo que piensa. Una conversación sin censura… muy estilo Ana Navarro.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Edomex abrirá módulos de vivienda para mujeresMuere joven al caer de juego mecánico en PueblaDelcy Rodríguez agradece reconocimiento de TrumpMás información en nuestro Podcast

Sheinbaum inaugura bachillerato en Ixtapaluca  Morena debate postura ante declaraciones de Trump  EU reconoce al Gobierno de Delcy Rodríguez en Venezuela  Más información en nuestro podcast

Welcome to Episode 146 of Tablesetters, where we cover everything happening across the world of baseball. Tonight's LIVE special follows the opening matchup between Team USA and Brazil as Pool B play begins in Houston at the 2026 World Baseball Classic. We're recording immediately after the final out, breaking down Team USA's 15–5 victory over Brazil — examining pitching usage, lineup construction, key moments, and what the result means for the United States as the tournament begins to take shape. Manager Mark DeRosa entered the tournament with one of the most closely watched pitching plans of any national team. Earlier this week he finalized the United States' rotation structure, beginning with Logan Webb starting tonight's opener against Brazil. Webb has quietly developed into one of the most dependable starters in the National League, built around a heavy sinker that generates ground balls and limits damaging contact. In a condensed international tournament where efficiency can matter as much as dominance, that profile made him a logical choice to anchor the first game of pool play. Behind Webb, the American rotation quickly transitions into two of the most overpowering arms in baseball. Two-time American League Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal is scheduled to take the ball in Game 2 against Great Britain, while reigning National League Cy Young winner Paul Skenes is lined up to face Mexico in Game 3. The fourth game against Italy is currently projected for Nolan McLean, though that plan remains fluid as he continues recovering from a recent illness. The structure of the rotation reflects the unique challenge of the World Baseball Classic. Pitchers must operate under tournament pitch limits while also remaining aligned with their Major League clubs' preparation for Opening Day. DeRosa acknowledged earlier this week that managing those constraints requires balancing competitiveness with long-term health and scheduling realities. Offensively, the American roster remains one of the deepest assembled in international baseball. Team captain Aaron Judge addressed the group before the tournament began, emphasizing the pride associated with representing the United States. The lineup surrounding him features elite star power and positional flexibility, including potential platoon usage in center field between Pete Crow-Armstrong and Byron Buxton. The broader tournament landscape only heightens the significance of tonight's opener. The 2026 World Baseball Classic features 20 national teams competing across Tokyo, San Juan, Houston, and Miami through March 17. Japan enters the tournament as the defending champion after defeating the United States in the 2023 final, while several other nations — including the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, and Puerto Rico — arrive with rosters capable of making deep runs. Tonight was the first step in that journey for the United States — and it ended with a decisive 15–5 opening win.

Discover how the Iran war is impacting oil and gas prices and production, and if we're heading for an energy emergency. Ellen Wald, author of "Saudi Inc.," joins Mike to discuss the short and long-term impact of this war on global energy. SHOW NOTES: 1:00: How Is Saudi ARAMCO Reacting To The Iran War? 3:56: How Long Can the Straight Of Hormuz Remain Paralyzed? 6:55: How Are Asia and Europe Going To Most Impacted By Any Energy Crisis? 9:50: Can Russia Supply China With Enough Oil In The Absence of Iran and Venezuela? 12:58: What Factors Might Spike Oil Prices To $100/barrel? 14:32: How Will OPEC Change If Iran's Government Falls? 17:21: Where Are The Best Oil Reserves In The Middle East?

President Trump fired Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and named Senator Markwayne Mullin as his pick to take over, in the first cabinet shakeup of his second term.The U.S.-Israeli war with Iran is widening again, with Israel striking Beirut's southern suburbs as Lebanon says tens of thousands have been displaced.And two months after U.S. forces seized Venezuela's president, Washington and Caracas are suddenly cutting deals on oil and critical minerals and moving to restore diplomatic relations.Want more analysis of the most important news of the day, plus a little fun? Subscribe to the Up First newsletter.Today's episode of Up First was edited by Anna Yukhananov, Hannah Bloch, Tara Neill, Mohamad ElBardicy and Alice Woelfle.It was produced by Ziad Buchh and Nia Dumas.Our director is Christopher Thomas.We get engineering support from Neisha Heinis. Our technical director is Carleigh Strange.Our Executive Producer is Jay Shaylor.(0:00) Introduction(01:53) Trump Fires Kristi Noem(05:50) Middle East War Latest(09:44) Venezuela-US DiplomacyTo manage podcast ad preferences, review the links below:See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

1. U.S. Military Action & Objectives in Iran The U.S., alongside Israel, has conducted a major military campaign aimed at dismantling Iran’s military capabilities—missiles, drones, and leadership structure. Primary objective: Regime collapse, not a prolonged war. Trump administration views the Iranian regime as a 47‑year sponsor of terrorism and responsible for killing Americans. Intelligence suggested Iran was rapidly scaling missile and drone production, prompting immediate action. The Ayatollah and much of Iran’s security leadership were reportedly eliminated early in the conflict. 2. Nuclear & Terror Concerns Iran previously claimed it had enriched uranium sufficient for 11 nuclear bombs. U.S. officials believed Iran intended to develop and potentially use nuclear weapons. Iran has provided an estimated 90% of funding to Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis over decades. 3. Impact on China via Oil Disruption Iran historically sent 87% of its oil exports to China; Venezuela sent ~55%. U.S. actions against both nations’ regimes have significantly disrupted China’s energy supply chain. 4. Shake-Up at the Department of Homeland Security President Trump removed Christy Noem as DHS Secretary. Replacement: Sen. Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma. Noem faced backlash during Senate questioning—especially from Sen. John Kennedy—regarding: $220M in DHS-funded TV ads featuring her Possible improper contracting Claims that Trump approved the campaign (which he denied) Her testimony was viewed as damaging, contributing to her removal. 5. Texas Primary Elections Major developments in several key GOP races: Dan Crenshaw lost his House primary to Steve Toth, receiving criticism for confrontational behavior and losing touch with constituents. Multiple candidates endorsed by Sen. Ted Cruz won their primaries (Jessica Steinman, Chris Gober, John Bank). Texas Senate GOP runoff: John Cornyn vs. Ken Paxton—an expensive, bitter contest. Democratic nominee: James Talarico—portrayed as ideologically extreme but rhetorically moderate, making him a potentially formidable opponent. Please Hit Subscribe to this podcast Right Now. Also Please Subscribe to the 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson and The Ben Ferguson Show Podcast Wherever You get You're Podcasts. And don't forget to follow the show on Social Media so you never miss a moment! Thanks for Listening YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@VerdictwithTedCruz/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/verdictwithtedcruz X: https://x.com/tedcruz X: https://x.com/benfergusonshowYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@VerdictwithTedCruzSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On Thursday's Mark Levin Show, WREC's Ben Ferguson fills in for Mark. A recent poll revealed strong public support for strict immigration enforcement despite media and Democratic opposition. 57% of Americans favor deporting all illegal immigrants, including 79% of Republicans, 54% of independents, and a notable 35% of Democrats. The poll underscores that Americans prioritize a secure border, law and order, and reducing the impacts of illegal immigration on jobs, housing costs, and public resources. This is as evidence that Democratic and media efforts to portray enforcement actions inhumane have failed. President Trump has a clear mandate for to continue border security and deportation policies. Also, American forces have now sunk or destroyed over 30 Iranian ships and over 200 targets have been struck in 72 hours. The U.S. is systematically dismantling Iran's ballistic missile production capabilities and has already destroyed much of their air defenses, while Iran's ballistic missile attacks have dropped 90% and drone attacks 83% since the operation began, leaving Iran in panic mode. Trump's military strike on Iran has delivered a significant economic blow to China by disrupting its critical oil supplies. Almost all of Iran's exported oil and more than half of Venezuela's went directly to China last year. Later, Trump announced that he is replacing Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem with Senator Markwayne Mullin, effective March 31st.  Despite her accomplishments on the border, her controversies led to her being the first cabinet official removed. Afterward, Barack Obama urged Virginians to vote yes on a ballot measure to amend the state's constitution, allowing temporary redrawing of congressional districts ahead of the midterms.  Obama frames this as a necessary response to Republican-led mid-decade redistricting in other states that allegedly gives them unfair advantages. This is hypocritical gerrymandering by Democrats, who are masters of the practice but now accuse Republicans of it, motivated by fear of Trump's popularity and aimed at preventing Republicans from holding the House. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Last Friday, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announced that he was breaking the Pentagon's contract with the A.I. company Anthropic and would declare the company a supply chain risk — a designation for companies so dangerous, they can't exist anywhere in the U.S. military supply chain. What makes this so wild is the military is still using Anthropic's A.I. system right now. They reportedly used it during the raid to capture Maduro in Venezuela, and are now using it in the war in Iran. This story raises so many questions: Why does the government think Anthropic is so dangerous? How exactly is the government using A.I. right now? How do they want to use A.I.? And who should ultimately control this powerful and uncertain technology? Dean Ball is a senior fellow at the Foundation for American Innovation and the author of the newsletter Hyperdimensional. He served as a senior policy adviser on A.I. for the Trump White House and was the primary staff writer of their A.I. action plan. But he's been furious at the Trump administration for how it has been handling the conflict with Anthropic. So I wanted to have him on the show to explain why. Mentioned: “Hyperdimensional" by Dean Ball “What if Dario Amodei Is Right About A.I.?” The Ezra Klein Show “Stratechery” by Ben Thompson Book Recommendations: Rationalism in Politics and Other Essays by Michael Oakeshott Empire Of Liberty by Gordon S. Wood Roll, Jordan, Roll by Eugene D. Genovese Thoughts? Guest suggestions? Email us at ezrakleinshow@nytimes.com. You can find transcripts (posted midday) and more episodes of “The Ezra Klein Show” at nytimes.com/ezra-klein-podcast, and you can find Ezra on Twitter @ezraklein. Book recommendations from all our guests are listed at https://www.nytimes.com/article/ezra-klein-show-book-recs. This episode of “The Ezra Klein Show” was produced by Rollin Hu. Fact-checking by Michelle Harris with Kate Sinclair and Mary Marge Locker. Our senior engineer is Jeff Geld, with additional mixing by Aman Sahota. Our executive producer is Claire Gordon. The show's production team also includes Marie Cascione, Annie Galvin, Kristin Lin, Emma Kehlbeck, Jack McCordick, Marina King and Jan Kobal. Original music by Pat McCusker. Audience strategy by Kristina Samulewski and Shannon Busta. The director of New York Times Opinion Audio is Annie-Rose Strasser. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Israel and the United States have continued their heavy attacks on Tehran and other cities across Iran, while Israel has stepped up its bombing of Lebanon.Also in the programme:  a report from Caracas as the US Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum became the latest senior American official to visit Venezuela; and we hear from a youth mentor in Haiti's gang-ravaged capital Port-au-Prince, whose film has just won a best documentary award.(Photo: US-Israeli attacks continue in Iran amid escalating conflict, Tehran on 6 March 2026. Credit: Abedin Taherkenareh/EPA/Shutterstock)

Plus: The U.S. and Venezuela restart diplomatic relations with the aim of promoting the country's economic recovery And investors wait on the latest U.S. jobs numbers. Luke Vargas hosts. Sign up for WSJ's free What's News newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

During an exclusive interview with White House Bureau Chief Dasha Burns, President Donald Trump made clear that his administration wants to be involved in selecting new leadership for Iran. During a lengthy conversation, Trump weighed in on the still-unfolding situation in Iran, Venezuela and Cuba — among other things. Playbook's Adam Wren and Dasha break down what Trump's latest comments mean. Plus, the Zohran Mamdani manifesto is going global.

Day 7 on Iran, and just as Venezuela wasn't about fentanyl, cocaine or even ultimately about oil, much the same can be said of U.S. actions in the Persian Gulf. We are witnessing is another milestone in Trump's bold global re-set. Naysayers, such as Sarah McBride of Delaware, offer no insight into the big picture.

The World Baseball Classic kicks into high gear today with eight games, including Team USA's tournament opener against Brazil at 8 p.m. ET on FOX and the first contests for the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Puerto Rico and Venezuela among others. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

030626 Scott Adams Show, Iran, Hormuz, and the Price of Oil, Noem Out, Venezuela Restored, Orban Zelenskyy Feud

Iran’s war with the US and Israel continues to escalate as Venezuela appears to normalise relations with the Trump administration. Plus: Madrid’s week of art and design, and Paris’s week of fashion.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Donald Trump has long sought, and earned, the title of peacemaker. Unfortunately, history's replete with treaties, accords and deals that failed to produce real and enduring ends to various conflicts. Our president is in the process of achieving a descriptor that is much more rare, and of far greater consequence: “Trump the Liberator.” While still very much a work in progress, the changes he has wrought in Venezuela and those now taking shape in the wake of his partnership with Israel in dismantling the Iranian regime holds the promise of freeing more people than anyone since Ronald Reagan. The Venezuelan opposition is now increasingly operating openly. The Lebanese government is publicly declaring it will defang Hezbollah. And Mr. Trump's announced intention to play a role in selecting the next leader of Iran are all indicators of very promising – and liberating – trends.  Let's roll. This is Frank Gaffney.  

Corte Interamericana insta a regular venta de armasCine Cosmos cumple cinco años con más de 60 talleres gratuitosE U y Venezuela reanudan vínculos diplomáticos Más información en nuestro Podcast

www.commsolutionsmn.com- It's election season again. As we came through the caucuses, it began to show us who the serious contenders are. Lisa Demuth, Kendall Qualls, and Mike Lindell rose to the top for the Republican candidates for governor. One of the three comes out of political circles, while the other two (Qualls and Lindell) are outsiders. Meanwhile on the Democrat side, Amy Klobuchar was beat by "uncertain". On the Senate side, Michelle Tafoya seems to be the one to beat as she has the name recognition and the ability to get national attention and money. Angie Craig and Peggy Flannagan in a heated battle for the Dems, but both are pretty weak candidates. Despite all of the craziness in Minnesota, our President has been on a roll, giving a masterclass in how to take down a looming showdown between fascist powers in the west and communist powers in the east and reframing the entire plans to carve up the globe between them. As President Trump has implemented tariffs upon nations to get better deals, we have seen billions of dollars come in and businesses return to the United States. He went to the World Economic Forum and told them exactly how things were going to be: no more cafe standards, no more EV mandates... and Greenland. Greenland is mineral-rich and pivotal in the defense of North America. The president has been out front in his desire for it and walks away from the WEF with a deal to get what he really wanted the whole time. His "Donroe Doctrine" is reordering the western hemisphere, as China has been kicked out of Panama, Maduro (who was posing as the leader of Venezuela after losing the election) has been arrested in an amazing military action, and Cuba is on the brink of collapse. We are watching the reordering of the world powers right before our eyes. What was looking like the susnset of the American experiment, is now looking like it will be a major world power going into the next phase of human history. Let's hope that for the first time ever, a nation in decline can turn it around and be better than it was before.

In this episode of The President's Daily Brief: First up — Iran may be looking for a way out. Reports say Iranian intelligence quietly reached out to the CIA through a third country to explore possible talks about ending the war. But is the White House answering the call? President Trump says it may already be “too late” for negotiations. Later in the show — tensions remain high in the Strait of Hormuz as the White House considers deploying U.S. naval escorts to protect oil tankers moving through the critical shipping lane. Plus — the United States opens a new front in the fight against drug traffickers, launching joint military operations in Ecuador targeting criminal groups now labeled as terrorist organizations. And in today's Back of the Brief — Washington turns up the pressure on Venezuela as the Trump administration reportedly prepares a criminal indictment against the country's interim leader, Delcy Rodriguez. To listen to the show ad-free, become a premium member of The President's Daily Brief by visiting https://PDBPremium.com. Please remember to subscribe if you enjoyed this episode of The President's Daily Brief. YouTube: youtube.com/@presidentsdailybrief Trust & Will: Estate planning doesn't have to be complicated—create your will or trust online in minutes with Trust & Will and get 20% off at https://trustandwill.com/PDB   DeleteMe: Get 20% off your DeleteMe plan when you go to https://joindeleteme.com/PDB  and use promo code PDB at checkout. Acre Gold: Start building physical gold with simple monthly payments and enter to win two Ancient Collection gold bars at https://GetAcreGold.com/PDB   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

-Democrats get roasted for refusing to cheer the Iran operation, with Rob arguing they'd rather complain than say anything positive about the U.S. military. -Newsmax hotline guest Gordon G. Chang explains how U.S. actions against Iran and Venezuela could cripple China's cheap-oil supply and accelerate the possible collapse of China's economy. Today's podcast is sponsored by : WEBROOT : No more stress over data breaches, scammers, identity theft, or accidental file deletion. With Webroot Total Protection, your entire digital life is protected by one subscription. Get 60% off now at http://Webroot.com/Newsmax BIRCH GOLD - Protect and grow your retirement savings with gold. Text ROB to 98 98 98 for your FREE information kit! To call in and speak with Rob Carson live on the show, dial 1-800-922-6680 between the hours of 12 Noon and 3:00 pm Eastern Time Monday through Friday…E-mail Rob Carson at : RobCarsonShow@gmail.com Musical parodies provided by Jim Gossett (http://patreon.com/JimGossettComedy) Listen to Newsmax LIVE and see our entire podcast lineup at http://Newsmax.com/Listen Make the switch to NEWSMAX today! Get your 15 day free trial of NEWSMAX+ at http://NewsmaxPlus.com Looking for NEWSMAX caps, tees, mugs & more? Check out the Newsmax merchandise shop at : http://nws.mx/shop Follow NEWSMAX on Social Media:  -Facebook: http://nws.mx/FB  -X/Twitter: http://nws.mx/twitter -Instagram: http://nws.mx/IG -YouTube: https://youtube.com/NewsmaxTV -Rumble: https://rumble.com/c/NewsmaxTV -TRUTH Social: https://truthsocial.com/@NEWSMAX -GETTR: https://gettr.com/user/newsmax -Threads: http://threads.net/@NEWSMAX  -Telegram: http://t.me/newsmax  -BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/newsmax.com -Parler: http://app.parler.com/newsmax Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With Trump's actions in Venezuela and Iran, many right-wing commentators, like my BlazeTV colleague John Doyle, are asking if we should embrace the idea of American empire. This is a critical discussion and a topic that I have invested a lot of time understanding. I respond to the notion that America should expand its role as the global hegemon and provide some alternative models for imperial political structures. Support me and this channel by subscribing to BlazeTV Today and Get $20 off your annual subscription: https://blazetv.com/Auron Follow on: Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-auron-macintyre-show/id1657770114 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3S6z4LBs8Fi7COupy7YYuM?si=4d9662cb34d148af Substack: https://auronmacintyre.substack.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/AuronMacintyre Gab: https://gab.com/AuronMacIntyre YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/c/AuronMacIntyre Rumble: https://rumble.com/c/c-390155 Odysee: https://odysee.com/@AuronMacIntyre:f Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/auronmacintyre/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

From space lasers taking out ballistic missiles to shocking crimes in sanctuary cities, today's episode exposes how modern military tech and political decisions collide with public safety. We break down the latest on U.S. Space Force directed energy weapons, Iran and Israel missile strikes, and a deadly incident in Fairfax, Virginia involving an illegal immigrant with a long criminal record. Episode Summary Today's show spans cutting-edge military tech, U.S. foreign operations, and domestic policy failures. Directed Energy & Space Force: Lasers from U.S. Space Force are now operational, tracking missile launches from Iran via infrared signatures. Over 200 Iranian ballistic missiles have reportedly been destroyed, along with dozens of launchers. Israel has similar technology. Precision strikes and next-generation space targeting are changing modern warfare, making conventional attacks less relevant. Trump's Calculus & Shock & Awe: Insights from interviews with Jonathan Carroll and John Carroll reveal how these technologies influence U.S. strategy in Iran and Venezuela, including the high-risk operation to extract Nicholas Maduro with minimal troops. Sanctuary City Tragedy: Back home, a shocking case in Fairfax, Virginia saw Stephanie Minter, 41, fatally stabbed by Abdul Jala, an illegal immigrant with over 30 prior arrests and a final deportation order ignored by local authorities. The incident raises questions about sanctuary city policies and ICE cooperation, highlighted by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security press release. National Immigration Impact: Thousands of noncitizens with convictions for murder or sexual assault are reportedly released into the U.S., according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Investigative reporting reveals how even convicted sex offenders are released under federal policies, emphasizing gaps in safety and enforcement. Health & Addiction Update: New studies suggest popular weight-loss drugs may have unexpected benefits in addiction treatment, potentially helping those with alcohol or drug dependence. Today's episode exposes the intersection of advanced military technology, immigration policy, and public safety, asking Americans: who really has your protection in this country? Key Topics U.S. Space Force & directed energy weapons Missile defense in Iran and Israel Nicholas Maduro extraction operation Sanctuary city policy and Fairfax, Virginia murder case ICE detainers and enforcement failures (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) Federal & state conflicts over immigration law Weight-loss drugs and addiction treatment

It's day 6 of Operation Epic Fury, Secretary Hegseth made it abundantly clear this is not a forever war. President Trump's approval rating is at 86% among Republicans, higher than any president has gotten from their base at this point in a presidency. Connecting the dots from Venezuela to Iran puts China in the direct spotlight. President Trump has put a stranglehold on China's oil supply now that he has taken out two of their greatest allies. Will this combined with tariffs and our negotiation tactics bring China to the table for a deal in the future? Persians and Iranians are celebrating all over the world and Democrats TDS is on full display. Our all star panel is here to unpack it all... PLUS winners and losers! Featuring: Elizabeth Pipko Media Commentator, Former GOP National Spokesperson https://x.com/elizabethpipko Jessica Anderson President | Sentinel Action Fund https://x.com/JessAnderson2 John Bachman Host | John Bachman Now https://x.com/JohnFBachman Get your copy of John's new book here: https://a.co/d/09IwAtnH Today's show is sponsored by: Patriot Mobile - PatriotMobile.com/SPICER for 1 free month Take a stand for faith, family, and freedom—switch to Patriot Mobile. Patriot Mobile provides PREMIUM service on all three major U.S. networks.  Patriot Mobile has the same or even better coverage, backed by 100% U.S.-based customer support. Get unlimited data plans, mobile hotspots, international roaming, and more with Patriot Mobile. Take a stand as a PATRIOT by going to ⁠https://PatriotMobile.com/SPICER⁠ or call 972-PATRIOT for a FREE month! Beam - shopbeam.com/SPICER to receive 40% off your order Are you tossing and turning at night and running on fumes during the day? If so, then you are missing out on the most important part of your wellness, sleep. If you want to wake up refreshed, inspired and ready to take on the day then you have to try Beam's Dream powder. This best-selling blend of Reishi, Magnesium, L-Theanine, Apigenin and Melatonin will help you fall asleep, stay asleep, and wake up refreshed. So if you're ready for the best night of sleep you ever had just head to https://shopbeam.com/SPICER to receive 40% off your order. ------------------------------------------------------------- 1️⃣ Subscribe and ring the bell for new videos: https://youtube.com/seanmspicer?sub_confirmation=1 2️⃣ Become a part of The Sean Spicer Show community: https://www.seanspicer.com/ 3️⃣ Listen to the full audio show on all platforms: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-sean-spicer-show/id1701280578 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/32od2cKHBAjhMBd9XntcUd iHeart: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/269-the-sean-spicer-show-120471641/ 4️⃣ Stay in touch with Sean on social media: Facebook: https://facebook.com/seanmspicer Twitter: https://twitter.com/seanspicer Instagram: https://instagram.com/seanmspicer/ 5️⃣ Follow The Sean Spicer Show on social media: Facebook: https://facebook.com/seanspicershow Twitter: https://twitter.com/seanspicershow Instagram: https://instagram.com/seanspicershow Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode features Mark Ungar, a professor of criminal justice and political science at Brooklyn College and the City University of New York. Ungar has written extensively on the rule of law, policing, and human rights in Latin America, and more recently has focused his research on environmental organized crime across the Amazon basin. Ungar notes that environmental organized crime—illegal gold mining, logging, cattle ranching, and land grabbing—has become the third largest criminal enterprise globally and is now deeply intertwined with narcotrafficking operations. Rather than existing as separate phenomena, these activities share infrastructure, routes, and personnel. Criminal networks carrying out environmental organized crime are deeply intertwined with state actors and the legal economy. The nexus involves governors, military officials, environmental ministry personnel, and municipal authorities at multiple levels. Even when good laws exist, implementation remains weak because investigations rarely lead to prosecutions of major figures. The episode turns to Venezuela's Orinoco Mining Arc, a zone covering roughly 12 percent of national territory that then-president Nicolás Maduro established in 2016. Ungar describes it as a "criminal state project" in which the Maduro government effectively legalized destructive extraction in a geologically unique and biodiverse area that includes nature reserves and indigenous territories. The zone is controlled by a confluence of Venezuelan military officials, Colombian armed groups including the ELN and FARC dissidents, Brazilian garimpeiros, and local criminal organizations called sindicatos and pranes. Violence is extreme, and environmental and health consequences are devastating, with ninety percent of pregnant women and schoolchildren showing elevated mercury levels in their blood. Ungar explains how the gold and minerals extracted from this area enter legitimate international markets. Between 2016 and 2021, the Mining Arc generated approximately $2.2 billion in gold revenue, but an estimated 86 percent was mined illegally, and roughly 70 percent was smuggled through shell companies and opaque supply chains. The zone also contains big deposits of coltan, iron, bauxite, and other sought-after minerals. Ungar shares concern about the Trump administration's current approach to Venezuela. While the administration has focused on oil access, counternarcotics, migration, and excluding Chinese influence, there appears to be no priority given to addressing environmental organized crime. Ungar suggests that Washington's willingness to work with the current Venezuelan government—the Maduro regime minus Maduro himself—likely means business as usual for state-sponsored extraction intertwined with organized crime. Consumer countries must stop looking the other way about the origins of products that end up in legitimate commerce.

030526 Scott Adams Show, Trump Iran Venezuela Power Play Exposed China Vulnerabilities

Who dares to make predictions in the current landscape? We do!  Our Predictions are back. Will our track-record continue on a high or will we be fundamentally wrong? Listen in to our Predictions for 2026 Navigation: Intro What will 2026 be all about? AI, AI and … more AI The big Hardware movements Of Start-ups and VCs Regulatory & Geopolitical Headwinds… and the Wars Fintech, Crypto and Frontier Tech Conclusion Our co-hosts: Bertrand Schmitt, Entrepreneur in Residence at Red River West, co-founder of App Annie / Data.ai, business angel, advisor to startups and VC funds, @bschmitt Nuno Goncalves Pedro, Investor, Managing Partner, Founder at Chamaeleon, @ngpedro Our show:   Tech DECIPHERED brings you the Entrepreneur and Investor views on Big Tech, VC and Start-up news, opinion pieces and research. We decipher their meaning, and add inside knowledge and context. Being nerds, we also discuss the latest gadgets and pop culture news Subscribe To Our Podcast Bertrand Schmitt Introduction Welcome to Tech Deciphered Episode 74. That would be an episode about some predictions about 2026. What will be 2026 all about? I guess this year is probably starting with a bang. We saw the acquisition of xAI by SpaceX. We saw an acquisition from Grok by NVIDIA. What’s your take about what would be the big themes in 2026? I guess it would be for sure about AI and space. Nuno Goncalves Pedro What will 2026 be all about? Yeah. I predict a year that will be a little bit more of a year of reckoning in some way. There will be a lot of things that I think we’ll start seeing through. The fact that we are in the midst of an amazing transformational era for technology, the use of AI, but at the same time, obviously, a ridiculous bubble that is going alongside it as we’ve discussed in previous episodes. I think that we’ll start seeing some early reckonings of that, companies that might start failing, floundering, maybe a couple of frauds along the way, etc. I’ll tell you what I will not make many predictions about today, which is geopolitics. Geopolitics, I will not make predictions at all. Who the hell knows what’s going to happen to the world this year in 2026? I don’t dare making any predictions on that. Back to things where I would make predictions. I think on AI, we’ll have a little bit of reckoning. We’ll talk about it a little bit more in detail during this episode. Interesting elements around the hardware and physical space. Physical space, we just dedicated a full episode to it. We won’t go into a lot of details on that, but definitely on the hardware side, we’ll talk a little bit more about it. The VC landscape is going through an incredible transformation. We’ll talk about it today as well and some of our predictions for this year. What will happen to the asset class? It seems to be transforming itself dramatically. Obviously, that has a very direct impact on startups, so we’ll talk about that as well. And then to close a little bit the chapter on this, we will address some regulatory and geopolitical, let’s call it, headwinds without making maybe too many complex predictions. We shall see. Maybe by that time of the episode, we will be making some predictions. You guys should stay and listen to us, and maybe we will actually make some predictions about the geopolitical transformations that we will see this year in the world. Then last but not the least, we’ll talk about fintech, crypto, frontier tech, and a couple of other areas before concluding the episode. A classic predictions’ episode. We normally have a pretty good track record on some of these, but right now, the world is going a bit interesting, not to say insane. Bertrand Schmitt Yes, and going back to some news, Groq technically was not acquired, but, practically, it’s as if it got acquired. I’m talking about Groq, G-R-O-Q. The AI semiconductor company focused on inference AI, and it was late December. It was a way to end the year. This year, we started again with an acquisition of xAI by its sister company, SpaceX. I guess that’s where we are starting. AI, AI and … more AI We are going to start on AI. That’s definitely the big stuff. Everything these days, I guess, is about AI or has to have some connection with AI, or it doesn’t matter. I think every company in the world has seen that. You have to have the absolute minimum on AI strategy. You better execute on this strategy and show results, I would say. For the companies that were not AI native, you truly have to have a way to transform yourself. I guess at some point, the stretch might be too much, and it’s not really reasonable. Then you maybe better stay on what you are doing, especially if you’re in tech, you better be moving faster to AI. Nuno Goncalves Pedro Just to highlight, and I think throughout the episode, you’ll see that there’re obviously a lot of implications that would manifest themselves into capital markets. I mean, we’ll specifically talk about VCs and startups later on. But the fact that everything needs to be AI, the fact that there’s so much innovation happening right now, in my opinion, and this is maybe the first pre-topic to AI, is we’ll see a tremendous increase in M&A activity this year across the board. I mean, we’ve seen already some big acquihires we mentioned in some of our previous episodes, but we’ll see a lot more activity on M&A this year. Normally, that’s a precursor to the opening of capital markets. I predict also that there will be a reopening of the IPO market that never really reopened last year, to be honest. M&A, a lot more, reopening of the IPO market. Normally, it happens in the second or third quarter of the year. That’s what my M&A friends tell me. First quarter of year, everyone’s figuring out stuff. Then last quarter of the year, things should be more or less closed. Maybe the third quarter is the big quarter. We shall see. But definitely, as a precursor to our conversation today, I think we’ll see a lot of M&A, and we’ll see reopening of the IPO mark. Bertrand Schmitt I guess last year was not as big as you could expect on M&A given the tariff situation announced in April and May. I mean, it became quite tough to do IPO in such market conditions. Definitely, we can hope for something dramatically different in 2026. I guess talking about public markets and IPO, I guess the big one everyone is waiting for is SpaceX. SpaceX getting even more interesting with its xAI acquisition. Nuno Goncalves Pedro Do you think that because of the acquisition, it’s more likely that it will happen this year, or because of the acquisition, it’s less likely that it will happen this year? Bertrand Schmitt That’s a good question. My guess is the acquisition of xAI is all about xAI needing more financing and cheaper financing. This acquisition is a pathway to that. SpaceX being a much bigger company, a company that is also making much more revenues. I could bet that there is higher probability that, actually, SpaceX will go public in order to finance itself. At the same time, will it have enough time to prepare itself for the IPO given this acquisition just happened? Can they do that in 6 months? I mean, if anyone can do it, I guess it’s Elon Musk. It’s a strategy to present an even more attractive company with an even more interesting story, a story of vertical integration from AI to space. I guess the story as it’s presented itself right now, it’s one about having your AI data centers in space. Because in space, you have much better solar energy production with solar panels. You have a perfect cooling situation because you are in space. Thanks to Starlink, you have the mean to communicate between the satellites and with Earth itself. I think if someone can pull up a story like AI data center in space, I guess Elon Musk can. There is, of course, a lot of questions about is it practical? Is it economical? Yes. I certainly agree. I’m not clear on the mass, and can you make it work? Again, I mean, Elon Musk single-handedly, with SpaceX, managed to transform the space market on its head. I mean, they are the biggest satellite launching company in the world. They have the most satellites in the world. I mean, I’m not sure I would bet against him, and I guess I would probably believe that he could pull up something. Time frames, different story. The 2-3 years data center in space for AI as cheap as on Earth, I have more trouble with that one. I mean, it’s a usual suspect with Elon Musk. You promise something unachievable in a few years, but, ultimately, you still manage to reach it in 5 or 10. Again, I would not bet against the strategy. Nuno Goncalves Pedro Yeah. I’ve talked to a couple of space experts, people that have launched rockets, and have worked JPL, NASA, and a couple of other places, etc. For what it’s worth, their feedback is, “No way in hell, and we’re decades away.” We’ll see. I mean, to your point, Elon has pulled very dramatic stuff. Not as fast as he normally says he’s going to pull it, but within a time span that we all see it. Difficult to bet against him. In terms of actually the prediction, maybe to respond to the prediction as well, will SpaceX IPO? I’m going to make a prediction that has a very high likelihood of missing the mark, but I think Tesla’s going to buy and merge them both into it. It’s going to become a public company through Tesla. That’s my hypothesis. Bertrand Schmitt No. That’s supposed to be it. That’s how you solve that. Nuno Goncalves Pedro And Elon controls the whole universe. X, xAI, Tesla, SpaceX, all under one umbrella beautifully run. And SolarCity is well in there, of course, so wonderful. Bertrand Schmitt That’s possible. Certainly, you are not the only one thinking Tesla will acquire or merge with SpaceX. To remind everyone, Tesla is around 1.3, 1.5 trillion market cap. Depending on the day, SpaceX seems to be valued at similar range, 1.2, 1.3 trillion. It looks like it’s the most valued private company at this stage. These are companies of similar size, so that’s one piece of the puzzle. When you think about the combined company, we could be talking about a 3 trillion entity. Playing right here with the biggest companies in the marketplace today. Nuno Goncalves Pedro With a couple of tweets from Elon, it will rapidly get to 4 to 5 trillion. Bertrand Schmitt That’s so tricky. Nuno Goncalves Pedro Yes. On AI and back to AI, one thing I think that we’re about to see is this will probably be the year of agentic AI. Obviously, we predict a lot of growth on that side of the fence, in particular on the enterprise B2B side. We see a lot of opportunities coming through. From our perspective, at least at Chamaeleon, we generally believe that there’s going to be a lot of movements on agentic AI. It’s also going to be probably the year of the first big fails of agentic AI that will be newsworthy. There will be some elements about that loop and how it gets closed that will happen. I think we might see some scandals already. We’re already seeing the social network of bots talking to bots. We will see other scandals going on this year even in the consumer space and in the bot to bot space, which we now can talk about or in the AI agent to AI agent space. My prediction is we will see some move forwards. There’ll be some dramatic funding rounds along the way. We’ll see a couple of really cool things out of the gates coming out that are really impressive, but we’ll also see the first big misses of the technology stack. I don’t think we’ll go fully mainstream yet this year, so it’s probably maybe something more for 2027 along the way. That would be my prediction again. I think enterprise will lead the way. We’ll definitely see a lot of stuff on consumer as well that is cool. Then we’ll all have our own personal assistance in our hands, basically, literally in our phones. Bertrand Schmitt Going back to agentic AI, we also started the year with some pretty dramatic move. I mean, the launch of Clawdbot, renamed OpenClaw. I mean, this stuff took fire in like a week or 2. It was coded by just one person who actually didn’t even code the product but used AI to build the product, 100% used AI, proposing some new ways also to leverage AI to do coding. He has a pretty unique approach. It’s not vibe coding. I would say it’s a better way to do that. Then the surprising evolution with the launch of a social network for AI agents, Moltbook. I mean, this stuff, probably there is some fake in it. But at the same time, I think it’s quite impressive because it’s the first time we see truly 100,000 plus agents communicating directly to each other. Yeah. I mean, that’s the first time we see surfacing the possibility of some sort of hive mind on the Internet. It’s pretty surprising. Right now, all of this is a hack done in a few days. By end of year, by 2 years, 3 years, we might discover that, actually, the best approach to AI might not be the AI assistant like we are doing today, but a combination of hundreds of thousands of AI working closely together. We might be witnessing the first sign of new intelligence in a way. Nuno Goncalves Pedro Things like this social network might either be Skynet, the beginning of Skynet. They might be the beginning of Her, or they might just be a fad and nothing really happens. It’s just interesting to see what these agents are doing. Bertrand Schmitt Totally. Nuno Goncalves Pedro Obviously, there are real and clear and present dangers of some of the integrations of AI we’re seeing in the market. Interesting enough, and I’ll ask you for your prediction a bit, Bertrand. I think we’ll probably see the first big mishap of AI being used in some infrastructural decision in the age of AI. I mean, we’ve seen AI issues in the past and software issues in the past. We talked in previous episodes about that as well. Mishaps of software that have led to people dying. But I think probably the first big mishap will happen this year as well. Very public mishap of the use of AI and serve its interactions with infrastructure or something that’s very platform related, etc, that will have big impact that everyone will notice. That’s my prediction for the year as well. We’ll have the first big oops moment, as I would call it, for AI in this new age of full on AI. Bertrand Schmitt I would say first some perspective. I think today, people are not using AI directly for life and death decision, at least not that I’m aware. We’re not going to let AI fly a plane, for instance, tomorrow so you can be, reassured. At the same time, given there is such a race to AI, there definitely might be some mistakes. We were talking about the social network for AI agents, Moltbook. Apparently, all the keys used to secure the AI were shared by mistake because it was not properly locked down. We can see that indirectly, mistakes will be made for sure. Two, it’s highly probable that some people will trust AI too much to do some stuff, and this stuff might not work and might have some grave consequence. Hopefully, there is not so much of this. Hopefully, it’s mostly AI used for the good. But you’re right. I mean, at some point, the more we use the technology, the more there would be issue. I mean, it’s highly probable. Nuno Goncalves Pedro That will lead me to another prediction, which is, and we’ll talk about more of it later, but it probably will lead to the first significant movement in terms of regulatory environment certainly in the US at some point if it happens in the US in particular, where there will be some movement that will be like, “Hey, you guys can’t do this anymore.” Because this will probably emerge from mismanaged interfaces. From systems having access to stuff that they shouldn’t have access to in the first place. Talking a little bit more about what’s happening in AI. You’ve already mentioned some of the issues that relate actually to security and cybersecurity. We keep talking about AI. We keep talking about all these infrastructure pieces and platforms that are being built. I think we’ll have a lot more incidents like the one you just mentioned where things will be shared that shouldn’t have been shared, where people will break systems and get into it, etc. Let’s see where that takes us, which is a little bit ironic because, obviously, with AI, the promise is that cybersecurity becomes more robust as well because there’re agents working on our behalf on the cybersecurity side. There’s also agents working on the other side. Bertrand Schmitt It’s a constant race. It’s the attackers, defenders. Each time you have new technology, you have a new race to who is going to attack or defend the best. Each new wave of technology, it’s an opportunity to challenge the status quo. Nuno Goncalves Pedro The attackers have been winning, and I feel they’ll continue winning in 2026. I think it’s going to still be a year of attack. We’ll see more and more breaches, more and more stuff that will happen. Bertrand Schmitt I don’t know if they will win. I mean, it’s normal that they win once in a while. For sure, some infrastructure is not updated as it should. Some stuff are not managed as it should, so there will always be breaches. I don’t know if things are dramatically going to change because, again, everyone who cares who is going to update his infrastructure with AI for defense. There is no question that you have no choice. We will see. That I don’t know. For sure, AI will be used to attack directly with AI. Maybe you’re able to do bigger, larger scale attack. Or thanks to AI, you are simply able to create new type of attacks more easily. AI can be used behind the scene as a way to prepare and organise new type of attacks, even if it’s not used directly live in the battle. Nuno Goncalves Pedro One topic that we’ll come back to later is the geopolitics of everything, but maybe more broadly. On the geopolitics of AI, it’s very clear that we have an arms race going on. Obviously, the US on the one hand, China on the other hand is the two extremes, putting tremendous amount of capital into data centers just at the base of that infrastructure. Chipset development, chipset access, a huge theme in terms of the export restrictions, etc, that are being forced by the US. I think it will continue. From a European standpoint, obviously, they’re stuck between a rock and a hard place, to be very honest. Let’s see what happens on that side of the fence. My view of the world is that certainly from a US and China perspective, we’re going to see a lot more movements in 2026, like big movements. The Chinese movements we always see in delay.  It takes us a couple of months, sometimes even more than that to understand exactly what’s going on. I think we’re going to see some huge moves this year in terms of the States, the United States of America, and China really pouring capital into the creation of the next big winners around AI. I think the US is obviously more visible. We see a lot of these companies. We’ve just discussed xAI and its acquisition by SpaceX or merger. I don’t know what they’re calling it exactly. Effectively, on the China side, the movements I think are already very big. As I said, it will take a while to figure out exactly what those moves are. One thing that I propose is that at some point, China will have very little dependency on chipsets from the US. I’m not sure it’s going to happen this year, but I think the writing is on the wall. Irrespective of any other geopolitical issues that is coming to the fore at this moment in time. That’s one of the key areas or in arenas of fight. Bertrand Schmitt It makes sense. If you are China, you will look at what happened. You would think that you cannot just depend on the largest of one country. It makes rational sense, the same way it makes rational sense for the US to limit exports to China because there is value to delay some peer pressure that could use these technologies for good but also for bad. If you were an ally of the US, that would be one thing. But when you are not an ally of the US, that certainly should be a different perspective. Maybe one last point concerning agents, I think there will be a lot that will revolve around coding. We can see OpenAI with Codex. We can see Cloud with code. There was, of course, [inaudible 00:18:28] that was trying to be big on agentic coding. I think agentic coding was one of the big transformation in 2025 and is going to get bigger in 2026. I think for a lot of people who do coding, there was a radical transformation in terms of what you can achieve, what you can do, how much you can trust AI to help you code. I start to think we might see this year, the replacement of not just one AI replace one coder, but one AI replace a full team because of the new ability to manage that at scale. Coding might be a common activity where you are going to think about outcomes, think about objective, think about how you organise, but not really coding by itself anymore. A big change, like you used to code, directly your hand on the stuff, but step by step, everyone is going to become a manager of agent. I think in one year, we saw enough transformation to think that in the coming year, the transformation can be even more dramatic. Nuno Goncalves Pedro The big Hardware movements Now switching gears to hardware. Obviously, a lot of movements in 2025 and over the last few years. One piece of thesis that we’ve had long-standing at Chamaeleon is that we will see the emergence of AI devices. Some of them have been tremendous failures as we discussed in the past. I predict that we’ll have a couple of really interesting full stack AI devices in the market this year. Why does that matter? Because, as many of you know, obviously, there’s compute that can happen in data centers and cloud infrastructure all over the world, but also there’s compute that can happen at the edges. The more you can move to the edges and the more you can create devices that actually allow you to have user experiences that are very distinctive at the edge, the more powerful some of these devices might become. I predict Apple will not be the first to launch anything on this. I predict probably OpenAI, after the acquisition of IO, will maybe not launch something this year, but will announce something this year. I’ll step back on that prediction. They’ll announce something this year, but maybe not launch. But we’ll start seeing some devices that have some interesting value in the market, probably devices that are AI devices, but they are very focused on very specific user flows, and so very much adequate to specific activities. I won’t make a prediction on that, but I think areas that would make sense for that to happen would be obviously around fitness, health, et cetera, et cetera, where we already have the ascendancy of products like Oura Ring and others out there. Definitely, that’s one area that might have quite a lot of developments. I think AI-first devices, devices that are very focused on compute at the edges, providing user flows that are AI-enabled to end users, we’ll see a lot more of that and a lot more activity this year. Again, I don’t think Apple will be necessarily ahead of the game. Again, maybe OpenAI will give us something to at least think about and look forward to. Bertrand Schmitt First, I’m not sure it will be that transformational because if it’s not in your phone, in your pocket, there is only so much you can do with it, and there is only so much computing power you will have. I’m doubtful it would be really impactful this year. Nuno Goncalves Pedro I feel we’ve been discussing this shift of paradigm in input and output. For me, some of these devices could lead to that shift. Because, again, a mobile phone is not a great long-term paradigm for the usage that we have because it’s really constrained by the screen. The screen is really what takes most of the battery life away. If we didn’t have that screen, what could we do? If we have the block that is as big as a mobile phone, and it didn’t have a screen, it was just compute, that’s a mini computer, a microcomputer. Bertrand Schmitt That’s a fair point, but I don’t see that transformation this year. That’s really more my point. I can see that you can have AI-enabled smart glasses, and it’s clear there is a race to AI-enabled smart glasses. My point is more to go beyond the gadget, it would take quite a while. It would need to have cameras. It would need to analyse what you see. It would need to hear what you hear. Again, it might come, but then at some point, it would be okay, what do you do with it? We have the example of the movie Her. That’s showing Her what it could be. There are definitely possibilities. It’s clear that if you take the big VR headset like the Apple Vision Pro, there is a failure from that perspective in the sense that I think it’s a great, amazing device. The big problem is that it’s doing way more that makes sense. I think there will be a clearer separation between your smart AR glasses that has to be light, that has to be always unconnected, and that’s primarily there to help you make sense of the world around you. The true VR headset that doesn’t really require much in terms of AI, and it’s just there to immerse you in a different world. For this, we know, unfortunately, in some ways, that there is not a lot of demand for it. Maybe there is little demand because you are too hidden in your own world. The technology is not working well enough yet. There are a lot of reasons. But I think Apple trying to do both at the same time, AR and VR, with the Vision Pro, was a pretty grave structural mistake. I think we would see a clearer line of separation between the two. There is bigger market opportunity for AR glasses. That, I certainly agree. There is opportunity to connect that to a computing device. As you talk about, your glasses are your screen, your phone becomes something in your pocket connected to your glasses. Nuno Goncalves Pedro For me, Apple has their way of doing things. From the perspective of what you said, they normally really plan their devices. Even if it’s a big shift in terms of a new area, like they tried with the Vision Pro, and we criticised them for launching it as a device that should have been more of a dev device that they really launched as a full-on device, but that’s their playbook, classically. I think Apple needs to change how they put products out and how they experiment with those products, et cetera. I think they have enough money to be doing everything all the time and figuring it out. If they don’t want to put it out, then they need to do a lot more hell of testing internally with their silos, but they should be playing across all these arenas, VR, AR, everything. They just should put devices out that are either ready for prime time, or they should call it something else. They should call it like this is a dev device or whatever it is. Bertrand Schmitt I agree with you. My complaint is more that it was marketed as a consumer device when it was not. It was a true developer device. Two, they tried to mix the two at once, and it made no sense. No one is going to walk in their home or in the street with their Vision Pro on their head. You have to be deranged, quite frankly, to have use cases like this. I think that for me is a crazy mistake from a company like Apple that prides itself in pure UI, pure user interface, very well-designed device for one specific use case, not mixing the two use cases. We still don’t have Macs with a touchscreen, you know?  We still don’t have an iPad with a good OS that makes use of this great hardware. For some strange reason, they decided to mix everything in the Vision Pro with a device that weighs a ton on your head and is so uncomfortable. That’s why, for me, I’m like, “Guys, what is wrong? Why did you let this team run crazy?” I hope at some point, Apple will go back to the drawing board. My understanding is that that’s what they are doing. They are going to have two devices, one smart glasses, an evolution of the Vision Pro, just focus on VR. They might actually abandon the concept of the pure VR-oriented headset. Because, from a market size perspective, it might not be big enough for Apple, quite frankly. Nuno Goncalves Pedro I read on all of the above, and people at this point was like, “Why are then players like Samsung and others not doing it. LG, et cetera?” Because those players historically have not invented new categories. They’re amazing at catching up once the category is invented, and then they scale the hell out of it, and that’s what these companies have been exceptional at. I wouldn’t see a dramatic innovation, I think, in terms of devices coming from any of the big ones on that side of the fence. Not to disrespect them in any way, but I think that’s not been their playbook ever. Again, if the origination doesn’t come from a start-up or from an Apple, I don’t see those guys going after it. My bet is that we’ll see some start-up activity and, again, hopefully, some announcement from IO now within the OpenAI world. Bertrand Schmitt I would slightly disagree with you. I see where you are coming from. But take the Samsung Galaxy Note, that sudden much bigger headphone that no one was doing that was launched by Samsung, at some point, it forced Apple to launch an iPhone Max. Let’s look at the Z Fold that Samsung launched 7 years ago, copied by everyone. Now Samsung launching a trifold. Apple has still not launched their foldable phone. I think there is a mix, actually, of sometimes- Nuno Goncalves Pedro For me, that’s not a proper new category. It’s still a mobile phone. It just happens to have a screen that folds in half. Bertrand Schmitt The iPhone was still a mobile phone, you could argue.  Nuno Goncalves Pedro No. I think the iPhone was…  I could actually agree with you on that point. Maybe Apple is not as innovative in that case. I think what Steve Jobs was exceptionally good at in terms of his ability as this master product manager was to be an exceptional curator of user flows and user experiences, and creating incredible experiences from devices based on that. That was his secret sauce. Could you say, “Wasn’t all of this stuff already around?” It was. You just put it all together very neatly and very nicely. But if you’re talking about significant shifts in how a category is done, the iPhone was a significant shift in how the category was done. The Fold is still an interesting device. I actually have a Fold right now in front of me. The 7 that you highly recommended to me that we both got, the Z Fold 7. I think they do amazing devices. I don’t think they normally are the most innovative players. Then, when they come to innovation, it comes from technology edges. Obviously, they have Samsung Display, there’s a bunch of other things. They had the ability to do foldable screens in-house themselves. Bertrand Schmitt I don’t disagree with you. I think there is an interesting situation where some companies have some strengths, another one has some strengths. My worry with Apple is that this was not demonstrated with the Vision Pro. The Vision Pro was a hot pot of technologies barely integrated together, with use cases absolutely not well-defined and certainly not something that makes sense for most of us. There is a question of has Apple lost it? While Samsung actually keeps doing their own stuff, that, yes, might be more minor improvements, but at least they are doing it. Because it looks like Apple is missing the train on even the minor improvements. By the way, you might not be aware, but Samsung launched its Vision Pro competitor. Interestingly enough, it might be a better product in some ways, being much lighter and much more comfortable. Nuno Goncalves Pedro We should play around with that and report back to our listeners. Of Start-ups and VCs Moving to venture capital and the startup ecosystem and what’s happening there, I think it is very much a bifurcated environment, and it’s bifurcated for both VCs and for startups. If you’re a startup in the AI space, and you have the hottest team since sliced bread, and you can create FOMO at the speed of light, you can raise ridiculous rounds. Five hundred million at the $3 billion, or $4 billion, or $5 billion valuation, and you still haven’t really even started. First round, you can raise 500 million. That’s back to the whole discussion on Bubble and where are we, et cetera. Some of these companies might actually become huge, some of them might not. But definitely, we are seeing really the haves and have-nots on the startup ecosystem with incredible teams raising a lot of money very, very early on or mid-stage if they’ve already existed for a while, and then the rest not being able to raise. We see a lot of non-necessarily AI sectors, some of the areas of SaaS that don’t necessarily have AI in it, or fintech, or the consumer space that are really, really struggling. If you don’t have an AI story for your startup right now, it’s extremely difficult to raise money unless your numbers are just the best numbers ever. That’s, I think, the first part of the element of bifurcation that we’re seeing today. The second element of bifurcation that we’re seeing today in terms of fundraising is for VCs themselves, and really propelled by the large VC firms raising more and more capital in recent orbits, announcing 15 billion across funds raised. Lightspeed, I think, had made an announcement a couple of weeks ago as well. They’ve raised a bunch of money as well. The big guys are all raising a lot of money. At some point in time, the question some of you might ask is, “These VCs are redeploying more and more money if they have a couple of billion for a VC fund. How does that look like? Is that still VC?” My perspective, I’ve shared before in some of our previous episodes, is that that’s no longer venture capital. At that point in time, we’re talking about something else. Private equity hedge funds, if you want to call them, maybe funds that are really driven by growth investment or late-stage investment. If you have a couple of billion under management, you’re not going to make your returns by writing a $3 million check in a series seed and leading that round.  That has implications for everyone in the ecosystem. It has implications for smaller funds that obviously have a lot more difficulty in raising capital. It’s difficult to differentiate. Last but not least, also for startups that really continue searching for that capital that is out there. Andreessen Horowitz, for example, runs Speedrun, which is a great program for companies around consumer in particular. Initially, it was a lot for gaming. But at some point in time, Andreessen Horowitz could decide that they don’t want to invest more in you. They just put money from Speedrun, which is obviously a very small check compared to the very large checks they could write mid to late stage and that will have an effect on you as a startup. What happens at that point in time if Andreessen Horowitz is not backing you up in later stages? More than that, what happens if I can’t get these big funds interested in me? Are the small funds still valuable to me? Punchline, my view is yes. Obviously, we’re a smaller fund, so there’s parochial interest in what I’m saying. Small funds can still create a ton of value for you, also in terms of credibility, ability to accompany you in those first stages of investment, and the ability to bring other larger investors later down the road as well. There’s definitely a big movement happening in terms of the fundraising for VC funds, which we shouldn’t neglect, which is the big guys are raising a lot more capital and are therefore emptying the market to smaller funds that are having more and more difficult raising at this point in time. We had discussed that there would be a need for concentration in the industry, that micro funds would need to concentrate, and we didn’t have the space for so many micro funds as we had around. But the way it’s happening is extremely dramatic at this moment in time. I think it will continue through 2026. Bertrand Schmitt Remember a few years ago, with the rise of AI, there was more and more of the question about, “What’s the point of SaaS at this stage?” Because SaaS was around for 15 years. Basically, how do you come up with something new that was not already tested, validated by the market? How do you bring something new? We say this was reinforced to the power of 10. If your product is not clearly built from the ground up for a new use case enabled by AI, anyone could then might have built your product 5, 10 years ago, and therefore, why now has no clear answer, and it’s a big problem. I’m still surprised myself to still see some entrepreneurs where you talk to them about AI because you don’t see them in the deck, and they explain to you, “It’s not yet there,” and you’re like, “What’s wrong with you guys?” Fine. Do whatever you want. Do a small business and whatever, but don’t think you can come up pitch and raise without an AI story. The second category is people who come with an AI story, but you can feel very quickly, I guess you saw that many times, Nuno, where just a story layered on top with little credibility. It’s not better. It’s not enough to just have a story. Your business needs to be radically built differently or radically proposing some brand-new use cases that were impossible to solve 5 years ago. Nuno Goncalves Pedro To stack up on that, absolutely in agreement. If you’re just adding to the story, and it’s an afterthought, and you’re just trying to make the story somehow gel, once you go into one or two layers of due diligence, your investors will very quickly realise that you’re not really AI-first or dramatically AI-enabled or whatever. It’s just you’re sort of stacking something on top of another thesis. It needs to make sense from the product onwards. It’s not just, let’s just put it together with chewing gum, and magically, people will give you money. It was true also if we remember the good old crypto blockchain days, where everyone’s investing in crypto. A lot of stories that didn’t make much sense. In that sense, it’s not very different. I would go one step further. I think in the world of the VC winter that we’re a little bit in, where it’s more and more difficult if you’re a smaller fund to raise your fund at this moment in time, there’s a lot of sources of distinctiveness still talked about, like proprietary networks, access to deal flow, fast track record, all that stuff that really, really matters. But our bet continues at Chamaeleon continues being that you need to be AI-first as a VC fund yourself. You need to have core advantages in using not only readily-available AI tools or third-party available AI tools, data sources, technology stacks, but actually building your own stack over time, which is what we did with Mantis at Chamaeleon. Again, just to reinforce that, I think we’re at the beginning of that stage. We, Chamaeleon, are ahead of the game, but we think that the rest of the market will have to move towards that as well. Still, to be honest, very surprising to me to see that many significant large players are doing very little still around some of these spaces. They have data scientists. They’re running some tools. They’re running some analysis and all that stuff, but it’s still, again, back to the point I was making for startups, all glued up with chewing gum. It doesn’t all come together nicely, which it does need to from a platform standpoint. Bertrand Schmitt It’s quite surprising. I agree with you that some VC funds might think that they can do business as usual in that brand-new world. It’s difficult to believe. Nuno Goncalves Pedro Maybe moving a little bit toward the capital formation piece. We already discussed the M&A space really accelerating. We’ve also discussed the IPO market and some predictions on that. Secondaries, there’s obviously a lot of liquidity coming from secondaries from mid to late stage. I think it will continue throughout the rest of 2026. A lot of activity in buying, selling in secondaries as some asset managers are becoming more distressed, as some very high net worth individuals and family offices are becoming more distressed as well, at the same time, where there’s a lot of opportunities to potentially arbitrage around some investments. I believe a lot of money will be made and lost this year by decisions made this year, just to be very, very clear in terms of equity, purchases, et cetera. Exciting year ahead of us. Definitely a very, very interesting market ahead of us. Secondaries, M&A, growth, and late-stage investing, also, early-stage investing will continue just for those that were wondering. Last but not least, the public markets, the IPO market as well. Bertrand Schmitt One of the big questions for the IPO market would be, will SpaceX go public? Would it be good for the startup ecosystem? Because suddenly that they go public, it would be to raise money. If they raise money, will there be any money left for anybody else? That would be an interesting test of the market. For sure, it would be proof that market are risk on financing a new IPO like this one. Or as you said, maybe there is no IPO, and it’s a merger with Tesla. Time will tell. Nuno Goncalves Pedro Regulatory & Geopolitical Headwinds… and the Wars Moving maybe to our topic of regulation and geopolitical headwinds, as we’re seeing … definitely not tailwinds. The Google antitrust verdict and, obviously, the remedies are expected to come forward now, and a lot of people are saying, “There are some risks of structural separation.” What do you think? Is it cool, but nothing will happen in the end dramatically? Alphabet or Google? I’m not sure, actually. It’s Google LLC. I think that’s the case. It’s The United States versus Google LLC. Bertrand Schmitt I’m not sure. Personally, I’m not a big fan. I think there needs to be a better way to manage some anticompetitive behavior. I’m not a big fan. There was this temptation to do that for Microsoft 25 years ago. Look at what happened. No one needed to buy Microsoft to leave space for others. I see the same with Google, and I guess they are happy to not be the number 1 in AI today, but to have an open AI in front of them. Even if they are doing a great job, by the way, to move forward and go faster and faster. Personally, quite impressed now with some of what they have released. Gemini 3 is doing great from my perspective. I’m not a big fan of this. I think to be clear, it’s important that bigger companies don’t behave anticompetitively, but at the same time, we need to find the right approach where it’s not about breaking these companies, and it’s also not about forbidding them to do acquisitions. Because then you end up with what NVIDIA just did with a $20 billion acquihire IP licensing type of acquisition, because they didn’t want to have the uncertainties. They didn’t want to wait 1–2 years in order to acquire the people and the technology, so they organised it in a different way. But I don’t like that. I think they should be able to acquire companies without facing so much uncertainty. To be clear, it’s not new. Uncertainty when you are Google, NVIDIA, or others, it happens. It has happened for a decade plus, 2 decades. I think there needs to be, for sure, some safety valves. At the same time, we want an efficient capital market. An efficient capital market need companies that can acquire other companies. If you don’t do that efficiently, it will be worse for the entrepreneurs, it will be worse for the investors, it will be worse for everybody. I think we have not reached a good equilibrium from my perspective. We need more efficient acquisition process. And at the same time, we need to also enforce faster anticompetitive behavior. Because what you talk about concerning Google, this is a case that was what? That is 10 years old. You see what I mean? This is way too long. If you’re a startup, you are dead by then. It’s like the story of Netscape facing Microsoft. They were dead long after the fact. I think we need a different approach. I’m not sure the best answer. I’m not sure we’ll get a better approach. There are probably too many vested interest. My hope is that it will get better with this current administration because, certainly, the past administration was very anti acquisition and efficient markets. Nuno Goncalves Pedro We’ve talked about the European Union AI Act a bunch of times, so I don’t want to spend too many cycles on that. The only effect that I would say is we are seeing in very slow motion the splitting of the Internet. I once had Tim Berners-Lee, by the way, shouting at me that we were going to break the Internet when we were applying for the .mobi top-level domain. I was part of that consortium that eventually did get the .mobi top-level domain, and I had him shouting at us. But, apparently, this is going to split the Internet, Tim. So in case you’re listening. Because it will create all these different rules. If your data is relating to consumers there, then it’s treated in a different way, and The US is… Well, obviously, we have the case of California with its own rules and laws. I don’t know. I feel we’re having a moment of siloing that goes beyond economic and geopolitical siloing. It will also apply to the digital world, and we’ll start having different landscapes around it. We’ll see how this affects global expansion of services, for example, around AI, particularly for consumer, but I don’t foresee anything dramatically positive. Recently, we had the whole deal around TikTok finally having a solution for their US problem where there’s now a US conglomerate magically that owns it. The conglomerate doesn’t magically own it, they just straight up own it for the US. But it was driven by many of these concerns around data ownership. Where’s the data? Where is it based? I think a lot of other concerns that have to do with the geopolitics of China, obviously, being the basis of ByteDance, the owner of TikTok, that still is a significant owner, by the way, in TikTok in US. Then also the interest in the economics of making money out of something as powerful as TikTok, to be honest, in The US. Just to be clear, I don’t think this was all about the best interests of consumers. It was also about money. Just follow the money. Bertrand Schmitt There are for sure, some powerful interest at play. But let’s be clear. I think one is data, as you rightfully said, but the other one is algorithm. It’s not as if China is authorising any competitor on its territory. They have blocked access to most of the Internet platforms from the US, either finding new rules or just trade blocking them. So I don’t think it’s fair competition. You don’t want some of that data in China about the US or European consumer. Three, it’s about the algorithm. If suddenly, you are a foreign power, and you can as we know in China, you better follow what’s required of you from the Chinese Communist Party. You cannot take a chance with influencing other stuff like elections in other countries. It’s fair from the US perspective. One could even argue it’s fair from a Chinese perspective to want that. I think the only one in the middle who doesn’t really know what they want is Europe because on one side, they want to benefit from American platforms, on the other end, they want to have some controls. On the other end, they don’t create the environment for startups to flourish. So in that weird situation where they have to accept some control by the big US providers and either provider of underlying infrastructure or provider of consumer business facing services. Then they try to regulate them. But I think they are misunderstanding the power relationship, and I think some of this regulation would get some blowback, at least by the current administration. Just, I believe, this morning, there was some news around X being under a criminal investigation in France. This is not going to end well for the French startup and VC ecosystem. This is not going to end well for France and Europe when you depend so much from your American friends. Nuno Goncalves Pedro Regulation will be weaponised. Regulation constraints around exports, all of this will be weaponised geopolitically, and the bigger guys will normally win. I think that’s normally what we’ve seen. Just on TikTok just to… And you guys, if you’re listening to us, just see if you see a pattern here, but obviously, 19.9% still owned by ByteDance of the TikTok entity in the US. It was initially said that 80% of the TikTok entity is owned by non-Chinese investors. Initially, people were saying US investors, and then they changed it to non-Chinese because MGX, I think, has 15% of it. MGX is based in the UAE, connected obviously to Mubadala, the Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund. Silver Lake is in there, I think, with 15% as well. Oracle as well with 15%. Those three are the big bucket owners together, 45%. Silver Lake having collaborated with MGX before, and I’m sure a lot of connectivity there. Then you still see a pattern in this in terms of shareholders. If you don’t, then just Google it. Dell Family Office, Vastmir Strategic Investments, which is owned by billionaire Jeff Yass, Alpha Wave Partners, obviously involved with a bunch of things like SpaceX and Klarna, Virgoli, Revolution, which is Steve Case’s, a former founder of AOL, is also in there. Meritway, which is managed by partners, I think, of Dragonair. Vinova from General Atlantic, an affiliate of General Atlantic. Also, NJJ Capital, which I believe is Xavier Nil, the French billionaire that founded Iliad. Mostly American, I think, if the math is correct. 80% non-Chinese, which was what mattered, I think, in many cases. But do see if you saw a pattern in most of those investors. I won’t say anything more than that. Maybe moving to other topics, maybe just to finalise on regulation and geopolitics. In geopolitics, we should talk about wars if we predict anything. Not that we are nasty and one want to be negative, but what the hell is going on? Will we have ending to the wars we already have ongoing or not? But before that, the struggles on the App Stores, I think, will continue both for Apple and for Google Play Store. The writing’s on the wall, the EU keeps pushing it dramatically and Apple keeps just doing stuff. I’m on the board of an App Store company. Apple just creates all these things that basically make you not really… It doesn’t work. You can’t provision then an App Store on Apple devices. On iPhones, et cetera. We’ll see how that will continue going, but I feel the writing’s on the wall. Both Apple and Google will have to open up a bit more of their platforms. I’m not sure it will have a huge impact in the medium to long term, but definitely we need to see more openness in access to apps as given by the two big platform owners, Apple and Google, out there. Bertrand Schmitt Let’s be clear. Google is way more open than Apple. We both have Android devices. You can install alternative app stores. It’s a different ballgame by very far. Nuno Goncalves Pedro Google does other nasty stuff. It’s public. You can check which board I’m a part of. You can see what that company has done towards Google over time. But to your point, yes. It is true that Google has been more open than Apple, but Google has done their own things. Just to be very clear, so I’ll just leave that caveat bracketed there for people to think about it and maybe read a little bit about it as well. Bertrand Schmitt I can say that, me, from my perspective, that path of total control that Apple has been going through on all their devices, that includes macOS, pushed me to, over the past 2, 3 years, to completely live and abandon the Apple ecosystem. I just couldn’t accept that level of control, that golden handcuff approach of the Apple ecosystem, each their own obviously, they are golden, their handcuffs, but they are still handcuffs. Personally, that pushed me way more to Linux, Android, Windows, back to Windows after all these years. I just couldn’t stand it anymore. I want to pick my devices. I want to pick what I install on them, and I don’t want to be controlled like this by just one entity for all my tech devices. For me, at some point, it was just not acceptable anymore. It’s still very warm, very golden handcuffs, but for me, they were just handcuffs at this stage. Yes, what they are doing with the App Store is very typical of that mindset. I think it’s quite sad because I think it started with good intention in some ways. “We need a new computing paradigm, we need to make things smoother and safer,” but it has really become a way to control your clients. For me, it has reached a point where it’s just way too much. Nuno Goncalves Pedro There’s obviously the great power comes great responsibility that uncle Ben told Spider-Man or Peter Parker. But there’s also with great power comes shitload of money, and control. So it’s like, “Yeah. Should we open the server? Do we want to delay opening it up?” “Yeah.” Anyway, it is what it is. Maybe let’s end on the more difficult note of the episode, which is going to be around wars. What’s our prediction? Will we have an end to the Gaza situation with Israel? Will we have an end to Ukraine and, obviously, Russia? What will happen in Iran? Those are the three big, big conflicts right now. Then, obviously, if we want to add just bonus points, what’s going to happen to Greenland, and what’s going to happen to Taiwan, and what’s going to happen to Venezuela? Let’s throw the whole basket in there. We’ve never had like… Let’s talk about all these territories and all these countries. At some point in time, I’m saying this in a light manner, but it’s obviously more tragic than it should be light, and people are dying, and there’s a lot of implications of all of that that is happening right now. Do you have any predictions, Bertrand, for this year? Bertrand Schmitt No. It’s tough to predict on an individual basis. I think on a more bigger picture basis is on one side, obviously, the rise of China on one side. You have also the rise of other countries like India, while very indirectly connected to some of these conflicts are still part of the game, buying oil from Russia, for instance. At the same time, I think overall, the US is more clear about with the sheriff in town. I think it’s good because in some ways, you cannot pay for the goods, you cannot have such a massive advantage versus nearly every other country on earth and just not be clear about who is the boss in some ways. As a result, what are the rules of the game and how it should be played? The US is not alone, obviously, you have China, you have Russia, you have India, you have Europe. You have different other countries. But at some point, it’s not good when countries are not rational and are not clear. I think I prefer the current situation where things are more clear and where you have to assume responsibilities about what you are doing. It’s time to be rational again about how the world behave. Yes, the concept of power and balance of power. I think there has been that dream, maybe mostly coming from Europe, about the end of history. I think that’s simply not the case. It’s not the end of history. It’s still about the balance of power. It has always been about the balance of power. If you are dumb enough to think it was not about that anymore, I just have a bridge to nowhere to sell you. I don’t have specific prediction, but I think it’s clear there is a new sheriff in town. There is a new doctrine about the Western Hemisphere that has been in some ways resurrected on the [inaudible 00:51:35] train, and I think we’ll see more of it. I think at this point, the biggest question is for the Europeans. What do they want to do? Because right now, their position of being a dwarf militarily while being a pretty big giant economically, I don’t think it works. Nuno Goncalves Pedro I agreed on everything that you said. I do have predictions. I’ll stick a flag on the ground just with my predictions. Bertrand Schmitt Good luck. Nuno Goncalves Pedro They are mostly positive. I do think we’ll see an end or, for the most, end to the two big conflicts, the one in Gaza and the one in Ukraine. I think Ukraine will end up in readjustment of territory and splitting between Russia and the Ukraine, but the end of hostilities, I think that we will see an end to the conflict in Gaza also with a readjustment on what that will mean for the Palestinian territories and the Palestinians in general. That I’m not sure, but I feel that there will be an end to those two big conflicts. Iran, I have no clue. I will not put a stick on the ground that I have no clue. There are so many things that could go wrong there. I’ve been reading some really interesting thoughts about even some aggressive thoughts that this might be the time to really change regimes in Iran and for the US to have a bit more of an aggressive stance. I really don’t have a perspective. Obviously, there’s a lot at stake there. Then, if we talk about the other parts, Greenland, I will not opine too much on. Maybe we’re done for now. Maybe there’ll be some other concessions to the US that weren’t already there in the ’50s. Taiwan, I won’t bet either. I’m sad to say I think it might happen at some point in time, but I’m not sure when and what would drive it. Last but not the least, Venezuela is my only really negative prediction. I feel it will continue to be a significant dictatorship as it was before managed enough by other people with the difference now that it has a tax to be paid to the US in the form of oil of some sort, etcetera, and maybe gas, maybe other things as well that it didn’t have before. That’s probably my most negative prediction for the coming year on the geopolitical side. Bertrand Schmitt Without going into detail, I would mostly agree with what you shared. At least that makes sense. But as we know, it’s not always what makes sense, but what might happen. I can tell you 100% I would not have guessed this operation against Maduro. This was so well done, well executed, and shocking at the same time that it’s… I think it shows that it’s hard to guess some of this stuff because there are certainly some new ways to wage limited war, for instance. So it’s certainly interesting, and we certainly need to get used to pretty bombastic statements. But for Venezuela, I don’t think it can be worse than what it was before. I’m probably more optimistic that gradually it can get better. Nuno Goncalves Pedro Just to put perspective on why we’re not making predictions on some of these elements, I think this is a funny story, but I was in Madeira. Actually, first time I was in Madeira, although I’m originally from Portugal. I’ve never been to the islands. Obviously, as you guys know, or some of you might know, there’s a lot of connection between Madeira and Venezuela. There’s a lot of immigration from Madeira Islands to Venezuela. One of my Uber or Bolt drivers there in Madeira was Venezuelan. Was born in Venezuela, but Portuguese descent, et cetera. He was telling me this was still last year. Late last year. Because I told him I lived in US, et cetera, and he was like, “Oh, hopefully, Trump will get Maduro out of there.” In my mind, I was like, “Dude.” No disrespect to the gentleman, but it’s like, “Okay. Mike, your perspective on geopolitics is maybe a little bit exaggerated.” And a couple of days later, we know what happened. When geopolitical decisions are better predicted by some probably very astute Uber drivers, you’re like, “Maybe I shouldn’t make a bet. I have no clue what’s going to happen, no clue what’s going to happen in Greenland, et cetera.” Anyway, a couple of predictions on that element. Bertrand Schmitt That’s why it’s so right. You have to be careful with the prediction, but it doesn’t remove the fact that I think nations and companies that have to play a global game have to understand in some ways what is the game, what are the powers in place, what could happen potentially, but also be realistic. Not be about wish and dreams, but more about, what’s the power relationship? Who has the money? Who has the means? Who has the capacity to do this or that? Because if you start that way, at least the scope of what’s possible, what’s reasonable is more and more clear more quickly. Some stuff like happened with Maduro, I would never have predicted, but for sure, if there’s one country that can do this sort of stuff, it’s the US. I’m not sure anyone has a technology and the means in terms of support infrastructure to do something like this. It’s tough to predict what will happen a year from now for any specific country, but I think that even trying to get a better understanding about the forces in play and their capacity and understanding and accepting that at some point, it’s all about real politic and relationship of power, the more your eyes would be wide open about what’s possible versus simple, wishful thinking. Nuno Goncalves Pedro Fintech, Crypto and Frontier Tech Moving maybe to our last section around fintech, crypto, and frontier tech. For me, just two very quick predictions, views of the world. I think on the frontier tech side, I won’t make a prediction. I will just tell you all to go and listen to our episodes, the one on infrastructure, which is immediately prior to this one, and the episodes that we’ve had around a couple of other topics including AI, what’s the future of your children, because I think they illustrate a lot of the points that we’re seeing and manifesting themselves over the next year and over the next 2 or 3 years as well beyond that. I feel those tomes are complete in and out of themselves, so you can just go and listen to them. Then my second comment is on crypto. I feel crypto has become of the essence, particularly under the current administration in the US, very favored. Obviously, we are now in a world where crypto is just part of the economic system, and I think we’ll see more and more of that emerging, and in some ways, crypto is becoming mainstream. Question is what blockchains will be the blockchains of the future? Obviously, there’s a bunch of bets put out there. We, ourselves, as Chamaeleon, have one investment in one of the significant bets in the space. But besides that, who’s going to win or not, we feel that we’re past the crypto winter. It’s now mainstream days, and we’ll see a lot more activity in there. Bertrand Schmitt I must say with crypto, I’m a bit confused. As you say, we are past the crypto winter. There is much less uncertainty in regul

MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas reports on all hell breaking loose as Trump has engulfed the entire world in war from Ecuador to Iran and from Venezuela to Bahrain. HomeChef is offering 50% OFF PLUS Free Dessert for Life and FREE Shipping on your first box!  Go to https://www.HomeChef.com/MEIDAS Visit https://meidasplus.com for more! Remember to subscribe to ALL the MeidasTouch Network Podcasts: MeidasTouch: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/meidastouch-podcast Legal AF: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/legal-af MissTrial: https://meidasnews.com/tag/miss-trial The PoliticsGirl Podcast: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-politicsgirl-podcast The Influence Continuum: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-influence-continuum-with-dr-steven-hassan Mea Culpa with Michael Cohen: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/mea-culpa-with-michael-cohen The Weekend Show: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-weekend-show Burn the Boats: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/burn-the-boats Majority 54: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/majority-54 Political Beatdown: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/political-beatdown On Democracy with FP Wellman: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/on-democracy-with-fpwellman Uncovered: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/maga-uncovered Coalition of the Sane: https://meidasnews.com/tag/coalition-of-the-sane Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Alejandro Peña Esclusa and Ernesto Araújo report that Secretary of State Rubio discusses a transition for the cash-strapped Cuban regime, while Venezuela's Rodriguez brothers continue to stall on releasing political prisoners. 15.1843 RUSSIA DIPLOMATS IN PERSIA

3-3-20261600  WORLDElizabeth Peek reports that Iran attacks Qatar's gas fields, causing European prices to soar by 50% as the continent relies on US liquified natural gas amidst a cold winter. 1.Elizabeth Peek reports that Democrats break tradition by opposing the administration during wartime, citing potential anti-Israel sentiment and risks to the upcoming midterms as the conflict with Iran escalates. 2.Judy Dempsey reports that the UAE raises combat readiness after intercepts over Dubai, while Europe faces depleted energy stocks and a lack of strategic clarity from Washington regarding the conflict. 3.Judy Dempsey reports that recent polls show US voters oppose intervention in Iran, while rumors of internal administration friction suggest a lack of unified strategy for the expanding war. 4.Joseph Sternberg reports that Kevin Warsh aims to reduce the Federal Reserve's $2.9 trillion in bank reserves, sparking a debate over the central bank's size relative to the economy. 5.Joseph Sternberg reports that a shrinking working-age population forces Germany to focus on productivity and innovation, as Chancellor Friedrich Merz navigates welfare state sustainability and potential brain drain. 6.Gregory Copley reports that gold and oil prices fluctuate as Pakistan strikes Taliban targets in Afghanistan and Israelexpands ground operations into Lebanon to dismantle Hezbollah's resurgent military infrastructure. 7.Gregory Copley reports that Israeli missiles reportedly hit a meeting of Iran's Council of Experts, while the administration considers supporting Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi for a post-regime future. 8.Mary Kissel reports that Beijing watches US munitions depletion and asset movements, potentially using homeland distractions to prepare for future aggression against Taiwan or Philippine territory in Asia. 9.Mary Kissel reports that while Maduro is rendered, his lieutenants maintain control in Caracas, slow-walking transition efforts as Maria Corina Machado plans her return to lead the nation. 10.Jonathan Schanzer reports that IDF ground troops enter Lebanon to "clean house," targeting missile silos and leadership, while secret talks explore normalization between the two nations after Hezbollah's removal. 11.Jonathan Schanzer reports that Iran's attacks on neutral Gulf nations backfire, pushing previously hesitant allies like Qatar and Oman toward a unified front with Israel and the United States. 12.Bill Roggio reports that escalating border clashes result in the destruction of former US equipment, while Pakistanpressures the Afghan Taliban to restrain extremist groups attacking inside Pakistani territory. 13.Bill Roggio reports that the US exercises extreme caution with battle-hardened Popular Mobilization Forces in Iraq, fearing retaliation against its small footprint of personnel and the Baghdad embassy. 14.Alejandro Peña Esclusa and Ernesto Araújo report that Secretary of State Rubio discusses a transition for the cash-strapped Cuban regime, while Venezuela's Rodriguez brothers continue to stall on releasing political prisoners. 15.Ernesto Araújo and Alejandro Peña Esclusa report that President Lula faces domestic polling challenges and USsanctions while attempting to balance his leftist base's support for Iran with necessary trade relations with Trump. 16.

In this episode of The President's Daily Brief: Iranian clerics have chosen the son of the late Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to lead the regime. But even as Tehran projects stability, I'll break down the military math and explain why some hard-liners may be uneasy with what looks like dynastic succession. Spain denies U.S. forces access to key military bases tied to the Iran campaign, exposing cracks inside the Western alliance. Pakistan and Afghanistan trade cross-border strikes for a fifth straight day, raising the risk of further regional instability. Opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner María Corina Machado says she plans to return to Venezuela in the coming weeks with elections in sight. To listen to the show ad-free, become a premium member of The President's Daily Brief by visiting https://PDBPremium.com. Please remember to subscribe if you enjoyed this episode of The President's Daily Brief. YouTube: youtube.com/@presidentsdailybrief Goldbelly: Discover iconic meals from legendary restaurants delivered nationwide with Goldbelly—get 20% off your first order at https://Goldbelly.comusing promo code PDB. Ethos Life Insurance: Protect your family's future with fast, online life insurance from Ethos—get your free quote in minutes at https://Ethos.com/PDB  American Financing: Call American Financing today to find out how customers are saving an avg of $800/mo. NMLS 182334, http://nmlsconsumeraccess.org - APR for rates in the 5s start at 6.196% for well qualified borrowers. Call 866-885-1881 for details about credit costs and terms. Visit http://www.AmericanFinancing.net/PDB Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

En esta ocasión hablamos de las apuestas predictivas en plataformas como Polymarket o Kalshi y de cuál es la diferencia entre estas páginas y una casa de apuestas tradicional. Además, conversamos sobre cómo los fans de Game of Thrones sabotearon el capítulo mejor rankeado de Breaking Bad y sobre la gente que copia las inversiones de personas con información privilegiada para intentar no perder dinero.Si quieres ver más contenido de Escuela de Nada, suscríbete a Patreon donde por $6 al mes tendrás acceso a un episodio exclusivo cada viernes. También podrás elegir el tópico principal de un episodio al mes en nuestro Tema de Oro y además tendrás acceso a los primeros 200 episodios del podcast. https://www.patreon.com/escueladenadaEscúchanos en Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/4xOM98A8Es30eGevw6tYwe?si=QwORHX8BTMyzKxJOa9_oZQ&dl_branch=1Síguenos en nuestras redes sociales:ESCUELA DE NADA Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/escueladenada/Twitter: https://twitter.com/escueladenadaTik Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@escueladenadaFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/escueladenada0:00 Intro 3:10 Chris encontró una paca de billetes en su casa 6:20 La gente está obsesionada con las cabinas de teléfono británicas 6:58 Polymarket y los mercados de predicciones 11:00 Todo es un casino hoy en día 12:20 La diferencia entre Polymarket o Kalshi y una casa de apuestas tradicional 14:15 ¿Cómo funciona Polymarket? 19:29 Los fans de Game of Thrones sabotearon el capítulo mejor rankeado de Breaking Bad 21:56 ¿Te pueden botar de tu trabajo si vendes información privilegiada para manipular una apuesta? 25:15 ¿Se pueden utilizar las tendencias de los mercados como termómetro de las noticias? 28:45 El 94% de las predicciones de Polymarket se cumplen 33:11 El mundo lo controlarán las predicciones de la gente 37:20 La IA invierte por ti copiando a inversores profesionales 42:03 Nos parece sucio promocionar casas de apuestas 42:57 ¿Son más sanas las predicciones de Polymarket que las casas de apuestas? 44:50 ¿Quién va a estar al mando de Venezuela al terminar 2026? 47:33 ¿Lo peligroso de las apuestas es que puedas apostar online? 50:00 La hora perfecta para hacer cada cosa

Dozens of Iranian leaders, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, have been killed in U.S.–Israeli joint strikes on Iran.In this episode, I'm sitting down again with seasoned China analyst Gordon Chang, author of “Plan Red,” to understand how this is changing the global geopolitical landscape—especially for Beijing.Including the Venezuela raid that captured regime leader Nicolás Maduro, this is the second time President Donald Trump appears to be neutralizing a key ally of Beijing.Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest, and do not necessari

Meet my friends, Clay Travis and Buck Sexton! If you love Verdict, the Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show might also be in your audio wheelhouse. Politics, news analysis, and some pop culture and comedy thrown in too. Here’s a sample episode recapping four takeaways. Give the guys a listen and then follow and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. How Does This End? The escalating conflict with Iran. Clay and Buck break down a major report from Fox News’ Trey Yingst, who reveals that Israel struck a gathering of Iran’s Supreme Council while they were choosing a new Supreme Leader—an unprecedented intelligence and operational blow. Clay and Buck analyze the implications of U.S.–Israeli air superiority, expressing the view that Iran’s leadership is increasingly vulnerable and unable to protect even top officials. They discuss the likelihood of the U.S. and Israel shaping Iran’s future leadership, referencing historic parallels such as the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan and Venezuela’s post‑Maduro transition. The conversation deepens as they react to President Trump’s warnings that failure to act against Iran’s nuclear program could have led to a “nuclear war,” followed by explosive comments from negotiator Steve Witkoff, who recounts Iran bragging about possessing enough enriched uranium for 11 nuclear bombs. Clay and Buck examine how these revelations accelerated U.S. action and what a post‑strike political landscape may look like inside Iran. Texas Primary Day! Clay Travis and Buck Sexton interview with Congressman Wesley Hunt, a leading candidate in the Texas Senate primary. Hunt lays out his case for next‑generation conservative leadership, citing his West Point background, combat service as an Apache pilot, support for term limits, and strong alignment with President Trump. He sharply criticizes what he calls the “soft bigotry of low expectations” from liberal politicians, slams Gavin Newsom’s recent comments, and emphasizes his commitment to cultural clarity on issues like gender, family values, and assimilation. Hunt also discusses Iran, calling Trump’s actions “peace through strength” and asserting that strategic force prevents greater conflict. Sen. Markwayne Mullin An extended interview featuring Senator Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma, who discusses the unfolding U.S.–Israel military campaign against Iran. Senator Mullin emphasizes that this is not another Iraq or Afghanistan but a direct confrontation with a regime that has targeted Americans for 47 years. He explains why President Trump’s strategy differs from previous administrations and outlines the intelligence behind striking Iranian leadership, including revelations that Iran claimed to possess enough enriched uranium for 11 nuclear bombs. Mullin argues that Trump’s approach—eliminating threats rather than delaying action—is both historically rare and strategically necessary. Clay and Buck then explore how these operations intersect with the America First doctrine. Senator Mullin responds to skeptical constituents by explaining why actions in Venezuela, Cuba, and Iran directly impact U.S. national security, from drug trafficking to global energy markets. He details how a nuclear‑armed Iran could destabilize world shipping lanes, spike oil prices, endanger U.S. allies, and ultimately threaten the American homeland. The conversation also touches on congressional issues including the SAVE Act and the challenges of overcoming a Senate filibuster. In a lighter turn, the hosts dive into a humorous discussion about physical fitness on Capitol Hill, reacting to viral footage of Secretary of War Pete Hegseth bench‑pressing 315 pounds. Senator Mullin, known for his own extreme fitness feats, compares strength metrics across members of Congress and discusses why physical conditioning boosts confidence, mental health, and leadership. Clay Buys a Tesla In a lighter cultural shift, Clay and Buck riff on generational habits, restaurant drink trends, and Costco culture—highlighted by Buck’s wife humorously blaming his Pellegrino obsession for her bulk‑shopping trips. This segues into a forward‑looking discussion on the future of autonomous driving, sparked by Clay’s firsthand experience with Tesla’s self-driving technology. They predict that self‑driving cars will become the global standard within a generation, reducing accidents, lowering insurance costs, ending drunk driving, and transforming how Americans view car ownership and transportation. Make sure you never miss a second of the show by subscribing to the Clay Travis & Buck Sexton show podcast wherever you get your podcasts! ihr.fm/3InlkL8 For the latest updates from Clay and Buck: https://www.clayandbuck.com/ Connect with Clay Travis and Buck Sexton on Social Media: X - https://x.com/clayandbuck FB - https://www.facebook.com/ClayandBuck/ IG - https://www.instagram.com/clayandbuck/ YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/c/clayandbuck Rumble - https://rumble.com/c/ClayandBuck TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@clayandbuck YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@VerdictwithTedCruzSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.