Mohamed Soltan | محمد سلطان

Kerr Sr. wrote one of the pivotal books on the Arab cold war.

I think at the core, the reason Silicon Valley titans struggle so much in Washington is that they have grown used to financial capital replenishing itself quite quickly, and do not realize that political capital can only be accumulated over much longer timescales. The unfortunate part, for them and for anyone who thinks technology is fundamentally good for humanity, is that political capital can be lit on fire just as quickly as dollar bills.

When Steve Jobs wanted to ask Walter Isaacson to write his biography, he took him on a walk. Stanford tested why this format works. Walking boosts creative thinking by 60%, and side-by-side talking quiets the threat-detection part of your brain. In one of their four experiments, 100% of walkers came up with more creative ideas than people sitting still. The boost lasted even after they sat back down. There's a part of your brain (called the amygdala) that works like a smoke detector for danger. It fires when someone stares straight at you across a table. Walking shoulder-to-shoulder turns it off. Jeff Weiner, who used to run LinkedIn, said direct eye contact almost never happens when you walk together, and this is why people open up. Therapists know this and use walking in sessions. It works especially well with men, who often clam up in a chair but get honest on a trail. Patients in walk-and-talk therapy report less anxiety and say more than they would inside an office. Your body chemistry helps too. After about 20 minutes of brisk walking, your stress hormones drop and your nervous system slides out of fight-or-flight into rest mode. The thinking part of your brain (the prefrontal cortex) gets more blood. Walking also raises a protein called BDNF, which helps brain cells form new connections, and people who walk regularly end up with a bigger memory center in their brains. Mark Zuckerberg takes top job candidates on hikes through the woods. Jack Dorsey walks new Square hires through San Francisco on their first Friday. Pixar's first CFO went on hundreds of walks with Steve Jobs, and on one of those walks he pitched the idea of selling Pixar to Disney. The biggest meetings of their careers happened at three miles per hour. Couples get the same effects. Less eye contact pressure, dropping stress hormones, shared rhythm, more blood flowing to the brain. Two people walking and talking are running a tiny neuroscience experiment on each other and getting closer because of it.

The Dutch Public Prosecutor requested 30 years of prison for the former #NDF commander from Salamiyah. He's accused of 25 criminal charges, including complicity in torture and sexual violence, including rape as a crime against humanity. 9 victims testified in the court, along with 20+ witnesses questioned by the investigating judge. He rejected all accusations and even slandered his victims. Verdict is expected on 9th June. om.nl/actueel/nieuws…

Breaking: Japan just passed a significant bill today to establish a National Intelligence Council and a National Intelligence Bureau. This reform is one of the most consequential changes to Japan's security apparatus since 1952. The new National Intelligence Bureau and proposed Anti-Espionage Law specifically target activities often attributed to China’s state actors.

Kaitlan Collins tells CNN that there was reports of hearing shots fired outside of WHCD: There is a shooter confirmed dead.

BREAKING: President Trump, first lady Melania Trump and other dignitaries were removed by security after an incident at the White House Correspondents' Dinner in Washington, D.C., Saturday night. abcnews.link/nSxI8hg

NEW: A loud bang, potentially a gun shot, just disrupted the correspondents dinner where POTUS is with media and other officials. Nearly everyone took cover, hiding under tables. The secret service is now evacuating cabinet members including Rubio. From my view:

What you meant to say is "America's ambassador to Turkey is undermining Israel's interests in the Middle East"

Former advisor to the Israeli government Daniel Levy on the “Greater Israel” plan: “Israel wants to be surrounded by failed, fragmenting, or co-opted states. Its goal in Iran is regime and state collapse, not regime change.” He then says Israel wants to weaken the Gulf States to make them dependent on Israel.

I interviewed @TMZ. Much more to come!

Istanbul’s busiest airport (IST) has 5 operational runways and a 6th is under construction. It handled 85M passengers in 2025. In that same year, Dubai (DXB), Abu Dhabi (AUH), and Doha (DOH) had a combined total of 192M passengers. Plans are under way to increase IST’s share of the transit air traffic in the region. Like the tax exemption for wealthy foreigners, the broader goal is to restore Istanbul as the Eastern Mediterranean’s leading commercial and financial hub — a status it held for 1,500 years, first under Roman and Byzantine rule, then under the Ottomans.

🚨 BREAKING: President Trump just told me over the phone he has unilaterally cancelled Witkoff and Kushner’s trip to Pakistan to meet with the Iranians. "I've told my people a little while ago they were getting ready to leave, and I said, 'Nope, you're not making an 18 hour flight to go there. We have all the cards. They can call us anytime they want, but you're not going to be making any more 18 hour flights to sit around talking about nothing'."

Here's YC's official advice about being truthful and precise about what is pilot, bookings, revenue and recurring revenue. Founders, particularly first time founders, need to sear this into their brains. Don't mistake one tier for another. Be precise, and always be truthful.

NEW: State Dept spokesman confirms American journalist Ahmed Shihab-Eldin, who was acquitted of all charges yesterday after being detained for nearly two months, "has safely departed Kuwait."

Syrians gather around the pit Assad soldiers pushed civilians into and executed them in a Damascus neighborhood, after authorities found and arrested one of the main perpetrators of the Tadamon massacre.

Huge.

Activist and writer Ahmed Douma is in a new cycle of remand, with a court rejecting an appeal against his detention’s extension Thursday. He was rearrested on false news charges this month after penning a think-piece on prisons. The case has raised concerns among rights advocates that political detainees who have been released or granted pardons will continue to face the threat of re-arrest. storage.googleapis.com/madamasr/en/20…

After shareholder approval of the Warner Bros.–Paramount Skydance merger, father-son duo Larry Ellison and David Ellison are set to control multiple major media entities, including: • TikTok • Warner Bros. (including New Line Cinema and Castle Rock Entertainment) • Paramount • DC Studios • The Discovery Channel • CNN • CBS (including news and sports) • HBO • BET • Fandango • Rotten Tomatoes • Nickelodeon • MTV • Cartoon Network • Food Network • Travel Channel • Investigation Discovery • Animal Planet • Comedy Central • Showtime • TBS • TLC • HGTV Among others. (huffpost.com/entry/ellison-…)

BREAKING: IRS announces plans to revise nonprofit Form 990 filings to require disclosure of fiscal sponsorships This is a big deal. Liberal dark money networks including Tides and Arabella have for decades exploited fiscal sponsorships to effectively operate in the shadows.