𝚊𝚍𝚛𝚒𝚊𝚗 孟安典

AI MAY NOW BE MORE EXPENSIVE THAN HUMAN EMPLOYEES, ACCORDING TO AXIOS.

Orban and the British influence operation - including Brexit apologist Lord David Frost. More to come on the Hungary files “This was not “sovereignty protection”. This was Orbán’s taxpayer-funded foreign influence operation. A public-money laundromat for ideological networking. A state-financed fan club for foreign right-wing pundits, academics, Trump-world operators, Brexit nostalgics, culture-war influencers, and professional Hungary-praisers. They accused everyone else of foreign interference while literally paying foreigners to interfere on their behalf.”

Elon Musk clearly not that amused about Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun asking for a selfie 😇 $TSLA $XIACF

Everyone who is up in arms about Trump "kissing Xi's ass" needs to understand that this is realpolitik and dealmaking. Trump is, by a mile, the most aggressive president America has had against the CCP in modern history. No one else imposed sweeping tariffs on Chinese goods, banned Huawei from domestic networks, put the entire CCP military-linked ecosystem on the entity list, restricted semiconductor exports, strengthened the Quad, and publicly called out China's currency manipulation, IP theft, forced tech transfers, and South China Sea aggression the way he did. Pre-presidency Trump was blunt. If you recall, as a candidate, he often complained about how "China was screwing us over." Literally in 2016 on the campaign trail, he said that "China is raping us." You need to understand that this posture completely shattered what was bipartisan elite consensus at the time - which was that more engagement with China on economic terms would liberalize and democratize China (ethnocentric projection once again), and that as China became more integrated into the global system, they would act more and more like responsible stakeholders. Every President since Nixon pushed closer economic integration while ignoring the OBVIOUS signs. This was especially supercharged under Bush, Clinton and Obama (but not Biden). And yet at the time, the mainstream media painted him as a xenophobe for this kind of rhetoric. It wasn't even a subtext - they directly alluded to how Trump was being racist against the Chinese for calling out their unfair trade practices. Once in office, Trump refined it into a strategy that actually moved the needle while dialing back his strong rhetoric. The personal flattery - calling Xi a "great leader," talking up respect for China, saying they'll have a "fantastic future together," is all Machiavellian Art of the Deal stuff. Flattery costs nothing and makes the other guy more willing to give ground without looking like he's folding domestically. The CCP's entire system is built on the leader's prestige. Publicly humiliating Xi or treating him like a subordinate would make him dig in, rally nationalists, and push him to retaliate harder just to save face. I don't actually think Trump knows about Chinese "honor culture" and the obsession with mianzi (face), but for whatever reason, Trump instinctively understands authoritarian psychology and how to work with it. The problem is that intellectual types, especially those steeped in liberal internationalist frameworks, tend to struggle with parsing the difference between rhetoric vs. revealed preferences. They're hard-wired to overweight the former. They treat diplomatic language as a window into the soul, as if it maps directly onto intent rather than as front-facing tool of statecraft. China weaponizes this brilliantly. It's a lesson everyone should've learned by now. With Trump, ignore the optics and ignore what he says. Just look at his actions, and look at his results.

Today marks the launch of ThinkLabour! 🌹We are a unique political organisation dedicated to helping Labour govern confidently, win elections, and deliver lasting change. Here is what we are building 👇

🚨 WATCH: Nigel Farage says the £5m gift he received from Christopher Harborne was a "reward for campaigning for Brexit for 27 years"

Fascinating part of Streeting's resignation letter:

More than a dozen business & tech leaders are joining President Trump on his trip to China this week, per a WH official ->