“Microsoft has deployed a generative AI model entirely divorced from the internet, saying US intel agencies can now safely harness the powerful technology…It’s the first time a major large language model has operated fully separated from the internet” bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

Today is day 800 of Vladimir Putin’s 3 day plan to take Kyiv

For your weekend read - How Mexican cartels lost the multi-billion dollar industry of trafficking marijuana to the US because of legalization.

But many of us were wrong - and it didnt weaken cartels, who are worse than ever...

Awkward situation at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing today

As the US envoy for Sudan testified on how little attention Sudan gets, senators cycled out due to conflicting schedules, leaving for long periods only 1 senator in the hearing room (and 20 empty seats)

A very sobering Oliver Carroll interview with Ukraine’s deputy mil intel chief. He says Chasiv Yar will fall eventually, that Ukraine is far from stabilising the front and that Russia is “generating a division of reserves” & wants to strike at Sumy/Kharkiv. economist.com/europe/2024/05…

NEW: Huawei, the Chinese telecom blacklisted by the US, is secretly funding cutting-edge research at American universities including Harvard through an independent Washington DC-based foundation.

Proud to share my first article for Bloomberg:
bloomberg.com/news/articles/… Bloomberg

Here's what Trump told TIME about Ukraine if he wins in November: “I wouldn’t give unless Europe starts equalizing.”

“If Europe is not going to pay, why should we pay? They’re much more greatly affected. We have an ocean in between us. They don’t.”

(E.U. nations have given…

“We've become addicted to explosions.” Stunning work by Bellingcat tracking the scale of home demolitions by a single IDF unit in Gaza. “Behind each ruined building, there is a decision & an action which has been carried out by a specific unit or person.” bellingcat.com/news/2024/04/2…

This is a huge scoop by columlynch devex.com/news/exclusive…

Milk, use milk.

WASHINGTON, April 29(Reuters)-The U.S. State Department found five units of the Israeli military responsible for gross violations of human rights in incidents that took place outside of Gaza before conflict broke out between Israel and Hamas in October, the State Department said.

Good one from Polina Ivanova and max seddon on the recent arrest of Russian Deputy Defense Minister Timur Ivanov, the shifting fortunes of Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, and the jockeying for power ahead of a possible Putin cabinet reshuffle. on.ft.com/49ZaeYi

The 4th SOUTHCOM airlift of humanitarian aid to Haiti this week.
22,000 pounds of medication.

Just in on Ukraine: Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is likely to announce Friday the commitment of as much as $6 billion to bankroll long-term contracts to provide Ukraine with armaments including air defense systems and Patriot missiles bloomberg.com/news/articles/… via Bloomberg Politics

Blinken lands in Beijing. Among first sights on tarmac was plane of Iran’s Mahan Air, sanctioned by US

BREAKING via WSJ

The Justice Department is conducting a criminal investigation into consulting firm McKinsey related to its past role in advising some of the nation's largest opioid manufacturers on how to boost sales.

Federal prosecutors are also probing whether McKinsey or…

Wow: Norah O'Donnell 🇺🇸 has taped an interview with Pope Francis, airing tonight. CBS says this is 'the first time a pope has given an in-depth, one-on-one interview to a U.S. broadcast network. It is a first-of-its-kind papal interview for an American television journalist.'

Moscow, Russia. April, 2024.

📸by AFP News Agency's Natalia Kolesnikova

Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who is in custody on espionage charges, makes a heart-shaped gesture behind a glass wall of an enclosure for defendants as he attends a court hearing in Moscow, Russia, April 23, 2024. REUTERS/Tatyana Makeyeva

10 yrs ago today, an Afghan policeman shot an AK47 into a Toyota, killing The Associated Press war photographer Anja Niedringhaus, our Nieman Foundation colleague.

Reporter Kathy Gannon, hit by 7 bullets, went back to covering the region, to keep making 'the invisible visible.” sapannews.com/2024/04/01/a-t…