Weekend Reading

What fresh hell is this? #Corruption #Incompetence #Affordability

“While neither country commands broad support, China surpassed the United States in global approval ratings in 2025, with a median of 36% approving of China’s leadership, compared with 31% for the U.S. China’s five-percentage-point advantage over the U.S. is the widest Gallup has recorded in China’s favor in nearly 20 years. The recent shift reflects a decline in U.S. ratings alongside an increase for China. Median approval of U.S. leadership fell from 39% in 2024 to 31% in 2025, returning to earlier lows, while China’s approval rose from 32% to 36%. At the same time, disapproval of U.S. leadership rose to a record-high 48%, while China’s disapproval rating remained flat at 37%. For the past two decades, Gallup has asked residents of every country polled as part of its annual World Poll to rate the leadership of the four leading economic or military powers — the U.S., China, Russia and Germany. The latest results are based on Gallup surveys conducted in 2025 in more than 130 countries; they notably predate several major developments in early 2026, including the U.S. withdrawal from 66 international organizations in January and the outbreak of war with Iran in late February. Approval of U.S. leadership has varied considerably across presidential administrations, from George W. Bush’s second to Donald Trump’s second. It has ranged from a low of 30% in the first and last years of Trump’s first term to a high of 49% in 2009, under President Barack Obama. While low, China’s ratings have changed little by comparison, with President Xi Jinping leading that country continuously since 2013. In 2025, approval of China rose to a median of 36%, which is higher than its typical level in the low 30s over much of the past two decades. Before the most recent survey, China had led the U.S. in leadership approval twice: once during the Bush administration and once during the first Trump administration.” (Gallup)

“Last year the U.S. experienced something that hasn’t definitively occurred since the Great Depression: More people moved out than moved in. The Trump administration has hailed the exodus—negative net migration—as the fulfillment of its promise to ramp up deportations and restrict new visas. Beneath the stormy optics of that immigration crackdown, however, lies a less-noticed reversal: America’s own citizens are leaving in record numbers, replanting themselves and their families in lands they find more affordable and safe. Since the Eisenhower administration, the U.S. hasn’t collected comprehensive statistics on the number of citizens leaving. Yet data on residence permits, foreign home purchases, student enrollments and other metrics from more than 50 countries show that Americans are voting with their feet to an unprecedented degree. A millions-strong diaspora is studying, telecommuting and retiring overseas. The new American dream, for some of its citizens, is to no longer live there. In the cobblestoned streets of Lisbon, so many Americans are snapping up apartments that the newest arrivals complain they mostly hear their own language—not Portuguese. One of every 15 residents in Dublin’s trendy Grand Canal Dock district was born in the U.S., according to realtors, higher than the percentage of Americans born in Ireland during the 19th-century influx following the Potato Famine. In Bali, Colombia and Thailand, the strains of housing American remote workers paid in dollars have inspired locals to mount protests against a wave of gentrification. More than 100,000 young students are enrolled abroad for a more affordable university degree. In nursing homes mushrooming across the Mexican border, elderly Americans are turning up for low-cost care.” (Drew Hinshaw and Joe Parkinson/WSJ)

“Almost without exception, those who enjoy the great honor of serving President Donald Trump have ultimately collided with two all-consuming dictums. The first is that Trump’s underlings must always elevate his personal interests above those of the institutions they run. The second is that they will always fall short of honoring the first, incurring his inevitable wrath. Two big events late Thursday—Trump’s firing of Attorney General Pam Bondi, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s axing of a top military official—demonstrate the deep perils of what political theorists refer to as ‘personalist’ rule. This mode places one charismatic leader’s vainglory and self-enrichment, unbound by procedural neutrality, at the center of all decisionmaking. Flattery, tribute, attunement to the Big Man’s ever-shifting whims, and the effective humiliation of his enemies are what secure one’s place in the highest circles of glory. The president’s banishment of Bondi tightly followed this template. An illuminating tick-tock from The Wall Street Journal tells us that Trump was ‘incensed’ at her failure to prosecute his enemies, and her inability to bury the Jeffrey Epstein files left him ‘frustrated.’ In both cases, Bondi deeply corrupted the institution she purported to serve in a fruitless effort to please Trump. For instance, in bringing cases against numerous Trump foes—including Democratic senators like Adam Schiff and Mark Kelly, among others—her handpicked prosecutors twisted the law and Justice Department protocols so badly that the efforts buffoonishly fell apart while prompting resignations from career officials. The Journal reports that after Trump berated Bondi in a Truth Social post that he reportedly intended to send privately, she grew upset and called top White House officials. Surely Bondi protested that she was trying very hard to be corrupt on Trump’s behalf, but he was demanding the unachievable: prosecutions untethered from law or fact. No matter: The absurdity of Trump’s demands could not be the problem. Only the failure to meet them could be.” (Greg Sargent/TNR)

“Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has taken steps to block or delay promotions for more than a dozen Black and female senior officers across all four branches of the military, some of whom are seen as having been targeted because of their race, gender or perceived affiliation with Biden administration policies or officials, according to nine U.S. officials familiar with the process. The process within the Army, the Air Force, the Navy and the Marines is structured to ensure the most qualified officers get promoted. Hegseth’s decision to intervene in the process has raised concerns among some officials within those military branches and the White House, the nine U.S. officials familiar with the situation said. ‘There is not a single service that has been immune to this level of involvement by Hegseth,’ one of the U.S. officials said. Two of the officials said there are concerns in the military and the White House specifically that Hegseth is blocking or stalling some qualified officers from receiving promotions through the ranks of general and admiral because of their race or gender as he targets diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives at the Pentagon. There is also concern that Hegseth could be singling out military officers whom he views as aligned with officials or policies of the Biden administration, the officials said. On Thursday Hegseth fired the Army chief of staff, Gen. Randy George, whose term was expected to be four years ending in September 2027. George, the Army’s top officer, was senior military assistant to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin during the Biden administration. George recently asked to meet with Hegseth to discuss Hegseth’s blocking of promotions for some Army officers, which seemed to focus on women and Black men, but Hegseth refused to meet or discuss his decisions, according to two additional U.S. officials. Hegseth, who declared an end to ‘woke’ culture at the Defense Department last year, has criticized DEI initiatives adopted by the Biden administration, as has President Donald Trump. Hegseth also has publicly accused the military of awarding promotions based on diversity rather than merit.” (Gordon Lubold and Courtney Kube/NBCNews)

“Thirty-three days after H-Hour, the operational data that is openly available points to a campaign of extraordinary scale and intensity. U.S. forces have struck more than 12,300 targets. The Iranian Navy has been effectively destroyed as a conventional fighting force. Major surface combatants were largely eliminated at pier before they could sortie. A U.S. submarine sank the frigate IRIN Dena off Sri Lanka on 4 March. The IRGC Navy commander Alireza Tangsiri, architect of the Strait of Hormuz blockade strategy, was killed by Israeli forces on 27 March. Iran’s drone assault rate has fallen by an estimated 95 percent from its peak. Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei was killed in the opening hours. Israeli intelligence estimates place Iranian missile production at zero and missile launchers neutralised at over 70 percent. The costs have not been one-sided. Iran’s retaliatory campaign, designated Operation True Promise 4, has hit American and allied installations across Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Syria and the UAE. Six American service members have been killed by Iranian fire, another six in a plane crash in Iraq, and 348 personnel wounded as of 31 March. Many U.S. bases in the region have been damaged. The Crowne Plaza Hotel in Manama was struck. Saudi Aramco’s Ras Tanura facility was hit. Amazon Web Services confirmed its UAE data centres were physically attacked. The Strait of Hormuz, through which roughly one-fifth of the world’s traded oil flows, remains contested and partially closed.” (Mick Ryan/Futura Doctrina)

“FBI agents prepared handwritten interview notes that contain names of possible corroborating witnesses and other information detailing a woman’s accusations that Jeffrey Epstein lured her into his deviant orbit when she was a teen on Hilton Head Island and sexually abused her. The Post and Courier reviewed 30 pages of FBI agents’ notes, which have not been publicly released. The notes, made by agents in a series of 2019 interviews, offer a few new details about her claim that she traveled with Epstein to the New York area in the 1980s. She alleged that she encountered Donald Trump during a visit and was once forced into a sex act. The White House has assailed her claim, describing it as backed by no evidence. The agents’ unredacted notes were not disclosed in the millions of Epstein documents released so far by the U.S. Department of Justice. They flesh out some aspects of her claims that she crossed paths with Epstein in the Lowcountry before he built a global sex-trafficking operation. The Post and Courier compared the notes with official summaries, known as 302s, that agents prepared after the interviews. Some details in the handwritten notes never made it into the prepared summaries, which were heavily redacted by the Justice Department before their public release as required by law. During one interview, for instance, an agent scribbled that the woman provided the names of four young teen girls who, by her account, attended a pool party on Hilton Head when Epstein came by. This was during the time when, she alleged, Epstein was sexually assaulting her and plying her with drugs and alcohol. Details about the four friends were not visible in the FBI’s 302 reports and may have been redacted in an effort to protect victim privacy. It is unclear whether the FBI ever pursued leads offered by the alleged victim. One of the women identified in the interview notes as a high school friend told The Post and Courier that she was never contacted by the FBI. Agents’ notes from a fourth interview with the alleged victim in 2019 were not available for The Post and Courier to review. The DOJ’s handling of the notes and other materials continued to be a point of focus as President Trump ousted Attorney General Pam Bondi on April 2. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche replaced her on an interim basis.” (Marilyn W. Thompson and Mitchell Black /PostandCourier)

“ArchaeoBot, developed in collaboration with the Ateneo Laboratory for Intelligent Visual Environments, uses machine learning to detect artifacts, recognize archaeological features (such as burials or hearths), and retrieve objects without damaging them News.Az reports citing gmanetwork.com ‘What makes ArchaeoBot especially innovative is that it combines robotics, sensing, and machine learning into a single archaeological platform. The robot is equipped with different sensors that allow it to identify possible artifacts, burials, hearths, and other subtle traces that people might miss or only notice too late,’ the Ateneo de Manila University (ADMU) said in a statement. ‘It is also meant to learn from experience, adapt to different excavation conditions, and eventually go beyond digging itself by helping with cleaning, recording, bagging, and storage of delicate finds. In that sense, it is envisioned as a kind of one-stop archaeological assistant: not replacing archaeologists entirely, but extending what they can do and making the whole process more systematic,’ it added. But Alfred Pawlik, a professor at the Department of Sociology and Anthropology of ADMU, said the ArchaeoBot is still far from perfect. ‘This is a pioneering project, and it has a lot of challenges. So we are moving step by step to achieve some, at least, of the tasks that we expect such a robotic excavator to do,’ he said in his lecture on March 27. Pawlik said that ArchaeoBot is being tested at a cave in Anda, Bohol.” (News.Az)

“On Wednesday, Donald Trump’s executive order challenging birthright citizenship got its day at the Supreme Court. In honor of the occasion—or, more likely, in a foolish attempt at intimidating his handpicked justices—Trump briefly attended oral arguments, marking the first time in recorded history that a sitting president has come to a Supreme Court hearing. The case pits Trump’s deeply held anti-immigrant bigotry against the clear language of the 14th Amendment and nearly 130 years of Supreme Court precedent. At its heart is the question of whether the president can change the meaning of the Constitution to prevent children born on US soil to undocumented immigrants and temporary travelers from being citizens. It’s the highest-profile case of the court’s term—and Trump got crushed. He will not lose 9–0, as he should. His crusade against immigrants and their children will continue in other forms. But I believe Trump will lose this case. And given the Republican and MAGA-aligned composition of the Supreme Court, that will have to be enough for now. The case is called Trump v. Barbara—with ‘Barbara’ being a pseudonym for a plaintiff represented by the ACLU who challenged Trump’s executive order. The ACLU’s argument is simple: Birthright citizenship is conferred on all people who are born within the territory of the United States by virtue of the 14th Amendment. The first sentence of the first section of that amendment states: ‘All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.’ This is all the evidence the plaintiffs need.” (Elie Mystal/The Nation)

“OpenAI‘s out-of-the-blue acquisition of TBPN, the online talk show, stunned the worlds of media and tech yesterday. But it’s a continuation of a pattern that dates back a hundred years, to 1926, when RCA created NBC in part to sell radios. Time and time again, pioneers of new platforms have also bought up content and influenced conversations about those platforms. In this case, a live-streaming show with a small but loyal and influential audience — known as a chummy platform for tech entrepreneurs to chat, where executive moves are treated like sports trades, where AI is a constant topic of conversation — will be bankrolled by one of the leading AI companies. In an interview with CNN’s AI correspondent Hadas Gold, OpenAI chief global affairs officer Chris Lehane cited that long history of ‘companies and entities owning and acquiring media properties,’ harkening to the days of Westinghouse Electric owning CBS and Microsoft partnering with NBC to launch MSNBC. Lehane compared the TBPN deal to news outlets hosting sponsored content and sports teams having dedicated channels …>> Jessica Lessin summed it up this way: Elon Musk ‘has X,’ and now Sam Altman ‘has TBPN’ … >> Creator Economy NYC founder Brett Dashevsky tweeted: ‘It’s simple. HubSpot acquired The Hustle [newsletter] for the same reason. You’re buying a direct line to the audience that matters most and the credibility that comes with it.’” (Brian Stelter/RS)

“Flick through pro-government Hungarian accounts on TikTok, and you might see an AI-generated version of Volodymyr Zelensky, the president of Ukraine, sitting on a golden toilet, counting his money, snorting cocaine, and barking orders at a Hungarian soldier. You might also find an AI-generated Péter Magyar, the leader of the Hungarian opposition, appearing to say he’s fine with handing Hungarian factories over to foreigners, as long as he’s the one in charge of the country. Keep going, and you will find images of war, violence, and a SpongeBob look-alike declaring that Magyar ‘wipes up cocaine with me after he accidentally sneezed and it all fell to the floor.’ You won’t find much about Hungary itself, which is not an accident. In recent years political parties around the world have produced surrealist campaigns, comic campaigns, conspiratorial campaigns, even beer-drinking campaigns. But on any list of strange elections, the 2026 parliamentary election in Hungary will stand out—this may be the world’s first post-reality campaign. In actual reality, the news for Viktor Orbán, the Hungarian prime minister, is not good. After 16 years in office, plus an earlier three-year term, Orbán has made his country the most corrupt in the European Union, one of the poorest, and certainly the least free. His political party, Fidesz, now controls most universities, the civil service, the high courts, and, through a network of oligarchs, almost all newspapers and broadcasters, as well as about a fifth of the economy, according to independent economists. General paranoia about Fidesz spies means that Budapest, once again, has become a city where people lower their voices when talking about politics in public. With that kind of influence, Fidesz, which is well behind in most polls, cannot evade responsibility for Hungarian stagnation, and so neither the party nor its leader is talking much about Hungary, its falling industrial production, or its shrinking population. Instead—backed by Russian propagandists, the European far right, and now the Trump administration (about which more in a minute)—the party is directing a small fortune’s worth of posters and social-media videos toward a different goal: convincing Hungarians to fear sabotage, thievery, or even a military attack from … Ukraine. This is an entirely false, even ludicrous threat. The Ukrainians have enough to do without starting a second war in Hungary. But Orbán, his government, his party, and many outsiders are now focused on making this threat seem true.” (Anne Applebaum/The Atlantic)

“There is a question doing the rounds in South Africa’s political circles, often in lowered voices and with careful disclaimers: could the billionaire Patrice Motsepe be the man who stabilizes — perhaps even saves — the African National Congress? Motsepe’s name as a future ANC leader often appears in fragments — in business conversations, in official corridors, in the soft intelligence that travels ahead of formal politics. The ritual is familiar: denial first, alignment later. Through African Rainbow Minerals and African Rainbow Capital, Motsepe has built a diversified platform across mining, finance, and investment. Through his football team, Mamelodi Sundowns, he has cultivated mass appeal. And as president of the Confederation of African Football, he operates within a continental network that blends politics, diplomacy, and commercial influence. With an estimated net worth of about $3 billion, he is not just one of the country’s richest businessmen, but a figure with unusual capacity in the ANC’s internal political economy. Leadership contests require logistics, endurance, coordination — and money: travel across provinces, accommodation for delegates, campaign infrastructure, and the quiet maintenance of networks that must hold over years. His potential candidacy exerts a kind of gravitational pull. Recent remarks by ANC Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula about ‘business figures’ entering politics have been read more as a signal than speculation. Within the orbit of Deputy President Paul Mashatile — a potential successor to current President Cyril Ramaphosa — the calculation is starker: if Motsepe runs, the balance shifts. Not because Motsepe is universally popular, but because he is structurally difficult to compete against. To be fair, Motsepe doesn’t do too badly on the popularity stakes. A March survey by the Social Research Foundation shows that Motsepe has a 33.1% favorability rating, compared with 22% for Mbalula and 11.4% for Mashatile. Among ANC voters, Motsepe commands 47% support. Across all voters, he leads with 39%. Beneath these figures lies a harder reality, however. The ANC is no longer the dominant force it once was. From the 70% it secured in 2004, it has steadily slipped, losing its outright majority in 2024 and returning to power only through a fragile, 10-party coalition stitched together out of necessity rather than design.” (Sam Mkokele/semafor)

“The US has secured rare earths from Brazil as part of a half a billion dollar deal to ensure American businesses have access to the metals needed in industries from technology to defence. Conor Coleman, head of investments at the US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC), said the US had the right to rare earths produced by Serra Verde under the conditions of a $565mn loan it made to the mining company last year. The terms of the loan were not previously known. The deal ‘had offtake controls making sure [the metals] were going to the United States and US-aligned parties’, he told the FT. The right to influence where the metals were sold was ‘in connection with our financing’. Serra Verde’s Pela Ema mine in Brazil has drawn increasing interest from governments and buyers of the metals worldwide, as one of the only producers of so-called heavy rare earths outside China. The materials are used in the permanent magnets found in everything from cars to weapons systems, and the US has become increasingly concerned with breaking China’s stranglehold on their production. With the world’s second-largest deposits of rare earths but minimal production, Brazil is at the centre of a global rush for the coveted minerals. The Trump administration is keen to gain further access to the reserves and has submitted proposals on co-operation to Brasília, according to officials.” (Camilla Hodgson and Michael Pooler/FT)

“In Iceland, a country small enough that it can seem like everyone knows everyone, keeping a secret can be harder than uncovering one. Johannes Kr. Kristjansson knew that this would be one of the toughest challenges of his career the moment he learned his prime minister’s name in the Panama Papers. ICIJ’s team found Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson in the data early on — but just finding the name of a country’s leader wasn’t enough. ICIJ needed a journalist who knew Iceland’s politics and culture to help unravel the full story. ICIJ’s leaders had never heard of Kristjansson, but among Nordic journalists, he had a reputation as one of the best. Swedish partners recommended him to ICIJ. They knew Kristjansson as a television reporter for RÚV, Iceland’s national public broadcaster, and knew he’d written about financial structures and political accountability before. Kristjansson dug in right away. ‘He meticulously went through thousands of bankruptcy records in Iceland, through the records of Parliament and through corporate records,’ said ICIJ Director Gerard Ryle. ‘Johannes had the local knowledge to know where to look, and the individual skill and determination to look thoroughly.’ The records he found put context around the Panama Papers discovery: Gunnlaugsson had co-owned a British Virgin Islands company called Wintris Inc. The ownership had not been disclosed in his financial statements when he became a member of Parliament in 2009. Later that year, he sold his 50% stake in Wintris to his wife, Anna Sigurlaug Pálsdóttir, for one dollar. Offshore companies had played a significant role in Iceland’s 2008 banking collapse, which devastated the economy and triggered criminal investigations. Gunnlaugsson had campaigned for office in the shadow of that crisis. And now there were documents showing that his household was secretly connected to an offshore company linked to the same financial system that had shaken the country. This was a big story, and Kristjansson knew he’d need time to tell it — and space to keep it under wraps. He quit RÚV to focus on it entirely. ‘That kind of sacrifice just tells you something about the quality of the people that were part of this work and how far they were willing to go for the sake of the story,’ said Marina Walker Guevara, then ICIJ’s deputy director. For Kristjansson, that sacrifice looked like isolation. He covered the windows of his home with thick black plastic to keep out prying eyes. He worked long nights through the Icelandic winter, sitting alone with information that would ultimately bring down the leader of his country. Ryle later called him ‘the loneliest man in the world.’” (Tracie Mauriello/ ICIJ)

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