Throw off the bowlines. You will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.

“Trump Eases Enforcement of Law Banning Overseas Bribes” 🤔 Interesting marketing approach. Even the most corrupt of countries does not issue a “feel free to go and be corrupt” notice to their people. And then advertise it to the world by saying “we are open to paying bigger bribes if you deal with us and not the other guy”. It just smacks of impunity. Corporations will follow the invitation to use corruption to make it a regular business tool and normalize it in their daily operations. They will fire compliance people and opt for a minumum approach to rule-following. Of course, in public announcements, they will change nothing: the discourse on values, integrity, compliance, etc. will remain unchanged.

Impressive. It took Trump three years to achieve this level of lunacy in his first administration. Second time around, he got there in under a month. Who says that this guy can’t learn on the job?

😈 A hard-right meeting in Hungary   Today, Alice Weidel, the co-chair of the populist and xenophobic Alternative for Germany, will pay Viktor Orban a visit in Budapest. Weidel is an admirer of the reactionary Hungarian prime minister. The meeting comes soon after Europe’s hard-right held a triumphant get-together over the weekend in Spain. “Yesterday we were the heretics,” Mr Orban declared at the gathering. “Today we are the mainstream.” Germany holds parliamentary elections on February 23rd. According to most forecast models, Weidel’s party will probably become the second-biggest in the Bundestag. Orban is taking a keen interest. He congratulated the Alternative for Germany for helping Friedrich Merz, the centre-right opposition candidate for the chancellorship, to get a non-binding motion on tougher migration rules through the Bundestag last month. Orban does not have many powerful friends in European capitals: for years Brussels has accused him of undermining the rule of law in Hungary. That may explain why he is so happy to meet Weidel.

When Thatcher took performance lessons from Laurence Olivier, it changed the course of her political destiny. The PM’s makeover collaboration was kept a closely guarded secret for fear it would hurt her “ordinary housewife” image

🤔 🤦‍♂️ Today King Abdullah of Jordan will meet Donald Trump at the White House. He will be the first Arab leader to meet the American president since his return to office - but this visit is more a burden than an honor. For weeks Trump has been urging Jordan, along with Egypt and perhaps other Arab states, to accept refugees from Gaza. The king is desperate to dissuade him. Jordan is already home to 2.4m Palestinians, more than one-fifth of its 11m people, as well as hundreds of thousands of displaced Iraqis and Syrians. Even if Abdullah wanted to accept more refugees, he would be terrified of the political consequences. Many of his subjects would see him as complicit in the ethnic cleansing of Gaza. He cannot afford to alienate Trump: America sent $1.7bn in aid last year (equivalent to 12% of government revenue). But he cannot afford to acquiesce either 🤷🏻‍♂️

Gambling firms secretly shared users’ data with Facebook without permission. Meta accounts of those affected flooded with ads for casinos and betting sites.

RT @AJamesMcCarthy: Yes, it's a real photo! This was captured off the side of the hwy along a remote stretch of AZ desert. Perfectly timed…

RT @AssalRad: WHO is occupying Palestinians??

Spies, secrets, and sabotage: America’s adversaries couldn’t have scripted a better betrayal than what Musk and Trump are doing.

Meanwhile, it’s been a full 1,000 days since Israeli forces killed journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, and no one has been held accountable despite efforts for justice. Just Israeli impunity, right in your face, every day.

RT @lxeagle17 This is demonic. It’s the purest distillation of evil. To me, this is actually worse than *not providing aid at all*. You have now dragged people into an experimental trial, and then are pulling the rug from them and endangering their lives in many cases. We put them in this position, and now we changed our minds and they're screwed. [ link to full article below ]

RT @AssalRad: There is no “history of US Middle East peacemaking”

Brilliant

RT @sahouraxo: BREAKING: Israel is dropping bombs on South Lebanon in the middle of the night, obliterating civilian homes. Again. The…

Name the band 😈

Another package of sanctions against Russia - but it will not include a blanket ban on importing Russian liquified natural gas so Putin will still be getting billions of €€€€ every year 😈