Rep. Joaquin Castro also talks to Mehdi about Trump’s illegal invasion of Venezuela and whether the president will actually make a move to acquire Greenland.
A former X exec who worked on Elon Musk’s embattled Grok chatbot got a “highly unusual” carveout to keep his company shares while working as the U.S. Patent Office’s “chief AI officer.”
The Venezuelan opposition leader isn’t in charge, but her allies are still confident she can eventually win an election in her country, with his support.
Ross barkan is one of today’s most prolific political writers. He’s a columnist for New York magazine, a novelist whose works include Glass Century and the forthcoming Colossus, and the proprietor of the popular Political Currents newsletter on Substack. His nonfiction books include Fascism or Genocide, an analysis of how the Democratic Party’s refusal to distance itself from Israel cost it the 2024 election, and a work in progress on Zohran Mamdani’s unprecedented rise to power in New York City. On the day of Mamdani’s inauguration, he met with Current Affairs associate editor Alex Skopic and News Briefing writer Emily Carmichael to discuss the prospects and dangers that face the new mayor.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, and Energy Secretary Chris Wright will join President Donald Trump at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland later this month.