Wired: Silicon Valley’s Elite Financial Advisers Say This Era of Wealth Is Different
WIRED talks to two wealth advisers serving Silicon Valley’s high-net-worth tech clients about how the new generation of tech millionaires handles its sudden fortune as SpaceX, OpenAI and Anthropic head toward liquidity events. The very scale of wealth has shifted — the average client is now worth between $20 and $100 million — family offices are formed far earlier, and the advisers themselves now have to prove they can offer more than AI.
Wired: Trump Mocked Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos by Showing Off Fawning Texts
After the 2024 election, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos tried to ingratiate themselves with Donald Trump, who then mocked them behind their backs and showed off the fawning texts he received — according to a new book by New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan.
Axios: Vance warns Israel: Don’t fight “only ally” Trump on Iran deal
US Vice President JD Vance warned members of the Israeli government attacking the Iran deal that Trump is the only ally they have left, so it would be unwise to anger him. Vance also signalled that US military support could change if Israel tries to undermine the deal.
Politico: Israeli foreign minister to ‘sever all contact’ with top EU diplomat
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar announced he would cut all contact with EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, accusing her of “defamation” against Israel. The reason: reports that Kallas had compared Israel’s treatment of Palestinians to apartheid-era South Africa.
Al Jazeera: How Sweden’s far right went from political pariah to powerbroker
Al Jazeera traces how the Sweden Democrats (SD) — a far-right, anti-immigration party with roots in the neo-Nazi movement — went from being despised and shunned by society to the country’s second-largest party, whose support keeps the current government in power. The piece follows how, since the 1990s, the party has gradually softened its image to shake off its neo-Nazi reputation.
Meduza: Attack on Moscow. Photos and videos
Moscow has come under the largest drone attack since the start of the war — according to Mayor Sergei Sobyanin, nearly 200 Ukrainian drones were shot down on the approach to the capital.
Radio Prague International: “Like discovering the Holy Grail”: Auschwitz Museum unveils Alfred Kantor’s extraordinary Holocaust sketchbook
The Auschwitz Museum has acquired the illustrated diary of Prague-born Jewish artist Alfred Kantor — 127 watercolours and drawings with his own commentary, tracing his journey step by step through Terezín, Auschwitz-Birkenau and Schwarzheide, from his 1941 deportation to his liberation in 1945. Kantor, who survived the war, reconstructed the album from memory, and the museum’s art historian calls it one of the most significant testimonies created by a Holocaust survivor.
LSM: From soft power to threats of war: the Kremlin’s influence on Latvian voters and politics
The programme “Atvērtie faili” examines how large a share of Latvian society bases its political views on Kremlin propaganda narratives, and how many voters are willing to back parties that avoid condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Political scientist Andis Kudors recalls that Russia’s information campaigns against Latvia began back in the 1990s, aimed at splitting society and obstructing the country’s path to the EU and NATO.
NPR: Report: Russia’s nuclear-powered ‘Skyfall’ missile is dirty and dangerous
Two MIT researchers have published an analysis of Russia’s nuclear-powered cruise missile Burevestnik (NATO designation: Skyfall), tested on October 21 last year. If their conclusions are correct, this was the first flight in history of a nuclear-reactor-powered aircraft; but their modelling shows the reactor spews radiation in flight, posing an enormous risk to anyone near the test range.
RFE/RL: 74 Lashes For A Song: Iranian Artist Sentenced For Virtual Concert
An Iranian court has sentenced singer Parastoo Ahmadi to 74 lashes over a 2024 YouTube video in which she sang in an empty theatre without a headscarf. Eight musicians and crew received the same punishment — flogging, a travel ban and a two-year ban on artistic activity; the singer was charged with “offending public decency”.
This is a daily link digest — links to the articles I read the previous day.
Tip: a paywalled article can often be read by searching for its URL on archive.ph; an article in another language can be translated with hugo.lv.