STEVE INSKEEP, HOST: When I listen to a song, I listen for the lyrics. The words put images in my head, if they're good, like a Springsteen line. (Singing) The screen door slams. Mary's dress waves. Or they convey an emotion, AJR describing a guy who's sorry for himself, hearing the world's smallest violin. Song lyrics even influence how I try to write for you, writing for your ear.
Of the ten richest men in the world on Forbes' December 2025 list, only two didn't build their fortunes by running or founding a fully tech-driven company. They are the people who now shape how we think, how we have fun, how we vote, how the economy works, and ultimately whether the world moves forward or backward: Elon Musk (X), Larry Page (Alphabet), Larry Ellison (Oracle), Jeff Bezos (Amazon), Sergey Brin (Alphabet), Mark Zuckerberg (Meta), Jensen Huang (Nvidia), and Michael Dell (Dell).
Andrew Day, Jude Russo, and Rebecca Draeger discuss a new print issue that covers Ukraine's disconnect from the West, the looming catastrophe in Latin America, strategic ambiguity re China and Taiwan, and more.
Deepfakes, threats, doxing (disclosure of personal information), hate speech spread through troll farms and bots, the use of viral hashtags, gender-biased fake news, and the non-consensual sharing of intimate content. The landscape of digital violence against women is increasingly broad and sinister. And although it is on the rise, most Latin American countries lack legal frameworks to protect them from this type of violence, which tends to be minimized despite its serious physical and psychological consequences.
The call, announced Monday by the office of Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine, occurred after The Washington Post reported Friday that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gave a spoken order to kill the entire crew of a vessel thought to be ferrying narcotics in the Caribbean Sea, the first of more than 20 such strikes directed by the Trump administration since early September.
Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva insisted this week that there are no remaining obstacles to signing the EU-Mercosur trade agreement next month after more than two decades of negotiations. Speaking on the sidelines of the G20 summit in South Africa, Lula said the deal would represent "possibly the largest agreement" in global trade, citing both blocs' nearly 722 million population and $22 trillion in gross domestic product (GDP).
Brazil was the testing ground for the new digital weapons of the Latin American far-right. And the success was so resounding that a provocative and virtually unknown congressman named Jair Messias Bolsonaro became president in January 2019. Four years later, the spotlight fell on Javier Milei: a vociferous Argentine economist with curly hair.
The United States on Friday accused Iran of plotting to assassinate Israel's ambassador to Mexico, Einat Kranz Neiger. According to senior U.S. officials who spoke to several national media outlets, Iran's Revolutionary Guard allegedly began planning the attack late last year, but the plot was contained and does not pose a current threat. The operation that foiled the assassination attempt, described anonymously by those officials, took place before the summer.
When every role in a business is mission-critical, having the right people in the right seats can be transformative. It's incredibly rewarding to see our clients grow faster, operate more efficiently, and retain customers longer-all because they have the talent they need to win.
"Instead of relying solely on traditional command-and-control (C2) servers that can be taken down, these attackers are leveraging GitHub repositories to host malware configurations," McAfee Labs researchers Harshil Patel and Prabudh Chakravorty said in a report. "When law enforcement or security researchers shut down their C2 infrastructure, Astaroth simply pulls fresh configurations from GitHub and keeps running."
Historically, the first universities in the contemporary model were established in Europe to educate elites for the State and the Church, rather than to promote social emancipation. With the rise of capitalism, they became privileged centers for producing and reproducing modern Western culture. However, from the 1960s onward-particularly after the student uprisings of May 1968-the academic focus shifted toward market-oriented values, displacing humanist and critical ideals.
At least 142 environmental advocates were killed around the world in 2024, with four more going missing, according to a new report by non-governmental organization Global Witness. Most of the victims were indigenous people or farmers, as well as activists against mining, logging, agriculture poaching and energy projects. Those carrying out the attacks were mostly criminal groups, although incidents involving state security forces were also recorded.
QUITO, Ecuador - The Trump administration will continue to identify and kill foreign drug smugglers without the consent of their home countries, Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters Thursday. But such actions may not be necessary if the smugglers come from friendly nations that cooperate with the United States, Rubio added. "For cooperative governments, there's no need because those governments are going to help us," the top U.S. diplomat said during a visit to Ecuador's capital. "They're going to help us find these people and blow them up, if that's what it takes."
This is part of a much bigger Let's go meta here. This is a new doctrine. And I think what you are seeing President Trump do is pivot from the old war from Europe, even from the Middle East, and moving into our own hemisphere. He's saying our neighborhood is the host important thing that we can take care of.
Mexico's president condemned the order to use military force, stating that the entry of US troops into Mexico is "absolutely ruled out." This reaction reflects strong opposition to foreign military intervention.
Brazil has filed 4,819 patent applications in Latin American countries between 2002 and 2021, indicating its strong innovation ecosystem and regional leadership.
