Tommy and Ben explain how President Trump forfeited our advantage in the artificial intelligence race by allowing Nvidia to sell advanced AI chips to China, break down the new White House National Security Strategy document and debate whether it matters, and explain how fighting between Thailand and Cambodia and between the DRC and Rwanda has exposed Trump's “peacemaker” image as a sham. They also talk about the lack of progress on a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine, the bizarre story of a fake coup in Guinea Bissau, an attempted coup in Benin, troubling reports from Yemen’s civil war, and former British Prime Minister Liz Truss’s hilariously bad podcast debut. Then Tommy speaks to Anika Wells, Australia’s Minister for Communications and Sport, about the country’s social media ban for kids under 16.

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Tommy and Ben discuss a blockbuster Washington Post report alleging that Secretary of War Pete Hegseth personally ordered a “double tap” airstrike that was a textbook example of a war crime, the latest on Trump’s slow-moving regime change policy in Venezuela, Trump’s shocking pardon of Juan Orlando Hernández, the former President of Honduras who was convicted of conspiring to import 400+ tons of cocaine into the United States, and the latest on the Trump administration’s peace talks with Russia. Then they explain how the tragic shooting of two National Guard troops in Washington, DC has led to a massive crackdown on legal immigration, and why the shooter is part of the long and disastrous history of the “Global War on Terror”, how the former president of South Africa’s daughter tricked men into fighting for Russia on the front lines against Ukraine, and the latest PR disaster for FBI Director Kash Patel. Then, Ben speaks to film director Julia Loktev and Russian journalist Ksenia Mironova about the documentary, “My Undesirable Friends”, which documents the experiences of independent journalists in Moscow as Putin cracked down on the press in the months before the invasion of Ukraine.

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Tommy and Ben unpack Trump’s rapidly changing “peace deal” to end the war between Russia and Ukraine. They explain how the plan has changed since the first draft leaked last week, the confusion over where the plan came from and why many people believe the Russians authored it, what it tells us about which Trump officials are actually driving the policy, and why Russia seems poised to reject Trump’s plan even though it’s wildly tilted in their favor. They also discuss the consequences of the US skipping out on two major global summits at the G20 and COP, explain why former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro says a paranoid hallucination led to his arrest, provide an update on whether the US is going to attack Venezuela, unpack Israel’s recent airstrikes in Lebanon and Gaza despite ceasefire agreements, unpack the stakes of a spicy war of words between China and Japan and Chinese President Xi Jinping’s call to President Trump over Taiwan, attempt to explain Candace Owens’ latest insane conspiracy theory involving France, and how a new tool on X proves many MAGA influencer accounts aren’t so America First after all.

For a closed-captioned version of this episode, click here. For a transcript of this episode, please email transcripts@crooked.com and include the name of the podcast.

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