Beta: A Powerful But Faulty Tool For Managing Risk

US Officials Reveal Reason For CIA Chief's Surprise Moscow Visit Update(2030ET): The Wall Street Journal has late in the day Wednesday revealed the reason for CIA John Ratcliffe's surprise visit to Moscow yesterday where he met with top Kremlin intelligence leaders, citing officials. It was to warn against attacking NATO countries, says the Journal: The surprise visit by the director of the Central Intelligence Agency to Moscow this week was to deliver a warning to Russia not to attack NATO countries, according to people briefed on the visit. The trip was spy-agency chief John Ratcliffe’s first publicly known...

Iran Denies Negotiations With US After Trump Announces Talks For Monday Afternoon President Trump now says new talks with Iran will begin Monday afternoon after he called off a planned "massive attack" - following high level Saudi intervention, and also likely White House advisors and Pentagon leadership failing to agree on a strategic vision. "The Saudis expressed concern and asked for clarity about the plan of action," one US official told Axios over the weekend, with another saying that crown prince Mohammed bin Salman urged Trump to de-escalate and refrain from launching...

Zelensky Says Wartime Elections Would 'Destroy' Ukraine, The Purported Bastion Of Democracy Ever since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022 with a goal of excising the Russian-speaking Donbas region, American and Western European officials have repeatedly said they and their countries are duty-bound to support Ukraine because, as Nancy Pelosi put it, "The battle for Ukraine is a battle for democracy itself." That notion has been growing ever more farcical over time, as President Volodymyr Zelensky refuses to hold elections that were supposed to happen back in the spring of 2024....