Avert your eyes! My Sunday morning look at incompetency, corruption and policy failures:
• Partying at Mar-a-Lago with the New MAGA Media Stars: While major news outlets obsessed over the anticipated release of the Epstein files, Trump-friendly news influencers celebrated how far they’ve come. (Columbia Journalism Review)
• Meta created ‘playbook’ to fend off pressure to crack down on scammers, documents show: As regulators press Meta to crack down on rogue advertisers on Facebook and Instagram, the social media giant has drafted a “playbook” to stall them. Internal documents seen by Reuters reveal its tactics, including efforts to make scam ads “not findable” when authorities search for them. (Reuters)
• Inside China’s Shadow LNG Fleet Offering a Lifeline to Putin: A clandestine operation involving shell companies and high-seas maneuvers is keeping the Sino-Russian energy trade afloat. (Bloomberg)
• Satellites show dozens of U.S. dams are sinking. More could be at risk. Researchers detected subtle shifts in the height of all 41 structures they studied in 13 states and Puerto Rico. (Washington Post)
• Tesla Loses Its EV Crown to BYD as Sales Keep Dropping: Full-year electric vehicle sales figures have dropped for 2025, revealing China’s BYD is now officially global top dog. (Wired) see also China’s BYD set to overtake Tesla as world’s top EV seller: On Thursday, BYD said that sales of its battery-powered cars rose last year by almost 28% to more than 2.25 million. Tesla, which is due to reveal its total sales for 2025 later on Friday, last week published analyst’s estimates suggesting that it had sold around 1.65 million vehicles for the year as a whole. (BBC) see also Tesla’s Vanishing Order Hastens Fall of an $800 Million Fortune: Shares in L&F Co., a producer of high-nickel cathodes used in electric-vehicle batteries, have fallen more than 70% from their 2023 peak, which was fueled by a massive Tesla order then valued at $2.9 billion. On Monday, the company disclosed that the contract value had been restated to just $7,386 — a 99% reduction. (Bloomberg)
• So This Is Why Trump Didn’t Want to Release the Epstein Files: The latest batch includes many new references to Trump—and enough ammunition for Congress to keep pressing. (The Atlantic)
• How Project 2025 kneecapped the US press. The Heritage Foundation’s road map for a conservative presidency proposed sweeping media reforms. Trump carried out most of them—and he has three years left. (Columbia Journalism Review)
• Nick Shirley’s Somali Daycare Fraud Video Is Bullsh*t. Here’s Why It Worked Anyway. A breakdown of the disinformation tactics used in the viral video. (Weaponized)
• Erasing the Verdict: The Ongoing Shock of Trump’s Cocaine Kingpin Pardon: Donald Trump’s pardon of Juan Orlando Hernández, the former president of Honduras, toppled the capstone of one of the most ambitious narcotics investigations in the history of the Department of Justice. (Businessweek) See also The year Trump broke the federal government: How DOGE and the White House carried out a once-unthinkable transformation of the nation’s sprawling bureaucracy. (Washington Post)
• Can We Trust Social Science Yet? Everyone likes the idea of evidence-based policy, but it’s hard to realize it when our most reputable social science journals are still publishing poor quality research. (Asterisk)
Be sure to check out our Masters in Business interview this weekend with Stephanie Drescher, Apollo’s Chief Client and Product Development Officer. She oversees everything from the global wealth business to portfolio management, product development, and client marketing. She is a member of the firm’s leadership team. Since 2020, Barron’s has named her annually to its list of the 100 Most Influential Women in U.S. Finance.
The largest start-up losses in history
Source: Deutsche Bank
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