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Syria’s uncertain political future ... Has the Islamist rebel group HTS actually moderated? ... The extent of retributive violence since Assad fell ... Syria's complicated factional divides ... America's control of Syrian oil fields ... Heading to Overtime ...

Yuri’s high-stakes debate on Covid’s origins ... Pros and cons of Covid vaccines ... Do Covid “coincidences” point to a lab leak? ... Does the pattern of Covid’s initial spread suggest zoonotic origin? ... Why the Wuhan market may have amplified Covid’s spread ... Covid’s lineages A and B ... US-China collaboration in the Wuhan lab’s virology research ...

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A masterclass in audience alienation ... Paul defends Biden’s paternal pardon ... Should family come before societal good? ... The costs of the Hunter pardon ... Was Hunter the victim of a witch hunt? ... Elon sues OpenAI (again) ... Heading to Overtime ...

Anthropic’s CEO comes out as a China hawk ... Why so many China hawks in the AI community? ... Gaming out the AGI takeoff timeline ... Last year’s OpenAI coup: What did Ilya see? ... Underappreciated dangers of the China chip war ... Are US tech leaders seeing China’s perspective clearly? ... Heading to Overtime ...

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Bob’s trip down the JFK rabbit hole gets real ... Will Trump release the JFK files? ... What the CIA actually knew about Oswald, pre-assassination ... The damning Oswald-CIA connection Jeff uncovered ... Was there a second shooter? Bob’s on-the-ground research ... Bob’s research cont’d: grassy knoll geometry ... Was the alleged CIA cover-up just CYA? ... Heading to Overtime ...

Are Bluesky pastures really greener? ... Dissecting SciAm editor’s Bluesky blowup ... Elon’s free speech stolen valor ... The “highlights” of the Paul-Tyson “fight” ... Has the military-industrial complex conquered the AI industry? ... Heading to Overtime ...

Another high-synergy, brilliant collaboration ... Is Elon our first true oligarch? ... Trump assembles his Justice League of hawks ... Biden’s awful foreign policy team ... Trump’s plan to purge the military ... Will Trump go full-on authoritarian? ... Left-wing capitalists—and a discount offer ...