Since launching a military campaign in the Caribbean earlier this year, President Donald Trump has made clear what phase one of his plan looks like: killing alleged drug smugglers and pushing Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro to leave office. The end goal'let's call it phase three'is to work with a new government to gain access to the country's oil and rare earth minerals. Phase two' That's an open question. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who also serves as acting national security adviser, has taken the lead in planning for a variety of contingencies, several officials told us, although they said that the planning is restricted to a very small group of senior officials around the president and that they couldn't provide any details. Other officials involved in Venezuela discussions told us that if there is any substantive planning being done, it was news to them, and that they had little understanding of what the administration intends to do in the event that Maduro is toppled. (The State Department didn't respond to a request for comment.)...

On Wednesday, Google released patches for a handful of security bugs in its Chrome browser, noting that one of the bugs was being actively exploited by hackers before the company had time to patch it. But on Friday, Google updated the page to say that the bug was discovered by Apple's security engineering team and Google's Threat Analysis Group, whose security researchers primarily track government hackers and mercenary spyware makers, indicating that the hacking campaign may have been orchestrated by government-backed hackers. According to the security advisory for iPhones and iPads, Apple patched two bugs and the company said it was aware 'that this issue may have been exploited in an extremely sophisticated attack against specific targeted individuals' running devices prior to iOS 26. That language is Apple's typical way of saying that it knows some of its customers and users were targeted by hackers exploiting zero-days, meaning flaws that at the time of exploitation are unknown to the software makers. Often, these are cases where government hackers used hacking tools and spyware made by companies such as NSO Group or Paragon Solutions to target journalists, dissidents, and human rights activists....

The world's deadliest residential fire in more than four decades was still burning up a block of Hong Kong apartment buildings when pundits settled on a culprit: bamboo. Surely, the bamboo scaffolding that had surrounded the Wang Fuk Court towers explained how the flames tore through the complex so quickly. 'There can be only one outcome,' the Independent declared. 'The bamboo has to go.' But the disaster, which killed at least 160 people, reflects problems much more profound than the choice of scaffolding. These problems first took root as China prepared to assume control of Hong Kong from Britain, in 1997. Concerned that the transition would scare off foreign investors, Chinese leaders tried to woo real-estate tycoons and other business elites by giving them key roles overseeing the city's future governance. Beijing then propped up this new ruling class as a bulwark against efforts to further democratize the territory. The nexus between Hong Kong's government and Big Business gave rise to a real-estate market that served a select few elites rather than most residents. Limited supply and soaring costs precipitated a decades-long housing crisis, consigning roughly 220,000 Hong Kongers to subdivided apartments sometimes called 'coffin homes,' which can be smaller than a parking space. Meanwhile, the market delivered increasing returns to the city's elite. Of the 16 Hong Kongers listed in the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, seven owe their family fortune to real estate....

In 2025, state and local governments reportedly sold a record amount of debt for the second year in a row, with strategists predicting another $600 billion in sales next year. Most of that money is expected to fund infrastructure projects. Meanwhile, Census Bureau data reportedly shows that private spending on data center construction was running at annualized run rate of more than $41 billion ' roughly the same as state and local government spending on transportation construction. Plan ahead for the 2026 StrictlyVC events. Hear straight-from-the-source candid insights in on-stage fireside sessions and meet the builders and backers shaping the industry. Join the waitlist to get first access to the lowest-priced tickets and important updates....