Misjudging Peruvian Vargas Llosa
Tunku Varadarajan's op-ed 'Vargas Llosa Stood for Freedom Against the Nationalist Tide' (April 16) is troubling despite its intent to praise Mario Vargas Llosa. The claim that the most striking thing one can say about Vargas Llosa is that he was 'a great and exemplary Spaniard' is baffling. Though he held Spanish citizenship, Vargas Llosa remained Peruvian in his civic commitments, literary imagination and identity. He fled authoritarianism, not his country. To claim otherwise is to erase the roots that defined him and to diminish the tension that made his literature so universal.
Mr. Varadarajan's portrayal of Vargas Llosa's 1990 electoral loss as a matter of racial aesthetics is dismissive of Peruvian voters' political agency. Alberto Fujimori's appeal rested on anti-elitism and frustration with entrenched political classes. Though Vargas Llosa lost that presidential contest, his classical-liberal ideals prevailed and helped shape Peru's institutional trajectory. The country's sound currency, stable central bank and ongoing constitutional accountability bear his influence.
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Gizmodo
an hour ago
- Gizmodo
What Side Are the ‘All-In Pod' Bros On?
When Donald Trump and Elon Musk finally had their big blowout last week, fans of the All-In podcast knew the next episode was going to be one to watch. There's just one little problem: The All-In boys didn't release a new episode like everyone expected this week. And folks on social media have noticed. The show features four incredibly wealthy men who are friends with Musk and have devoted themselves to carrying water for Trump. You've got Chamath Palihapitiya, Jason Calacanis, and David Friedberg, who all decided in the summer of 2024 to debase themselves in the name of supporting a fascist. They had Trump on the show and lobbed softball questions as Trump rambled about artificial intelligence and other topics he knew nothing about. The fourth host, David Sacks, went a step further, even joining the administration as the so-called 'crypto czar' after Trump's election win. So it makes sense that people would want to hear what these guys have to say about the current controversy, which started relatively small. Last week, Musk expressed frustration with the Republican budget bill for not cutting enough, Trump said he was disappointed in Musk, and then it was off to the races. Musk went nuclear claiming Trump was 'in the Epstein files,' a reference to the late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, and Trump said he might cancel Musk's contracts with the government. Musk relies on billions in government money to sustain his businesses, especially SpaceX. Things appear to have calmed down a bit, with Musk deleting some of his most incendiary tweets, including one suggesting Trump should be impeached and replaced by Vice President JD Vance. And Musk posted two American flags in a quote-tweet of Vance's post about Trump's leadership on Sunday, largely taken as a sign he's still solidly on Trump's side. But the relationship between the two men is clearly fractured. It's really hard to basically accuse someone of being a pedophile and then go right back to being besties, as the All-In hosts call themselves. But at the time of this writing, the All-In Guys haven't come together to talk about it. The last episode was published June 4 and it was an interview conducted by Friedberg with Jared Isaacman. It's an interesting thing to listen to, given the fact that Isaacman was dumped as Trump's pick to be the NASA administrator shortly after Musk's send-off from the Oval Office. The gist is that Isaacman thinks he was torpedoed by anti-Musk forces in the White House who got into Trump's ear about donations he previously made to Democrats. But Isaacman rightly pointed out that his old donations to Democrats were no secret. And it seems like after Musk and Trump's blowout, people who were anti-Musk saw their opportunity to pounce. Isaacman is a friend of Musk's and is more focused on getting to Mars rather than the Moon, much like Musk. And there are plenty of obvious assumptions that people have been making about how Musk would benefit by having his friend as the head of NASA, an agency that delivers enormous contracts to SpaceX. While the episode with Isaacman touched on the Musk-Trump drama, it didn't provide the gabby four-way conversation All-In listeners are used to hearing between Palihapitiya, Calacanis, Friedberg, and Sacks. Or at least a three-way conversation, given the fact that Sacks has been ducking out of episodes pretty frequently since he joined the administration. Sacks seems pretty uncomfortable anytime there's criticism of anything Trump is doing. Calacanis has always been the most Democratic-curious of the bunch, even if he bent the knee like everyone else during that ridiculous episode back in June 2024. And Sacks has been snippy at Calacanis on more than one occasion over the faintest hint of dissent on Trump's tariffs. What do these guys—'friends' of Musk and allies of Trump—have to say about the situation? Folks on social media would really like to know. And people are making lots of jokes about it. 'All-in podcast going dark this week like the news broadcast during a coup when the outcome isn't yet clear,' writer Matthew Zeitlin wrote on X. People have also taken to asking Grok what's holding everything up. But the AI doesn't have a definitive answer. 'It's tough to say definitively why the All-In podcast skipped this week's episode, as the hosts haven't shared an official reason,' Grok responded to one user Sunday. 'The timing suggests it could be tied to the Trump-Musk feud, a hot topic they'd likely cover given their focus on tech and politics. It's a sensitive issue, so they might be taking extra time to frame it carefully.' There are rumors floating around online that they actually recorded an episode and it's being suppressed for some reason. Who would be doing the suppressing isn't really clear, though Calacanis is most in the tank for Musk, and Sacks, being in the administration, is most supportive of Trump. There's also speculation that perhaps the hosts want to see if Musk and Trump actually reconcile in some meaningful way before they say anything. The four men are also fully capable of just diverting attention if that's the way they want to play it. They all are pretty skilled at saying things in a confident matter-of-fact way that listeners take as gospel if they don't actually know anything about the topics being discussed. During a recent discussion about Trump getting a free $400 million airplane from the government of Qatar, Palihapitiya tried to argue that it's simply Qatari culture to give lavish gifts and you're actually being insulting if you don't take bribes like that. 'There are customs, I guess, and who am I to judge these customs, that to us might seem excessive or untoward or maybe an attempt at graft, but to them is actually a sign of deep respect,' Palihapitiya said. Then he pivoted into asking why the media wasn't talking about more important things. Whatever happens with the next episode, people are going to be extremely disappointed if they don't address the elephant in the room. But there's nothing that's forcing them to talk about the thing that's staring them right in the face. After all, Musk accused Trump of being in the Epstein files, suggesting the billionaire oligarch was perfectly happy ignoring something morally inexcusable to get what he wanted. Allegedly. It's entirely possible the All-In guys just barely touch on the controversy in the most shallow way and move on.
Fox News
2 hours ago
- Fox News
Trump gives blunt response to Newsom daring Homan to arrest him: 'I would'
President Donald Trump suggested he would be willing to arrest California Gov. Gavin Newsom if his administration obstructs ICE operations amid riots in Los Angeles on Monday. Trump made the statement in a brief exchange with reporters after disembarking from Marine One outside the White House. Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy asked Trump whether he though Border Czar Tom Homan should take up Newsom on his dare to come arrest him. "He's daring Tom Homan to come and arrest him. Should he do it?" Doocy asked. "I would do it I were Tom," Trump responded. "I think it's great. Gavin likes the publicity. But I do think it would be a great thing. He's done a terrible job. I like Gavin Newsom. He's a nice guy, but he's grossly incompetent. Everybody knows." Trump went on to state his belief that many of the rioters and protesters in Los Angeles are professional agitators rather than real protesters. "The people that are causing the problem are professional agitators. They're insurrectionists. They're bad people. They should be in jail," Trump said. Newsom swiftly responded to Trump's comments in a post on social media. "The President of the United States just called for the arrest of a sitting Governor," Newsom wrote. "This is a day I hoped I would never see in America. I don't care if you're a Democrat or a Republican this is a line we cannot cross as a nation — this is an unmistakable step toward authoritarianism." Homan told "Fox & Friends" earlier on Monday that he had told an NBC reporter that "no one's above the law," but there was no discussion about arresting Newsom at that time. "What we discussed was for those protesters that crossed the line… you can protest, you get your First Amendment rights… But when you cross that line, you put hands on an ICE officer, or you destroy property, or I'd say that you impede law enforcement, or you're knowingly harboring and concealing an illegal alien… that's a crime, and the Trump administration is not going to tolerate it," he said. "Then the reporter asked me, well, could Governor Newsom or Mayor Bass be arrested? I said, 'Well, no one's above the law. If they cross the line and commit a crime, absolutely they can,' so there was no discussion about arresting Newsom." Homan lambasted the blue state's response to riots against the Trump administration's immigration raids that rocked Los Angeles over the weekend, with some protesters throwing projectiles at law enforcement and torching American flags and cars. Trump deployed 2,000 National Guard troops to the city in an effort to quell some of the unrest, much to the dismay of Democratic officials.
Forbes
2 hours ago
- Forbes
Musk And Trump's Master Class In What CEOs Should Not Do
When a CEO has a falling out with another leader, it's usually not a huge news story. But when that CEO is Elon Musk, it's another matter entirely. The CEO of companies including Tesla, SpaceX and xAI is known for his dramatic and mercurial management and personal style, and it's amplified by his social media platform X. And in this case, the other leader is President Donald Trump, who is also known for a dramatic and volatile personal style. Both men are widely considered difficult to work with, and the strength of the close bond they forged (with probably more than a little help from Musk's more than $250 million in campaign contributions during the election) was widely questioned. And last week, it all ended in spectacular fashion. From X, Musk began attacking Trump and the administration for the 'big, beautiful bill'—featuring tax cuts and adding trillions to the deficit—and Trump hit right back on Truth Social, threatening to cancel all of the contracts Musk has with the federal government and pledging to sell the Tesla he bought earlier in the year when Musk brought several models to show off at the White House. And, because both of their social media accounts are public, the world watched, jeered, laughed and memed. The personal attacks have died down and, Forbes' Jeremy Bogaisky points out, it's highly unlikely that all SpaceX contracts will be canceled, considering NASA relies on the company's rockets and satellites. But Trump and Musk have again put on a breathtaking display of what not to do in business. It should be apparent that business leaders should avoid getting into an emotional fight on social media, but neither Trump nor Musk is known for doing things by the book. The feud cratered stock for each man's publicly traded companies—Musk's Tesla and Trump Media and Technology Group—and erased billions from Musk's net worth. As the dust settles, it's unclear what the long-range impact of this flameout will be. Musk was successful in getting some Republicans in Congress and ordinary people to start questioning the spending bill. And though his net worth took a beating, he remains the world's richest person. However, Musk likely will be the loser in the fight, at least in the short term. Musk's role in the Trump Administration, serving as a special government employee who gleefully and mercilessly chainsawed his way through government departments, bureaucracy and career employees, tarring many functions that had existed for generations as 'fraud,' soured the public's perception of him—and Tesla. Musk's car company was already seen to be on the decline, thanks to a series of non-political decisions he made prior to getting involved with Trump, including a pullback on an affordable model, the overly expensive albatross Cybertruck, and a new focus on self-driving taxis. Tesla deliveries and sales have been down, and Forbes' Alan Ohnsman writes that there are many areas where Trump could use federal regulations to attack Musk, including a review that could lead to his robotaxi launch being blocked, or investigations into the carmaker's technology. And many Tesla shareholders, including several union pension funds, are growing increasingly tired of Musk being in the CEO's chair at all. Many are pushing Tesla's board to replace Musk, Ohnsman writes. Nine state treasurers and comptrollers sent Tesla Chair Robyn Denholm a letter last month expressing concern about the risks to their economies if Tesla falters. Whatever happens next with Musk will determine many things for the long and short term. When society is tumultuous, people often look back to nostalgic memories—and for many around the world, Crayola has an outsized role in their childhood. I spoke with CEO Pete Ruggiero, who has worked at the creativity company for nearly a quarter century, about how they use nostalgia and creativity innovation to drive brand growth. An excerpt from our conversation is later in this newsletter. getty It's not just you; everyone is having a difficult time right now. In Q2, the Conference Board's Measure of CEO Confidence fell by 26 points, bottoming out at 34, the largest quarter-over-quarter decline since the quarterly survey began in 1976. Any score under 50, the Conference Board writes, means there were more negative than positive responses. CEOs haven't been this pessimistic since Q4 2022, when high inflation and supply chain difficulties were in full swing. CEOs' responses were pessimistic about many business factors. A total of 82% said today's economic conditions are worse than six months ago. Nearly seven in 10 said conditions in their industries are now worse than they were six months ago. And 64% expect economic conditions to get worse in the next six months. About 83% anticipate a recession in the next 12 to 18 months. The biggest concerns for CEOs in all industries are geopolitical instability, trade and tariffs, and legal and regulatory uncertainty. With all of the issues, however, most CEOs aren't anticipating a deviation from hiring plans. Just under half plan to maintain the size of their workforce, and compared with Q1, only 1% more expect a net reduction. A now hiring sign on the window of a closed Big Lots store in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. For the most part, there were no wild swings in the stock market last week. But that doesn't mean things were uneventful. Employment figures were released, showing weak private sector job growth, according to a report from ADP. The U.S. added just 37,000 private sector jobs—far short of consensus forecasts of 110,000 new positions. Small business employment was down 13,000 and manufacturing jobs were down 3,000. Chris Larkin, head of trading and investing at E-Trade, told Forbes that some tariff-related slowdowns in the market were to be expected. Trump, meanwhile, used the report to demand that the Federal Reserve 'LOWER THE RATE' for baseline interest at its meeting next week. (According to CME FedWatch, 99.9% of analysts think interest rates will not be changed.) The Labor Department's employment report was more optimistic, indicating that the U.S. added 139,000 nonfarm jobs from April to May, and the unemployment rate held steady at 4.2%. Meanwhile, the newly increased 50% tariffs on most imported steel and aluminum went into effect last Wednesday. Trump had said this increase was necessary to counter 'trade practices that undermine national security,' though it was condemned by global players including the EU and Canada. At the 2025 Forbes Iconoclast Summit last week, hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin shared his frustration with Trump's 'anti-growth' tariff agenda, which he said has 'taken their toll already on our economy.' Griffin wasn't the only one to share that sentiment last week. A report from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development warned that Trump's tariffs are likely to significantly slow down the global economy, and the U.S. will be one of the nations that is hardest hit. The Clinton Clean Energy Center in Clinton, Illinois. All technology—enterprise or not—appears to be moving toward more sophisticated AI functions. And while AI can do many things, it requires a lot of electricity. Last week, Meta made a deal to get the power it needs, signing a 20-year agreement to purchase all of the power generated at a Constellation Energy nuclear plant in Clinton, Illinois. The agreement starts in June 2027—after an existing state agreement runs out—and will expand the plant's output. Meta has prioritized finding sources of nuclear power, both with new plants and existing ones, to support its technology going forward. The company announced an RFP for nuclear energy developers in December, and says it has shortlisted potential new nuclear power resources. This is the second deal a tech company has made with Constellation to redevelop its nuclear plants for AI. In September, Microsoft announced a 20-year deal with the power provider for one of its reactors at its Three Mile Island facility in Pennsylvania (not impacted by the 1979 meltdown). Constellation has said it expects to restart the reactor by 2028. Amazon and Google have both been investing in small nuclear reactors, and Google announced an investment in three advanced nuclear energy projects by Elementl Power. These deals, coupled with four executive orders from Trump aimed at bolstering nuclear power, seem to herald a new nuclear power age in the U.S., writes Forbes senior contributor David Blackmon. In the meantime, tax incentives for renewable energy sources, including solar panels and wind turbines, are in line to be cut in Trump's latest budget. Still, Forbes senior contributor Ken Silverstein writes, renewable energy is touted by many as the fastest and least expensive way to get more power into the grid—and could also play a huge role in generating the electricity needed for the AI-driven future. Crayola CEO Pete Ruggiero. Pete Ruggiero started working at Crayola in 1997 under its previous name, Binney & Smith. In his time at the company, he's worked in operations, sourcing, supply chain and ran its European business. He was COO from 2020 until last year, when he was named CEO. I spoke with Ruggiero about the company's position at the intersection of creativity and nostalgia for consumers of all ages, and its plans for innovation and expansion. This conversation has been edited for length, clarity and continuity. A longer version is available here. What do you see as the purpose of the Crayola brand? Ruggiero: I see a brand that is ubiquitous. Wherever a consumer is experiencing a creative moment, this brand is present. I see a brand that's global in nature. It's underrepresented outside the United States, yet our brand recognition is surprisingly high in all markets. One of our initiatives is to grow Crayola to be 30% outside of the U.S. and Canada by 2030. It's competitive but we have some work to do there. This whole idea of being wherever the consumer is comes through innovation, international expansion and category expansion. We are right now held tight in what we call the 'Crayola aisle.' The consumer expects us to be in the toy aisle, the craft aisle, at checkout and other places, and we're underrepresented there. You want Crayola to be a brand that's ubiquitous whenever anybody is thinking of creating. How do you expand from what everybody thinks about—a go-to for children's art projects—while using the branding that you have and not alienating the people who have depended on you? It always comes back to the consumer and this majestic brand. You just have to look at some of the work we've been doing. Our Campaign For Creativity was our effort to understand more deeply why creativity is so important to our consumers: Why is it that nine out of 10 parents believe creativity is important for their children, and why is it that 96% of parents use color to help their children understand creativity? We used some of our artwork from the Dream Makers program, and went back to some of the artists who had created that 30 years ago to understand what creativity has meant in their lives. We get a deeper understanding of the consumer. Creativity Week is a program that we've done for the past four years. It started out as a test and we've been able to expand it this year to 44% of all school-aged children in the U.S. This was actors and artists and authors, an Olympian and astronauts all participating in bringing creativity to children. We were in 122 countries doing these programs. The nostalgia and excitement around our brand is very interesting. There's more to us than back-to-school business. We're selling year-round. When I came to this company, we started building inventory in January. We would ship everything out the door, and I'm not sure what we did with ourselves from September until December. The business model now is global and year-round. As soon as the Easter period ended, we're prepping for and shipping back-to-school. As soon as back-to-school is over, we'll be prepping for and shipping Halloween, and then the holiday season. Then we'll go back to school and Valentine's Day. We're actually going a step further to experiential retail with the Crayola Experience. We have a Crayola Experience model—Orlando, Florida, and Easton, Pennsylvania, are the lynchpins—800,000 people come through those two Crayola Experiences a year. The dwell time is three and a half hours. We've expanded that model overseas. We've already announced China and we're announcing other markets shortly. When you think about a brand that moms and teachers and dads trust and kids love and adore, and we have a parent company—Hallmark, [with a] media business, the Hallmark Channel. There's this great opportunity for us to be in more and to enter the studios business. You've seen the company for a long time and from many different viewpoints. How is it different from the CEO's office? I've worked directly for four CEOs, and I've seen five CEOs come through. Each CEO that I've had the chance to work for or with had great ideas and brought great things to this company. One of the first things I did when I became CEO was to pull out their strategic planning exercises, many of which I participated in as a member of the leadership team, and figure out those ideas that are working and those that were really good but whatever reason stalled out. That's the exciting part for me: To be able to step into the chair having seen all of the good work that previous CEOs have done, and take it to the next level. What I'm most excited about bringing to the table is a focus on a very simple strategy of next-level mindset building Crayola for the next quarter century, focused on culture, growth and diversification. The culture here is around collaboration, celebration. We try to celebrate when we win. A culture of: It's healthy to celebrate your problems. It's unhealthy to kick them under the carpet. And a culture of perpetual optimism, that if you say it out loud, it has a pretty good chance of coming to be. The last piece here is we're trying to get excellence in everything we do. As Vince Lombardi said, we're chasing perfection so that we can achieve excellence. That's a very lofty target, but we're going to be very good in things that we do. What advice would you give to other CEOs? Transparency and authenticity are the most important characteristics. Your employees have to trust you. They have to believe in what you're doing. And the only way to gain that trust is through transparency and authenticity. When things aren't good, you take accountability for it. When things are great, you're celebrating it and you're giving credit for the successes. Send us C-suite transition news at forbescsuite@ The first half of 2025 has been a workout for even the most well-prepared CEO, and it looks like things will not be calming down any time soon. To finish the year strong—in terms of both leadership and mental health—take these steps to take care of yourself and be honest with employees and investors. No matter how careful and well-intentioned you are, executives and companies can make mistakes and a public apology may be necessary. Here are some tips to make that apology in a way that is sincere and causes the least amount of brand damage. The House of Representatives passed a bill by voice vote last week that could have a big impact on small business contracts with the federal government. What would it do? A. Limit the size of contracts to $1 million per year B. Require that all contracts be written in plain language C. Require contractors to complete a short answer about how their services will further the Trump Administration's goals D. Remove all diversity requirements See if you got it right here.
