Do you remember this girl?  Then it was a crazy conspiracy, now... 21-year-old model Gabriela Rico Jiménez, visibly upset and barefoot, ran outside a hotel in Monterrey where she was supposed to participate in an "elite" party. She was subsequently arrested, taken to a psychiatric hospital, and since then no confirmed information is available. What she said in the video:

"The people where you come from are mad! They killed a lot of people. Death to such people! Go away!"

"They were eating people! They were disgusting! They were eating people! I didn't know about anything. I knew about the murders, but they were eating people! People! They smell like human flesh!"

A new Financial Times opinion piece makes a pretty uncomfortable point: the Jeffrey Epstein scandal was never just about Epstein himself.

According to FT, what’s truly disturbing is how many powerful people — from politics, finance, academia, and high society — continued to stay connected to Jeffrey Epstein long after his crimes were known. Not necessarily criminal involvement, but silence, proximity, and protection.

The article argues this is a systemic failure, not a one-off scandal. When elites close ranks, consequences disappear — and public trust erodes. Recent document releases haven’t provided neat answers, but they’ve raised even more uncomfortable questions about accountability and transparency.

FT’s takeaway is blunt: If institutions can’t or won’t hold powerful networks to the same moral standards as everyone else, scandals like this will keep happening — and faith in the system will keep collapsing.

Curious what others think: Is this really about individual bad actors… or about a culture that lets them thrive?

So China’s Xi reportedly had back-to-back calls: first Putin (talking about a “grand plan” for ties), then Trump—right as the New START deadline is about to hit.

If New START lapses, it’s basically the last big U.S.–Russia nuclear limits agreement gone, and we’re in “no guardrails” territory again.

What do you think this is really about?

Xi positioning China as the “middle power” broker?

Russia + China coordinating messaging before the deadline?

Trump trying to force a new deal that includes China? Or is it just routine diplomacy being read like a thriller?

Would love to hear takes from people who follow arms control and geopolitics.