A CHILLING ASSESSMENT OF THE DISINTEGRATING WORLD ORDER: the rise of autocratic regimes, erosion of traditional diplomacy, and growing influence of tech billionaires and unregulated AI "The one book you absolutely need to read in order to understand current politics" — Anne Applebaum, author of the New York Times bestseller Autocracy, Inc. Blending the internationally bestselling author’s personal insight with startling historical comparisons to the days of Machiavelli and the Spanish conquest of Mexico, Giuliano Da Empoli’s The Hour of the Predator is a timely and incisive examination of the shifting power dynamics in global politics, where traditional government institutions find themselves increasingly outmatched by technology tycoons and autocratic strongmen: geopolitical predators who shape the world through brute force, ceaseless deception, and chaotic disruption. Drawing on his experience as a political advisor to a former Italian Prime Minister, Da Empoli takes the reader on an eye-opening journey around the international political circuit—from New York to Riyadh, and from the United Nations to Mohammed bin Salman’s Ritz-Carlton— and through the looking glass to a world of ruthless power struggles, where the tech lords already seem to inhabit another world and AI is already out of control. The Hour of the Predator is the latest book from the internationally bestselling author of The Wizard of the Kremlin , which has been translated into thirty-five languages and is now being adapted for a major movie by Olivier Assayas starring Jude Law as Vladimir Putin.

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I Have Some Questions for the Democrats Who Want to Run California

On Friday, I moderated a forum with the top Democratic candidates for California governor, focusing on the state’s housing crisis. California’s current governor, Gavin Newsom, came into office in 2019 promising to build millions of homes. And in the years since, dozens of pro-housing laws have passed, designed to cut red tape and spur more construction. And yet the number of homes being built in California is basically the same as when he took office, and the state’s housing crisis remains, arguably, the worst in the country. So I wanted to know what the next governor would do about it. We taped this at the Calvin Simmons Theater in Oakland, Calif. The candidates on the stage were Xavier Becerra, a former attorney general of California and health and human services secretary under President Joe Biden; Matt Mahan, the mayor of San Jose and a tech entrepreneur; Katie Porter, a former U.S. representative; Tom Steyer, a former San Francisco hedge fund manager, a climate activist and a philanthropist; and Antonio Villaraigosa, a former mayor of Los Angeles and speaker of the California State Assembly. This panel was recorded live. The Times did not fact-check candidates’ remarks.

Books recommended:

• 📕  The Hour of the Predator: Encounters with the Autocrats and Tech Billionaires Taking Over the World by Giuliano da Empoli, Sam Taylor
• 📘  Rain of Gold by Villasenor
• 📗  Yesteryear: A GMA Book Club Pick: A Novel by Caro Claire Burke
• 📙  Why Nothing Works: Who Killed Progress―and How to Bring It Back by Marc J. Dunkelman

Xavier Becerra , Matt Mahan , Katie Porter , Tom Steyer , Antonio Villaraigosa May 12, 2026 4 books recommended

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