Crypto News: ‘Why the Hindenburg had a smoking lounge’

Welcome to the weekend!

Nvidia just became the first company to achieve a $5 trillion valuation. Which company was the first to hit $4 trillion? Find out with the Pointed quiz.

Speaking of achievements, tune in to this week's episode of The Mishal Husain Show to hear Nobel Peace Prize winner and Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado talk about US military strikes and her fight for democracy.

Train your brain with today's Alphadots word puzzle, and don't miss tomorrow's Forecast on US Democrats' ideological wilderness. For unlimited access to Bloomberg.com, please subscribe.

The Lost Art of Listening

In recent weeks, the Trump administration has launched strikes on small vessels off Venezuela's coast and threatened land attacks, marking the largest US military buildup in the region since 1989. Against that backdrop, opposition leader María Corina Machado was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Barred from last year's election, she watched as her stand-in won a vote that Nicolás Maduro then claimed for himself. Now, she says, only force may bring change. "We've gone through every institutional means," Machado tells Mishal Husain. "The escalation that's taken place is the only way to make Maduro understand it's time to go."

Weekend Interview

'We Are Ready to Take Over Government'

Venezuela's opposition leader is hoping the US will help.

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The roots of Machado's anger — a free and fair election openly disregarded — expose the paradox of a nation preaching democracy while enabling its subversion. But as she appeals for US intervention, America is struggling to define its own values. Political violence is creeping into the mainstream. Trump threatens news outlets critical of him and muses about a third term. Once, free speech and peaceful power transfers were America's greatest exports, Daniel Ten Kate writes. Now, as inequality sparks youth uprisings from Indonesia to Nepal, dissidents are looking elsewhere for inspiration.

Weekend Essay

The United States Is Missing in Action on Free Speech

A new generation of dissidents is looking elsewhere for inspiration.

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There's power in listening to speech you don't agree with — and in hearing words you don't understand. The latest Apple AirPods can now translate languages in real time: Someone speaks in English, French, German, Portuguese or Spanish, and Siri instantly relays it in your native tongue. It's an inflection point for personal tech, with the potential to open up the world in new ways. But just as online maps killed the serendipity of getting lost, frictionless translation risks erasing something human, Madison Darbyshire writes — the misunderstandings that build curiosity, confidence and the resilience to navigate an imperfect world.

Weekend Essay

What We Lose When Nothing Is Lost in Translation

AirPods that translate may take away one of travel's great opportunities.

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Dispatches

Princeton, New Jersey
Before the Hindenburg exploded, its passengers smoked beneath 7 million cubic feet of hydrogen — a risk as absurd as the Titanic speeding through icebergs or NASA's launch of the Challenger despite warnings. Do we ever really learn from disasters? That question drives Edward Tenner, who returned to Princeton after three decades to teach "Understanding Disasters." His new book, Why the Hindenurg Had a Smoking Lounge, argues that catastrophe follows patterns — and that students can learn to recognize the conditions that make it possible.

Photographer: Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Belém, Brazil
The gateway to the Amazon is buzzing with anticipation. Days before hosting COP30, the world's largest climate summit, Belém is transforming fast — roads widened, parks rebuilt, and restaurants opening daily. The choice to hold COP here highlights the city's role as the entry point to the rainforest, and also the challenges it faces. Despite nearly $1 billion in investment, Belém is dealing with a population exodus as residents seek work elsewhere, reflecting the wider story of urban Amazonia: a region rich in resources but short on opportunity.

Photographer: Alessandro Falco/Bloomberg

Agree or Disagree?

AI will indulge bosses' most toxic instincts. Companies that use artificial intelligence to bolster surveillance and increase the power of managers, instead of liberating front-line workers, will suffer economically, creatively and politically.

Quitting your corporate job may be overrated. Hu Anyan churned through 19 odd jobs over two decades. His memoir, I Deliver Parcels in Beijing, concluded that life outside the corporate world isn't necessarily liberating.

Fried chicken is better without bones. KFC is the only major US chicken chain to see sales fall last year. The 73-year-old brand's focus on bone-in chicken has left it flailing among younger customers obsessed with boneless white meat.

Box Office Bombs

"We should be screaming blue murder about how human civilization is at risk. There aren't words for where we are and where we're headed."

Paul Jay

Director of the forthcoming documentary 'How to Stop a Nuclear War'

The apocalyptic political thriller A House of Dynamite is the latest entry in a growing repertoire of film, book and TV projects about nuclear war. The theme last gripped audiences during the Cold War, and is now resurfacing as crises in Ukraine, Gaza, India and Pakistan dominate front pages.

Is It Worth It?

Low-key skiing: Yes. As megapass holders swarm every lift line on Earth, the most luxurious ski vacations offer atmosphere and solitude instead of high-end amenities.

Redesigned Starbucks: Eh. The company has spent millions rehabbing its stores to foster a "cozy environment," but the share of visits over 10 minutes is shrinking.

Onitsuka Tigers: If you're trendy. Social media virality is sending tourists in Tokyo to snap up sneakers at lower prices from the 76-year-old Japanese brand.

$200 Klocke Estate brandy: Yes. The distillery and tasting room in New York's Hudson Valley has small-batch offerings in sour cherry, plum and Traminette.