French President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday said that the notion of free speech on social media platforms – is “pure bullshit,” because algorithmically served content can lead to hate speech (such as the right to say his elderly wife has a penis and gives him black eyes).

The comments come after the US recently imposed bans on a former European official and pro-censorship activists for trying to police online speech, while US Secretary of State Marco Rubio justifies the moves as pushback against the “global censorship-industrial complex.” 

Europe, including Germany and the UK, have been weighing social media bans for minors, a move that could impact critical advertising revenue for companies and platforms such as Meta, TikTok, YouTube, Snap, X, and others. 

“Having no clue about how their algorithm is made, how it’s tested, trained and where it will guide you — the democratic consequences of this bias could be huge,” Macron said in New Delhi on Wednesday, Bloomberg reports.

“Some of them claim to be in favor of free speech — OK, we are in favor of free algorithms — totally transparent,” he continued. “Free speech is pure bullshit if nobody knows how you are guided to this so-called free speech, especially when it is guided from one hate speech to another.”

French President Macron:

Free speech is a pure bullshit if nobody knows how you are guided through this so-called free speech—especially when it is to be guided from one hated speech to another hated speech.

I just want to have a transparent road through these different… pic.twitter.com/pFAQ62SsxU

— Clash Report (@clashreport) February 18, 2026

Earlier this month, Macron said he expects a battle with the Trump administration over the bloc’s regulation of digital services, and that countries such as France and Spain could be punished if they move forward with proposed social media bans for children. 

The Trump administration has vowed to oppose efforts by foreign nations to “censor our discourse” or otherwise limit free speech that has been used to disadvantage anti-immigration political parties, and that the US would foster “resistance to Europe’s current trajectory within European nations.” 

Vice President JD Vance, speaking last year at the Munich Security Conference, accused the EU of suppressing free speech and said Europe’s retreat from its fundamental values was a bigger threat to the continent than Russia or China. Calling Trump Washington’s “new sheriff,” Vance slammed attempts to moderate speech on social media.

Some EU officials were concerned that the US was using free speech as a pressure point to cow the bloc into softening its regulation of technology platforms, Bloomberg reported earlier. -Bloomberg

JUST IN: Vice President JD Vance rips European leaders to their faces at the Munich security conference, calls them out for criminalizing free speech.

🔥🔥

Vance specifically called out the United Kingdom for being the worst of them all.

“I wish I could say that this was a… pic.twitter.com/1bj9TKxP4q

— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) February 14, 2025

In response, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said that freedom of speech ends with hate speech.

German Chancellor Merz slams JD Vance:

The battle of cultures of MAGA in the U.S. is not ours.

Freedom of speech here ends where the words spoken are directed against human dignity and our Basic Law.

We do not believe in tariffs and protectionism, but in free trade. pic.twitter.com/fEn95nRRwk

— Clash Report (@clashreport) February 13, 2026

Hilariously, Bloomberg highlighted Elon Musk slamming Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, when he wrote “Dirty Sánchez is a tyrant and traitor to the people of Spain.” 

As the FT’s Stephen Bush opines regarding the UK’s push:

Children are a lot like terrorists, and I don’t mean that as a commentary on their behaviour. I mean that being defined as one in a liberal democracy means that you lose at least some of the rights and freedoms that other citizens take for granted. Your freedom to marry who you want, to work or not work, to vote, to seek or not consent to medical procedures; these and many other rights granted to adults are curtailed for anyone the state defines as a child. 

Another way in which they are like terrorists is that invoking children is a good way to get people to stop asking difficult questions and arguing against policy proposals. One big reason why banning under-16s from social media is taking off as a policy idea is that it is more palatable than banning all of us. But it is far from clear that any of us are well served by algorithms that dish up addictive material, violent pornography or endless footage of atrocities. Nor is it clear that “protecting” the under-16s will not make 16, 17 and 18-year-olds more vulnerable. The large number of first-time internet users who are taken in by fraud or are susceptible to harmful behaviour online, suggests that all it may do is move the problem along. 

Meanwhile…

This is what authorities in France should be focused on https://t.co/h8os2PYZXb

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 3, 2026

Authored by Kristin Robbins via RealClearPolitics,

In my testimony before the Senate last week as chair of the Minnesota House Fraud Prevention and Oversight Committee, I outlined the genesis of Minnesota’s massive fraud scandal, how it expanded under relaxed COVID-era rules, and what steps the federal government can take to help stop the theft of federal tax dollars throughout the country.  

Minnesota’s fraud crisis didn’t happen overnight; it took years. But it exploded when COVID hit, right when oversight was thrown out the window.

How did Minnesota get so bad? In March 2020, Democrat Rep. Ilhan Omar authored a bill called the MEALS Act, which eventually became part of a larger COVID relief package. That law allowed states to waive the normal eligibility requirements for the National School Lunch Program. It eliminated income requirements and site inspections and expanded distribution methods. This opened the door for Feeding Our Future, which became the largest COVID fraud scandal in state and national history, stealing at least $250 million from taxpayers. To date, there have been 78 indictments and 61 convictions, with more cases headed to trial this spring.

This was organized, deliberate theft, enabled by weak controls, refusal to take multiple reports of fraud from whistleblowers and the legislative auditor seriously, and a government culture that refused to treat fraud like a crime.

The Feeding Our Future case revealed something even more disturbing: As many as half of the defendants were also receiving state money through other Medicaid-funded programs. But even after that became public back in 2023, Tim Walz and his agencies did nothing to stop those defendants from receiving additional state dollars.

Billions of federal COVID dollars didn’t start the staggering fraud in Minnesota, but that did supercharge a system that had already been compromised.

The original fraud scandal was tied to the Child Care Assistance Program, a federal program meant to help low-income families with children. There had been allegations of fraud reported with CCAP since 2011. By 2014 and 2015, there were raids, charges, and convictions of child care providers for billing non-existent or absent children, often exceeding $1 million in fraud in a single case.

Then in March and April of 2019, just months into the Walz administration, the legislative auditor published two major reports outlining CCAP fraud. Those reports detailed fraudulent providers and alleged movement of millions of dollars in cash out of Minnesota to Somalia, including allegations that some of that money was funding terrorism.

Whistleblowers have told us that shortly after those reports were released, the Department of Human Services shut down the criminal investigation unit for child care fraud.

Rather than pursuing fraud as a crime, the Walz administration began renaming fraud as “overpayment.” Cases were routed to an internal “overpayment committee” to decide whether reimbursement should even be pursued. Staff were no longer allowed to speak with their counterparts at the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension without supervisor approval.

Our committee has now uncovered fraud in multiple Medicaid programs, including autism centers, sober homes, non-emergency medical transportation, integrated community supports, and housing stabilization services.

In December, we held a hearing on credible allegations of fraud in two additional areas: adult day services and assisted living facilities. We have now seen allegations of fraud in 14 Medicaid programs. It is staggering.

The former first U.S. attorney who led these prosecutions estimated fraud at $9 billion, and that doesn’t include fraud in SNAP or child care programs.

Minnesotans expect their tax dollars to go toward roads, schools, health care, and public safety, not to fund criminals purchasing resorts in Kenya and luxury homes and cars. Even more alarming are the allegations that Minnesota taxpayer dollars have made their way into the hands of terrorist organizations like Al-Shabaab, directly or indirectly. The money is literally flown out in suitcases from the Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport.

In 2017, estimates suggested $100 million in cash left annually. According to TSA, outbound cash was $342 million in 2024 and $350 million in 2025. That is astonishing. And it is wildly disproportionate compared to other airports. Minneapolis’ outbound cash is 99% higher than Dallas, Atlanta, LAX, and JFK, and 90% higher than Seattle.

So where do we go from here? 

Minnesotans are right to be outraged, and I hope other states learn from Minnesota’s failures.

We need a culture that treats fraud as a crime, not as “overpayment.”

We need to standardize and enforce basic internal controls. Both federal and state government need to require documentation, not attestation, to verify eligibility.

We need more audits and stronger oversight.

We need the federal government to enforce existing laws requiring states to pay back funds within one year when fraud or “overpayment” is found. We need more resources at the U.S. Attorney’s Office and CMS to investigate these cases. And we need stronger federal authority to track and investigate large sums of cash leaving our country.

We need leaders willing to stand up to this injustice and protect the most vulnerable.

Citizens in Minnesota and throughout the country deserve better. The time for accountability and justice is now.

Kristin Robbins has served in the Minnesota House of Representatives since 2019 and is chair of the Minnesota Fraud Committee.

Despite slumping sentiment surveys, ‘hard’ data continues to suggest the US economy is ticking along nicely with Industrial Production surging 0.7% MoM in January (better than the +0.4% MoM expected and well up from the downward revised +0.2% MoM in December).

This is the 3rd straight monthly increase in Industrial Production, lifting growth to 2.3% YoY – the best annual growth since Sept 2022…

Source: Bloomberg

Under the hood, US Manufacturing output rose 0.6% MoM (better than the +0.4% MoM expected and best monthly gain since Feb 2025)…

Source: Bloomberg

That is the fast annual growth in manufacturing since Feb 2022.

Capacity Utilization rose to 76.2% (below expectations),m extending the positive trend since the start of Trump’s term…

Source: Bloomberg

Finally, circling back to the ‘soft’ survey data we noted at the beginning, we note that ISM Manufacturing exploded higher in January (after decoupling from hard data all year)…

Does make you wonder whether any of these surveys are real? Or did the Democrats being interviewed finally throw in the towel on the doomsaying?

It would appear that homebuilders are desperately hoping for a ‘Field of Dreams’ year…

After seeing existing home sales collapse in January (not driven by the winter storms), US Housing Starts and Building Permits rose dramatically more than expected in December (+6.2% MoM vs +1.1% exp and +4.3% MoM vs +0.4% MoM exp respectively)…

Additionally, Housing Starts rose as Home Builders confidence crumbled (and Future Sales expectations dropped)…

The surprise monthly surge lifted the SAAR totals for both housing sector data points to multi-month highs…

Breaking down the headline data shows that multi-family building permits and housing starts soared (+18.1% MoM and +10.1% MoM respectively) while Single-Family Building Permits tumbled 1.7% MoM while single-family starts rose for the 3rd straight month…

However, the pace of construction continues to decline on a year-over-year basis.

Growth in permit demand was most robust in the Northeast and West, two of the more volatile regions.

Finally, the inventory of new homes for sale remains a significant headwind for residential construction activity.

While mortgage rates have fallen, perhaps prompting the homebuilders to take advantage…

…the fact that rate-cut expectations have tumbled suggests they ‘they will not come’ anytime soon, no matter how much you build.

Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky has increasingly made his frustrations with the Trump administration public, but he may have just crossed the line with the US President, who Zelensky admits can be tough and unbending.

Zelensky has newly complained amid the latest Geneva trilateral talks that the US delegation could pressure him to make “unsuccessful decisions” and he is urging Washington to back off, even using expletives to make his point.

For starters, he claims that the Ukrainian public won’t let him cede territory to Russia for the sake of peace even if he wanted to, as we highlighted previously.

But the latest colorful verbal broadside, cited by Axios on Tuesday as Russian and Ukrainian delegations convened in Geneva, saw Zelensky take direct aim at the head of Moscow’s negotiating team, Vladimir Medinsky. Kiev’s frustration at the state of dialogue has been boiling over.

Medinsky has argued – along with numerous Russian officials, including President Vladimir Putin – that the conflict’s historical roots must be addressed as part of any settlement, especially given the bulk of the Ukrainian population in the east (Donbas) has always been Russian speaking and looked to Moscow historically.

Zelensky dismissed that approach outright:

“We don’t have time for all this shit,” he told the outlet. “So we have to decide, and have to finish the war.”

Source: Al Jazeera/AP

Regardless, the Kremlin has lately made clear its aims to take the full Donbas either through talks or by force. Ukraine’s military still holds 10% of the Donbas, however, and Kiev is rejecting a US proposal for it to draw back its forces as part of a conflict freeze leading to settlement. 

The White House this month has finally appeared to be ratcheting up the pressure directly on Zelensky to make some kind of serious land concession.

This was evident in the latest comments by President Trump on the topic of Geneva issued near the start of the week. Frustration with Kiev was evident when he told reporters aboard Air Force One, “Well, we have big talks.” He stated that “It’s going to be very easy. I mean, look, so far, Ukraine better come to the table fast. That’s all I’m telling you.”

Zelensky after this bitterly complained that it’s ‘not fair’ for Trump to take aim at Ukraine and not Russia, and suggested maybe it’s simply easer for Trump to do this given he doesn’t want to upset the far larger, more formidable country.

Meanwhile, Medinsky has said Wednesday that the U.S.-mediated peace talks in Geneva had been “difficult but business-like, and that a new round of talks would be held soon,” according to Reuters.