America’s government looked set to shut down within hours, after Senate Democrats voted against a Republican-backed spending bill that would have kept the government open beyond an impending deadline.
Pavel Durov is the founder and CEO of Telegram.
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See below for timestamps, transcript, and to give feedback, submit questions, contact Lex, etc.
OUTLINE:
(00:00) – Introduction
(02:46) – Sponsors, Comments, and Reflections
(11:29) – Philosophy of freedom
(14:37) – No alcohol
(22:42) – No phone
(28:38) – Discipline
(49:50) – Telegram: Lean philosophy, privacy, and geopolitics
(1:05:12) – Arrest in France
(1:21:23) – Romanian elections
(1:32:18) – Power and corruption
(1:41:50) – Intense education
(1:53:51) – Nikolai Durov
(1:58:19) – Programming and video games
(2:02:33) – VK origins & engineering
(2:19:46) – Hiring a great team
(2:29:02) – Telegram engineering & design
(2:48:04) – Encryption
(2:53:01) – Open source
(2:57:48) – Edward Snowden
(3:00:20) – Intelligence agencies
(3:01:32) – Iran and Russia government pressure
(3:04:41) – Apple
(3:11:38) – Poisoning
(3:43:53) – Money
(3:52:45) – TON
(4:02:35) – Bitcoin
(4:05:34) – Two chairs dilemma
(4:12:14) – Children
(4:23:24) – Father
(4:27:55) – Quantum immortality
(4:34:27) – Kafka
"Dodgers to Damascus," by Catherine Nixon Cooke, documents David Lesch's work in Syria and the Middle East, a part of the world plagued by conflict, power struggles, and warfare. It offers a firsthand glimpse inside modern Syria, its neighboring countries, and their connections to the rest of the world.array(3) {
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Government shutdown looking like a reality as Senate can't agree on funding resolutions. During Defense Secretary's meeting with military leaders, President Trump says military can use U.S. cities as training grounds. Purge at the FBI.
CBS News Correspondent Jennifer Keiper with tonight's World news Roundup.
While the stock market appears unconcerned about potential red flags in this economy, the bond market's a bit more cautious. As Washington nears a shutdown and the labor market flags, Treasury yields are ticking down. But demand for those safer, long-term bonds hasn’t been uniform. Plus: Trump adds to existing tariffs on Canadian lumber, OpenAI wades into e-commerce waters, and Abha Bhattarai at the Washington Post talks about the “stuck economy.”
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We talk with KJ Steinberg, showrunner of Hulu’s The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox, about concentrating on Knox’s perspective while still showing how others perceived her, and the legal tightropes that shaped the series. She details the refracted structure (episodes from the prosecutor’s to the co-defendant’s POVs) and why the story follows Knox through re-entry. As she puts it, “the echoes of trauma are loud and long.” Also: Israel’s hostage ethos, why twenty remaining names can command a nation’s focus, contrasted with how Americans register their own wrongfully detained citizens. Plus: SecDef Pete Hegseth’s “Semper Shorntis” beard decree.
The United Nations has appealed to the Taliban to immediately restore telecommunications across Afghanistan. UN officials said the ban had far-reaching consequences, including on the banking and financial systems. Access to emergency services and medical care has also been hit. Mobile phone services are still not working and many flights have been cancelled. We'll hear from an Afghan activist about the impact this will have on daily life, and our chief International Correspondent Lyse Doucet.
Also in the programme: the US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth declares a war on woke in the military; and scientists have made early stage human embryos from DNA taken from skin cells, raising the prospect of new fertility treatments.
(Picture: Telecom antennas stand on a mountain amid service shutdown across the country in Kabul, Afghanistan, September 30, 2025. Credit: Sayed Hassib/REUTERS)