Two Titans of Silicon Valley, one prize, dominance in the world of artificial intelligence.

Supremacy is the real story behind the struggle to own our digital future and potentially the very nature of human experience.

Supremacy by Parmy Olson, described as a riveting tale by the new scientist, winner of the Financial Times Business Book of the Year, and now the Waterstone's nonfiction book of the month.

Listen to the audiobook of Supremacy Now.

Hello and welcome back to the Americano show where we talk about power, politics and prejudices in American life.

Every week we will talk to at least one or two or possibly three or four American experts, international experts about American affairs.

And you can also catch us on Spectator TV on YouTube as often as you like.

Please keep listening and watching.

Today we are going to be talking about Washington, D.C.

and asking, how dangerous is it?

Because, as most of the world has seen by now, Donald Trump declared an emergency in Washington

and has ordered a huge clampdown on crime and illegal immigration.

How necessary was this? There are some doubts, but we are joined by two, well, one Washington, D.C. resident, our very own Matt McDonald, who is, what are you, executive? What are you these days? Managing editor. Managing editor. I should know. Still. I should know. It keeps changing. And delighted to be joined down the line by Isaac Short, who is an ex-D.C. resident currently in another part of America. But Isaac, you wrote a brilliant piece for the spectators week that's got a lot of pick-up about what it was like to live in D.C. and how since the pandemic, after the pandemic, felt and became a lot more

dangerous. Tell us a little bit about how you felt about living in D.C. Absolutely. So I interned in

D.C. for two years in college in the summers, the summers of 2018 and 2019, and I absolutely

loved it. Couldn't have had a better experience.

Never ever really felt unsafe. I mean, you know, D.C. has always had a little bit of a crime

problem, but it was nothing that you couldn't manage. It wasn't, it didn't bleed as much

into the nicer neighborhoods. But when I went back there and I was work, I worked in D.C. for two years, it was just

completely different. Downtown completely emptied after the pandemic. And what you saw was kind of

all the criminal elements moving into downtown, moving into the nicer areas. You had a massive

carjacking problem. Homicides were way up. Violent crime was way up. Petty crime was way up.

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