Mario Nawfal

🇾🇪🇸🇦 Was the drone incident near Mecca actually a false flag designed to pull Saudi Arabia deeper into the conflict? Brandon Weichert says he doesn’t believe the Houthis were behind it and speculates that Israel may have launched the drone to push Riyadh further into the war. At the same time, he thinks there may still be a backdoor deal available for MBS if Saudi Arabia chooses to de-escalate. If Washington is already cutting deals with the Houthis, why should Riyadh keep fighting them? @WeTheBrandon

He wanted to prove he could still hang with the kids... Writer: Sol t.co/DX0KYJJr70

🇺🇸 Rep. Massie says nobody has bothered to defend War Sec. Hegseth on the facts. He dropped impeachment articles over the Iran war. Twenty-four hours later, he said critics picked at the wording and skipped the substance. He also said the usual MAGA online chorus that rallies for Trump while cashing the checks is nowhere. Source: @RepThomasMassie / Writer: Sol t.co/nNWwEGKF6c

🇺🇸🇮🇷 CENTCOM is trying hard to prove Iran doesn't control Hormuz It claims 900 million barrels moved since early May, which sounds like a victory until somebody divides it by the days. That's about 6.7 million a day. The strait used to carry 14 million, and it did that with no warships, no minesweepers and nobody asking permission to sail. Iran never had to close the water. It only had to make it expensive, and enough of the world's tankers decided the trip wasn't worth it. Source: Al Jazeera / Writer: Daniyal

🇺🇸Trump’s handpicked Fed Chair just raised interest rates, directly defying his demands for lower borrowing costs In a UNANIMOUS decision led by Fed Chair Kevin Warsh, the Fed raised its key federal funds rate target range by a quarter point to between 3.75% and 4%. Inflation has remained above the Fed’s target for more than five years, but in recent months has crept higher… “This summer's inflation readings do not tell me that underlying trends have meaningfully improved.” The increase marks the first rate adjustment under Warsh. Handpicked or not, Warsh has made it clear he’s not going to torch his own credibility just to validate Trump. Source: NBC / Writer: Bri t.co/TTIyhJcnWw

🇱🇧🇮🇱 The IDF has released new footage from inside the tunnels beneath Lebanon’s Ali al-Taher Ridge before they were demolished. The military says the underground network stretched for more than 2 km and contained rockets, missiles, drones, anti-tank weapons and a command complex belonging to Hezbollah’s Badr Unit. Writer: Lynn t.co/4nfjcuXhB1

🇮🇷🇺🇸 Iran fired 20 missiles at a U.S base in Jordan, while America reportedly fired more than 70 interceptors trying to stop them. And some still got through. That may be one of the most alarming numbers to emerge from the war so far. According to the WSJ, the U.S fired 60–70 Patriot interceptors and more than a dozen THAAD interceptors against the attack More than three defensive missiles for every incoming one. And despite that enormous expenditure, Iran still penetrated the defenses and struck aircraft. At current production rates, replacing the Patriots expended in that one attack represents roughly a month and a half of production. Actually getting replacements delivered could take around two years because of existing backlogs. Meanwhile, Iran has reportedly shot down another MQ-9 Reaper, bringing the claimed total to 52. This is no longer simply a question of whether America can intercept Iranian missiles. It's whether America can afford to keep up with what Iran is sending its way. @WeTheBrandon

Some genius made a camera out of trash and it still produced a better photo than half the “cinematic” reels we scroll past. Writer: Daniyal t.co/fCx2JY3Q2x

🇨🇳🇺🇸🇮🇷 China could be the "adult in the room" for putting an end to the U.S.–Iran war... The fight has dragged nearly 7 months with no off-ramp, but two sides at war almost never end it alone. Beijing is the customer that still matters in Tehran: it took the bulk of Iran’s oil before the blockade and it has the stockpiles to wait while others panic. Today, FM Wang Yi sat with FM Araghchi in Beijing and told both capitals to get back to the June talks, stay rational, and reopen Hormuz. China already aided the 2023 Saudi–Iran thaw, sits on the UN Security Council, and Xi is due in Washington next week. The U.S. would like to put an end to this, and China could be the key to making it happen. Source: Al Jazeera / Writer: Samuel

🇺🇸 Thomas Massie is absolutely roasting the “Department of War” rebrand. “Enjoy your little fantasy. It’s the Department of Defense.” Congressional shade doesn’t get much cleaner than that. Source: @RepThomasMassie / Writer: Lynn t.co/6MWnxmVlAQ

🇮🇱🇵🇸 Netanyahu is threatening a MAJOR crackdown on Israelis he says are "defaming" IDF soldiers... “We will revoke the citizenship of those who defame IDF soldiers, and we will hit them financially.” The comments come amid fierce backlash over the Gaza documentary NAZA, whose Israeli directors have been accused by Netanyahu and other officials of smearing the military. Culture Minister Miki Zohar has separately called for their citizenship to be REVOKED over the film. Ridiculous!!! Go see the film when it comes out... Writer: Lynn t.co/RpMP6u3OiZ

🇱🇧 Lebanese MPs were reportedly caught using ChatGPT during a parliamentary session meant to scrutinize the government’s performance. Looks like AI is already running some governments Source: Bint Jbeil News / Writer: Lynn t.co/VSrtTr4TEM

🇬🇧 A village of 400 people just voted to LEAVE the UK because the government wants to move 1,256 foreign men in next door... Piddington sits in Oxfordshire and has no shop, no cafe and no pub. The plan is to house male asylum seekers at an old military base nearby, which works out at roughly 3 new arrivals for every person who lives there. So they held their own referendum. 92% turned out, 285 voted to leave the UK, 26 voted to stay, and they hung a sign with the village's new name outside the hall afterwards. The vote changes nothing legally and they know it. What they're actually doing is putting up their own CCTV cameras and organizing security patrols. The government was asked this week if it would drop the plan. The answer was no, because the alternative is putting those men in poorer towns that have already taken more than their share. The same base was picked for this in 2005 and dropped. 21 years on, the village has worked out that letters to the MP change nothing. Source: The Independent / Writer: Daniyal

My Life If I Were a Millionaire: Writer: Samuel t.co/cYTMSEP2Rr

🚨🇺🇸🇦🇫 One of the men prosecuted over ISIS-K activities tied to the Abbey Gate attack has just been handed the MAXIMUM 20-year sentence... Mohammad Sharifullah was convicted of a 9-year conspiracy to provide material support to ISIS-K after being extradited from Afghanistan to the U.S. The 2021 Abbey Gate bombing killed 13 U.S. service members and roughly 170 Afghans during the chaotic withdrawal from Kabul. 5 years later, the legal fallout from that day is still unfolding... Writer: Lynn t.co/dDvIPlWwPr

Look how “realistic” the water is in Insomniac's new game... This game cost $300 million... Writer: Samuel t.co/dp9aaDO0Ok

🇮🇹🇷🇺 Giorgia Meloni thinks Russia’s recent provocations are revealing something: nerves. The Italian PM says Moscow may be escalating in an attempt to shift attention away from a war that “is not going as it should.” Her comments come as NATO countries report a string of incidents involving drones, airspace violations, and other suspected Russian provocations across Europe. Meloni’s read: the louder Moscow gets, the more pressure it may be feeling... Writer: Lynn t.co/1VfAa2NndJ

🔥🇺🇸 @TomCruise just gave a sitdown interview to @GQMagazine. His first in more than 10 years! Talk about a word salad… a minute in and I have more questions than answers! 😂 t.co/YIsRKbN1xk

🇧🇷 PEEKABOO: It took one officer, one doubt, and one sharp tug on a fake wig to finally end an 80-body murder spree... Police in Brazil arrested a suspected serial killer trying to disappear... dressed as a woman. Striped dress, long black wig, sunglasses, painted nails, women's sandals... He was even carrying a 2-year-old child when they found him, and police still can't say whose it was. Then an officer pulled off the wig. The 33-year-old underneath is suspected of killing at least 15 people for organized crime groups in the past 3 months alone. He got out of prison in late May, so that's 15 bodies in his first summer as a free man. Then he started talking... He reportedly confessed to around 80 murders, the first when he was just 13-years-old. And it wasn't all talk. He walked police to where one of the bodies was buried, which is the detail that makes the rest of it hard to dismiss. The 80 body count is still being checked. If it holds, he passes Pedro Rodrigues Filho, "The Brazilian Dexter," who was convicted of killing 71. Source: NY Post / Writer: Daniyal

🇦🇪 You do not need a fortune to look rich in Dubai... You need a camera and a few tourist tickets. This clip exposes what a fake crypto millionaire actually spends. Writer: Samuel t.co/CPjwWD0FnF

Bro got scammed :( Writer: Samuel t.co/Hg5eIX9WSO

🇺🇸 Silicon Valley’s biggest names are now openly split over who should keep AI under control... Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Nvidia boss Jensen Huang are pushing back on more government regulation, saying AI companies have plenty of reason to keep their own models safe. Zuckerberg’s logic: people won’t use AI they can’t trust, and companies could face serious liability if their models cause harm. Huang says companies can move fast and stay safe at the same time. If something starts looking dangerous, stop and fix it. That puts them against Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, who wants AI development slowed, while Sam Altman is pushing for global coordination on safety. The big disagreement is : can the companies racing to build the most powerful AI also be trusted to police themselves? Source: NY Post / Writer: Daniyal

🚨🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia leaked a repair plan and the oil market treated it like the oil was already flowing... A person familiar told Bloomberg that Aramco is working around the damaged stretch of the East-West line to restore ~50% of its capacity within days. Full repairs are still pegged around 6 weeks, and nothing has been fixed yet. Markets read it as good news anyway. WTI slid off 102.50 toward 101.69, the dollar came off its high, and the S&P spiked to 7,625 before fading. That reaction only makes sense if you know what the pipe is. It had been moving about 4-5 million barrels a day to the Red Sea, so Saudi crude could skip the blocked Strait of Hormuz. When drones from Iraq hit it last week, that workaround vanished and oil ripped higher. Half capacity still leaves half of it missing, and traders bought the recovery anyway, because nothing good has come out of that region in months. Source: Bloomberg, Reuters / Writer: Daniyal

🇪🇺 Europeans when there's a political emergency, but it's Saturday and they don't have to go to the office until Monday... Writer: Samuel t.co/uxgUHQNH1w

🇺🇸🇪🇺 NATO chief Mark Rutte says Europe got far too comfortable assuming America would bring most of the firepower and pick up most of the bill. “It is neither right nor realistic to expect so much from one country, even when that country is the United States.” NATO allies have since committed to sharply higher defense spending, with the alliance moving toward a more evenly shared burden. After decades of asking Washington to carry the heavy bags, Europe is being told to grab a few itself... Writer: Lynn t.co/edBkdbKB4c

🇺🇦🇷🇺 Early voting is underway in Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine, ahead of Russia’s parliamentary elections. Armed personnel are accompanying mobile election teams as they visit residents’ homes. Footage from occupied Donetsk shows residents casting ballots near Russian servicemen and police. Moscow says the security presence is necessary because the territories remain under martial law, while Ukraine considers the elections ILLEGAL and rejects Russia’s authority to hold them in the first place. An armed escort certainly raises questions about what “free and fair” means under occupation... Writer: Lynn t.co/72utlmpyLj

🇷🇺 Putin is urging Russians to turn out for the upcoming elections, directly linking voting at home with the country’s war effort. “Victory is forged by our heroes on the battlefield,” Putin said, adding that casting a ballot is also a “responsibility and a contribution to strengthening the country.” He framed the vote as a demonstration of national unity behind Russian troops and insisted that attempts to “split and intimidate” Russia or undermine its political system will fail. For Putin, the ballot box and the battlefield are being presented as two fronts of the same national struggle. Writer: Lynn t.co/Omx6XltX2n

🇸🇬🇯🇵🇬🇧 It took 4 navies shooting at civilian ships, 1,500 uninsured tankers and talk of charging vessels to use Hormuz to make the world's shipping powers speak publicly for the first time since the 1960s. 18 countries, Greece, Japan, and Singapore among them, moving a fifth of everything traded on earth. Their warning? Shipping lanes have been turned into weapons used to squeeze one another, and if ships stop moving the world runs out... of everything. One rule has held the sea together since 1609: Mare liberum, free seas. The ocean belongs to nobody and a cargo ship is nobody's enemy. This survived two world wars, and this year Russia, Ukraine, the U.S., and Iran all shot straight through it. With that rule gone, the rule breakers moved in. Over 1,500 tankers now sail with no real insurance and no flag state that answers the phone. One was hit by an explosion off Oman this summer carrying 800,000 barrels, and Oman may end up paying for a spill from a ship it never let in. That's the opening nobody has moved on yet. Iran is close to a deal with Oman over Hormuz traffic, and the moment a fee is attached, every country sitting on a chokepoint learns the sea can be rented out. 80% of everything you own came by sea, and the countries that make it happen are telling you the system is running on nothing at all... Source: Financial Times / Writer: Daniyal

🇺🇸🇨🇳 Capitol Hill is turning the A.I. debate into one about China, with Xi coming to town next week... Where things stand: •⁠ ⁠The FBI says Beijing accounts for as much as 80% of U.S. intellectual property theft, including A.I. •⁠ ⁠Sec. Bessent told Congress the labs already have a reason to make the tech work •⁠ ⁠Trump is swatting away a tighter rulebook •⁠ ⁠Bernie Sanders and Chuck Schumer say that is the wrong bet... Writer: Samuel t.co/gm7NkfLXMQ

🇺🇸 JD Vance, speaking to voters on the All-In Podcast: "Give us another chance, or give us another couple of years to continue to work on the amazing things that we've been doing for the past 2 years." Whaddya say, America? 🤔 Writer: Michael t.co/Ara8Ehd4yp