Mario Nawfal

🇸🇦 Ali Shihabi thinks talk of Saudi Arabia facing an “existential” crisis is badly overdone. He pushed back especially hard on reports portraying MBS as moving from bunker to bunker. “Existentialism is a big word and we’re nowhere near anything like that.” His argument is that Saudi Arabia still has something Iran and the Houthis lack: the ability to repair damaged infrastructure quickly, backed by deep engineering capacity and access to global supply chains. The war can hurt tourism, confidence and investment. But Shihabi sees a major difference between disruption and systemic danger. And on the possibility of other Gulf states helping Saudi Arabia against the Houthis, he doesn’t rule it out at all. @aliShihabi

🇷🇺 The RUSSIAN BOT STORY is almost too perfect for some people. Adam Kinzinger says his haters have disappeared. Conor Rogers thinks a bot army was supposed to push the Talarico story until Ukraine blew it up. Apparently, Ukraine bombed a few Russian data centers and suddenly everyone's political opponents stopped being real people. 😅 Here's the hilarious part. The viral numbers largely concern Yandex, Russia's equivalent of Google. The disappearing "bots" were primarily automated web crawlers, not some proven army of Kremlin trolls running American political discourse. But why bother understanding what a data center does when you can convince yourself that everyone who disagrees with you is secretly operating out of Moscow? It's the perfect theory. You never have to consider that actual human beings might dislike your opinions. And if someone calls you out for spreading nonsense? Well, obviously that's another Russian bot. Source: @officialrnintel / Writer: Oliver

🇸🇦🇮🇷 Ali Shihabi says Saudi Arabia never wanted this war. His view is that Riyadh warned Washington it would become exactly the kind of regional mess we’re seeing now. “The kingdom was very, very clear… it did not want the war.” Shihabi believes the Trump administration badly misjudged how quickly the conflict could be contained, while Gulf states understood from the start that they would be among the easiest targets if things spiraled. And his verdict on the war itself is unusually blunt: “It was not a smart decision.” He still thinks Iran’s economic pain will eventually force some kind of deal. America made the decision, and the Gulf is living with the consequences. @aliShihabi

🇸🇦🇾🇪 Saudi Arabia is investigating how a Houthi missile and drone barrage managed to get through its air defenses and hit Riyadh’s main international airport, killing at least 13 people and wounding more than 300. Early findings suggest the attack was coordinated: multiple drones were launched first, apparently to help clear a path for cruise and ballistic missiles that followed. Investigators are now looking at why Saudi defenses failed to intercept them, and why there wasn’t an earlier warning despite the weapons traveling more than 1,000 kilometers. And this is moving beyond a Saudi-Houthi fight. Saudi officials want the U.S. to become directly involved against the Houthis. Washington is already providing intelligence, targeting and planning support, but has so far stopped short of carrying out strikes itself. Trump now says that could change. Asked whether the U.S. might join Saudi strikes against the Houthis, he said: “We may. We’re going to look at it.” A Houthi attack getting through Saudi defenses and killing civilians at Riyadh airport may now be pushing Washington toward direct military involvement in Yemen. Source: AP / Writer: Oliver

🇾🇪🇸🇦 Saudi-backed government troops recorded themselves in contact with Houthi fighters on the western edge of Taiz, in Yemen. Clashes around the city have stayed intense; both sides try to lock down the surrounding hills and access roads. Government units say they have pushed back attacks and retaken some ground, while the Houthis say they have moved closer and increased the squeeze on Taiz. The front is still shifting, and each side is putting out its own version. Writer: Lucas t.co/JyY0ZlbSV7

🇹🇷🇸🇦 Erdogan says Turkey stands with Saudi against the Houthi attacks on Riyadh, as if the alliance they signed isn’t supposed to respond together “Turkey stands with Saudi Arabia and our Saudi brothers and sisters in the face of these unlawful and inhumane attacks.” The Houthis hit King Khalid Airport again over the weekend, killing at least a dozen and wounding hundreds. Turkey, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia have already activated their Mecca pact and discussed rapid deployment. Still, Ankara has so far limited itself to defensive and technical help and ruled out any offensive role. Writer: Lucas t.co/uFvE3NFoKu

🇸🇦🇮🇷 One claim I’ve heard repeatedly is that Gulf states are paying Iran to get oil through the Strait of Hormuz. Ali Shihabi flatly rejected that, at least when it comes to Saudi Arabia. “Saudi Arabia is not paying anything to the Iranians.” If Riyadh were paying Tehran for safe passage, it would make little sense for Iran to keep attacking tankers. What he does confirm is that moving oil has become enormously more expensive, with tanker costs surging and Saudi Arabia increasingly relying on its own fleet and alternative export routes. So even if the “Saudi transit fee” story is wrong, Hormuz is still extracting a price. Just not necessarily the one people think. @aliShihabi

🇮🇶🇺🇸🇮🇷 Kurdish officials warn the U.S. withdrawal leaves Erbil, in Iraq, exposed to Iranian drones and missiles, with no reliable replacement for American air defenses. Kurdish MP Jamal Kochar says U.S. systems protected nearby cities and deterred strikes on oil and government infrastructure. Iraq ordered 8 South Korean KM-SAM II batteries in a $2.8B deal in 2024, but it’s still unclear when they’ll actually show up and be ready to use. For now, the gap remains. Writer: Lucas t.co/T4nwJT24zm

🇸🇦🇾🇪 BREAKING: LARGE FIRES are reportedly burning in RIYADH, Saudi Arabia, following a ballistic missile attack by Yemen's ANSARALLAH movement. Residents previously reported missiles overhead and at least three explosions across the capital. The locations of the fires, extent of the damage, and possible casualties remain unconfirmed. Some sources claim this fire is from the attack 2 days ago against Riyadh We have not yet been able to verify the veracity of this video Source: NAYA, Alibk3 on TG / Writer: Oliver

Your Model 3 can now do a lot more than get you there. Plug in Tesla’s Powershare outlet adapter and the car can send up to 2.4 kW straight from its battery to whatever you need. Power tools. Camping gear. A fridge. Lights. An e-bike. No extra home setup. Just plug into the charge port and use the battery you already paid for. @Tesla @TeslaEnergy / Writer: Annette, Designer: Janné

🇾🇪 Houthi media claims its forces have "secured districts" west of Taiz, in Yemen, after PUSHING government-aligned units out. The area’s high ground overlooks key routes into the city. Both sides claim advances and recaptures, but independent confirmation remains limited. The practical effect has been tighter pressure on the remaining routes around Taiz rather than a settled front line. Writer: Lucas t.co/lYZZ5gV8vt

🇸🇦🇾🇪 With Houthi missiles hitting Saudi airports and oil facilities, I've been hearing increasingly dramatic predictions about the future of the kingdom. So I wanted to hear from Ali Shihabi, who knows the Saudi leadership and advises on the NEOM project. He pushed back hard. Shihabi acknowledges that Saudi Arabia is vulnerable. It's a huge country with oil installations, pipelines and airports that are difficult to defend simultaneously. But he argues the kingdom has something the Houthis and Iran don't: the money, engineering expertise and international supply chains to repair damage and sustain a prolonged confrontation. We also disagreed about how this war began. I questioned whether Saudi Arabia's decision to bomb the runway at Sana'a airport had triggered a disastrous escalation. Shihabi insists the strike was intended to prevent Iranian military supplies from reaching the Houthis, and believes the confrontation was coming regardless. What interested me most was his position on the wider war. Despite defending Saudi Arabia's military response in Yemen, he says Riyadh opposed America's war against Iran from the beginning. “It was not a smart decision.” And while he expects a negotiated settlement with Iran, he believes MBS is determined to keep fighting the Houthis rather than accept their ability to threaten the Red Sea. It's a revealing perspective from someone close to the Saudi establishment, particularly when so many others are predicting the kingdom's defeat. @aliShihabi

🇬🇧🇮🇷 Iran may have just brought its war with America onto BRITISH SOIL Think about the magnitude of this. Britain's Prime Minister says the Revolutionary Guards were almost certainly behind a suspected attack plot at RAF Fairford, the very base American bombers have used to strike Iran. The threat was serious enough that the U.S. pulled its B-1 bombers out of Britain. 7 men were arrested. London has now summoned Iran's ambassador and sanctioned two more Iranians, including a senior IRGC intelligence official. We're talking about a suspected Iranian-directed operation against American military assets inside a NATO country. And that changes the conversation entirely. If Tehran is willing to take the fight to American forces stationed in Britain, how far beyond the Middle East does this war actually extend? Source: UK Foreign Office , Iran international ( Anti- IRGC outlet) / Writer: Oliver

🇺🇸 The Pentagon has disclosed a SECURITY BREACH affecting more than 3 MILLION PEOPLE, including military personnel, veterans and others connected to the Defense Department. ABSOLUTELY WILD that an institution responsible for some of America's MOST SENSITIVE INFORMATION could leave millions of people's personal records EXPOSED for months! The exposed information includes Social Security numbers, dates of birth and, in some cases, military occupational details. According to officials, unauthorized users accessed the system between October 2025 and July 2026. And here's what really bothers me. The Pentagon says it has no indication the information has been misused. But once someone's Social Security number and military details have been exposed, there's no simple way to take that information back. Affected individuals are being offered identity protection services, including up to 12 months of credit monitoring. For personal information that could remain sensitive for the rest of their lives. Source: Fox News / Writer: Oliver

“No signal” might become one of those things we eventually forget used to happen. SpaceX is moving to acquire nationwide low-band spectrum licenses in the U.S. Low-band is the useful stuff for phones: it travels farther and gets through walls, trees and difficult terrain much better. Cities. Highways. Farms. Mountains. Remote areas. Pair that with Starlink Gen 2 satellites and ordinary phones can stay connected across far more of the map. Do that globally and Starlink becomes a communications layer reaching people almost wherever they go. @Starlink @SpaceX / Writer: Annette, Designer: Janné

🇺🇸 Americans can bet on elections, but most want nothing to do with it. A new poll found 69% of Democrats and 61% of Republicans oppose betting on election results. And there's a reason for the concern. The big fear is insiders cashing in early, and researchers flagged more than 150 Polymarket accounts that may have traded on military secrets. The companies insist they have strong controls to stop that kind of thing. Still, it’s one of the rare things both parties agree on. Source: Reuters / Writer: Daniyal

🇹🇷🇸🇦🇵🇰 Turkey is sending its defense pact with Saudi Arabia and Pakistan to parliament FOR APPROVAL The deal works like NATO’s Article 5, meaning an attack on one counts as an attack on all. And the timing says a lot. Houthis just attacked Riyadh’s airport, and Erdogan made a point of condemning it too. It’s quite the team on paper, with Saudi money, Pakistan’s nuclear weapons, and Turkey, which has NATO’s second-largest army. Nobody knows yet if Turkey and Pakistan would actually send jets or troops to help, but for now, they’re lining up behind Saudi Arabia, at least on paper. Source: Reuters / Writer: Daniyal

🇸🇦🇾🇪 Apparently it stayed at 3 explosions in RIYADH, Saudi Arabia, for now. Reports say the SKIES ARE CLEAR. Source: Reuters, GeoPolitics Watch on TG / Writer: Oliver

🇸🇦🇾🇪 3 explosions have reportedly been heard in Riyadh, according to eyewitnesses on the ground. The reports follow missile alerts across the capital, with residents claiming to have seen missiles overhead. It's not yet clear whether the explosions were caused by interceptions or direct impacts. Source: GeoPolitics Watch, MES on TG / Writer: Oliver

🚨🇫🇷 France's Marine Le Pen is polling at a commanding 36% ahead of the 2027 presidential election! A new poll puts left-wing Jean-Luc Mélenchon at 18%, while former PM Philippe trails at 13%. But if former PM Gabriel Attal also runs, the center-right vote splits further, with Attal polling at just 5%. Le Pen's 36% is the highest figure in this first-round scenario, but a presidential victory would still require winning a runoff. Source: @europeelects / Writer: Samuel

🇸🇦🇾🇪 BREAKING: Missile alerts are reportedly sounding across Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Residents say they can see missiles in the skies above the capital. It remains unclear what has been launched, where the missiles are heading. Active air defenses reported. Apparently explosions have been heard! Source: GeoPolitics Watch on TG, @officialrnintel / Writer: Oliver

🇺🇦🇷🇺 Zelensky: "Although the Russians outnumber us by 6 to 8 times in some areas of the front, we are still achieving the results Ukraine needs." At some point, we need to stop asking whether Ukraine can hold another village and start asking what the actual plan is. Because telling soldiers to keep performing miracles is not an answer to being outnumbered 8 to 1. Writer: Oliver t.co/0CrHAWYPnQ

🇺🇸 Federal agents just wrapped up a 5-hour search of Ilhan Omar’s home near Washington, DC. The search is part of a federal criminal investigation, with sources saying investigators are looking into immigration paperwork her late father filled out when she arrived in the U.S. as a child refugee from Somalia. So far, no charges have been announced, and there's still no word on where Omar is. Writer: Daniyal t.co/bkKfeG5ac5

🇺🇸 A judge has ordered Trump’s administration to pull TV ads paid for by taxpayers. The ads praise Trump ahead of next month’s midterms, and critics from both parties call them political propaganda. They’ve already cost around $19 million in public money, some of it taken from funds meant for border security. So a watchdog group sued, and a federal judge has now frozen the ads for 2 weeks and ordered the rest canceled. Trump calls them “rather standard” and says he’ll pay for future ads himself, but the White House has no plans to pay back what’s already spent. That $19 million is gone, and taxpayers aren’t getting it back. Source: Sky News / Writer: Daniyal

On this episode of the Roundtable, the panel discussed Bitcoin’s evolving role in DeFi, the rise of AI agents and autonomous financial transactions, growing institutional adoption, and how tokenization and blockchain infrastructure could reshape the future of finance. Special thanks to @GVNRDAO for joining the discussion and sharing how Governor is bringing DeFi to native Bitcoin through Diamond Hands, allowing holders to borrow against their BTC without wrapping it or transferring custody to a centralized lender, while working toward new opportunities to generate yield without selling their Bitcoin. Disclaimer: This episode is for informational and educational purposes only. Nothing discussed on this panel constitutes financial advice. Please conduct your own research before making any investment decisions.

🇺🇸🇵🇸🇮🇱 Jerry Seinfeld got called out mid-show in Chicago by hecklers pointing out the tens of thousands of Palestinians killed, including thousands of kids, and he just laughed it off. “I’m racist, it’s a genocide, I’m into it.” Then he started dancing on stage. And as if that wasn’t enough, he said: “I’m going to find out how much your ticket was & I’m sending it to Israel.” Guy’s been recycling the same observational comedy for 30 years, and now he’s recycling the same “I don’t care” energy about kids getting blown up. Absolute legend in his own mind. Writer: Daniyal t.co/FMZlnwFvFM

🇦🇿 In Azerbaijan, girls are being turned away from school for wearing a hijab. Schools should be places of education, not religious institutions. A secular state has every right to keep religious dress out of public schools and apply the same rules to everyone. Writer: Samuel t.co/m44VTA2UHP

🇮🇱🇵🇸 An Israeli reservist has given German news magazine Der Spiegel a DEEPLY DISTURBING account of what his unit allegedly did in GAZA Soldiers would hide in areas where civilians hadn't been evacuated, then shoot Palestinians who unknowingly approached. When others came to help the wounded, they were shot too. Five, six, seven people dead. The military report? "Seven terrorists eliminated." He says his brigade killed around 160 to 170 people in the Netzarim corridor, despite encountering no Hamas attacks during that period. And according to him, virtually all were recorded as terrorists without evidence that they were armed. He's one of ten soldiers who spoke to Der Spiegel. These allegations demand a serious, independent investigation! Writer: Oliver

🇺🇸🇪🇸 Today is COLUMBUS DAY, and the War Dept. made a post about it; without a doubt, a huge mark in our history. That crossing was the moment the Old World and the New World actually started talking to each other, and a lot of what we still call Western civilization grew out of that exchange. Big human events never stay fully clean. Violence and hard chapters show up when the scale is this large; they almost always have. But we're talking about the first real attempt to know the planet as one connected place, and the long inheritance of knowledge and culture we’re still living inside. Source: Department of War / Writer: Lucas

🇪🇺🇷🇺 While Europe adds 1,600 more names to its sanctions list against Russia, Trump cut a deal with Putin to flood the market with Russian diesel and temporarily lift the sanctions meant to starve Moscow of cash. Kaja Kallas says it’ll make weapons “harder, slower, and more expensive.” The actual money funding those factories just got a green light from Washington, so American truckers and farmers get cheaper fuel before the midterms. Diesel sales put hard currency straight into the Russian treasury that keeps the factories running, which actually changes the equation. Putin walks away with export relief he can bank, while Brussels walks away with another press release. Writer: Lucas t.co/2HEpuEc3Lm