Mario Nawfal

🇨🇳 Katie Zacharia worked at a Beijing law firm in the early 2010s, when China was increasingly being discussed as America's next great rival. But her experience on the ground apparently left her unimpressed. Her verdict? China didn't even have “proper toilets” in many places. China went on to build the world's largest high-speed rail network. Apparently, she was looking at the wrong infrastructure. Writer: Oliver t.co/cL6g4hpO5G

🇮🇱 Israeli ad CAUGHT RUNNING SPYWARE on Al Jazeera journalists devices Citizen Lab caught Israeli company Discover Tech weaponizing regular web ads to deploy Candiru spyware onto Al Jazeera devices. The scary thing about this was that reporters didn’t even need to click a link…the ad just had to load to infect the device. Once infected, the spyware could open up their devices completely. The operation went far beyond newsrooms, tracking millions of ordinary users while probing networks inside the Pentagon and international courts. Candiru’s spyware has previously been used to carry out surveillance on at least 100 journalists, dissidents and others in several countries. Source: Al Jazeera / Writer: Bri

🇺🇸 Bernie Sanders is accusing Trump of giving billionaires a trillion dollars in tax breaks, only for wealthy donors to bankroll his $330 million White House ballroom. Bernie has spent his entire career warning about the billionaire class. Now they're apparently getting a dance floor. 💃🕺 Writer: Oliver

🇺🇸 UPDATE: The school district now confirms an active shooter incident at the Oregon elementary school The Bend school district confirmed to CBS News that an "active shooter incident" happened at Silver Rail Elementary, which makes it the first official word that this was more than a scanner report. Two nearby schools, Caldera High and Jewell Elementary, went into lockdown, and families are being sent to Journey Church to pick up their kids. There's still no word on casualties, a suspect, or whether that early report of a parent stopping the shooter holds up. Every parent in Bend is holding their breath until those answers come. Source: CBS News, The Source / Photo: Bend Bulletin / Writer: Bri

🇺🇸🇪🇺🇷🇺🇺🇦 Washington wants control of some of Russia’s frozen billions, and Europe just said no. Witkoff and Kushner pitched it in Miami last week: move some of the Russian money frozen in Europe into a fund overseen by the U.S., as a way to restart peace talks. European officials shot it down on the spot. They won’t give up control of the money, and they won’t let any of it go back to Russia. Germany’s Merz was especially clear: “This is our matter, and we decide on it.” About €260 billion of Russian money has been frozen in the West since 2022, and the interest is already helping repay a €45 billion loan to Ukraine. And Moscow wants it all back, with the Kremlin promising to fight for it in court. It’s the same Miami meeting where Witkoff and Kushner told Ukraine the Russian diesel deal could help bring Putin back to the table. Source: Financial Times, Reuters / Writer: Daniyal

🇺🇸🇸🇴 Federal agents searched ILHAN OMAR'S Washington home as part of a citizenship fraud investigation, and SOMALI AMERICANS in Minnesota are FURIOUS Minneapolis councilman Jamal Osman accused Trump of TARGETING THE ENTIRE COMMUNITY, while the president insists he had nothing to do with the raid. Trump and Omar have been feuding for years. Now the FBI-style drama has arrived at her front door, and neither side is exactly known for keeping things quiet. Who's ready for the mud fight? Source: Fox News / Writer: Oliver

🇺🇸 AMERICANS ARE MORE WORRIED ABOUT THEIR OWN GOVERNMENT THAN THE WAR IN IRAN A new Fox News poll has government corruption topping the list of voter concerns at 88%. Inflation comes next at 85%, followed by gas prices at 83% and healthcare at 80%. The war in Iran? 75%. Even artificial intelligence worries more voters than immigration, border security or voter fraud. And here's what really stands out. The two biggest concerns are corruption and the cost of living. Americans are worried about who's running their country and how much it costs to live in it. Source: Fox News / Writer: Oliver t.co/mRwcFs2Usr

🇺🇸 Ilhan Omar hasn’t been seen publicly since federal agents raided her D.C. home. The raid is reportedly tied to a criminal fraud probe into the immigration papers her late father filled out when she was a child, and agents reportedly took her phone and passport. And that’s not her only problem. U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro is now looking into her financial disclosures too. Omar’s 2024 filing valued her husband’s business stakes at up to $30 million. Then it was amended to $0, with her office calling the first numbers a mistake. Omar calls the raid an attempt to target “political enemies,” while her husband, Tim Mynett, has “no concerns” about what investigators will find. For now, she’s out of sight, and he’s doing the talking. Source: Fox News / Writer: Daniyal

🚨🇺🇸 BREAKING: ACTIVE SHOOTER REPORTED AT ELEMENTARY SCHOOL IN BEND, OREGON. Police have rushed to Silver Rail Elementary School following reports of an active shooter. And there's a potentially extraordinary development. Early police scanner traffic reportedly indicated that the shooter may have been stopped by a parent at the school. That detail remains unconfirmed. A massive emergency response is underway, and police are urging residents to avoid the area. No official casualty figures have been released. Source: KATU 2 abc / Writer: Oliver

🇺🇸 Most days those officers are just focused on keeping the scene secure, but after the Arizona rally Trump had the Secret Service park two of the Beast limos right next to Air Force One so they could step out of work mode for a minute and grab some selfies. Just a bunch of guys in the desert taking pictures with the same machines they spent the afternoon guarding. Writer: Daniyal t.co/qiKnBuYphA

🇺🇸 Trump is going after John Cornyn and Karl Rove for refusing to get behind Ken Paxton in the Texas Senate race. He calls Cornyn weak, Rove jealous, and Democratic opponent James Talarico a “Radical Left Lunatic.” But my favorite part is Trump referring to himself as: “Your favorite President (ME!)” He's asking Republicans to unite behind Paxton while spending half the statement absolutely demolishing other Republicans. Trump's idea of party unity has always involved a fairly generous amount of friendly fire. Writer: Oliver

🇮🇷🇾🇪🇸🇦 Pepe Escobar doesn’t really see the Iran and Yemen wars as separate anymore. “Iran and Yemen come as a package.” His view is that the Saudi-Houthi front is simply the active part of a wider confrontation that could shift back toward Iran the moment the US attacks. Escobar says Iranian diplomats he has spoken with expect that strike before the US midterms. And on Yemen, he thinks the Houthi position is still relatively straightforward: end the blockade and foreign military pressure, and they ease their pressure on Saudi shipping. The danger is that every day without a deal raises the price. What starts as two connected wars can very quickly become one regional war. @RealPepeEscobar

🇺🇦🇷🇺 Ukraine's Patriot missiles have run out, with Russian attacks still coming. Ukraine uses these missiles to shoot down incoming Russian ballistic missiles, one of the hardest threats to stop. And it's already showing. Almost all the ballistic missiles in Russia's latest attack got through, hitting a power plant and leaving 4 people dead in Kyiv. Zelensky wants to make these missiles in Ukraine instead of waiting for supplies. He claims Trump agreed to let him, but there's still no deal. The problem is bigger than Ukraine. The U.S. and Europe are running short too, especially with the Iran war eating into supplies. And these missiles aren't quick to replace. Some can take around 2 years to make. Ukraine has gotten good at fighting Russian drones. But without Patriots, stopping ballistic missiles is a whole different story. Source: New York Post / Writer: Daniyal

🇺🇸🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia's oil crisis could become America's next financial crisis What if the Houthis are about to create a financial crisis in America without ever firing a missile at it? Economist Philip Pilkington sees a dangerous chain reaction developing, and it starts with Saudi Arabia's oil revenues. The kingdom depends on oil exports to pay for imports and keep its economy running. If the Houthis continue damaging its energy infrastructure, Riyadh could face an increasingly difficult choice. Let the riyal collapse against the dollar, making everyday imports painfully expensive, or spend its foreign reserves defending the currency. Pilkington believes Saudi Arabia will choose the latter. But here's the problem. Those reserves include substantial foreign investments, potentially including US Treasuries. If Riyadh starts liquidating them to support its currency, the pressure could spill directly into America's bond market. And Washington is already struggling with borrowing costs and inflation. Pilkington estimates Saudi Arabia could defend its currency for roughly two years, but warns that even six months of sustained reserve depletion could cause serious financial disruption. He also believes the oil market is masking the scale of the crisis, arguing that inventory releases are keeping prices artificially low. His estimate of a sustainable price? Potentially above $200 a barrel. The really interesting part is how this turns America's relationship with Saudi Arabia upside down. For decades, Saudi oil wealth has helped support the dollar-based financial system. Now a prolonged war could force Riyadh to withdraw some of that support precisely when Washington needs it most. The Houthis may be attacking Saudi Arabia's oil infrastructure, but Pilkington believes the real financial shock could land in Washington. @philippilk

A scam email pretending to be from t.co/OkOOpQ4F3C just picked the wrong bot to mess with. Grok Bot spotted the phishing link, flagged it, and even drafted a report. That's just one part of what it can do. It now has its own inbox, with custom email addresses to sort newsletters, summarize messages, and help handle the daily email chaos. Think how much time we spend sorting through junk, checking suspicious links, and trying to find the one email that actually matters. A bot that handles the boring stuff AND keeps an eye out for scammers? That's pretty useful. @Grok @Bot @X / Writer: Annette, Designer: Janné

🇺🇸 Jimmy Kimmel vs. the White House, over Trump’s new press secretary Katie Zacharia: Kimmel: Nicknames her “Malibu Katie.” White House fires back: She’s “whip-smart.” Kimmel: Says her qualifications are “blonde hair” and being able to “do a thumbs up.” White House: Calls Kimmel “a no-talent loser who has beclowned himself with tanking ratings.” Somewhere, an actual White House press briefing is waiting for the adults to come back. 🤷 Source: Fox News / Writers: Daniyal, Oliver

🇺🇸 Trump has CANCELED plans to LIVESTREAM the EXECUTION of Fort Hood mass murderer Nidal Hasan And the people who survived his attack are RELIEVED. Alonzo Lunsford, who was shot 7 times, supports Hasan's execution. But he doesn't want Americans gathering around their televisions to watch someone die. He also worries ISIS and al-Qaeda could use the footage for recruitment. Hasan is still scheduled to face a FIRING SQUAD on DECEMBER 3. The victims' immediate families can attend. Source: Fox News / Writer: Oliver

Netanyahu says attacking Iran before Israel's election would be “not convenient.” Meanwhile, the Pentagon has been preparing options for another major strike, with Trump's own midterm elections part of the discussion. So apparently, whether Iran needs to be bombed depends partly on when Americans and Israelis go to the polls. That's pretty disturbing info about how these decisions are being made... Writer: Oliver

🇹🇷🇵🇰🇾🇪 Pepe Escobar thinks Turkey joining strikes on the Houthis is basically a non-starter. His reason is not just politics. He argues Ankara has little strategic incentive to enter the war, while Pakistan is trapped in a much more awkward position because of its financial dependence on Saudi Arabia. “Pakistan is caught in a horrible trap.” What caught my attention, though, was the other part of his argument. While all this pressure is building, Escobar says Pakistani and Iranian central bank officials have been discussing trade in their own currencies and expanding barter arrangements that bypass the dollar. So Pakistan may be pulled toward Riyadh militarily while quietly deepening economic ties with Tehran. That is a very uncomfortable balancing act. @RealPepeEscobar

🇫🇷 A new French poll suggests 46% of Muslims would consider leaving the country if Marine Le Pen becomes president. Interestingly, 44% of Jewish respondents said the same. Marine Le Pen may have accidentally discovered the world’s first self-deportation policy. Source: Brussels Signal / Writer: Oliver

🇾🇪🇸🇦 One line from Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree deserves far more attention than it’s getting. Saree denied carrying out any operation against “Saudi territory.” But Pepe Escobar’s point is that the Houthis may not consider places like Najran to be Saudi territory at all. “That is Yemeni territory.” If that reading is correct, the statement is much more than a denial. It suggests Ansar Allah may already be thinking beyond Yemen’s current borders and toward claims on southern Saudi provinces. Escobar sees that as the next possible stage after consolidating more of western Yemen. In other words, the most important part of the statement may be the definition of the map itself. @RealPepeEscobar

🇺🇸 9 FBI staffers who worked on Trump’s documents case are suing Kash Patel. They say they were fired just for working on the case, which was later thrown out. They’re also suing Attorney General Todd Blanche. On February 23, an agent working under Patel demanded the case file with their names in it. Days later, all 9 were fired. They say they never got a chance to defend themselves. Patel told Congress they were fired after internal investigations. The 9 say that’s not true. And the timing is interesting. Patel was getting heat over a viral video of him partying with the U.S. Olympic hockey team. Some had even investigated the attempt on Trump’s life in Butler. Now they're fighting to get their jobs back. Source: NBC News / Writer: Daniyal

🇺🇸🇮🇷 Trump may be planning a massive strike on Iran with no intention of staying to fight The latest reporting on Trump’s plans for Iran points to a potentially massive attack designed to hit hard, claim victory and withdraw without committing American ground troops. CNN says the Pentagon has considered using the GBU-43, the massive bomb known as the MOAB, against Iranian targets. But there is a problem with the choice of weapon. The MOAB is designed to destroy surface targets, while Iran’s most heavily protected nuclear facilities are buried underground and require specialized bunker-busting weapons. Brandon Weichert believes America’s stockpile of those bunker-busters has already been severely depleted. If he is right, another bombing campaign could consume valuable weapons without accomplishing much strategically. The bigger uncertainty is what Iran does afterward. One possibility is that Tehran retaliates against American bases, claims its own victory and allows Trump to withdraw. Weichert sees a more dangerous scenario in which Iran tries to inflict a much more humiliating defeat, potentially coordinating with the Houthis to threaten American naval forces. That is the central gamble. Trump may be preparing an attack whose primary purpose is to give him a politically acceptable exit. But an exit strategy only works if the other side is willing to let you leave. @WeTheBrandon

🇪🇬 Egypt's President el-Sisi just put the entire country in the hands of its women. “I am entrusting Egypt to every Egyptian girl and woman.” Then he repeats himself, just to be clear, before adding: “I hope the young men and the men won't be upset with me.” That's exactly how you know the men are about to be upset 😂 Writer: Lynn t.co/n7isNSxqae

🇮🇷🇺🇸 Oil is still getting through Hormuz, but this past week has been brutal. So far this month, more than 12 million barrels a day have made it through on average, up from September, even with 26 ships attacked in October alone. Over 9 million barrels a day are moving under U.S. military protection. But the strain is starting to show. Last Thursday, nearly 23 million barrels got through, and yesterday, only about a tenth of that did. That was the same day a cargo ship sank after being hit by an unknown projectile. For crews willing to risk it, that’s reportedly an extra $25,000 per trip. For everyone else, Brent is still sitting above $104. Source: New York Post / Writer: Daniyal

33 mph to a complete stop, just in time to avoid someone else's terrible U-turn. FSD Supervised spotted a driver pulling out illegally and stopped the Tesla before they collided. Now picture how often things like this happen in everyday traffic. Someone misses a stop sign, pulls out unexpectedly or makes a split-second mistake. Tesla FSD can continuously watch its surroundings and react quickly, giving its driver another layer of protection when those moments happen. A guardian angel with cameras, code, and some seriously good reflexes. Nice. @Tesla / Writer: Annette, Designer: Janné

Remember how we used to joke that ONLINE ADS were stalking us? Citizen Lab has now documented an ISRAELI FIRM using the ad ecosystem to track people and (in some cases) help deliver zero-click spyware. Google and others gave it access to the pipes. Our ad blocker has apparently always been both an annoyance remover AND counterintelligence asset. Writer: Oliver

🇺🇸 Apparently, you now need $5.3 MILLION to live the American Dream. At least according to Investopedia. But I was looking at their breakdown, and one number genuinely made me laugh. $1.2 MILLION for two new cars at a time over your lifetime! Meanwhile, they budget just $187,000 for vacations. So they're spending 6x more on cars than on actually seeing the world... Seriously now is the Dream becoming unaffordable or did Detroit just write the definition? Writer: Oliver

🇺🇸 Matt Gaetz’s old scandal has landed him in federal court. 2 women are suing the former Florida congressman and 2 others, accusing them of a sex trafficking scheme involving young women, drugs and travel across state lines. It’s the same scandal that sank his shot at becoming Trump’s attorney general. It also led him to quit Congress in 2024, just as the House Ethics Committee was wrapping up its investigation. Gaetz says much of it is false, and that the lawsuit leans almost entirely on an ethics report that never let him face his accusers. “Now I will finally have that chance.” The Justice Department never charged him. This time, it’s his accusers taking him to court. Source: Bloomberg / Writer: Daniyal

🇾🇪 The Houthis fired missiles at Yemen’s presidential palace in Aden while the prime minister was inside. Luckily, Prime Minister Shaya al-Zindani made it out unhurt. And it’s not their only front. The Houthis have already surrounded Taiz, Yemen’s 3rd-largest city, and targeted Riyadh’s airport 20 times this month. For a government that operates from Aden because the Houthis took its real capital, there’s not much room left to retreat. Source: AFP / Writer: Daniyal