Mario Nawfal

🇯🇵🇺🇸 Japan is going where no one has gone before: a moon of Mars... and back again with souvenirs JAXA’s $350 million mission, with $87 million chipped in by NASA, launched Tuesday on a five-year round trip to Phobos, a 17-mile space potato that might be a captured asteroid or a chunk blasted off Mars itself. Russia tried the same thing in 2011 and never left Earth orbit. Japan’s Hayabusa probes already brought asteroid dust home twice, so the country with the thinnest headlines in space is about to answer a question NASA has been asking since the 1970s. Source: WSJ / Writer: Daniel

🇮🇷 🇮🇱 🇺🇸 A third round of the Iran war could go after desalination plants and undersea internet cables from day one. Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute, says round two ended up looking just like round one, and round three is shaping up the same way, except Israel is now pushing to hit energy sites, water plants and the cables under the Gulf right out of the gate. Those threats tend to get carried out: "When it comes to these military threats, they've acted on most of them, to the best of my knowledge." Those cables run through the whole Gulf, so cutting them would knock Iran's neighbors offline right alongside Iran. @tparsi

🇫🇷 Another piece of France's architectural heritage has been left in RUINS Devastating aerial footage shows the aftermath of a massive fire at Limoges City Hall, with its roof destroyed, wooden beams charred, and debris scattered throughout the historic building. The elegant stone facade is still standing, but the destruction behind it is heartbreaking 💔 Writer: Sol t.co/b7gKCB0Ryb

🇺🇸 How does a brilliant computer scientist with a background in NASA research end up leading a CULT? Andy Ngo tells Tucker the bizarre story of Jack LaSota, known as “Ziz,” who became the leader of the Zizian group. LaSota was a magna cum laude graduate who entered a prestigious engineering program before dropping out and moving to Silicon Valley. There, he immersed himself in rationalism and effective altruism, communities filled with highly educated tech workers, AI researchers, and people who had worked at places like NASA and Google. Ngo describes a world where people spent HOURS debating mathematical models for morality and even the suffering of BILLIONS OF SHRIMP. And somewhere along the way, LaSota began developing his own radical beliefs and recruiting followers. Source: @TCNetwork / Writer: Sol

🚨🇺🇸 15 days out, here's what actually changes depending on who wins on November 3... and why the Senate matters FAR more than the House... Democrats are expected to take the House, which buys them subpoenas and investigations but almost no law, because Senate Republicans and Trump's veto stop everything else. A 50-50 Senate changes nothing either, since Vance breaks ties and Fetterman becomes the most important man in Washington. The Senate flip is the real main event. Even a two-seat Democratic majority ends Trump's judicial pipeline, likely freezes any Supreme Court vacancy until 2028 and takes the war-powers vote on Iran off Republican leadership's desk, which is why analysts expect a confirmation stampede in the lame duck if the map tips. At four seats or more, Democrats can force Trump to veto bills on tariffs, prices and the war every week until the next election. Reuters' generic ballot today is 47 to 35, Trump sits at 31%, and the Michigan, Alaska, Texas and Kansas Senate races all show Democrats ahead or tied. The House was never really the question this cycle. Whether a 53-47 Senate survives a $6 gallon of gas is, and the answer decides if the last two years of this presidency are governed by veto pen or by executive order alone. Source: Reuters / Writer: Daniel

🇺🇸 🇨🇳 Daily news recap: The US Army wants to show off Typhon missiles near China... and they'd be sitting ducks off the Bashi Strait. The Army's top commander in the Pacific told the Financial Times that putting more American firepower on display will make Beijing think twice, but those launchers sit well inside China's missile umbrella, and Washington doesn't have many to spare: "It's like putting a kick me sign on our forces." Pull them back to the second island chain, cut a deal that buys a decade, and rebuild before picking this fight. @WeTheBrandon

🇱🇧🇮🇱 A 5,000-YEAR-OLD CITY is being torn apart by war, and its residents are left standing in the ruins of their own lives. A new report by Jeremy Loffredo shows the devastation in Tyre, Lebanon, following Israeli strikes. One rescuer breaks down in tears as he recalls the people and families who lived there. Another resident describes an attack that left 28 to 29 people dead and four missing. Ibrahim Fares walks through what remains of his café, pointing to where the pool table, televisions, and PlayStation once stood. And the destruction has reportedly reached archaeological sites in Tyre, a UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE CITY, with ancient walls damaged and structures displaced by the force of the blasts. Yet amid the rubble, residents are already talking about rebuilding their homes and businesses. Source: @BergerPosts / Writer: Sol

🇺🇸🇮🇱 Hegseth confirms the secret Middle East trip and calls it a "historic mission"... but won't say he was in Israel with Netanyahu The confirmation came in one post with no location, no itinerary and no mention of Netanyahu. Axios reported earlier that the meeting happened at Ovda air base in the Negev, where US tankers and fighters have been staged for the Iran war, eight days before Israelis vote on October 27. The Pentagon won't confirm the Netanyahu meeting, the Israelis won't comment, and the war secretary just told every troop in CENTCOM they're part of something history will remember. Make of that what you will. Source: Axios / Writer: Daniel

🇫🇷 A MEME IS BORN 🔥 Imagine sipping wine and smoking cigarettes while Paris burns in the background. Unrushed. Unburdened. Unbothered. C’est la vie! 😂 Writer: Marie t.co/IolpW2Y32u

🇮🇱 🇺🇸 Daily news recap: Right wing parties across the West won't criticize Israel's war in Gaza, and the backlash is building. The argument here is that they're afraid of the political price, and that Netanyahu's government is doing more damage to Jews around the world than any of its critics ever could: "Netanyahu's Israel has done more to further the cause of antisemitism than anything that any right wing or, you know, zealot or left wing hater could have done." Anyone serious about fighting antisemitism has to be willing to press Netanyahu's government on Gaza. @WeTheBrandon

🇺🇲 WOWZA 😍🔥 These Victoria’s Secret models have really nice…shoes!! Source: VS (YT) / Writer: Marie t.co/Ql37TIGiyn

🚨🇰🇵 Kim Jong Un PROOF-OF-LIFE or a BODY DOUBLE? Unverified claims that the North Korean dictator died of a brain hemorrhage made their rounds and gained traction on social media. So, what does any repressive, isolated, authoritarian state do when its leadership is put into question? Release photos of the Dear Leader and his daughter inspecting children’s shoes VERY CLOSELY. Maybe he has tiny feet? Source: NYP / Writer: Marie t.co/rNyx1jcNbB

🇮🇷🇺🇸 IRGC claims it shot a US MQ-9 Reaper out of the sky over the Strait of Hormuz... and says it's the 54th one The IRGC claims its air defenses hit the drone with missile fire and that it fell into the Gulf. The Washington Post's own count is at least 45 Reapers lost since February, and that includes crashes, friendly fire and losses nowhere near Iran. But even the lower number is a $1.3 billion hole in the drone fleet that flies the strait as the eyes for every tanker escort, and Iran told Bloomberg last week its rebuilt air defenses are at a "much higher level" than during the spring fighting. Source: Al Jazeera / Writer: Daniel

🇺🇸 🇮🇷 🇷🇺 Daily news recap: Rubio warns a nuclear Iran would control the Strait of Hormuz for good... but Iran didn't have a nuke before this war started. Once Tehran has a bomb, nobody would dare try to break its grip on the strait, and Rubio isn’t wrong about that. Pushing Iran into a corner now risks creating the very bomb Washington wants to stop, while Lavrov’s trip to Tehran looks like nothing more than a pulse check: “I think we’re going to have to learn to live with Iran as it is and not as we want it to be.” Keep squeezing without talking, and a bomb becomes Tehran’s only insurance policy. @WeTheBrandon

🚨🇺🇸 The feds reportedly have Ilhan Omar’s DNA, and they may use it to test whether the man she married was really her BROTHER Sources say agents walked out of her DC home with her passport, phone and laptops last week, and the warrant reportedly traces back to family texts on her sister’s seized phone. Now Rep. James Comer is pointing at her financial disclosures and a winery tied to her husband’s business that’s been accused of selling investors empty barrels. Omar calls it a political hit job as Prosecutors in Minnesota and DC are both digging. To be clear, a sitting member of Congress has NEVER been denaturalized in American history. Whatever the truth is... if DNA comes back a match, no amount of spin saves her seat or her citizenship. Source: Fox News, New York Post / Writer: Daniel t.co/O9lG0zSbBS

🇧🇷 My brother while I was telling my mom that he hit me while she was gone Writer: Sol t.co/23pBWECPvD

🚨🇺🇸 Trump says the Democrats are owned by big insurance, and he wants to cut the companies out of health care entirely “We will pass a truly great health care plan that will stop all payments to big insurance companies, which own the Democrat Party. And we will give the money directly to you, the people, so you can buy your own health care and have lots of money left over. Better health care, lots of money.” He’s already pushed drug prices down through his TrumpRx deals with Big Pharma and started sending $500 refund checks to Obamacare customers… if he can do the same with premiums before November, insurance companies are about to have a very bad midterm. Source: Reuters / Writer: Marie, Daniel t.co/AYaPqOcDSY

🚨🇺🇸🇮🇱 Michigan Democratic Senate nominee, Abdul El-Sayed, compares Israel to a friend who mooches your money and drags your kid into fights Hust a year ago this response was a career-ender in either party: "If your kid has a friend who keeps bumming off their money, talks about them behind their back, and gets them into fights with other friends, what would you tell your kid?" Supporters of the alliance will predictably counter that American aid buys missile defense, intelligence and a partner in a dangerous region. The question for voters isn’t whether El-Sayed is right about Israel, it’s how many of them already agree with him and simply hadn’t heard a candidate say it. The latest polling says plenty do: El-Sayed leads Republican Mike Rogers 48% to 46% in the most recent InsiderAdvantage survey of likely voters, and he has led in every public poll this month. Writer: Daniel t.co/JLtxy4yPke

🇺🇸 Tate McRae and Megan Thee Stallion on the SAME Victoria's Secret runway? The performances, the attitude, the energy. Victoria's Secret really went ALL OUT this year 🔥 Source: VS (YouTube) / Writer: Sol t.co/lNZUvEBRMe

🇮🇷🇦🇪 Iran's Revolutionary Guard is reportedly threatening to cut the undersea internet cables the Gulf runs on if the war restarts Dubai runs on trade, and trade runs on those cables, which is the kind of stability a third round of this war takes away first. Trita Parsi of the Quincy Institute says Tehran slices the salami, so the cables may sit several rungs up the escalation ladder, but it rarely bluffs on the military side: "When it comes to these military threats, they've acted on most of them, to the best of my knowledge." Israel's defense minister has threatened to send Iran "back into the Stone Age" by hitting its energy infrastructure if Iran attacks Israel, so both sides are now naming the infrastructure they would hit first, and the Gulf economies sit between them with no cables and no say. @tparsi

🇺🇸🇮🇷 The Iran war is heading toward another escalation, and neither side is ready to stop. I spoke with Aaron David Miller, a veteran Middle East negotiator, about the growing signs of another confrontation between Washington and Tehran. His assessment was grim. He expects another round of strikes, probably after the U.S. midterms. But he doesn't believe it would end quickly. Iran would likely retaliate against American bases and Gulf infrastructure, potentially dragging the region into another dangerous cycle. What struck me was his explanation for why diplomacy keeps failing. The two sides remain too far apart to reach an agreement, yet neither believes the cost of continuing the conflict is painful enough to justify serious concessions. Meanwhile, the Houthis are becoming an increasingly powerful problem for Saudi Arabia, with their position near the Bab el-Mandeb giving them enormous leverage over international shipping. Miller fears Yemen could become another prolonged war with no clear resolution. The uncomfortable possibility is that nobody can win decisively, but everyone still believes they can afford to keep fighting. And that's a particularly dangerous place for the Middle East to be. @aarondmiller2

🇺🇸🇨🇳 America is expanding missile deployments near China while its military is already stretched thin. The U.S. Army is planning to expand its missile presence across the Indo-Pacific, including Tomahawk-capable Typhon systems and HIMARS launchers. The goal is to put more long-range firepower closer to China. But there is an obvious risk. Those systems would also sit within range of China’s extensive missile forces, making them potentially vulnerable in the opening stages of a major conflict. At the same time, American military resources are already under pressure from the wars involving Iran and Ukraine. That creates a difficult strategic tradeoff. Washington wants to strengthen deterrence in Asia while also supporting major commitments elsewhere, all while trying to rebuild munitions stocks and expand military capacity. One alternative would be to pull the most vulnerable systems farther back, strengthen defenses along the second island chain and buy time to rebuild. The larger question is whether moving more weapons closer to China actually strengthens deterrence. Because deterrence only works if the other side believes those forces can survive long enough to matter. @WeTheBrandon

🇫🇷🇪🇺 Richard Murphy thinks France’s unrest is being misread if it’s treated as one isolated explosion. His argument is that the anger has been building for years. Young people who did everything they were told and still can’t afford homes. Graduates buried in debt. Parents watching their children inherit a worse future. Public services visibly deteriorating. “People feel alienated, and that alienation is very real.” Murphy sees France as the loudest expression of something much broader across Europe. The riots may be French. The frustration isn’t. @RichardJMurphy

🇺🇸🇮🇷 The U.S. is DENYING it struck an Iranian naval base today. Reports earlier today said U.S. strikes hit the Konarak Naval Base on Iran’s southeastern coast and wounded 2 Iranian soldiers. It would have been the first U.S. strike on Iran in nearly 7 weeks. Now a U.S. official says Iran’s claim that the U.S. struck the base is “inaccurate ... as usual.” Iran’s track record on war claims isn’t great, and the U.S. clearly isn’t buying this one either. Source: CNN / Writer: Daniyal

🇫🇷 France is still in the middle of riots, and Macron's already off on a Gulf tour He landed in Kuwait today for a 3-day trip to try and get more oil and diesel so prices come down, and this comes right after a weekend where shops got looted and Limoges' town hall went up in flames. No wonder even a constitutional expert said the trip "may also appear out of touch and suggest a kind of power vacuum". Not the best timing, to say the least. Writer: Daniyal t.co/wUxxD9CDso

🇵🇪 A plane's engine burst into flames on the runway in Lima, Peru, right before takeoff In the video you can see fire coming out of the engine, but luckily the airline LATAM says all passengers were taken off the plane as a precaution for their safety. Can't imagine looking out the window and seeing that. Thank God it happened before they were in the air. Writer: Daniyal t.co/4qviTyQnzO

🇫🇷 She isn't even trying to hide her face! Just standing on the street casually taking bags of stolen goods straight from hooded looters! Despicable. Name and shame these thieves 😡 Writer: Bri t.co/R6x2grX4DY

🇮🇱🇱🇧 Israel’s Finance Minister Smotrich just laid out a plan to swallow Lebanon piece by piece. “In Lebanon, we should annex at least up to the lines where we are positioned today.” He says if Hezbollah attacks again, Israel should take land all the way to Beirut, and if it attacks after that, go even further. So the borders of a sovereign country now depend on Hezbollah’s next move, and Israel’s appetite for more land. Writer: Daniyal t.co/vlOFwYb7du

🇺🇸🇮🇷 The U.S. is DENYING it struck an Iranian naval base today. Reports earlier today said U.S. strikes hit the Konarak Naval Base on Iran’s southeastern coast and wounded 2 Iranian soldiers. It would have been the first U.S. strike on Iran in nearly 7 weeks. Now a U.S. official says Iran’s claim that the U.S. struck the base is “inaccurate ... as usual.” Iran’s track record on war claims isn’t great, and the U.S. clearly isn’t buying this one either. Source: CNN / Writer: Daniyal

🚨🇺🇦🇷🇺 A Russian drone KILLED 6 people, including 3 children, in a park in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region The strike hit Nova Vodolaha, a small town about 40 km southwest of Kharkiv, while families were outside. The park had no military targets. Ukrainian authorities say the attack was deliberate against civilians. Source: Reuters / Writer: Lucas