Mario Nawfal

🇲🇾🇮🇱 Malaysia has banned government employees from using Google-owned navigation app Waze, citing concerns over its Israeli origins. Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim ordered civil servants to stop using the app immediately, warning that its Israeli roots could create risks involving sensitive location data and potential exposure to Israeli laws. Waze was originally developed in Israel before being acquired by Google in 2013. The Malaysian government is encouraging public employees to switch to TuJu, a domestically developed navigation alternative. Malaysia, a staunch supporter of the Palestinian cause, does not maintain diplomatic relations with Israel. The decision reflects growing concerns in Malaysia about foreign technology platforms and the security of data collected through everyday applications. Source: Reuters / Writer: Mhedi

🇺🇸 Oregon's latest "DEEPFAKE" scandal just flipped upside down. Literally. A viral video showed Democrat-backed candidate Nafisa Fai speaking in front of an upside-down American flag. A local outlet rushed to debunk it, using a screenshot supplied by a campaign supporter showing the flag the right way up. One small problem: the "proof" turned out to be the doctored image. The outlet had to retract its story. So the viral video survived the fact-check. The fact-check didn't. Sources: The Oregonian, Oregon Journalism Project / Writer: Julie

🇺🇸 THE WORLD'S BIGGEST PROFESSIONAL INVESTORS JUST DITCHED TECH STOCKS FASTER THAN AT ANY TIME IN AT LEAST A DECADE. Hedge funds, the big-money players who move markets, cut their tech holdings at a record pace in the week through October 15, Goldman Sachs data going back to 2016 shows. Chipmakers took the biggest hit. That should get everyone’s attention, because tech makes up roughly 39% of the S&P 500. If you own an index fund or have a retirement account, you’re heavily invested in tech whether you realize it or not. But even after all that selling, hedge funds still hold more tech than they have 90% of the time over the past 5 years. Record selling, and they’re still sitting on a mountain of tech. Imagine what happens if they actually get scared. Sources: Bloomberg, CME / Writer: Julie

🇺🇸 Trump wants to kick reporters out of the White House and replace their briefing room with... a swimming pool. He's reportedly floated restoring FDR's old indoor pool more than once, the one Nixon covered up in 1970 to make room for the press. Reporters could be moved to a building across the street, although nothing's been decided yet. The White House press pool is about to get a lot more literal 😆 Source: NYT / Writer: Julie

She saw the car, missed the bike... But the bike didn't miss her Writer: Ian t.co/2vDnGewKrH

🇬🇧 The British government has officially approved production at Jackdaw, the UK's largest known untapped gas field, with supplies expected to start flowing by the end of October. Located approximately 150 miles east of Aberdeen, the North Sea project is expected to increase Britain's domestic gas production by around 6% at peak output. The field could produce the equivalent of 40,000 barrels of oil per day, enough gas to heat approximately 1.4 million homes. More than £2 billion has already been invested in the project, which was originally approved in 2022 before legal challenges over its environmental impact delayed production. The decision marks a shift toward greater reliance on domestic energy resources as Britain struggles with high energy costs and declining North Sea production. However, the government has acknowledged that Jackdaw will not reduce household energy bills this winter, with its output representing only around 2% of Britain's total gas demand. Source: Reuters / Writer: Mhedi

Pretty accurate, although I think it'll happen before 2050 Writer: Ian t.co/6wSfx5oUR9

The Ukraine war has changed combat forever Writer: Ian t.co/ZFv1UVLmX3

🇺🇸 Trump has a new plan to make Americans love data centers... pay them. He says new data centers are “mandated” by him to make their own electricity and sell any extra back to the local grid, so power bills won’t go up. He says they could even come down. His tip for tech companies facing angry locals: pay the community, or individuals in it, a “dividend.” He says data centers that were “highly unpopular” turned “extremely popular” once the money showed up. Back in August, he said towns that reject data centers will end up “backwards and poor.” A Fox News poll from July found 70% of voters don’t want one in their community. And nothing wins hearts and minds when it’s a matter of principle... actually, you know what? Scrap that. Money does. Money wins hearts and minds. Sources: Truth Social, AP, Fox News / Writer: Julie

🇺🇸🇸🇴 Federal agents raided Ilhan Omar’s home. The very next day, she was asking for donations. Now she’s on TikTok, holding back tears and thanking supporters for chipping in “$5, $10, $20.” The DOJ calls it an ongoing CRIMINAL investigation. Omar says it targets her immigration status, and anonymous sources point to paperwork her late father filed when she was a child. She hasn’t been charged, but Omar wasn’t about to let a perfectly good fundraising opportunity go to waste. Sources: Bloomberg, Newsweek / Writer: Julie t.co/e7FMVB0ur0

Someone got paid a fortune for designing Jaguar's new hideous looking Type 01 Shame they didn't think about its turning circle Writer: Ian t.co/u9vBd2uftm

🇺🇸🇺🇦 Rubio says Ukraine wouldn’t exist today without American money. “There would be no Ukraine today were it not for the assistance the United States has supplied Ukraine in the billions of dollars, going back to the Biden administration and going through this administration as well.” Biden must be delighted to hear his name mentioned without an insult attached 😂 Writer: Julie t.co/ybOQ1jAqmy

🇺🇸🇮🇱 Fmr. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan: the war with Iran only serves Israel "What particularly the war in Iran highlighted is the divergence in Israel's interest from the United States. Netanyahu has basically talked about wanting to have a forever war with Iran, and he doesn't mind if the Strait of Hormuz is closed because it doesn't affect him, whereas it does matter to the American people." Writer: Mhedi t.co/E6MAnCPOP8

When Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4's full release drops, millions of hours that could've been spent doing something productive are going straight down the drain Writer: Ian t.co/anzxPgC3Wc

Grok Bot can book dinner the old-fashioned way. By picking up the phone. It finds the restaurant's number, speaks to the staff, sorts out the reservation and comes back with the details. Even restaurants that only take bookings over the phone are covered. You choose where to eat. Grok Bot makes the arrangements. You just have to show up hungry. That's my kind of delegation. @Grok @Bot @spacexai / Writer: Annette, Designer: Janné

🇫🇷 That's one way to defend your shop from looters Writer: Ian t.co/jAEI8ltvXd

🇫🇷 A French military fighter jet has crashed in a massive fireball during a training flight, killing one crew member and triggering an urgent search for another. The Mirage 2000D aircraft went down yesterday evening near the Nancy Air Base in northeastern France, close to the commune of Rogeville. Witnesses reported hearing a powerful explosion and seeing a fireball as the aircraft crashed, with reports placing the incident between 9 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. French military officials confirmed that at least one crew member appeared to have been unable to eject before impact. The cause of the accident has not yet been established. Source: The Independent / Writer: Mhedi

🇷🇺🇪🇺 U.S. intelligence believes Putin has ordered a major escalation of covert sabotage operations across NATO countries, raising fears of a direct confrontation between Russia and the alliance. The campaign reportedly began with an attempted explosive-drone attack at Germany's Leipzig airport in August. The operation has since expanded to target military suppliers, communications infrastructure and commercial shipping, in an alleged Russian attempt to disrupt European support to Ukraine. The Leipzig incident was particularly dangerous; an explosives-laden drone targeted an airport used to transport military supplies, but the attack failed. Aides to German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Berlin would have considered invoking NATO's Article 5 collective-defense clause if the attack had caused mass casualties. Such a move could have escalated the conflict into a direct military confrontation with Russia. Source: The Wall Street Journal / Writer: Mhedi

🇺🇸 The internet spent the weekend calling for a Black Monday crash. Wall Street went shopping instead. By Friday, CNN's Fear & Greed Index had plunged to 18, deep in "Extreme Fear," after the Nasdaq's worst week since June. Chip stocks had lost 15.7% over 8 sessions, and on Saturday, nearly $52 million in leveraged crypto bets tied to those stocks were liquidated in just 10 minutes. Wall Street wasn't even open! Then came Monday, exactly 39 years after the original Black Monday. Chip stocks finally snapped their losing streak, the Nasdaq jumped 1.1%, and the S&P 500 rose 0.4%. The S&P added another 0.3% yesterday, although chip stocks stalled. For perspective, on October 19, 1987, the Dow crashed 22.6% in a SINGLE day. Its worst day since was a 12.9% plunge during the COVID panic in March 2020. After 1987, Wall Street installed emergency brakes to halt trading during severe crashes. In 38 years, they've been triggered on just 5 days: once in 1997 and 4 times in March 2020. And Friday's "Extreme Fear" reading? It did its job. It measured how terrified investors were. The mistake was treating it like a preview of Monday's market. Fear makes great headlines. It's just a terrible fortune teller. Sources: CNN, Reuters, CoinDesk, AP, Federal Reserve, SEC / Writer: Julie

🇺🇸🇷🇺 Steve Witkoff has landed in St. Petersburg with a new peace plan fresh from Oslo. Putin’s envoy Kirill Dmitriev met him at the airport before they headed to Constantine Palace for talks with Putin. Witkoff has been to Russia so many times he should be collecting air miles. Whether this trip finally lands a deal is another story. Writer: Julie t.co/Mlk9YlgGH5 t.co/PzoOGdhYXK

Looks like a normal Trump clip... Then the camera zooms out WTF? Writer: Ian t.co/aNsDd7UPuj

🇬🇺 Earth’s strongest storm of 2026 now has a twin. Super Typhoon Champi has exploded to Category 5-equivalent strength with 185 mph sustained winds, tying Super Typhoon Sinlaku for the top spot this year. Just 3 days ago, it brushed past Guam as a Category 4, its center passing just 10 miles from the island. Even so, nearly half the island lost power. And it still wasn't done getting stronger. Thankfully, Champi is now unleashing its fury over open water. Let’s hope it stays that way. Writer: Julie t.co/KBCd4JZ9lx

Who came up with this 😂😂 Writer: Ian t.co/6UgkCBIG5h

Bro's got a unique approach to fishing 😂 Writer: Ian t.co/MgIK5QEehv

The new Tesla Roadster is now giving fighter jets a run for their money. Literally. Its SpaceX cold-gas thrusters deliver over 80 kN of thrust, helping it hit 0–60 mph in just 0.81 seconds during the reveal. That's faster acceleration than a fighter jet launching off an aircraft carrier. Those thrusters push the car forward without relying entirely on tyre grip. The same technology lets it jump over vehicles and manoeuvre in mid-air. A car that launches like a fighter jet and flies when it feels like it. Quite a machine. @Tesla @SpaceX / Writer: Annette, Designer: Janné

🇮🇱🇱🇧 Israeli and Lebanese officials are sitting in the same room at CENTCOM's Tampa headquarters to work out how Hezbollah gets disarmed Two IDF sources confirmed the meeting at MacDill, the third round after Washington and Rome, and Beirut says it runs into Wednesday. Lebanon's president signed off on sending a delegation with two asks: Israel stops operating in the south and pulls its troops out. Source: Jerusalem Post / Writer: Daniel

🚨🇺🇸 House Republicans have outraised Democrats $250 million to $249 million this cycle... while losing the generic ballot by 12 points The NRCC enters the home stretch with $61 million in the bank against the DCCC's $55.7 million, after Democrats beat them by $84 million in 2024 and $74 million in 2022. September alone brought in $28.5 million for the GOP, though $14 million of that was a transfer from the RNC, and Speaker Johnson has personally raised over $220 million since taking the gavel. So the party with the money is the party at 31% presidential approval, and the party that's broke by comparison leads 47 to 35 on the ballot. Cash buys ads in the dozen districts that decide the House, which is the one thing that can keep a 218-214 majority from turning into a 20-seat loss. The question for the next two weeks is whether $61 million can out-shout a $6 gallon of gas in the suburbs of Pennsylvania, Arizona and New York, or whether the ad buys end up being the most expensive concession speeches in history. Source: Axios / Writer: Daniel

Streamer tosses a girl into the pool as she struggles and repeatedly tells him no, only for him to react to her getting out of the pool by saying this to the camera guy: "That was hot" This generation is cooked. Writer: Daniel t.co/jAm6FgOY3S

🇬🇧🇮🇷 Two men rearrested for "assisting a foreign intelligence service" in the plot against the US bomber base at RAF Fairford... and the B-1s still haven't come back A 24-year-old Briton and a 25-year-old British-Iranian dual national now face the National Security Act charge that Britain reserves for spies, out of seven men picked up since late September, and police say the evidence still points to Iran's state. The prime minister already said the plot was "almost certainly" IRGC-directed; this is the first time the case has moved from terrorism to espionage on paper. The plot was apparently blown by a woman who called 999 about three vans and ten masked men blocking her driveway, which the defense secretary thanked her for on TV. Days later every American long-range bomber left Fairford over an unspecified threat and Trump said the US "moved them around a little bit." Three weeks on, none have returned. The next question is whether they go back before the post-midterm strike window, or whether they fly it from somewhere else. Source: CNN / Writer: Daniel

🇾🇪 NEW SATELLITE IMAGES show damage to the unloading line at Yemen’s Ras Isa terminal. Images from around October 18 appear to match the timing of Saudi strikes on Houthi fuel sites along the Red Sea coast. Ras Isa has already suffered major damage from earlier U.S. and Israeli raids. Damage to the tanker connection could further disrupt oil flows as fuel remains scarce for civilians and fighters. In a war targeting energy infrastructure, one damaged link can disrupt the entire supply chain. Writer: Lucas t.co/mAdlTtPM0R