Mario Nawfal

brace yourself, gonna be an ugly weekend

🇺🇸 BlackRock is calling 7% a “generational” opportunity. For American homebuyers, it’s just their mortgage rate. The world's biggest asset manager is celebrating the chance to earn around 7% from high-quality bond portfolios, a level of income investors haven't seen much of in years. Meanwhile, the average 30-year U.S. mortgage sits at 7.32%, and the median home costs $417,500 after 39 STRAIGHT months of year-over-year price increases. Now here's where it gets painful: put 20% down on that house, and you're paying roughly $2,300 a month. Over 30 years, you'll hand over nearly HALF A MILLION DOLLARS in interest alone. That's more than the house itself costs! At 2021's roughly 3% mortgage rates, the exact same loan would've cost you almost $900 LESS every month. Same 7% neighborhood. Wildly different experiences depending on which side of the payment you're on. Sources: Bloomberg, NYT, Freddie Mac, NAR / Writer: Julie

Thought they were cleaning the place up How wrong I was 😂 Writer: Ian t.co/EiTa4xKbdG

🇺🇸 Sharon Weinberger says Palantir’s high stock price is partly fueled by retail investors who feel traditional wealth is out of reach. Palantir attracts individual buyers unlike classic defense stocks, while Palantir leans into its following with merch and direct messaging. She calls it “dystopian investing”: when homeownership feels impossible, people turn to defense stocks and prediction markets instead. Hard to look at that gap and not wonder if the stock is riding the same feeling that nothing normal is going to work out. Writer: Lucas t.co/6nEjvw7PkK

🇮🇱🇵🇸 Netanyahu has ordered the army to prepare to SEAL OFF the entire West Bank, following a shooting near Hebron this morning. Israeli soldiers shot and killed 2 men the military says were launching a “terror attack,” armed with an M16 rifle and a handgun. At least 5 people were injured, some critically. Hebron is now cordoned off, and the full closure could start as early as today. Ben-Gvir says the lives of settlers and soldiers are “a million times more important than freedom of movement.” Netanyahu had warned that Hamas might try to attack ahead of the vote (which is just 4 days away) to sway the outcome, without providing evidence. Source: AP, France 24 / Writer: Julie t.co/Etr4xxirc7

🇺🇸 Laser eyes, but make it MAGA 😆 Stage lights bounced off the bulletproof glass in front of Trump at his North Carolina rally in Greenville, and for one perfect frame, his eyes turned into glowing headlights. Source: Reuters / Writer: Julie t.co/eGeL7MxKMe

If you can't shoot it down, just throw your rifle at it 🤣 Writer: Ian t.co/wJxlDzPLMM

🇷🇴 Romanians have shut down a main Bucharest street for Călin Georgescu, as judges decide if he can go home. Georgescu, who won the first round of the annulled 2024 presidential election, has spent nearly a month in pre-trial detention in a fraud case. A lower court ordered him moved to house arrest on October 13, but prosecutors appealed. The Court of Appeal is deciding his fate today. And just DAYS before the hearing, 2 NEW criminal investigations surfaced. In one, prosecutors accuse him of having his home scanned for their audio-video recording devices, devices that, by their own admission, they had installed as part of their surveillance of him. The other accuses him of giving a fascist salute to supporters last year. His wife, Cristela, says she no longer feels safe living in her own home. If this happened in Moscow, Brussels would be calling him a political prisoner. Writer: Julie

The man who helped invent AI says it’s already CONSCIOUS, and humans had better stay on its good side. Nobel Prize winner Geoffrey Hinton argues AI now has “just as much subjective experience as we do.” He pointed to a recent paper showing AI changes its behavior when it thinks it’s being tested, which he says means it’s aware of what’s happening. His fix is to build AI that genuinely cares about humans. If we don’t do that? “We’re toast.” His words, not mine! Hinton, 78, says he’s worried for his children, and expects AI-made viruses and “horrible cyber attacks” carried out by swarms of AI agents. Starting today, every chatbot I use gets a “thank you” and a compliment. Just in case 😆 Source: The Telegraph / Writer: Julie

I'm claustrophobic just watching this Writer: Ian t.co/QbPQco2igl

🇺🇸 Wall Street is dumping AI stocks and running back to good old U.S. government bonds. Quite the mood swing! The Nasdaq 100 plunged 2.9% yesterday, while chip stocks got absolutely hammered, dropping 6.7% in a SINGLE day. Investors are getting nervous about whether all those billions poured into AI will ever pay off. And suddenly, U.S. Treasuries are everyone's favorite hiding place again. Government bonds had their BEST DAY in over a YEAR, with the benchmark 10-year yield falling below 5%. Even oil above $113 a barrel couldn't stop the buying frenzy. Traders are now worrying that expensive energy and an AI selloff could drag down the whole economy. For months, bonds weren't doing much to protect investors when stocks fell. Now that old safety net is back. Source: Bloomberg / Writer: Julie

Ukraine is now launching interceptor drones from helicopters... WTF!! Drone wars are insane Writer: Ian t.co/RhF6zszTHo

🇷🇺🇺🇦 A Russian soldier TRIES to shoot down a Ukrainian FPV drone mid-attack, but it didn't end well for him 💀 These cheap, first-person-view drones have become a constant threat on the front, forcing troops to react in seconds with whatever they have. One soldier vs. one small machine, and almost no room for error. Writer: Lucas t.co/oKYHBBLIbR

🇺🇸 Nick Fuentes arguing that Trump's neurological health may be FALLING OFF A CLIFF! The suggestion comes after Trump started making totally RANDOM sounds during some of his recent speeches. “Something is going on with Trump… In the past two rallies, it almost looks like he’s having a stroke! It’s getting concerning.” Source: @NickJFuentes / Writer: Mhedi t.co/9zFPC5ldij t.co/NIJuR2Xuvr

🇷🇺🇺🇸 Russian diesel is officially ON ITS WAY to New York. A Malta-flagged tanker carrying 40,000 tonnes of Russian diesel is heading for the city, LSEG data shows, after Trump's fuel deal with Putin. Russia agreed to lift its ban on diesel exports and ship fuel to global markets, including the U.S., to help bring prices down. With the Iran war pushing fuel prices to record highs, the deal is already drawing fire from European and Ukrainian leaders, who warn the money will help Moscow keep its war in Ukraine going. One war sent diesel prices through the roof. The fix? Buy it from the country fighting another one. Sources: Reuters, FT / Writer: Julie

🇺🇸 A Delta flight hadn't even left the gate when a passenger allegedly started yelling "DEATH TO AMERICA." Then he pretended to SHOOT the people around him. A video shows a man hurling the N-word as police haul him off the Atlanta-bound flight at JFK. The apparently drunk 60-year-old was arrested on assault and other charges, and the flight's 160 passengers took off 45 minutes late. Some passengers get upgraded to first class, while he got upgraded to a holding cell. Source: NY Post / Writer: Julie t.co/i2g6TNqyAZ

🇬🇧 British police called for an apology letter after a man allegedly strangled and sexually assaulted a 12-year-old girl in Gloucestershire this month. Yes, you READ THAT RIGHT. The girl was walking with two friends near a canal when a man allegedly grabbed her throat and touched her breast. Her mother said the terrified children escaped and called for help, fearing the incident could have escalated into an attempted rape. A man in his 50s was later voluntarily interviewed, but police discussed resolving the case through a community resolution, suggesting a written apology might suffice! Of course, the girl's mother rejected the suggestion, saying she was "disgusted" and had lost faith in the police. That's the British police for you, folks. Mean posts about illegal migration get people locked up, but when a child gets groped, a simple 'sorry' will do. Source: BBC / Writer: Mhedi

🇷🇺🇺🇦 Putin: There is no stopping Russia from getting what it wants "It has become obvious to everyone that defeating Russia on the battlefield is impossible. Inflicting a strategic defeat on Russia is unrealistic. And I think that those who have sought to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia throughout the centuries will recognize the realities of modern life and understand that it is better to live in friendship with Russia. This is in the interests of their own peoples." Writer: Mhedi t.co/QW7vWiEJl6

🇮🇷🇺🇸🇮🇱 Iran’s FM says American taxpayers have spent around $11 BILLION shielding Israel from missiles in just 3 years. Abbas Araghchi shared estimates showing the U.S. has fired more than 600 interceptors to defend Israeli territory since October 2023. Most of that cost came in 2 bursts: about $4.8 billion during the 12-day war in June 2025, and $5.2 billion between February and May this year. He also claimed the U.S. has fired more interceptors defending Israel than Israel itself, calling it “a parasitic” relationship rather than a symbiotic one. Iran's new side gig: auditing the Pentagon 😆 Writer: Julie

🇵🇰🇬🇧 Imran Khan’s sons haven’t seen their father in nearly four years, and Pakistan still won’t give them visas The suggestion from Islamabad was to skip the visa and fly in on Pakistani ID cards, which Qasim Khan and Sulaiman Khan read as a trap to arrest them and squeeze their father, especially after cousins who never touched politics were picked up and had their homes raided: “So imagine how desperate they would be to get us over there to arrest us on Pakistan identity cards.” If the case against Imran Khan is that strong, why is his own family being kept away from the door? @Kasim_Khan_1999

The internet just had one of its WORST weeks in years, and some in the cyber world are already calling it “BLACK OCTOBER.” Here’s what went down: •⁠ ⁠PHP, which runs an estimated 70% of the web’s backends, rushed out emergency fixes for 2 critical flaws. Japan’s Prime Minister personally urged businesses to patch or take their sites offline, and AWS spotted exploitation attempts 4 days before the fix even landed. •⁠ ⁠A flaw in Signal’s calling system could let the person on the other end keep LISTENING, and possibly watching, after you hang up. It’s been fixed, so update the app on every device you use. •⁠ ⁠An Indian certificate authority’s security keys were so weak that one of them was literally the number 4. Anyone holding them could have faked a trusted certificate for ANY website, and Mozilla, Google and Apple all moved to block them. •⁠ ⁠GitLab patched a perfect 10/10 severity flaw that lets attackers with no account run code on self-hosted servers. The bug had been sitting there for 12 years. •⁠ ⁠A hacker used AI agents to break into more than 100 companies, including John Deere and SharkNinja, at roughly $50 per break-in. •⁠ ⁠The FBI and CISA say SafePay ransomware has hit more than 600 critical infrastructure organizations across 4 continents since 2024. •⁠ ⁠Data on more than 5.7 million California public school students, including disability status, was stolen through a testing contractor. •⁠ ⁠Hosting platform Railway had customer secrets stolen, and researchers have tied about $371,000 in crypto thefts to the breach. •⁠ ⁠Zeabur, another hosting platform, got breached for the 2nd time in 3 months, exposing 321,810 accounts, and announced it’s shutting down for good. Half these holes were found by AI, and the other half were exploited by it. Welcome to the future. Sources: OfficeChai, Forkast, The Hacker News, BleepingComputer, Help Net Security / Writer: Julie

WTF!! 😬 Writer: Ian t.co/R5LUKukEzZ

🇯🇵 Japan is turning to AI to simulate cyberattacks after security flaws in PHP, a programming language used by millions of websites, caused widespread disruptions earlier this week. The vulnerabilities have triggered millions of hacking attempts worldwide, forcing Japanese banks, airlines, railway operators and government agencies to temporarily suspend online services. SoftBank has even disabled its mobile emergency alert system during maintenance, leaving some customers without earthquake and tsunami warnings. Japan now plans to use AI to identify vulnerabilities before hackers exploit them, as the technology makes cyberattacks increasingly automated and difficult to prevent. Source: Reuters / Writer: Mhedi

🇵🇰 Imran Khan’s sons haven’t spoken to their father in over six months... and now all three of his sisters are behind bars too It used to be one phone call every three months, and now there’s nothing, with nobody laying eyes on him in two months. Qasim Khan and Sulaiman Khan say even a Supreme Court order for a private hospital only got him a trip to a government one and straight back to his cell: “Pakistan are now going against Supreme Court orders to keep him in isolation.” If a former prime minister’s sisters can land in a cell, nobody in Pakistan is out of reach. @Kasim_Khan_1999

🇺🇸 Nick Shirley went real deep on goals: If you want real progress, DO THINGS YOURSELF, even when it’s scary. Stop waiting for company or permission. Take the first step alone, keep going through setbacks, and double down on what works. He points to Charlie Kirk, who started alone on college campuses and stood by his beliefs when they weren’t popular. Nobody else shares your exact mission. Waiting for the perfect moment only keeps you stuck. @nickshirleyy / Writer: Lucas

Russia plants a flag with a drone... Ukraine blows it up... with a drone 😂 Writer: Ian t.co/ENG0q9yaDM

🇩🇪 Berlin wants to take over 144,000 apartments from private landlords. And pay them BILLIONS less than they're worth on paper. Die Linke, which won last month's election, is negotiating with the Social Democrats and Greens to bring the properties into public ownership and curb soaring rents. Any company owning more than 10,000 apartments in Berlin would have to give up every flat above that line, with legislation planned for 2028. And here's where things get VERY expensive. Berlin wants to cap compensation at €16 BILLION, roughly €100,000 per apartment and more than 40% below what the landlords have them on their books for. Europe's biggest landlord, Vonovia, faces an especially nasty hit. Its 120,000 affected flats are valued at €20.4 BILLION. Berlin would pay roughly €12 billion, leaving an €8.4 BILLION gap, equivalent to about 60% of the company's entire market value! Vonovia’s CEO calls the plan “unconstitutional,” and a rival landlord warns Germany becomes “uninvestable” if it goes through. Berliners voted for the idea back in 2021, and the city's housing shortage remains severe. Berlin has a housing crisis, angry renters, and now some VERY angry billion-euro landlords. What could possibly go wrong, right? Source: FT / Writer: Julie

🇵🇰 Imran Khan’s sons say Pakistan’s government wants their father DEAD... and he fears ending up like Egypt’s Mohamed Morsi Three years of pressure never broke him into a deal that would end his political career, so the plan now, as Qasim Khan and Sulaiman Khan see it, is to make him vanish from public life, and they haven’t forgotten the bullets fired at him before he was ever jailed: “It’s very clear they want him dead.” If Islamabad wants to put those fears to rest, the fastest way is opening that cell to his family and independent doctors. @Kasim_Khan_1999

🇮🇳 A look at the monumental levels of INSANITY at India's circuses. This episode was all about whether a man would survive having a massive rock dropped onto his cushioned chest. Writer: Mhedi t.co/9gxPZQAmSk

China's approach to workplace safety 😬 Writer: Ian t.co/SiMNeWqw5J