Happy Monday Everyone! Today’s newsletter: 1,292 words…4.9 mins
🗞 Today’s Edition: 9/11 Families Want Mamdani Banned, Ukraine Hits Iran’s Supply Line, Bolsonaro 2.0, Mamdani’s Grocery Stores, Ilya Sutskever + Nvidia… & much more!
🧪 Who was the first person to receive a Nobel Prize twice? Scroll down to find out!
🚨 Watch For:
U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham’s funeral is scheduled over the next two days: July 28th in Washington D.C. and July 29th in South Carolina
đź“śTHE HIGHLIGHT
One killer insight to stash in your back pocket
đź•Š 9/11 Families Want Mamdani Kept Away From Ground Zero
A group of 9/11 victims’ relatives is asking organizers to bar NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani from the 25th-anniversary commemoration at Ground Zero on September 11, 2026.
Their Change.org petition, launched by Giovanni Galante 3 weeks ago, whose 29-year-old wife Grace was killed in the attacks, has already surpassed 14,000 signatures.
📜 The Reason: Mamdani’s public record
Praise for or association with Brooklyn Imam Siraj Wahhaj (named as an alleged/unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and a character witness for the “Blind Sheikh”).
Appointment of Ramzi Kassem as NYC chief counsel (previously represented an al-Qaeda figure convicted in a tanker bombing plot).
Endorsements of candidates such as Aber Kawas (who blamed the US for 9/11, adding that the attacks happened because of capitalism/racism/Islamophobia and expressed sympathy related to a synagogue bombing plotter) and others with controversial records.
Writings by Mamdani’s father, Mahmood Mamdani (Columbia professor), shortly after 9/11 that discussed suicide bombers in terms of modern political violence rather than terrorism.
Associations or defenses involving figures like Anwar al-Awlaki or commentator Hasan Piker who said, “America deserved 9/11.”
Broader claims that Mamdani has minimized the horror of 9/11 or focused on post-attack “Islamophobia” in ways families find offensive.
Perceived reluctance to clearly and unequivocally condemn the phrase “globalize the intifada.”
➡ City Hall isn't budging. Mamdani's office says he'll attend as planned, standing with survivors and first responders like every mayor before him.
➡ The 9/11 Memorial committee says its commemoration is deliberately apolitical, with officials attending simply to bear witness.
💡 Why it matters: Only time will tell whether the grieving families’ petition is honored. Either way, critics say the controversy carries a powerful symbolism: 25 years after New York suffered its worst terrorist attack, the city’s presiding mayor is a Muslim leader whose political record and associations have drawn scrutiny over ties to figures accused of sympathizing with or supporting terrorism.
♟️THE CHESSBOARD
Geopolitics Decoded In 3 Moves
Left: President Volodymyr Zelensky; Right: Iran’s regime propaganda channels on Telegram posting threats.
💣 Ukraine Hits Iran’s Supply Line—and Sends Washington a Message
Ukrainian drones hit Caspian Sea cargo ships tied to Russia-Iran military shipments over the weekend — and Tehran is not laughing it off.
Zelensky claimed a warship and cargo vessels were moving military supplies between the two countries.
The real reveal: Zelensky asks his intelligence to share information with America, proving Russia's been handing Iran satellite imagery of U.S. bases and Gulf states — timed right alongside Iran's recent strikes there.
Iran's Foreign Ministry called the strike a "hostile act" and vowed "appropriate action." Pro-regime Telegram channels went further, posting missile-range maps showing all of Ukraine within missile Khorramshahr-4’s reach.
💡 Bottom line: Zelensky isn't just fighting Russia — he's handing Washington proof of exactly who's arming its enemies.
🚨 Germany Freed Him. Then Pride Turned Deadly
A 21-year-old man of Lebanese descent, with a history of Islamist radicalization turned Berlin’s Pride celebration into a terror attack, driving a van into pedestrians and then attacking people with a machete.
The attacker was Abdul Ballout, a German-born ISIS sympathizer with assault convictions as a teen, a 2025 trip to join ISIS in Syria, and a May 2026 conviction for preparing a violent attack. His sentence got suspended. He walked free.
A deradicalization program (26 anti-extremism therapy sessions) had also flagged his cooperation as potentially fake.
A 65-year-old Polish tourist killed, 29 injured, before police found and shot Ballout dead the next day.
đź’ˇ Bottom line: The attack has intensified political debate in Germany over immigration, extremism, juvenile sentencing and national security ahead of state elections this September.
🇧🇷 Bolsonaro 2.0 Is Officially in the Race
Brazil’s right has its candidate: Flávio Bolsonaro, eldest son of former President Jair Bolsonaro, was formally nominated Saturday to challenge Lula in October’s presidential election.
The mega launch included an AI-generated message from his father endorsing him as "blood of my blood."
Argentina’s Javier Milei stole the show with a half-hour roast calling Lula "socialist trash" and a Supreme Court justice "bald trash" - enough for Brazil to recall its ambassador from Argentina.
PM Netanyahu sent a video message of support.
Flávio is betting on his father’s political machine, anti-left message and conservative base to overcome Lula’s current advantage. But major center-right allies remain uncommitted, and Flávio has yet to name a running mate.
💡 Why It Matters: Brazil’s 2026 election is shaping up as another Lula-vs.-Bolsonaro ideological showdown—only this time, the Bolsonaro name is running without Jair.
đź—˝THE EMPIRE FILES
Political Drama From DC To NYC
đź›’ Mamdani's Grocery Plan: Government vs. Bodegas
Zohran Mamdani is putting City Hall in the produce aisle. Five city-run grocery stores — one per borough — are coming with $70M of taxpayer money behind them.
The pitch: ~30% off staples, up to $1,000/year in household savings, targeting food deserts. First stop: Hunts Point, Bronx, opening 2027.
The problem: Bodegas can't compete with a subsidized landlord. When the city waives rent, taxes and prices for its own stores, it's not "market competition" — it's the house playing the game. Undercut margins hard enough and the small grocers who actually stayed in food deserts when nobody else would…they fold first.
💡Mamdani's betting his base will trust City Hall over the corner store — bodegas are betting the math doesn't work either way.
🎪 Gunfire at Bite of Seattle Leaves 3 Dead
A gunfight broke out at Seattle Center Sunday evening, tearing through the crowd at the Bite of Seattle food festival near the Space Needle.
Three killed: a 19-year-old man, a 44-year-old man, a 56-year-old woman. Four more wounded, including a 2-year-old boy.
One suspect (15 years old) is in custody; a second remains at large. Two weapons recovered. Motive unknown.
Mayor Katie Wilson called it "an act of horrific violence." The Space Needle's flag now flies at half-staff.
💡A festival built for families became a crime scene in seconds — and Seattle is still looking for answers.
🤖 CODES & POWER
Tech Wars, Crypto Chaos, and AI’s Black Mirror Moments
🤝 Ilya's Secretive AI Lab Just Got 10x Richer
Ilya Sutskever spent two years building Safe Superintelligence in near-total silence. Today it broke cover — with NVIDIA's checkbook.
The deal: roughly $5B invested, plus first-in-line access to NVIDIA's next-gen Vera Rubin chips, expected to 10x SSI's compute overnight.
⚡ The subtext: Jensen Huang isn't just buying goodwill — he's betting on the guy who co-created AlexNet to find whatever comes after today's AI.
🔑 $9 Gadget Sells You Freedom From Your Phone
Autonomous Key locks your distracting apps until you physically tap an NFC dongle to unlock them — and it costs less than one month of the subscriptions it's competing with.
The pitch: scan to unlock, apps lock again after 60 minutes, leave the key in another room and let distance do the willpower work for you.
The companion app has an AI with attitude — it'll call you out for unlocking too fast.
⚡ We built the addiction. Now we're selling the $9 cure.
đź“ş FUN FACTS & TRIVIA
The first person to receive a Nobel Prize twice was a woman
Marie Curie won Nobel Prizes in Physics (1903) and Chemistry (1911) for her groundbreaking research on radioactivity and the discovery of elements including polonium and radium.