Happy Thursday Everyone! Today’s newsletter: 918 words…3.4 mins

🗞 Today’s Edition: Ayatollah comes out of hiding, Meta’s stealing Open AI’s brain, Mayor Adams’ Middle Finger Energy campaign kicks off …& much more!

🚨 Watch For: Potential finalized deal on Israel-Gaza in the coming week.

Geopolitics Decoded In 3 Moves

🧨 Nairobi’s Gen Z Uprising Turns Deadly

⚔ Kenya’s capital is on fire—literally. Protests led by Gen Z erupted into deadly riots after police allegedly killed 16 people, triggering the worst unrest since 2024’s tax revolt. Shops torched, over 400 injured, and streets in ruins.

The spark? A blogger’s death in police custody. Ruto's regime faces its gravest crisis yet.

📉 Global Angle: This unrest threatens regional instability as well as East Africa's economic hub just as IMF austerity measures bite deeper.

🇮🇷 Khamenei’s Bunker Fantasy: “Victory” Via Copium

After hiding for weeks, Iran’s Supreme Leader emerged to declare “victory”—despite:
☢️ 3 nuke sites obliterated (Fordow, Natanz, Isfahan)
💀 Top scientists vaporized
🚀 Air defenses humiliated by Israeli strikes

His “hand slap to America” claim? Pure North Korea-grade theatrics—meant to save face as regime stability cracks. Tehran’s bluster can’t mask its worst strategic loss since Soleimani.

👀 Southeast Asia's Silent War

Thailand and Cambodia's border clash has escalated into full-blown economic warfare, with:

🔥 Why it matters: This is ASEAN's first real test since Myanmar - and Thailand's embattled PM Paetongtarn is playing with fire during her no-confidence vote.

🔭Watch: China's quiet mediation attempts.

Political Drama From DC To NYC

💣 Pentagon Drops the Tape: Bunker‑Busters vs. Iran

📹 The Pentagon just released jaw‑dropping footage of the historic Iran strike, showing 30,000‑lb GBU‑57 bunker‑busters smashing deep into nuclear sites. One blast lit up the Fordow plant’s shafts so brightly, pilots called it “literally daylight.” Gen. Dan Caine confirmed all six bombs hit their marks, demolishing fortified vents with surgical precision.

📺 The release comes after CNN and NYT pushed reports suggesting the bombs missed based on a disputed intel leak.

🔍 Bottom line: The message? The only thing buried deeper than those bombs — the bad headlines.

🗽 New Yorkers Hit The Panic Button: Adams Vows To Save Our Beloved City

Mayor Eric Adams launches his re-election bid with a Middle Finger Energy campaign, - “New Yorkers have five fingers. They love the middle one the most,” he said, branding socialist primary winner Zohran Mamdani a “snake oil salesman” peddling “free everything” fantasies (rent, buses, even groceries).

Mayor Adams bets Trump-dismissed corruption case won’t matter as much as Mamdani’s anti-Israel stances.

🔥Bottom Line: Dems nationwide are panicking over a hard-left, radical Islamist-backed socialist seizing control of America’s financial and cultural capital. Wall Street donors are scrambling to fund Adams as a “human firebreak”. Adams calls it “devastating”—and he’s betting NYC voters agree.

Tech Wars, Crypto Chaos, and AI’s Black Mirror Moments

🧠Meta’s AI Heist: Stealing OpenAI’s Brain

💻Zuck poaches a top OpenAI researcher to turbocharge Meta’s AI reasoning—just as regulators circle both firms. Trapit Bansal—key OpenAI researcher behind its o1 reasoning model— is to join Meta’s superintelligence lab focused on AI reasoning.

He bolsters a team that includes Scale AI’s Alexandr Wang. This move signals Zuckerberg’s push to rival OpenAI and Google notch-for-notch in the next-gen logic-driven AI arms race.

🤔 Irony: Training machines to "think" while Congress still can’t.

🇨🇳 Zhipu AI: China’s Blacklisted AI Tiger Gains Global Ground

🕵 Beijing‑backed Zhipu AI, blacklisted by the U.S., is now on OpenAI’s radar. The startup, tied to over $1.4B in Chinese state funds and CCP leaders, is quietly exporting AI infrastructure to governments across Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Europe.

🔥 Why it matters: OpenAI warns Zhipu is locking China’s AI standards into emerging markets — a critical front in the Digital Silk Road tech war. Washington’s $500B Stargate AI push? This seems to be a direct response.

One killer insight to stash in your back pocket

❓ EU’s Trump Tariff Dilemma: Fold or Fight?

🇪🇺 The EU summit in Brussels has descended into a geopolitical stress test as leaders grapple with Trump’s ultimatum: Accept a lopsided trade deal by July 9 or face 50% tariffs on all EU goods. The U.S. counterproposal—finally delivered—offers scant relief:

🪓 The Split:

🔍 Bottom Line: With Trump’s deadline looming, the EU faces a lose-lose choice—swallow unfair terms or trigger a trade war. Von der Leyen’s midnight dumplings won’t sweeten this deal. —Reporting live from Brussels 138.

🔥 Why It Matters:

1️⃣ Auto apocalypse: 25% tariffs on BMW/Mercedes could erase €50B in exports.

2️⃣ Tech tax showdown: EU’s €95B retaliation list hangs on U.S. tech giants.

3️⃣ Global domino effect: UK deal sets precedent—others may fold too.

4️⃣DAX up 15% as EU capitulation bets rise.

The internet's buzz, curated—so you don't have to scroll the abyss

-NYC Edition

Because World Leaders Beg To Be Dragged

-Iran Edition