Happy Tuesday Everyone! Today’s newsletter: 1,024 words…3.8 mins
🗞 Today’s Edition: France Beaten By Jellyfish, POTUS's Catering Truck Switcheroo, Kim's Missiles Hit Ukraine, Assad Sentenced To Death, Abdul Deletes Videos, Meta Un-buys Manus, Bitcoin Miners to AI Landlords...& more!
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🕺Quiz Time!: This legendary artist known for his iconic vocals and dance moves, also had a black belt in karate. Can you guess who? Scroll down for the answer.
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WI, CT, VT and MN head into statewide primaries: Polls close tonight
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📜THE HIGHLIGHT
One killer insight to stash in your back pocket
🎭 Trump Pulled a Body Double... With a Catering Truck
After the NATO summit in Ankara last month, President Trump reportedly pulled off a Hollywood-level security switcheroo to evade a credible Iranian threat targeting his aircraft.
Trump publicly boarded the older Air Force One in full view of cameras.
But minutes later, he and a small group of aides reportedly slipped out through the opposite side of the plane and into an airport catering truck.
The truck drove him across the tarmac to a smaller Air Force C-32A military jet.
📰 Meanwhile, journalists and some White House staff remained aboard the 747—apparently believing Trump was still inside.
That plane then took off as a decoy, while Trump’s actual flight traveled under a nondescript military call sign.
👀 The reported reason: U.S. intelligence had identified a credible Iranian threat, reportedly including concern that a missile could target the presidential aircraft. The White House has not publicly confirmed every detail of the operation.
💡 Why It Matters: This wasn't just presidential security—it was wartime deception in the sky. When the president needs a catering truck, a decoy plane and a fake flight identity to get out of town, you know the geopolitical temperature is getting spicy.
♟️THE CHESSBOARD
Geopolitics Decoded In 3 Moves
🪼 Jellyfish Beat Putin to France's Power Grid
France is battling wildfires, an overburdened nuclear fleet and now…jellyfish.
Three reactors at the Gravelines plant shut down Monday after swarms of jellyfish clogged the seawater filters that keep the plant cool. A fourth got throttled to half power.
EDF installed cameras and hired fishermen to trawl swarms away after 2025's full shutdown — and still lost 3+ GW.
💡 Bottom line: Europe's largest nuclear plant, defeated by invertebrates with no brain, for the second year running. Putin hasn’t had to lift a finger.
⚖ Bashar Al-Assad Just Got Sentenced To Death…Kinda
A Damascus court sentenced ousted President Bashar al-Assad to death in absentia, convicting him of war crimes, crimes against humanity, murder and torture tied to the country’s brutal civil war that killed 500,000 people.
Assad fled to Moscow after rebels toppled his regime in December 2024, so the sentence is currently more symbolic than enforceable.
His brother Maher got the same sentence. Only cousin Atef Najib — Daraa's former security chief, whose 2011 crackdown sparked the uprising — was actually in the room to hear it, in a cage.
💡 Bottom line: Syria got a verdict. Justice is still waiting on an address.
🇰🇵 North Korean Missiles Rain On Ukraine
Zelensky says Russia struck Zaporizhzhia overnight with North Korean ballistic missiles, killing at least 6 and wounding 19 there alone — part of strikes that killed 9 civilians nationwide.
Ukrainian intelligence says a North Korean missile unit, roughly 90 personnel, is deploying to Russia's Voronezh region with up to 120 more missiles.
Zelensky warned, Russia "cannot wage war without reinforcements from North Korea" and said 30,000–50,000 North Korean troops may follow.
💡 Why it matters: These missile tests aren’t just a gesture of friendship between Kim and Putin—they're giving Kim Jong Un live combat data to perfect his arsenal for future targets like Japan or South Korea. So Putin's short-term fix is basically Asia's long-term problem.
🗽THE EMPIRE FILES
Political Drama From DC To NYC
🎬 Michigan Senate Candidate Scrubs 100 Videos—Oops
Abdul El-Sayed's campaign quietly private-d at least 100 YouTube videos right before his Senate run.
CNN dug up the receipts: “Fireworks suck”, football has "slavery vibes," and he once suggested replacing the Second Amendment with a right to healthcare. He also called border concerns Republican "flogging" that "doesn't make the top five" issues Americans care about.
The problem: Michigan is a swing state. Voters there—especially in the suburbs—actually do care about the border, love football, and enjoy July 4th fireworks.
El-Sayed's campaign now says the clips don't reflect his "beliefs today." Translation: Please don't watch these.
💡 Nothing says "I'm ready for the general election" like deleting 100 videos and hoping nobody noticed.
🎰 America’s Favorite Financial Strategy Is Back: ✨ Getting Lucky. ✨
The Powerball jackpot just hit $1 billion for Wednesday night’s drawing—the biggest of 2026 so far.
Nobody has won the jackpot in 44 straight drawings, pushing the estimated cash payout to roughly $433 million before taxes.
Your odds? About 1 in 292 million. So, basically, your retirement plan is looking great.
💡 Americans may be one ticket away from generational wealth—or another $2 donation to the lottery-industrial complex.
🤖 CODES & POWER
Tech Wars, Crypto Chaos, and AI’s Black Mirror Moments
💰 China Just Forced Meta to Un-Buy an AI Startup—Ouch
Beijing regulators ordered Meta to unwind its $2 billion Manus acquisition—calling it a "conspiratorial" plot to hollow out China's tech base.
Co-founders were summoned, restricted from leaving the country, and now Manus is going independent again.
Tencent's reportedly leading a buyback at the same $2 billion price tag.
⚡ The irony: Manus relocated to Singapore, "Singapore-washed" itself, and still couldn't escape Beijing's long arm. Meta's left holding the bag—and a very expensive lesson in cross-border AI deals.
🤖₿ Bitcoin Miners Are Becoming AI Landlords.
Riot Platforms just locked in a 20-year, $9.1B lease putting Claude's servers on a former Bitcoin mining campus in Texas.
191 megawatts of power — enough for 143,000 homes — rolling out through 2028.
Riot's stock jumped over 20% the moment Bloomberg named the mystery "frontier AI lab" tenant.
⚡ Crypto miners are quietly becoming AI's landlords, one power grid at a time.
📺 FUN FACTS & TRIVIA
🎤 Elvis Presley once received a black belt in karate
Elvis studied karate for years and was awarded a first-degree black belt in 1960. He became deeply interested in martial arts and incorporated karate-inspired moves into some of his performances.