Happy Monday Everyone! Today’s newsletter: 1,172 words…4.4 mins
🗞 Today’s Edition: Louvre Heist: 2 Suspects Nabbed, Trump’s Asia Trip, Nigel Farage vs Sadiq Khan, TIME Bends To Trump, DoorDash To The Rescue, JPMorgan Flirts With Bitcoin Collateral, London’s Met Deploys Drones… & much more!
🚨 Watch For:
NYC Mayoral Elections: Tuesday, Nov 4th
📜THE HIGHLIGHT
One killer insight to stash in your back pocket
🥷 🇫🇷 The Louvre Heist: Two Suspects Nabbed
In a stunning breakthrough, French authorities have apprehended two key suspects in the audacious €88M (~$102M) Louvre jewel heist. The suspects, both men in their thirties with prior convictions for theft and organized crime, were tracked down following a multi-agency manhunt.
One was caught at Charles de Gaulle Airport mid–getaway to Algeria
The other was nabbed in a Paris suburb hours later (Mali-bound)
Both are linked to Seine-Saint-Denis’ organized crime rings, aka “the usual suspects.”
👑 The Jewels? Still missing. Unconfirmed reports say the suspect at the airport had a few of the stolen jewels in his possession.
🕵 The Evidence Trail:
DNA from a motorcycle helmet left at the scene
CCTV footage, fingerprint analysis, and real-time phone tracking
📰 The Leak Drama:
French media (BFM TV, Le Parisien) jumped the gun, announcing arrests before officials confirmed—prompting prosecutor Laure Beccuau to publicly rage that premature leaks "hinder" manhunts.
💡Bottom line: Over 100 specialist officers continue the hunt for two remaining accomplices and the missing jewels as France continues to reel from one of its most embarrassing moments in history. Expect updates soon after the suspects' custody period ends, potentially leading to charges or more arrests.
♟️THE CHESSBOARD
Geopolitics Decoded In 3 Moves
Left: President Trump with the leaders of Thailand, Cambodia and Malaysia at the “Peace Declaration” signing ceremony; President Trump dancing in Malaysia
🕺 Trump’s In Asia: Peace, Trade, and a Tarmac Two-Step
President Trump’s in Asia for a weeklong trip attending the ASEAN and APEC summits; and his Malaysia stop mixed geopolitics with showbiz.
He presided over a “peace declaration” between Thailand and Cambodia, easing border tensions — more handshake than treaty, but still a headline.
Trump also signed trade frameworks with Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand, and Cambodia, pushing U.S. access to minerals + cybercrime cooperation — part of his Indo-Pacific influence revival.
Viral moment: Malaysian performers greeted him with a traditional performance upon touchdown and President Trump broke into his signature dance moves right on the tarmac. Malaysia’s PM Anwar Ibrahim decided to join in too; earning both leaders praise and memes.
⚡ Next up: Tokyo, a meeting with Emperor Naruhito and new PM Sanae Takaichi. The President will end his whirlwind trip with a final stop in South Korea where he’s expected to meet Xi Jinping and possibly even North Korea’s Kim Jong Un.
🇬🇧 Nigel Farage vs Sadiq Khan: The Pakistani Grooming Gang Scandal
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage ignited a firestorm, accusing London Mayor Sadiq Khan of “refusing to acknowledge” Pakistani grooming gangs in the capital — calling it “the last great scandal to be uncovered.”
Farage claims Reform UK is “very close” to exposing evidence, citing talks with London social services.
He blasted Khan and the Met Police for “cowardice and denial,” arguing victims are being ignored.
Context: The “grooming gang” scandal refers to UK-wide cases where groups of men—often from Pakistan—were convicted of sexually molesting and in many cases raping young girls - a crisis first exposed in Rotherham and Rochdale.
💡Why it matters: The Met is now reviewing 9,000 old exploitation cases, amid national pressure from Baroness Casey’s inquiry. Parliament could soon face calls for a deeper probe — and a reckoning at City Hall.
🇦🇷 Milei’s Midterm Landslide: Libertarian Lightning Strikes Again
Argentina's libertarian President Javier Milei crushed midterms with 40%+ of the vote, gaining 14 Senate seats and 64 Deputy seats. Peronists? Obliterated.
Milei now has legislative firepower to turbocharge austerity, privatizations, and deregulation.
The Trump factor: US bailout cash was contingent on Milei staying in power. Mission accomplished. Netanyahu and Trump both called to congratulate—this is realignment diplomacy in real time.
💡Why it matters: The election serves as a powerful mandate for Milei’s economic experiment, which has tamed inflation but sparked protests over job losses and crumbling public services.
🗽THE EMPIRE FILES
Political Drama From DC To NYC
Left: The initial cover; Right: The new cover
📷 TIME Bends to Trump
TIME magazine has scrapped its controversial cover of President Donald Trump, replacing it with a more flattering Oval Office portrait after the former president unleashed a furious social media tirade against the original image .
The initial cover, unveiled in October, featured an upward-angle shot that Trump lambasted on Truth Social as "the Worst of All Time," complaining it "disappeared" his hair .
The new cover for the November 10th issue shows Trump seated at the Resolute Desk, hands clasped, under the headline "Trump's World"
⚡The subtext: Owner Marc Benioff is allegedly courting MAGA subscribers. Trump's appeared on 40+ TIME covers (trailing only Reagan and Nixon)—he knows his leverage.
🍔 DoorDash To The Rescue
As the monthlong government shutdown threatens to cut off food stamps for 42M Americans, DoorDash is jumping in with a nationwide “Emergency Food Response.”
The delivery app will hand out 1M free meals and waive fees for 300K grocery orders from SNAP users through November.
Partners include Sprouts, Dollar General, and Wegmans. “Doing nothing isn’t an option,” DoorDash said.
⚡The move comes as states warn that federal food stamp funding is set to dry up, potentially overwhelming already strained charitable food systems.
🤖 CODES & POWER
Tech Wars, Crypto Chaos, and AI’s Black Mirror Moments
💰 JPMorgan Flirts With Bitcoin Collateral
Wall Street’s biggest bank is dipping deeper into crypto. JPMorgan is reportedly prepping a program that will let institutional clients use BTC and ETH as loan collateral by the end of 2025.
This is a first for its credit system.
The bank won’t hold the tokens directly; a third-party custodian will.
The trend: Morgan Stanley's adding Solana trading to E*Trade. BNY Mellon launched tokenized money markets with Goldman.
⚡ It’s a bold shift for JPMorgan, whose CEO Jamie Dimon once called Bitcoin “a fraud.” Now it’s accepting it as credit fuel.
👁️ London Cops Deploy Sky Spies
The Met Police just launched a pilot program using AI-guided drones that autonomously take off from rooftops to respond to 999 calls within two minutes.
Dubbed Drone as First Responder, the system streams HD video straight to officers, helping track suspects or find missing people.
Footage deleted in 28 days (unless it's evidence). Totally not 1984, guys.
⚡Privacy critics call it surveillance creep — but the Met says it’s faster, greener, and cheaper than helicopters.
📺 FUN FACTS & TRIVIA
NYC’s Subway Opens
On October 27, 1904, the New York City subway officially opened for the very first time, with Mayor George B. McClellan driving the first train from City Hall to 145th Street in the afternoon
At 7pm that evening, the subway opened to the general public and over 100,000 people paid a nickel to ride the train.