Happy Tuesday Everyone! Todayâs newsletter: 1,287 wordsâŚ4.8 mins
đ Todayâs Edition: Mamdani Wants To Arrest Netanyahu, Inside Iranâs âPickaxe Mountainâ, Lebanon Gets Its First White House Visit Since 2009, 6,600 Non-Citizens Got Registered to Vote, Apple's About to Rent You an iPhone...& much more!
đŚ Can a LEGO brick can survive being stepped on by a dinosaur? Scroll down to find out!
đTHE HIGHLIGHT
One killer insight to stash in your back pocket
đď¸ Mamdani Wants to Arrest a Sitting PM... In New York
Mayor Zohran Mamdani says his lawyers are "in active conversation" about arresting PM Benjamin Netanyahu the second he lands for UNGA in September.
There's just one problem: The mayor has zero legal authority to pull it off.
đŁď¸The threat: Mamdani told the New York Times podcast, his administration's legal team is exploring whether NYC can enforce the ICC's 2024 war crimes warrant against Netanyahu. "I believe that Prime Minister Netanyahu belongs in The Hague." /
He doubled down days later, saying âHe's [Netanyahu] the architect of the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza as Israel's prime minister...â and that ICC warrants "should be honored."
đľWhy it's dead on arrival â 5 reasons:
No ICC membership: The U.S. never joined the ICC, and the 2002 "Hague Invasion Act" bans any American city or agency from cooperating with it.
Head-of-state immunity: Sitting leaders carry absolute immunity from foreign prosecution under customary international law â official visit or not.
UN treaty protections: The 1947 UN Headquarters Agreement shields representatives from arrest while traveling to and from General Assembly business.
Federal supremacy: Foreign policy is exclusively a federal power â the Supremacy Clause means Washington overrides any local move instantly.
Diplomatic statutes: Separate federal law protects visiting officials from arrest â any local cop who tries, would be committing a federal violation.
đŹ The reactions:
President Trump: âNetanyahu will not be arrested, in any way, shape, or form."
PM Netanyahuâs Office: âInstead of backing Khan's criminal behavior, Mr. Mamdani should focus on fixing the damage his policies have caused New York.â
Context: âKhanâ refers to disgraced Judge Karim Khan of the ICC who brought the charges. He is being investigated on sexual assault allegations.
đĄ Bottom line: Netanyahu is still expected to walk into the UN in September untouched â this is a mayor with a microphone trying to gin up his base; not making a plan.
âď¸THE CHESSBOARD
Geopolitics Decoded In 3 Moves
đłđŽ Ortega Just Cancelled Democracy... Out Loud
Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega didn't bother with the usual authoritarian euphemisms. Marking 47 years since the Sandinista revolution (socialist, anti-imperalist), the 80-year-old co-president told the nation:
"There will be no more elections here for them to try to seize power."
The setup: 2025 constitutional changes already made Ortega and wife Rosario Murillo co-presidents, pushed elections from 2026 to 2027+, and gutted the other branches.
The kill shot: He's now ordering his rubber-stamp Assembly to pass laws permanently blocking any opposition return â foreign-funded or not.
đĄ Bottom line: After jailing rivals and shuttering NGOs for years, Ortega just skipped the pretense entirely â no more elections to steal means no more elections at all.
â°ď¸ Inside Iranâs âPickaxe Mountainâ
Deep under a mountain south of Natanz sits Iran's most fortified secret: a tunnel complex buried up to 140 meters beneath solid rock, the site is considered even harder to destroy than Fordow.
The intel: Israel believes thousands of centrifuges â and possibly enriched uranium â got moved into Pickaxe Mountain after the June 2025 strikes wrecked Iran's main sites.
Satellite imagery shows continued construction, while President Trump has publicly threatened future strikes - "Weâll be hitting that area pretty soonâŚâ
IAEA inspectors have never once set foot inside.
đĄ Why it matters: Pickaxe Mountain has become the latest symbol of the Iran nuclear standoff. If Tehran is shifting critical assets underground, Washington and Jerusalem may face an uncomfortable reality: military strikes can slow Iranâs program, but eliminating it entirely is becoming much harder.
âď¸ Lebanon Gets Its First White House Visit Since 2009
Joseph Aoun became the first Lebanese President in 17 years to sit in the Oval Office on July 21 â and it came with real policy on the table, not just a photo op.
The framework: The visit builds on the June 26 U.S.-brokered deal for phased Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon, tied to Lebanese Army deployment in those âpilot zonesâ to dismantle Hezbollah. Aoun pitched to start implementation of those pilot zones.
The commitments: Trump pledged to help Lebanon "a lot," confirmed Israel is "in the process of redeploying" from the south, and acknowledged the Hezbollah issue directly.
Aoun also met Secretary Rubio, who tied U.S. support to strengthening Lebanon's government as the counter to terrorist organization - Hezbollah.
đĄ Bottom line: The framework is already moving â this visit was about locking in the follow-through on withdrawal, army deployment, and disarmament, not starting from scratch.
đ˝THE EMPIRE FILES
Political Drama From DC To NYC
đ˝ Rubio Names Names in 100-Page Cuba Report
The State Department just dropped a nearly 100-page dossier accusing Havana of six decades of espionage, infiltration, and bankrolling America's radical left â with receipts.
The claims: Cuba allegedly recruited activists, backed groups from the Weather Underground to modern Antifa-style networks, and built influence pipelines through the National Network on Cuba, DSA, Code Pink, and the People's Forum.
Rubio: "The Cuban regime has been the leading sponsor of radical leftism... in the United States."
đĄ This is the paper trail for whatever comes next â new sanctions, investigations, or crackdowns on named U.S. groups all just got their official justification.
đł 6,600 Non-Citizens Got Registered to Vote â By a Glitch
New Jersey's Governor just confirmed what Republicans spent months alleging: a software error let thousands of non-citizens onto the voter rolls â she just says it was a bug, not a scheme.
The numbers: ~6,600 non-citizens got auto-registered via a 2023â2024 MVC glitch after self-identifying as non-citizens on their own forms. Fewer than 400 actually voted, split across parties.
The politics: GOP's own probe already found hundreds of cases and called it "the tip of the iceberg." Sherrill says she's "appalled" and ordered an independent investigation and removals.
đĄThe system flagged these people as non-citizens itself â and registered them anyway. That's the part both sides now have to answer for.
đ¤ CODES & POWER
Tech Wars, Crypto Chaos, and AIâs Black Mirror Moments
đ¤ Goldman's Betting Big on the Next SpaceX
Goldman Sachs just posted record numbers chasing companies that never bother going public: $59B in alternatives fundraising last quarter, $85B for the year, with private credit alone pulling in $31B.
The play: Rich clients want pre-IPO exposure to companies like SpaceX and Stripe, so Goldman's building secondaries, continuation vehicles, and co-investment deals to get them in â no IPO required.
The SpaceX tie: Goldman's already lead bookrunner on SpaceX's roadshow and lends against its shares as collateral.
âĄCompanies are staying private longer, and Wall Street's answer isn't waiting for the IPO â it's building a side door for whoever can afford the ticket.
đ¤ Apple's About to Rent You an iPhone
Apple's blowing up its whole sales model: a Klarna-powered lease-to-own program called "Apple Upgrade" is set to launch as soon as July 28, covering iPhones, iPads, Macs, and Apple Watches.
The terms: Up to 24 months for iPhones and Watches, 36 for iPads and Macs â lease it, upgrade it, buy it out, or hand it back. AppleCare's extra.
The timing: This lands right as Apple hikes prices over rising memory chip costs.
⥠Apple's letting Klarna eat the credit risk while it keeps you locked into an upgrade cycle you never technically finish paying off.
đş FUN FACTS & TRIVIA
đŚA LEGO brick can survive being stepped on by a dinosaur (almost)
LEGO bricks are designed to withstand enormous pressure. Their clutch power is so strong that a standard LEGO brick can support several hundred kilograms before deforming.