Happy Wednesday Everyone! Today’s newsletter: 1,239 words…4.7 mins
🗞 Today’s Edition: El-Sayed Wins, Saudi Arabia + Jared Kushner Buy Gaming Giant, AfD Could Be Banned, Perez Hilton Self-Harms On Livestream, Ireland Buys Jet - Takes Out Landing Tech, Meta Enters AI Coding Wars…& much more!
🏛 Did you know the Library of Congress is older than the Capitol building? Scroll down to read about it!
📜THE HIGHLIGHT
One killer insight to stash in your back pocket
AOC, Abdul El-Sayed and Bernie Sanders
🗳 Michigan's Senate Race Just Became the Biggest Political Battle of 2026
Michigan Democrats have chosen Abdul El-Sayed as their Senate nominee after a razor-thin primary victory over Rep. Haley Stevens.
El-Sayed edged out Stevens by about 1 point in the priciest Democratic Senate primary in U.S. history
😲 Within hours of winning, El-Sayed told critics struggling to pronounce his full name:
If you can't say ‘Abdulrahman’, keep the name out your damn mouth. I'll be happy to give you lessons.
⚔ The clip immediately went viral and poured gasoline on an already polarizing race.
🔴Republicans wasted no time. GOP Michigan Senate nominee Mike Rogers, blasted El-Sayed as an "extremist" and is expected to make the election a referendum on national security, affordability, and the Democratic Party's leftward leap.
I spent years hunting terrorists and bringing Osama bin Laden to justice. Never in a million years did I think that I would be running against someone who believes America deserved 9/11.
Abdul doesn't represent a vision for the future. He's leading a movement grounded in ideological fanaticism.
🚨El-Sayed is already battling major controversies:
He penned an op-ed in 2012 explaining why America should support the Muslim Brotherhood and its leader Morsi in Egypt.
His father-in-law is on the boards of ISNA and CAIR - both terror linked Islamic nonprofit organizations. El-Sayed himself is a big advocate of CAIR
A leaked audio clip showed he sympathized with "sad" Dearborn residents after Khamenei's death.
His campaign buddy was Hasan Piker—the streamer who said "America deserved 9/11." When pressed, El-Sayed called it a "gotcha game."
#⃣ The broader progressive scoreboard: Former Squad member Cori Bush lost (again). Palestinian ‘refugee’ and Hezbollah enthusiast- Rashida Tlaib- held on. Animal abuser with tattooed brows - Shri Thanedar - lost. DSA candidates went 2-for-5 in Michigan.
🥇Trump-endorsed candidates won 16 out 17 races last night. Amir Hassan lost the GOP primary to opponent Tom Smith, who had suspended his campaign in Michigan’s 8th Congressional district.
💡 Why it matters: This isn't just another Senate race. Michigan is one of America's premier swing states that heavily voted for Trump in the last election. So November will test whether centrist Democrats will swing to Mike Rogers or make a leftward lurch toward a radical El-Sayed - setting up a high-stakes battle over the future direction of the Democratic Party.
♟️THE CHESSBOARD
Geopolitics Decoded In 3 Moves
💰 Saudi Arabia + Jared Kushner Buy Gaming Giant
Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF) has officially completed its $55 billion takeover of gaming giant Electronic Arts, alongside Silver Lake and Jared Kushner's Affinity Partners.
The blockbuster deal—the largest leveraged buyout in history—takes EA private while CEO Andrew Wilson stays in charge. EA is now delisted from Nasdaq.
The stake: PIF holds ~93%; Kushner's Affinity gets a sliver of equity (~$500M) but credit for brokering the deal.
💡 Why it matters: This isn't just about the Saudi’s Vision 2030 plan to become a global gaming powerhouse. Riyadh is buying influence in one of the world's biggest entertainment industries, showing that geopolitical power is increasingly being projected through pixels, platforms, and pop culture—not just oil.
✈ Ireland Buys Plane…Then Removes The Part That Lands It
Ireland spent €53 million on a brand-new Dassault Falcon 6X government jet—but intentionally removed FalconEye, a cutting-edge landing system that helps pilots safely land in fog, snow, and darkness.
Why? The tech is partly made by Israeli defense company Elbit Systems, and Dublin's boycott policy on new Israeli military-linked procurement ruled it out.
The irony: Irish helicopters and patrol planes already run on Elbit tech. Dublin never bothered ripping it out.
💡 Bottom line: Now for the plane to land in fog, snow or darkness - it’s either Divert or Pray.
🇩🇪 Germany's Most Popular Party... Could Be Banned?
Germany’s right-wing AfD party has climbed to first place in Germany's national polls, overtaking Chancellor Friedrich Merz's CDU/CSU—just as calls to ban the party are gaining momentum.
Vice Chancellor Lars Klingbeil says Germany must "seriously examine" outlawing the AfD if it violates the country's constitution.
Supporters of the ban argue it's necessary to protect democracy, while critics call it an attempt to remove a surging opposition party through the courts instead of the ballot box.
Elon Musk has repeatedly backed the AfD, calling it Germany's "only hope."
💡 Why it matters: The debate cuts to the heart of modern democracies: can banning a popular political party defend democracy—or does it undermine it? Germany may soon have to answer that question.
🗽THE EMPIRE FILES
Political Drama From DC To NYC
🚨Perez Hilton Hospitalized After Disturbing Livestream
Celebrity blogger Perez Hilton was hospitalized after a TikTok livestream yesterday appeared to show him in a self-harm crisis.
Concerned viewers alerted authorities, prompting Miami-Dade deputies to respond to his home and work with family members to safely resolve the situation.
Hilton was transported to a local hospital for medical care, while TikTok removed the livestream and suspended his account.
💡 Hilton is receiving medical care, and his family says their focus is entirely on his well-being.
💰 Trump’s Fraud Task Force Says America’s “Trust System” Is Broken
The Trump administration is turning up the heat on government fraud. At a White House roundtable, VP JD Vance said the federal fraud task force has identified $230 billion in fraud and stopped $56 billion in improper payments.
The task force’s Vice-Chair argued many government programs were built nearly a century ago for a “high-trust society” where people played by the rules—something he says no longer exists.
💡 Vance called fraud a “dual victim crime” and urged Congress to strengthen penalties, data sharing, and enforcement powers.
🤖 CODES & POWER
Tech Wars, Crypto Chaos, and AI’s Black Mirror Moments
🤖 Meta Enters the AI Coding Wars
Meta is officially entering the AI coding wars with Muse Code, its first AI coding agent, now in beta.
Powered by the new Muse Spark 1.2 model, the terminal-based tool can plan software changes, write code across massive projects, test results, and run background agents.
It goes head-to-head with Anthropic’s Claude Code and OpenAI’s Codex.
⚡ The next AI race is moving from answering questions to actually building the software that powers the world.
💾 Samsung’s China Escape Plan?
The U.S.-China chip war is forcing South Korea’s tech giants to rethink their supply chains.
Samsung and SK Hynix are testing Chinese chipmaking equipment from AMEC as a backup option in case Washington tightens export restrictions.
⚡ No major switch has happened yet—but adoption by the world’s top memory-chip makers would be a massive win for Beijing’s semiconductor ambitions.
📺 FUN FACTS & TRIVIA
Did You Know?
The Library of Congress is older than the completed U.S. Capitol!
Founded in 1800 while the Capitol was still under construction (started 1793, finished 1826), it began as a small reference library for Congress before growing into the world’s largest.