Happy Wednesday Everyone! Today’s newsletter: 980 words…3.7 mins
🗞 Today’s Edition: The Moscow Meeting, America Tightens the Gates, Trump Goes Scorched Earth on Somalia, Israel Tests a New Lebanon Play, Sabrina Carpenter vs White House, Epstein Island Photos Released… & much more!
📜THE HIGHLIGHT
One killer insight to stash in your back pocket
Witkoff and Kushner (left) meeting with Putin and his officials
🇷🇺 The Moscow Meeting: Five Hours of Theater for Zero Concessions
Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner logged five hours with Vladimir Putin inside the Kremlin yesterday.
It’s Witkoff’s sixth sit-down with Putin, Kushner’s first, and the most direct U.S.–Russia channel Trump world has opened since the 2024 campaign.
The mission: Road-test a U.S.-drafted Ukraine peace plan that Washington hopes can freeze the war before 2026.
Inside the room: Sources say the talks hit the three hardest issues — territory, cease-fire terms, and negotiation architecture — but produced zero public concessions.
Both sides slapped on confidentiality, which in Moscow usually means “nothing moved.”
Putin didn’t signal flexibility on his red lines: Donbas control, Ukrainian neutrality, and a buffer that Kyiv still rejects.
Putin’s pressure campaign: Hours before the meeting, Putin blasted Europe for “sabotaging peace,” warning he doesn’t want war with Europe but is “ready right now.”
💡 Why it matters: This channel is now Trumpworld’s de facto peace desk. Witkoff and Kushner are briefing Zelensky, who’s hoping for daylight that isn’t there yet. With Russia claiming new gains near Pokrovsk and Zelensky fearing the United States will lose interest; the clock isn’t on Ukraine’s side.
⚡Bottom line: The plan isn’t dead — but it’s nowhere near alive. Trump’s team has access. Putin has leverage. Kyiv has the most to lose.
♟️THE CHESSBOARD
Geopolitics Decoded In 3 Moves
🚪 America Tightens the Gates
The DHS halted all immigration processing — green cards, visas, citizenship — from 19 “high-risk” countries, stretching from Afghanistan and Iran to Haiti, Cuba, Myanmar, and Libya.
Official line: enhanced vetting after an Afghan national shot two National Guard members near the White House. Translation: Trump’s June directive now has teeth.
Meanwhile, the House passed the “No Immigration Benefits for Hamas Terrorists Act” by voice vote — a rare unanimous moment. Senate’s up next.
💡 Bottom line: Security politics are back at Defcon 2.
⚔ Trump Goes Scorched Earth on Somalia
Trump’s message was unmistakable: America is done importing chaos.
In a fiery Cabinet meeting, he torched Somali immigrant fraud networks, saying Minnesota got “bilked for billions” and that Washington won’t “take in people who give nothing back.”
His target list included Rep. Ilhan Omar, whom he called “garbage” and framed as the symbol of a broken immigration system.
He argued the U.S. won’t “import instability” from a country he called “barely a nation.”
The backlash: Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz blasted the remarks as xenophobic, and Omar accused Trump of “attacking an entire community to score political points.”
💡 Why it matters: This comes as the administration pauses immigration from 19 high-risk nations and moves to end Temporary Protected Status for 700 Somalis in Minnesota. Trump’s drawing a hard red line — security first, excuses nowhere.
🇮🇱 🇱🇧 Israel Tests a New Lebanon Play
Jerusalem just made a rare move: Israel quietly sent a National Security Council envoy to Beirut officials — the first direct outreach in years — after Netanyahu’s talks with U.S. envoy Morgan Ortagus.
The mission: explore economic cooperation and pressure Lebanon to finally enforce the 2024 ceasefire, especially Hezbollah’s retreat north of the Litani.
Meanwhile, in Naqoura, both sides sent civilian diplomats to ceasefire talks for the first time, signaling real (if fragile) movement.
Context: Lebanon’s President Aoun wants negotiation over war; Israel wants Hezbollah disarmed; Hezbollah terrorists wants Israel off five border posts (…and off the map).
💡Bottom line: Everyone’s talking — nobody’s blinking.
🗽THE EMPIRE FILES
Political Drama From DC To NYC
🖼 Epstein Island Photos Go Public
House Democrats dropped never-before-seen photos and videos from Jeffrey Epstein’s Little St. James estate — bedrooms, bathrooms, a library, a pool, even a dentist chair under tribal masks.
One shot shows a speed-dial phone with partially redacted names.
The release follows legislation forcing DOJ transparency on Epstein files.
Lawmakers say the visuals help map the full abuse network.
⚡The curtain is finally lifting and this marks one of the most comprehensive visual releases to date.
👀 Sabrina vs. The White House Gets Spicy
The White House went full scorched-earth after pop star Sabrina Carpenter called its ICE raid video set to “Juno” “evil and disgusting.”
The White House responded by using another one of her songs (Short n' Sweet) to mock her support from criminals.
Spox Abigail Jackson fired back: “We won’t apologize for deporting criminal illegal murderers… Anyone defending them is stupid — or slow.”
⚡Fans rallied behind Carpenter, while critics blasted her “hypocrisy.”
🤖 CODES & POWER
Tech Wars, Crypto Chaos, and AI’s Black Mirror Moments
💵 Anthropic Eyes Wall Street
Anthropic is quietly warming up the IPO engines. The Claude-maker tapped Wilson Sonsini and started early chats with major banks for a 2026 listing, though it insists no final call has been made.
Why now? The company’s revenue run rate could hit $26B next year, powered by 300k+ enterprise clients and mega-investments from Microsoft, Nvidia, Google, and Amazon — with a fresh round possibly valuing it above $300B.
⚡OpenAI isn’t going public soon — Anthropic might beat it to the bell.
🪙 Schwab Finally Joins the Crypto Party
Charles Schwab is flipping the switch on spot crypto. CEO Rick Wurster says the $11.6T giant will roll out Bitcoin and Ethereum trading in early 2026, giving clients one-stop access instead of scattering assets across Coinbase and friends.
Regulators greenlit bank-led custody this year, and Schwab’s seeing 90–400% spikes in crypto traffic.
⚡When Main Street’s biggest broker embraces spot crypto, the market’s no longer “emerging” — it’s arrived.
📺 FUN FACTS & TRIVIA
Spaghetti's Solo Act
A single strand of Spaghetti is called a “Spaghetto.”