Happy Friday Everyone! Today’s newsletter: 1,058 words…4 mins
🗞 Today’s Edition: Trump Just Nuked the EPA's Climate Playbook, Zelensky Meets Iran’s Crown Prince Pahlavi, Louvre’s Plumbing Crisis, ByteDance To Sell Moonton To Saudis, French Judge Scoring Scandal At The Olympics, … & much more!
⏰This country has 11 time zones. Can you guess which? Scroll down to find out!
📜THE HIGHLIGHT
One killer insight to stash in your back pocket
💥 Trump Just Nuked the EPA's Climate Playbook
President Trump flanked by EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, moved to repeal the 2009 ‘endangerment finding’—the legal backbone that let Washington regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act.
The rule, created under Barack Obama, said emissions threaten public health.
Without it, EPA’s authority to regulate carbon basically evaporates.
EPA also announced 31 rule rollbacks tied to Obama- and Biden-era climate policies.
Why it matters:
🚗 Cost argument: White House says killing emissions limits could cut ~$2,400 per car and save $1.3T economy-wide.
🛢️Energy reset: Could unlock expanded oil, gas, and coal output by removing emissions caps.
🌎 Critics’ warning: Transportation = ~25% of U.S. emissions, so rollback risks higher pollution and weaker climate policy.
⚔ The clash: The original finding relied heavily on assessments from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), showing human CO₂ emissions drive modern warming.
A Trump-commissioned 2025 DOE review counters that models may overstate risk and natural variability plays a larger role.
🗣 Political warline:
Obama calls the rollback ‘dangerous’ and a gift to fossil fuel companies that leaves Americans "less safe, less healthy."
Trump calls it "the single largest deregulatory action in American history," as he celebrates the end of the IPCC’s ‘con job’ and ‘green scam.’
💡 Bottom line: This isn’t a tweak — it’s the keystone. Remove it, and the entire federal climate framework risks falling like policy Jenga.
♟️THE CHESSBOARD
Geopolitics Decoded In 3 Moves
Left: Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, Right: President Volodymyr Zelensky with their respective teams
🇺🇦 Zelensky's Royal Gambit—Courting Iran's Shadow King
Zelensky sat down with Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi—exiled son of Iran's last Shah—at Munich Security Conference. Topic: How to wreck Tehran's regime.
The pitch: Tougher sanctions on Iran-Russia arms deals (those Russian drones hitting Kyiv? Made in Iran). Zelensky backed Iran's protestors demanding regime change.
Why Pahlavi matters: He's positioning as Iran's government-in-waiting if the mullahs fall.
💡Why it matters: Ukraine's betting on a successful Iranian revolution. If protests topple Tehran, Russia loses its drone factory and a Middle East ally.
🇫🇷 Louvre's Plumbing Crisis = France's Decay Metaphor
The metaphor writes itself: France couldn’t keep the burglars out of the Louvre; and now they can't keep the water out either!
A burst pipe tore through a 200-year-old painted ceiling near the Mona Lisa. Second major flood in three months.
Charles Meynier's 1819 neoclassical masterpiece—ripped, paint peeling. Room 707 closed. Firefighters scrambled at midnight.
The pattern: November 2025: Egyptian antiquities flooded. October: Greek ceramics wing nearly collapsed.
💡Why it matters: The Louvre's chief architect admitted the building is crumbling. This isn't bad luck—it's deferred maintenance meets austerity budgets.
🪖 U.S. Exits Syria’s Desert Chess Square
U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) confirmed it withdrew ~200 troops from Al‑Tanf base, handing it to Damascus after a decade-long presence. The base once blocked Iran routes + hunted ISIS.
With Bashar al‑Assad gone and new ruler Ahmed al‑Sharaa cooperating with Washington, the U.S. now keeps ~900 troops mostly in Syria’s northeast.
Translation — Washington thinks Syria can manage its own backyard. Critics warn ISIS cells may test that assumption fast.
💡Bottom line: Less boots, more bets. The U.S. is swapping boots-on-ground leverage for regional trust — a gamble with Middle East odds.
🗽THE EMPIRE FILES
Politics, Culture & Entertainment From DC To NYC
📺 Karoline Leavitt Saved CNN’s Kaitlan Collins From Saudi Censorship
Karoline Leavitt—Trump's Press Secretary—rescued CNN's Kaitlan Collins from Saudi Royal Guard censorship during a May 2025 Riyadh trip.
Collins shouted a question at Trump + MBS, as is the norm in America.
Saudi Royal Guards, (not used to a free press) tried blocking her from the next event.
Leavitt shut it down: "Kaitlan's coming in with the rest of the U.S. press."
⚡Trump's called Collins "nasty" and "stupid" on repeat. He’s not a fan. But when it comes to suppressing American press on foreign soil, that is a bridge too far. Free speech >> petty feuds.
⛸ French Judge Gifts Gold To France At The Winter Olympics
Fans cry “rigged” after French judge Jezabel Dabouis scored French duo Laurence Fournier Beaudry / Guillaume Cizeron 7.7 points higher than U.S. favorites Madison Chock / Evan Bates in free dance — despite most judges preferring Team USA.
The receipts: Dabouis has a history of overvaluing French teams at Europeans and Grand Prix—even when they botch sync.
International Skating Union (ISU) says score gaps are “normal variance.”
10K+ petition signatures now demand an IOC probe.
⚡Team USA got silver. France got gold. Integrity got bronze.
🤖 CODES & POWER
Tech Wars, Crypto Chaos, and AI’s Black Mirror Moments
🤖 AI Ad Wars Get Petty (and Effective)
Anthropic ran Super Bowl ads mocking AI chatbots pushing cougar dating sites and height-boosting insoles. Tagline? "Claude has no ads."
The timing: ChatGPT rolled out ads to free users the same week. Perfect.
The results: Claude jumped from #41 to #7 on U.S. App Store—highest rank ever. Downloads spiked 32% (148K in 3 days).
Why it worked: Combine new Opus 4.6 model + perfectly timed shade at ChatGPT's ad rollout = viral gold.
⚡The most effective ad of the year might be… an ad telling you ads are bad.
🎮 Saudi Arabia's $7B Gaming Power Play—Buying TikTok's Leftovers
ByteDance is eyeing a sale of its gaming studio Moonton (Mobile Legends: 1.5B installs) to Saudi's Savvy Games Group for $6-7B. Could close this quarter.
The math: ByteDance bought Moonton for $4B in 2021. Flipping it for nearly double after ditching gaming to focus on TikTok survival.
Saudi's strategy: Savvy (backed by PIF) already dropped $4.9B on Scopely in 2023. MBS wants gaming IP dominance—think soft power via consoles.
⚡China exits. Saudi petrodollars enter. Gaming's new superpower wears a thobe, not a hoodie.
📺 FUN FACTS & TRIVIA
Map of Russia with time
Did You Know?
Russia spans 11 different time zones—more than any other country on Earth!
From Kaliningrad in the west to the Kamchatka Peninsula in the east, you could theoretically call someone in Russia and catch them having breakfast while you're having dinner… or even the next day!