Happy Thursday Everyone! This edition is power-packed with the coolest stories of the day and I’m betting you’ll enjoy ‘em.
Today’s newsletter: 852 words…3.2 mins
🗞 Today’s Edition: UK-Germany Power Pact, Drone Daddy Era, Cuomo wants to “touch more people”, Gates, Koch & others launch AI venture, Uber’s Luxury Robotaxis, Newsom’s Train Dream - Dead,… & much more!
📜THE HIGHLIGHT
One killer insight to stash in your back pocket
🇬🇧 🤝🇩🇪 UK-Germany Just Locked in a Post-Brexit Power Pact
✍ The UK and Germany just signed their biggest treaty since WWII—a sweeping alliance on defense, migration, business, and culture.
PM Keir Starmer and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz sealed the deal in London, marking a full-throttle reset in post-Brexit ties.
💣 Mutual defense pact: If one’s attacked, the other backs them—think NATO vibes but bilateral. Russian aggression is named as the main threat.
🚨 Illegal migration crackdown: Germany will now criminalize aiding UK-bound smugglers, giving both countries sharper tools to fight Channel crossings.
💸 Trade + Tech boost: A new UK-Germany Business Forum launches alongside fresh German investment in AI, energy, and defense tech.
🎓 Youth exchanges: The treaty reopens education pipelines post-Brexit, easing school and student movement.
🚄 New rail link: An ambitious infrastructure plan aims to improve cross-border connectivity.
🕊️ Diplomatic flex: The pact codifies the UK-France-Germany “E3” trio as a formal foreign policy bloc.
🧠 Bottom line: Europe’s new power axis is being built—and it’s not waiting for Washington.
👀 Keep a watch: This could reshape EU power plays—even if the UK’s not in the EU.
♟️THE CHESSBOARD
Geopolitics Decoded In 3 Moves
President Zelensky and President Trump
🇺🇦 🇺🇸 Zelensky + Trump = Drone Daddy Era
🪖 Trump and Zelensky are cooking up a defense blockbuster: Ukraine sends its battle-tested drones, the U.S. sends top-tier weaponry. The kicker? Joint tech-sharing, ramped-up drone production (30,000 drones in 2025), and a new “air shield” for Ukraine including Patriot missiles.
🗣 Zelensky says: “It’s a mega deal, a win-win”, in an exclusive to NYPost.
⚡ The Math is mathing: When a $500 Ukrainian drone can demolish billion dollar jets - it’s exactly the kinda math Trump loves.
💡 Why it matters: The U.S. lags behind in drone tech and wants Ukraine’s FPV drone secrets—fast, making it a bold step in reshaping Western drone warfare strategy.
🇫🇷 France’s PM Wants to Cancel Holidays. The Nation Said: Non, Merci
🪓 PM François Bayrou just dropped a €43.8B austerity bomb—and it includes killing Easter Monday and May 8 (Victory Day), freezing pensions + welfare, and cutting 3,000 gov jobs; calling it “basic arithmetic” for debt growing €5K/sec.
His pitch: Let’s work more… save France.
French People: Let’s fire him!
💥 The backlash? Think Emily in Paris meets the French Revolution. Far-left unions are up in arms over losing rest days. Far-right parties think it’s “an assault on national memory”. The Parliament will likely guillotine the plan this fall.
😵 Roast: The French are willing to put up with any pain or indignity. But working more?… You’ve crossed a line.
🇷🇺 Telegram Might Be Moving Into Moscow—and Everyone’s Side-Eyeing It
📱 Telegram’s parent company just started registering a Russian office, four years after Kremlin laws demanded it.
Timing’s sus: Putin’s rolling out a state-backed “national messenger” app (Max) in September, and foreign platforms risk bans if they don’t play ball.
👀 Bottom line: Is Telegram going legit in Russia—or just dodging a shutdown? Either way, Durov’s rebel app might be getting house-trained.
🗽THE EMPIRE FILES
Political Drama From DC To NYC
Mayoral Candidate and former Gov. of NY, Andrew Cuomo
🗽 Cuomo Wants to “Touch More People.” NYC: Please Don’t
Andrew Cuomo’s mayoral comeback face-planted again after he told Daily News he plans to “touch more people” with his campaign. X went feral.
👀 Reminder: Cuomo resigned in 2021 after 11+ sexual harassment allegations.
💬 Lindsey Boylan, the first accuser, clapped back: “We’ve all paid enough for your touching.”
😓😓Bottom Line: Even the algorithm can’t rehab that phrasing.
🚄 Trump Kills Funding for Newsom’s Train
🚃 Trump’s admin just axed $4B in federal funding for the LA to SF California’s high-speed rail, calling it a "High Speed Train to Nowhere” led by “incompetent Governor of California, Gavin Newscum.”
📉 The dig: Not a single high-speed track laid, despite $15B spent.
Newsom clapped back: "Won’t be taking advice from the guy who can’t keep planes in the sky," aimed at Transportation Sec. Sean Duffy.
🧨 Roast: High-Speed Rail to High-Speed Fail - Cali’s train is just the latest casualty in the war between Trump and Newsom.
🤖 CODES & POWER
Tech Wars, Crypto Chaos, and AI’s Black Mirror Moments
💲💲 Gates, Koch & Co. Drop $1B to Hack the American Dream—Using AI
💰 Five billionaires—Bill Gates, Charles Koch, Steve Ballmer, Scott Cook, and John Overdeck—just launched NextLadder Ventures, pledging $1 billion to boost economic mobility with AI.
💸 Partnering with Anthropic, they’ll back orgs tackling poverty, debt, and job loss.
🤖 The goal? Use AI to fix the system—because even the richest guys now admit the ladder’s broken.
🚘 Uber’s Luxe Robotaxi Dream: Powered by Lucid & Nuro
💰 Uber’s dropping $300M on Lucid and even more on Nuro to build a premium robotaxi fleet. Think sleek Lucid Gravity SUVs, souped up with Nuro’s Level 4 autonomy—aka no driver needed.
🚖 Testing’s already happening in Vegas, and Uber wants to launch in a major U.S. city by 2026.
💭 Thoughts? Killer combo or tech bro fever dream?
📺 FUN FACTS & TRIVIA
🪄 Coco Chanel
Coco Chanel’s real name was Gabrielle and she was raised in an orphanage where the nuns taught her how to sew. She came to be known as Coco during her singing days.
Bonus: She doused her curtains, clothes…and lovers in her signature perfume Chanel No. 5—claiming it was the secret to making her “smell like money.”
💀 THE ROAST
Because World Leaders Beg To Be Dragged
