Mario Nawfal

🇭🇰🇺🇸 Hong Kong follows Fed and jacks up interest rates as U.S-Iran war supercharges inflation The HKMA lifted its base rate by 25 basis points to 4.25%, tracking the Fed's own hike a day earlier. The root catalyst sits thousands of miles away. The war between the U.S and Iran has been raging since February, pushing oil prices into record territory and re-igniting global inflation. Fed Chair Kevin Warsh declared that inflation has been "too high for too long" despite demands from Trump to lower rates. So a conflict in the Gulf turns into higher borrowing costs in Hong Kong, but the timing couldn't be worse. HK GDP growth slowed to 4.3% in Q2, and the local property market is barely finding its footing after years of decline. Geopolitics in the Middle East just sent the bill straight to Hong Kong homeowners. Source: Reuters / Writer: Bri

🇷🇺🇺🇸 Russia just lost another refinery, and somehow that's about to show up at your local gas station. Ukrainian drones hit Russia's Yaroslavl oil refinery tonight, setting it on fire. Another one down. Half of Russia’s 6 biggest diesel plants have now been knocked offline or slashed in output this month alone, with Kirishi fully shut and NORSI and Volgograd running at roughly a quarter of capacity. Here’s the part that trips people up: America produces plenty of its own fuel, but that doesn’t mean Americans are shielded from what’s happening in Russia. Diesel is a globally traded product. When Russian exports collapse, buyers like Turkey and Brazil don’t just go without, they go shopping elsewhere, and “elsewhere” increasingly means U.S. suppliers. Turkey is a pretty clear example. Russia supplied around 85% of its imported diesel last year, but that share has now collapsed to roughly 20%, with U.S. and Indian barrels filling the gap. The problem is that U.S. refineries are already running near full tilt, around 97% to 98% utilization, so there isn’t some huge cushion of spare capacity waiting to absorb a wave of extra foreign demand. That demand simply competes for the same barrels and pushes prices higher. U.S. diesel margins have already surged to record levels, and if Russian refining keeps taking hits, that pressure does not stay neatly contained inside Russia. Produce your own fuel all you want. If the product trades on a world market, the world’s problems still show up in your price at the pump. Sources: Atlantic Council, The Atlantic, NYT, Reuters, PolitiFact / Writer: Julie

Colombian streamer Chanty saw his life flash before his eyes as his latest stunt almost backfired Some people in his comments are VERY disappointed 🤣 Writer: Ian t.co/hUZaoCJArf

🇺🇸 Is Mamdani to blame for out-of-control crime in the Bronx? The Bronx has about 17% of NYC's population. This year it's carrying over 40% of the city's murders and shootings, and City Council hauled NYPD into an oversight hearing to ask why. Some council members are pointing straight at Mamdani. He scrapped a planned 580 officer NYPD expansion in June's budget deal, after progressives held him to his original pledge to keep headcount flat. Citywide, major crime is down 6% through August. In parts of the Bronx, it's moving the opposite direction and felony assaults are up 24%. It has been confirmed that NYC is having one of its safest years on record… just not in the 46th. Source: New York Post / Writer: Bri

🇺🇸 Footage allegedly showing Michael Yakimov, 18, firing Roman candles from the back of a moving pickup truck shortly before July’s deadly Chelan Hills Fire in Washington began. The blaze burned nearly 10,000 acres, caused more than $6 MILLION in damage, injured six firefighters and killed 69-year-old Robert Lister. Michael is now being held on $1 MILLION bail and faces manslaughter and arson charges. Writer: Mhedi t.co/3vAIRN4Tvv

A teenager in Ecuador tried to escape from the police by climbing into a sewer drain Little did he know there was an officer waiting for him at the exit 🤣 Writer: Ian t.co/afmitqH8sV

FSD Supervised with Grok is basically like owning your own Robotaxi. Tell Grok where you want to go. FSD handles the drive. No calling a ride. No waiting for one to show up. It’s already in your garage. @Tesla @Grok @spacexai / Writer: Annette, Grok Imagine Designer: Janné t.co/bDymzkztK8

🇺🇸 The Fed just did exactly what Trump didn’t want. Interest rates are going UP for the first time in 3 years, with officials unanimously voting for a quarter-point hike to 3.75% to 4%. Trump has spent more than a year demanding dramatically lower rates and, within hours of the decision, was back on Truth Social calling for rates of “1%, or less.” “LOWER THE INTEREST RATES FOR THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, AND FAST!” Instead, Fed Chair Kevin Warsh, the man Trump picked expecting lower rates, said the Fed had “removed a dose of accommodation.” The problem is inflation still won’t behave. Tariffs, the Iran war pushing up energy prices and an enormous AI investment boom have all added pressure. The Fed now expects inflation to remain above its 2% target until 2029. And this probably isn’t one-and-done. 16 of 18 Fed officials see at least one more hike before the end of the year. 4 officials even expect 2 hikes. What does that mean for your wallet? Credit cards: more expensive almost immediately. Carrying a balance just got uglier. Mortgages: fixed-rate owners are insulated. New buyers and anyone on an adjustable rate, not so much, with mortgage rates already hovering near 7%. Savings: finally, some good news. High-yield accounts, CDs and money-market funds should benefit, assuming your bank actually passes the higher rates on. WalletHub estimates this single quarter-point hike could cost credit-card borrowers around $2 billion in additional interest over the next 12 months. So while Washington fights over whether rates should be 1% or 4%, anyone carrying debt gets to pay for the argument. Sources: Reuters, Bloomberg, Federal Reserve, WalletHub / Writer: Julie

This is so bizarre, how on earth does that happen? Writer: Ian t.co/U6O1n8dDwg

🇺🇸 While Elon, Sam Altman, and Anthropic's CEO have all joined calls for AI companies to slow down or exercise caution in engineering future models, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang just suggested that developing safe AI systems is an "engineering problem." "If you build a product and you're not confident about its safety, then don't release it. The market forces are already there; we don't need any new laws. Innovation speed and safe products can both happen at the same time." Writer: Mhedi t.co/aJfolnXvih

🇺🇸 The Pentagon is running a drone contest in Colorado and the winners get real orders Gauntlet 2 at Fort Carson put cheap attack drones through a live head-to-head. Nineteen companies, dozens of small aircraft, long shots and tight indoor lanes. The first round already produced tens of thousands of orders. This one is aiming higher. Ukraine made the case. The U.S. is trying to buy the same idea at scale, without waiting a decade for one prime contractor. Source: WSJ YT / Writer: Lucas

How do you spend billions on development, load a car with more sensors than a fighter jet, and somehow it still drives like Biden’s behind the wheel? Writer: Ian t.co/lCU1vcp8cF

🇬🇧 King Charles is sitting down with the bosses of Nvidia, Anthropic and OpenAI today, basically asking them to pinky swear AI won’t go rogue. He’s set to tell them humanity is “anxiously seeking your reassurance that we will not lose control of our destiny.” AI bosses are increasingly saying they agree something needs to be done. So far, though, everyone’s still racing ahead and nobody has actually hit the brakes. Source: The Independent / Writer: Julie

🇮🇸 A man hid behind a rock in Iceland and a whole reindeer herd walked over to inspect him He stayed frozen as the herd leader closed within meters. Every reindeer in Iceland descends from Norwegian imports in the 1700s. They became today's herd of 6,000, Europe's largest wild population, with no predators on the island at all. Which explains why they walked right up. Nothing here has ever taught them to be afraid.

🇺🇲 Trump was snapped inside Marine One looking down at the majesty of the White House and thought to himself: “That ballroom is gonna be SICK." Source: @MargoMartin47 / Writer: Marie t.co/4nj5i2hvXD

🇺🇲 Lionel Messi now has 100 GOALS for Inter Miami. Even crazier is how he scored those points: -69 with his left foot -10 from free kicks -9 with his right foot -6 from headers -5 from penalty kicks -1 with his chest This goal was one of the headers and put Miami ahead of Cruz Azul and helped take the Campeones Cup. Messi makes greatness look routine. What else is there more to say? 🐐 Source: CBS Sports / Writer: Marie t.co/4JjOVHNe9s

Another clip that proves why Tesla is the SUPERIOR self driving car Waymo just can’t catch a break 😂 t.co/4MUEIo1ahe

🇸🇾🇰🇼 He walled off his library in Damascus and left the country with it still inside Abu Bilal sealed the shelves at the end of 2011, then went to Kuwait. Under Assad, the wrong title in a house search could end in a cell. Years later he came back, knocked the plaster out, and the books were still standing. His son, writer Bilal Alloun, put the moment online. Same country where shops are now stacking titles that used to live under the counter or under the floor. The wall came down because the reason for the wall is gone. Writer: Lucas t.co/NtM3ds6WPm

🇺🇲 A South Carolina inmate used a PENCIL to break out of jail. He then climbed a barbed-wire fence to escape (ouch). Predictably, he was nabbed shortly after. Not very SHARP of him… Writer: Marie t.co/xXPGs5YKGe

🇨🇴 Did you ever think what a beach stream would look like? There it is.. A Colombian creator dragged a full desk into the surf in Cartagena. Dual monitors, tower, gaming chair, softbox, pineapple on the table. Waves hitting the legs of the setup while a juice cart, a horse and a jet ski wander through the shot. Not the wildest, but a rare choice. Writer: Lucas t.co/LOZWcLpuVO

🚨🇲🇽🇮🇷 Mexico paraded drones that appear to be straight copies of Iran's Shahed... The delta wing, the rear-mounted propeller, the silhouette Iran has thrown at Israel and American bases by the hundreds this year, rolled through the Zócalo on Independence Day. The defense ministry insists all drones showcased are domestically designed and built, which is what every country says about the Shahed clone it produces. Let's dissect this a bit more. Seven months of this war taught every coastal country the same lesson. A militia with cheap drones and a stretch of shoreline shut Bab al-Mandeb, and Iran priced the world's oil from the Strait of Hormuz with weapons costing less than a pickup truck. Leverage that once required a navy now requires just a warehouse. To be clear, Mexico is not threatening anyone and has no reason to. It sits on the Yucatán Channel and the Pacific approaches to Panama, and rolling these through the capital square says it understands what those waters are worth. Anyone watching Hormuz and the Red Sea learned the same thing, which is what should really worry Washington. Source: Infobae, CNN / Writer: Daniel

🚨🇺🇸 A wildfire next to I-80 near the California-Nevada line has closed the westbound freeway and forced people out The Floriston Fire started Wednesday morning about 9 miles northeast of Truckee. Cal Fire had it around 300 acres and 5% contained in the afternoon, then closer to 600 by evening. Westbound I-80 is shut from the state line to the Floriston exit. Evacuation orders sit east of Boca Reservoir. Truckee was warned power could drop with no notice if lines get pulled. Cause still under investigation. Source: Police Frequency TG / Writer: Lucas

🇺🇸 🇵🇸 Washington is blocking the Palestinian president from the UN for a second year running The State Department extended the visa denials Wednesday, citing what it called efforts by the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority to internationalize the conflict, including bringing cases to international tribunals, and accusing both of glorifying terrorism. Mahmoud Abbas leads both groups. Rubio first imposed the ban in August 2025, demanding the groups repudiate the October 7 attack and end incitement in schools, alongside a near-total suspension of visitor visas for Palestinian passport holders. Congress has been notified. The room Abbas cannot enter is the one where the region's future gets drafted next week. Trump sits with the Gulf monarchies Tuesday to sketch a postwar order, Netanyahu is angling for a meeting of his own, and Saudi recognition of Israel remains the price attached to a nuclear deal. Every Arab government at that table holds Palestinian statehood as its stated condition for normalization. Washington has arranged it so the Palestinian leadership argues its own case through intermediaries, which suits an administration that wants the Abraham Accords expanded without the hardest question on the agenda... Source: The New York Times / Writer: Daniel

🇺🇲The South Park creators’ latest Trump trolling is targeting his penchant for rebranding geography. It’s South Park no more! The show now goes by SOUTH AMERICA! “I’m going down to South America to have myself a time…” Writer: Marie t.co/5zgVO2pe1e

🇸🇻 El Salvador put hundreds of electric cop vehicles on the street Security Minister Gustavo Villatoro handed the PNC more than 360 new units this month. Motos, e-bikes, pickups, SUVs and panel vans. First stops are the historic center and the airport, with more going out across greater San Salvador and La Libertad. They started this shift with a handful of e-motos in 2021. Now there are chargers and solar on ministry roofs, and the quiet patrols are part of the same security build-out Bukele has been stacking for years. Writer: Lucas t.co/DBI4BahPDK

Illinois university built a real thermal invisibility cloak on a 3D printer Shelly Zhang’s lab in Urbana-Champaign wrapped a pocket in an aluminum lattice packed with rubbery polymer. Heat is guided around that pocket instead of lighting it up, so an infrared camera sees a blank spot where the object sits. The work is in Nature Communications, with Denmark’s Technical University on the design side and NSF money behind it. They want the next cloak to hide things that are already hot, not just things sitting still in someone else’s heat. Source: NSF YT / Writer: Lucas

🇨🇴 Another buried bomb kit just came out of northern Antioquia, in Colombia. Troops in Ituango found a depot tied to residual Structure 18 with five homemade devices and 15 kilos of mix, then blew it up in a controlled blast. Officials say that cut off a possible hit on civilians and patrols. Same mountains, same group, same kind of buried workshop. This is how the fight looks when it is not a firefight but a hole in the ground that never gets to go off. Writer: Lucas t.co/CxgTFve2ax

🇨🇳 Shanghai residents can get McDonald’s delivered by DRONE to pick-up kiosks. It’s part of China’s growing “low-altitude economy,” where drones are increasingly being used for deliveries. The Big Mac is officially cleared for takeoff. Source: SCMP / Writer: Marie t.co/luan01clNU

Watching SpaceX’s Starship documentary on a flight to the Starship launch? Total SpaceFlex. Source: @VineethSendil / Writer: Marie t.co/HPPkTcdFPq

🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia is running out of missile interceptors and asking four countries for help because America has none to spare... Two regional officials say Riyadh has gone to France, Britain, Pakistan and Egypt for air-defense support, an appeal made because its main supplier burned through its own stockpile fighting Iran. The kingdom has to cover military bases, government sites and oil facilities spread across a country the size of Western Europe, which one official called a very difficult position. Britain confirms a close defense partnership and will say nothing further. Turkey and Pakistan told AP they never received a request under the defense pact all three signed last month. Nobody in that group has interceptors to spare either, with European stocks rated critical months ago and Ukraine already competing for the same missiles off the same lines. Which leaves the door Oman and Egypt are holding open, and Washington walked through it last weekend when American representatives met Houthi officials in Muscat. Any settlement built there starts from the map as it stands, with the Houthis holding Bab al-Mandeb and the islands, because there is no force assembling anywhere to take them back. Source: Associated Press / Writer: Daniel