Greetings! Happy United Nations Day to those celebrating.

Let’s get into today’s top stories.

🇮🇶 Iraq votes amid regional volatility. Balloting comes as militia rockets, oil-price jitters, and cross-border tensions make governance feel like threading a needle during an earthquake. Election officials stressed chain-of-custody reforms, biometric voter cards, and faster tabulation to avoid the vacuum that usually breeds rumor. The stakes are concrete: subsidy reform, power-grid reliability, and the investment law that decides whether rigs and factories stay parked or spin up. The diplomatic backdrop features Iran-aligned blocs, Arab normalization crosscurrents, and American security ties, all trying to edit Iraq’s script at once. Turnout in past cycles sagged below 45%, so observers will watch whether youth and independents show up. A functioning cabinet within weeks would be a market-moving surprise; a hung parliament would be déjà vu. The difference between a mandate and a memo is measured in megawatts and paydays.

🇵🇸 Vance blasts Israeli Knesset's West Bank annexation vote. The Vice President called the move an “insult” while legal scholars reiterated that annexation violates international law and upholds illegal occupation. Rights groups argue that cementing control over the West Bank entrenches apartheid conditions in movement, housing, and political representation. Diplomats warned it would complicate any path to talks by predetermining borders that negotiations are supposed to settle. Regional partners privately fear unrest that spills across checkpoints and into their own security calculus. Israel has already annexed large tracts in practice via illegal designations, settlement blocs, and infrastructure, with the vote converting de facto into de jure. Markets care because instability taxes tourism, logistics, and energy corridors within hours.

⚖️ Courts probe National Guard deployments. Judges in Washington and Portland are weighing whether prior operations met statutory triggers and respected the Posse Comitatus Act’s outer limits. Plaintiffs cite crowd-control tactics, curfew enforcement, and command chains that blurred state and federal roles. Government attorneys argue that emergencies justified support functions and that rules of engagement prioritized de-escalation. Civil-liberties groups want discovery on intelligence tasking and after-action reports that often hide the operational truth. City agencies seek reimbursement for overtime, repairs, and trauma-care costs accrued during deployments. The rulings could define what “support” legally means the next time streets fill up. In federalism, punctuation matters: who commands, who consents, and who pays.

🌉 Tech and mayor sway Trump on San Francisco. After meetings with Mayor Daniel Lurie and tech leaders, the president said he shelved plans for a federal surge, framing local coordination and private-sector commitments as better tools. Business executives pitched jobs, treatment beds, and data-sharing on public safety hotspots rather than optics-heavy enforcement. City Hall promised to expand shelter capacity and cleanup schedules while pressing for immigration and asylum throughput that reduces street bottlenecks. Advocates warned that rhetoric remains a policy variable that residents feel at 2 AM, not just on cable. Commercial landlords want quick wins before holiday retail; service providers want sustained funding beyond a news cycle. Whether the pivot sticks will be obvious in 30, 60, and 90 days of street-level metrics.

🗳️ Justice Department readies election monitors. Following state party requests, federal observers are set to fan out across selected precincts in California and New Jersey to watch access, queues, and curbside voting procedures. Monitors typically log machine issues, language-assistance gaps, and any intimidation patterns that poll workers alone can’t adjudicate in real time. Secretaries of state generally welcome the backup but negotiate where observers stand and what they can record. The immediate payoff is faster fixes: replacement scanners, extended hours, or provisional-ballot surges when lines spike. The longer-term yield is better training materials crafted from problems seen up close. For voters, the best sign of success is boredom: open doors, short lines, clean tallies. Democracy’s chaperones work best when no one notices them.

🚨 Truck rams Coast Guard base; shots fired. Authorities say a driver in a box truck breached the Alameda facility, was shot and wounded, and is now in custody under guard at a hospital. Investigators are parsing motive, including whether immigration tensions or broader anti-government sentiment played a role. Forensics teams are combing the vehicle, gates, and guardhouse for ballistics and residue to reconstruct the seconds that mattered. Base security posture has been elevated while canine units and bomb techs clear perimeters. The incident will trigger an audit of standoff distances, barriers, and camera fields that too often lag the threat profile. Nearby residents experienced lockdowns and traffic closures but no additional injuries.

Help better understand our audience. Take this 1-minute survey here so we can provide our community with the best content, news, and stories that matter to you most.

Feel free to reply with your feedback. PM reads and responds to every email. :)

That’s all for today!

Much obliged and many thanks for reading and sharing today’s newsletter.

See you tomorrow!