Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang:

I’m not afraid of paying taxes. I’m just afraid of being poor.

Nothing would give me more joy than to be able to pay even more taxes.

The more you make, the more taxes you pay. So I’m okay with that.

BIG: Germany's CDU is at risk of falling below 5% in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern — which would be the first time in postwar history the CDU fails to enter any state parliament.

The party dropped from 13.3% in 2021 to ~4.9% tonight.

Meanwhile the AfD surged to ~38%, more than doubling its vote to become the state's strongest party.

Chancellor Merz called it a "Desaster" with "nothing to sugarcoat."

The same night, the CDU also lost badly in Berlin where Die Linke finished first.

Official results will determine whether the CDU barely scrapes in or makes history for the wrong reasons.

A Florida fishing charter hauled a Shahed-136 clone drone out of the Gulf of Mexico near Eglin Air Force Base.

Eglin confirmed it lost a drone during testing but wouldn't confirm it was the same one.

The recovered drone matches the FLM-136/LUCAS — America's own reverse-engineered copy of Iran's Shahed-136, which costs ~$35K per unit and saw first combat use striking Iran.

It was missing its engine, propeller, and nose cone from the water impact.

SOURCE

U.S. sanctions, soaring inflation and war damage are worsening Iran’s medicine shortages, forcing some patients to cut doses, delay treatment or switch to cheaper, less effective drugs.

Nearly 800 medications are reportedly affected, while pharmacies are also struggling because insurance companies owe them about $300 million.

Iran produces more than 97% of its medicines by volume, but many drugs and pharmaceutical ingredients still depend on imports and foreign currency.

Experts say U.S. sanctions complicate payments and discourage foreign banks and suppliers from dealing with Iranian buyers, even though medicine itself is generally exempt.

The crisis was further aggravated by U.S. and Israeli airstrikes earlier this year, which Iranian officials said damaged more than 40 pharmaceutical companies, suppliers and distributors.

Source: CNN

Trump is increasingly frustrated by political and legal setbacks and believes too few allies are publicly defending his second-term record. He has also complained that prominent figures have not thanked him for his attempted overhaul of the Kennedy Center.

His frustrations intensified after he was shown negative television coverage of his administration. Hours later, he banned MS NOW, CNN and Politico from the White House.

Trump is also facing falling approval ratings, concerns about Republican performance in the midterms and voter frustration over the Iran war and higher energy prices.

His administration has been searching for foreign-policy wins to tout ahead of the November midterms.

Source: WSJ

Trump:

Many former Kamala Harris aides and donors believe she may ultimately stay out of the 2028 presidential race.

Axios surveyed eight former aides and advisers: five said she likely won’t run, two put it at 50-50, and only one expected her to run. Some argue Harris is doing only “the bare minimum” to remain in the conversation rather than actively preparing a campaign.

One former aide described Harris as “a realist and an astute political observer,” aware that another campaign could become focused on her 2024 defeat.

Harris, however, remains genuinely undecided and is continuing to campaign for Democrats and speak with party officials ahead of the midterms.

Source: Axios

Trump decided not to launch U.S. strikes on the Houthis in Yemen, reversing course after the Pentagon had already prepared for the operation.

After Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman urged him to intervene, Trump ordered the Pentagon to prepare airstrikes. But by Sunday, he changed his mind again.

Most of Trump’s inner circle was deeply skeptical or outright opposed to joining Saudi Arabia’s fight against the Houthis, particularly because of the strains already facing the U.S. military in the war with Iran.

The strikes were close to beginning, with target lists approved and bombs being loaded onto U.S. warplanes when Trump pulled back.

Source: NYT

Powerful explosions at a Syrian army weapons depot near al-Eis, south of Aleppo, injured at least four people early Monday.

The cause was not immediately clear.

Source: Al Jazeera

Trump:

Gas prices were much higher under Biden than under “TRUMP.” So were almost all other prices.

Kadyrov is leading Chechnya’s regional election with 97.35% of the vote after 2.4% of ballots were counted, according to Russia’s Central Election Commission.

Phone videos of bright, multi-colored lights over Tehran, Iran, went viral overnight.

Iranian authorities have not issued any official statement treating the object as a threat.

Iran’s IRGC said it shot down a U.S. MQ-1 drone over the Strait of Hormuz using its air defense system.

Three South Korean military officers were injured in an unidentified explosion during a search operation in the western DMZ.

The blast occurred south of the Military Demarcation Line and is suspected to have been caused by a land mine.

Two of the officers were airlifted to a hospital.

Source: Yonhap

IRGC spokesperson Hossein Mohebbi says Iran would significantly change its military response in the event of another U.S. attack, including the “geography of war” and the weapons used.

“We will bring new weapons with new capabilities into the battlefield, and the world will be astonished,” he said.

Mohebbi added that Iran also has “new targets that have not yet been struck.”

Qatar’s Prime Minister:

We are blessed with an abundance of resources. We have been a leading energy supplier, a leading LNG supplier in the world.

What happened was a big disruption for us, and this is one of the greatest risks that we were calculating — and also our partners have been calculating. What we have ensured from the beginning is to be very transparent with our people, with our partners and with our customers.

Yes, we went through a challenge, but it doesn’t mean that this will affect our credibility or our reliability. And as soon as this issue is resolved, Qatar will fulfill its commitment.

Qatar’s Prime Minister:

What’s really concerning for us is that what has been a red line — to avoid targeting civilian facilities, schools, hospitals, bridges, power plants, energy facilities — became the new normal.

And that has been deliberately crossed, not only in that conflict but also elsewhere in the world.

And the problem is that the parties who are crossing these red lines are bragging about it.

And there is a huge responsibility on the international community to stand up to this kind of violation. Otherwise, we will end up in a different world.

Qatar’s Prime Minister:

Iran is our neighbor, the United States is our strategic ally, and the Gulf is our natural security coalition. And basically, what’s happening right now is not only affecting Qatar or the region, but it has its impact on global security.

Our efforts have continued until now. We are trying to convey messages between the parties, but also we need to acknowledge that this conflict is very complex.

And unfortunately, the developments and the events that we are witnessing every day are very reactive events, and they are changing the course of the negotiations. They are changing the direction.

There is no clear master strategy that we are following in order to put an end to this. And that’s basically what we are missing today.

Qatar’s Prime Minister:

To have the Houthis escalating now against the Kingdom — this is a very irresponsible act that’s happening at this delicate time in the region, to instigate more conflict and to create more inflammatory events.

Whether it’s coming from the Houthis or Iran at all, we should stand up to these kinds of attacks.