232 years ago today, George Washington literally laid the first stone of American democracy. On September 18, 1793, he crossed the Potomac, joined a parade of soldiers, bands, and Masons, and set the cornerstone of the U.S. Capitol with full ritual and fanfare. That block of sandstone marked the start of the building where Congress would hash out the messy business of governing a brand-new republic. 

And it still stands as a reminder that even the most powerful institutions begin with a single stone.

Now, let’s get into the stories shaping today’s world.

A Pact with Teeth

Saudi Arabia and Pakistan just locked arms in a way that could shake up the Middle East’s security map. Yesterday, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif signed a defense pact in Riyadh that basically says: hurt one of us, you hurt both. 

On paper it looks like another treaty. In reality, it ties the Gulf’s richest kingdom to the world’s only Muslim-majority nuclear power.

The timing is key. Israel’s recent strike in Qatar rattled nerves across the region, and Gulf states are increasingly skeptical about how much they can still rely on the United States as their go-to bodyguard. Enter Pakistan, with a nuclear arsenal estimated north of 150 warheads and decades of quiet cooperation with Saudi Arabia behind it. 

Riyadh bankrolled parts of Pakistan’s nuclear program back in the 1970s and has long been rumored to have a standing “nuclear umbrella” arrangement. This deal looks a lot like that handshake finally made official.

Critics will say this raises as many questions as it answers. Does the pact mean Pakistan is now Saudi Arabia’s nuclear insurance policy? Will it embolden Riyadh as tensions with Iran simmer, especially around Gulf shipping lanes? The details haven’t been spelled out, but the symbolism is hard to miss. The Saudis are hedging against Washington, the Pakistanis are deepening ties with their wealthiest patron, and both are signaling to Tehran, and maybe even Tel Aviv, that they’re not standing alone.

At its core, this pact is less about paperwork and more about power projection. It formalizes a decades-long wink-and-nod relationship and sends a loud message that Middle East security is no longer solely written in Washington or Tehran. 

With nuclear shadows now officially on the table, the region just got a lot more complicated.

Rapid Fire

💉 Susan Monarez, the CDC director who barely lasted a month on the job, told senators today that RFK Jr. leaned on her to bend science to politics. She says the health secretary pushed her to pre-approve vaccine recommendations from a panel packed with skeptics and told her the childhood vaccine schedule “would be changing starting in September.” When she refused, he called the CDC “the most corrupt federal agency in the world” and made it clear she wasn’t welcome.

Kennedy denied it all, saying Monarez admitted she wasn’t trustworthy and that’s why she had to go. But Monarez painted a different picture: that he was furious she had spoken with Congress and warned her never to do it again. Her testimony was blunt, warning that if his approach continues, diseases like polio could make a comeback. It’s the first time the internal clash between career scientists and Kennedy’s vaccine agenda has been laid out, live on the record, for the country to hear.

🇬🇧 Trump just wrapped up a three-day state visit to the UK. The point wasn’t just to wave at the Queen’s guards. It was about locking in trade deals, smoothing over tariffs, and showing off billions in tech investments from the likes of Microsoft, Nvidia, and Google. Prime Minister Keir Starmer also used the royal pomp to corner Trump on bigger issues like Ukraine and Israel. This was Trump’s second official state visit, making him the only modern U.S. president to score that honor. The timing wasn’t great either, coming as Britain wrestles with Epstein scandal fallout and its own messy politics.

The ceremony hit peak pageantry. Horse-drawn carriage. Red Arrows flyover. Banquet at Windsor Castle with King Charles and Queen Camilla. Even Tim Cook and Sam Altman showed up to underline the economic agenda. But while the government tried to keep the mood cozy, London streets told a different story. Protesters marched with “Trump Not Welcome” signs and Palestinian flags, making it clear not everyone was buying the show.

🤦 Rwanda-backed M23 rebels just paraded more than 7,000 new recruits in Goma, and the optics are brutal. Congo and Rwanda only just signed a preliminary peace deal in June. The final one is supposed to land in August. The deal includes disarming non-state groups like M23, which makes this little show all the more alarming. 

So what does a rebel army graduation ceremony in the middle of town say about commitment to peace? Pretty much the opposite of what Washington wants to hear.

This isn’t a minor PR slip. It’s a neon sign flashing “we’re not done fighting.” Both Kigali and Kinshasa have been pointing fingers about ceasefire violations, but now M23 is basically handing out the evidence. 

With millions displaced and mineral money fueling the conflict, the rebels look less like peace partners and more like a movement quietly stockpiling muscle. The deal might still get signed, but good luck selling it as a real step toward stability when the guys with the guns are doubling their ranks.

World Watch

Argentina’s libertarian president Javier Milei is taking a buzzsaw to the state again, this time pointing it at the nuclear sector. He’s pushing through a decree to sell 44% of Nucleoeléctrica Argentina, the company that runs three nuclear plants supplying about 7% of the country’s power. 

The idea is to lure private money into building Argentina’s first modular reactor and modernize the grid. On paper, it’s about boosting investment. In practice, it’s another piece of Milei’s bigger plan to shrink the state and tame an economy still wrestling with triple-digit inflation.

But here’s the catch. Milei has been loudly promising a nuclear “comeback” for Argentina, yet his budget cuts have already frozen projects. Selling nearly half of the sector might unlock capital, but critics say it risks energy sovereignty and tilts Argentina closer to U.S. investors while pushing China out. 

The timing is fuzzy. 44% of the shares will be offered in a public tender, but no date is set. What’s clear is that this is a big break from Argentina’s tradition of keeping nuclear power firmly in state hands. Whether it sparks a renaissance or just another stalled reform depends on how much private money actually shows up.

Today in What the Hell

Hollywood just turned up the heat in its copyright war with AI. Disney, Universal, and Warner Bros. Discovery have filed a federal lawsuit against Chinese firm MiniMax, accusing it of running a “bootlegging business model” through its Hailuo AI app. 

The service lets users generate content with iconic characters the studios own, which the plaintiffs argue amounts to willful, brazen theft. According to the lawsuit, the studios sent cease-and-desist letters that were ignored, leaving litigation as the only option. They’re now seeking damages, the return of profits, and a court order to shut down Hailuo’s use of protected material.

This is no one-off skirmish. It’s the third major lawsuit Hollywood has filed against AI companies since late 2024, marking a clear pivot from caution to confrontation. Studios say the stakes couldn’t be higher: as AI gets better, it could churn out full-on knockoff films that rival studio productions without paying a dime for the rights. By targeting MiniMax, a company that allegedly leaned into infringement as its core business strategy, Hollywood is drawing a red line. 

The message is simple: play with our characters without permission, and you’ll pay for it in court.

That’s all folks

Plenty of heavy headlines today, but there are also signs of momentum. Saudi Arabia and Pakistan just formalized a pact that could reshape security in the region, while Washington and London tried to prove old alliances still matter. 

Even in the rough spots, from vaccine fights in D.C. to rebel shows of force in Congo, the fact that these battles are being dragged into the open is a step toward clarity, and clarity is usually where progress begins.