On The Deals Shaping Our Economy
Ika here. In the Sahara, Russia's African strongman project just suffered its most humiliating reversal yet - Wagner's successor force abandoned Kidal, Mali's defense minister is dead, and the junta that bet everything on Moscow is asking the question that always comes too late: was the Kremlin worth it? In Beijing, Xi Jinping intervened to claw back a $2 billion deal between two non-Chinese companies, daring Mark Zuckerberg to figure out how to un-bake a cake. And in Washington, a 31-year-old Caltech graduate from Torrance carried a shotgun, a pistol, and three knives to the Hilton where Reagan was shot 45 years ago - and got within seconds of the ballroom holding the president. Let's get into it.
🇲🇱 Russia's Africa Gambit Cracks Open
The big picture: Russian forces fled Kidal, the symbolic prize of Moscow's Sahel project, after a coordinated weekend assault gutted Mali's military leadership and killed pro-Russian Defense Minister Sadio Camara at his own residence.
Why it matters: This is the first hard evidence that Russia's paid-for African security architecture can be broken - and that the bill is coming due.
Catch up quick: Mali ditched France in 2022, embraced the Kremlin, and in 2023 retook Kidal alongside Russian fighters.
This weekend it fell again - to the Azawad Liberation Front (FLA) and JNIM, an al-Qaeda affiliate. Two groups that used to fight each other.
Zoom in - the decapitation:
Sadio Camara, the pro-Russian defense minister, was attacked at his residence and died of his wounds.
Modibo Koné, head of domestic intelligence, was reported killed by international media — unconfirmed officially.
President Assimi Goïta has not been seen since Saturday's attacks.
🐉 Beijing yanks Meta's $2B AI prize
Catch up quick: China's National Development and Reform Commission ordered Meta to unwind its $2 billion acquisition of Manus, the autonomous AI agent app - months after the deal closed and after Meta had already wired Manus tech into its products.
Why it matters: This is Beijing reaching across borders to kill a deal between two non-Chinese companies. Manus was founded in China but moved its headquarters to Singapore in 2024 after a Benchmark Capital-led round.
Zoom out: Manus launched in March 2025, two months after DeepSeek rattled Silicon Valley. Meta swooped in last December, desperate to close the gap with OpenAI and Google. The deal closed earlier this year. China branded it "conspiratorial" - an attempt to hollow out the country's tech base.
What Beijing wants: Funds returned. Ownership re-registered. Meta to stop using the algorithm. If Meta refuses, penalties, China-business restrictions, and possible criminal charges against individuals are on the table.
What's next: A Trump-Xi summit is expected next month. The timing isn't accidental. This is the second major deal Beijing has muscled - after pressuring CK Hutchison's sale of 43 ports to a BlackRock-led consortium to include a Chinese partner.
The bottom line: Meta could be forced to spin Manus off, sell it back to original investors, or find new backers. None of those options are clean. None are fast.
🎯 Shotgun at the Hilton
Catch up quick: Cole Tomas Allen, 31, of Torrance, California, was charged Monday with attempting to assassinate President Trump at Saturday's White House Correspondents' Association dinner. He faces two federal weapons counts on top of it - including discharging a firearm during a crime of violence. Up to life in prison if convicted.
The scene: Allen checked into the Washington Hilton on Friday. Saturday night, he sprinted past a security checkpoint with a pump-action shotgun, a .38 pistol, and three knives. A Secret Service officer (initials V.G.) took a shotgun round to the chest - vest stopped it. The officer fired five shots back. Missed. Allen fell, suffered minor injuries, was arrested. He never made it to the ballroom.
Zoom in: Allen is a Caltech graduate with a master's in computer science. He worked as a tutor. Told colleagues he had a "personal emergency." Told his parents he had an interview. Took the train from LA to Chicago to DC.
The note: A roughly 1,000-word document, emailed to family and a former employer, listed administration officials as "targets, prioritized from highest-ranking to lowest" - excluding FBI Director Kash Patel. Secret Service personnel were "targets only if necessary, and to be incapacitated nonlethally if possible."
"We do believe that, as the complaint lays out, that the defendant fired out of his shotgun."
Casting blame: Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt blamed a "left-wing cult of hatred" and named Hakeem Jeffries, Josh Shapiro, and Alex Padilla. She also called out Jimmy Kimmel for a joke about the first lady.
The history: The Hilton is where John Hinckley Jr. shot at Reagan in 1981.
What's next: Detention hearing Thursday. King Charles III's state visit proceeds as planned.
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