We get it. Nobody has time to read every Substack post there is. There are so many good writers and publishers here now that getting to all of them is its own part-time job.
So on weekends we are going to hand you Narativ’s cheat-list — the week in one sitting. We publish close to 50 shows and articles a week, 10 a day. The weather is turning and you have more time on your hands, so pull up the comfy chair, put your feet up, and take a walk through the week that was.
THE CORRUPTION OF THE UN
Paolo Zampolli spent thirty years known as the man who introduced Melania to Donald Trump. Then we read his emails. Zampolli traded passports, U.N. votes and Trump condos from a desk inside the American mission to the United Nations, where Trump had made him Special Envoy for Global Partnerships. You give a small country $400,000, you get its passport, and the money goes in dressed as an investment in a hotel you will never visit. The countries selling those passports also vote at the U.N. Zampolli sat exactly where those two things meet. Intelligence services have always worked through the syndicates that move money and people, and this week we got to watch one do it from inside a building the whole world is supposed to trust.
A ROADMAP TO CORRUPTION: THE UN TO THE WHITE HOUSE
This is the latest in a series of exclusive original reports investigating the Zampolli affair. Help fund our investigations by becoming a paid subscriber.
PENTAGON HIDES WAR DEATHS
Sean Wiswesser spent a career at the CIA. He sat down with Zev and Olga Lautman on Narativ Live this week and said Russia helped Iran kill American servicemen in Saudi Arabia. Fourteen Russian satellites crossed Prince Sultan Air Base in the two days before the missiles hit it. Trump was warned on March 6 that Russia was aiming those missiles at American troops, and he phoned Putin, thanked him, and let Russian oil sail six days later. By Friday the Pentagon’s own inspector general was saying the Iran war left America short of the munitions it would need to answer. Trump knew in March. He thanked Putin anyway.
CIA Veteran Confirms Russia Helped Iran Kill Americans
Sean Wiswesser spent a career running CIA stations. On Narativ Live Thursday, the retired senior operations officer said on the record what no serving U.S. official has been willing to say anywhere: "I have no doubt in my mind that the GRU assisted the Iranians in killing Americans." He said it here, first.
Thomas Massie filed eight articles of impeachment against Pete Hegseth on Tuesday, thirty-four pages, and read every one aloud on the House floor. Mike Johnson sent the House home a day early the next morning and the vote went with it; he says he will table the articles in November, after the midterms. While the Speaker was emptying the building, serving soldiers were sending photographs to CBS anonymously — an E-3 Sentry at Prince Sultan with its tail severed, a burned-out vehicle at Camp Buehring. “We’re standing there with our eyes closed getting punched in the face,” one of them said. “These are not ‘squirters’ getting through.” He picked that word because Hegseth used it in March, after a strike at Port Shuaiba killed six Army Reserve soldiers. Military Times counts 18 Americans dead and 774 wounded. Trump told NewsNation there was “no damage.”
NEW: Johnson Sends House Home Early to Dodge Hegseth Vote
Speaker Mike Johnson sent the House home Wednesday, a day early, for a seven-week campaign recess. Members vote Wednesday evening on a Russia sanctions bill and are gone until after the election. Thursday's vote on impeaching Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth goes with them.
JUNIOR’S RUSSIAN FRIEND IS A PUTIN BODYGUARD
Umar Kremlev runs boxing for Vladimir Putin, and ProPublica reported on Monday that he secretly paid hundreds of thousands of dollars toward Donald Trump Jr.’s wedding in the Bahamas — the island, the fireworks, the planning — through a company in Dubai. Then he stood on the beach and watched. The Trumps posted scores of photographs from that weekend and the Russians are in almost none of them; the top of Kremlev’s head shows in the back of one group shot. Ukraine sanctioned Kremlev. Washington never did. Then Olga Lautman named the man the Night Wolves biker gang had introduced him to: Alexei Rubezhnoi, who runs the service that guards Putin’s body. That is a second Russian operative standing close to a Trump family member, and this time the chain of introductions ends at Putin’s own security detail.
Putin's Boxing Boss Secretly Paid For Don Jr.'s Wedding
Umar Kremlev, a Russian oligarch close to Vladimir Putin, secretly paid hundreds of thousands of dollars toward Donald Trump Jr.'s wedding in the Bahamas in May, ProPublica reported Monday. He rented one of the two private islands, he paid for the fireworks, and his team helped plan the party. Then he stood on the beach and watched the president's son lift his bride into the air.
Developing: Bikers Introduced Don Jr.'s Russian to Putin's Bodyguard Chief
Olga Lautman went past the money on Narativ Live Thursday and named the service. Umar Kremlev, who funded Donald Trump Jr.'s Bahamas celebrations in May, never belonged to Russia's business class, she said. An officer from the unit that guards Vladimir Putin built his career.
HOUTHI MISSILES ARE SETTING AMERICAN GAS PRICES
Houthi missiles burned out the pumping station on the Saudi pipeline, and the satellite pictures show it. American diesel hit $6.23. Driving fuel prices up seven weeks before a midterm is the least clever thing a president can do, and Trump is doing it without a flicker of worry. Either he has reason to think the election is already settled, or somebody is making enough money to make it worth the loss.
Gas Prices Set To Soar As Houthis Destroy Vital Saudi Pipeline
Saudi Arabia runs out of oil to export within days unless it restarts the East-West pipeline, and satellite photographs released Sunday night show why it can't. Friday's drones left the pumping station at al-Mesabaah charred and wrecked, the Guardian reported Monday. Two regional officials told the Associated Press the repair will take three to five weeks. Aramco did not respond.
WE ASKED THREE AIs WHETHER THEY ARE GOING TO KILL US
Anthropic published a report saying a Houthi cell wrote its rocket guidance with Claude and test-fired it. The company’s own chief executive told CBS the industry “lied” about the risks, and Trump spent the same week calling the warnings a hoax. So we put Claude, ChatGPT and Gemini on one panel and asked them directly.
That’s The Weekly. Many more stories are waiting for you, so enjoy looking around the site.
PS — our AI council returns Monday with a special.
