TOURISM: Luxury cruise passengers stranded in Cambodia due to soaring fuel costs.

The US-based operator of the Villa Vie Odyssey said it was working with passengers on disembarkation plans and “temporary living arrangements”.

It is unclear how many were on board but the nearly 200m (656ft) vessel can carry up to 650 passengers. It departed Belfast in October 2024 for a “continuous voyage around the world”.

Global fuel prices have soared since the Iran war started earlier this year. The ship’s operator said the monthly fuel cost per cabin in parts of Asia has risen to as much as $8,000 (£6,000) from $1,800.

Ouch.

DEVELOPING…

Slowly — and too quietly for the rocket-curious — but still developing.

HMM: How California Voters Could Surprise the Machine.

“Two measures—Proposition 41, the Prohibit Excluding New State Taxes from Spending Limit and Require Special Tax Audits Initiative and Proposition 42, the Prohibit New Taxes on Retirement Holdings, Personal Assets, and Savings Initiative—are also on the November 3 ballot in California and contain competing measure provisions that would nullify Proposition 40 [the wealth tax] if all the measures are approved, but Propositions 41 and 42 receive more votes than Proposition 40.”

And then there is Prop. 43, a citizen initiative championed by the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, the organization that was founded during the state’s 1978 tax revolt. In that year, beleaguered voters approved the legendary Prop. 13. Approved by a 65–35 percent margin, it has given California one of the lowest property tax rates in the U.S., and it remains one of the only reasons many small businesses and retired homeowners still survive.

For nearly 50 years, Prop. 13 has been attacked by the insatiable tax-and-spend progressives running California. Prop. 43, if approved by voters, will restore the original provisions of Prop. 13, including the requirement for a two-thirds vote on local special tax initiatives.

Altogether, these four ballot initiatives are transformative.

Voters will have their say in less than a week. And — who knows? — in a month or so, we might even know all the results.

EVERY TIME I THINK MAYBE WE AREN’T IN A BUBBLE, I SEE FIGURES LIKE THESE:

WHERE WILL YOU GO: When the flames in France reach the U.S., that is. It’s my latest Substack column and it points to the growing evidence of a very rough road that is quite possibly ahead for this nation. There’s also a revelation concerning Reagan’s “The Speech” of 1964.

INFRASTRUCTURE: Pentagon loans Stoke Space $150 million to build launchpad at Cape Canaveral. “The War Department yesterday awarded the rocket startup Stoke Space a $150 million conditional loan, with the money to be used to build a second launchpad at Cape Canaveral to launch the company’s proposed larger Nova Block 2 reusable rocket.”

Nova Block 2 will have basically the same specs and reusability as the retiring Falcon 9. There’s still so much medium-term demand for the Falcon 9 that its upcoming retirement is causing a bit of a panic in the industry.

AMERICA’S NEWSPAPER OF RECORD:

IF THERE’S ANYTHING LEFTIES UNDERSTAND, IT’S TAKING AND WIELDING POWER:

This is from the replies for the uninitiated: “The Blue Slip rule is far more consequential than most people realize. Ever wonder why most of the egregious fraud is in Blue States? It’s because they won’t let anyone in who isn’t on the left to prosecute.”

WASHINGTON WAS NEVER SUPPOSED TO BE MUCH MORE THAN A PART-TIME SWAMP DWELLING:

“The system is totally dysfunctional and fundamentally unfair, whereby anyone who is not a Democrat has no chance of receiving a fair hearing, let alone justice, while Democrats themselves are completely shielded from accountability.”

KDJ: Big Trouble in Little China: Bad News for the Bolshies Just Before Election Day. “Next week’s elections are seen by many as determining the direction the nation will take: capitalism or communism. These last-minute defeats for the Democrats might make a difference for people who still haven’t decided which way to vote, which seems insane to me because one side promotes liberty and the other pushes misery, followed by starvation and a Holodomor-like death.”

NETANYAHU DEFIES EXIT POLLS TO TAKE LEAD IN ISRAELI ELECTION — WHAT IT MEANS FOR IRAN WAR:

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was in the lead following a pivotal election Tuesday — making a third act for the Iran war almost certain.

The prime minister’s coalition was in the lead Wednesday with 53 seats after Gadi Eisenkot’s Change bloc failed to deliver a knockout blow following the highest election turnout in decades.

Eisenkot had 49 seats with more than 90% of the vote counted. Both sides were notably well short of the 61 seats needed for a majority.

However, Netanyahu’s apparent comeback — after exit polls Tuesday showed him behind the opposition — will give him room to launch a new campaign against Iran with American forces following the US midterm elections, observers say.

“The Iranian regime did not expect that Netanyahu would be the biggest party. They are afraid of him because he talks against Iran about attacking Iran again,” Beni Sabti, an Iran expert at the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) in Israel, told the Post.

Netanyahu has long pushed to topple mullahs in the Islamic Republic. Eisenkot agrees that Iran must never be allowed to develop a nuclear weapon, but has said regime change is unrealistic.

That’s unfortunate: Iran’s Leaders Are Openly Threatening a Nuclear Strike. We Must Finish the Job.

UPDATE: Trump backs Netanyahu as Israel readies for new Iran strikes.