Thinking of our Florida panhandle readers this morning as Idalia makes landfall. Tallahassee area is a special place for Roca given that one of the Maxes is a Tallahassee native and that Florida State was our first campus visit. If you live in the area and have an update or story to share with us, please send to [email protected].

In today's edition:

• Idalia makes landfall in Florida

• Bird bounces back from extinction

• The Body Double

 🔑 Key Stories

Chess Cheating Scandal Over

A US chess grandmaster settled a cheating dispute with Magnus Carlsen and Chess.com

• Last September, Hans Niemann defeated world #1 Magnus Carlsen, who accused Niemann of cheating. The world’s top chess site, Chess.com, then accused Niemann of cheating 100+ times and suspended his account

• Niemann responded by suing Carlsen and Chess.com for $100M, alleging they tarnished his reputation

• On Tuesday, Chess.com said Niemann could play again and Carlsen said he would play Niemann, although Chess.com said it stands by its allegations

Dig Deeper

• A judge had dismissed much of Niemann’s lawsuit in June

• Chess.com’s CEO and co-founder told Roca the settlement was about giving second chances: “We believe the same as other professional leagues and governing bodies: That everyone deserves a second chance. We always strive to do what is best for chess, and we believe this decision to move forward together is good for the game”

Idalia Makes Landfall

Hurricane Idalia made landfall in Florida on Wednesday morning as a Category 3 storm

• Idalia [ee-DAL-ya] has sustained winds of 125 mph and a storm surge of up to 16 feet in some areas. It is the first major storm to make landfall on Florida’s “Big Bend,” or the sparsely populated region where Florida’s panhandle meets its peninsula

• Thousands of people evacuated their homes ahead of the storm. Florida’s governor has issued a state of emergency in many northern counties and deployed the National Guard. ~264,000 people are without power

Dig Deeper

• The storm is expected to travel northeast through Georgia and South Carolina before dissipating over the Atlantic

• The governors of Georgia and South Carolina have also declared states of emergency

3M Settling Earplug Lawsuit

3M agreed to pay $6B to settle claims that earplugs it supplied to the US military failed to protect soldiers from hearing loss

• 3M is a manufacturing conglomerate that makes Post-It Notes, Scotch Tape, and thousands of other products. It bought a company in 2008 that sold earplugs used by the US Army from 2003-2015

• Hundreds of thousands of veterans have since sued 3M, arguing its earplugs were defective. On Tuesday, it agreed to settle with ~240,000 alleged victims for $6B. It will pay that out over six years. It admitted no wrongdoing and maintains its earplugs were safe

Dig Deeper

• The $6B is significantly lower than the $10B many analysts had thought 3M may pay

• The settlement comes two months after 3M agreed to pay US cities and towns up to $12.5B over its use of “forever chemicals,” which don’t naturally break down and have contaminated some water systems

Worm Found in Brain

An Australian surgeon found a live, 3-inch-long worm in the brain of a patient

• In January 2021, a 64-year-old Australian woman went to the hospital with abdominal pain and diarrhea. Her symptoms later included forgetfulness and depression, and an MRI revealed abnormalities in her brain that required surgery

• During that, a surgeon found a 3-inch live worm

• Doctors believe the woman contracted it by eating wild leaves contaminated with its eggs. They believe it is the first reported human infection by that species, and one of the first of a worm in the brain

Dig Deeper

• Doctors confirmed that the patient is recovering well and is still being monitored

• They have been giving her a combination of drugs to ensure that no other eggs or larvae that may exist in her body survive or grow into adult worms

🍿 Popcorn

ICYMI

• Lose the song, Vivek: Eminem asked GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy to stop using his music after Ramaswamy performed “Lose Yourself” at the Iowa State Fair earlier this month

• Thou shalt clock in: Amazon CEO Andy Jassy warned employees not complying with his three-day-a-week office return mandate that “it’s probably not going to work out for you”

• “He was a good mercenary”: A private funeral was held for mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin less than a week after he died in a plane crash near Moscow

Wildcard

• Oh, the irony… : A Chicago TV crew covering a spike in armed robberies was held up at gunpoint by masked robbers. The robbers took their cameras and other equipment

• Whopper catfish? A US judge ruled that Burger King must face a claim alleging that its depiction of Whoppers on in-store menus misled customers, constituting a contract breach

• Comeback of the centruy? The Takahē – a large, flightless bird once thought extinct – reemerged in New Zealand after ~100 years

👇 What do you think?

Today's Question:

Which era of history intrigues you most?

Reply to this email with your answers!

See yesterday's results below the Wrap! 

🌯 Roca Wrap

We are constantly coming across stories from the past we think you all would find interesting. We wanted to share one of them with you today.

In 1987, Latif Yahia received an order to report to Baghdad. Upon arrival, he was greeted by a former high school classmate: Uday Hussein, son of Saddam Hussein.

Uday asked him, “Do you want to be a son of Saddam?”

He wanted Yahia to be his body double.

Yahia told a reporter in 1995, “I was afraid. I knew this was a government of criminals. So I asked [Uday] what would happen if I agreed, and what would happen if I refused. Uday told me that if I agreed, ‘All that you dream will happen.’ He said I would have money, servants, houses, women. If I refused, he said, ‘We will remain friends.’”

Yahia – desperate to find a way out – told Uday, “I am serving my president as a soldier and I would not like to be more than that.”

Uday – notorious for his brutal temper – launched into a fit of rage that resulted in Yahia being placed in a small cell where he “suffered every kind of torture.” After being told he would spend the rest of his life in the cell, Yahia relented and agreed to become Uday’s body double. He signed documents that detailed his role and confirmed that failure to perform would be punishable by death.

Two weeks later, Yahia underwent plastic surgery to have his face reconstructed to perfectly match Uday’s. He then spent six months in “special education,” consisting of 16 hours daily of watching footage of Uday walk, talk, dance, drive, speak, drink, and more.

Saddam Hussein was one of the world’s most brutal dictators; Uday – who grew up watching his father torture dissidents – was known as being even more violent. Yahia had to learn to treat people as Uday did: “He made out of me a criminal like himself.”

Over the next four years, Yahia went wherever Uday wanted to be seen but couldn’t or wouldn’t go. When Uday wouldn’t go to the front of the Gulf War for fear of an airstrike, he sent Yahia; when he wouldn’t participate in parades for fear of assassination, he sent Yahia.

“I was always afraid,” he said in 1995, “I was afraid Uday would kill me. I was afraid of being killed instead of Uday.”

Over four years, Yahia survived nine assassination attempts intended for Uday. When it looked like Saddam Hussein’s government would collapse after Iraq’s defeat in the Gulf War in 1991, Yahia decided to flee.

Uday found out about his plan, and one day, while passing Yahia in a hotel lobby, shot him in the chest. The bullet missed his vital organs, leaving Yahia wounded but alive. He fled, driving into a region of Iraq outside of Saddam’s control.

Yahia had to hide, though, because if anyone saw him they would think he was Uday and kill him. Instead, he contacted his closest confidantes, who were able to get him in touch with the US. The US – after confirming he wasn’t actually Uday – facilitated his escape to Europe.

Yahia first told his story to Marie Colvin, one of the world’s foremost war correspondents, in 1995, and it has since been widely reported and confirmed. Uday was killed when the US invaded Iraq in 2003; Colvin was killed reporting from Syria in 2012.

Even in Europe, Yahia found it difficult to leave Uday behind.

He continued to walk, talk, dress, and speak like him. “Uday stole my life, my future, my identity,” he told Colvin.

His wife agreed: “Before, he was a normal person, but after he was tough and violent. He would hit me or kick me, and many times I thought of getting divorced. But I know now he is trying very hard to recover himself.the capybara fell ill. Foord brought it to a vet, who realized the animal didn’t have the proper import paperwork or health documentation.

If you have thoughts, let us know at [email protected]!

 🌊 Roca Clubhouse

Yesterday's Poll:

Best type of chocolate:

Milk: 34.4%
White: 8.2%
Dark: 52.6%
None: 4.8%

Yesterday's Question:

What's a hobby you've never told anyone about?

Conley: “I started building Lego sets during the pandemic and haven’t stopped since. It’s a fun and engaging way to pass time. I’m not embarrassed but I haven’t told anyone about it 😂”

Allen from Australia: “I got into the mechanical keyboard hobby during the early part of the pandemic. However, while I have told some family and friends about it, even those that I have told, I don't talk about it much with them. Even my wife doesn't like hearing about it - it's "boring and nerdy". (It kind of is). But I love it. I've built upwards of 70+ keyboards now and currently own ~20. The buy/sell/trade aspect of the community is a hobby in it's own right. There's so many niches to get into, too - artisan keycaps, Topre/EC, vintage, quirky (the best) layouts like 40% boards. Most of us just "hang out" in a multitude of Discord servers, chatting about keyboards and sharing our recent builds. And every so often, regional meetups take place where a group of enthusiasts gather to chat and share irl. These can range from a small get together of just a few close friends, to 1,000+ filling up convention centre spaces. I've met some really awesome people in the hobby and consider it one of the key things to help get me through my depression era of the covid lockdowns.”

Levi: “Trick question. I cannot answer this question, because in answering I will have then told someone about my secret hobby.”

🧠 Final Thoughts

We’re curious if you enjoyed today’s Wrap. Long-time readers know we used to tell more old stories, but over the last year have stuck more with the news. Let us know which you prefer!

Have a nice Tuesday.

—Max and Max