🌊 9/11 Mastermind Strikes Plea Deal

Three and a half years ago…

We were lucky to have a dozen emails hit our inbox on a given day. These would typically include an unsubscribe request, a few answers to the question of the day, and several "you missed a comma" emails from our moms. Sometimes we’d be lucky to get a “Hi dear, this is Elon Musk please send $25,000 in iTunes gift cards” spam request. Yes, spam — we found out the hard way...

But now, the inbox dings all day long, and it's a sound we love. Thank you so much for your support; you make Roca special.

Here is the link to the 🐐 edition of 20 Questions.

–Max, Max, and Owen

KEY STORY

9/11 Mastermind to Plead Guilty

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM) and two others agreed to plead guilty to orchestrating 9/11

• KSM is the al-Qaeda member accused of masterminding 9/11 and beheading Wall Street Journal journalist Daniel Pearl. He was arrested in Pakistan in 2003 and sent to Guantanamo Bay in 2006, along with five other accused 9/11 planners

• KSM and his co-conspirators have been in legal limbo for 21 years. The US government initially sought the death penalty; however, the fact that the accused had been tortured complicated the case

• Now, after negotiations that began in 2022, a deal has been reached: KSM and two co-conspirators will plead guilty in exchange for life sentences

Dig Deeper

• In a letter to 9/11 victims’ families, prosecutors wrote, “The decision to enter into a pre-trial agreement after 12 years of pre-trial litigation was not reached lightly; however, it is our collective, reasoned, and good-faith judgment that this resolution is the best path to finality and justice in this case”

• Some Republicans criticized the deal, including Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell, who wanted the death penalty and called the deal “a revolting abdication of the government’s responsibility to defend America and provide justice”

• The White House said Biden played no role in the deal and is looking into it

KEY STORY

Bad Day to be Hamas Pt. 1

A day after Ismail Haniyeh – Hamas’ top political leader – was killed in Iran, Israel announced it had killed Hamas’ top military leader in Gaza

• On July 13, Israel bombed Khan Younis, Gaza, in what it said was an attempt to kill Muhammad Deif, the leader of Hamas’ armed wing and an alleged mastermind of October 7. Hamas said the attack killed 90+ civilians and that Israel lied about targeting Deif

• Israel didn’t disclose whether it had killed Deif. While Hamas and Hezbollah held funerals for two of their leaders on Thursday, though, Israel announced that it had confirmed Deif’s death. He would be the highest-ranking Hamas member to be killed in Gaza since the war began

Bad Day to be Hamas Pt. 2

Separately, the NYT reported Thursday that Haniyeh – killed in Iran in Tehran on Tuesday – was killed by a bomb that was smuggled into his Iranian compound more than two months earlier

• The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), Iran’s leading military group, runs the compound

• Middle Eastern officials told the NYT that the bomb had been hidden in the compound two months prior and that once Israel confirmed Haniyeh was in the house, it remotely detonated it

• Those officials told the NYT the assassination is a catastrophic embarrassment for Iran and the IRGC

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KEY STORY

All-Time Prisoner Swap

Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was among 26 people freed in a prisoner swap

• The group came from seven countries. Ten were sent to Russia, 13 to Germany, and three to the US. It includes Americans Paul Whelan and Evan Gershkovich, jailed by Russia in 2018 and 2023, respectively. The US had said both were wrongfully detained

• Also released was Vladimir Kara-Murza, a prominent Russian human rights activist who had been jailed and poisoned like Alexei Navalny. Russia received eight people, including a hitman convicted of murdering a Kremlin opponent in Germany

Dig Deeper

• The swap is the largest between Russia and the West since the Cold War

• It was brokered by Turkey, where the prisoners were all flown for the exchange

• Turkish authorities said they sought the exchange of prominent figures “sought by all parties for a long period”

KEY STORY

Olympic Boxing Dispute

Algerian boxer Imane Khelif is at the center of an Olympic dispute

• On Thurs., Khelif’s Italian opponent withdrew 45 seconds into the fight after sustaining a blow to the face and saying, “I had to preserve my life”

• The IBA – boxing’s governing body – had DQ’d Khelif for having too much testosterone. The Olympic Committee (IOC) has stripped the IBA of its authority, though, because it’s led by Russia and deemed Khelif eligible to fight

Dig Deeper

• Khelif has thus become a star in Algeria, and her fans have packed stadiums to watch her box in Paris

• The IBA said a test “conclusively indicated that both athletes did not meet the required necessary eligibility criteria and were found to have competitive advantages over other female competitors.” However, it said the test’s specifics were confidential

• Algeria’s Olympic committee has called the disqualification “baseless,” while the IOC has said all athletes in Paris meet “eligibility and entry regulations”

RUNDOWN
Some Quick Stories for the Office

💰 Trump allies are putting $20M toward a media campaign geared at reaching young men, set to launch on the “Full Send” podcast with promotion by the Nelk Boys and UFC. Polls show a record share of young men are receptive to Donald Trump’s message

💼 Prominent lawyers and venture capitalists have announced major efforts to support Kamala Harris. Those involved include Mark Cuban and the leaders of Paul Weiss and Cravath, two of the world’s most prestigious law firms

🚫 Bill Ackman canceled his company’s IPO after failing to raise $25B for Perishing Square. Ackman – who has risen to social media stardom, aided by strong pro-Israel stances – argued that his social media presence could help turn Pershing Square into the next Berkshire Hathaway, but investors didn’t bite

🪖 The US Army’s $11M sponsorship with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and the United Football League (UFL) failed so badly that the Pentagon is demanding $5M back from him. The Army reported losing at least 38 enlistments because the time and money could’ve been better used elsewhere

🥇 US gymnast Simone Biles, 27, won gold in the Paris Olympics all-around final, her ninth Olympic medal overall. She became the oldest all-around Olympic champion since 1952 and solidified her status as the world’s most dominant gymnast 

COMMUNITY

🧠 Yesterday’s question: One breakfast to have for the rest of your life. What are you having?

ASK AND TELL
20 Questions

Ladies and gentlemen, the Weeknd.

With all this Simone Biles GOAT talk, we think it's only fitting that we do our first-ever 🐐 edition of 20 Questions. We will give you 20 different categories and you have to tell us who you believe the greatest of all time is in that category. So it's time to pick between Michael Jordan and LeBron, George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, Billy Mays and the ShamWow! dude.

Have a great weekend.

Here’s the link.

Last Week’s 20 Questions:

Average ratings for last week’s “This or That” edition of 20 Qs.

Nike - 25.6%
Coca-Cola - 74.4%

Target - 59.4%
GE - 40.6%

Yankees - 66.9%
Steelers - 33.1%

Michigan - 50.6%
OSU - 49.4%

Boeing - 25.5%
Microsoft - 74.5%

Lakers - 49.6%
Patriots - 50.4%

Trump ‘16 logo - 63.3%
Obama ‘08 logo - 36.7%

Home Depot - 62.5%
Visa - 37.5%

Chevron - 75.5%
Pfizer - 24.5%

Spotify - 14.3%
McDonald’s - 85.7%

Walmart - 90.4%
Goldman Sachs - 9.6%

Caterpillar - 52.5%
Exxon - 47.5%

Ghostbusters - 47.1%
Batman - 52.9%

Star Wars - 74%
Toy Story - 26%

Google - 63.7%
Starbucks - 36.3%

FedEx - 96.3%
JPMorgan - 3.7%

Knicks - 54%
Warriors - 46%

Ford - 73.2%
Lamborghini - 26.8%

Old Pepsi - 57.6%
New Pepsi - 42.4%

POPCORN
Some Quick Stories for Happy Hour

🥇 OnlyMedals: Robbie Manson, a rower for New Zealand at the Paris Olympics, turned to OnlyFans to sustain his Olympic dream. He says he gets “more than double” the money on OnlyFans than from rowing

🕷 Save the Spiders: A Florida woman was arrested after she allegedly drowned her roommate’s pet jumping spider in ginger ale

🩸 At BK, have it with blood: A Burger King near Buffalo, New York, temporarily closed over the weekend after a customer found blood in her four-year-old daughter’s food

🚗 Don’t ask speed, don’t tell: Ford is attempting to patent a camera system that reports speeding vehicles to authorities. It would send

🍿 Truly Despicable: Two women who brought their own blankets and snack bags to watch “Despicable Me 4” at a New Zealand movie theater prompted a police intervention

EDITOR’S NOTE
Final Thoughts

We apologize for putting up the JPMorgan logo vs. the FedEx logo in last Friday’s 20 Questions. It was one of the most lopsided results in 20 Questions history: 96.7% to 3.3% in favor of FedEx. We also found it amusing that Ohio State v. Michigan was separated by a single percentage point (the logo up north was the winner).

Have a relaxing weekend. Thank you for reading Roca!

–Max and Max