🌊 Diddy Do It?

The Diddler has been arrested.

Last night it broke that FBI agents arrested music mogul Sean “Diddy” Comb. Federal law enforcement raided Diddy’s homes in March of this year as part of an ongoing investigation into alleged sex trafficking rings. Diddy has been named in 10+ lawsuits accusing him of sexual misconduct, including trafficking, drugging, and rape. Diddy’s lawyer said he is “disappointed” by the government’s decision and called Diddy “innocent”: “he is imperfect but not a criminal.”

We’re no legal experts, but it’s never good when your lawyer says you’re “imperfect but not a criminal.” Then again, that’s how our parents described us on our college applications.

–Max, Max, and Owen

KEY STORY

Easter Island Myth?

A pair of new studies suggest “ecocide” didn’t destroy Easter Island

• Easter Island – home of the “moai” statues – sits in the Pacific, 2,300 miles west of Chile. Historians generally believe its indigenous Rapanui people once numbered 15,000 but induced societal collapse by deforesting the island, resulting in a population of just 3,000 people when Europeans first arrived

• But, two new studies contradict that theory: One found that Rapanui genetics bear no mark of societal collapse; the other, that the island’s farms could never have sustained more than 4,000 people

Dig Deeper

• One study noted that while the Rapanui’s story “has been presented as a warning tale for humanity’s overexploitation of resources,” a genetic analysis found “a stably growing population from the 13th century through to European contact in the 18th century”

• The lead author of the other noted, “The Rapanui managed to survive in one of the most remote places on Earth and did so fairly sustainably until European contact…This suggests we can learn something from them about how to manage limited resources”

KEY STORY

Trump Plot Update

Details emerged about Ryan Routh, the 58-year-old accused of plotting to assassinate Donald Trump

• Routh’s record suggests a history of turmoil and lack of meaning, writing in one post that he sought to be a part of “real change in our world.” On the day Russia invaded Ukraine, he said volunteers should join Ukraine’s military. He tried but failed to do so and was later seen wandering aimlessly around Kyiv

• Routh published a book in 2023 that blasted Trump and praised Obama’s Iran nuclear deal, saying Iran should assassinate Trump for ending it. Trump blamed the incident on “highly inflammatory rhetoric” from Joe Biden and Kamala Harris

Dig Deeper

• Routh reportedly clashed with Ukraine’s International Legion and later shifted focus to defense production and arms deals. By spring 2023, he meandered through Kyiv deflated, out of energy and money, according to an American who worked for a medical NGO in Ukraine

• “Their rhetoric is causing me to be shot at when I am the one who is going to save the country, and they are the ones that are destroying the country – both from the inside and out,” Trump said of Biden and Harris in a Fox News Digital interview

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Dig Deeper

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KEY STORY

Titanic Builder Sinks

Harland & Wolff (H&W), the British company behind the shipyard that built the Titanic, is going bankrupt

• Once a trailblazer, H&W built the Titanic and other major 20th-century ocean liners

• The company has struggled recently, going bankrupt in 2019 after failing to pay off long-term debt. It overcame that insolvency, though, after landing a contract to build 3 ships for the British Navy in 2022

• But H&W faced renewed pressure this July after failing to get a loan from the British government. Later that month, it suspended its stock. The shipmaker is expected now to sell off its shipyards or sell itself entirely

Dig Deeper

• The British government agrees that a sale is the best way to protect the company and its 1,300 employees and doesn’t regret balking at the July loan: “Providing government funding would have meant a significant risk of losing taxpayer money”

KEY STORY

Pastor Freed from China

A US citizen was freed after 18 years in a Chinese prison

• David Lin – a Chinese-born US citizen – was one of three Americans labeled by the US government as “wrongfully” jailed in China. He had been arrested in 2006 while building a Christian center in Beijing after years of making missionary trips to China

• The Biden administration had been lobbying for Lin’s release since at least November. This week, China’s government unexpectedly released him in an apparent goodwill gesture. The two other “wrongfully detained” Americans were not freed, short of what the Biden Administration had reportedly hoped

Dig Deeper

• Christianity is not illegal in China; it’s regulated tightly. Churches need to be officially registered with the government and align their views with Chinese values. The Chinese Communist Party regularly weeds out underground churches and has banned online evangelization

• “Praise God! We got the call late last night!!! Dad is free and over Alaska now,” the pastor’s daughter, Alice Lin, said in a text message to a humanitarian org helping Lin

RUNDOWN
Some Quick Stories for the Office

💰 Argentina’s libertarian president, Javier Milei, vowed that the debt-saddled country would have a government surplus by next year

🎬 The FX series “Shōgun” – set in 17th-century Japan – won a record-breaking 18 awards at the Emmys on Sunday night, including for Best Drama, Best Directing, Best Leading Actor, and Best Leading Actress

🔍 Manhattan prosecutors charged two former New York City fire chiefs with fast-tracking safety reviews in exchange for bribes

📱 A federal court appeared unsympathetic to TikTok’s argument that the US legislation banning it is unconstitutional

🔒 Sean “Diddy” Combs was arrested in New York City. The charges weren’t publicly available, but it follows a spate of sexual assault allegations

COMMUNITY

🧐 Yesterday’s question: In honor of the Emmy’s, what’s your favorite TV show (drama) of all time?

🧠 Today’s question: Who’s the best side character in TV history?

Reply to this email to let us know what you think!

POPCORN
Some Quick Stories for Happy Hour

🤼‍♀️ Debate turns WWE: Pablo Marçal, a São Paulo mayoral candidate, was treated and released from the hospital after being hit with a metal chair by rival candidate José Luiz Datena during a televised debate

🏎 UGA football player? A Georgia man received a $1.4M speeding ticket for driving 99 MPH in a 55 MPH zone. Authorities later explained it was a placeholder and the final penalty wouldn’t exceed $1,000

📱 Flappy Bird takes flight (again): A decade after the viral iPhone game Flappy Bird disappeared, an organization calling itself the Flappy Bird Foundation announced plans to bring it back

🥪 Lunch gets beastly: Content creators MrBeast, Logan Paul, and KSI are teaming up to launch Lunchly, a grab-and-go product they describe as a “better-for-you lunch option” than competitors like Lunchables

🐧 Penguin power: The hoiho, a golden-eyed, fishy-smelling, endangered penguin, reclaimed New Zealand’s Bird of the Year title after winning in 2019. This contest is a major one in New Zealand

ROCA WRAP

Your Phone Is Listening

Late last month, a slideshow leaked from CMG Local Solutions, part of Cox Media Group (CMG). The deck sought to sell a technology called “active listening.”

The deck, obtained by 404 Media, notes that people “leave a data trail based on their conversations.” CMG claimed it could “capture real-time intent data by listening to our conversations.”

Once CMG captures the conversation, it can “pair this voice-data with behavioral data to target in-market consumers.” The deck – which was attempting to sell the service to advertisers – said that by harvesting the data, CMG could help companies provide hyper-targeted advertising.

CMG adds that this technology can identify “ready-to-buy” consumers and help advertisers target people who have recently spoken their intentions. This data is accessed likely through third-party apps, whose terms and conditions may say that a user’s voice or audio data can be sold to advertisers.

While recording someone with consent is illegal in some, but not all, states, agreeing to such terms make such recording voluntary.

CMG listed Amazon, Google, and Facebook as three key partners in the deck. All those companies denied using CMG’s listening services.

Google announced this month that it cut ties with CMG, stating, “All advertisers must comply with all applicable laws and regulations as well as our Google Ads policies, and when we identify ads or advertisers that violate these policies, we will take appropriate action.”  

 CMG said that its companies “have never listened to any conversations nor had access to anything beyond third-party aggregated, anonymized, and fully encrypted data sets that can be used for ad placement.”

But, the company didn’t issue a blanket denial about using recorded data.

EDITOR’S NOTE
Final Thoughts

Tough night for Eagles fans… how did Saquon drop that?! Come on, Philly!

Speaking of abrasive sports fan cities, today is the anniversary of the founding of Boston. Originally a Puritan settlement, the city has come a long way since 1630. From a giant tea party to Paul Revere’s midnight ride up to the great molasses flood and Deflategate, the city has gone through a lot. Happy bday, Beantown!

–Max and Max