🌊 The Gold War: China v. US

Paris Olympics, Eiffel for you. #LiveLaughLouvre.

If you saw this caption on your timeline this week, we offer you our sincerest condolences. But we have to say… these Olympics were amazing. From the dazzling performances of Steph Curry and Simone Biles to the surrealist performances of the Australian breakdancer and the Turkish ex-hitman shooter, these Olympics gave us exactly what we needed: Unity, laughter, and excitement.

We would add “profound feelings of inadequacy” to the list, but those were already deeply present.

–Max, Max, and Owen

KEY STORY

Olympics Wrap Up

The US and China tied for 40 gold medals at the Olympics and won the total medal count

• Team USA secured 126 total medals, topping China (91), Great Britain (65), and France (64). The US has led the overall medal count in eight consecutive Summer Games, last finishing second at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics

• In the final days of competition, the US and China battled for the gold medal lead. The decisive moment was the women’s basketball final, where the US narrowly defeated France 67-66, thereby tying China with a 40-40 gold medal count

Dig Deeper

• China’s Zhang Yufei won the most medals with six: Five bronze and one silver

• The US’ performance was highlighted by its swimmers, who won the most medals and golds, albeit with France’s Léon Marchand stealing the spotlight in the pool with four golds, one bronze, and four Olympic records

• US gymnast Simone Biles – in her third Olympics – became the most decorated American gymnast with 11 medals, while US swimmer Katie Ledecky – in her fourth Olympics – became the most decorated female Olympian of all time with two golds and one bronze in Paris

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KEY STORY

Final Negotiations?

Hamas withdrew from talks days ahead of the alleged “final round” of ceasefire negotiations

• The US, Egypt, and Qatar have been intensely negotiating between Israel, Hamas, and Iran to get a Hamas-Israel ceasefire and avoid an Iran-Israel war

• It was expected that Hamas and Israel would hold a final round of talks this Thursday, which would hopefully produce a ceasefire and lower tensions

• But on Sunday, Hamas said it wouldn’t attend – a blow to efforts to secure a ceasefire and reduce tensions with Iran. It said the talks would “provide cover for the occupation’s aggression”

Dig Deeper

• Hamas listed several reasons for withdrawing, including the assassination of its leader; changing terms; and an Israeli airstrike on Friday that killed Gazan civilians

• That strike hit a Gaza City complex in which people were sheltering. Hamas accused Israel of killing 100+ civilians, which would make it one of the highest-casualty strikes of the war; Israel said it struck a “Hamas command and control center,” in which militants were actively planning attacks

KEY STORY

Student Takeover

Students have taken over Dhaka, the Bangladeshi capital of 24M people

• Last week, Bangladesh’s PM fled the country after weeks of protest, during which police killed hundreds of protesters. An interim PM has taken power and vowed to work with the protesters

• Police have gone into hiding, fearing retribution, leaving Dhaka in anarchy. Hundreds of people have been killed as criminal gangs roam the streets

• Meanwhile, kids and university students in the city have declared a revolution and begun patrols, planning reforms, and pulling over cars

Dig Deeper

• A new interim government – whose prime minister is a Nobel Prize-winning economist – has taken power and vowed to work with the students to build a new Bangladesh

• The prime minister has promised to follow “whatever path our students show us,” but also said his first goal is to prevent “anarchy”

KEY STORY

Trump Campaign Hacked

A hack stole internal files from Donald Trump’s campaign

• For weeks, media outlets have been receiving mysterious emails appearing to contain documents taken from the Trump campaign

• On Saturday night, the Trump campaign confirmed that it had been hacked, suggesting that such files were stolen during the hack. The hacked files include documents ranging from Trump’s “legal and court documents to internal campaign discussions,” a Politico source said

• The Trump campaign blamed Iran, citing a Microsoft report released Friday that said Iranian hackers had targeted the Trump campaign

Dig Deeper

• The hack comes a month after the US intelligence community said it had found evidence that Iran was plotting to kill Trump as retaliation for his killing of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani in 2020

• Last week, US authorities accused a Pakistani man who had recently been to Iran of plotting to kill a high-ranking US official

• Authorities had arrested the man as he tried to leave the US in July. He had allegedly contacted a hitman and told him he would provide a target later this summer

RUNDOWN
Some Quick Stories for the Office

📈 US stocks bounced back on Friday and ended the week almost where they began. Early last week, recession fears caused stock indices to suffer some of their worst days since 2020. They turned around on Thursday, though, when new data showed an unexpectedly low number of unemployment claims, alleviating economic fears

✈️ A Brazilian passenger plane crashed near São Paulo, killing all 62 people on board. The ATR turboprop aircraft – common in the US and Europe – rapidly fell from about 17,000 feet. Airline analysts suggest it may have stalled, but an investigation is ongoing

🚨 Russia declared states of emergency in two regions as Ukrainian troops continued to press into the territory, marking their biggest incursion into Russia since the war began. On Friday, the troops captured a key gas transit point. On Sunday, Russian reinforcements failed to dispel them. The Ukrainians are at least 18 miles (30 km) inside Russia 

🕊 Former YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki – who helped build Google into an advertising giant – died at 56 after a two-year battle with cancer. Sergey Brin and Larry Page co-founded Google in Wojcicki’s garage, and they later hired her as their 16th employee. She served as YouTube’s CEO from 2014 until 2023, when she stepped down to focus on her family and health

🤝 The US has offered Venezuelan ruler Nicolas Maduro amnesty in exchange for stepping down, the Wall Street Journal reported. Maduro and many of his top officials face US charges that make it difficult for them to travel abroad, and Maduro himself has a $15M bounty over American accusations that he sought to flood the US with cocaine. Per the WSJ, the US has floated pardons and related benefits if he steps down, but it’s unclear if the offers have gained traction

COMMUNITY

🧠 Today’s question: What makes you proud of the town/city you live in? You can answer for your hometown, if you prefer.

POPCORN
Some Quick Stories for Happy Hour

🍗 Finger-Lickin’ Fraud: An Illinois school worker pled guilty to stealing $1.5M worth of food, primarily chicken wings. She took over 11,000 cases of chicken wings

🤤 37 years, 37 IQ: A 37-year-old British tourist carved his family’s initials and the date on the wall of Pompeii’s 2,000-year-old House of the Vestal Virgins. Site staff soon alerted the police

🐶 Tooth be told: A Chicago woman claims a veterinarian performed an ovariohysterectomy – a surgical procedure that removes the uterus and ovaries on her dog – instead of scheduled teeth cleaning

🐻 Bears do really love salmon: Elaine Salmon, a California elementary school teacher, unexpectedly found a bear in her classroom. She then reportedly locked the bear inside the classroom after it charged her

🍿 How about another record, Murray? Deadpool & Wolverine joined Joker (2019) this weekend as the second-ever R-rated film to top $1B at the global box office

ROCA WRAP

Monday Morning Madness

We want to make Monday mornings better, so we’re launching Monday Morning Madness: A collection of strange, funny, or interesting stories we came across over the weekend. We hope you enjoy!

Paws and Effect

Italian fashion house Dolce & Gabbana launched a €99 ($108) perfume for dogs. Called “Fefé,” in honor of Domenico Dolce’s poodle, the company claims it is pet owner- and veterinarian-approved. Yet not everyone is buying it: Some vets warned that perfume risks complicating a dog’s vital sense of smell: “Dogs recognize themselves by smells; they recognize a person by a smell,” one Italian vet told the AP. “When the dog arrives, he sees you, wags his tail, but first smells you and then recognizes you because you are stored in one of his ‘smell drawers.’ Therefore, this world of smells should not be changed.”

Is PETA Fur Real?

PETA is demanding the closure of a Miami roadside zoo owned by the alleged real-life Scarface. The Cuban-American Mario Tabraue developed a passion for exotic animals during Miami’s 1980s narco heyday. He subsequently served 12 years of a 100-year prison sentence on drug and racketeering charges but was freed in 2001. He allegedly inspired Scarface, a movie about a Cuban drug lord in Miami. Once free, Tabraue launched a roadside zoo. In just the last year, though, the zoo – which went viral in January after onlookers videoed one of its capybaras doing the “Thriller” dance – has seen a capuchin monkey attack at least four children and a Gila monster (a venomous lizard) bite the zoo director, putting him anaphylactic shock.

Back in Black – Except for in El Paso

An El Paso, Texas, middle school banned students from wearing all-black clothing, alleging it’s associated with mental health issues. Officials laid out the rule in a new dress code for students returning to school this week. The school said it’s eliminating all-black clothing because it is “associated with depression and mental health issues and/or criminality.” The president of the El Paso Teachers Association added that teachers see changes in students who start dressing in all black. “What they are not allowing is for students to wear clothing that is black from top to bottom,” she said. “They can wear black shorts to go to PE. They can wear it on free dress day, but they just cannot wear it from top to bottom.”

You Can Do It. We CAN’T Help

A 72-year-old ex-Home Depot worker in California has sued the retailer for age discrimination and wrongful termination after being fired for failing to prevent fraudulent transactions. In July 2023, the woman claimed she was working alone in the store’s garden section when the incident occurred. She processed a customer’s $1,300 transaction despite getting a “funny feeling” when they used a debit card with written instructions to “process payments as cash.” When the customer returned to buy more expensive items, she “tried to call her manager or head cashier for assistance, but no one answered.” The customer allegedly responded aggressively, telling her, “Don’t call them,” and leaning over “as if to strike her.” The woman’s termination letter states she processed three additional transactions as cash, totaling over $4,000. While the store fired her four days later, her lawyer questioned the termination’s timing: Six months earlier, she discovered a new teenage hire had a higher starting salary despite her seven years of service, causing her to complain. “They just wanted an excuse to terminate her” following the complaint, her lawyer alleges. 

I’ve Seen Enough… He Did It

Mississippi attorney Daniel Dale faces conspiracy charges for allegedly smuggling contraband into a correctional facility by posing as prisoners’ legal counsel. On Thursday, Dale reportedly visited the facility pretending to meet a client. During entry, authorities said a machine detected “what appeared to be contraband” inside his briefcase. Video footage later showed him “attempting to make an exchange of the items in the briefcase with another detainee during a visitation.” A briefcase search eventually revealed cell phones, marijuana, and tobacco, among other banned items. Records indicate Dale has visited the jail at least 10 times since June, prompting an investigation into whether he facilitated other contraband exchanges. His appearance in a photo released by the sheriff’s office (see the image above) has since gone viral.

ROCA VIDEO

This Video Is Illegal in the UK

This week, we had planned to publish a video about our visit to an alleged “No-Go Zone.” Instead, the riots and the UK government’s ensuing social media crackdown have made that impossible, as this video explains. We will release that video, but we can’t until the censorship lightens up.

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EDITOR’S NOTE
Final Thoughts

After a week of travel, it feels great for the Maxes to be back in the Big Apple. Max F was in Europe for a long-planned bday trip and quickly learned that the news still doesn’t sleep when you’re 6 hours ahead. And Max T was in Chicago for a wedding between his dear friends Charlotte and Joel. And despite his best efforts on the dance floor, Vegas still has his over/under for marriage set at 2038.

–Max and Max