🌊 Helene Shows No Mercy

Hearts go out to our Southeastern readers.

The footage of Helene’s destruction across Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina is devastating. We try not to dwell on bad news at Roca, but we know that this bad news affects so many of you. We cover the latest on Helene below, and if you’re an impacted reader let us know how we can help.

–Max, Max, and Owen

KEY STORY

RFK’s Phone Sex

Details emerged about RFK Jr.’s alleged affair

• New York Magazine put DC correspondent Olivia Nuzzi, 31, on leave early this month after she admitted to having a relationship with RFK Jr., 70, whose campaign she was covering

• Kennedy says they only met once, for a profile Nuzzi was writing, and denies an affair. Sources close to Nuzzi told the New York Post that Nuzzi and Kennedy told each other via phone that they loved each other and had “incredible” FaceTime sex

• Nuzzi’s fiancé, Politico journalist Ryan Lizza, has called off the engagement. Puck reported that Trump drafted a “Truth” that said, “My condolences to Ryan Lizza…,” but deleted it

Dig Deeper

• Kennedy’s team has fiercely denied the story, and he has threatened to sue those who started it

• A private investigator Kennedy hired to look into that said, “[The relationship] had nothing to do with romance…He was being chased by porn,” yet Kennedy’s wife – actress Cheryl Hines – has recently been seen without her wedding ring

KEY STORY

Schizophrenia Breakthrough?

The FDA approved a new drug to treat schizophrenia for the first time since the 1990s

• Existing drugs to treat schizophrenia – which affects ~1% of US adults – directly reduce dopamine levels. While they effectively reduce symptoms, common side effects – including unusual movements and weight gain – cause many people to stop taking them

• Last week, the FDA, for the first time, approved a schizophrenia treatment that does not directly target dopamine receptors. The drug is intended to have fewer side effects and treat aspects of the disease that existing treatments don’t

Dig Deeper

• The drug – Cobenfy, made by Bristol Myers Squibb – targets a neurotransmitter that indirectly influences dopamine levels

• In trials, Cobenfy was shown to significantly reduce symptoms compared to a placebo and to do so with fewer side effects than existing treatments, yet trials measuring effectiveness only covered periods of up to five weeks, meaning the drug’s long-term effectiveness is unproven

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KEY STORY

Helene Ravages Southeast

After making landfall in Florida as a Category 4 hurricane, Helene ripped through the southeast, devastating swaths of Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina

• In Georgia, at least 25 people died, and more than half a million were left without power. In South Carolina, at least 27 people died, making it the deadliest tropical cyclone for the state since 1989

• In North Carolina, Helene turned towns into lakes, submerged the downtown of Asheville, and left hundreds missing. Over 300 roads in North Carolina are closed, many of which are destroyed

• The official death toll is currently over 100 and is expected to rise

Dig Deeper

• In Florida, most of the damage came to small rural towns. Governor Ron DeSantis said, “You see some just complete obliteration for homes”

• Meanwhile, after surveying the damage to his state from the air, Governor Brian Kemp said, “It looks like a bomb went off”

• In North Carolina, authorities are prioritizing the airlifting of supplies to residents and searching for the hundreds of people reported missing

KEY STORY

Middle East War Continues

Israel killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah

• On Friday, Israel dropped up to 80 bombs on a Beirut block, leveling it. Beneath it was Hezbollah’s headquarters, in which Nasrallah was meeting Hezbollah leadership. He and 20+ other Hezbollah leaders were killed

• Hezbollah’s leader since 1992, Nasrallah, turned the group into the world’s best-armed non-state military, Lebanon’s most powerful political force, and one of the most influential fundamentalist Islamic organizations

• Israel’s defense minister called it “the most important targeted strike since the founding of the State of Israel”

• Iran – Hezbollah’s sponsor – said Nasrallah’s death “will not go unanswered” but is yet to retaliate for any of Israel’s recent strikes on Lebanon. That prompted one former Lebanese prime minister to quip, “Iran is ready to fight until the last Lebanese”

• Reports claim that Iranian leadership is concerned it, too, has been penetrated by Israeli intelligence and could suffer the same fate as Hezbollah

• Israel has continued airstrikes in Hezbollah-controlled areas of Lebanon, whose death toll surpassed 1,000. It also targeted Yemen’s Houthis, who launched a missile at Netanyahu’s plane as it landed in Israel

Dig Deeper

• Today’s Wrap is all about Nasrallah. Find it at the bottom of this newsletter

RUNDOWN
Some Quick Stories for the Office

🎯 The US announced that American troops killed 37 ISIS- and al-Qaeda-affiliated terrorists in Syria this week

🇺🇸 Kamala Harris visited the US-Mexico border, her first time doing so since 2021

💬 At a Wisconsin rally, Donald Trump said that Kamala Harris is “mentally disabled”

💰 Trust-fund influencer Dan Bilzerian’s company was charged with fraud and related crimes

🇦🇹 Austria’s primary “far-right” party beat expectations and will become the largest party in the country’s parliament for the first time

⚾ MLB’s Detroit Tigers pulled off one of the most unlikely turnarounds in baseball to secure their first playoff spot since 2014

COMMUNITY

🧠 Today’s question: Any message to our southeastern readers after seeing the damage from Helene?

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

POPCORN
Some Quick Stories for Happy Hour

🐊 Anything is possible: Musical star Lana Del Rey married a Louisiana swamp tour guide. The couple met back in 2019, when Del Rey took a swamp tour on one of his company’s boats

🤯 Rigor-ception: A scientific paper about how to boost scientific rigor was retracted for displaying a lack of scientific rigor. The publication noted a list of at least four flaws that undermined the study’s findings

🐀 The pill (rats’ version): New York City’s government approved a pilot program to reduce rat populations through birth control. NYC has an estimated 3M rats

💩 S**tty roads: A sewage pipe burst on a Chinese road, sending human waste shooting 33 feet into the air. The debris then fell onto nearby cars, bikes, and pedestrians, prompting one person to shout, “I’m drenched in poo!”

🤦‍♂️ A true fake family man: A GOP House candidate in Virginia appears to have featured a fake family in campaign ads. The ads show him posing with a woman and three kids in various settings, but the candidate is unmarried and childless

ROCA WRAP

Hassan Nasrallah

In 1992, a Lebanese Shia cleric was traveling in southern Lebanon when a series of Israeli missiles slammed into his motorcade, killing him.

The man led Hezbollah – the “Party of God” – which now needed a new leader. It chose Hassan Nasrallah, who made Hezbollah into what it is today.

Born near Beirut, Lebanon, Nasrallah caught the attention of religious clerics as a child and became active in Shia and anti-Israel politics. When Iranian troops helped launch Hezbollah as a Shiite military group in Lebanon in the early 1980s, Nasrallah joined, attracted to the group’s emphasis on armed struggle against Israel.

Israel occupied parts of Lebanon during its civil war from 1982 until 1985, during which time Hezbollah became notorious for its suicide attacks and kidnappings of Israelis, Americans, and Europeans. By 1985, Israel had reduced its occupation to a “security zone” in southern Lebanon, near the Israeli border. 

For the next 15 years, Hezbollah waged a guerrilla war in order to force out the Israeli troops. When its founding leader was killed in 1992, Nasrallah was put in charge to continue it. In 2000, he won: Israel retreated, a landmark moment for those who oppose Israel.

That achievement boosted Hezbollah’s popularity among Lebanese of all religions. It soon became one of the country’s foremost political parties, aided by backing from Syria and Iran. 

In 2005, Hezbollah struck a blow that would cement its dominance in Lebanese politics: Working with Syria, its members assassinated Lebanon’s prime minister, who had sought to modernize Lebanon and had been credited with rebuilding the country post-civil war. He and Hezbollah had different visions for his country, and then he was gone. His assassination sparked widespread anger and drew millions of protesters to the streets.

One year later, Hezbollah struck at Israel again, this time kidnapping two soldiers and bringing them back to Lebanon. Israel responded with airstrikes and a ground invasion, sparking a month-long war that killed 1,200 Lebanese and devastated Lebanon’s infrastructure.

The cost was so great that Nasrallah said he regretted it: “If I had known…that the operation would lead to such a war, would I do it? I say no, absolutely not.”

Yet by proving that Hezbollah – not the government – held power in Lebanon, the war elevated the group’s status further.

To the US, Israel, and others, Hezbollah was a terror group: It had killed hundreds of American Marines, civilians, and government staff in Lebanon; routinely attacked Israelis; and was accused of blowing up a Jewish community center in Argentina and a bus of Israeli tourists in Bulgaria.

To Iran, the group was the most vital tool in its shadow war against the US and Israel. It lavished Hezbollah with weapons and money, making it the world’s best-equipped militia.

And to Lebanon, it was the dominant power: Despite representing Shias, just one of Lebanon’s three main religious groups, it was the most powerful force in Lebanese politics, able to provide better services than the government and determine when the country would have war and peace. Many viewed Hezbollah as a group of freedom fighters challenging Israel and the West; many hated the group for its Islamic fundamentalism and violence. 

The man responsible for building Hezbollah into what it had become was Hassan Nasrallah, and in doing so, he had a target put on his back. No stranger to bloodshed, on Friday, it was his own that was spilled.

ROCA VIDEO
The History of Hezbollah and Its Current Strategy

Dr. Matthew Levitt is perhaps the United States' foremost expert on Hezbollah. He's a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and an adjunct professor in Georgetown University's Center for Security Studies. We sat down with Dr. Levitt to better understand Hezbollah's history, how it operates, how Israel plans to fight it, whether this could escalate into an Israel-Iran war, how the pager attack happened, and so much more.

Make sure to subscribe to the channel!

EDITOR’S NOTE
Final Thoughts

Tomorrow is the VP debate and the first day of October, which is easily a top 3 month of the year. In fact, in a newsletter poll from a few years ago, we found that it was the favorite month for the Roca audience. So get ready for the crisp breezes (112 degrees is crisp, right, Phoenix readers?), the apple cider, and the cinnamon donuts. Have a great week!

–Max and Max