A thief in Los Angeles stole a $1.5M Buddha statue last week. The rather unholy heist was caught on camera, and the LAPD is now investigating. The bronze statue weighs 250 pounds and dates back to Japan’s Edo period (1603-1867). We’re no experts in karma, but stealing a Buddha statue seems like a recipe for disaster. Safe to assume he was a Broncos fan?

In today's edition:

• The writers have a deal!

• Doll arrested in Mexico

• Big News Empire

 🔑 Key Stories

Menendez Charged with Corruption

Federal prosecutors charged Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ) with allegedly accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of bribes

• Menendez has served in the Senate since 2006. In 2015, prosecutors charged him with accepting bribes, although that case ended after a jury failed to convict him and all of the charges were dropped

• On Friday, prosecutors unveiled new charges against him that accused him of accepting bribes in exchange for political favors, including by attempting to influence criminal cases against his associates. Menendez also allegedly directly aided Egypt's government for pay

• Menendez denied all of the allegations against him, claiming they are the product of “forces behind the scenes” who are trying to “dig my political grave”

Dig Deeper

• Menendez is up for reelection next year, and on Saturday, a Democratic representative from New Jersey announced he will run against Menendez: “NJ deserves better,” that official said

• A bipartisan group of state and federal officials has called on Menendez to resign since the allegations were unveiled, although Menendez has said he will not do so

Writers Strike Ending?

Screenwriters reached a tentative deal with film studios to end a five-month strike

• Screenwriters went on strike to demand higher wages, job protections, and other benefits. Their strike has coincided with an actors strike, shutting down the production of new movies/TV shows

• Several studio executives directly joined in on negotiations earlier this week, leading to breakthroughs on several issues

• On Sunday, both sides reached a tentative deal to end the strike. Union members will likely vote on the terms of the deal over the next several days

Dig Deeper

• While the terms of the three-year contract agreement were not immediately announced, the guild said in a statement: “We can say, with great pride, that this deal is exceptional – with meaningful gains and protections for writers in every sector of the membership”

Biden in Trouble?

An ABC/Washington Post poll found that large majorities of Americans are unhappy with President Biden's handling of the economy, immigration, and more

• The poll, conducted by phone, interviewed a random sample of 1,006 American adults. 25% were Democrats, 25% Republican, and 42% independent

• 64% of respondents disapproved of Biden's handling of the economy; 62% disapproved of his handling of the border; 44% said they had become worse off economically under Biden, the highest figure since at least 1986; and 74% said he is too old to run again

• Overall, 51% of respondents said they would support Trump in the 2024 election, versus 42% for Biden

Dig Deeper

• Overall, 51% of respondents said they would support Trump in the 2024 election, versus 42% for Biden. "Biden is broadly unpopular and doubts about his suitability for a second term are extensive," the report concluded

Sophie Turner Sues Joe Jonas

Sophie Turner sued former husband Joe Jonas to force him to return their children to England

• Turner is an English actress who starred in HBO’s “Game of Thrones.” She met Jonas in 2016, and the couple married in 2019, and have had two children

• Earlier this month, Jonas filed for divorce. In a statement, the couple called their split “amicable”

• On Thursday, Turner sued Jonas, arguing he refused to hand over their children's’ passports so she could bring them from the US to England, which she claims is their “habitual home.” Jonas denied that and said he is complying with a divorce court order

Dig Deeper

• Turner accused Jonas of violating the Hague Convention, an international treaty signed by the US that makes it a crime for a parent to remove a child from their country of “habitual residence”

• In a statement, Jonas said he is “seeking shared parenting,” and that he is “okay with the kids being raised both in the US and the UK”

🍿 Popcorn

ICYMI

• 26.2 hurrahs: Ethiopia's Tigst Assefa broke the women's marathon world record in Berlin on Sunday with a time of 2:11:53, beating the former record by more than two minutes

• Tua much fun: The Miami Dolphins put up 70 points against the Denver Broncos on Sunday, the most points scored by an NFL team in a game since 1966

• Rumble in the ad jungle: Burger King, HelloFresh, and other major advertisers pulled their ads from video platform Rumble after it refused to demonetize Russell Brand’s account

Wildcard

• Out of this world: On Sunday, a NASA spacecraft successfully returned to Earth the largest asteroid sample ever taken. Scientists say the sample may provide insights into the emergence of life on Earth

• Ay caramba, Chucky: Mexican police arrested a man named Carlos and his “demon doll” Chucky for intimidating and extorting money from people. Police said Carlos used the doll with a knife to rob people

• Jacket that’s literally cool: Singaporean beer company Tiger Beer and designer Izzy Du teamed up to create a summer puffer jacket that uses cold beer cans to drop body temperatures by 9°F

👇 What do you think?

Today's Question:

What is your go-to plane snack?

Reply to this email with your answers!

See yesterday's results below the Wrap! 

🌯 Roca Wrap

In 1954, Rupert Murdoch received a call. His father had died, and he needed to return to Australia to take over the family business.

Murdoch, born in Melbourne, Australia in 1931, had been raised in the newspaper business.

His father was a famed war correspondent who in 1949 bought two Australian newspapers. When he died, Murdoch was a student at Oxford. Murdoch returned to Australia, took over the papers, and increased their popularity and revenue.

Murdoch used his growing profits to expand, first by buying papers across Australia and then by launching the country’s first national daily paper and expanding to New Zealand. He then expanded into the UK, first buying low-end newspapers before acquiring more reputable ones. The combination of scandal, sex, and politics with which he filled the low-end ones is often credited with inventing the modern tabloid.

Murdoch’s first US foray was the purchase of a San Antonio newspaper in 1973. Within three years, he had moved to New York City, opened a tabloid newspaper, and purchased The New York Post.

Yet as Murdoch increasingly dominated print news, he worried about losing to cable and satellite television, which he once called “the most important single advance since Caxton invented the printing press.” He bought Britain’s Satellite Television in 1983 and rebranded it Sky the following year.

In the US he sought to out-compete three networks – ABC, CBS, and NBC – that had dominated TV for decades. Complicating matters was that only American citizens could own television stations.

To get around that, Murdoch became a US citizen and engineered a deal to buy Twentieth Century Fox along with several television channels. He merged them into the Fox Broadcasting Company, which then rapidly grew by launching “The Simpsons” and other popular shows. One of his boldest bets came in 1993, when he spent $1.6B to buy the NFL media rights away from CBS.

Yet while Fox grew, the media landscape continued to change.

CNN – the world’s first 24-hour cable news network – launched in 1980, sparking a rush to that business. Murdoch waited to move until the mid-1990s, when he decided to create a cable news network for right-leaning audiences. He launched Fox News in 1996 and made Roger Ailes – a former Republican media consultant and CNBC executive – its first CEO.

Just over five years later, it passed CNN to become the US’ most-watched cable news network. In the decades since, Fox News has become by far the US’ most-watched cable news network.

Murdoch also continued to expand into written news, buying Dow Jones – which owns The Wall Street Journal – in 2007, among other properties. Not all his purchases were successful, including his 2005 purchase of MySpace’s owner for $580M.

As Murdoch bought, merged, and founded his way into becoming one of the world’s wealthiest and most influential people, he faced huge amounts of criticism. People accused him of leveraging his control of the media to push through deals that governments otherwise would have blocked, and documents have shown that he and his executives held dozens of meetings – sometimes secret – with UK leaders tasked with regulating his properties.

In 2011, it emerged that several of Murdoch’s newspapers had hacked cell phones and bribed police to look the other way. Numerous arrests and convictions followed, and Murdoch and several of his top executives resigned from their positions. Two years later, a leaked recording captured Murdoch defending his actions as just “part of the culture.”

Many also criticized Murdoch for injecting conservative politics into the media, particularly with Fox News.

Murdoch would say that he was reaching normal people that mainstream media had forgotten; many defenders would also claim that liberal bias infused other mainstream outlets. While Murdoch faced such allegations for decades, perhaps the most significant one came this year, when accusations that Fox News spread lies about Dominion Voting Systems resulted in an $800M settlement payment.

Another criticism, often made by investors, was that Murdoch ran his empire as a family business. He has married four times and has six kids, and his family collectively controls 44% of Fox and 40% of News Corp, his two primary companies. Murdoch remains on top of both companies and his family makes key decisions, driving much speculation around which child Murdoch would choose as his successor.

In recent years, one son, 52-year-old Lachlan, emerged as the likely successor. That and other family and business politics led to rifts within the family and to another son, James, leaving the businesses. Those relationships helped inspire Succession, HBO’s show about a family-run media empire.

On Thursday, Murdoch, 92, announced that he will retire in November and that Lachlan will become the sole chair of both News Corp and Fox Corp. Four of his six children will later have to decide how to proceed.

“Our companies are in robust health, as am I,” he wrote in a memo. “Elites have open contempt for those who are not members of their rarefied class,” he added. “Most of the media is in cahoots with those elites, peddling political narratives rather than pursuing the truth.”

But after 70 years in the business, many would argue the same for him.

Who will history prove right?

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

 🌊 Roca Clubhouse

Yesterday's Poll:

Have you watched Succession?
Yes: 20%
No: 80%

Yesterday's Question:

Just 20 Qs!

🧠 Final Thoughts

We hope your Mondays starts better than ours did in Roca’s HQ. As the rain came down, our team realized the front door was broken and had to gather under one umbrella while we waited for someone to fix it. When we finally got into the office, we soon realized the internet was down.

All is better now, so the week can only go up from here!