A city in the south of France is taking drastic new measures to cut the — pardon my French — dog crap from its streets. Béziers is requiring every dog to provide a saliva sample so that it can DNA match isolated feces with their canine creator. Every dog owner will also receive a genetic passport for their pooch that they must carry around at all times.  

Speaking of cutting the crap, here’s today’s spin-free news:

In today's edition:

• One costly email typo

• T-Swift makes history

• Dr. Shakur

 🔑 Key Stories

.MIL or .ML?

A typo leaked sensitive US military emails to the country of Mali’s web operator, the Financial Times reports

• Mali is a poor country in West Africa with close ties to Russia and the mercenary group Wagner

• A Dutch business managed Mali’s national email domain, .ML, from 2013 until Monday, when control over it switched to Mali’s government. Over that time, he repeatedly warned of receiving millions of emails intended for the US military’s .MIL domain

• None of the emails were confidential, but some contained sensitive information. Mali’s government will now be able to access all emails sent to it

Dig Deeper

• A Pentagon spokesperson said it is “aware of this issue” and that emails sent from .MIL email addresses “are blocked before they leave the .MIL domain.” That does not apply to people using non-military emails, though

Parents Must Be Told…

The UK is set to pass regulations requiring teachers to tell parents if a child wants to change their gender

• Per several UK officials, schools will be required to tell parents if their child is considering changing genders or using different pronouns. If parents don’t approve of that, schools won’t be allowed to use those pronouns, per the sources

• Teachers and classmates also will never be required to call the student by their preferred (vs birth) pronouns

• A growing number of US school districts – 1,000+ of ~14,000 – forbid staff from telling parents details about their children’s gender status in some situations

Dig Deeper

• When asked if telling parents is “outing” students, the UK’s equalities minister said the issue of gender identity is “very different from sexual orientation” and not a “trivial thing” and that the guidance will ensure “everyone is getting the balance right”

• The guidance is expected to draw criticism from opposition politicians and LGBT groups

Mysterious Dome Object

A large dome-like metal object washed ashore on an Australian beach, fueling rumors about its origins

• Local residents discovered the ~8-foot-wide, ~10-foot-long copper-colored object on a beach ~155 miles north of Perth. It appeared to have been ripped from a larger object and was covered in barnacles

• Police have asked the public to stay away from the device but have determined it doesn’t pose a threat

• Some speculated it was a piece of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, which disappeared in 2014. Australian authorities denied that and said it was likely part of another country’s space launch vehicle

Dig Deeper

• Australia’s space agency said it is “working to confirm” if the object was part of a “foreign space launch vehicle” and said it is “liaising with global counterparts” to determine if that is the case

Man, Dog, and the Sea

An Australian man and his dog were rescued aboard their wrecked boat months after going missing

• In April, Aussie sailor Tim Shaddock, 51, began a ~4,000-mile journey from Mexico to French Polynesia. He set out on a small catamaran with his dog, Bella

• Weeks in, a storm wrecked the boat’s steering and navigation system, stranding them

• Shaddock survived by fishing, catching rainwater, and avoiding the sun during the day. Last week, Mexican fishermen rescued him and Bella three months after they were stranded. Both received medical exams and have been declared in stable condition

Dig Deeper

• “I have been through a very difficult ordeal at sea,” Shaddock told Australian news outlet 9News. “I'm just needing rest and good food because I have been alone at sea a long time…Otherwise I'm in very good health”

🍿 Popcorn

ICYMI

• In her records era: Taylor Swift became the first woman to have four albums simultaneously chart on Billboard’s Top 10. “Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)” is currently #1

• Dead & Gone: Dead & Company – the Grateful Dead’s successor band – played their final show. The sold-out performance took place in San Francisco, where the original band formed

• Messi Mania: Miami mayor and presidential candidate Francis Suarez is offering campaign contributors tickets to Lionel Messi’s debut game with Inter Miami

Wildcard

• “Holy Grail” of iPhones: An unopened first edition 4GB iPhone from 2007 sold at auction for ~$190K, nearly 400x its original price

• Acid attack: Authorities have charged a 12-year-old girl with assault and intent to cause great bodily harm for an acid attack on an 11-year-old girl at a Detroit playground

• Whale graveyard: 55 dead pilot whales washed ashore on a Scottish beach in the worst mass whale stranding in the area’s history

👇 What do you think?

Today's Question:

Should teachers be required to tell parents if their child is using pronouns different from those assigned at birth?

Reply to this email with your answers!

See yesterday's results below the Wrap! 

🌯 Roca Wrap

At 3 AM on July 14, 1970, a group of revolutionaries piled into their car in Harlem, NYC.

They belonged to the Young Lords, a communist group that began as a Puerto Rican street gang in Chicago and evolved into a revolutionary black power organization.

On that July morning, 150 Young Lords affiliates drove into a minority neighborhood in the Bronx, NYC. They entered the Lincoln Hospital, barricaded themselves inside, hung a Puerto Rican flag from the roof, and issued a list of demands.

The group wanted free, high-quality healthcare for all; door-to-door testing for lead poisoning, anemia, and tuberculosis; drug addiction treatment; and the construction of a new hospital. It demanded an end to discrimination against Puerto Rican and black hospital workers and patients.

After 12 hours, they reached an agreement with hospital staff: The hospital would change some policies and allow the Young Lords to run some services out of the hospital.

The Young Lords and their allies established programs at the hospital, including a Communism-based drug treatment program that taught addiction was "a scheme concocted by a white government to oppress blacks.” It sought to use non-pharmaceutical methods to get people off drugs. Those methods included acupuncture, of which Mutulu Shakur was a practitioner.

Mutulu, born to a blind mother in Baltimore in 1950, had become involved in revolutionary politics as a teen after moving to New York City. At Lincoln Hospital, he became a prominent revolutionary. In 1975 he married fellow activist Afeni Shakur, making her son Tupac Shakur his stepson.

Mutulu was affiliated with the Black Liberation Army (BLA), which carried out bombings, police killings, and bank robberies with the stated goal of liberating black Americans. In 1973, police pulled over a group of BLA members, including a woman named Assata Shakur, who had been speeding. As police questioned them, a shootout ensued that killed an officer.

Assata was convicted of that murder and sentenced to prison. In 1979, though, BLA members – coordinated by Mutulu Shakur – broke her out of prison. Assata fled to Cuba, where she still lives. She was the first woman added to the FBI’s “Most Wanted Terrorist” list, where she remains.

Mutulu went into hiding.

Then in 1981, he and other revolutionaries approached a shopping mall in an NYC suburb. As two Brink’s truck guards emerged from the mall with cash, the group opened fire. They wounded the guards, killed two police officers during the getaway, and made off with $1.6M.

Several of those involved were arrested immediately, but Mutulu went on the run.

The FBI named him to its Most Wanted list, and after five years, tracked him down and arrested him in California. He received a 60-year prison sentence for murder, bank robberies, and the 1979 prison break.

Revolutionary groups considered Mutulu a political prisoner.

“The acts of which Dr. Shakur was convicted some thirty years ago were committed in the context of a movement seeking equal opportunities for black people,” a website honoring him says. His supporters say the US wanted to make an example out of him to suppress other movements.

Mutulu’s supporters spent years calling for his release, particularly after he was diagnosed with bone cancer in 2019. The federal government repeatedly rejected those calls until last December, when it said, “We now find your medical condition renders you so infirm of mind and body that you are no longer physically capable of committing any Federal, State, or local crime.”

Mutulu was released that month and spent his remaining time in California. He died earlier this month at age 72.

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

 🌊 Roca Clubhouse

Yesterday's Poll:

What do you trust more on Rotten Tomatoes: Critics score or audience score?
Critics score: 10%
Audience score: 90%

Yesterday's Question:

Have you learned any life lessons from a sport?

Robert: “Over time, I learned that cooperation makes more sense than competition. I understand the need to complete and win, but the results of cooperation are more substantial and sustained.”

Kylee from Utah: “I cheered competitively on a National level for 10 years and the most important lesson that I learned was that EVERYONE is replaceable! No one is exempt from this, so if you want something in life you have to work to get it and keep it.”

Terry: "Always wear a cup, not just in sports!!"

Steve: “My life lesson was learned at the horse track when it comes to selecting a winning entrant with regards to odds: The masses are asses!”

Randall: “In my youth (circa 1960) baseball provided life-long lessons in team-building and pride. We neighborhood kids grabbed our dad's tools & started clearing the city land at the end of the street for a ball diamond... well don't our dads show up with rototillars, comealongs & topsoil... we made such a beautiful field that the city of Parma came & put up a backstop. Kids are still playing ball there... Go Tribe!”

🧠 Final Thoughts

Everyone, thank you all for reading another day of RocaNews. We love writing this, and we love hearing from you. Hope you all have a great day.

—Max and Max