After almost two full weeks of searching, police captured Danelo Cavalcante this morning. Cavalcante, a convicted murderer from Brazil, escaped from prison on August 31 and has since eluded the roughly 500 police officers on the hunt for him. But at long last, the police got him this morning and posed for the below photo — like an NFL defense in the endzone after forcing a turnover. So, eastern PA readers, you can rest easy again!

In today's edition:

• Decongestants don’t work?

• Florida kid saves life thanks to TV show

• To disobey an order…

 🔑 Key Stories

Signs of Alien Life?

A NASA space telescope detected a possible sign of life on a distant planet

• An exoplanet is a planet that orbits a star other than the Sun. In 2015, NASA discovered K2-18 b, a planet 9x Earth’s size that is ~120 light-years away. It is believed to have water vapor in its atmosphere

• On Monday, NASA announced that using a powerful space telescope, it discovered the presence of carbon dioxide and methane there, which implies the existence of a “liquid ocean”

• It also possibly detected faint traces of a compound known as dimethyl sulfide (DMS), which on Earth is only produced by living organisms

Dig Deeper

• The researchers involved in the study emphasized that the detection of DMS is “not robust,” meaning more data is necessary to confirm that finding. Even if it is confirmed to exist there, that does not prove life exists, they also warned

• Nonetheless, the discovery provides scientists with some of the strongest evidence yet that the conditions necessary for life – if not life itself – exist on exoplanets

GOP Opens Impeachment Inquiry

Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) announced Republicans will open an impeachment inquiry into President Biden

• Republicans have been investigating Hunter Biden’s foreign business deals for month. They have found evidence that the elder Biden spoke with his son before and after meetings, but none indicating he directly helped Hunter or profited off those deals

• On Tuesday, McCarthy announced Republicans will open an impeachment inquiry – an investigation that precedes an official impeachment vote

• A White House official condemned that as “extreme politics”

Dig Deeper

• “Through our investigations, we have found that President Biden did lie to the American people about his own knowledge of his family's foreign business dealings,” McCarthy said. “Taken together, these allegations paint a picture of a culture of corruption”

• “House Republicans have been investigating the President for nine months, and they've turned up no evidence of wrongdoing,” a White House spokesperson wrote in response

Libya Flood Fallout

The death toll from Libya’s floods reached 5,300+ as rescuers continue to search for bodies

• On Sunday, Mediterranean storm Daniel hit parts of eastern Libya. Heavy rains caused flooding in some areas and caused two dams above Derna, a coastal city of ~90,000, to collapse. That caused flood waves as tall as 23 feet that swept through the city

• As of Wednesday, 5,300+ people have been declared dead and 30,000+ Derna residents displaced

• Rescue efforts are complicated because Libya has two governments — one that controls the country’s west and another that controls the east

Sex and the Senate

On Tuesday, one politician was revealed to have performed sex acts for money while another read a sex scene aloud in the Senate

• Multiple outlets revealed that a Democratic candidate for Virginia’s legislature, Susanna Gibson, had uploaded dozens of explicit videos of her and her husband to a porn site

• She condemned those who circulated the videos, and her lawyer suggested those who had done so violated Virginia law

• Also on Tuesday, during a hearing on book bans, a Louisiana senator read explicit scenes from two books on the Senate floor, videos of which have gone viral

FDA: Decongestant Doesn’t Work

An advisory committee to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) voted unanimously that a popular decongestant doesn’t work

• Phenylephrine is an active ingredient in most over-the-counter (OTC) decongestants, including Sudafed PE and Benadryl Allergy Plus Congestion

• It has been used in decongestants since the 1950s, yet recent studies have suggested it is no more effective than a placebo

• On Tuesday, an FDA panel voted that the OTC pill version of it doesn’t work. The FDA will decide whether or not to revoke its approval, which could limit access to the drug

Dig Deeper

• The ruling only applies to OTC oral versions of the drug, meaning that nasal sprays and prescription versions are still considered effective. The FDA is not required to accept the panel’s recommendation, but it usually does

• A trade group representing pharma companies didn’t dispute the panel’s specific findings but argued decongestants are so widely-used that they should remain OTC pending further studies

Take online safety into your own hands

Together with Surfshark

Using a VPN (Virtual Private Network) is like wearing pants — it keeps all the essential stuff private and secure

How does a VPN work? 

• A VPN hides your online activity through encryption. It ensures that everything you do online is hidden from snooping ISPs, trackers, data brokers, and other malicious online actors who can monitor, log, and sell your information

What are the benefits?

• Choose a different location for your every need — pick from 3200+ different servers in over 100 countries

• Stop annoying ads and prevent malware attacks.

• Secure your data while using public Wi-Fi so you don’t become a victim of identity theft or fraudulent purchases

• Safely access local content anywhere without buffering or pop-ups

• Safely access blocked or censored material without worrying about tracking or censorship

• Save money on flights, hotels, rentals, and regular everyday items, as prices often vary depending on your location

Dig Deeper

• Millions trust Surfshark for the security solutions that safeguard their data and privacy online. Plus, you can set up one account and use it on unlimited devices! It’s as easy as it sounds — sign up, download Surfshark, and browse

• And now, Roca readers can get up to 82% off for a two-year Surfshark VPN plan and two months for free!

🍿 Popcorn

ICYMI

• I’m losin’ it: McDonald’s is eliminating self-serve soda machines by 2032 at its US locations due to fewer customers dining in since the pandemic

• New name, who dis? Endeavor completed its majority-stake purchase of WWE, merging it with UFC to create TKO Group Holdings. Shares for the new company began trading on Tuesday

• Heaven Halep us: Two-time Grand Slam tennis champion and former world No. 1 Simona Halep received a four-year ban for two anti-doping rule violations. She plans to appeal

Wildcard

• Savior Things: A 12-year-old Florida boy rescued a drowning man by applying CPR skills he learned from watching the Netflix series “Stranger Things”

• Most-wanted mystery: Luis Javier Benítez Espinoza – a most-wanted alleged fentanyl trafficker – was found dead outside a hospital in Sinaloa, Mexico

• Breaking badder: Colombia’s coca bush cultivation reportedly reached a record high last year. Coca is a major ingredient in cocaine, of which Colombia produces 60% of the world’s supply

👇 What do you think?

Today's Question:

Do you think humans will find definitive proof of extraterrestrial life in your lifetime?

Reply to this email with your answers!

See yesterday's results below the Wrap! 

🌯 Roca Wrap

In 1968, Army Captain Larry Taylor disobeyed direct orders. Last Tuesday, he was awarded the Medal of Honor for it.

Taylor was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee in 1942.

He came from a line of soldiers: His great-great-grandfather had fought in the Civil War, his great-uncle in World War I, and his father and uncles in World War II. Taylor participated in ROTC in college and joined the US Army after graduating.

At the time, the US was deeply involved in the Vietnam War.

In 1966, the year Taylor joined the Army, 6,350 Americans were injured or killed in Vietnam; a year later, 11,363 were. Most of those casualties came on the ground, where US soldiers were ambushed in dense jungles or remote locations by enemy forces.

Taylor initially trained to lead ground troops but switched to pilot school to learn how to fly attack helicopters. His reasoning was simple: “I’d rather be an ass-kicker than to have my ass kicked,” he said.

He was deployed to Vietnam in August 1967, where he participated in hundreds of operations as the pilot of an AH-1G Cobra, a type of attack helicopter. He claims that his helicopter was shot down five times.

On June 18, 1968, four US soldiers were deployed near a remote Vietnamese village to scout out enemy positions. They walked on foot to avoid detection.

As dusk set in, they left a treeline and entered an open clearing – where they found themselves surrounded by enemy forces. One of the men radioed back to headquarters for assistance. Taylor was one of several pilots assigned to provide air support to the stranded soldiers.

Night had fallen, though, and he struggled to find the soldiers. When they launched a flare so he could find them, they came under heavy enemy fire. Over the next 45 minutes, Taylor and his co-pilots “strafed the enemy with mini-guns and aerial rockets,” the White House said in a statement. Taylor brought his helicopter low to the ground, increasing the effectiveness of his fire but also increasing his chances of being hit.

Amid that, Taylor learned that a rescue mission to pick up the soldiers had been canceled due to its low odds of success. Taylor received a direct order from his superiors: “Return to base.”

In the military, orders are generally unquestionable, and failure to follow them can result in demotion, termination, and criminal prosecution. Yet Taylor refused: “I’m getting my men out,” he told flight operators.

Taylor set a new pickup location for the soldiers and continued firing on the Vietnamese attackers to cover their retreat. As soon as the soldiers were in position, Taylor “plopped [his helicopter] on the ground.”

There was a problem, though: Cobras only sit two people. All four soldiers had to grab and hold onto the exterior of the helicopter.

“They beat on the side of the ship twice, which meant, ‘Haul ass,’” Taylor said. “And we did.” Taylor evacuated the soldiers to a nearby water treatment plant, where other American soldiers were stationed. Taylor’s rescue marked the first and only time a Cobra was used to evacuate soldiers in war.

Taylor received ~50 medals for his service, during which he flew 2,000+ times for the Army. He left the service in 1970 and later ran a roofing and sheet metal company in Tennessee.

At a reunion in 1999, he happened to stumble upon one of the men he had saved 30 years prior. The two became friends, and years later, the friend and several other veterans began campaigning for Taylor to receive the Medal of Honor, the US’ highest military award.

Last Tuesday – 55 years after the fateful rescue – Taylor, now 81, was presented with that honor. While awarding him the medal, President Biden said Taylor “refused to put his own life above the lives of those in need.”

“When duty called, Larry did everything to answer. He rewrote the fate of four families for generations to come.”

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

 🌊 Roca Clubhouse

Yesterday's Poll:

Do you think airport security violates your privacy?
Yes: 30%
No: 70%

Yesterday's Question:

Should a country’s government have the power to ban certain dog breeds?

Buckley from Atlanta, GA: "No, BUT- some dogs clearly have a propensity for dangerous aggression. Insurance companies know this. Some companies frequently refuse to insure home owners/apartment dwellers because of this."

Casey from Virginia: "As an animal tech. there is no justification for breed-specific bans…. [here’s] an [American Kennel Club] article to back my claim”

Denise from Granbury, Texas: "Banning dog breeds is akin to racial profiling: a few bad dogs have these dogs a bad rap. 99.9% of them are wonderful mutts!."

Neil from Fairview Park, Ohio: “I certainly believe that government (at any level. Federal, State, or Local) have more than enough other issues to face than banning a particular dog bread!”

Joe: “Short answer is yes. Many dogs are bred for profit (first) - not to provide comfort or partnership (end result). The ends do not justify the means. Many bred dogs are killed - either they don't look the part or the male/female are worn out or not fashionable. If a country feels the danger to the population is great, they should act. Either way, the government is responsible.”

🧠 Final Thoughts

Despite an array of grim and polarizing stories today, we hope all your weeks are off to a great start. Given that today started off with police catching the escaped Pennsylvania murderer, maybe Thursday will be a brighter day!

—Max and Max