🌊 Sparks Fly at the DNC

Day 3 at the DNC.

While the Obamas were speaking at Chicago’s United Center for the Democratic National Convention, anti-Israel protesters gathered outside the Israeli consulate two miles away. That’s where we decided to go. We spent the evening with the protesters — and pro-Israel counter-protesters — and documented the experience. The protests devolved into violent clashes with cops, resulting in the arrests of 72 pro-Palestine protesters.

Thankfully, the Roca team was not part of the 72. Except… wait a minute. Where did cameraman Drew go? Uh oh…

–Max, Max, and Owen

KEY STORY

New Diabetes Prevention

A new study found that an anti-obesity drug almost eliminated the risk of developing Type 2 diabetes

• Anti-obesity drugs like Zepbound and Ozempic have gained attention for their potential to prevent conditions including Type 2 diabetes, heart attacks, and obstructive sleep apnea

• In a new study, Eli Lilly’s Zepbound reduced the risk of progression to Type 2 diabetes among people with prediabetes – a condition characterized by elevated blood sugar levels – by 94%

• More than 1 in 3 Americans has prediabetes, while 11.6% – more than 38M – has diabetes

Dig Deeper

• The new study followed participants for over three years and then stopped the treatment for 17 weeks

• It found that those receiving weekly Zepbound injections experienced both a significant reduction in diabetes risk and substantial weight loss, with averages ranging from 15% to nearly 23%, depending on the dosage

• The benefits were somewhat dependent on continued treatment: Patients who stopped taking Zepbound began to regain weight. However, their diabetes risk remained 88% lower

KEY STORY

Serial Killer Escape?

An accused serial killer escaped from prison in Kenya

• Last month, 42 bodies were discovered in a landfill in Nairobi, Kenya. Police quickly arrested a 33-year-old, who they said confessed to the killings. His lawyer said he was innocent and tortured into making the confession

• On Tuesday morning, the accused and 12 other inmates were found to have broken out of prison

• Authorities warned the public: “We are dealing with a serial killer, a psychopathic serial killer who has no respect for human life”

Dig Deeper

• When jail authorities did their normal checks on Tuesday morning, they found the man and a dozen other inmates missing from their cells. Police said the escapees appeared to have cut a wire in a “basking bay” – an outdoor area for detainees to access fresh air – and then scaled a wall

• They said the escapes appeared to have been “aided by insiders”

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KEY STORY

New Parkinson’s Disease Treatment

A new treatment was shown to reduce Parkinson’s motor symptoms by 50%

• Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is an existing Parkinson’s treatment that delivers steady electrical pulses to alleviate symptoms

• Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, have now developed adaptive DBS (aDBS), which uses AI to tailor electrical stimuli based on real-time brain activity

• A new study published in the journal Nature Medicine tested aDBS on four Parkinson’s patients and found that it reduced their most severe symptoms by 50%

Dig Deeper

• The aDBS technology could benefit people suffering not just from Parkinson’s but also neurological conditions, including depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder

• Yet the technology is complex, requires further development, and must undergo larger trials to confirm its safety and effectiveness

KEY STORY

Tokyo Metro to IPO

Tokyo Metro is planning to IPO at a ¥640B ($4.4B) to ¥700B ($4.8B) valuation

• Operating since 1927, Tokyo Metro – renowned for its quiet, punctuality, and cleanliness – carries over 6.5M people in and around Japan’s capital daily

• Currently jointly owned by the Japanese and Tokyo gov’ts, the IPO will help pay for loans taken out for construction after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami

• While most global mass-transit systems lose money, Tokyo Metro reportedly makes a $1B+ yearly profit. For comparison, New York City’s subway system is expected to lose ~$3B in 2024

Dig Deeper

• The IPO could come as early as October. It could be the Tokyo Stock Exchange’s largest IPO since investment giant SoftBank went public in 2018

• While Japan’s National Government and Tokyo’s Metropolitan Government jointly own the metro, they plan to reduce government ownership of the railway to 50% over time

RUNDOWN
Some Quick Stories for the Office

🎤 The Democratic Party ghosted the Teamster Union’s president’s request to speak at the DNC. Despite the union’s longtime support for Democrats, its president has warmed up to Trump, meeting with him multiple times and speaking at the Republican Convention. While its president planned to speak at the DNC as well, the Democratic Party has reportedly ignored his requests to do so, suggesting a falling out

🪖 A North Korean soldier walked across the border into South Korea in a rare defection across the demilitarized zone (DMZ). Authorities said the soldier walked along a road by Korea’s east coast, then crossed into the South, where he was detained. It marks the second defection in a month, following another by sea

🛫 Boeing found cracks in its new 777X plane, already years behind schedule, with delivery pushed from 2020 to 2025. It’s unclear how the cracks emerged or their impact on the delivery date, but Boeing grounded its four-jet test fleet for further inspections. Its stock fell 4.7% on the news

🛥️ UK entrepreneur Mike Lynch, his daughter, and the chairman of Morgan Stanley International are among six presumed dead after Lynch’s yacht sank off Sicily in bad weather. Lynch – often compared to Bill Gates – was reportedly on his yacht to celebrate his acquittal in a decade-long fraud trial. In a bizarre twist of events, it was made public on Monday that his co-defendant in that trial was killed in a car crash on Saturday

🕊️ Maria Branyas, an American-born Spaniard considered the world’s oldest person, died at 117. The Gerontology Research Group, which validates details of people thought to be 110 or older, listed Branyas as the oldest known person in the world after the death of a French nun last year. The next-oldest person listed by the group is Japan’s Tomiko Itooka, who is 116

COMMUNITY

🧐 Yesterday’s question: What gets you up in the morning?

🧠 Today’s question: What’s the best sporting event you’ve ever seen in person?

POPCORN
Some Quick Stories for Happy Hour

✂️ Cutting it close: A Japanese airport canceled 36 flights on Saturday after a pair of scissors went missing. The airport requires retail outlets to store scissors in a locker, but one retail outlet lost theirs

☕️ A latte miles: Brian Niccol, Starbucks’s new CEO, will “super commute” 1,000 miles at least three days a week from his home in Newport Beach, California, to the company’s Seattle headquarters

🎮 Playground = Open Again: The Backyard Sports video game series is making a comeback. The franchise began in 1997 with Backyard Baseball and released 38 games over the years

💰 Big Daddy Deal: Alex Cooper, the host of Spotify’s second-biggest podcast, “Call Her Daddy,” signed a deal with SiriusXM reportedly worth $100M. She started the podcast in 2018

💔 Love on a budget: A man in Taiwan filed for divorce after his wife demanded a fee each time they had sex. She allegedly started charging him $15 per session in 2021

ROCA WRAP

The Inclusive Gun Store

Fagnani’s Firearms isn’t any old gun store.

By 2022, 24-year-old Roca Reader Dustin Fagnani had come to believe gun stores, at least around Scranton, Pennsylvania, were too close-minded.

In Pennsylvania, buying a gun requires someone to pass a background check. Even if they do, though, gun stores have the right to deny anyone a sale. Fagnani says “a lot of stores” use this to discriminate: “If they don’t agree with your politics or gender identity, your religion, they’re going to treat you differently, if not just outright deny the sale.” 

Fagnani wanted to change this, so he opened Fagnani’s Firearms: An inclusive gun store.

Fagnani sells everything from World War 2-era rifles to AKs (“A working man’s rifle”) and ARs (“a tool of precision”). Yet Scranton isn’t the easiest place to run a business: Industry has largely left, and many people are less well off than they once were.

“A lot of people don’t have spending money. People are deciding between food or gasoline because there’s just a lack of jobs in this area,” Fagnani said. But Pennsylvanians love their guns, and Fagnani says he has found a market by treating all customers equally.

“We don’t care, you know, who you pray to, what color you are, who you choose to have sex with, consensually. We’re more than happy to help you arm yourself.”

Hunting is extremely popular in Pennsylvania, where around 40% of the population owns a gun.

“There is no Democrat or Republican stance on guns here,” says Fagnani. “People might look at you differently if you don’t own a gun around here…We have clergymen, we have rabbis, we have Imams – people from all walks of life that come here to exercise their Second Amendment right.”

Even the area’s Democratic congressman shops at Fagnani’s.

Fagnani didn’t grow up in a pro-gun household, but his perspective changed when he was robbed at gunpoint while in Baltimore around age 14. “We all got shaken down for our shoes and wallets,” he recalled. “Pretty quickly after that, I realized I want a gun. I’d like to be able to defend myself.”

He’s since acquired dozens of guns, as has his colleague, Barbara.

Barbara explained, “My father is 76 years old. People might be appalled to learn that he has about 30 or 40 guns. But he’s been acquiring these guns since he was a child.

“They’re hunting rifles and pistols that he uses for self-defense, should the need arise. He’s out in the woods a lot. Rather than carrying a rifle, he carries a pistol. So, over the course of a lifetime, acquiring 30 or 40 guns might seem like an obscene amount to some people, but it’s not around here.

“You’ve got hunting guns for every purpose. You’ve got a few fun guns. You’ve got a few gifts people gave you. You’ve got some you inherited from your family members who passed away. And all of a sudden, you’ve got this massive gun collection. It’s the same as having a massive collection of Tupperware that you don’t use, you know?”

Politically speaking, Fagnani said he’s not concerned about a Democrat winning the election and clamping down on guns: “At the end of the day, I don’t care if it’s Team Red or Team Blue that’s taking taxes out of my paycheck, but it’s going to be one of them. I myself would be very willing to vote for a third-party candidate. I just wish, you know, other Americans would agree with me.”

Unless the Democrats control both chambers of Congress, he says, gun stores have little to worry about.

“On the flip side,” adds Fagnani, “elections are good for business.”

“People go out and panic buy. People stock up on ammunition. And, you know, not like I enjoy people being nervous and being afraid for the future, but it is good for business.”

We asked Fagnani and his colleagues what their message is to people who oppose gun ownership.

“I tell them to familiarize themselves with it. Think about how there might be a day where you need one of those to defend your family, your loved ones. Don’t be so quick to judge people that exercise their Second Amendment right.”

“I would also say: Statistically, automobiles are more dangerous than firearms. Are you afraid of your car?”

And if there was a mass shooting with a gun bought at Fagnani’s Firearms?

Barbara said, “I liken it to somebody selling a Ford, then that night, the guy takes his Ford, gets drunk, and kills people in a drunk driving accident. You can’t control what happens with something you sell. You can’t control what they do with a butcher knife. You can’t control what they do with a gun.”

“You’re going to feel terrible that there was a tragedy, but it’s not the responsibility of the manufacturer or the seller as to how the person uses it after they buy it.”

We asked how old Barbara was when she fired her first gun.

“I owned my first gun when I was 12, and it’s still in the corner of my bedroom.”

ROCA VIDEO

Inside the Violence at the Chicago DNC

While the Obamas were speaking at Chicago’s United Center for the Democratic National Convention, anti-Israel protesters gathered outside the Israeli consulate 2 miles away. The protests turned into clashes that led to dozens of people being arrested. This video captures what happened behind the scenes during night 2 of the DNC

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EDITOR’S NOTE
Final Thoughts

Thank you to all of you who corrected the error in the “Dig Deeper” section of yesterday’s story on President Biden. We accidentally wrote, “A majority of the House… will have to vote to impeach Trump.” It should’ve read "impeach Biden.” Who needs proofreaders when we have the Roca audience?

–Max and Max