🌊 The Dragon and the Elephant Unite?

Hope you had a nice weekend.

Well, at least better than Bill Belichick’s. Or that of the Twitter sleuths who declared Trump dead on Saturday. Or any of the raccoons’ who tried my Aunt Lisa’s leftover potato salad — never saw critters crawl to the recycling so quickly.

–Max and Max

KEY STORY

Modi Visits China

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited China for the first time in seven years, meeting with President Xi Jinping at a regional summit

• While India and China had previously worked to strengthen bilateral diplomacy, relations soured after deadly clashes erupted along their disputed border in 2020

• Modi traveled to Tianjin for the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit on Monday, five days after President Trump imposed 50% tariffs on Indian imports, with half of these tariffs targeting India for purchasing Russian oil

• Xi personally welcomed Modi at the summit, calling for “the cooperative pas de deux of the Dragon and the Elephant,” while Modi highlighted “the positive momentum” in bilateral ties

Dig Deeper

• The visit demonstrated India's willingness to engage with China despite India’s role as a key partner in America's Indo-Pacific strategy, serving as both a reset between the Asian giants and a signal of India's strategic autonomy in response to Washington's tariff policies

• The summit also included the resumption of direct flights between the two countries and simplified visa processes

• Despite the diplomatic progress, major issues between the neighbors remain unresolved, including their disputed border, where tens of thousands of troops remain deployed

KEY STORY

Tariff Loophole Closed

The US ended its de minimis rule on Friday, now requiring imported packages to pay tariffs regardless of value

• The de minimis exemption allowed packages valued at $800 or less to enter the US without paying import duties or completing customs paperwork. The rule dates back to 1938, starting at $5 before increasing to $800 in 2015

• President Trump eliminated the exemption on Friday, citing concerns about fentanyl smuggling and unfair advantages for foreign businesses

• Last year, over 1.36B packages entered the country under this exemption, nearly 4M per day

Dig Deeper 

• Packages sent through express carriers like FedEx and UPS became subject to standard tariff rates immediately, with duties ranging from 10% to over 30% depending on the product and country of origin

• Many foreign postal services suspended shipments to the US as they struggled to implement systems for calculating and paying the new duties

• Several European postal operators, including those in Germany and Norway, halted packages while seeking solutions for handling the additional paperwork and fees

QUOTE OF THE DAY

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KEY STORY

Australia Tests Age Verification Tech

An Australian government-commissioned report found that facial age estimation technology worked accurately for most ages but struggled with users near age 16

• Australia passed the world's strictest social media laws in November 2024, banning children under 16 from using social media platforms, with tech companies facing fines up to A$50M ($32.5M) if they don't comply by December 10, 2025

• The $6.5M trial tested 60 technologies from 48 vendors and found that, while effective options existed, no single solution would work perfectly for all cases

• The report identified significant accuracy issues for users within a “buffer zone” of two to three years on either side of 16, with facial age estimation showing false rejection rates of 8.5% for 17-year-olds and 2.6% for 16-year-olds

Dig Deeper

• The technology also demonstrated bias issues, performing less accurately for non-Caucasian users and girls around age 16

• The trial concluded that platforms would need to implement multiple verification methods as fallback options when primary systems failed

• Australia’s communications minister stated there was no “one-size-fits-all solution” but emphasized that major tech companies had “no excuse” for not having a combination of age assurance methods ready by the December 10 deadline

KEY STORY

Court Rules Tariffs Illegal

A federal appeals court ruled that most of President Trump's sweeping tariffs exceeded his legal authority

• The ruling stemmed from legal challenges filed against Trump's use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to impose tariffs. IEEPA, a 1977 law that grants presidents power to address national emergencies, had never before been used to impose broad tariffs and had typically been invoked for sanctions and asset freezes

• The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit upheld a lower court's decision in a 7-4 ruling on Friday, finding that Trump lacked the authority under the IEEPA to impose the tariffs

• The court wrote, “The statute bestows significant authority on the President to undertake a number of actions in response to a declared national emergency, but none of these actions explicitly include the power to impose tariffs, duties, or the like, or the power to tax”

Dig Deeper 

• The appeals court agreed to keep the tariffs in place through October 14, giving the administration time to appeal to the Supreme Court

• The ruling affects trillions of dollars in global trade and could require the government to refund import taxes already collected. Revenue from tariffs totaled $159B by July, over double last year's amount

• Attorney General Pam Bondi said the Justice Department would appeal to the Supreme Court. Trump called the appeals court “highly partisan” on social media, writing that the decision “would literally destroy the United States of America” if allowed to stand

RUNDOWN
Some Quick Stories for the Office

🇺🇸 President Trump canceled Secret Service protection for former Vice President Kamala Harris last week, ending coverage that was set to continue until January 2026

📊 The Commerce Department said the US economy expanded at a 3.3% annualized pace in the second quarter, faster than the initially reported 3% growth rate

🚗 California lawmakers struck a deal with Uber and Lyft on Friday that will allow drivers to organize and form unions while maintaining their status as independent contractors

🏛️ The White House named Jim O'Neill as the acting CDC Director, replacing Susan Monarez, who was forced out after serving just one month in the role. O'Neill, a former Silicon Valley tech investor, has been serving as deputy to Health Secretary RFK Jr. since June

🇦🇫 A magnitude 6.0 earthquake struck eastern Afghanistan near midnight Sunday, killing over 800 people and injuring nearly 3,000 so far, according to UN officials

What does Roca Nation think?

😎 Today’s Question: What was the highlight of your summer?

Reply to this email with your response!

POPCORN
Some Quick Stories for Happy Hour

🧢 Serving Up an Apology: Polish CEO Piotr Szczerek apologized after viral footage showed him snatching a signed tennis hat intended for a child at the US Open

🤖 Menu Mayhem: Taco Bell's chief digital officer says the company is having "active conversations" about when to deploy AI ordering technology at drive-thrus

🧟 Monster Mash-terpiece: Guillermo del Toro's decades-long dream project, “Frankenstein,” premiered at the Venice Film Festival after Netflix Co-CEO Ted Sarandos greenlit both this and “Pinocchio” in a single meeting

🇮🇸 Chill Champions: Iceland has been crowned the world's most peaceful country for 2025 by the Global Peace Index for the 18th year in a row

🫚 Ginger Gathering: Thousands of redheads from 80 countries met in Tilburg, Netherlands this weekend for the annual Redhead Days festival, celebrating their hair color with music, food trucks, and specialized workshops

ROCA WRAP
Election Under Fire

Guyana

Security forces in this country say election officials were shot at from across the border during ballot box delivery.

Guyana sits on South America's northern coast, wedged between Venezuela, Brazil, and Suriname. The nation has experienced considerable economic growth since discovering massive offshore oil deposits in 2015, with GDP nearly quintupling in the last 5 years. However, this oil wealth sits partly in a disputed region, which Venezuela claims as its own. 

On Sunday, the day before national elections, Guyanese security forces reported that a boat carrying election officials and ballot boxes came under fire while traveling through the contested Essequibo region. Authorities said shots were fired “from the Venezuelan shore” at the vessel, which was delivering voting materials to remote polling stations. The escort patrol “immediately returned fire,” though no injuries occurred, and the ballot boxes reached their destinations safely.

Venezuela quickly rejected responsibility for the shooting, with the Venezuelan defense minister accusing Guyana of “inciting a conflict” with its allegations. The incident highlights escalating tensions over the Essequibo territory, which contains significant oil reserves. In late 2023, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro held a referendum where over 95% of voters backed Venezuela's territorial claim, though Guyana challenged this at the International Court of Justice.

The shooting occurred as Guyanese voters prepared to vote for their president and parliament members. Incumbent President Irfaan Ali of the People's Progressive Party leads polls for a second term, buoyed by the nation's oil-fueled economic boom, but critics argue these benefits have disproportionately favored Ali's traditional Indo-Guyanese support base. Third-party candidate Azruddin Mohamed, a billionaire businessman, could disrupt Guyana's historically ethnic-based voting patterns and produce an upset result, but the election remains competitive.

Nothing like gunfire to remind voters what's really at stake.

EDITOR’S NOTE
Final Thoughts

Your responses to last week’s question about what’s moving in the right direction in America inspired two We The 66 deep-dive newsletters: One we published this morning on smartphone bans in schools and one we’ll publish this week on Gen Z’s sobriety. Thank you for filling our inbox with gems like these each week. We can’t respond to each email, but we read them all.

Hope you had a great Labor Day weekend!

–Max and Max