🌊 The Eldest Boy Wins

Real-life Succession battle is over.

After years of feuding, Rupert’s eldest son Lachlan Murdoch (well, technically there’s an older one but, like in the show, he doesn’t exactly get much attention from Dad) has won the succession battle. The newly-crowned Lachlan will take charge of the empire, giving him control of Fox News, WSJ, The Times (UK), NY Post, HarperCollins, Fox Sports, and Tubi. The other kids went home with their tails between their legs and… a fresh $1.1B in their bank accounts. Not bad for a consolation prize.

–Max and Max

KEY STORY

Lachlan Murdoch Wins Succession Battle

Media billionaire Rupert Murdoch reached a deal to keep his properties, including Fox News, conservative

• Murdoch, 94, is the controlling owner of Fox News, The Wall Street Journal, the New York Post, and other right-leaning outlets in the UK and Australia. In recent years, his family has been in an intense feud over who will take control of the empire after Murdoch, with him trying to give control to his conservative son, Lachlan, instead of his more liberal siblings

• On Tuesday, the family announced that it reached a deal, making Lachlan the controlling shareholder. The move effectively ensures that the media properties will maintain their conservative opinions after Murdoch steps down or dies

Dig Deeper

• The deal marks the end of a years-long saga that partially inspired the HBO show Succession. In exchange for giving up their ownership stakes, the other three Murdoch kids will receive $1.1B a piece

• Moving forward, Lachlan will have a 36% voting stake in Fox and a 33% voting stake in News Corp, positioning him as one of the most important people in conservative media in the years ahead

KEY STORY

Israel Strikes Qatar

The Israeli military struck targets in Doha, Qatar, targeting members of Hamas’ leadership

• Qatar has hosted Hamas’ political offices for more than a decade and has served as a central mediator between Israel and Hamas throughout the Gaza war. The Gulf nation also hosts America's largest military base in the Middle East

• Israeli officials confirmed they carried out a precise strike against Hamas’ senior leadership in Doha on Tuesday while the group’s leaders were meeting to discuss President Trump’s recent ceasefire proposal for Gaza

• The attack – which comes after six Israelis were shot dead by Palestinian gunmen outside Jerusalem on September 8 – targeted a residential compound where multiple Hamas political bureau members lived, killing the son of Hamas’ chief negotiator and a member of Qatar’s security forces

Dig Deeper 

• The Trump Administration condemned the attack, with the White House saying, “Unilaterally bombing inside Qatar…does not advance Israel or America’s goal,” but noted that eliminating Hamas was “a worthy goal”

• The Qatari government strongly condemned what it called a “cowardly attack”

• The attack came just one day after the Qatari prime minister met with Hamas leaders to discuss the Trump Administration’s latest ceasefire proposal

• Israeli officials maintained that Hamas leaders involved in planning the October 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel remain legitimate military targets, regardless of their location

QUOTE OF THE DAY

ROCA’S SPONSOR

Former Zillow Exec Opens Door to $1.3T Market

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• No wonder the same VCs that backed Uber, Venmo, and eBay already invested in Pacaso. And unlike his previous companies, you can invest in Pacaso as a private company. But not for long

• Invest before Pacaso’s investment opportunity ends on 9/18

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KEY STORY

Grade 12 Scores Reach All-Time Lows

High school seniors scored the lowest in decades on national reading and math assessments. The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), often called “the Nation's Report Card,” tests representative samples of students across the country

• Results released Tuesday showed that 12th-graders who took tests in early 2024 achieved the lowest average reading and math scores since the respective tests began in 1992 and 2005

• About one-third of seniors tested below basic level in reading, while 45% scored below basic in mathematics – the highest percentage since 2005

• The US education secretary said the results showed why Trump wanted to give states more control over education spending, stating, “Despite spending billions annually on numerous K-12 programs, the achievement gap is widening”

Dig Deeper

• Only 35% of 12th-graders reached proficiency in reading and 22% in math, both of which are 3% drops from 2019 levels

• The share of students considered academically prepared for college-level math courses fell to 33%, down from 37% in 2019

• “Students are taking their next steps in life with fewer skills and less knowledge in core academics than their predecessors a decade ago,” said the executive director of the National Assessment Governing Board – the group that sets policies for NAEP

KEY STORY

Job Growth Revised Down

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) revealed that the US economy added 911,000 fewer jobs between March 2024 and March 2025 than initially reported

• In August, the US economy added only 22,000 jobs, while the unemployment rate rose to the highest level since October 2021, and wage growth also slowed

• Tuesday’s preliminary revision showed that instead of adding 1.8M jobs in the 12 months ending in March 2025, the economy actually added 911,000 fewer positions – meaning the BLS overstated job growth by roughly 100%

• This cut the average monthly job growth from about 149,000 to roughly 75,000 jobs per month

• The downward revision of 911,000 jobs, or 0.6% of total payrolls, marked the largest adjustment since 2009 in percentage terms

Dig Deeper

• The revision sparked political controversy, with the Trump Administration claiming vindication for its criticism of federal data. “This is exactly why we need new leadership to restore trust and confidence in the BLS's data,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement

• The weaker jobs data strengthened the case for Federal Reserve interest rate cuts at next week's policy meeting, with traders widely expecting the central bank to lower rates by a quarter percentage point

RUNDOWN
Some Quick Stories for the Office

🛩️ Gaza-bound flotilla organizers claim one of their vessels carrying Greta Thunberg and other pro-Palestinian activists was struck by a suspected drone on Monday while anchored in Tunisian waters

🏛️ The White House denied the authenticity of an alleged birthday note from President Trump to Jeffrey Epstein after House Democrats released it as part of documents from Epstein's estate

🪖 Nepal's army deployed troops to restore order after the prime minister resigned following deadly protests that killed at least 22 people

🇮🇷 Iran's foreign minister met with the UN nuclear watchdog chief in Cairo as both sides work toward resuming international inspections of Iranian nuclear facilities

📱 Apple introduced the iPhone 17 Air at its annual event Tuesday, a thinner $999 model replacing the Plus series and marking the company's first major smartphone redesign in years

What does Roca Nation think?

😳 Yesterday’s Question: What’s a conspiracy theory you do believe?

🚨 Today’s Question: Should the media cover incidents like the gruesome murder of Iryna Zaruska? Any thoughts on it?

Reply to this email with your response!

POPCORN
Some Quick Stories for Happy Hour

🫎 Moose on the Loose: A moose nicknamed Emil has spent three weeks wandering through Lower Austria, captivating locals and accumulating 10,000 Facebook followers on a fan page

👮 I’m the One Who…Sprays?: Police arrested “Breaking Bad” actor Raymond Cruz for allegedly spraying women with a hose during a car-washing dispute at his Los Angeles home

🐕 Paws for Concern: A Costa Mesa woman faces five felonies for allegedly registering her dog, Maya Jean Yourex, to vote and casting ballots in her dog’s name in California's 2021 recall election and 2022 primary

💞 Scandal Sweethearts: Two central figures from the 1980s Iran-Contra scandal secretly tied the knot in Virginia last month, nearly four decades after their roles in the political controversy that shook the Reagan Administration

📖 Sheen There, Done That: Charlie Sheen released his memoir, “The Book of Sheen,” chronicling his wild journey from earning $1.8M per episode on “Two and a Half Men” to his spectacular public meltdown featuring “tiger blood” rants and bipolar denials

ROCA WRAP
The Glutton of Lyon

Tarrare

A man with an impossible appetite became France's strangest military spy during the Revolutionary Wars.

Born around 1772 near Lyon, France, Tarrare possessed an appetite that defied human understanding. As a teenager, he could devour a quarter of a bull in a single day while remaining painfully thin. His ravenous hunger forced his parents to banish him from home, unable to afford to feed him. Tarrare wandered France as a street performer, swallowing corks, stones, live animals, and entire baskets of apples to amazed crowds. Witnesses described his mouth stretching four inches wide and a foul odor that repelled people from twenty paces away.

When Tarrare joined France’s Revolutionary Army, even quadruple rations left him starving. Military doctors conducted experiments where he devoured meals meant for fifteen men and consumed live animals. General Alexandre de Beauharnais saw an opportunity in Tarrare's gift. After testing document transport internally – swallowing a wooden box and retrieving it two days later – the military deployed him as a courier. His first mission went disastrously wrong when, disguised as a German peasant, his inability to speak German led to his capture by the Prussians. After beatings and a mock execution, they released him upon discovering his “vital intelligence” was merely a dummy message.

Upon return, Tarrare begged military doctors to cure his condition, but all treatments failed. He repeatedly escaped the hospital to fight stray dogs over rotting meat and was caught attempting to drink blood from patients and eat corpses in the morgue. When a toddler disappeared from the hospital, staff immediately suspected Tarrare and expelled him permanently. Four years later, he reappeared in Versailles, dying of tuberculosis and claiming a gold fork was lodged inside him. At his autopsy, surgeons found his esophagus was abnormally wide, and his stomach, enormous and ulcerated, filled most of his abdominal cavity. No fork was found.

Tarrare's condition baffled eighteenth-century medicine and continues to puzzle doctors today. While some speculate about hyperthyroidism or brain damage, no modern cases have matched his extraordinary symptoms and behaviors.

In revolutionary France's desperate war for survival, even the most bizarre human conditions were weaponized for the republic – proving that in wartime, appetite truly knows no bounds.

EDITOR’S NOTE
Final Thoughts

Erika from Hawaii wrote in response to one of yesterday’s featured answers on the Moon landing: “I think it’s pretty irresponsible that you put out that comment that said Buzz Aldrin said he didn’t go to space several times. That has been debunked soooooo clearly. Why would you choose to perpetuate such blatant misinformation? All opinions aren’t valid. Some are just wrong.”

Todd from Virginia added: “The 1st statement that Danny from Maine made is blatantly false. I did a AI search and Buzz Aldrin never denied the moon landing. If you’re gonna put something like that in your newsletter, you also need to let your readers know that Danny’s statement is false.”

Although we don’t like to edit or clarify reader responses, both Erika and Todd are correct in claiming that Buzz Aldrin never denied going to space. There are a few viral clips which, taken out of context, seem to show him denying it. But he never did.

Thank you for the corrections as usual, and sorry for the confusion.

–Max and Max