🌊 We Have a... Partial Deal

When did Nicolas Cage get a diver’s license?

Treasure hunters just discovered $1M in gold and silver coins from a 1715 Spanish shipwreck off of Florida's “Treasure Coast.” The 1715 shipwreck is considered “one of the greatest maritime tragedies” in history as it saw roughly $400M in gold, silver, and jewels from the New World vanish into the sea during a hurricane. Most of the recovered coins will reportedly go to a museum, but there’s no way these divers didn’t pocket a few. Watch them turn into the Goodfellas crew after the Lufthansa heist monitoring each other’s purchases for months. “A Labubu doll really? What’s the matter with you? Give me that!”

–Max and Max

KEY STORY

Hamas Partially Accepts Peace Plan

Hamas agreed to release all Israeli hostages but said it needed further negotiations on several key points of President Trump’s peace proposal

• Trump unveiled his 20-point peace plan early last week alongside Israeli PM Netanyahu, calling for Hamas to release all hostages within 72 hours, disarm, and give up power in exchange for Israel halting its offensive and releasing Palestinian prisoners

• Hamas said it would release all remaining 48 captives and thanked Trump for his efforts. However, the group indicated that aspects regarding Gaza’s future and Palestinian rights require further discussion. The group’s statement made no mention of disarmament, a central Israeli demand

Dig Deeper

• A Hamas official told Al Jazeera that while the group accepted all main points in the plan, “every one of those issues has details that need to be discussed.” When pressed about disarmament, he said Hamas would only hand over its weapons “if the occupation ends and Palestinians can govern themselves”

• Israeli and Hamas negotiators were preparing for indirect ceasefire talks in Cairo set to begin Monday. Netanyahu said he hoped to announce the release of hostages “in the coming days”

KEY STORY

Patel Cuts Ties with ADL

FBI Director Kash Patel cut ties with the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) after conservatives criticized the organization for classifying Turning Point USA as extremist

• The ADL has worked with federal law enforcement for decades to combat hate crimes and track extremist activity. The FBI had collaborated with the ADL since the 1940s on research and training programs

• Patel announced the bureau was cutting ties with the ADL, stating the FBI “won’t partner with political fronts masquerading as watchdogs.” The decision followed criticism after the ADL included Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point USA in its “Glossary of Extremism and Hate”

• The ADL removed its entire glossary from its website the day before Patel cut ties, stating that many entries had become outdated and were being "intentionally misrepresented and misused”

Dig Deeper 

• The ADL had described Turning Point USA as having ties to right-wing extremists and generating support from “anti-Muslim bigots” and “white supremacists.” Following Kirk’s assassination at Utah Valley University in September, conservatives intensified their criticism of the ADL’s classification

• Patel accused former FBI Director James Comey of having “embedded FBI agents” within the ADL and described past collaborations as “disgraceful ops spying on Americans”

• Officials described the move as part of a broader FBI review of partnerships with external organizations to ensure independence and avoid perceptions of political influence

KEY STORY

Stein Signs Iryna’s Law

North Carolina Governor Josh Stein (D) signed a criminal justice reform bill known as “Iryna’s Law” into law last week, though he criticized several of its provisions

• The bill increases checks on violent criminals and repeat offenders getting out on bail and forces judges to be more stringent in bail and release decisions

• The legislation emerged after the fatal stabbing of 23-year-old Iryna Zarutska aboard a Charlotte light rail train in August. Zarutska had come to the US from Ukraine to escape the war

• Stein supported provisions requiring judges to more carefully evaluate pre-trial release decisions for defendants charged with violent crimes. However, he criticized the legislation for focusing too heavily on defendants’ ability to pay bail rather than the actual threat they posed

• The bill also requires death penalty appeals to be heard within two years and establishes lethal injection as the preferred execution method, but allows for alternatives used elsewhere in the US

Dig Deeper

• Some of those alternative methods of execution could potentially include electrocution, firing squads, or nitrogen gas. Stein stated in his announcement, “It’s barbaric. There will be no firing squads in North Carolina during my time as governor”

• Several Senate Democrats had left the floor rather than vote on the legislation after the death penalty amendment was introduced, highlighting the partisan divide over the bill's approach to criminal justice

QUOTE OF THE DAY

KEY STORY

Judge Blocks National Guard Deployment

A federal judge temporarily blocked the Trump Administration from deploying 200 National Guard troops to Portland, Oregon, on Saturday

• The Trump Administration had been deploying or threatening to deploy National Guard troops to several Democratic-led cities, citing crime and the need to protect federal immigration facilities. Federal law typically requires state governors to approve National Guard deployments within their borders, except in cases of rebellion or foreign invasion

• A US district judge, appointed by Trump in 2019, issued a temporary restraining order on Saturday blocking the deployment of Oregon National Guard soldiers, ruling that the president exceeded his constitutional authority

• The judge found that Oregon and Portland were “likely to succeed on their claim that the President exceeded his constitutional authority and violated the Tenth Amendment”

Dig Deeper

• The administration had pointed to protests outside Portland's ICE facility as justification for the deployment, describing them as “violent riots” by “Antifa domestic terrorists.” However, Portland police records showed that protests had been relatively small and peaceful in the weeks before Trump announced the deployment

• The same day as the Portland ruling, President Trump authorized 300 National Guard troops for Chicago over the objection of Illinois Governor JB Pritzker (D). Governor Pritzker called the deployment "absolutely outrageous and un-American," stating there was no need for military troops in Illinois

RUNDOWN
Some Quick Stories for the Office

💵 Jihad Al-Shamie – the man who attacked a synagogue in Manchester, England, last Thursday – had previously been released on bail after being accused of rape, per new details released by British authorities.

📱 Apple removed ICEBlock from its App Store after the Justice Department raised concerns that the tracking app endangered law enforcement officers.

🛩️ Drone sightings at Munich Airport last week led to the cancellation of 17 flights and forced 15 others to divert, stranding nearly 3,000 passengers who were provided with camp beds and supplies.

⚖️ Hip-hop mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs was sentenced to 50 months in prison for prostitution-related offenses involving his former girlfriends.

🇺🇸 A federal appeals court in Boston ruled Friday that President Trump’s executive order attempting to end birthright citizenship is unconstitutional, marking the second such defeat for the administration.

What does Roca Nation think?

🍿 Today’s Question: Last week’s answers were so great that we ask again: What was the highlight of your weekend?

Reply to this email with your response!

POPCORN
Some Quick Stories for Happy Hour

💂 Bare Resistance: Nearly 6,000 nude or mostly nude cyclists rode last week to protest the Trump Administration’s decision to deploy 200 federalized National Guard troops to Portland – a decision now blocked by a federal judge.

🖐️ Finger Painting Ransom: A debt-ridden Australian kindergarten in Brisbane attempted to charge families A$2,200 ($1,440 USD) each to retrieve portfolios of their children’s artwork, sparking widespread outrage and accusations of “emotional blackmail.”

🦫 A Bronx Tail: Beavers have returned to New York City’s Bronx River after disappearing for over 200 years due to the fur trade, with new camera trap footage confirming their presence in 2025.

🛜 This Town Ain’t Big Enough for 5G: A Texas man’s stray bullet severed a Spectrum fiber optic cable in the Dallas-Fort Worth area on Friday, knocking nearly 25,000 customers offline across multiple cities, including Irving, Plano, Arlington, Austin, and San Antonio.

🧀 Queso Chaos: Chili’s sparked customer backlash online after removing kids’ menu staples, including cheese quesadillas, mini desserts, and pepperoni pizza, as part of what the chain calls “ongoing simplification efforts.”

ROCA WRAP
Rabbit Birth Hoax

Mary Toft

A woman convinced doctors she had given birth to rabbits in one of history’s most elaborate medical hoaxes.

Mary Toft was a 24-year-old laborer from Godalming, a small town in Surrey, living in poverty with her husband Joshua and their three children in 1726. Working in the fields during pregnancy, as was expected of peasants at the time, Toft miscarried in early August after what she claimed was an obsessive fascination with rabbits.

On September 27, Toft appeared to go into labor, producing several animal parts that shocked her neighbor. Her mother-in-law Ann, who acted as an unofficial midwife despite lacking formal credentials, sent the specimens to John Howard, a man-midwife with three decades of experience. Howard initially dismissed the notion but returned the next day after Ann showed him more pieces – and then watched as Mary seemingly gave birth to additional animal parts.

By November, the case had reached King George I himself, who dispatched Nathaniel St. André, surgeon to the Royal Household, to investigate. St. André arrived on November 15 and within hours watched Toft deliver a rabbit’s torso, which he examined by placing a piece of its lung in water to test if it had breathed air. He declared the case genuine, though the king also sent surgeon Cyriacus Ahlers, who remained deeply skeptical.

Ahlers discovered evidence of tampering – rabbit parts had been cut with man-made instruments and contained straw and grain in their droppings. When Thomas Howard, a porter, confessed to being bribed by Toft’s sister-in-law to sneak a rabbit into her chamber, investigators closed in. After days of interrogation and threats of painful medical procedures, Toft finally confessed on December 7: An accomplice had inserted cat claws, a rabbit head, and other animal parts into her body while her cervix was accessible following the miscarriage.

Toft was imprisoned as a fraud and became a national sensation, with crowds mobbing the jail for months hoping to glimpse the infamous woman.

She was released in April 1727 without charge and returned to Surrey, where she gave birth to a daughter the following year – noted in parish records as her “first child after her pretended Rabbet-breeding.” The scandal destroyed careers of prominent surgeons and became fodder for satirists including William Hogarth, who mocked the medical profession’s gullibility.

Toft died in 1763, her obituary running alongside those of aristocrats – a peasant woman who had fooled England’s finest doctors and captivated a nation with an outrageous lie.

EDITOR’S NOTE
Final Thoughts

Hope you all had a great weekend. Max F is back in the Roca office after an extended reporting trip, and yesterday he released a now-viral video of the two sides of Niagara Falls — the American side vs the Canadian side. Check it out below and shoutout to Nebraska native video guy Gus for a great job shooting and editing!

–Max and Max