🌊 Weight Loss Drugs for Skinny People?

October is finally upon us.

Get ready for 31 days of changing leaves, pumpkin spice lattes, and couples pictures at pumpkin patches with cringe-inducing captions like "Hay, I think I'm fallin' for you." It's also the month for spooky decorations, so we're breaking out the scariest decoration of all this year: A yard sign with your weekly screen time report on it.

–Max, Max, and Owen

KEY STORY

Snapchat Sextortion

A lawsuit brought by the state of New Mexico accused Snap of being a haven for sextortion

• Sextortion is the act by which someone procures nudes or other compromising photos and threatens to share them unless a payment is made

• New Mexico alleged that Snapchat-owner Snap downplayed this threat to prioritize growth, thereby knowingly exposing users to risk

• Internal Snap docs released via the lawsuit show that Snap received 10,000 sextortion reports monthly and that this figure “likely represent a small fraction of this abuse,” and that the company acknowledged the platform gives “young people a false sense of privacy”

Dig Deeper

• New Mexico’s attorney general, who has also sued Meta over its platforms’ policies toward young users, claimed, “Snapchat’s harmful design features create an environment that fosters sextortion, sexual abuse and unwanted contact from adults to minors…It is disheartening to see that Snap employees have raised many red flags that have continued to be ignored by executives”

• In response to the lawsuit, Snap said, “We designed Snapchat…with built-in safety guardrails, and have made deliberate design choices to make it difficult for strangers to discover minors”

KEY STORY

Iran Strikes Israel

Iran launched ~200 missiles at Israel in what it said was retaliation for Israel’s killing of the leaders of Hezbollah and Hamas

• Israel and the US said most were shot down, and Israel said the only casualty was a Palestinian hit by a crashing rocket

• Shortly before, gunmen opened fire at an Israeli train station, killing six. Hours before that, Israel began a “limited” ground invasion of southern Lebanon. Its troops were reportedly encountering little resistance

• The US and Jordan helped defend against Iran’s attack, which was labeled “defeated and ineffective” by the US. Israel vowed to strike back, which Iran said would incur a “crushing response"

Dig Deeper

• The situation could escalate into full-scale war. Potential targets of Israeli retaliation include Iran’s nuclear facilities, leadership, and cities

• It’s also possible that both sides choose to avoid escalation. When Iran launched missile strikes on Israel in April, Israel vowed severe retaliation but only conducted a limited strike

• Analysts have said that Iran needed to strike in order to repair its reputation, which has been battered by Israel’s attacks on Hamas and Hezbollah

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KEY STORY

45,000 Workers Strike

The US’ East and Gulf Coast ports shut down Tuesday after ~45,000 workers went on strike

• The port workers’ union and the ports’ governing body were unable to reach a new compensation deal. The two are reportedly still far apart in negotiations, with the union seeking a 80% pay increase and the companies offering 50%

• Wages and the use of new technology are key sticking points. A union executive said inflation has essentially erased their previous contract’s raise

• The strike stops the delivery of goods at nearly every port from Maine to Texas. A prolonged (multiple-week) strike could lead to shortages and increased prices across many US product categories

Dig Deeper

• If the ports are able to resume operations within a week, the strike's long-term effects should be negligible. Otherwise, costs could mount

• The union's boss has threatened to shut down the economy to achieve his goals: “People are going to sit up and realize how important longshoremen jobs are,” he said at a recent rally. “They won’t be able to sell cars. They won’t be able to stock malls. They won’t be able to do anything in this country without my f*cking people. And it’s about time they start realizing it”

KEY STORY

Weight Loss Drugs for Thin People?

Eli Lilly plans to test its weight loss drugs in people who are not overweight but are at risk of weight gain, per the Financial Times

• The Indiana-based drugmaker is behind the popular weight-loss drugs Mounjaro and Zepbound. Like Ozempic, Mounjaro was originally a Type 2 Diabetes drug but later got approval as a weight-loss drug

• Right now, they’re only available to overweight and obese people, but Eli Lilly’s CEO suggested that they could be used for “health maintenance” among people who aren’t overweight or obese

• The two drugs will make Eli Lilly ~$15B this year

Dig Deeper

• “Long term, should we look at health maintenance? Maybe we will,” Ricks told the FT. He also said he wanted to explore giving the drugs to people who are “saying I’d like to not get diabetes in my life... or vascular dementia”

• According to Goldman Sachs, weight-loss drugs like Ozempic and Mounjaro will be the most popular class of drugs ever and could generate up to $130B a year

RUNDOWN
Some Quick Stories for the Office

💰 CNN and Reuters announced the implementation of paywalls on their websites, a departure from their traditions of providing free digital news

📈 Eurozone inflation fell to 1.8%, its lowest level since early 2021

🇨🇳 China’s government marked the 75th anniversary of the “People’s Republic of China.” The PRC has now outlasted the USSR

👴 Jimmy Carter turned 100, becoming the first American president to reach that age

🌀 Helene’s death toll reached at least 140, with 56 deaths recorded in North Carolina, 33 in South Carolina, 25 in Georgia, 15 in Florida, nine in Tennessee, and two in Virginia

COMMUNITY

🧐 Yesterday’s question: Who is someone who seems eternal? My answer is William Shatner.

🧠 Today’s question: Who do you think will be elected president in 2028?

Reply to this email to let us know what you think!

POPCORN
Some Quick Stories for Happy Hour

🐑 Average Montana arrest: An 81-year-old Montana man was sentenced to six months in federal prison for illegally cloning a large Central Asian sheep after bringing back tissue and testicles to the US

🔫 Found a gun? Washington state’s government disclosed that it is searching for 23 guns lost by the Seattle Police Department. They’ve been missing since 2017

👑 Maybe next year: An 81-year-old South Korean woman missed her goal of becoming the world’s oldest Miss Universe contestant. She was named one of the 32 finalists but lost the title to a 22-year-old

🍄 First for everything: A newly-published study documents the first recorded case of psilocybin-induced penile amputation. The amputation was committed by a 37-year-old man with an ax after he consumed a large quantity of shrooms

🎼 Music sounds better high? A group of Toronto-based researchers released findings that show music sounds better while high on cannabis

ROCA WRAP

Return of the Sex Party

In the last two weeks, three major stories dropped. All revolve around the same subject: Sex Parties.

First was Diddy, the billionaire businessman and rapper accused of trafficking sex workers to attend “freak-offs.” Attendees were allegedly pressured to take drugs and engage in days-long sex benders.

Diddy is accused of coercing people to participate, harming those who refused, and recording their actions to later use as blackmail. His lawyers say everything that happened at the “freak-offs” was voluntary: “Is it sex trafficking?” his lawyer asked. “No, not if everybody wants to be there.”

Then there was Matt Gaetz, the Republican House Rep from Florida.

Last month, three eyewitnesses gave sworn testimony that in 2017, Gaetz attended a party with a 17-year-old where guests attended to “engage in sexual activities.” Drugs – including cocaine and ecstasy – were also allegedly being consumed.

The party is at the center of a years-long trafficking investigation. While the witnesses gave their testimony under threat of perjury, Gaetz continues to deny he had anything to do with the party.

Then last week, a leaked video captured New York City Covid csar Jay Varma admitting to attending sex parties during lockdown on a secret recording. Varma oversaw implementation of the city’s lockdowns, as well as vaccination efforts.

“I did all this deviant, like sexual stuff,” he said in the tape, adding, “I had to be kind of sneaky about it…because I was running the entire COVID response in the city.” He detailed a secret rave he attended as well as a secret hotel sex party.

The videos led to Varma being fired from his current job.

While he said the videos “were secretly recorded, spliced, diced, and taken out of context,” he admitted, “I participated in two private gatherings. I take responsibility for not using the best judgment at the time."

With this new trend, an election just five weeks away, and rumors of an “October Surprise,” one can only wonder what story will drop next.

ROCA VIDEO
The Quirky Towns That Will Decide Wisconsin

Wisconsin is one of the most important swing states for the 2024 election. To understand it better, we visited to learn about the issues that matter. Within in our first two days, we visited 3 fascinating cities that could decide the election: Eau Claire, Wausau, and Sturgeon Bay. This video explains why.

Make sure to subscribe to the channel!

EDITOR’S NOTE
Final Thoughts

Hope you check out the above video. It’s the first from our roadtrip around Wisconsin, which apparently has a lot more to it than beer, cheese curds, and the Packers. We had a great time in the Badger State and can’t wait to share more from our trip. Happy Hump Day!

–Max and Max