🌊 The Wild Nord Stream Plot Unveiled

The Harambe story that could’ve been.

On this day in 1996, at the Brookfield Zoo in Brookfield, Illinois, a 3-year-old boy fell into a Gorilla enclosure and lost consciousness. Binti Jua, a female Gorilla, guarded the young boy against the other gorillas, cradled him in her arms, and carried him 60 feet to an entrance where zookeepers could retrieve him.

Anyone else feel like Matthew McConaughey in the wormhole scene in Interstellar right now? Oh, what could’ve been at the Cincinnati Zoo…

Tell us about your summer in today’s 20 Questions!

–Max, Max, and Owen

KEY STORY

Nord Stream Plot Uncovered

The Wall Street Journal published a story outlining the entire Nord Stream conspiracy. It corroborated the story with people who took part in the attack

• The plot to destroy the Russia-Germany gas pipeline was hatched by Ukrainian businessmen and military officers in May 2022. They initially had Zelensky’s approval, but he revoked that after the CIA found out. The group proceeded anyways

• Under the guidance of Ukraine’s commander-in-chief, they chartered a yacht, sailed to Denmark, and planted the explosives, destroying the pipeline. They said the pipeline was funding Russia and gave Russia too much leverage over Europe

Dig Deeper

• The attack sent more CO2 into the atmosphere than Denmark emits in a year and could have been considered an attack on NATO that would have triggered its collective defense obligations

• Despite the evidence, there is no direct link to Zelensky or high-ranking officials, and Ukrainian authorities deny any involvement. The commander-in-chief was later removed from his military post and appointed as Ukraine’s ambassador to the UK, granting him immunity from prosecution

KEY STORY

Gov’t Negotiates Drug Prices

The US negotiated drug prices for the first time

• In the US, drug companies set prices however they want. In Europe, by contrast, most governments negotiate the price. If the drug company doesn’t agree, the drug may not be allowed in the country

• In 2022, though, the Biden admin enacted a law allowing the government to negotiate drug prices

• The initial negotiations impacted 10 prescription drugs for conditions including cancer, diabetes, and blood clots. The negotiations are expected to save the government nearly $100B; drug companies said the price cuts were not as bad as they had feared

Dig Deeper

• The US government, through Medicare, collectively spends $50B on the drugs each year

• The most expensive drug on the list – a blood cancer drug – will decline from $16,391 to $9,319; the cheapest, a blood thinner, from $542 to $197

KEY STORY

Food Price Limits?

Kamala Harris is planning to unveil policies to limit grocery prices

• Since declaring her candidacy, Harris has yet to give a policy-focused speech. She’s planning to give her first in North Carolina on Friday. Ahead of that, her campaign announced that she plans to propose a ban on “price gouging” by food and grocery companies

• Harris’s staff said she would direct the Federal Trade Commission to investigate and penalize “big corporations” that violate rules prohibiting companies from setting prices deemed artificially high

Dig Deeper

• The campaign said that while Harris understands that “price fluctuations are normal in free markets,” there is “a big difference between fair pricing in competitive markets and excessive prices unrelated to the costs of doing business”

• Americans “can see that difference in their grocery bills,” it added

• That stance on inflation – namely that companies are to blame – differs from the Trump campaign, which claims that excessive government spending is responsible

KEY STORY

The UK’s Lost History

Researchers discovered that Stonehenge’s central “Altar Stone” came from Scotland

• The discovery raises seemingly impossible questions about how the stone was transported 500 miles some 5,000 years ago

• Scientists ruled out glacial movements – since those ice sheets moved north while the stone moved south – and surmised two theories. The first is that Stone Age forebears dragged the stone through forests. The second, which researchers say is more likely, is that a highly sophisticated society brought the 13,000+ lb (6,000 kg) stone via the ocean on a ship

Dig Deeper

• While researchers have found evidence of Neolithic canoes in rivers, there has been limited evidence of ocean transportation

• Time will tell if more clues are discovered or, in the words of the lead researcher, “these things may be lost to history”

RUNDOWN
Some Quick Stories for the Office

🎓 Minouche Shafik, Columbia University’s president, resigned on Wednesday after facing pressure for allegedly tolerating antisemitic anti-Israel protests and using police to clear a protest encampment. Her resignation follows similar departures of the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard presidents over antisemitism-related controversies since the war in Gaza began

💰 Kamala Harris’ campaign has spent 10 times as much on digital advertisements as Donald Trump’s since Harris became the presumptive nominee. She’s spent $57M on Google and Meta ads to Trump’s $5.7M. The figures mark a shift in Trump’s strategy from 2020 when he outspent Biden on digital advertising, $278M to $222M

📈 US stocks surged after data showed that, in July, consumer spending increased by the most since January 2023. Concerning jobs data triggered recession fears earlier this month, but reports have since shown the economy remains relatively strong

🚨 Five individuals, including Matthew Perry’s assistant and two doctors, face charges in connection with the former “Friends” star’s death from a ketamine overdose. On Thursday, two were arrested, including a drug dealer known as the “ketamine queen,” while two others have already pleaded guilty

🎤 Tim Walz and JD Vance have agreed to an October 1 debate on CBS News. The Harris campaign stated that “the debate about debates is over” and indicated that there will only be one VP debate. “The American people deserve as many debates as possible, which is why President Trump has challenged Kamala to three of them already,” Vance wrote on X

COMMUNITY

🧐 Yesterday’s question: If you could change one thing about grocery stores, what would it be?

ASK AND TELL
20 Questions

Ladies and gentlemen, the Weeknd.

Summer isn’t quite over yet, but we want to ask you about your summer in today’s 20 Questions. What was your favorite TV show you watched this summer? Did you go anywhere cool? Did you pick up breakdancing after the Olympics? Can’t wait to hear what you have to say.

Here’s the link.

Last Week’s 20 Questions:

Highlights from your answers to last week’s grab-bag edition of 20 Qs.

Q: Would you rather live in a haunted house or with Matt Foley (Chris Farley’s character) in his van down by the river?
A: With Matt. I already haven't amounted to JACK. SQUAT.

Q: Your favorite beach in the US?
A: I don’t want to say so it doesn’t become commercial…😂

Q: Favorite Olympics moment so far?
A: young Asian Bronze winner biting her medal because the gold and silver medalists bit theirs

Q: Most overrated cuisine?
A: American - you guys seem to put cheese and ranch on everything!

Q: What would you be doing with your life if you knew the world was going to end in 5 years?
A: Living in a van down by the river drinking and having fun!

Q: You are walking off the plane if you see someone with an emotional support ____.
A: Human

POPCORN
Some Quick Stories for Happy Hour

🍗 Most normal Chiefs player: Kansas City Chiefs star defensive tackle Chris Jones offered to cover the $1.5M worth of chicken wings stolen by a former food service director in exchange for her release from prison

🛬 High hopes, low clearance: An Alaska Airlines flight was diverted from its intended destination, Jackson Hole Airport, last Thursday after the pilot admitted he wasn’t certified to land there

🏝 Find your breach: Mark Attanasio, the billionaire owner of the MLB’s Milwaukee Brewers, faces accusations of stealing sand from a public California beach

🦶 Foot fight turns fatal: An Iowa man confessed to shooting his father after an argument about stinky feet. Authorities arrested the man and charged him with attempted murder

👨🏻‍⚖️ Judgment day: A 15-year-old on a field trip to a Detroit court ended up in jail clothes and handcuffs after a judge disapproved of her attitude

ROCA VIDEO

The Most Powerful Street You've Never Heard Of

Think Tank Row is a section of Massachusetts Avenue in Washington, DC. It's home to the American Enterprise Institute, Brookings Institution, Heritage Foundation, Cato Institute, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, CSIS, and other public policy organizations that help decide the policy that impacts your life. How did it start? And how does it work?

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EDITOR’S NOTE
Final Thoughts

Don’t say you heard it here first but… fall may just be in the air. That breeze at night is getting crisper! Football and pumpkin spice are in the air!

Our first takeaway from Wisconsin: This country is so insanely nuanced and diverse. The media loves to cast blanket narratives over regions, and those narratives don’t do them justice. Sometimes they’re outright wrong. So many great people in this country.

–Max and Max