🌊 We Are Never Getting Back Together (Kim's Version)
Plus: Epstein's final note, US-Iran deal imminent, & inside the West Bank
Where’s Curtis Sliwa when LA needs him?
Watching clips from last night’s Los Angeles mayoral debate, it dawned on me that this race is sorely missing a Curtis Sliwa. In one exchange, the candidates were asked if they would let non-citizens vote. The outsider Spencer Pratt declared, “No.” Current mayor Karen Bass said, “It depends.” And Nithya Raman followed with a word salad of her own. If only they could’ve cut to Sliwa: “I remember the fires well. The flames towered 150 feet above me. I had a fire extinguisher in one hand and Carlo Gambino’s last words in the other. It took me, Donatello, Rafael, and Michelangelo 2 hours to put this thing out…”
Epstein’s final note
North Korea bails on reunification
Roca visits the West Bank
-Max and Max
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Ted Turner Dies at 87
Ted Turner, the media mogul who launched CNN and built Turner Broadcasting System into a cable television empire, died on Wednesday at the age of 87. A spokesman for Turner Enterprises confirmed his death, and while the exact details were scarce, Turner had disclosed in 2018 that he had Lewy body dementia, a progressive brain disorder.
Turner grew up in Savannah, Georgia, and took over his family’s billboard company at the age of 24 after his father died by suicide in 1963. He bought a struggling Atlanta broadcasting station in 1970 and, in 1976, used a satellite to beam its signal to cable companies across the country, turning it into a national channel and helping build what cable TV would become.
Turner’s signature achievement came in 1980, when he launched CNN – the first 24-hour all-news network. Critics initially dismissed the channel, calling it the “Chicken Noodle Network,” but CNN gained prominence during the 1991 Gulf War, when CNN reporters broadcast live from Baghdad while other networks pulled out. The network also covered the Challenger explosion, the Tiananmen Square crackdown, and the fall of the Berlin Wall in real time.
Turner sold Turner Broadcasting System to Time Warner in 1995 for roughly $7.5B in stock, taking the title of vice chairman. He was gradually sidelined, which was only exacerbated after AOL acquired Time Warner in 2001. He resigned from the board in 2003.
In 1997, Turner pledged $1B – roughly a third of his net worth at the time – to United Nations charities. He later co-founded the Nuclear Threat Initiative, a nonprofit focused on reducing the risk of nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons.
Turner married three times in his life, most famously to actress Jane Fonda from 1991 to 2001. He is survived by five children, 14 grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.
How Ted Turner Made the News
Ted Turner did not set out to create 24-hour news, revolutionize new media, or even to create a news network. But he did – and by doing so, news became the slop that it is today.
His story is an interesting one. After being expelled from Brown University, he took over his father’s billboard business and eventually got into TV.
While his TV network initially failed, he later pioneered 24-hour news. And from 1980 to 1996, his CNN remained the only 24-hour news network on American television. It was dominant and revolutionary with minimal opinion.
Then came the politics.
Today, we look at how Turner formed CNN and changed the world – first for better, then for worse.
Vivek Wins Primary
Vivek Ramaswamy won the Republican primary for Ohio governor, defeating Casey Putsch to set up a November race against Democrat Amy Acton.
Ramaswamy, a former 2024 presidential candidate and Trump ally, was backed by both President Trump and Vice President Vance. Acton, Ohio’s former public health director, ran unopposed for the Democratic nomination.
Mushrooms Reshape the Brain
A new study found that a single dose of psilocybin (the active compound in magic mushrooms) may produce lasting structural changes in the brain.
Researchers from the University of California, San Francisco, gave 28 volunteers a 25 mg dose and used brain scans to monitor them for a month afterward. They found nerve tracts appeared denser and more robust – changes associated with improved well-being and mental flexibility.
Participants who showed the greatest surge in brain activity during the experience reported the strongest psychological benefits a month later.
FBI Raids VA Senator's Business
The FBI raided the offices and cannabis business of Virginia state Senator Louise Lucas (D), the state Senate’s president pro tempore and one of its most powerful Democrats.
Federal officials said the investigation, which began under the Biden Administration, centers on bribery allegations tied to Lucas’ cannabis dispensary, though she was not arrested.
Epstein Suicide Note Released?
A federal judge unsealed a supposed suicide note from Jeffrey Epstein on Wednesday following a request from The New York Times.
The note in its entirety reads:
They investigated me for months — FOUND NOTHING!!!
So 10 year old charges resulted
It is a treat to be able to choose one’s time to say goodbye.
Watcha want me to do — Bust out cryin!!
NO FUN. NOT WORTH IT!!
Epstein’s former cellmate, Nicholas Tartaglione, reportedly found the note in July 2019 after Epstein was found unresponsive after a suicide attempt, which he survived. Tartaglione, a former police officer who was convicted of quadruple murder, said he found the note inside a comic book.
The NYT petitioned the court last week to release the full note after Tartaglione described it in interviews. The NYT was the first outlet to report the note’s release but has yet to verify it.
North Korea Drops Reunification Goal
North Korea has formally revised its constitution to define itself as a separate country from South Korea, a break from over 70 years of its official reunification policy.
A conference hosted by Seoul’s Ministry of Unification disclosed the change on Wednesday but did not identify its source. The new constitutional text describes North Korea’s southern border as running along the Republic of Korea, implying an official recognition of two distinct states.
North Korea has not publicly confirmed the revision, though its Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un has been laying the groundwork for the shift for years. He has dismantled reunification-focused organizations and monuments and repeatedly described the two Koreas as separate nations in public statements.
Analyst Christopher Green at the International Crisis Group told the Financial Times that the change is more about North Korea presenting itself as a legitimate, independent nation, but doesn’t necessarily signal an end to tensions with South Korea.
US, Iran Closing in on Deal
The US and Iran are closer to a deal to end their two-month war than at any point since the conflict began, Axios reported on Wednesday, citing two US officials and two other sources.
The two sides are reportedly negotiating a one-page memorandum of understanding that would declare an end to the war and launch a 30-day period of detailed talks.
Key terms include a moratorium on Iranian uranium enrichment (with the duration still being negotiated), a gradual lifting of US sanctions, the release of frozen Iranian funds, and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. Two sources said Iran would also agree to remove its highly enriched uranium from the country, possibly to the US.
President Trump is pressing for a deal but threatening consequences if one isn’t reached. Trump wrote on social media Wednesday: “If they don’t agree, the bombing starts.” Markets responded to the deal reports: Brent crude fell roughly 6% on the day, and major stock indexes rose.
WSJ: JPMorgan Tried to Settle
JPMorgan Chase allegedly offered former investment banker Chirayu Rana $1M to settle the viral sexual assault claims against senior banker Lorna Hajdini before the lawsuit was filed last week, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Rana filed an internal HR complaint against Hajdini a year after he started working at JPMorgan, after which the bank put him on paid leave, conducted an internal investigation, and concluded his claims lacked merit.
Mediation talks began in early 2026 when Rana was working at private equity firm Bregal Sagemount. JPMorgan offered $1M in March, Rana countered with $11.75M in April, around the same time he was let go from his new job. JPMorgan stated that it tried to settle “to avoid the time and expense of litigation and to support an employee who was being threatened with the very reputational harm now unfolding.”
Both JPMorgan Chase and Hajdini continue to deny the allegations, but the lawsuit has spread quickly online.
What does Roca Nation think?
🇺🇸 Yesterday’s Question: What’s the sketchiest place you’ve been to in America?
West Baltimore
Anonymous
Texarkana roadside hotel. First time I’ve ever been to the US and I’ve heard shots on the street 😬 Felt like a genuine american experience
Edina from Hungary
Sacramento is the sketchiest. I Was young and hitchhiking through there. I went to one exit and there were all these people riding on the back of the sign about how they were stuck there. Then I went into the woods and there was a campwas young and hitchhiking through there. I went to one exit and there were all these people riding on the back of the sign about how they were stuck there. Then I went into the woods and there was a camp of people who couldn’t get a ride had a fire going in all about 10 people so I went to a different smaller exit. The same people had written the same thing on the back of that sign. So I finally got a ride by two guys. I was deciding to go with hiding and then the guy stopped because I’m female. We all jumped in and this guy was crazy. He had guns in the back and under a seat lots of guns. He stopped somewhere and went into a house that he knew and it was so sketchy. There was a woman a daughter, probably in the corner, very thin and pregnant and Clutching a CB radio receiver. There was a table with a another couple. He took the partially black guy out to the car and open the trunk and that’s when we found out that it was full of rifles. Then he brought A rifle or two in and put them on the table . Then he started asking the partially black guy about where he was from what is the ethnicity was and they all were staring at him. Then the guy said oh I’m my mom‘s French, my dads from Hawaii and he just kept naming places that his grandparents were from till they finally lost interest. We got back in the car. He drove us until he got very exhausted and then he pulled into motel and told us he was gonna get a room for me and him and a room for the two of them. When he went in to the office, we jumped out of the car and ran as far as we could, and then hid hoping that he was too Tired to pursue. The adventure didn’t stop there and when they two guys looked back at his car, they said they had a hallucination of a devil. I think they were high, but I could understand the sentiment.
Brett from Undisclosed
🇺🇸 Today’s Question: What’s the most utopian place you’ve been to America? Anywhere that feels like a dream town?
Reply to this email with your response!
Tow and Behold
A British man believes he has become the first person to pull a car with his penis while also being set on fire in the name of prostate cancer awareness.
John Stephenson, 50, towed a 2-ton police car 131 feet down a Halifax street using a rope attached to his manhood – while engulfed in lighter fluid – completing the feat on April 30 after several windy false starts.
“People think I’m a bit mad, but I like to set myself challenges,” said Stephenson. He has previously pulled cars with his testicles and while his head was on fire – but never both at once.
Fuzz the System
A new UK report found that more than a third of children have bypassed online age verification measures, with some using methods such as drawing mustaches on their faces to fool facial recognition software.
One mother caught her son using an eyebrow pencil to draw a mustache, which successfully verified him as 15. The report also found one in six parents have actively helped their children circumvent the checks, even as nearly half of kids report encountering harmful content online.
The Snow Must Go On
A late-season storm dumped heavy snow across Colorado and Wyoming earlier this week, canceling classes, postponing Rockies games, and sending concertgoers to a David Guetta show at Red Rocks in winter coats.
Boulder could see over a foot of accumulation, while Denver, which just endured its driest winter on record, faces what may be its biggest snowfall of the season.
EDITOR’S NOTE
Final Thoughts
In the latest Middle East video, Max F visited Hebron in the West Bank, a city officially under Palestinian control, but increasingly shaped by the presence of Israeli settlers and the IDF units that accompany them. Home to one of the holiest sites in both Judaism and Islam, Hebron has become one of the most tense and divided places in the region.
Hope you enjoy this video. See you tomorrow.
–Max and Max
RIP Ted. I don't watch CNN but I'll always remember him for giving us WCW wrestling.