🌊 America is Ridin’ Solo

PLUS: Chinese cyberattacks in US, new Barbie movie trailer, and 20 Questions!

A quick cautionary tale for all of you traveling this Memorial Day Weekend: A Taiwanese man was just caught smuggling parrot eggs at Miami International Airport. All was fine and dandy until one of his bags started chirping. It turns out that one of the parrots just hatched, and a border patrol officer rushed the remaining 29 eggs to safety in the airport aviary.

So let’s leave those parrot eggs at home, huh? It may be the only parrot ever whose first words are “Polly wants a lawyer.” Have a great weekend.

In today's edition:

  • Chinese cyberattacks in US

  • New Barbie movie trailer

  • 20 Questions

 🔑 Key Stories

DoorDash Overcharging

A class action lawsuit alleges that DoorDash overcharges iPhone users and premium subscribers

  • DoorDash is the US’ largest food delivery service. It makes money by charging fees, such as “delivery” and “service” fees, although it’s often unclear how those are calculated

  • The lawsuit claims that iPhone users or those who pay $9.99/month for a subscription service are charged $1-$2 more per order for “expanded range delivery fees” and other charges. It alleges those fees are arbitrary and not based on order details

  • The lawsuit seeks $1B in damages “for all consumers who fell prey to DoorDash’s illegal pricing scheme”

Dig Deeper

  • DoorDash has denied the allegations and pledged to fight them in court

    “DoorDash does not charge more based on the type of phone you use — period”

Rwandan Fugitive Captured

A 20+ year manhunt for a Rwandan fugitive accused of massacring 2,000+ civilians ended on Wednesday

  • Rwanda is a small country in East Africa. 85% of its population are native Hutus, while 14% are Tutsis

  • A civil war broke out between both groups in 1990, and in 1994, Hutus began massacring Tutsis. Over the span of ~4 months, ~600k Tutsis were killed

  • One Hutu militia leader is believed to have orchestrated the massacre of ~2k Tutsis in a church

  • An international tribunal indicted him for war crimes in 2001, but he fled the country and evaded capture for ~20 yrs. He was captured in South Africa on Wednesday

Dig Deeper

  • Kayishema faces several charges of genocide and crimes against humanity and will be extradited to Tanzania, another African country, to face trial. The court has previously convicted 61 people for the genocide and acquitted 14 others

China Hacks US Infrastructure

Microsoft and several Western spy agencies said that China has hacked critical US infrastructure

  • On Wednesday, Microsoft announced that in February it had discovered Chinese cyberattacks that had successfully infiltrated “critical” US infrastructure, such as communications, manufacturing, and more

  • The attacks also seemed to target Guam, a US territory integral to US military power in the Pacific

  • Spy agencies for the US and its allies accused a Chinese state-funded organization, “Volt Typhoon,” for the attack. They said it was designed to steal US data and potentially do more in case of a future “crisis”

Dig Deeper

  • Officials said the hackers likely infiltrated software systems using malware disguised as normal operating system apps, and then remained on the computers undetected while having the capability to monitor and export data. The US released detailed instructions for how to detect and eliminate the virus

Census Releases Household Data

The share of households in which couples live together is declining, the US Census Bureau said

  • Per Census data, there were 127M US households in 2020. 53.2% are “coupled,” meaning occupied by a person and their spouse/partner, versus 55.1% in 2010 and 56.9% in 2000

  • Of coupled homes 45.7% were opposite-sex married couples, 6.5% were opposite sex unmarried, .5% were same-sex married, and .4% were same-sex unmarried

  • In total, 28% of US households were occupied by someone who lives alone. 19% were a different non-couple relationship, such as living with a friend

Dig Deeper

  • The District of Columbia had the lowest share of coupled households: 32.3%. Utah had the highest share of coupled households: 63.5%

  • Delaware and Oregon had the highest share of same-sex households (1.3%). North Dakota and South Dakota had the lowest (.4%). Among large cities, San Francisco had the highest rate (1.8%) and Detroit had the lowest (.6%)

Weekly News Roundup Trivia

We’re trying something new and adding trivia to test what you remember from this week’s news 👀 Answers at the top of the ClubHouse section!

  1. A high-ranking police officer in this city was charged with sharing information with the Proud Boys
    A. New York City | B. Moscow | C. Miami | D. Washington, DC

  2. The US signed a series of agreements with countries from which region to help counter China

    A. Western Europe | B. SE Asia | C. The Pacific | D. The Middle East

  3. This animal has sunk 3 boats off the coast of Spain and Portugal over the past year
    A. Humpback whales | B. Blue whales | C. Orcas | D. Giant squid

  4. This streaming service launched a crackdown on password-sharing in the US

    A. Amazon Prime | B. Disney+ | C. Netflix | D. Hulu

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🍿 Popcorn

ICYMI

  • You Ken be anything: The highly-anticipated Barbie movie released its official trailer. The summer comedy starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling comes out July 21 

  • We hates it: Video game “The Lord of the Rings: Gollum” is now the worst-rated video game of 2023. It trended Thursday on social media for its bizarre graphics and gameplay

  • Tank on low, luck on high: A Kentucky man who was “critically low on gas” took home a $1M winning lottery ticket. He had $40 in his wallet and split it between gas and a scratch-off

Wildcard

  • New creatures just dropped: Scientists discovered more than 5,000 new species living on a Pacific seabed in an unexplored ocean zone that runs between Hawaii and Mexico

  • Shame-pagne on you: French police destroyed 35,000 bottles of an orange soda that advertised itself as champagne. In France, only sparkling wine products from the country's Champagne region can be called champagne

  • Bye, son: Yellowstone Park officials killed a baby bison after a visitor picked it up, causing it to be shunned by its herd. The park officials considered it a threat

👇🏻 What do you think?

Today's Question:

See yesterday's results below the Wrap! 

Today's Poll

Would you rather speak all languages, or speak to animals?

Login or Subscribe to participate in polls.

đź—Ł 20 Questions

20 questions logo

Every Friday, we ask the Roca readers 20 questions, then feature our favorite answers the following week.

This week, we’re bringing back “This or That” as a Memorial Day Weekend edition. We’ll give you 2 MDW related options, and you pick your preference!

Here's the link. Have an AMAZING 3-DAY WEEKEND!

If you have thoughts, let us know at [email protected]!

 🌊 Roca Clubhouse

Weekly News Roundup:

1. D. Washington, DC
2. C. The Pacific
3. C. Orcas
4. C. Netflix

Yesterday's Poll:

Hot sauce or ketchup?

Hot Sauce : 51%
Ketchup: 49%

Yesterday's Question:

You can only eat one type of cuisine (Mexican, Chinese, etc.) for the rest of your life. What is it?

Vivian from Grand Rapids, Michigan: "American. I’m a meat and potatoes kind of person”

Heidi: "100% Italian. I could absolutely eat pasta and pizza every day for the rest of my life. There's even delicious breakfast pizza and dessert pizza!”

Nicole from Tampa, Florida: "Indian food! So many different proteins, spices, curries, and vegetable combinations, and so many different ways to prepare them all. And all the naan I could ever want? Sign me up.”

Last Week's 20 Qs Responses:

Last week, we asked you to rate inventions on a scale of 1-10 (1 being the worst; 10 being the best) based on how much you appreciate them. We included the most common number per invention below!

Shoutout to sliced bread for being the only invention to bring home a 10. That’s the greatest thing we’ve seen since the invention of…

  1. Microwave (1945): 9

  2. X-Rays (1895): 10

  3. LSD (1943): 8

  4. Airplane (1903): 8

  5. Nail (~3,400 B.C.): 7

  6. Penicillin (1928): 7

  7. Birth Control pill (1960): 6

  8. Refrigerator (1913): 9

  9. Television (1927): 8

  10. Digital camera (1975): 7

  11. World Wide Web (1993): 9

  12. Credit card (~1950): 9

  13. ATM (1967): 8

  14. Pillow Pets (2003): 4

  15. Ziploc bag (1950): 7

  16. DVD (1995): 5

  17. Sliced bread (1928): 10

  18. Ball point pen (1888): 7

  19. Thrill ride/roller coaster (1884): 6

  20. Power tools (1837): 7

🧠 Final Thoughts

Roca Nation: More than just having had terrific weeks, we hope you've had terrific springs. After all, with Memorial Day weekend here, it appears to be summer at last.

Whether you're cooking out, staying home, working, studying – we hope your summers get off to a great start. We'll be back on Tuesday.

—Max and Max