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đ The Apple of Your AI
Plus: Elephants communicate with each other using names
Scheduling text messages will be a game changerâŚ
Appleâs new iOS will allow iPhone users to schedule text messages starting this fall. Some iPhone users are saying theyâre going to schedule all their happy birthday texts the second the feature comes out. Others are saying theyâll schedule their late-night drunk texts before drinking. Meanwhile, weâre going to use this feature to set âsorry canât go out tonight, Nacho Libre is onâ texts for 8 pm every Friday night of 2025. Let us know what you think of this development in the Question of the Day!
đłď¸ Conservative parties make noise in Europe
đ College coach turns down $70M to coach the LA Lakers
đĽď¸ A Zoom call nightmare in Brazil
âMax and Max
KEY STORY
Conservatives Advance in EU
Conservative parties made significant inroads in European Parliament (EP) elections
The EP holds EU-wide elections every 5 years. The vote determines the makeup of the 720-seat EP and is seen as measuring the EUâs political mood
A coalition of center-right parties won the most seats, meaning it will likely retain leadership of the parliament. It was the only centrist group to win more seats than it did last time
Center-left and left-wing parties struggled, while nationalist ones surged: The EPâs single biggest party will now be Franceâs main nationalist one, while nationalists also performed well in Germany, Austria, and Hungary
Dig Deeper
Franceâs National Rally â which has been unsuccessfully trying to gain power in France for decades â is poised to become the EPâs largest party. It won 31% of the French vote, twice the support President Macronâs party received
The result was seen as undermining Macronâs governmentâs legitimacy. Macron responded by calling parliamentary elections in France for late June/early July
His goal â to align the centrist parties to crush the National Rallyâs momentum â is a big bet
KEY STORY
Israeli Govât Splits
Centrist political leader Benny Gantz resigned from Benjamin Netanyahuâs war cabinet
Gantz â the former commander of Israelâs military â has been one of Netanyahuâs chief political rivals, but joined Netanyahuâs âwar cabinetâ in a show of post-October 7 political unity
He has since accused Netanyahu of failing to do enough to retrieve the hostages and end the war. Last month, he gave him an ultimatum: Present a plan to end the war, or have Gantz resign
The deadline passed on Sunday, prompting Gantz and another moderate general to resign
Dig Deeper
Gantz hopes to force elections, which polls suggest he would win, thereby replacing Netanyahu as prime minister. For now, Netanyahu retains enough support to keep his position, although Gantzâs departure leaves him more dependent on his further-right allies, who have advocated for continuing the war
âAfter October 7, just like hundreds of thousands of patriotic Israelis, my colleagues and I [joined the cabinet] even though we knew it was a bad government,â Gantz said. He added, âWe did it because we knew it was a bad government," but said the government is now preventing "true victory"
Netanyahu accused Gantz of playing âsmall-time politicsâ
KEY STORY
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Apple Unveils âIntelligenceâ
Apple unveiled Apple Intelligence
This week is Appleâs annual developer conference. Itâs been billed as the most significant in a decade because Apple is debuting its AI integration
On Monday, Apple unveiled âApple Intelligence,â a software update that implements AI features across Apple products. Apple said the AI would proof text, write messages, make Siri conversational, and more
It also announced a partnership with OpenAI to put ChatGPT on devices. Elon Musk called that an âunacceptable security violation,â and said heâd no longer allow Apple devices at his companies
Dig Deeper
Apple has been lagging in the AI race and some investors believe it will no longer be able to convince users to buy new products without innovative features
The hype around WWDC helped drive Appleâs stock market value up $471B in the weeks preceding it, though, as excitement grew that Apple would unveil valuable new AI technology
Apple stock ended Monday down 1.9%, but started Tuesday up 3.4%
ROCA PARTNER
Exploring India Made Easy
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Indus Travels does that for you by working with vetted local guides who organize amazing trips at affordable rates
Dig Deeper
For a limited time, theyâre offering their Iconic India trip for $400 off
This 14-day tour will take you to Delhi's landmarks, Mandawa's historic frescoes, Pushkar's sacred lake, Jodhpur's majestic fort, Udaipur's serene lakes, Bundi's enchanting streets, Jaipur's grand forts, and the awe-inspiring Taj Mahal in Agra
Rates start from US$1699 per person including flights, accommodation, daily breakfast, and transportation. Book now for an unforgettable adventure!
KEY STORY
![](https://media.beehiiv.com/cdn-cgi/image/fit=scale-down,format=auto,onerror=redirect,quality=80/uploads/asset/file/fb324eee-845e-4cb1-b82e-7e9dbeb9fb87/elephant_names_169_copy.jpg?t=1718113712)
Elephants: Say My Name
Elephants communicate with each other using individual names, a new study found
The study â published in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution â had researchers use AI to identify 469 distinct âcalls,â in which elephants made a unique noise to communicate with a specific elephant. They played the calls to the elephants and found that when an elephant heard its âname,â it reacted âenergeticallyâ; when it didnât, it did not
The finding makes elephants and humans the only animals known to communicate using names
Dig Deeper
While other animals, such as dolphins and parrots, make noises to communicate, those are considered arbitrary â not unique to the specific animal
The CEO of Save the Elephants used the study to draw attention to human-elephant similarities: We both have âextended family units with rich social lives, underpinned by highly developed brains,â he said
RUNDOWN
Some Quick Stories for the Office
đ§ââď¸ Closing arguments were heard in Hunter Bidenâs trial. Prosecutors claimed to have presented evidence that âwas uglyâŚoverwhelmingâŚ[and] absolutely necessaryâ
đ Modernaâs two-in-one flu and Covid shot passed a late-stage test, paving the way for the shotâs approval. The trial found it to be as safe and effective as the separate vaccines
đ University of Connecticut menâs basketball coach and back-to-back national champion Dan Hurley turned down a six-year, $70M offer to coach the NBAâs Los Angeles Lakers
đď¸ A study by Chinese scientists found microplastics in all 40 semen samples they tested. A separate study recently found microplastics in all testicle samples tested
đĽď¸ Hackers posted 273 GB of data stolen from the New York Times to 4chan. The leak contains âbasically all source code belonging to The New York Times Company,â according to the anonymous user who posted the files
COMMUNITY
We founded RocaNews because we wanted news companies to give us just the facts â not tell us what to think. That inspires us to do the âRoca Votesâ story each week, in which we summarize a controversial topic and see how Roca Nation feels about it.
Todayâs Question: Whatâs the best/worst application of scheduling text messages you can think of?
Yesterdayâs question: Whoâs your favorite talk show or game show host of all time? Why?
Alex Trebek. Intelligent, spent a lot of time and effort helping people across the world, had a soothing presence and an overall good person. He was one of the good ones.
My favorite talk show host of all time is Craig Ferguson. He was fiercely intelligent, quick witted, funny, warm, honest, and really had a way of making you feel like a part of the joke even when you were just watching from home. And his improv skills were AMAZING.
Honestly he gets some hate for being too vanilla, but I loved Jay Leno growing up. It's impossible for me to separate him and Bill Clinton in my mind because of all the mileage he got out of the Monica Lewinsky scandal. He towed the bi-partisan line pretty well (unlike most of today's hosts) and genuinely just had funny material. Who can forget "Headlines"? His Christmas shopping gift guides were hilarious too. Probably getting to stay up late to watch him as a kid improves my opinion of him as well.
Todayâs Question: Whatâs the best/worst application of scheduling text messages you can think of?
POPCORN
Some Quick Stories for Happy Hour
𼲠Never stop learning: Kathryn Cole, a 97-year-old Utah grandmother, just graduated from high school. Cole dropped out of high school when her grandfather died in the 1940s one credit short of graduating
đ¨ Just 2024 things: A senior banker at investment firm Moelis & Company punched a woman during a Brooklyn Pride event, reportedly over an argument about the Israel-Hamas war
đ Bad day to wear red: A bull escaped an arena at an Oregon rodeo and charged into spectators, hospitalizing five. The bull jumped an arena barrier while the crowd was singing âGod Bless the USAâ
đł Power move? Cesar Maia, former mayor of Rio de Janeiro and current city councilman, was inadvertently caught on camera sitting on the toilet with his pants down during a Zoom call (above)
đš Thieves HATE this one trick: TJ Maxx, Marshalls, and HomeGoods will equip specially trained floor workers with body cameras to deter shoplifting
ROCA WRAP
Defeat in Victory
![](https://media.beehiiv.com/cdn-cgi/image/fit=scale-down,format=auto,onerror=redirect,quality=80/uploads/asset/file/35027c34-c9af-40c6-a63d-95b4387d2ce8/defeat_in_vic_1_copy.jpg?t=1718113695)
This is part one of a two-part series on Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
This week could have been a momentous celebration for Narendra Modi. It was not.
In 2014, Modi was elected Indiaâs prime minister. At that point, Gandhiâs party, the Indian National Congress (INC), had ruled India for 54 of its 67 independent years. The INC represented what became known as Indiaâs âEnglish-speaking elite,â and its politics were secular and left.
By 2014, though, India remained mostly impoverished with a notoriously corrupt political class. That year, its voters elected an outsider to lead the country.
Narendra Modi was born in 1950 in a small town, where his father sold tea on a railway platform. At age 8, he joined the RSS â an organization that promotes Hindu and nationalist values. Modi had an arranged marriage at 18 but quickly left his wife and spent years traveling across India, visiting Hindu temples.
After his travels, he went to university and became more involved with the RSS, where he excelled as a political strategist and climbed the ranks of its associated political party, the BJP.
From 2001 until 2014, Modi was chief minister â governor â of Gujarat, a western Indian state. During that period, Gujarat experienced both an economic boom that attracted huge amounts of international investment and anti-Muslim riots that killed up to 2,000 Muslims. Rights groups and foreign governments accused Modi of condoning the violence, and the US, UK, and EU banned him from visiting.
Nevertheless, Gujaratâs economic performance became known as the âGujarat Miracle,â and in 2014, Modi â promising the same for India â won the prime ministership in a landslide. His BJP won 282 of 543 seats, giving it Indiaâs first single-party parliamentary majority in 30 years.
During those 30 years, no single party was popular enough to win a majority outright, so allies had to govern together. Five years later, Modi won reelection by an even larger margin and the BJP increased its seats from 282 to 303.
India has since become the worldâs fastest-growing large economy, as companies like Apple shifted manufacturing there from China and investors poured in their money. On the global stage, Modi received warm welcomes from Washington and other capitals.
Seemingly unstoppable, Modi spoke of winning 400 of the countryâs 543 parliamentary seats in this springâs election. So what went wrong?
EDITORâS NOTE
Final Thoughts
Interesting answers to the favorite game show / talk show host question. Lots of love for Alex Trebek and Steve Harvey. Nothing for Letterman or Conan? How about Ellen? Not asking who youâd want to work for, RocaâŚ
In the words of Davis Clarke, time to lock in. Have a great day.
âMax and Max