🌊 A Bad Day to be a Chad

A very special Roca Wrap today.

Roca Nation, today’s Wrap tells the inspiring story of a member of our very own Roca community. The story came to us in our app DMs — nestled between messages of “FAKE NEWS” and “Roca, you up?” — and soon supplanted the Wrap we had planned for today.

We’re always on the lookout for fascinating stories from you all — whether about yourself, your town, your workplace, your ex, whatever. We love nothing more than hearing from you… although, Uncle Bob, the daily “FAKE NEWS” DMs are getting a bit old.

–Max and Max

KEY STORY

Xi-spiracy

Chinese leader Xi Jinping has been telling people that the US is trying to trick China into a war in Taiwan, the Financial Times reported

• Xi has delivered the warning to the European Commission president and Chinese officials. People who attended those meetings told the FT that Xi has said China will not take the bait

• In the past, Chinese academics have alleged that the US is pushing Taiwan to declare independence to prompt a Chinese invasion of the island

Dig Deeper

• While Taiwan is self-governing, it has not declared independence

• The comments come at a time of high China-Taiwan tensions: Last month, Taiwan inaugurated a new pro-Western president. China labeled the president a “dangerous separatist” and – as “punishment,” China said – responded by sending fighters, bombers, and naval ships to Taiwan’s coast

KEY STORY

War Cabinet Dissolved

Israeli PM Netanyahu dissolved the war cabinet

• The war cabinet was established in October and brought together politicians to have a multi-partisan group make major war-related decisions

• Last week, though, Benny Gantz – a Netanyahu rival and the cabinet’s most moderate member – resigned, citing a lack of progress toward ending the war. His departure left Netanyahu’s further-right allies seeking more seats in the cabinet

• Instead of giving those seats to them, Netanyahu dissolved the cabinet

Dig Deeper

• Analysts expect the effects of dissolving the cabinet to be more political than practical, as Netanyahu snubbed his far-right allies, who wanted more decision-making power

• More of that power will now rest with Netanyahu, who faces both the war with Hamas and growing conflict with Hezbollah, in Lebanon

• On Sunday, the Israeli military’s top spokesman said, “Hezbollah’s increasing aggression is bringing us to the brink of what could be a wider escalation – one that could have devastating consequences for Lebanon and the entire region”

ROCA PARTNER

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Dig Deeper

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KEY STORY

Poor Women Like Effeminate Men

Women with less money prefer men with less masculine faces, a new study found

• The study – published in Evolutionary Psychology – sought to understand whether facing material (money), time, or psychological scarcity impacted women’s preferences for “facial femininity” in men

• The researchers had 823 women complete a survey that measured the scarcity the women were facing. The women then rated 42 male faces’ attractiveness

• The women facing wealth scarcity preferred facial femininity, apparently because the trait is perceived as indicating a man’s willingness to provide for her

Dig Deeper

• Facial Femininity – technically “facial sexual dimorphism” – “is theorized to be associated with health and disease resistance,” the authors noted

• Yet “facial masculinity in men is also associated with poor parental quality…and a greater preference for short-term relationships,” they wrote

• Their study sought to understand how women’s preferences for faces changed when they faced various types of scarcity. A relationship was only found between preferences and material scarcity, not for psychological or time scarcity

KEY STORY

IMF’s “Profound” AI Concerns

The IMF released a report on Monday that warned AI could massively disrupt people’s ability to find jobs

• The IMF – a UN agency – promotes international financial integration, trade and provides loans to countries facing economic difficulties, often in exchange for enacting pro-market reforms

• The new report warned that generative AI stands to displace both low- and high-skilled workers and enable a few firms to dominate the economy

• It warned of “massive labor disruptions and rising inequality” if governments don’t enact preventative policies

Dig Deeper

• The report laid out various ways to soften the blow, including strengthening welfare nets, disincentivizing layoffs, and increasing systems to educate and train workers

• Governments “should be ready to cushion the transition costs for workers and households and prevent rising inequality,” it noted

RUNDOWN
Some Quick Stories for the Office

🇨🇳 Adidas is investigating allegations that its senior staff in China embezzled “millions of euros”

⌚️ TDK, a Japanese Apple supplier, announced that it had achieved a breakthrough in battery development that could pave the way for much longer-lasting batteries

📈 Geopolitical tensions are driving global defense companies to hire at their highest rate since the end of the Cold War

🇺🇸 President Biden is expected to announce a program that will grant citizenship to hundreds of thousands of people living in the US illegally

⚠️ US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy proposed putting labels on social media platforms that warn the networks may harm adolescents’ mental health. Such labels still need Congress’ permission

COMMUNITY

Yesterday’s question: CNN recently announced that RFK Jr. won’t be in the presidential debate this week. Should he be on stage with Trump and Biden?

🤔 Today’s Question: If the Greeks had “The Iliad” and the Romans had “The Aeneid,” what is America’s great epic? Book, movie, or whatever.  

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

POPCORN
Some Quick Stories for Happy Hour

🎮 Super Smash Bros Bra: Chinese customs officials caught a woman trying to smuggle 350 Nintendo Switch game cartridges into the country by concealing them in her bra

👯 NOT Lovin’ It: McDonald’s is ending its AI drive-thru ordering partnership with IBM. The partnership tested whether voice-ordering chatbots could speed up service

🛹 Tiny Hawk: Nine-year-old Japanese skateboarder Ema Kawakami landed three consecutive 900s at Tony Hawk’s “Vert Alert” competition. For years, Hawk was the only person to have landed the move

😖 Big missed steak! An Indianapolis vegan restaurant closed after its owners said they received death threats for banning children under five. They say they implemented the rule due to customers breastfeeding

🏂 “Sorry, babe, snowboarding is on”: Three-time Olympic gold medalist snowboarder Shaun White is starting The Snow League, a snowboarding league that will start next March

ROCA WRAP
A Roca Reader’s Uplifting Story

In 1975, Saigon, the capital of South Vietnam, fell to communist North Vietnam.

As the US advisers left on their helicopters and planes, some 2M Vietnamese fled the country by boat. Among them was Hoan Hoang.

Many of the “boat people” drowned, but Hoang was lucky: He landed in Australia, where he was given refugee status and began to study and work. Years later, he decided to return to his native Vietnam, where he began working in a clothing factory.

Hoang and his wife – who also worked in a factory – soon had a daughter, Anh, who grew up watching her parents work in the factory and learning how to sew. She developed a passion for fashion, which, in turn, led her to study in Australia.

Alone in Australia, Anh studied during the day and worked at KFC at night, saving up to attend fashion school. Eventually, her wish came true: After twice being named Designer of the Year in the Australian Fashion Awards, Anh was admitted to RMIT, one of Australia’s most elite universities for fashion design.

Yet when she was 19, her parents divorced and her younger sister was sent to live with her in Australia, essentially making her a parent while a working student. Nonetheless, Anh persevered, securing a Master’s degree and jobs in fashion.

Yet in doing so, Anh noticed a problem: Clothes didn’t fit her.

Most fashionable clothes are designed for taller or larger women, not for those who are “petite,” defined in fashion as being 5’4” or under. Rather than complain about it, though, Anh – and her boyfriend Titus – decided to create a solution.

Anh’s experiences had taught her how to design clothes that fit women like her. Combining that with her life-long passion, she and Titus decided to quit their jobs and try to launch their own fashion company.

Using their own savings, they designed a suite of products catering to “petite” women, lined up fabric manufacturers, and learned how to run a fashion business out of their apartment. Last week, they launched Sylphic.

Titus – a Roca Rider – DM’d us this story, which we thought was terrific. We wish them and Sylphic nothing but the best. For those interested in checking them out, this is the link to their website.

And if anyone else in the Roca community has a great story, let us know!

EDITOR’S NOTE
Final Thoughts

It’s a great day to be a Celtic. Congrats to all the Boston Celtics fans on last night’s championship.

But we’ve gotta ask… did anybody watch? This year’s NBA Finals is making the Golden Globes look like can’t-miss TV. Fewer than 10M people tuned in for Game 4, which is the lowest viewership for an NBA Finals game — excluding the Covid years — since 2007.

Make the NBA fun again! Bring back fights! Put a trampoline on the court! Something!

–Max and Max