🌊 Baltimore's Bridge of Lies

“I was dead for seven minutes.”

We recently asked the Roca community for guest and topic suggestions on our new podcast “We The 66.” By the way, if you have any ideas, please email us at [email protected]. One of the messages we got was from a follower who told us he died for seven minutes as a senior at Ohio State. If you’d like to hear his terrifying but also inspiring story, you can hear it on YouTube, Apple, or Spotify. Not a day goes by when we don’t feel grateful for our incredible community!

In today's edition:

–Max, Max, Jen, and Alex

KEY STORY

Trump’s Court Appearance

Donald Trump appeared in a Manhattan courtroom on Monday for the start of his “hush money” trial

• Trump’s criminal case – the first ever of a current or former president – revolves around alleged “hush money” payments to two women with whom Trump allegedly had affairs, and subsequent efforts to conceal them. He is facing 34 felony charges

• During Monday’s court appearance, Trump appeared to fall asleep, closing his eyes and slouching forward. He appeared more engaged during the jury selection process, though, which is expected to last several days. The whole trial will likely last 6-8 weeks

Dig Deeper

• If Trump is convicted, he could be given up to four years in jail for each of the case’s 34 counts, although New York caps such sentences to 20 years. If he does receive jail time, he will serve it in state prison, meaning he couldn’t pardon himself

KEY STORY

FBI’s Dali Investigation

The FBI launched a criminal investigation into the ship that crashed into Baltimore’s Key Bridge 

• Late last month, a container ship, the Dali, collided with the Key Bridge, causing its collapse

• The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has launched an investigation into the crash, and Baltimore’s mayor said the city has hired law firms to “hold [perpetrators] responsible”

• On Monday, the FBI confirmed it has opened a criminal investigation. It is investigating whether the crew failed to report an issue with the ship that had previously delayed its departure

Dig Deeper

• The NTSB has recently zeroed in on engine room equipment as the potential cause for the ship’s power loss prior to the crash

• President Biden has offered federal support for recovery efforts

KEY STORY

Tesla’s Job Cuts

Elon Musk announced that Tesla will lay off 10%+ of its workforce

• Tesla is the world’s most valuable automaker by market cap. Last year, amid global optimism about electric vehicles (EVs), its stock price soared 101.7%

• The EV industry has since fallen into a downturn, though, propelling Tesla earlier this year to its first year-over-year quarterly decline in EV deliveries since 2020. Its stock is down more than 33% this year

• On Monday, Musk announced the company will lay off 10%+ of its workforce, or ~14,000 people. He said the cuts will make Tesla more “innovative and hungry”

Dig Deeper

• For years, Tesla has been the world’s largest producer of fully electric vehicles (EVs). Chinese rival BYD briefly overtook it in the fourth quarter of 2023, but Tesla has since retaken the top spot

KEY STORY

Chinese Running Scandal

Chinese authorities are investigating a Beijing half-marathon after three runners appeared to let a Chinese contestant win

• Down the final stretch of the race, three runners – one Ethiopian and two Kenyan – appeared to visibly slow down and wave on a Chinese runner, He Jie, who ultimately won by one second

• The clip went viral, with some alleging the other runners had been paid off to let He win

• One Kenyan runner told the South China Morning Post he let He Jie win “because he is my friend.” He later changed his story, saying he was pacing for He Jie

Dig Deeper

• He Jie is China’s marathon record holder, and the Beijing race was his first professional half-marathon

• A Beijing sports authority and the event’s organizers said they are investigating the incident

RUNDOWN
Some Quick Stories for the Office

🇺🇸 Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. claimed on X that Donald Trump’s “emissaries” asked him to be Trump’s vice president. “I respectfully declined the offer,” RFK wrote

🎥 The armorer on the set of “Rust,” a movie starring Alec Baldwin, was sentenced to 18 months in prison over an incident in which Baldwin accidentally shot and killed a cinematographer with a loaded weapon on-set

🇦🇫 A US military review contradicted claims that US snipers could have taken out the ISIS bomber responsible for the 2021 Kabul airport attack

🇰🇷 South Korea-based Samsung regained the title of world’s leading smartphone producer from Apple after the company claimed a 23% share of phone sales in Q1 2024 

🇮🇷 During a trip to an airbase lightly damaged by Iran’s attack, the chief of the general staff of Israel’s military said Iran’s attack “will be met with a response”

💊 After a nine-month review, a top European drug body said it found no causal link between popular weight-loss drugs and suicidal thoughts, mirroring a similar conclusion by the US Food and Drug Administration

🌎 Indus Travels curated a South Africa adventure for Roca: Encounter the Big Five on safaris, cruise the Zambezi River at sunset, and marvel at Table Mountain's breathtaking views. Lodging, transportation and guides included. Book now! Roca’s special save $200 per person with air*

COMMUNITY

We founded RocaNews because we wanted news companies to give us just the facts – not tell us what to think. That inspires us to do the “Roca Votes” story each week, in which we summarize a controversial topic and see how Roca Nation feels about it.

This week’s topic asks: Should podcast hosts push back? If so, when? 

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

Yesterday’s Poll: Are you happy with the amount of time you spend on your phone?

No, it’s out of control and I’m looking for solutions: 30%
No, I am actively using tools to limit my screen time: 19%
Yes, I have successfully taken measures to limit my screen time: 10%
Yes, I am comfortable with the amount of time spent on my phone: 41%

POPCORN
Some Quick Stories for Happy Hour

🏰 Don’t a-hyuck me: A woman who visited Disney California Adventure in April 2022 is suing the resort after a cast member dressed as Goofy allegedly knocked her over, causing severe injuries

🏠 Uncle Rico wuz here: A Grand Rapids, Michigan resident found a time capsule in their home. Workers discovered artifacts and newspapers dating back to 1915 while conducting repairs in the home’s walls

👑 King Flop: “King Charles,” the CNN weekly primetime talk show co-hosted by Charles Barkley and CBS morning star Gayle King, ended after six months due to poor ratings

🏀 Silver lining: NBA attendance increased by 1.4% this season, setting new records for ticket sales and sellouts. Total attendance this year reached 22,536,34, including a record 872 sellouts

🇬🇧 Aaaaaandd you’re divorced: Solicitors at a London law firm accidentally divorced a couple due to a computer error. A court granted the mistaken divorce request within 21 minutes

ROCA WRAP
Person of the Week: Indiana Stones

David Keohan is on a quest to lift the lost stones of Ireland.

Before he lifted stones, Keohan lifted kettlebells. By 2020, he held a kettlebell-lifting world record – but then his gym closed during the pandemic, forcing him to find an alternative.

Keohan took to lifting stones in his backyard and on a nearby beach in southeast Ireland. “I fell in love with the movement, the strength gains, and the fact you're outside,” he told Roca last week.

As he researched stone-lifting techniques, Keohan learned that it was much more than strength-building: Irish clans had been stone-lifting for thousands of years. Before becoming a man, a boy would first have to lift a particular stone – often 300+ pounds.

“Every clan had its own stone,” Keohan explained. “The community would watch as the young boy lifted the stone to his chest, marking his transition to manhood.”

The British colonization of Ireland nearly eliminated the practice, Keohan explained. The Penal Laws of the 16th and 17th centuries severely restricted Irish rights to write, read, or teach in their own language and culture. Stone-lifting, like other Irish traditions, disappeared; the stones have remained untouched ever since. Keohan set out to change that.

He found his first stone on the sparsely populated island of Inishmore, off Galway’s coast. He had heard of its possibility in Irish novelist Liam O’Flaherty’s story "The Stone," which describes an old man reminiscing about youth and the importance of a lifting stone to his village. Keohan then came across a Reddit forum where a local woman claimed the stone was real.

Not long after, he grabbed “mates and a few stouts” and headed to the island. “The whole landscape was just rocks” he recalls, yet with the book in one hand, he followed a path to a large field of gray limestone; in its center, though, sat a single, pink granite boulder.

After consulting with local villagers, he confirmed it was indeed the stone from the story. Keohan lifted the 376-pound stone – and felt a magic in his body that left him yearning for more.

To learn more, he traveled to Dublin’s Dúchas Archives – a collection of Irish stories gathered by schoolchildren under a 1937 government order to preserve Irish heritage. Searching "stone" yielded 200,000 references, which he then narrowed to potential lifting stone sites. He visited as many of those as he could to gather local insights.

Keohan describes a similar pattern: Someone points him to “Johnny down the road,” he knocks on the stranger’s door, is offered tea and biscuits, and then it’s “up in the tractor” to the stone.

Word spreads quickly, and locals come to see him lift the stones and add their knowledge of the stones’ history. He has so far tracked down 36 lifting stones across Ireland, lifting all but two.

Keohan told Roca that Irish lifting stones weigh an average of ~370 pounds and lifting each stone requires unique training due to their distinct texture and shape.

When he lifts one off the ground – with locals gathered around – he describes a spiritual experience: An “amalgamation of reality and mythology and folklore and culture and strength.”

“You're the first person to do this in almost a century, and now it's back on the map," he remarks. “It’s hard not to get emotional”

“This is the first time in probably six to eight hundred years there hasn't been an active battle with England in this country,” says Keohan, whose childhood was marked by The Troubles. “That’s massive. We defined ourselves through the struggle with Britain for years. Now that we’ve come out from underneath that, it's like, okay: Who are you now?” Stone-lifting is helping Keohan and other Irish people answer that question, he said.

Both he and the locals in the towns he visits view the revival of stone-lifting as a “reclamation of Irish history, and of what it is to become and be an Irish person.” Keohan has been recording the histories of the stones he has found on Instagram – @IndianaStones – and in a forthcoming book 

Locals frequently tell him, “You’re bringing back a bit of strength that was kind of taken away from us.”

Keohan still works in the same day job he’s had for years at a local DIY store.
Yet his “double life” has gained traction and support from communities across Ireland, with increasing numbers of people sending clues about possible stones.

Keohan thinks every village may have a stone, and his quest is to lift – and reclaim the history – of each one.

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

EDITOR’S NOTE
Final Thoughts

In recent days, members of our New York team have been enjoying 70°F+ weather (that’s 21°C for our international audience). Such beautiful weather reminds us that spring has sprung – yet tomorrow’s forecast of rain with a 60°F high also reminds us not to take spring weather for granted…

Wherever you’re reading from, we hope you enjoy your Tuesday!

— Max, Max, Alex and Jen