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🌊 Better Call Salman
Plus: Peace talks in Ukraine, Nvidia soars, & free soda for drivers in drunken UK towns
Siri, what is the meaning of the word “redacted”?
Earlier today, Trump signed a bill ordering the release of the Epstein Files. We also heard that there’s a DC-wide shortage of black highlighters, and that you can’t find a single white out container remaining within 25 miles of the nation’s capital. Our Staples corresponded has not yet confirmed whether these facts are connected.
🇸🇦 MBS goes to the White House
📈 Nvidia soars after earnings beat
🙏 A modern saint: Mother Teresa
–Max and Max
KEY STORY
Trump Hosts Saudi Crown Prince
President Trump hosted Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at the White House on Tuesday – his first visit to Washington in eight years
During the meeting, reporters asked Trump about the 2018 killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The president said the crown prince "knew nothing about it" and told reporters not to "embarrass our guest"
The CIA had previously concluded that the crown prince approved the mission to kill Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul and dismembered his body
The crown prince announced that Saudi Arabia would increase its investment commitments in the US from $600B to nearly $1T. Trump announced he would designate Saudi Arabia as a "major non-NATO ally" and approved the sale of F-35 stealth fighter jets to the kingdom
Dig Deeper
The crown prince called Khashoggi’s murder a "huge mistake" and said Saudi Arabia took "all the right steps" to investigate it
The two countries signed multiple agreements covering civil nuclear energy cooperation, AI, critical minerals, and defense. The deals included what the White House described as a $142B defense agreement, calling it the single biggest arms sale in history
The leaders also discussed potential normalization of relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel, though the crown prince said the kingdom first wanted to see a "clear path" to establishing a Palestinian state
KEY STORY
US Officials Hold Peace Talks in Ukraine
Senior Pentagon officials arrived in Ukraine to discuss efforts to end the war with Russia
The US delegation, led by the US Army secretary, arrived in Ukraine on Wednesday and included the most senior US military officials to hold talks in Kyiv since Trump took office in January. An Army spokesman said the group arrived on a fact-finding mission to meet Ukrainian officials and discuss efforts to end the war
The Trump Administration worked with Russian officials this week to draft and present to Ukraine a 28-point framework plan to end the conflict. The framework would require Ukraine to cede the remainder of the eastern Donbas region, cut the size of its armed forces by half, prohibit foreign troops on Ukrainian soil, and recognize Russian as an official state language
Dig Deeper
Officials in Kyiv said the plan closely aligned with Russia’s demands and would be a non-starter for Ukraine without changes
The meeting came as Poland accused Russia of orchestrating an explosion on its rail network over the weekend. On Tuesday, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced that two Ukrainian men working with Russian security services carried out the attack. In response, Poland's foreign minister said that Russia's last consulate in the country would be closed
ROCA’S SPONSOR
$1K Became $2.5M Once – Don’t Miss This 11/20 Shot
In 1999, a $1,000 investment in tech could have turned into more than $2.5M. Most people missed it. The few who didn’t were paying attention to adoption and demand – the same early signals showing up now in applied AI for performance marketing.
RAD Intel’s next share-price change hits on 11/20. The window at $0.81 is nearly gone. The company has raised over $50M, grown valuation 4,900% in four years*, secured its NASDAQ ticker, and earned support from Adobe, Fidelity Ventures, and leaders across Google, Meta, YouTube, and Amazon
The traction underneath those numbers is the real story: 2× sales growth heading into 2026, recurring seven-figure partnerships, and accelerating Fortune-level demand. This is commercial AI already deployed in the market – not theory, not hype
The next phase belongs to investors who see inflection points early. This is one of them
Disclaimer: This is a paid advertisement for RAD Intel made pursuant to Regulation A+ offering and involves risk, including the possible loss of principal. The valuation is set by the Company and there is currently no public market for the Company's Common Stock. Nasdaq ticker “RADI” has been reserved by RAD Intel and any potential listing is subject to future regulatory approval and market conditions. Brand references reflect factual platform use, not endorsement. Investor references reflect factual individual or institutional participation and do not imply endorsement or sponsorship by the referenced companies. Please read the offering circular and related risks at invest.radintel.ai.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
There are people in the world so hungry, that God cannot appear to them except in the form of bread.
KEY STORY
Nvidia Earnings Beat Expectations
Nvidia reported third-quarter earnings that exceeded Wall Street expectations and eased concerns of an AI bubble
Nvidia is the world's most valuable publicly traded company and serves as an indicator of the AI industry's health. In recent weeks, investors grew concerned that tech companies are spending too much on AI infrastructure without clear returns, leading some major investors to sell their Nvidia stakes
On Wednesday, the company reported revenues of $57B for the quarter ending in October, surpassing analyst expectations of $54.9B. Nvidia projected fourth-quarter revenue of approximately $65B, well above analysts’ $61B prediction
Dig Deeper
CEO Jensen Huang stated that demand for the company's Blackwell chips was extremely high and that cloud computing chips were sold out
Nvidia shares rose 4% in after-hours trading following the announcement. The stock had declined roughly 8% during November after investors, including Peter Thiel's hedge fund and SoftBank, sold their entire stakes in the company
KEY STORY
Trump Signs Epstein Bill
President Trump signed the bill forcing the Justice Department to release the Jeffrey Epstein files within 30 days
The House voted 427-1 on Tuesday to pass the measure. Hours later, the Senate passed it unanimously. Trump signed the bill after spending months rejecting calls for him to order the files’ release. He abruptly flipped his position this weekend amid intense pressure from the Republican base
The bill mandates that the Justice Department systematically release files, including flight logs, personal communications, and memos. It allows the redaction of information that would identify victims; however, reports must disclose what was redacted and why. The data must all be searchable and downloadable
Dig Deeper
The one House member to vote against the bill was Rep. Clay Higgins (R-LA), who said, “What was wrong with the bill three months ago is still wrong today. It abandons 250 years of criminal justice procedure in America…As written, this bill reveals and injures thousands of innocent people – witnesses, people who provided alibis, family members, etc….If enacted in its current form, this type of broad reveal of criminal investigative files, released to a rabid media, will absolutely result in innocent people being hurt. Not by my vote”
WE THE 66
The Rise of Super PACs
Super PACs have transformed US politics
Enabled by the Supreme Court’s 2009 Citizens United ruling, the entities led to an explosion in political spending. Since 2012, certain individuals have spent as much during election cycles as all donors used to combined
In our newest WeThe66 deep dive, we look at what Super PACs are, the rules that govern them, the arguments for and against them, and their impact on American politics
You can read it here
RUNDOWN
Some Quick Stories for the Office
👮♀️ New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch announced on Wednesday that she will stay in her position under Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, easing concerns among business leaders about the city's crime reduction efforts.
📱 Nokia announced plans on Wednesday to split its artificial intelligence operations into a separate unit from its telecoms business as it expands AI use in its networks.
📨 Former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers announced on Wednesday that he will resign from OpenAI's board following the release of emails showing he corresponded with Jeffrey Epstein.
🧓 The Social Security Administration (SSA) abandoned plans to block thousands of older Americans from qualifying for disability benefits after widespread opposition reached senior Trump White House officials.
🏂 The US raised the reward for former Olympic snowboarder Ryan Wedding to $15M, calling him a modern-day Pablo Escobar.
What does Roca Nation think?
💰 Yesterday’s Question: What’s a lobbying organization/industry/league that you feel has too much control?
The pharma industry obviously has way too much control. The fact that they spend more than any other industry says a lot. They’re clearly getting a return on their investment, and there’s so much money in healthcare that there’s plenty to go around for the pharma industry. They’ve figured out how to take advantage of our medicare system and also how to avoid the scrutiny they deserve.
The NFL has way too much influence. Between fox and CBS having Sunday afternoon games, NBC having Sunday night games, and ESPN which is owned by Disney, just like ABC, has Monday night football. When you have contracts with all four of the major networks (or their bosses), that's way too much.
Media! Control of elections, culture, history and more.
🇺🇸 Today’s Question: Should speed cameras exist? Just got back from Maryland and wow…
POPCORN
Some Quick Stories for Happy Hour
🖼️ Klimt's Canvas Cashes In: A Gustav Klimt painting shattered records at a New York auction house, selling for $236.4M and becoming the most expensive modern artwork ever auctioned.
😽 Pucker Up, Primate: Researchers have traced the evolutionary origins of kissing back more than 21M years to the common ancestor of humans and great apes.
🐈⬛ Cats Out of the Bag: Conservationists plan to reintroduce 50 European wildcats to mid-Devon, England, by 2028, marking a potential return from extinction in England for one of the UK's most critically endangered mammals.
🥤 Designated Discount: More than 260 pubs, clubs, and restaurants across Devon and Cornwall in England are offering free soft drinks to designated drivers throughout December as part of a campaign to reduce festive drunk driving.
🦻 Hard to Hear: Viagra may reverse a permanent form of inherited hearing loss caused by a mutation in the CPD gene, according to new study findings.
ROCA WRAP
The Modern Saint
Mother Teresa
This Nobel Prize winner spent decades caring for the dying in Calcutta's streets while privately wrestling with profound religious doubt.
Born Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu in Skopje in 1910, Mother Teresa left her Albanian family at 18 to join an Irish religious order, never seeing her mother or sister again. She moved to India in 1929 to teach at a convent school in Calcutta, where she spent nearly two decades as headmistress before a train journey in 1946 changed everything. During that trip to Darjeeling, she experienced what she called "the call within the call" – a directive to leave the convent and serve the poor while living among them.
In 1948, Mother Teresa ventured into Calcutta's slums with no income or support, begging for food and supplies while founding a school and tending to the sick. Her diary from that first year reveals crushing doubt and loneliness, with thoughts of returning to convent comfort haunting her. Two years later, she received Vatican permission to establish the Missionaries of Charity, dedicated to serving "the hungry, the naked, the homeless."
In 1952, Mother Teresa converted an abandoned Hindu temple into her first hospice. She offered terminal patients medical attention and death with dignity according to their faith – Muslims were read the Quran, Hindus received Ganges water, Catholics received their last rites. She called it providing "a beautiful death" for people who "lived like animals to die like angels." The organization expanded rapidly across India before spreading internationally in 1965.
Mother Teresa received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979, refusing the ceremonial banquet and requesting its $192,000 cost go to India's poor. Yet academics accused her clinics of providing inadequate medical care despite receiving millions in donations. Journalist Christopher Hitchens called her “a friend of poverty” rather than the poor, claiming she believed suffering was a gift from God while seeking advanced treatment for her own heart condition (which she had initially refused). Mother Teresa’s defenders point out that her sisters had a spiritual mission and would care for patients — including lepers, AIDS victims, and others that medical organizations would avoid — regardless of religion.
Today her sisters continue her work around the world, including in Gaza and Ukraine, with the same mission as in 1950: To “care for the hungry, the naked, the homeless, the crippled, the blind, the lepers, all those people who feel unwanted, unloved, uncared for throughout society, people that have become a burden to the society and are shunned by everyone.”
For more on Mother Teresa, read this powerful book on her life — in the spirit of full transparency, the author of the book is Max T’s dad, who worked as her lawyer for roughly a decade.
EDITOR’S NOTE
Final Thoughts
In today’s episode of history that’s surprisingly recent, we bring you smoking on airplanes. Lighting up on a flight was commonplace until roughly the mid-1980s; prior to 1973, planes didn't even have to have non-smoking sections. Airlines slowly phased out smoking — along with leg room, edible food, and the words "on time" — over the decades since. The final nail in the coffin (coughin'?) came in 2000, when President Clinton signed a full ban into law. We heard that when Clinton was later caught smoking on Air Force One, he responded, “It depends on what your meaning of the word ‘cig’ is.”
Hope you all have an amazing day!
–Max and Max