Happy Dog Biscuit Appreciation Day, Roca Nation. This is a special day because if there's one thing that America doesn't adequately appreciate, it's... dog biscuits. So make sure to give your dog — or friend, they aren't canine exclusive and have tons of protein — a nice dog biscuit today. Now, how about a round of a-paws?

In today's edition:

• Biden tightens up the border

• Bill Gates' big, boozy buy

• Frost meets a stranger

 🔑 Key Stories

Got… “Milk”?

Plant-based milk products can continue to label themselves as “milk,” the FDA said

• Plant-based milk products can continue to label themselves as “milk,” the FDA said

• Alternative (plant-based) milks are a multi-billion dollar industry in the US, and as of 2019/2020, 41% of US households drink some version of them

• In 2018, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) began investigating the use of the word “milk” on packaging for plant-based milks

• On Wednesday, the FDA said plant-based milk packages can still say “milk,” but advised they include labels showing how they differ from normal milk nutritionally. Those guidelines are optional

Dig Deeper

• One dairy executive called the proposal a “step toward labeling integrity,” but added that the fight against “plant-based imposters” goes on. One plant-based milk advocacy group said the ruling “mistakenly admonishes” the brands for using a common and widely understood term

Crimson Tide Scandal

Alabama police said that one of college basketball’s top stars transported a gun later used in a murder

• Alabama’s men’s basketball team is ranked #2 in the US. Brandon Miller, a freshman, is the top scorer in Alabama’s conference and a projected top 5 NBA pick

• Last month, an Alabama basketball player was charged with murdering a 23-year-old woman

• On Tuesday, a detective said the alleged killer had texted Miller that night. Miller then drove to the scene with the gun that was used in the crime

• Miller isn’t facing any charges. “There’s nothing we could charge him with,” the detective said

Dig Deeper

• On Wednesday night, Miller scored a career-high 41 points. He also scored both the game-tying layup at the end of regulation and the game-winner in overtime, leading Alabama to a win over South Carolina

Biden’s New Border Policy

On Tuesday, the Biden administration announced a significant tightening of border restrictions

• During the pandemic, former president Trump enacted a border policy called Title 42 that made it easier to expel asylum-seekers. It is set to expire in May, which some worry will cause a migrant surge

• On Tuesday, the Biden administration announced that starting in May, anybody who illegally crosses the border will be presumed ineligible for asylum. The same goes for anyone who passes through other countries without claiming asylum there

• That would make it easier to expel asylum-seekers

Dig Deeper

• The new policy is similar to a proposal by the Trump administration that was struck down in court. Several human rights and immigration groups have suggested they'll also bring lawsuits against this plan

Madeleine McCann Mystery Solved?

A Polish woman who claims to be a long-lost child is getting a DNA test to prove her identity

• On May 3, 2007, 3-year-old Madeleine McCann went missing during a family beach vacation in Portugal. The crime made international news and sparked a manhunt, but Madeleine was never found

• A Polish woman, Julia Wendell, is now claiming on social media to be the long-lost Madeleine. Her claim hinges on a distinctive eye abnormality that she shares with the girl, along with other things

• Some have cast doubt on her claim. Wendell is now getting a DNA test to prove that she is Madeleine

Dig Deeper

• In a blog post, Wendell’s family said it is “obvious” that she is related to them, and that Wendell has had “numerous therapies, medicines, psychologists” but “refuses treatment”

• "[Julia] always wanted to be popular… what's happening now [is she has] 1M followers,” they added

🍿 Popcorn

ICYMI

• Extra virgin venti olive oil: Starbucks is adding an olive oil-infused coffee drink called the "Oleato" in its Italian stores as it tries to boost its popularity in Italy

• Like, comment, KO: YouTuber Jake Paul will fight Tommy Fury, the half-brother of heavyweight champ Tyson Fury, in a fight on Sunday that pro boxing will recognize

• Sweep up, Wall-E: By 2033, robots will do 39% of time spent on housework, according to a group of researchers from Japan and the UK

Wildcard 

• "Glocks in the bin, please": 18 guns are confiscated per day at US airports. The number of guns seized at US airports last year was 6x what it was in 2010

• Just plane brutal: A Japan Airlines plane with 335 passengers had to fly back to Tokyo after being turned away at its destination airport due to arriving 10 minutes after close

• Booze Gates: Billionaire Bill Gates has purchased a $902M stake in Heineken, acquiring 3.2% of the world's second-largest brewer

👇 What do you think?

Today's Question:

Have you ever tried to grow your own food? 🌱

Reply to this email with your answers!

See yesterday's results below the Wrap! 

🌯 Roca Wrap

Roca co-founder Max Frost and writer Alex Norris spent 2.5 weeks in Ethiopia last month. Frost will be writing about it here in the coming newsletters.

After a week in rural, southern Ethiopia, we returned to Addis Ababa, the capital.

Alex had come down with something and was sick in bed, leaving me on my own. I studied the map and spotted a city called Debre Birhan a hundred or so miles north. It appeared to be the first city in the region of Amhara, and I decided to take a daytrip.

Amhara is considered the Ethiopian heartland: Modern Ethiopia took its shape when Amhara emperors conquered territories to the south and west. Those emperors made their language – Amharic – the country’s official language, and ran the country until the 1970s.

I had no plan for what I would do in Debre Birhan, but I felt a visit to Ethiopia couldn’t be complete without going to Amhara. I went to the bus station and found a van to take me.

A year ago, the road we drove on was all over international news. It was the main road from Tigray to Addis Ababa, and rebels from Tigray were marching down it, threatening to overthrow the government. They got 60 miles north of Debre Birhan before a counterattack stopped them.

After 3 hours, the van pulled into Debre. As it entered the city, it kept stopping for passengers to get off. At one junction, I climbed down and started walking up the dusty street. 

Within 5 minutes, I saw a restaurant with some outdoor seating, men drinking, and a butcher cutting meat. I took a seat on a plastic chair next to the men. One of them, about my age, started talking to me in excellent English. 

“Where are you from brother?”

I said the US; he said his sponsor was from Virginia. He introduced himself as Zarhoun and began to tell me his story.

When Zarhoun was young, his mother died in a car accident. He blamed his father and became estranged from him. He and his siblings ended up living in a slum with his grandma. Zarhoun was a street kid: He wasn’t in school and was cleaning shoes for cents a day.

One day, he happened to clean the shoes of an American man from Richmond, Virginia. The man was with a group that was building a church in Debre Birhan. As Zarhoun told me, “As I cleaned his shoes, he saw something in my eyes.”

The man decided to help Zarhoun’s family. He paid for them to all go to private school and for drivers to take them there, and he paid for his grandma to move into proper housing. Zarhoun finished school and learned English, then decided to start his own business. 

He saved up and bought a rickshaw, then used the revenue to buy another. With that money he opened a grocery store, then bought a truck to deliver the groceries. He’s an entrepreneur. 

Zarhoun told me this story over several beers, which he kept ordering. Halfway through one of them, he suddenly stopped and asked his friend to drive us to a church up the road. He wanted me to understand the culture of Amhara and Debre Birhan, which he said was the most honorable city in Ethiopia. 

“Nothing bad will happen to you here, brother. Nothing.”

Back at the restaurant, I was now sitting with his friends. They ordered beers and food for the table: First grilled goat ribs served over hot coals; then raw meat, served with mustard sauce. The butcher sliced the meat off a cow’s leg minutes before we ate it. It was delicious. 

After lunch, which Zarhoun refused to let me pay for, we bought khat, the narcotic leaf, and went to his apartment, which was one room in a cement block. A door led to a communal squat toilet in the back.

“This doesn’t look nice to you, but few people here live as well as I do.”

For hours, we sat there on the floor chewing khat, while Zarhoun had the staff of the restaurant, which his friend owned, bring us water, soda, and coffee. He played music, mainly American music, on YouTube. He loved country music and Bruno Mars. 

At one point, he started talking about the war. 

Each state in Ethiopia has a militia, and when the rebels were marching down the highway I described before, the government called on the militias to fight back. Young men like Zarhoun were given a few days of training, an AK-47, and sent to the front. This was fall 2021. 

“I was shot twice,” Zarhoun said. He pulled down the waistband of his pants to show me a bullet wound in his groin, then pulled up his paint leg to shot me a scar in his shin. “I laid on the battlefield for 2 days before they got me off.”

I asked if he saw who shot him. “Yes, and my friend killed him,” he said with a smile.

He told me the combat he saw was close-up, face-to-face. No tanks or artillery; just men with AKs shooting at each other. Zarhoun spoke of the war with a religious passion. “This is our land,” “I will die for Amhara,” “We will kill for Amhara.”

I saw what motivated the ethnic killings humans rights groups have said characterized the war. 

We chewed khat for hours, and at one point, Zarhoun got his American sponsor on the phone. His name was Bill and he had a southern drawl: “You should have seen where he was living,” he said. “Ask him to take you.” Zarhoun clearly didn’t want me to see it, though, and didn’t take me. 

Zarhoun cried when speaking of that man.

“He saved my life, you don’t understand,” he said, tears running down his face. “I owe everything to him.” He thought it was ordained by God that I – not just an American, but an American who had spent years living in Virginia, like Bill – had sat down next to him. He saw his hospitality as a way to pay back what Bill had done for him. 

Zarhoun tried to get me to stay the night, but I insisted on returning to Addis. He drove me to the bus station and paid my fare for me. I ended up leaving Debre Birhan having consumed more food and drinks than anywhere else, and without spending a single dollar. 

Before I left, Zarhoun took a picture off his wall of Ethiopia’s 3 original Amhara emperors. He gave it to me and told me to hang it in my home, so “you don’t forget me.”

I wanted to get a taste of Amhara, and I certainly did. 

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

 🌊 Roca Clubhouse

Yesterday's Poll:

Do you use grocery delivery services?

Yes: 22%

No: 78%

Yesterday's Question:

What has social media changed your views on?

Sierra from North Carolina: "Social media has really changed how I view privacy and appreciating how valuable and scared it is because we are in a time when everyone wants/needs to share EVERYTHING. Also it’s made me realize and not fear thinking for myself, not going with the herd, and doing the research on issues instead of settling for the popular opinion that’s portrayed in social media platforms. 

Adam from Arizona: "Social media has given me a clearer picture of the varying degrees of perspectives in the world.  It's changed my view that there weren't very many perspectives.  In reality - there's so many it's hard to follow them all!

Kelly from New Mexico: "I have changed my views due to social media about people in general.  I use to think and would still like to think that most people are good.  However, in the last three years on social media I have seen people be toxic and vile to one another over a difference in opinion about politics, religion, and social justice issues,  There is no shortage of ugliness when people can hide behind their screens to be bold."

🧠 Final Thoughts

The US' weather is currently as divided as its politics: 70s and 80s from Washington DC south; blizzards across the Midwest and West. Whichever side you're on, we hope you have a happy, happy Thursday.

We'll be wrapping up the Ethiopia trip next week. Thanks as always for following along, and see you tomorrow.

–Max and Max