🌊 Bleach, Please… Reef in Trouble

What’s the deal with movies these days?

Jerry Seinfeld may have a higher opinion of Newman than the state of Hollywood today. In an interview Monday, the legendary comedian said, “Film doesn’t occupy the pinnacle in the social, cultural hierarchy that it did for most of our lives.” He recalled a time when everyone would see and talk about the top movies in theaters. So what’s replaced the movie business, you ask? “Depression? Malaise? I would say confusion… Everyone I know in show business, every day, is going, ‘What’s going on? How do you do this? What are we supposed to do now?’”

Wow, sounds like someone’s bitter they didn’t get cast in Angry Birds 3! Also, Jerry may need some new friends if they’re not talking about Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire over caviar and cocktails.

In today's edition:

–Max, Max, Jen, and Alex

KEY STORY

FTC: No More Noncompetes

The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) enacted a rule banning noncompete agreements

• Noncompetes – which ban a company’s employees from working at certain other companies after leaving – have long been a target of labor and activist groups that say they are unfair to workers

• The FTC’s new rule renders most existing noncompetes unenforceable and blocks employers from creating new ones. The only exception is for senior executives, who the FTC estimates account for 0.75% of workers

• On Wednesday, several of the US’ largest business groups sued the FTC, arguing it exceeded its authority by banning noncompetes

Dig Deeper

• “Noncompete clauses keep wages low, suppress new ideas, and rob the American economy of dynamism” FTC Chair Lina Khan said. “The FTC’s final rule to ban noncompetes will ensure Americans have the freedom to pursue a new job, start a new business, or [pursue] new ideas”

KEY STORY

Poland “Ready” for Nukes

Poland’s president said the country is “ready” to host its allies’ nuclear weapons

• Poland, a NATO member, borders the Russian province Kaliningrad, which is sandwiched between Poland and Lithuania and has no land border with Russia proper. Poland doesn’t have nukes itself

• In an interview, Poland’s president said the country is “ready” to host NATO nuclear weapons, saying that Russia is “increasingly militarizing [Kaliningrad]”

• The US, UK, and France, all NATO allies, have nukes. The US stations its nukes in five other NATO countries

Dig Deeper

• Stationing nuclear weapons in Poland would mark a significant escalation with Russia

• A Russian official said of the news, “We will take all the necessary retaliatory steps to guarantee our security”

KEY STORY

Germany Spy Arrests Continue

German authorities arrested the aide to a prominent politician for allegedly spying for China

• The AfD – Germany’s most conservative major party – has experienced a large increase in popularity 

• On Tuesday, German authorities arrested the aide to Maximilian Krah, the AfD’s top candidate for an upcoming European Parliament election. They accused the aide of spying for China to give it “information about negotiations and decisions in the European Parliament”

• The arrest was the third German law enforcement action against suspected foreign spies in four days

Dig Deeper

• On Saturday, German authorities arrested two German-Russian nationals accused of spying for Russia. Two days later, authorities arrested three German citizens for allegedly spying for China

• In a statement, Krah said, “I learned of the arrest of my employee…this morning from the press. I have no further information. Spying for a foreign state is a serious accusation. If the allegations prove to be true, this would result in the immediate termination of his employment”

KEY STORY

Bleaching Record

An Australian government report found that the Great Barrier Reef is experiencing its worst recorded mass bleaching event

• Bleaching occurs when environmental stresses, such as rising sea temperatures, cause corals to expel a type of colorful algae that typically lives inside them, giving corals a white (“bleached”) appearance

• Bleaching does not always kill coral, but it weakens reefs and changes their structure

• The Great Barrier Reef is now experiencing its worst recorded bleaching event: ~75% of the reef shows bleaching signs and 40% high or extreme levels of it

Dig Deeper

• The report came days after the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced that the world is currently experiencing its fourth global bleaching event, and the second in a decade

• Scientists attributed the bleaching to rising ocean temperatures, which broke records in 2023

SPONSORED

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• This isn’t just voice-to-text: KickResume lets you describe yourself and your achievements in your own words. It then translates what you say into a well-written resume based on the job you want

• To give it a try, look for the “Voice AI” button on the resume edit screen. Just press it, talk about yourself, and let the app transform your words into a top-notch resume

• You can try it out here!

RUNDOWN
Some Quick Stories for the Office

🚀 Voyager 1 - launched in 1977 and currently 13B miles from Earth – is once again sending readable data to NASA. Since November, a chip error aboard the probe had caused it to send gibberish

👗The Federal Trade Commission is suing to block Tapestry – which owns Coach, Kate Spade, and Stuart Weitzman – from acquiring Capri, which owns Michael Kors, Versace, and Jimmy Choo

🎓 Amid ongoing pro-Palestinian protests, Columbia University announced classes will be held under a hybrid format for the rest of the semester

🇺🇦 Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky banned online gambling for soldiers during wartime

🇺🇸 The Biden administration strengthened privacy protections for abortion patients and providers by prohibiting health plans and providers from sharing patients' reproductive health information with state officials

💸 The FBI agreed to pay $138M+ to victims of Larry Nassar, the former US national women’s gymnastics team doctor who sexually assaulted his athletes

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 debate asks: Should the University of Southern California have cut the commencement speech of its pro-Palestine valedictorian?

Keep the debate going and reply to this email to let us know what you think!

Together with Kickresume

Yesterday’s Poll: Do you believe that USC revoked the valedictorian’s speech because of safety concerns or not?

Safety concerns: 50%
Not safety concerns: 50%

POPCORN
Some Quick Stories for Happy Hour

🦸‍♂️ New superhero just dropped: A nine-year-old British boy known as “Seagull Boy” won the juvenile category at a seagull impersonation competition in Belgium

🏀 Ain’t no Jokić: The NBA is investigating Strahinja Jokić, brother of Denver Nuggets star Nikola Jokić, for a physical altercation with a fan after the Nuggets’ 101-99 win over the Lakers

🔑 RIP, Karen : Karen, a “vibrant and beloved” five-year-old ostrich at the Topeka Zoo, died after swallowing a staff member’s keys

🐊 Later, gator: Florida wildlife officials wrangled a 10-foot alligator that had crawled under an airplane at Tampa’s MacDill Air Force Base

🖱 Vision (not ready to go) Pro: Apple has reportedly reduced its 2024 shipping forecast for the Vision Pro units by nearly half, cutting from 700-800K to 400-450K

ROCA WRAP
Ransom Reparations

A group of activists is urging France to pay reparations to Haiti.

In 1804, after a bloody slave revolt against the French, Haiti became the Caribbean’s first independent country and the world’s first free black republic.

21 years later, a flotilla of French warships returned to Haiti, threatening a new war unless the country agreed to pay reparations to former slave owners.

Under duress, Haiti’s leaders agreed, making them liable for massive penalties.

Analyzing historical documents, the New York Times (NYT) estimated that from the early 19th century until 1947, Haiti paid France a collective $21 worth of reparations, plus significant interest on loans. Some historians believe that’s a significant undercount and that when factoring in the hardship and lost economic activity from the reparations, their true cost is in the hundreds of billions.

To finance the reparations – which were many times Haiti’s annual budget – the country took out massive loans, which in turn incurred massive debt. That in turn entered Haiti into a cycle of crippling debt, which in turn damaged its economy, international reputation, and security.

The island’s instability and chronic indebtedness in part inspired the US to invade it in 1915. The subsequent occupation lasted 19 years, during which time thousands of Haitians were killed.

Today, Haiti is the poorest country in the Americas, with high levels of poverty, unemployment, corruption, and crime. It is currently experiencing a political crisis that has plunged large portions of the country into anarchy.

Meanwhile, Haiti’s neighbor, the Dominican Republic, is relatively prosperous and stable. Some historians attribute the difference between both countries to the reparations Haiti paid to France.

Others have denied that reparations are to blame, citing Haiti’s corruption, poor governance, and vulnerability to natural disasters.

In 2015, France’s president said during the opening of a memorial center to slavery that Haiti’s reparations to France were the “ransom of independence.” He continued, “When I come to Haiti I will, for my part, pay off the debt we have.”

His announcement caused wild applause – some attendees reportedly broke into tears – but the president’s aides later clarified he was referring to France’s “moral debt,” not literal debt.

Last week, a group of 20 non-governmental organizations petitioned the UN Permanent Forum on People of African Descent for a new commission to oversee the repayment of Haiti’s reparations.

“What’s important is that it’s time that France recognizes this and we move forward,” one of the delegates told Reuters.

France – which, over recent decades has given Haiti hundreds of millions of dollars worth of aid – has not commented on the request, although it has in the past resisted calls for reparations.

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

EDITOR’S NOTE
Final Thoughts

On Monday, we covered a possible ninth planet and asked Roca what you all would name it. Here are some of our favorite replies: Luann says “Afterthought”; Michael says “Pluto 2.0”; and our favorite, of course, from R.E., who says “Planet Roca.”

We knew we were reaching for the stars with our vision to take down Big News – but we never expected to reach a planet! 😛

— Max, Max, Alex and Jen