🌊 Trump Trade Truce

Plus: More Louvre arrests, nuclear testing resumes, & new tallest church

October 31, 2025

If today feels spooky to you, we get it.

Not only is it Halloween, but we also learned this morning that the moon landing didn’t take place. Don’t believe us? Hear it right from Kim Kardashian yourself: “It didn’t happen. There's no gravity on the moon — why is the flag blowing? They’re gonna say I’m crazy no matter what. But like, go to TikTok. See for yourself.” Well there you go, folks: Like, go to TikTok. See for yourself. Legitimately can’t think of anything more discouraging than those seven words — other than the August 25, 2020 text from my dad: “Son, take me off your mailing list.” Halloween 20 Questions!

Also, next week we will be doing our annual fall photo showcase. So start snapping those Nat Geo-worthy autumnal pics, as our inbox anxiously awaits.

🤝 US & China reach one-year trade truce

💣 Nuclear testing to resume

⛪️ New tallest church

–Max and Max

KEY STORY

Trump and Xi Reach One-Year Trade Truce

After their first meeting since Trump’s second term, President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed to a one-year trade deal that pauses export controls and reduces some tariffs

  • The US and China have been locked in an intensifying trade conflict since Trump imposed sweeping tariffs on Chinese goods earlier this year. China retaliated with its own tariffs and export restrictions, including controls on rare earth minerals essential for manufacturing

  • The leaders met briefly on Thursday in South Korea. The deal includes: The US cutting fentanyl-related tariffs on Chinese goods from 20% to 10%; China suspending its rare earth export controls for one year; and both sides pausing reciprocal tariffs on each other's shipping industries for one year

Dig Deeper 

  • Both sides also agreed to pause certain technology restrictions for one year. Trump said the leaders discussed semiconductors and that chip manufacturer Nvidia would talk to China about exporting chips, though not the most advanced microelectronics

  • Trump also said the US was working with China on a "very large scale transaction" involving oil and gas from Alaska. The president announced he would visit China in April 2026, with Xi planning a visit to the US afterward

  • China analysts said Beijing appeared to have gained the upper hand in negotiations, with one stating that "Xi stared down Trump and Trump blinked"

KEY STORY

Trump Orders Nuclear Testing to Resume

President Trump directed the Pentagon to resume testing nuclear weapons, ending a moratorium that has been in place since 1992

  • The US last conducted a nuclear weapons test in September 1992 at the Nevada Test Site. President HW Bush implemented a moratorium on such tests as the Cold War concluded, and the US has since relied on computer simulations and small experiments to maintain its arsenal

  • Trump announced the decision on social media just before meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in South Korea on Thursday, saying, "Because of other countries’ testing programs, I have instructed the Department of War to start testing our Nuclear Weapons on an equal basis"

  • Trump's announcement came days after Russia said it had successfully tested a nuclear-powered cruise missile and an underwater drone, both capable of carrying nuclear warheads

Dig Deeper

  • Trump claimed the US has more nuclear weapons than any other country, with Russia second and China third, though estimates suggest Russia has a slightly larger stockpile. He said China would catch up within five years, as the country has doubled its arsenal over the past five years to roughly 600 warheads

  • A Russian spokesman denied conducting nuclear tests, noting that Russia maintains a voluntary moratorium on testing but warned that "if someone departs from the moratorium, Russia will act accordingly"

  • China called on the US to honor its commitment to the testing moratorium and uphold global strategic stability

KEY STORY

Al-Qaeda Militants Poised to Take Over Mali

Al-Qaeda-affiliated militants tightened their stranglehold on Mali this week as the US evacuated personnel and urged Americans to leave immediately

  • Mali, a landlocked West African nation with 21M people, has battled an Islamist insurgency for over a decade. The militant group Jama'at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) formed in 2017 when several al-Qaeda affiliates merged

  • This week, al-Qaeda-backed militants moved closer to seizing control of Mali's capital, Bamako. If successful, they would become the only country in the world run by a group with direct ties to the terrorist organization

  • The militants appeared to be following the Taliban's playbook from Afghanistan, where insurgents entered Kabul after the military effectively abandoned the capital

Dig Deeper

  • Mali's military-led junta, which took power in coups in 2020 and 2021, had previously expelled French forces and hired Russian mercenaries from the Wagner Group, but neither succeeded in stopping the JNIM militants. Earlier this year, Russia sent additional fighters, but they were ambushed, allowing insurgents to seize more weapons

  • On Tuesday, the US embassy warned Americans to leave Mali immediately using commercial flights, while the Bamako airport remained open. Last week, the State Department authorized the departure of non-emergency government personnel and family members from Mali

KEY STORY

Senate Votes to Block Global Tariffs

The Senate voted to nullify President Trump's global tariffs, marking the third time this week that lawmakers moved to terminate national emergency declarations used to impose trade barriers

  • Trump has imposed tariffs on numerous trading partners by declaring national emergencies, including levies on Canada, Brazil, and over 100 other countries through his "reciprocal" tariff policy

  • On Wednesday, the Senate passed the resolution 51-47, with four Republican senators – Susan Collins (ME), Mitch McConnell (KY), Lisa Murkowski (AK), and Rand Paul (KY) – joining all Democrats in support

  • The measure faces significant obstacles to becoming law: House Republicans passed new rules preventing such resolutions from reaching the floor for a vote, while Trump could veto the legislation

Dig Deeper

  • Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA), who pushed the resolutions, argued that higher prices from tariffs would eventually force Republicans to break with Trump. "It will become untenable for them to just close their eyes and say, 'I'm signing up for whatever the president wants to do,'" Kaine told reporters

  • Last month, the Supreme Court agreed to hear challenges to Trump's tariff authority on an expedited schedule, with arguments expected in early November and a ruling potentially coming before the year's end

  • Multiple lower courts have ruled that Trump exceeded his legal authority under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act

QUOTE OF THE DAY

Beware; for I am fearless, and therefore powerful

Mary Shelly, Frankenstein

RUNDOWN
Some Quick Stories for the Office

🦹 Five more suspects were arrested on Wednesday night in coordinated raids across the Paris region in connection with the Louvre heist, bringing the total number of arrests to seven.

🏘️ King Charles III has formally stripped his brother Andrew of his prince title and ordered him to vacate Royal Lodge, a 30-room mansion where he has lived for over two decades, over his alleged ties to Jeffrey Epstein.

📉 The Trump Administration will limit refugee admissions to 7,500 over the next year, down from Biden's 125,000 cap, marking a record low.

📃 Palantir sued two former employees in New York federal court on Thursday, alleging they violated noncompetition agreements and stole confidential documents to build a competing AI business called Percepta for venture firm General Catalyst.

💰 New York Governor Kathy Hochul (D) declared a state of emergency on Thursday to allocate $65M to food banks as federal SNAP funding is set to expire on November 1.

What does Roca Nation think?

🇺🇸 Yesterday’s Question: The last time America was this polarized, a Civil War broke out. Is it possible to break out of this cycle without a civil war?

It is definitely possible to break out of this cycle without a Civil War. Last time America was this polarized, we did have a Civil War, but people and states were not just polarized along party lines, they were polarized along one singular issue. Today, our polarization is around many different issues, and parties cannot even agree internally on what policies to agree or disagree on; people cannot even agree what to be polarized about! Like you at Roca have said so many times, the way out of this is with open dialogue. If we talk to each other, eventually the best ideas will rise to the surface, and America will come out of this stronger and with a deeper sense of national identity than before the polarization started.

Spencer from Naples

Clearly, we are already in a "cold" civil war. I'm just not sure if things are really any worse now than they've ever been in this country. It's just that now, with technology, everything is much more out in the open, so it seems so much worse.

I don't think there will ever be another "bloody" civil war here. I think we are beyond the point of no return when it comes to solving any problem (like slavery) through violent combat. What's sad to me is that people are needlessly hurting each other, when, as a functioning society, we actually do need each other to make things work.

Margo from Tennessee

There's a route to a soft landing without a Civil War, but it will take a group effort to opt out of this globalism volatility. If the whole middle and lower class decided to: turn off social media, turn off legacy media, and shop local I truly believe we'd see a complete shift in temperaments across every sect.

I think people become enraged by topics that don't actually affect their day to day lives. The atrocities taking place in the Middle East, Baltic Region, or anywhere else in the world don't actually affect most of us. If you're disgusted by local cattle ranchers being squeezed out by Argentina beef then go to a Farmer's market and buy local. If you're worried yAI is going to replace jobs then support companies that aren't putting profits over people.

Danny from Maine

20 Questions!

"All work and no 20 Questions makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no 20 Questions makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no 20 Questions makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no 20 Questions...." - The Shining, 1980

Today we're doing our annual Halloween-themed edition of 20 Questions. We will try not to bore you with too many 4th-grade-level "this or that" questions, but then again is it really only for a 4th grader to decide whether Skittles are better than Reese's? If anything, these are questions for grown-ups who've had years of experience in the candy-eating business.

Last Week’s Responses

Featured responses to last week’s random 20 Questions.

What state/country are you from?
Texas (most common)
California
Canada — “’Berta”

What’s your favorite part about it?
The people (most common)
Weather
The beautiful lakes and parks

Are we past peak yoga pants?
Yes (most common)
No
I hope not

Movie that’s so bad you like it?
Napoleon Dynamite (most common)
Twilight
Airplane — “my boyfriend hates it because it’s dumb but I love it”

Your celebrity crush growing up?
Natalie Portman (most common)
Emma Watson
Robbie Amell

How about now?
Sydney Sweeney (most common)
Robert Pattinson
Tom Hardy — “I have a weird thing for Alfie Solomons in Peaky Blinders 😂”

Hardest class in high school?
Chemistry (most common)

Are you afraid of getting cancelled?
No (most common)

Best form of cardio exercise?
Walking (most common)
Running
Rowing

Best way to relax?
Reading (most common)
Hiking
Chilling on the couch under a blanket watching a comfort show

Better smell: hardware store or candle store?
Hardware store (most common)
Hardware
“Can’t say I’ve ever heard of a hardward store ;) so I’ll go with candle store.”

Best genre of music for a Saturday morning in the fall?
Country (most common)
Classic rock
Indie or folk

Robert DeNiro or Leonardo DiCaprio?
DeNiro (most common)

JK Rowling or Stephen King?
JK Rowling (most common)

Favorite period of history?
WWII (most common)
Now
Revolutionary War

Favorite war for movies/books?
WWII (most common)
WW2
“The Battle of Pelennor Fields (LOTR)”

A terrible first date idea?
Movie (most common)
Dinner with the parents
Medieval fair

Most overrated fast food restaurant?
McDonald’s (most common)
Taco Bell
Chipotle or Chick-fil-A

Has alcohol made the world a better place?
No (most common)
“Being from Wisconsin, alcohol is a regular way of loosening up — people take themselves too seriously.”

What about Facebook?
No (most common)

POPCORN
Some Quick Stories for Happy Hour

🐪 Camel Corps Captured: Ukrainian forces rescued a Bactrian camel from Russian troops during operations in northeastern Ukraine near Kharkiv.

⚖️ Diss-Satisfied: Drake is appealing the dismissal of his defamation lawsuit against Universal Music Group (UMG) over Kendrick Lamar's Grammy-winning diss track "Not Like Us," which he claims falsely labels him a pedophile.

💒 Divine Heights: Barcelona's Sagrada Familia became the world's tallest church on Thursday after a section of its central tower reached 162.91 meters, narrowly surpassing Germany's Ulmer Münster by just over a meter.

🪙 Bait and Switch: A Swedish fisherman digging for bait near his summer cottage unearthed a corroded copper cauldron containing up to 20,000 medieval silver coins, rings, and pendants.

🐀 Rats Off to Ya: The endangered Palau ground dove population has rebounded significantly after a successful rat eradication campaign on Ulong Island removed invasive rodents that preyed on bird eggs, chicks, and native plants.

ROCA WRAP
Dracula

Bela Lugosi

This Hungarian actor became so identified with Dracula that he was buried in the vampire's cape.

Born Béla Blaskó in 1882 in Lugos (now part of Romania), Lugosi dropped out of school at 12 to work manual labor jobs after his father died. He began acting on Hungarian stages in 1902, eventually performing in over 170 productions. During World War I, he served as an infantry lieutenant in the Austro-Hungarian Army, earning a Wound Medal for injuries on the Russian front. After participating in Hungary's 1919 Communist Revolution, Lugosi was forced to flee when the government changed hands, arriving in New Orleans as a merchant seaman in 1920.

Working initially as a laborer in New York, Lugosi joined the city's Hungarian immigrant theater community and formed a touring stock company. He appeared in his first English Broadway production in 1922, then landed the role that would define his life: Count Dracula in the 1927 Broadway adaptation of Bram Stoker's novel. The production ran for 261 performances in New York before touring nationwide through 1928 and 1929. Lugosi claimed he performed the role approximately 1,000 times during his lifetime.

When Universal Pictures began producing the film version of Dracula in 1930, Lugosi wasn't their first choice, but he eventually won the part by accepting $3,500 ($67,500 in 2025) for seven weeks of work. The 1931 film made him famous but locked him into horror villain roles for the rest of his career. He lost out on non-horror parts to other actors, including the role of Rasputin. Despite his attempts to break free, directors viewed him as only suitable for horror films.

Lugosi developed chronic sciatica, allegedly from military injuries, and doctors prescribed morphine and methadone for pain relief. His drug dependence and alcoholism became apparent to producers, and after 1948's Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, his career collapsed. He spent his final years appearing in low-budget films, many directed by Ed Wood, who found him living in poverty. Wood cast him in Glen or Glenda (1953) and Bride of the Monster (1955), and used footage of Lugosi shot shortly before his death in Plan 9 from Outer Space, released posthumously in 1959.

Lugosi married five times and had one son. In 1955, he voluntarily sought treatment for drug addiction at age 73. After his release, he made one final film, The Black Sleep (1956), playing a mute butler with no dialogue. On August 16, 1956, he died of a heart attack while napping in his Los Angeles apartment. His son and fourth wife decided to bury him in his full Dracula costume, including the cape and ring, believing it's what he would have wanted.

The man who desperately tried to escape Dracula's shadow went to his grave wearing the vampire's clothes.

EDITOR’S NOTE
Final Thoughts

If you haven’t watched any of our YouTube videos yet, we highly encourage it. We are pouring a ton of our time and attention into them, and the channel is our fastest-growing content line by far.

This newsletter, however, remains closest to our hearts. It’s the one thing we publish today that we’ve done continuously since our launch date in August 2020. So thank you to all of our OG readers and our new readers. And happy Halloween!

–Max and Max