🌊 The Great Leap Upward

SCOTUS must be more of a Reels kinda court.

This morning, the Supreme Court blocked TikTok’s First Amendment challenge of its impending forced sale. The decision was unanimous, and it likely means that TikTok will shut down by Monday. We should note, however, that the TikTok CEO will attend Trump’s inauguration — joining Bezos, Musk, and Zuckerberg in the tech world’s “Avengers, assemble!” — so maybe its ban will be short-lived?

We reached out to the Justices for comment, but they’re all apparently too busy binging Rizzler content to answer our request.

20 Questions Trivia Edition!

–Max and Max

KEY STORY

“TikTok Refugees” Flee to China

With a ban looming, American “TikTok refugees” are flocking to a Chinese social media app

• In Mao Zedong’s China, people were required to carry a “little red book” of Mao’s teachings. The new social media app – “Xiaohongshu,” meaning “little red book” – is a nod to that and has rocketed to the top spot on the App Store

• The app, known as “RedNote” does not have an American version, meaning that US users are interacting directly with Chinese users on the Chinese platform

• Many American users have described downloading the app as a protest against the TikTok ban, and interactions between American and Chinese users have gone viral

• Amid the migration to RedNote, language learning app Duolingo reported a surge in downloads and a 216% spike in American users learning Mandarin

Dig Deeper

• The Supreme Court’s refusal to block the ban may seal TikTok’s fate. Both Biden, despite signing the ban into law, and Trump have said they would prevent the app from shutting down, however, as an act of Congress, there may be little they can do. TikTok is currently poised to be taken off app stores on January 19 – this Sunday

KEY STORY

Ceasefire Update

Israel’s security cabinet approved the ceasefire deal after a “last-minute dispute” with Hamas that cast doubt over it

• On Wednesday, Hamas and Israel announced a ceasefire deal, scheduled to take effect Sunday. On Thursday, though, the Israeli cabinet canceled a meeting at which they would have endorsed it, citing last-minute changes by Hamas

• While details were unclear, the dispute reportedly involved the distance from which Israeli troops would have to withdraw from a major city

• After a fraught period, Israel’s security cabinet approved the deal on Friday, paving the way to its final approval. The first set of hostages may be released by Sunday

Dig Deeper

• Until the deal takes effect, the war continues: 72 people were reportedly killed in airstrikes in the Gaza Strip after the ceasefire deal was announced on Wednesday

• PM Netanyahu has faced intense pressure to both end and continue the war. Hostage families have led calls for the former, while right-wing ministers have threatened to bring down his government if he does so

ROCA’S SPONSOR

Hide that Pimple!

Together with ManStick

Your Best Skin Days Are Ahead of You

• Tired of pimples ruining your game? ManStick is your secret weapon

• ManStick’s military-grade formula instantly covers acne while adapting and blending to your skin, so it doesn’t look like you have any product on

• Real confidence shouldn't wait for pimples to clear - join the thousands of men who have grabbed a stick here

KEY STORY

Blue Origin Launch

Blue Origin successfully launched its “New Glenn” rocket into orbit

• New Glenn – a massive 320-foot rocket – is Blue Origin’s first rocket to enter orbit since Jeff Bezos founded the company 25 years ago. SpaceX’s first rocket did so in 2008

• The achievement comes after years of delays – Bezos had initially targeted a 2020 launch date – and opens the door to competition with SpaceX, including for NASA, Space Force, and other launch industry contracts

• Bezos had recently said, “All of the things we want to do in the future rely on New Glenn”

Dig Deeper 

• Blue Origin expects New Glenn to carry out several other missions to launch satellites into space and plans to introduce a lunar rover all within the next year

• While the flight into orbit went as planned, one part of the journey failed: Bezos had sought to land the rocket’s booster stage on a ship in the Atlantic Ocean, however, contact with the booster was lost during landing

KEY STORY

External Revenue Service?

President-Elect Trump announced plans to create an “External Revenue Service” on day one of his presidency

• Trump has called ‘tariff’ “the most beautiful word” and threatened to enact them on all imports, with ones of up to 60% on goods from China

• On Wednesday, Trump announced that he would create a new department – the External Revenue Service – "to collect tariffs, duties, and all revenue" from foreign sources

• Creating a new federal agency would require congressional approval, which would likely be a difficult and lengthy process. Currently, the Customs and Border Protection Agency and Department of Commerce are tasked with collecting revenue from tariffs

Dig Deeper

• "Through soft and pathetically weak Trade agreements, the American Economy has delivered growth and prosperity to the World, while taxing ourselves,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “It is time for that to change”

RUNDOWN
Some Quick Stories for the Office

🇩🇪 New data showed that Germany’s economy, Europe’s largest, shrank for the second consecutive year

🇺🇸 TikTok CEO Shou Chew will attend Donald Trump’s inauguration, joining a lineup of tech heavyweights with a prominent place at the event

🔬 Following a scientific review, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorized the marketing and sale of 10 flavors of Zyn, a popular nicotine pouch

🇺🇸 In his final presidential address to the nation, President Biden recounted his term and warned of an “oligarchy taking shape in America”

🏀 A group of high-powered investors is looking to raise $5B to create an international basketball league to rival the NBA

COMMUNITY
What does Roca Nation think?

🧠 Yesterday’s question: Do you believe in soulmates? Can two people in a vast world really be destined/perfect for each other?

Community
20 Questions!

Ladies and gentlemen, the Weeknd.

With all this talk about brainrot, we felt it was time for the return of a trivia edition of 20 Questions. Except this time, without the rope: No multiple choice. Don't feel ashamed if you struggle to answer some of these. We're aiming to have a median score of 12/20. Let's see how you all do.

Have a great long weekend. Go Irish! Go Bills! 

Here is the link.

Last Week’s Responses

Selected responses from last week’s classic edition of 20 Questions.

Your favorite local pizza spot? Give us location?
Georgio's Pizza East Lansing, MI
Woodstocks Pizza Davis, CA
Lou Malnati’s - Chicago/NW Indiana

Most delicious-looking fictional food from movies/TV?
cheese pizza from a goofy movie or those purple donuts from Jimmy Neutron
Chocolate River in Willy Wonka
Harry Potter movies…the feasts in the Great Hall
The food market on Crazy Rich Asians, and it was because we made sure to go when we visited Singapore

Your favorite weird combo of food?
Thin layer of peanut butter on a burger
pickles, ice cream
mustard/mayo sandwich

What's your take on gluten free people?
It’s probably fake - but if it works for them then each to their own
Too much gluten in people's diets these days, so I understand avoiding it. Sourdough is a traditional way of making bread that helps break down a lot of the gluten.
I think it's a made up malady. You didn’t hear about it until the last decade or so.

Which celebrity would you want to have a cooking show?
Nate Bargatze
Jack Black
Joe Pesci
Reese Witherspoon
Nicolas Cage

If you had to eat 5k calories in a day, what would your game plan be?

• used to do this before losing 140 lbs (still going) but i would drink a few cherry cokes, get a few snack cakes from the vending machine in the office, go and eat a huge burger from our local spot with fries and all, then go out and get bbq for dinner. snacking on bullshit from the vending machine throughout the day

• I'd have to still make it healthy-ish (no fast food, gross). Corned beef hash & eggs for breakfast with a protein smoothie bowl, Lunch would be quesabirria tacos with beans and rice, pizza and pasta for dinner, nuts and cheese for snacks, cheesecake for dessert with Ice cream if I'm falling short of 5k.

• French toast crusted with walnuts, raspberry sauce whipped cream, oj. Beef on Weck lots of horseradish , 5 Buffalo wings medium with Bleu cheese and celery,peanut butter pie, coffee. seafood bisque chicken French, small salad, angel hair with garlic and butter, piece of cheesecake with a cream sherry and coffeesolid

• The Great Saunter around Manhattan with stops at bagel shops, pizza, hot dogs, bakeries, ice cream shops, halal carts and finish the day with a chipotle burrito bowl

• 2 egg, bacon and on everything bagel with a large wedge of crumb cake from lox of bagels, snack, king size milky way, lunch Chick-fil-A chicken deluxe sandwich, fries and 3 chocolate chip cookies, snack apple, dinner cheeseburger pizza from Talk of the Town. Desert brownie sundae...

POPCORN
Some Quick Stories for Happy Hour

🦅 He Handled This one Poorly: The handler of Italian soccer team Lazio’s falcon mascot was fired after posting a picture of his prosthetic genitalia on social media

🎾 Avatar Open: The Australian Open is live-streaming matches on YouTube using animated players in a Wii Sports-style cartoon display

🌒 Houston, We have Property Rights: The World Monuments Fund (WMF) placed the surface of the moon on a list of “threatened heritage sites”

🚲 Call Him By Your Fine: Officials are disputing Timothee Chalamet’s claim that he was fined £65 after parking a Lime Bike on the red carpet of a movie premier in London

⚖️ McGregor Hit With New Lawsuit: Irish MMA fighter Conor McGregor faces a new lawsuit stemming from his alleged sexual assault of a woman at the Miami Heat arena in October 2023

ROCA VIDEO
Why Gen Z Men Are Rapidly Losing Their Fertility

Gen Z men have about half the sperm their grandfathers had. There’s a fertility crisis unfolding, a Spermageddon. Across the globe, sperm counts have been dropping for decades. Over the last 40 years, sperm concentration in men has fallen a staggering 60%. And the rate of decline is accelerating. In this video we investigate why.

EDITOR’S NOTE
Final Thoughts

It may not have been the most practical question, but we loved reading your 5k calorie game plans from last week’s 20 Questions. For context, you’d have to eat seven double quarter pounder cheeseburgers from McD’s to cross the 5k threshold. Some of you had WW2 military-general-level strategies ready to go. But nobody’s taking the 1,000 sticks of Five gum path? Surprising.

Have a great MLK weekend, and don’t try the 5k calorie plan at home, kids (try it at Waffle House instead). We’ll see you on Tuesday, when hopefully the Notre Dame Fighting Irish will be national champions and the Buffalo Bills will be AFC Championship Game bound!

–Max and Max