🌊 Eggs to the Moon

Super Bowl LIX in numbers…

• One - number of sitting US Presidents attending

• $8,076 - average price per ticket sold in recent weeks

• 1.47B - estimated number of chicken wings Americans will consume

• 68M - the number of Americans who bet on last year’s Super Bowl

• $200,000 - Bonus the referees will get if the Chiefs win (kidding!)

• $0 - How much money Roca gets from the USAID and the government in general

Hope you all have a great Super Bowl weekend. Link to “This or That” 20 Questions.

–Max and Max

KEY STORY

Gaza Update

Israel instructed its military to draft a plan to “allow voluntary departure” of Gaza residents

• The directive follows Trump’s statement that the US will “own” Gaza and “rebuild” it into a Middle Eastern riviera

• It’s unclear how whether Trump is serious about the plan or if it’s a negotiating tactic. The proposal has yielded fierce criticism, even from within his own party

• When asked about US forces being deployed to Gaza, Trump first stated, “If it's necessary, we'll do that.” He then backtracked on Thursday, saying Gaza “would be turned over to the United States by Israel at the conclusion of fighting”

• Arab leaders and many others have condemned any relocation of Palestinians

Dig Deeper

• Trump’s proposal has faced pushback from a range of “America First” Republicans, who oppose foreign intervention

• Steve Bannon, a key figure in the MAGA movement, said, “Our focus…is East Palestine [Ohio], not Palestine”; while Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) posted on X, “I thought we voted for America First. We have no business contemplating yet another occupation to doom our treasure and spill our soldiers'

• Others have speculated that Trump is using the threat of “taking” Gaza as a negotiating tactic to force a deal over the territory’s future

• Sen. John Fetterman – a pro-Israel Democrat – said that Trump highlighted some “truths about Gaza”

KEY STORY

Egg Prices

The average price of a dozen eggs in the US now exceeds $5

• Egg prices have increased over 160% from 2019 and 50% since February 2023, when they cost $3.50, to over $5.29 now. The increases have been largely blamed on a bird flu outbreak, which has led to the culling of 30M+ chickens

• The National Restaurant Association said that the increase has become “too much for any restaurant to absorb in their narrow margins,” forcing many to add per-egg surcharges

• The industry also faces a truck driver shortage, which is contributing to inflated costs

Dig Deeper

• Among the companies to raise egg-related prices is Waffle House, which has added a 50-cent surcharge per egg to address their rising cost. The breakfast chain said that the “continuing egg shortage….has caused a dramatic increase in egg prices”

• Regarding the driver shortage, one egg wholesaler was quoted as saying, “Long-haul truck rates are up and eggs are of course very transportation-intensive…even before we were dealing with avian flu, the trucks just weren't there to deliver eggs”

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Dig Deeper

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KEY STORY

Language Origins

A new study found that the ancient parent language to English, French, Spanish, Hindi, Persian, and other languages originated near present-day Southern Russia and Ukraine

• The Indo-European language family includes English; the Romance languages; Hindi; Russian; and more. Half of the world’s population speaks an Indo-European language

• In a new study, geneticists analyzed ancient DNA from fossilized bones and concluded that the first Indo-European speakers were hunter-gatherers in southern Russia around 6,000 years ago

• David Reich, the Harvard geneticist who led the research, said, “We’ve been on the hunt for this for many years”

Dig Deeper 

• In 1786, a British judge discovered similarities between distant languages like Sanskrit and Latin, leading to the identification of Indo-European languages. The category now includes around 445 languages

• Linguists and archaeologists have long been unable to determine which ancient people spoke the original Indo-European language – until now, it appears

KEY STORY

Politico vs. DOGE

Trump said that Politico receiving $8M in government payments was “the biggest scandal of them all”

• On the day Trump cut funding to USAID, Politico had payroll issues. That led conservatives to investigate its ties to USAID and find that Politico had received $8M from the government

• On X, Elon posted that Politico had received $8M from USAID, however, further analysis showed that the $8M figure was the total government expenditure on subscriptions for Politico Pro, a political “Bloomberg Terminal” used by both parties to track bills and more

• Still, Trump posted that the federal government’s payments to Politico and other media outlets were “the biggest scandal of them all, perhaps the biggest in history!”

Dig Deeper

• For context, Politico reported $200M in revenue in 2021, the year it sold for $1. While government agencies often buy news subscriptions for their employees, Politico Pro costs $10,000

• Amid the uproar, Musk posted on X that the subscriptions were “not an efficient use of taxpayer funds. This wasteful expenditure will be deleted”

• Conservatives celebrated the move as cutting waste and corruption; many in government said Politico Pro offers “essential” legislative data

RUNDOWN
Some Quick Stories for the Office

📈 The Bank of England (BoE) cut its 2025 growth forecast in half. It now projects .75% GDP growth in 2025 – around one-third the US’ expected growth rate

✈️ The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced it would cut flight arrivals at Reagan National Airport from 28 to 26 per hour after a collision between a helicopter and an American Airlines passenger jet killed 67 people

👎 Nissan and Honda’s merger talks reportedly fell apart after Nissan’s board rejected Honda's offer. Both companies are struggling on their own; a merger would have created the world’s third-largest car company

🔥 Per the UN, hundreds of women were raped and burned during a mass jailbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), as Rwanda-backed M23 rebels seized the city of Goma

💻 Google released an AI model called Gemini 2.0 Flash, which has a new “thinking” feature and a Pro version designed for coding

COMMUNITY
What does Roca Nation think?

🧠 Yesterday’s Question: What was the most memorable game to watch on TV in your life?

20 Questions!

Ladies and gentlemen, the Weeknd.

First of all, congratulations on a strong trivia performance last week. We were surprised to see how many of you got the smallest country by land area question right (Vatican City). We also were surprised to see how many people thought Tim Tebow went to Trump University. What a Heisman campaign he had there! Most tremendous Heisman trophy ever, so fantastic.

Now here we go with a "This or That" edition, featuring some really divisive topics. Have a great weekend!

Here is the link.

Last Week’s Answer Key

Answer key to last week’s trivia edition of 20 Questions.

Finish the movie quote: "____, I have a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore." - Toto
Finish the movie quote: "I feel the need — the need for ____." - Speed
Finish the movie quote: ""I'm pretty sure there's a lot more to life than being really, really ____ _____. And I plan on nding out what that is." - Good looking
What is the most abundant gas in Earth's atmosphere? - Nitrogen
Who developed the theory of general relativity? - Einstein
Which war was fought in the US between 1861 and 1865? - Civil War
Finish this confederate general's name: Stonewall _____. - Jackson
According to legend, where was Archimedes when he made his "Eureka" discovery? - Bathtub
Which classical composer was deaf and composed some of his most famous works while losing his hearing? - Beethoven
Which famous music festival was held in 1969 in Bethel, New York? - Woodstock
Who is known for the hit song "Shape of You"? - Ed Sheeran
Which famous female pop artist released the album "1989" in 2014? - Taylor Swift
Who was the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean? - Amelia Earhart
What is the smallest country in the world by land area? - Vatican City
Which planet is closest to the Sun? - Mercury
What is Ron's last name in the Harry Potter series? - Weasley
What is the most commonly used letter in the English language? - E
Bret Baier, Brit Hume, and Laura Ingraham are hosts at what news network? - Fox News
Where did Tim Tebow go to college? - University of Florida

POPCORN
Some Quick Stories for Happy Hour

🇦🇺 Identity Politics?: An Australian politician legally changed his name to "Aussie Trump" to protest the liberal government

🤨 New Take on a Jack and Coke?: Colombian President Gustavo Petro raised eyebrows by declaring cocaine "no worse than whiskey," suggesting it's only illegal because it comes from Latin America

🐈‍⬛ Cat-astrophe Avoided: Scotland's government was forced to officially announce it won't ban cats after a report suggesting "cat containment" measures sparked nationwide panic

🖥️ Gen-Z Tunes Out: Gallup's latest workplace survey revealed Gen Z is less engaged at work than older employees, with 30% of those under 35 reporting they lack enthusiasm about their job

 🇨🇿 Beavers Take Notes from DOGE: Beavers in the Czech Republic built a dam that the government had planned for seven years in two days, saving taxpayers 30M Czech crowns, or roughly $1.2M

ROCA VIDEO
Inside NYC's Secret Migrant Economy (ICYMI)

Since 2022, over 220,000 migrants have arrived in New York City. During that time, the city has spent over $6B on housing, feeding, and caring for them.

Many businesses — from hotels to food delivery apps — and even foreign governments have capitalized on the crisis and profited enormously off of it. In this video, we investigate NYC's secret migrant economy.

EDITOR’S NOTE
Final Thoughts

It was so much fun to read your answers to yesterday’s question about the most memorable game you’ve watched on TV. Texas-USC in the 2006 national championship was the most common answer, followed closely by Game 7 of the 2016 World Series and Game 7 of the 2016 NBA Finals. We also had a couple international readers mention cricket matches, so we have some homework cut out for us this weekend.

–Max and Max