🌊 UK Goes DOGE

Plus: CDC director withdrawn, Putin balks at ceasefire deal, & 20 Questions!

March 14, 2025

Happy Pi Day to all who celebrate.

Here’s a mind-blowing fact: There were woolly mammoths on Earth when we discovered Pi. The Babylonians came up with it in 2000 BC, and scientists believe the last woolly mammoths were roaming the Earth around then. They derived an approximate value of 3.125 for Pi. But here’s my beef: When the Babylonians approximate Pi at 3.125 they’re hailed as geniuses, but when I approximated it as “north of 0” my 11th grade math teacher tells me Little Caesar’s is hiring a new sign spinner.

😷 CDC director pick withdrawn

❌ Putin not on board with ceasefire yet

🇬🇧 UK goes full DOGE

–Max and Max

KEY STORY

CDC Pick Withdrawn

The White House withdrew Dave Weldon’s nomination to serve as CDC director

  • Throughout his career, Weldon, a physician and former Florida congressman, had called for more research into the link between vaccines and autism

  • Trump had said Weldon could help restore faith in the CDC

  • On Thursday, just before his hearing, Trump revoked his nomination after it became clear he did not have enough votes to advance in the Senate because of his vaccine views. It’s unclear who will replace him

Dig Deeper

  • Among various statements Weldon made in Congress, he said, “Children may have serious side effects from some of these vaccines that is really going undetected, unnoticed and yes, it may actually cause autism”

  • He also said, “Federal agencies charged with overseeing vaccine safety research have failed. They have failed to provide sufficient resources for vaccine safety research. They have failed to adequately fund extramural research. And, they have failed to free themselves from conflicts of interest that serve to undermine public confidence in the safety of vaccines”

  • Weldon’s views had come under intense scrutiny amid the current measles outbreak

KEY STORY

Russia’s Ceasefire Demands

Vladimir Putin said Russia agreed with the US push for a ceasefire but that many details needed to be sorted out

  • On Tuesday, US and Ukrainian officials met in Saudi Arabia and agreed on a 30-day ceasefire proposal. The US then took that plan to Russia

  • On Thursday, Russia replied with a list of demands that included no NATO membership for Ukraine, no foreign troops in Ukraine, and recognition of Russia’s claim to Crimea and four Ukrainian provinces

  • Russia currently appears to be making gains in the war, strengthening its negotiating position

  • It’s unclear how the administration plans to respond to Russia’s demands

Dig Deeper

  • On Thursday, Putin said during televised remarks that Russia agreed with the need for a ceasefire but demanded more favorable terms

  • Putin said, “The idea itself is good, and we of course support it, but there are questions we have to discuss,” particularly on how a ceasefire would be enforced and the root cause of the conflict. Among various demands, Russia called for taking over four provinces in eastern Ukraine and no foreign troops being stationed within Ukraine

  • Russia's current demands mirrored past ones, however, General Keith Kellogg, the US’ top envoy for Russia, said last week, “I think we have to develop something entirely new,” suggesting Russia’s past demands wouldn’t be a starting point in talks

QUOTE OF THE DAY

A government of laws, and not of men

John Adams

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KEY STORY

UK Goes DOGE

UK PM Keir Starmer announced major changes to the civil service and health system to make the government more efficient

  • Last Sunday, Starmer’s Cabinet Office minister, who oversees the government’s functioning, said the PM will outline “radical” reforms to the Civil Service, which “would and can” be smaller

  • On Thursday, Starmer announced the elimination of NHS England – an administrative body that oversees the National Health Service – in order to cut costs and bring the NHS “back into democratic control”

  • Starmer added that the UK will replace workers with AI where possible and seek to cut regulation costs by 25%

Dig Deeper 

  • Starmer told government workers to abide by the philosophy that “no person’s substantive time should be spent on a task where…AI can do it better, quicker, and to the same high quality”

  • The head of a government union responded by saying, “I urge everyone in government to avoid the incendiary rhetoric and tactics we are seeing in the United States,” in reference to DOGE

KEY STORY

EU’s Weapons Plan

The EU proposed a plan to collectively buy weapons on behalf of member states

  • Europe has dramatically escalated its defense spending and preparations amid concerns that the US is shifting away from transatlantic security commitments

  • On Thursday, the EU further increased continental security by announcing plans to buy arms collectively, arguing it is the “most cost-effective route to build European defence”

  • The need for greater European military cohesion is driven by Trump’s statements questioning US support for NATO members that do not meet high spending benchmarks

Dig Deeper

  • The plan has drawn comparison to the pandemic, when the EU used its collective bargaining power to buy vaccines

  • The announcement comes as European defense companies boom: German weapons manufacturer Rheinmettal’s share price has climbed 80%, France’s Thales and Italy’s Leonardo have both grown over 50%, and Britain’s BAE is up over 33%

RUNDOWN
Some Quick Stories for the Office

🍷 President Trump threatened 200% tariffs on European wine and spirits, escalating a trade war with the EU

📈 The stock price of struggling chipmaker Intel jumped 15% on Thursday after it named a new CEO

🇷🇴 Romania’s Constitutional Court upheld a political ban against Calin Georgescu, the popular anti-NATO candidate whose candidacy was controversially disqualified by electoral authorities

🧑‍⚖️ A federal judge ordered six federal agencies to reinstate thousands of fired probationary employees

🪖 Jack Teixeira, the Air National Guardsman who leaked top-secret documents about the war in Ukraine on Discord, pleaded guilty in military court to obstructing justice by attempting to destroy evidence of his crimes

What does Roca Nation think?

🧠 Yesterday’s Question: Should the Columbia grad student Mahmoud Khalil be deported?

Although I do not agree with the method used by the Columbia Pro-Palestinian activists, (disrupting classes, takeover of academic buildings, bullying of Jewish students,) Mr. Khalil is a documented green card resident entitled to the protections of the U.S. constitution including free speech. He definitely should NOT be deported. If the Proud Boys and other neo-Nazi groups can demonstrate and spew hate under the protection of "free speech," then Mr. Khalil must be awarded the same right. All the malicious, derogatory, inflammatory statements by #47 should result in HIM being deported to Putin's Siberean riviera.

Jazmin from NYC

If this guy is a student here on a green card, he should consider it a privilege. He's taking up space that some other student would be happy to fill. Supporting a terrorist group like Hamas and inciting campus antisemitism is not okay and there should be consequences to his actions. If that means deportation, so be it.

Larry in California

Absolutely he should be deported as a terrorist. He supports a terrorist organization and encouragement of antisemitism on campus. If this were to happen to black students there would be outrage! The fact that it is happening to Jews just shows how Jews continue to be scapegoats for everything and that antisemitism is alive and well. He gets what he deserves. This is the only thing I agree with the president on right now.

Hilary from Long Island

20 Questions!

Sorry for no trigger warning, but this is what we look like.

After rating movies and songs, we wanted to mix it up with a ratings edition of 20 Questions we've never done before: Iconic Quotes. From Descartes' "I think therefore I am" to Ohio State QB Cardale Jones' "We ain't come here to play school," we cover a lot of ground in this one.

Last Week’s Responses

Average ratings from last week’s song ratings edition, on a scale of 1-10.

Stairway to Heaven - 7.8
Fortunate Son - 7.3
Landslide - 7.3
Dancing Queen - 7.0
Viva La Vida - 6.3
Gold Digger - 4.3
Play That Funky Music - 6.5
I Want You Back - 6.0
Before He Cheats - 5.6
Teenage Dirtbag - 5.0
Here Comes the Sun - 7.5
Gimme Shelter - 7.0
Crazy - 5.6
If I Ain’t Got You - 5.6
Not Like Us - 4.6
Isn’t She Lovely - 7.2
Bohemian Rhapsody - 8.7
My Way - 7.6
Sound of Silence - 7.9
American Pie - 7.9

POPCORN
Some Quick Stories for Happy Hour

🚽 Toilet Troubles Ground Flight: A flight from Chicago to Delhi, India was forced to return to the US after passengers flushed plastic bags, rags, and clothes down the toilets, clogging eight of the plane's 12 bathrooms

📚 Little Library, Big Milestone: The Little Free Library movement installed its 200,000th book-sharing box at a Minnesota elementary school and shared plans to donate 199 more libraries to schools across America

🐈‍⬛ Fiery Adventure’s Purr-fect Ending: A cat named Aggie survived two months on her own after a wildfire destroyed her family's Los Angeles home, later reuniting with her 82-year-old owner

🍾 Prohibition Stash Surfaces on Jersey Shore: A man discovered 11 sealed bottles of Prohibition-era whiskey washed up on a New Jersey beach after his dog became fixated on the brown bottles in the sand

🌱 Mardi Gras Going Green?: LSU students created biodegradable Mardi Gras beads that can be planted after celebrations, tackling the environmental problems of plastic beads that take 500 years to decompose

EDITOR’S NOTE
Final Thoughts

Your top five songs ended up being solid — although a bit basic: 1) Bohemian Rhapsody 2) Sound of Silence 3) American Pie 4) Stairway to Heaven 5) My Way. Rap and country are evidently so polarizing that each lost to Play That Funky Music by Wild Cherry.

Hope you have an amazing weekend.

–Max and Max