The Current
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🌊 Gemini Cricket! Google’s Stock 📉

🌊 Gemini Cricket! Google’s Stock 📉

PLUS: SCOTUS hears massive social media case

Let them eat Apple Jacks.

Kellogg’s CEO is encouraging Americans to eat cereal for dinner to relieve the economic pressure they’re experiencing. That has put him in hot water – or milk – as many are deeming his campaign insensitive.

We can’t wait for the CEO of Procter & Gamble to one-up this dude and launch a “Mr. Clean for cologne” campaign. That one might get us.

In today's edition:

📉 Gemini hurting Google stock?

🍔 Wendy's channels inner Uber

🤔 Roca Votes

And so much more!

–Max, Max, Jen, and Alex

KEY STORY
Free Speech on Social Media

The US Supreme Court (SCOTUS) heard arguments about whether states can restrict what types of content social media companies can moderate

In 2021, Texas and Florida passed laws banning tech companies from moderating some types of content. Tech organizations sued over those, arguing they violate tech companies’ First Amendment rights
SCOTUS is now considering both cases. The cases hinge on whether tech companies are more like “common carriers” – enterprises that are open to the general public – or publishers, like newspapers
Both laws are suspended pending SCOTUS’ ruling, which is expected by late June. Donald Trump has supported the states, while the Biden administration has supported the tech companies

Dig Deeper

During oral arguments on Monday, SCOTUS justices appeared to generally support tech companies’ free speech rights, and thus their ability to moderate content
Yet they also asked questions about how they could ensure tech companies don’t limit other forms of online speech, such as email or direct messages
One conservative justice pushed back on use of the term “censorship,” saying only governments can censor

KEY STORY
Israel-Hezbollah Tensions Rise

A day after its defense minister warned of an escalation against Hezbollah, Israel conducted its deepest airstrike in Lebanon since October 7

Since October 7, Israel and Lebanon-based Hezbollah have traded near-daily fire. Amid the violence, Israel has evacuated thousands of civilians from its northern regions
On Sunday, Israel’s defense minister warned Hezbollah that if a ceasefire is signed with Hamas, Israel will “increase the fire in the north separately, and will continue until the full withdrawal of Hezbollah [from the border] and the return of Israeli citizens to their homes”
On Monday, Hezbollah missiles downed an Israeli drone. Israel responded with strikes against Hezbollah forces in eastern Lebanon, its deepest attack in Lebanon since October 7; Hezbollah responded with rocket strikes against an Israeli army headquarters

Dig Deeper

The exchange fueled speculation that conflict between Israel and Hezbollah is escalating
Since October 7, Israeli strikes have killed an estimated 200 Hezbollah fighters and 50 civilians; Hezbollah strikes have killed a dozen Israeli troops and five civilians

KEY STORY
Gemini Gaffes Hit Google Stock

Google parent Alphabet lost billions of dollars in market cap amid allegations that Google’s Gemini AI program is woke

One viral post showed Gemini responding to a prompt that asked if it is okay to misgender Caitlyn Jenner to avoid a nuclear war. It responded, “No, one should not misgender Caitlyn Jenner to prevent a nuclear apocalypse”
In another viral interaction, Gemini said it is “not possible to say… who negatively impacted society more, [Elon Musk’s memes] or Hitler”
On Monday, Alphabet stock fell 4.5%, knocking $90B off its market cap. One analyst said the selloff was driven by fears Google will be “seen as an unreliable source for AI to a portion of the population”

Dig Deeper

Another viral post asked Gemini if it is okay to be proud of one’s white heritage, to which it listed a series of reasons why race is a social construct and isn’t something to be proud of. When asked the same question about black heritage, Gemini replied, “Absolutely!”
The controversy came days after Google disabled some of Gemini’s image-generating features after posts went viral of it showing white historical figures, such as George Washington, as people of color

KEY STORY
BYD’s Electric Ferrari

BYD, the world’s largest electric vehicle (EV) manufacturer and a Tesla rival, unveiled an electric supercar that can reach a top speed of 192 MPH

Last quarter, China’s BYD surpassed Tesla as the world’s largest producer of fully-electric vehicles
On Sunday, BYD unveiled the Yangwang U9, a fully-electric supercar that can reach 60 MPH in 2.36 seconds. BYD said the car can reach a top speed of 192 MPH and has a range of 279 miles. It will begin delivering the car – priced at $233,000 – this summer
Those speed metrics put the U9 at par with some of the best cars produced by Ferrari and Lamborghini

Dig Deeper

For years, Tesla has teased an updated version of its electric Roadster sports car that can hit 60 MPH in 1.9 seconds and max out at 250 MPH
However, production of that vehicle – predicted to cost $200,000 – has been repeatedly delayed

RUNDOWN
Some Quick Stories for the Office

🇩🇰 Denmark dropped its investigation into the Nord Stream bombing. Sweden dropped its investigation earlier this month; Germany’s is still ongoing

🇮🇹 A priest in southern Italy canceled service after noticing a strange smell in the holy water and communion wine, which turned out to be bleach. He suspects a ‘Ndrangheta mafia member was behind the attempted poisoning

🇷🇺 An Alexei Navalny associate claimed that Russian President Vladimir Putin had Navalny killed to prevent a prisoner swap featuring Navalny and two Americans for a Russian hitman jailed in Germany

🇮🇷 A 25-year-old US Air Force member set himself on fire outside the Israeli Embassy in Washington, DC, to protest what he called “genocide” in Gaza. US Secret Service rushed him to a hospital, where he was declared dead

🍎 The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) filed a lawsuit to block supermarket chain Kroger’s $24.6B acquisition of rival Albertsons, which would be the largest in supermarket history

☢️ Iran intentionally reduced its near-weapons-grade enriched uranium stockpile for unknown motives, marking the first quarterly decline since 2021. It still possesses enough enriched uranium to make three bombs

COMMUNITY
Weekly Debate

We heard the Roca Votes didn’t show yesterday for all of you so running it back again. Let us know what you think after you read the Wrap!

Most news companies repress ideas they don’t agree with. We are different. To prove it, we’re making this a place where people can have a free and open debate. Each week we lay out a debate on Monday and feature responses below, replies to those the following day, and so on.

Read this week’s Roca Votes Wrap below and then let us know: Do you consider obesity a major issue in your country? If yes, do you find semaglutide’s popularity a helpful or harmful development?

In a related poll, we ask:

Today's Poll:

Should society should tread more cautiously with Ozempic and other new drugs, or embrace them as it has?

COMMUNITY
Treasure Hunt

Welcome to the weekly Roca treasure hunt! The rules are simple:

Every day we give a hint. You get one guess, which you submit by emailing [email protected] with a Google street view screenshot
Unlock an extra hint each Thursday once you refer five friends
The first person to guess the answer wins this week’s prize: A free year of Roca premium!

Clue 1: Three continents strong

Clue 2: Conceived by a coward

Know the answer? Send the Google street view screenshot to [email protected].

POPCORN
Some Quick Stories for Happy Hour

🎄 Caught tree-handed: An Irish court dismissed a 36-year-old woman’s ~$823,000 injury claim from a car crash after a photo showed her throwing a Christmas tree in a Christmas tree-throwing contest

🍔 Meat surge: Wendy’s plans to test an “Uber-style” surge-pricing model where prices will change based on demand. A burger could cost $1 more at peak times or $1 less during slow periods

⛪️ Blessing Bad: A priest said the Catholic Church facilitated a truce between two rival Mexican drug cartels. A turf war between them had resulted in dozens of deaths

A sad day for America…

🪦 Only good comes from Hooters: West Virginia residents transformed a candlelight vigil for a beloved Hooters into a fundraiser effort to help a family in need. The vigil was initially scheduled as a joke

🚂 Ghost train: Indian Railways launched an investigation after a freight train left its drivers behind and traveled ~43 miles before eventually stopping. It reached speeds of ~60 MPH and passed five stations

🔱 “Honey, did you meet the new neighbor?” A homeless man who used an excavator to dig up a Seattle park has built a cabin on the site and claims he’s mining for gold

ON-THE-GROUND
Roca in Serbia

We send our co-founder Max Frost to investigate topics around the world and he writes about them here. He’s currently writing from Serbia. Subscribers receive the full stories.

Belgrade is the center of this part of the world. It’s the New York City of the Balkans; the Moscow of Yugoslavia; the London of Serbia.

It’s not huge – 1.7M people live there, a fraction of those other cities – but for generations, it has sucked in the people and places around it and spat out the ideas and leaders that have shaped southeastern Europe. That includes Josep Broz Tito, the Yugoslav dictator who arrived there in 1926 and led strikes among the city’s workers; Nikola Tesla, who pushed the boundaries of science; and Slobodan Milosevic, whose Beglrade-based government helped destroy Yugoslavia and the countries around it.

Traveling into Belgrade, you feel the city’s gravity. It starts on the train: Serbia’s one modern train line runs dozens of times daily between Novi Sad and Belgrade. On that train line, as you travel down the Danube River, the buildings get closer together, taller, less cement, more glass. Eventually, you reach suburbs that would fit in any Western European capital. Glass office buildings, skyscrapers. For the first time in the Balkans, I felt like I was in a metropolis.

That’s Belgrade’s superficial experience. Then you get off the train and enter the city.

It’s gridlocked traffic; nationalist graffiti on the walls that says “Fuck you NATO” and tells Serbia to “Send the army back to Kosovo.”

If you have the taxi driver I did, he asks you where you’re from and you say, “America.” He then tries to charge you $20 for a $4 ride; you refuse; he insists; you hand him $10, grab your bags, slam the door, and walk away.

You find yourself in one part of the city center and think, “God this is an ugly city.” Brutalist, gray, drab, and decrepit; loud with traffic; streets that pedestrians have no shot at crossing.

Then you find yourself in another and you might as well be in Rome: Cobblestone pedestrian avenues lined with gorgeous European buildings outside of which sit attractive people drinking espresso and businesspeople having lunch.

The city is so confused you can’t tell if it’s nice or not. One block feels like the Soviet Union; the next like Paris. And the people don’t make it easier.

All around is graffiti that makes sure you know you are in the SERB capital. As an outsider – especially an American – you are not welcome here. Some graffiti uses racial slurs for Albanians; others mock the American flag and the European Union. On the street, you’ll see rough-looking men with the nationalist sign – a crown – tattooed on their faces or necks. One man in the city center aggressively walked at me, as if to shove me, then turned at the last second and shouted, “Kosovo IS Serbia.”

But then you sit down for an espresso, coffee, beer, or brandy – the local specialty – with a Belgrader, and they couldn’t be warmer, more welcoming. This is not Finland; there is no handshake and “nice to meet you.” There is a hug, a warm smile, a question – “Are you enjoying Belgrade?”, “What do you think of Serbia?” – to which they genuinely seem to want to know your answer. On its exterior, Belgrade likes nothing less than foreigners; on its interior, there’s nothing it likes more.

I spent the better part of a week in the city, and as you can guess, it was extremely interesting.

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

ROCA VOTES
Should America Be on Ozempic?

We founded RocaNews because we wanted news companies to give us just the facts – not tell us what to think. That inspires us each week to do the “Roca Votes” Wrap, in which we summarize a controversial topic and see how Roca Nation feels about it.

We heard the Roca Votes didn’t show yesterday for all of you so running it back again. Let us know what you think after you read the Wrap!

What do Elon Musk, Oprah Winfrey, and Amy Schumer have in common?

They’ve all taken semaglutide, a drug you may know better by brand names Ozempic and Wegovy.

The popularity of Ozempic and similar drugs has skyrocketed in recent years: Over the last five years, the total number of prescriptions has increased by a factor of 40, according to Epic Research. In the last three months of 2022, US doctors wrote 9M prescriptions for them.

The only thing slowing the growth of the drugs is that drug manufacturers can’t keep up with demand for them.

In the 2010s, the Danish pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk developed semaglutide to treat diabetes. In 2017, the FDA approved Ozempic, a brand name for semaglutide, specifically as a therapy for diabetes. Users quickly noticed that it did more than treat their diabetes: It shrank their waistlines.

Novo Nordisk decided to release semaglutide as a dedicated weight loss drug under a different brand name, Wegovy, which received FDA approval in 2021. Wegovy and Ozempic have since become the most popular weight loss drugs, propelling Novo Nordisk to become Europe’s most valuable company.

Semaglutide mimics a natural bodily hormone that tells the brain you’re full. It also slows digestion by increasing the time it takes for food to leave the body. Both Ozempic and Wegovy are taken by injection, although Novo Nordisk recently received approval to sell semaglutide as an oral pill as well.

Data show that despite their soaring popularity, Ozempic and Wegovy are reaching a fraction of their potential markets.

Roughly 3% of US adults take Wegovy, Ozempic, or similar diabetes and weight loss drugs. 42% of US adults are obese and millions more overweight, though, which means they have significant room to expand. Morgan Stanley projects that over the next 10 years, 7% of the US population — 24 million people — could be taking these drugs.

The drugs’ popularity has prompted questions about their side effects.

Common side effects include vomiting, diarrhea, constipation, and stomach pain, although the FDA side effect database reports that 7,075 users had side effects, resulting in 187 deaths.

One viral side effect is “Ozempic Face,” which describes the gaunt-looking face of Ozempic users who’ve rapidly lost weight.

Several lawsuits have been filed over serious side effects like gallbladder disease and gastroparesis, which the plaintiffs say Novo Nordisk failed to advertise and which the company says are not real concerns.

Some people say it’s too soon to know the drugs’ long-term impacts and should therefore be treated with care.

One representative study of 2,000 obese adults compared those using semaglutide plus a diet and exercise program with those who only did the diet and exercise program. After roughly 16 months, half of those who took semaglutide had lost 15% of their body weight and nearly a third lost 20%.

Those who only did the diet and exercise program lost about 2.4% of their weight. Other studies have confirmed similar levels of weight loss from comparable regimens.

In most developed countries, semaglutide is available via prescription to people who are obese, suffer from weight-related health conditions, or more.

While the drugs appear to be undeniably effective, people have voiced concern about unknown side effects, drug dependence, and more.

Others have said that even if semaglutide is a miracle drug, it is not a fix for the habits and lifestyle decisions that contribute to obesity.

That leads us to today’s Roca Votes:

Do you consider obesity a major issue in your country? Do you consider semaglutide a step toward solving that problem?

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

ROCA VOTES
Should America Be on Ozempic?

We heard the Roca Votes didn’t show yesterday for all of you so running it back again. Let us know what you think after you read the Wrap!

What do Elon Musk, Oprah Winfrey, and Amy Schumer have in common?