🌊 Iran Attacks Israel

Plus: This plane runs on… poo?

April 15, 2024

Welcome, new readers!

We would like to extend a warm welcome to all of you who are joining us from Instagram. You will find that we're a little more buttoned-up here than we are there. And that is because our newsletter readers are just a little bit brighter. Kidding, of course! It's more than a little bit.

In today's edition:

⛴ US Coast Guard rescues castaways

🏝 Beer Can Island for sale for... how much?

🤔 Roca Votes

–Max, Max, Jen, and Alex

FEATURED KEY STORY

Iran / Israel Crisis

Iran fired 300+ missiles and drones at Israel on Saturday night in response to Israel’s bombing of Iran’s embassy complex in Syria

  • On April 1, Israel bombed a building used for military operations at Iran’s embassy complex in Syria’s capital. The strike killed a senior Iranian general and prompted Iran to vow retaliation

  • On Saturday night, Iran fired 300+ drones and missiles at Israel. Israel, with the assistance of the US, UK, and Jordan, shot down 99% of the projectiles, Israel has claimed. One did strike an Israeli military base, although it was able to continue functioning, and another wounded an Israeli civilian

  • The question now is how Israel will respond: Before Iran’s attack, Israel’s foreign minister vowed that if Iran attacked from its territory, Israel would respond by attacking targets in Iran. Meanwhile, Iran said that if Israel retaliates, it will conduct a larger attack

  • In a phone call, President Biden said the US will help Israel defend itself but won’t support an Israeli counterattack; Israel is currently considering its next steps

Dig Deeper

  • Axios quoted President Biden as telling Israel’s prime minister, “You got a win. Take the win.” Many in Israel, meanwhile, are calling for a firm response against a major attack on their territory

  • While unprecedented, Iran’s attack did not appear designed to inflict massive casualties. Some of Iran’s drones and missiles took hours to reach Israel, allowing it and its allies to track and shoot them down. Iran also did little to conceal preparations for the attack

  • The attack marked the first direct attack on Israel by a foreign country since Saddam Hussein’s Iraq fired missiles at it in 1991

KEY STORY

House Passes Surveillance Bill

The US House voted to renew a measure that allows warrantless surveillance of non-US citizens

  • In 2008, Congress enacted Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which lets the US spy on non-US citizens living outside the US without a warrant. The US can’t target US citizens or non-US citizens living in the US, but it can intercept communications between foreign targets and US citizens

  • On Friday, the House approved a two-year renewal of 702. Further-right Republicans teamed up with progressive Democrats to vote against it, claiming it lets the US spy on US citizens without a warrant

Dig Deeper

  • Minutes before the final vote, critics of Section 702 attempted to pass a measure requiring US intelligence agencies to procure a warrant before accessing information on US citizens. That vote tied 212-212, killing the measure (a tie loses in the House)

  • Former president Donald Trump called on Republicans to oppose Section 702’s reauthorization, falsely claiming the FBI had used it to spy on his 2016 presidential campaign. The FBI had used a different section of FISA to spy on Trump’s campaign, but not 702

KEY STORY

Poo —> Jet Fuel

European budget airline Wizz Air announced a deal to buy jet fuel made of human waste

  • The EU has mandated that 20% of airlines’ fuel by 2035 be “sustainable aviation fuel” (SAF). SAFs – made from household waste, cooking oils, sugars, and other materials – release less carbon than jet fuel but are several times more expensive

  • Last week, Wizz Air announced a plan to procure human feces-based biofuel from UK-based company Firefly, which will procure the feces from a waste company and then turn it into fuel. Firefly’s CEO said he is “hoping to change the world one stool at a time”

Dig Deeper

  • Firefly’s CEO said the company plans to use biosolids, or the final product of waste treatment. “There’s millions of tonnes of the stuff,” he said. He said it has already produced a small quantity of feces-based SAF that is “chemically indistinguishable” from jet fuel

KEY STORY

Abu Ghraib Trial

A trial beginning on Monday will let Abu Ghraib victims bring their claims before a US jury for the first time

  • In 2004, a CBS News investigation revealed that US soldiers and contractors tortured prisoners at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison

  • Almost two decades ago, a group of former Abu Ghraib victims sued CACI, a US government contractor that provided interrogators for the prison

  • The trial begins on Monday. The jury will hear testimony from three victims, as well as from US soldiers convicted of charges related to Abu Ghraib

Dig Deeper

  • CACI – which still works with the US – repeatedly attempted to have the case dismissed, arguing it had no authority to question the military and that it has immunity from prosecution

  • A key factor for a ruling against CACI is proving that the soldiers operated under CACI's jurisdiction – in other words, that CACI was directing the torture, not just following orders

  • The trial is civil, not criminal, meaning nobody will go to jail over it

SPONSORED

Startup Spotlight

Together with Brick

A couple friends get tired of their jobs and quit to solve a problem they’re passionate about…sound familiar?

  • Except this isn’t the story of Roca, this is the story of Brick: A Milwaukee-based startup founded by best friends TJ and Zach. After attending the University of Wisconsin, the 23-year-old duo realized that their phones were making their lives worse: Social media and notifications were preventing them from enjoying time with family and friends, distracting them from work, and more

  • Their solution was Brick – the company we’re excited to feature here today

  • Brick is a physical block that you can scan to lock and unlock apps on your phone. We at Roca used to use Screen Time, but all it took was two subconscious clicks for us to disable that and get back on Instagram. That led us to Brick, which is the best tool we’ve ever come across to prevent distraction and focus on our lives

Dig Deeper

RUNDOWN
Some Quick Stories for the Office

🇦🇺 A 40-year-old man fatally stabbed five women and one man at a mall in Sydney, Australia, on Saturday, before being fatally shot by police. His family said he had suffered from mental illness since he was a teenager

🧤 A lawyer who represented OJ Simpson said his brain will not be donated to science. Since OJ’s death last week, rumors have circulated that his brain would be used to study CTE, a degenerative neurological condition linked to repeated hits to the head

🇺🇦 Ukraine’s top military general wrote on Telegram on Saturday, “The situation on the eastern front has significantly worsened in recent days”

🇺🇸 On Friday, the Biden administration announced it would forgive $7.4B worth of student debt for 277,000 borrowers, bringing its total debt forgiveness to $153B for 4.3M borrowers

🇧🇴 A former US ambassador to Bolivia was sentenced to 15 years in prison after pleading guilty of spying for Cuba

🩸 The former CEO of a biotech company was sentenced to seven years in jail for fraud related to a Covid blood test. The CEO falsely claimed his company had developed a blood test that could test for Covid in 15 seconds

COMMUNITY

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

Read the Wrap below and reply to this email to answer this week’s topic: Should podcast hosts push back? If so, when? 

Today's Poll:

Are you happy with the amount of time you spend on your phone?

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POPCORN
Some Quick Stories for Happy Hour

😷 Yu-P-U: A Japanese Yu-Gi-Oh player withdrew from a tournament after saying that her male competitors were too “stinky”

📚 Real-life detention: A student in western New York state was arrested after sending a fax that pretended to be the principal resigning

😳 Hurt feelings: Drake responded to Rick Ross’s claim in a diss track about him having a nose job. Drake wrote, “He’s gone loopy off the Mounjaro he hasn’t eaten in days and it’s turned him angry and racist”

⛳️ Scottie does know: Scottie Scheffler, the world’s top-ranked golfer, won the Masters for the second time in three years with a four-shot victory at Augusta National

🇨🇦 O Nationalized Healthcare! An Ontario court ruled that the Canadian province must pay for a surgery to equip a non-binary person with a vagina while keeping their penis

ROCA VOTES
Is Pushback Necessary?

Podcasts witnessed an explosion during the pandemic – not just in terms of popularity, but importance, too.

While mainstream outlets were featuring similar voices with the same perspectives, podcasts broke the mold: Hosts built huge audiences by inviting guests whom mainstream outlets refused to platform.

No one did so more successfully – or controversially – than Joe Rogan.

Rogan was no stranger to controversy, having started his podcast in 2009 and featured such guests as Alex Jones and a joint-smoking Elon Musk.

He built his podcast into the world’s largest by letting people speak, even if what they were saying challenged accepted beliefs.

In one episode – with 59M YouTube views – Rogan interviewed Bob Lazar, a physicist who claimed to have reverse-engineered alien spaceships near Area 51. In another episode, he interviewed Graham Hancock, who claims the existence of lost prehistoric civilizations, contrary to mainstream belief.

Rogan’s signature style is to ask questions that keep the guest talking. Traditionally, he only pushes back if something seems clearly false or objectionable.

With Covid came substantial pressure to change that approach, as Rogan hosted guests who questioned mRNA vaccine technology, supported the lab leak theory, opposed lockdowns, and promoted non-standard treatments. 

By early 2022, mainstream outlets and personalities were widely accusing Rogan of spreading/broadcasting/endorsing misinformation.

That March, 270 doctors, physicians, and science teachers signed an open letter calling on Spotify – who had a $100M deal with Rogan – to “establish a clear and public policy to moderate misinformation.”

Biden’s press secretary called on Spotify to prohibit content that contained misinformation. If we have one principle at Roca, it’s a strong belief in the freedom to speak and access information.

With that being said, the question remains: Should hosts like Rogan push back on guests with controversial views? 

On one side are people who argue that Rogan, in using his platform – far and away the world’s largest podcast – has a responsibility to prevent the spread of lies, propaganda, and other misinformation.

With a platform as far-reaching as his, proponents of that view would call Rogan’s disclaimers that he is “not a scientist” insufficient. He must actively question and fact-check what his guests say, they argue.

On the other side of the debate are many people who say that it is not the host’s job to push back on what a guest says; that open conversation is acceptable; and that it is up to the listener to make up their own mind.

Some also question how lies, propaganda, and misinformation can even be defined, pointing to their political nature and countless instances in which shifting knowledge has cast doubt on previously accepted “truths.”

As Roca launches our podcast, we face these same questions. In the span of a conversation, almost every guest will say something that could be debatable, questionable, or even wrong.

The question is: Should the hosts push back? If so, when? 

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

EDITOR’S NOTE
Final Thoughts

Happy Monday Roca! And welcome to all the new subs from our Instagram. We hope you engage in the Roca Votes debate, and see you all back here tomorrow.

— Max, Max, Alex and Jen