🌊 It's File Time

Trump, Ronaldo, and Elon Musk walk into a bar…

That may sound like the start of a bad dad joke, but it’s basically exactly what happened last night. The occasion was a state dinner for Saudi Arabian royals, and the who’s who of the tech world — from Apple’s Tim Cook to Nvidia’s Jensen Huang — showed up to hopefully not audition for the next Riyadh Comedy Festival. Instead, they were all frantically searching, “Who’s Ronaldo?” Meanwhile, Trump at the head of the table was going, “I call him Little Lionel. He’s terrible.”

–Max and Max

KEY STORY

Congress Votes to Release Epstein Files

Congress voted overwhelmingly to compel the Justice Department to release files related to Jeffrey Epstein

• Representatives Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Ro Khanna (D-CA) introduced a discharge petition in July to force a vote on releasing Justice Department files related to Epstein

• President Trump initially opposed the measure and called it a "hoax," but Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and other Republicans signed the petition anyway

• On Sunday, Trump reversed his position and urged Republicans to support the bill. The bill passed the House 427-1 on Tuesday, hours later the Senate indicated they would also pass it unanimously

• House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) called the legislation a "political stunt" and said it needed amendments in the Senate to protect victims who want to remain anonymous. Despite Johnson's call for amendments, the Senate passed the bill without any

Dig Deeper 

• The Senate unanimously passed the House version of the bill Wednesday morning after indicating Tuesday night they would do so, sending the bill to President Trump’s desk

• Trump has said he would sign the bill if it passes in the Senate, though he already has the authority to direct the Justice Department to release the documents as he previously did with files related to the JFK and MLK Jr. assassinations

• The bill would require the Justice Department to release all unclassified records, documents, communications, and investigative materials related to Epstein's investigation and prosecution

KEY STORY

Trump Transfers Education Department Programs

The Trump Administration announced that it had finalized agreements to transfer portions of the Education Department to other federal agencies

• Trump signed an executive order in March directing the secretary of education to begin eliminating the department, which was created by Congress in 1979. Only Congress can officially eliminate a federal department, but the administration has pursued workarounds by transferring programs to other agencies through interagency agreements

• The administration signed six interagency agreements on Tuesday affecting billions in federal education funding. The agreements transfer former Education Department offices to the Department of Labor, the Interior Department, the Health and Human Services Department, and the State Department

Dig Deeper 

• Under these arrangements, the Education Department retains policy oversight while other agencies administer the programs. Staff working on the transferred programs are expected to move to their new agencies in the coming weeks and months

• The changes did not include the department's special education office, Office for Civil Rights, or Federal Student Aid office, though officials said they are still considering options for moving those programs elsewhere in the government

• Roca’s Max T recently wrote a two-part series highlighting arguments both for and against cutting the Education Department. If you missed them, read them here: The Case to Cut the Department of Education and The Case to Save the Department of Education

KEY STORY

Court Blocks Texas’ Redistricting Plan

A federal court blocked Texas from using a new Republican-drawn congressional map

• Every 10 years, states redraw their congressional district lines based on census data. President Trump this summer pushed Texas to take the unusual step of redrawing its map in the middle of the decade, years before the next census, making Texas the first state to do so

• On Tuesday, a three-judge federal panel issued a 2-1 ruling that blocked the new map and ordered Texas to use the congressional map it drew in 2021 for next year's elections

• The court said that Texas had racially gerrymandered the new map, meaning the state drew district lines based on race rather than purely political considerations

Dig Deeper 

• The new map reduced from 16 to 14 the number of congressional districts where minorities make up a majority of voting-age citizens. It eliminated five of nine "coalition" districts, where no single racial or ethnic group has a majority, but minorities together outnumber white voters

• Texas Governor Greg Abbott (R) said the state would appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court. Abbott said in a statement that the Legislature redrew the map "to better reflect Texans' conservative voting preferences" and called claims of racial discrimination "absurd"

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QUOTE OF THE DAY

KEY STORY

Britain Proposes Overhauls to Asylum System

The UK government proposed sweeping changes to its asylum policies in response to rising immigration concerns that have propelled the anti-immigration Reform UK party to the top of polls

• Under the proposed changes, refugees granted asylum would wait 20 years – instead of five – before applying for permanent residency. The government would review refugee statuses every 30 months, ordering people to return if their countries become safer

• Asylum seekers would no longer automatically receive housing and financial support, and those who can work would be required to find jobs while their claims are processed. Officials would also confiscate valuable items from asylum seekers to offset processing costs

Dig Deeper 

• The proposals drew criticism from across the political spectrum. Some Labour lawmakers accused the government of pandering to right-wing voters, with one saying, "Many who have stuck with Labour so far will be repulsed by these attacks on vulnerable people fleeing war and persecution"

• The government also proposed changing how British courts interpret the European Convention on Human Rights to make deportations easier

• Reform UK currently leads in polls as Labour has slumped since taking power last year

WE THE 66
Inside the Citizens United Decision (Part 1)

This is part 1 of a three-part series on how the Citizens United decision led to the rise of Super PACs and “dark money”

• It all started with a documentary about Hillary Clinton that a group named Citizens United wanted to run

• The subsequent Supreme Court decision changed politics forever. Here’s Part 1

RUNDOWN
Some Quick Stories for the Office

🕊️ The UN Security Council voted 13-2 to back President Trump's Middle East peace plan for postwar Gaza, with Russia and China abstaining.

🛜 Cloudflare, which provides security and traffic management services for approximately one-fifth of the internet, experienced a network disruption on Tuesday that affected websites and apps globally for around four hours before the company announced it had resolved the issue.

🇻🇪 Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro said he is willing to hold face-to-face talks with Trump Administration representatives as US pressure on his government intensifies.

📲 A federal judge rejected the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) attempt to force Meta to sell Instagram and WhatsApp, ruling the government failed to prove Meta operates an illegal monopoly.

🇸🇦 President Trump met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at the White House on Tuesday. Trump defended the crown prince over the 2018 killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, stating bin Salman “knew nothing” about it despite US intelligence findings to the contrary.

What does Roca Nation think?

🎄 Yesterday’s Question: Which artist do you most closely associate with Christmas music? Why?

💰 Today’s Question: What’s a lobbying organization/industry/league that you feel has too much control?

POPCORN
Some Quick Stories for Happy Hour

⛳ Par for the Course: A Hooters in Augusta, Georgia, where golf legend John Daly traditionally parked his RV during Masters week, was demolished this week.

🥪 Spread Too Thin: An Australian prisoner serving life for murder is suing the state of Victoria, claiming the prison's ban on Vegemite violates his human right to enjoy Australian culture.

👃 Match Maker: A Swedish father broke a Guinness World Record by stuffing 81 matches into his nostrils after his children told him it would be "so cool" if he held a record.

🐆 Spot On: A leopard has been photographed in South Africa's West Coast National Park for the first time in 170 years, marking a major conservation victory.

™️ The Real Swim Shady: Eminem is suing an Australian beachwear company called Swim Shady, claiming its name infringes on his trademarked rap pseudonym Slim Shady.

ROCA WRAP
The Reluctant Animator

Hayao Miyazaki

This animator has announced his retirement multiple times, only to return and win another Academy Award in his eighties.

Born in Tokyo in 1942 during World War II, Hayao Miyazaki survived Allied bombing raids as an infant before becoming one of animation's most influential figures. He co-founded Studio Ghibli in 1985, creating films like Spirited Away and My Neighbor Totoro that broke box office records and won Academy Awards. His childhood experiences and his mother's struggle with tuberculosis shaped narratives exploring humanity's relationship with nature, featuring strong female protagonists.

Miyazaki insists on hand-drawing each frame of his films rather than relying on computer animation. He forgoes traditional screenplays, instead developing narratives as he designs storyboards. This meticulous approach led Princess Mononoke to feature 144,000 hand-drawn cells, with Miyazaki personally supervising about 80,000 key animation frames. Ponyo contained 170,000 frames, a record for the director. He oversees every frame personally, often working before and after normal hours to maintain his exacting standards.

When shown an AI-generated zombie in 2016, Miyazaki called the work "an insult to life itself," refusing to use artificial intelligence at Studio Ghibli. He has criticized the anime industry broadly, saying it's "produced by humans who can't stand looking at other humans," condemning what he sees as animators' refusal to observe actual people.

Miyazaki describes his characters as "brave, self-sufficient girls that don't think twice about fighting for what they believe in," who may need friends but never saviors. His female protagonists – from Nausicaä to Chihiro in Spirited Away – possess complex characteristics and are never objectified. Producer Toshio Suzuki described him as a feminist, though Miyazaki said he simply wants to entertain.

Miyazaki announced his retirement from feature films in 2013 after The Wind Rises, but began animation work on a new film in 2016 without official approval. The Boy and the Heron opened in 2023 and won him his second Academy Award in 2024 at age eighty-three, making him the oldest director to win Best Animated Feature. Studio Ghibli executives report that he continues attending the office daily to plan his next film.

For an animator who has declared his retirement only to come back more dedicated than ever, continuing to work into his eighties might be his most predictable move yet.

EDITOR’S NOTE
Final Thoughts

Today is an extremely special day in the Roca office since our third cofounder, a certain Billy Carney, celebrates his birthday today. And he celebrates his birthday today because it is his birthday today. Happy Birthday to Billy, and all the other November 19 kings and queens in our community.

As always, thank you for reading Roca. Happy Hump Day!

–Max and Max