Cocaine Bear sniffed up a respectable $23M at the box office this weekend. Although the story might not seem ~pawsible~, it's actually rooted in reality: In 1985, a bear OD'ed on cocaine that a drug smuggler threw out of a plane window. The legacy of Pablo Escobear has lived on since, and it's made us wonder: How did Smokey The Bear get his name?
In today's edition:
China sending arms to Russia?
James Bond gets censored
Ethiopia's #1 festival
🔑 Key Stories
Lab Leak or Natural Causes?
The US Department of Energy said a Chinese lab leak is the most likely cause of the Covid-19 pandemic
The World Health Organization and many other scientists have claimed Covid-19 originated in a seafood market in Wuhan, a city in central China, likely from eating undercooked meat
For years, though, others have theorized Covid-19 leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology. In 2021, the FBI announced that was its leading theory
On Sunday, the US Department of Energy – which oversees many US labs – said it now considers the lab-leak theory most likely, based on new unreleased information
Dig Deeper
4 US agencies plus a top national security panel still say with “low confidence” that Covid resulted from a natural mutation. Other agencies, such as the CIA, are officially undecided
No More Dog Heads Out Windows?
A Florida legislator proposed a bill to prevent people from letting dogs stick their heads out car windows
Animal welfare groups claim dogs can suffer serious injuries, including collisions and falling, from riding with their heads out car windows
The bill, proposed by a top Democratic state senator, would make it a traffic violation to let a dog “extend its head or any other body part” outside a moving car
It would also require drivers to restrain their dogs in moving cars; prohibit cat declawing and cosmetic testing on animals; and create an “animal abuser registry”
Dig Deeper
The bill prompted support from animal rights groups and criticism from those who viewed it as unnecessarily restrictive. In response, the lawmaker spearheading the bill said she could “easily amend this piece out of the bill” if voters prefer that
China to Arm Russia?
The head of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) said China is considering sending lethal military aid to Russia
China has avoided criticizing Russia since the war began but hasn’t provided it with military aid
On Sunday, though, the CIA director said, “We're confident that the Chinese leadership is considering the provision of lethal equipment.” Another administration official said going “down that road will come at real costs to China”
On Friday, China proposed a 12-point peace plan, although Ukraine and the US shot down most of it, calling China a biased party
Dig Deeper
US officials haven’t specified what China is considering providing, but have said it would be military. One German newspaper has made unverified claims that a Chinese company is in talks to provide Russia with 100 explosive drones
Elves + Protests in Mexico
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) appeared to suggest elves live in Mexico
On Saturday, AMLO tweeted a grainy picture that showed what appeared to be a creature with bright eyes sitting on a branch. He claimed it was an “aluxe,” which is a type of elf in Mayan folklore
The same tweet contained a photo of a Mayan sculpture that AMLO claimed resembled an aluxe. “Everything is mystical,” he wrote
The Mayans are an indigenous people who ruled parts of modern-day Mexico from ~200 AD until 1697 AD. Per their folklore, an “aluxe” was an elf-like creature that lived in the forest and often played tricks on humans, such as hiding objects
Dig Deeper
In other Mexican news, up to 500k people protested against a new law that limits the power of Mexico’s election commission. They say it undermines Mexico's democracy
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🍿 Popcorn
ICYMI
Green with Embiid: Philadelphia 76ers star Joel Embiid hit a 70-foot heave a split second after the buzzer that would have sent the thriller against the Celtics to OT
Censorship Royale: The James Bond books will be republished in April with all "offensive language" removed following a review from "sensitivity readers"
Hoarder of Omaha: Warren Buffett's holding company Berkshire Hathaway has increased its cash holdings to $129B, an extremely conservative position for the firm
Wildcard
Happiest person on Earth: A California man is in the Guinness Book of World Records for visiting Disneyland 2,995 straight days from 2012 to 2020
No country for Pfizer: Woody Harrelson drew ire online for his SNL monologue, during which he suggested Big Pharma set up Covid lockdowns to get everyone to buy their vaxxes
Kermitting to a good cause: A conservationist in Cameroon is on a mission to save the endangered goliath frog. The goliath frog can weigh up to 7 lbs
👇 What do you think?
Today's Poll
Today's Question:
Do you feel you would be prepared in the event of an emergency/natural disaster?
Reply to this email with your answers!
See yesterday's results below the Wrap!
🌯 Roca Wrap
"Max please stay for Timkat. Please, you have to stay for Timkat.”
That was what Russi, my Ethiopian friend in the US, said to me on the phone one night. For those who have been reading, Russi’s family hosted us for Ethiopian Christmas.
Alex and I were scheduled to return to the US a few days later, on January 17. But January 18 and 19 were Timkat, which is arguably Ethiopia's biggest holiday of the year. It’s the Ethiopian equivalent of Epiphany, which celebrates the baptism of Jesus.
Russi could not have been more adamant: To come to Ethiopia and leave the day of Timkat would be a massive mistake. Alex couldn’t change his flight, but I moved mine back 2 days.
***
An empty street on the morning of Timkat
The celebration began around noon on January 18, when I met Russi’s 3 nephews – Alex, Samy, and Fekade – and their 2 friends in the center of Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa. We parked the car and joined a crowd of people walking.
Church members chanting on the street
The crowd was walking to a church, which it then exited and joined another crowd, which had come from a different church. As we walked, another crowd joined us, this one from a different church. People kept flowing into the crowd.
Soon, the crowd had thousands of people, many of whom were singing and dancing. Men were banging drums while women were whooping, making a high-pitched “la-la-la-la” sound. The procession continued until we reached the main avenue, where we merged into a larger group of thousands more people. There were now tens of thousands of people.
More church members chanting on the street
“This is just the start,” Alex told me.
As we processed up the avenue, thousands more people joined the crowd. In the center of the avenue were religious groups, chanting, singing, dancing, banging drums, blowing horns. We walked until the end of the avenue, at which point it wasn’t possible to see the end of the crowd. There were easily hundreds of thousands of people in attendance.
This scene was playing out all over Addis Ababa and Ethiopia: In each Christian Orthodox community, the area’s churches come together and process to fields or a plaza, where they host a festival and religious ceremony. We just happened to be at the biggest such procession in Addis Ababa.
Church members with traditional instruments
We moved slowly along the sidewalk until we reached the end of the avenue. From there, the crowd poured onto a massive field, where religious officials were speaking and a festival was underway.
That was the first part of the festival, and the next part – the main part – would start the next morning. Tired and hungry, we headed elsewhere for dinner and drinks.
Women pray at the festival at the end of the day
The bar we ended up at was a “traditional culture house,” where a band was performing traditional Ethiopian songs and dance. If the competing and diverse cultures of Ethiopia have a dark side – ethnic violence, discrimination, killings – this was the opposite. Each song was in a different language and of a different style. One table next to us belted out the words to a Somali song; another joined in for an Amharic song; another for an Arabic song.
All of that was lubricated by tej – an orange, sweet, and strong honey wine that comes in hourglass-shaped bottles. After a few hours of music and drinking, we called it a night.
The next morning, the festival would resume. Then the partying would begin.
If you have thoughts, let us know at [email protected]!
A man praying in an Amharic t-shirt. Amharic is Ethiopia's main language
🌊 Roca Clubhouse
Yesterday's Poll:
Do you keep a journal?
Yes: 20.0%No: 80.0%
Yesterday's Question:
Just 20 Qs!
🧠 Final Thoughts
We hope you all had great weekends. We're bummed to say it but we will wrap up the Ethiopia content tomorrow. If there's anything you want us to investigate or do a deep-dive into after that, let us know.
Have a great Monday!
—Max and Max
