🌊 Kamala Walz'ing Through the Race

Walz it is.

Kamala Harris announced this morning that Minnesota’s Governor Tim Walz will be her running mate. A former schoolteacher and member of the Army National Guard, Walz served six terms in Congress before becoming the governor of the Land of 10,000 Lakes in 2018. He’s enacted progressive policies as governor and is seen as a pro-labor Democrat.

If we seem down at all today, it’s cause we bet Roca’s last money on Sal from Impractical Jokers (+10000) getting on one of the two tickets. Oops.

–Max, Max, and Owen

KEY STORY

Bangladesh Leader’s Home Stormed

Protesters stormed the home of Bangladesh’s prime minister hours after she resigned

• PM Sheikh Hasina has led Bangladesh, the world’s eighth-most populous country, since 2009. She both oversaw a garment manufacturing-led economic boom and became an authoritarian

• Protests erupted against her government last month and have been ongoing since. This weekend, protesters converged on the capital, where 94+ were killed

• The protests and violent response put pressure on Hasina to resign, which she did on Monday

Dig Deeper

• Hours after Hasina left her official residence, protesters rushed in, looting furniture and other belongings

• Hasina reportedly fled on a helicopter to India, a close ally of her government

KEY STORY

Big Food to Get Bigger?

Mars is in talks to buy Kellanova, the maker of Cheez-It, Pringles, and Pop-Tarts

• Mars owns dozens of food and food manufacturing brands, including Wrigley, Combos, M&Ms, and Skittles; Kellanova was the snack division of Kellogg and was created when Kellog split up its breakfast cereal and snack divisions in 2023

• A merger would combine two of the world’s largest food brands and be the industry’s biggest in years

• It comes as numerous consumer-facing brands report slowdowns, largely due to consumers cutting back after years of high inflation

Dig Deeper

• Economic downturns often precipitate mergers, as large companies swoop in to buy smaller or weaker ones whose valuations are pushed down

• Between 1999 and 2001, such conditions led General Mills to buy Pillsbury and Kraft to buy Nabisco

ROCA’S PARTNERS

Put an End to Those Pesky Spam Calls

Together with Incogni

• There are few things more frustrating than dashing across the room to answer your ringing phone, only to see “Potential Spam” on the caller ID (probably for the third time today)

• If you want to cleanse your phone of this annoyance (and increase your personal security), you have three options:

  1. Throw your phone into the ocean

  2. Individually block each unknown caller

  3. Stop spammers from getting your number in the first place with Incogni

• We highly recommend option 3, and not just because electronic garbage is bad for aquatic life

Dig Deeper

• Incogni’s automated personal information removal service hunts down and removes your breached personal information from the web. Plus, Incogni will reduce the number of spam emails in your inbox

• Roca readers can get 55% off an annual plan using code “ROCA10”

• Get started with Incogni here

KEY STORY

Intel Meltdown

Intel announced that it would lay off more than 15,000 workers – over 15% of its workforce

• It created the first commercial microprocessor chip and, in doing so, played a pivotal role in the development of Silicon Valley. It came to dominate the market for personal computer chips, including through a lucrative partnership supplying chips for Microsoft computers

• But after missing the smartphone and AI rushes, its market cap cratered. It’s poised to sell ~$500M worth of AI chips this year versus Nvidia’s ~$80B

• On Thursday, Intel’s CEO announced significant cuts to projects and staff. It’s now the worst-performing US tech stock of the year

Dig Deeper

• Intel’s CEO announced that the company would also cease its dividend, which has been paid out since 1992

• Intel’s stock fell more than 30% on Friday, marking its biggest one-day drop in company history

• The company’s stock has been the worst-performing tech stock in the S&P 500 this year

KEY STORY

No Kids for US Young Adults

A new survey from Pew Research finds that younger adults aren’t having kids because they don’t want any

• In 2023, the US fertility rate fell to a historic low of 1.62 births per woman, well below the 2.1 rate needed to maintain the population without immigration. Because the US has high levels of immigration, its population still grew by ~1.7M last year

• According to Pew, most older child-less over-50s say they don’t have kids because it just “didn’t happen.” By contrast, most under-50s who don’t want kids say they just don’t want them, while a growing number cite financial and environmental concerns and their own troubled childhoods

Dig Deeper

• The share of US adults younger than 50 who say they are unlikely to ever have kids rose by 10% between 2018 and 2023, according to Pew

• We’re curious to hear your thoughts on what’s driving the trend

RUNDOWN
Some Quick Stories for the Office

📉 Japan’s key stock index reported a 13% one-day drop – its biggest since 1987 – amid concerns about the US economy and Japan’s currency. Meanwhile, the Nasdaq, Dow Jones, and S&P 500 each declined more than 2.5% as the “fear gauge” hit its highest level since 2020

🤖 Elon Musk opened another lawsuit against OpenAI and Sam Altman, alleging Altman deceived him into believing OpenAI would be a non-profit when Musk co-founded it. “Altman assured Musk that the non-profit structure guaranteed neutrality and a focus on safety and openness for the benefit of humanity, not shareholder value,” the suit says

💸 Groq, a chip startup, raised $640M from investors and is now worth $2.8B. Groq claims its chips are faster than Nvidia’s and aims to take market share from the dominant AI chip maker. Groq’s chips help bots respond faster but don’t train AI models

🌍 The Middle East remained tense on Monday following US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s warning that Iran could attack Israel within 24 to 48 hours. The warning follows threats from Iran and pro-Iranian militias after the assassinations of Hamas’ political leader and a senior Hezbollah leader last week. An Iranian official reportedly mentioned that an attack could occur “imminently”

💻 Adin Ross’ Kick stream with Donald Trump drew nearly 600,000 concurrent viewers. Over 90 minutes, the duo discussed topics ranging from the war in Ukraine to America’s political future. Ross also gifted Trump a Tesla Cybertruck wrapped in an image of Trump surviving his assassination attempt, as well as a Rolex

COMMUNITY

🧠 Yesterday’s question: Is it socially acceptable to watch videos in public without headphones?

🧠 Today’s question: Do you feel older or younger than your age?

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

POPCORN
Some Quick Stories for Happy Hour

🐻 First rule of Dead Bear Club…: RFK Jr. confessed to placing a dead bear cub in NYC’s Central Park. He found the bear while falconing and put it in his van. He then placed it in the park as a joke

🔥 Roan-apalooza: Chappell Roan — a pop star who has developed a cult following — took Chicago’s Lollapalooza music festival by storm, drawing the biggest daytime crowd the festival had ever seen

😈 The Devil went down to Mexico: An American fugitive known as “The Devil” was captured in Mexico, where he had been working as a local police officer. He fled the US after shooting a 25-year-old in Cincinnati in 2004

🍗 Why did the chicken spill on the road? Auto safety advocates are calling for stricter regulations on companies transporting animal byproducts after a truck spilled raw chicken parts across a California freeway

🚔 What you know about that? Police arrested rapper T.I. on Sunday at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in a case of mistaken identity

ROCA WRAP

AI Policing: The Future?

Will AI “predict future crimes”? Argentina’s government says so.

When libertarian Javier Milei was elected president of Argentina last year, he promised to curb rising crime rates. Among various things, he appointed a security minister who reportedly seeks to replicate El Salvador’s prison model, which has dramatically curbed that country’s crime rate (to the vast criticisms of human rights activists).

Last week, Milei created the Artificial Intelligence Applied to Security Unit, which will use “machine-learning algorithms to analyze historical crime data to predict future crimes.”

It’s also expected to deploy facial recognition software to identify “wanted persons,” patrol social media, and analyze real-time security camera footage to detect suspicious activities. The Ministry of Security claims the new unit will help “detect potential threats, identify movements of criminal groups or anticipate disturbances.”

While surveillance may seem at odds with Milei’s libertarian values – he once summed up his political beliefs by saying, “Economic freedom, limited government, and the unrestricted respect for private property are essential elements for economic growth” – they align with his promise to make Argentina an “AI tech hub” through hands-off policies toward AI companies. 

Activists, meanwhile, have responded with concern.

The Argentine Center for Studies on Freedom of Expression and Access to Information said that such technologies have historically been used to “profile academics, journalists, politicians, and activists,” threatening privacy without proper supervision.

Amnesty International, meanwhile, warned that large-scale surveillance “affects freedom of expression because it encourages people to self-censor or refrain from sharing their ideas or criticisms if they suspect that everything they comment on, post, or publish is being monitored by security forces.”

The Ministry of Security says the new unit will operate under the current legislative framework and focus on applying AI, data analytics, and machine learning to identify criminal patterns and trends in security databases.

As Argentina steps into the future with AI, though, the line between safety and surveillance may get blurry.

What do you think? Is AI-based policing the future? Is it inevitable? Reply to this email to let us know.

EDITOR’S NOTE
Final Thoughts

Due to the diversity of our readers, we rarely get a consensus on a Question of the Day. But let’s just say Roca Nation is NOT pro-playing videos without headphones in public places. We saw a lot of expletives and exclamation points in our inbox yesterday. And apparently it’s worse in Barcelona!

Our one question: Does this rule apply to Nickelback? Have a great Tuesday.

–Max and Max