🌊 Liberals Win in Canada

Thank you to all of you for the kind “Happy 5th Anniversary” wishes.

We mean it when we say Roca’s success is due to you all. Without it, we’re just a couple dudes with patchy facial hair writing a newsletter in their parents’ basements. With you, we still have the patchy facial hair but also a vibrant news community and jobs that pay us enough to rent the HD and not the SD versions of movies on On Demand. The need for unbiased news is greater than ever. The Roca wave goes on!

–Max and Max

KEY STORY

Canadian Election Results

Mark Carney and his Liberal Party won Canada’s election

• The Liberal Party has governed Canada since 2015, with Justin Trudeau serving three consecutive terms as prime minister. By last year, though, the party’s favorability ratings had plummeted and pollsters were giving the Conservatives a 99% chance of winning the next election. As recently as this January, the Liberals were trailing the Conservatives by 20 points, prompting Trudeau to resign

• In the weeks after Trump’s inauguration, though, Trump’s threats to tariff Canada and make it the “51st state” caused a massive swing in support to the Liberals. This March, the Liberals replaced Trudeau with Mark Carney – the former head of both Canada and England’s central banks – as prime minister and their candidate in upcoming elections. Polls soon consistently showed the Liberals with a lead

• Almost immediately after polls closed on Monday night, it was evident that Carney and the Liberals had won. The Liberals appear to have 43.5% of the vote to the Conservatives’ 50% of the vote to the Conservatives’ 41.4%. It’s unclear whether that will be enough to let the Liberals form a government on their own, or if they will need the support of smaller parties

Dig Deeper

• The Liberals appeared to pick up voters from the left-wing NDP and Quebec separatist party

• Adding salt to the Conservatives’ wounds was that their candidate, Pierre Poilievre, lost his own parliamentary seat after his district experienced a 19-point swing toward the Liberals

KEY STORY

European Power Outage

A power outage caused a massive blackout across Spain, Portugal, and parts of France on Monday

• Europe’s power grid is one of the largest interconnected electricity networks in the world. While the network increases efficiency, it is vulnerable to cross-border outages

• The power outage paralyzed the region’s public transportation, communications networks, and critical infrastructure, with ATMs, phone networks, train services, and more unable to function

• European officials said there was no indication of a cyberattack, but authorities have not yet determined what caused the blackout

Dig Deeper

• Spain’s power grid operator estimated that it could take up to ten hours to restore power, while Portuguese energy officials said it could take up to a week for normal service to resume

• By late Monday, power had returned to some parts of Spain, but the government later declared a state of emergency as large areas remained without power into the night

• Portuguese officials said restoring power would be “particularly complex” for Portugal, as it imports its power from fewer countries than Spain

QUOTE OF THE DAY

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KEY STORY

Defense Spending Hits Global Record

Per a new report from SIPRI, a Swedish defense think tank, in 2024, global military spending experienced its sharpest rise since the Cold War

• The top spending countries – the US, China, Russia, Germany, and India – accounted for 60% of the global total, however, the increase was driven by European countries, who increased military budgets by 17%. Germany led that surge with a 28% spending bump

• Middle Eastern countries saw a 15% increase last year, largely driven by Israel boosting defense spending by 65%

• Defense spending now accounts for 2.5% of global GDP

Dig Deeper

• The spending surge is expected to continue into the future, as European countries move to decrease reliance on US military support and increase domestic defense production

• The European Commission recently announced plans to mobilize roughly $870B in defense spending over the next four years to counter threats from Russia and reduced US security commitments in Europe

• According to the SIPRI report, “Europe has entered a period of high and increasing military spending that is likely to continue for the foreseeable future”

KEY STORY

India-Pakistan Conflict

Pakistan’s government claimed that India was preparing an “imminent” attack, as diplomats seek to head off a conflict between the nuclear-armed neighbors

• Tensions have been high since militants killed 26 tourists in India-controlled Kashmir last week, prompting India to threaten a strike on Pakistan and to cancel a water-sharing agreement

• On Monday, Pakistan’s defense minister told Reuters that an Indian attack was imminent and that Pakistan may use nuclear weapons if “there is a direct threat to our existence”

• Over the past four days, India and Pakistan have been exchanging gunfire across the border

Dig Deeper 

• The US has been in contact with both India and Pakistan, with the State Department urging them to reach a “responsible solution”

• President Trump added that he wanted the two sides to work things out between themselves, while Pakistan’s defense minister said that the US is “staying away” from the matter

• China, a close Pakistani ally that also holds territory in Kashmir and borders both countries, has urged restraint and said it would support any measures that would de-escalate the situation

RUNDOWN
Some Quick Stories for the Office

🛩️ Houthi-run media reported that a US airstrike struck a migrant camp in Yemen and killed 68 people. The casualty numbers haven’t been independently verified

🚛 President Trump signed an executive order mandating that truck drivers be proficient in English

🇨🇦 On Canada’s election day, President Trump urged Canadians to vote for him, writing, “Elect the man who has the strength and wisdom to cut your taxes in half, increase your military power…have your…businesses, QUADRUPLE in size, WITH ZERO TARIFFS OR TAXES, if Canada becomes the cherished 51st State of the United States”

🇷🇺 A day after Trump threatened to apply more sanctions on Russia, President Putin announced a three-day ceasefire on May 8 to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the Allied victory in Europe during WWII

🇺🇸 As Trump marks his 100th day in office on Tuesday, three new polls show his approval rating has declined to between 39% and 45%

What does Roca Nation think?

🧐 Yesterday’s Question: Should dating be allowed at the workplace? Why/why not?

🧠 Today’s Question: Who’s someone who didn’t deserve to be canceled? Or at least that their cancellation was overblown?

Replay to this email with your thoughts!

POPCORN
Some Quick Stories for Happy Hour

🧑‍💻 Disgruntled Disney Worker Jailed: A former Disney worker was sentenced to three years in prison for hacking into the park’s menu system to change allergen information

🚘 Automotive Déjà Vu: A British man unwittingly bought back his own stolen car for $27,000. He didn’t realize it was his

🐍 Tequila with a Twist: A snake fell from the ceiling of a restaurant in Virginia, bouncing off a woman’s forehead before landing in her margarita

💰 Windy City Windfall: An armored Brinks truck in Chicago accidentally dropped bags carrying $300,000 in cash on its rounds, with passersby collecting fistfuls of cash lying in the street

💣 Beach Day Bombshell: An unexploded World War II bomb was found on a British beach by a person out metal detecting, leading to a bomb squad diffusing it

ROCA WRAP
Repeat Rescue

Japan

A student visiting this country was rescued from Mount Fuji twice in one week after climbing the mountain a second time to retrieve his lost phone.

Mount Fuji is an active volcano and Japan’s highest peak at 3,776 meters (12,389 feet). The mountain is a popular tourist attraction, with its snow-capped peak serving as a symbol of Japan in art, media, and tourism. Each year, hundreds of thousands of people climb Mount Fuji, leading Japan to impose a cap on visitors to prevent overcrowding last year.

Last week, a 27-year-old Chinese student was airlifted from Mount Fuji during its off-season after being found by another hiker more than 3,000 meters above sea level.

Just four days later, he was airlifted again after returning to the mountain to collect his belongings, including his phone, which he had left behind after he was unable to climb down. A Japanese police spokesperson said, “He was suspected of having altitude sickness and was taken to hospital.”

Japanese authorities criticized the hiker and warned others against climbing the mountain outside of its official season, which begins in June. Trails are not maintained and can become dangerous during the off-season, while unpredictable weather makes it more difficult for rescuers to respond to lost hikers.

The repeat rescue highlighted the growing number of climbing accidents in Japan, which hit a record high in 2023 with over 3,000 cases, two-thirds of which were caused by getting lost and falling. Hiking accidents on Mount Fuji increased by 90% in 2023 compared to previous five years’ average.

The hiker was widely criticized on social media, with Japanese citizens blasting him for ignoring the safety rules and calling for him to pay for the two helicopter evacuations. Maybe now that he has returned to get his phone, he can explain the decision to give Mount Fuji another shot.

EDITOR’S NOTE
Final Thoughts

What a day for food stories: First you have the Happy Hour story about the Disney worker who hacked into the park’s menu system to change allergen information. And now we’re reading about the trial of an Australian woman who allegedly murdered her in-laws by serving them a lunch laced with death cap mushrooms.

And people wonder why we prefer to eat vacuum-sealed Uncrustables. Have a great day.

–Max and Max