🌊 McKinsey’s China Affair

So maybe bias isn’t just a human thing...

When it comes to AI chatbots, one thing is clear: Bias is a feature, not a bug. Google wants you to believe otherwise. After a hilariously bad launch, it has put Gemini in its AI repair shop for a few weeks of de-biasing. Then, poof! It'll be unbiased, perfect and confidently declare that Elon Musk tweeting memes is not worse than Hitler (it's currently undecided).

But if anything, the bias will only become more devious — quieter and subtler. As more news organizations adopt AI in their news processes, we promise to stay wary. Maybe we need to take our meds and are overreacting, but we already miss the good old days of bias being a human thing.

In today's edition:

And so much more!

–Max, Max, Jen, and Alex

KEY STORY
Willy Wonka’s Meth Lab

The “Willy’s Chocolate Experience” in Glasgow – promoted as an “immersive” journey into Wonka’s “magical realm” – resulted in police involvement

• The event charged $44 per ticket, promising “mind-expanding projections, optical marvels, and exhibits that transport you into the realm of creativity”

• But after organizers used AI to create its ads, setting unrealistic expectations, visitors encountered “a sparsely decorated warehouse with…a small bouncy castle”

• Some compared it to a meth lab, while others said it left their children in tears, prompting calls to police and organizers to stop the event and refund tickets 

Dig Deeper

• Guess which side shows the marketing images and which side shows the real event:

KEY STORY
FT: McKinsey Advised China

After US consulting firm McKinsey claimed it never worked for China’s government, the Financial Times (FT) uncovered a defunct website on which McKinsey touted a range of issues on which it had done so

• The website, mckinseychina.com – deactivated in 2019 – featured marketing materials in which McKinsey claimed it advised “several central [Chinese] government ministries on a range of high impact issues,” including “economic planning”

• The report came weeks after a McKinsey executive testified before Congress that the company has never advised China’s government. It also came days after the FT reported that a McKinsey-led think tank had advised China’s government on technology policy

Dig Deeper

• In response to the latest report, McKinsey said, “The defunct website being referred to…contained inaccurate representations of our client service, and was taken down several years ago. We stand by our previous statements that the central government of China is not now, and to our knowledge has never been, a client of McKinsey”

• In a Tuesday letter to the McKinsey executive who testified before Congress, Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) wrote, “Those were strong words. Unfortunately for you, they were not true”

KEY STORY
Troops to Ukraine?

French President Emmanuel Macron said Western leaders have not “ruled out” sending troops to Ukraine

• When asked about that prospect after a security conference of European and NATO leaders in Paris, Macron said “nothing should be ruled out.” He added that no “official, approved” plan is in place

• Following those comments, officials in the US, Germany, UK, Spain, Poland, and Czech Republic said they have no plan to send troops

• A Russian spokesperson said Western troops in Ukraine would make war with NATO “inevitable”

Dig Deeper

• “I’m pleased that France is thinking about how to increase its support for Ukraine, but if I could give it a word of advice – supply more weapons,” including “munitions and the tanks that can be supplied now,” Germany’s vice chancellor said

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Dig Deeper

• Usually Roca adds LMNT to a glass of water each morning, but we decided to spice up Hump Day today with a special team drink featuring our fave LMNT flavor. Here’s the recipe! If you try it out, send us a pic and let us know what you think

• GRAPEFRUIT MINT REFRESHER: Mix 1/2 stick pack LMNT Grapefruit Salt, 1/2 cup water, 1 cup ice, 2 sprigs mint in a blender until slushy. Then drink up!

KEY STORY
Shein’s IPO Woes

Fast-fashion company Shein is considering going public in London amid difficulties filing in the US

• Based in China and headquartered in Singapore, Shein – last valued at $100B – became the world’s highest-valued fashion retailer two years ago

• Last year, Shein submitted paperwork to US regulators informing them of its desire to go public (IPO) there, but US officials have held that up over concerns about its operations in China. Of particular concern to US regulators is whether Shein benefits from forced labor

• Shein is now considering going public in the UK, which would potentially make it the largest IPO in UK history

Dig Deeper

• The head of the UK’s Treasury reportedly met with Shein’s executive chair earlier this month to discuss the proposal, although some analysts have suggested the IPO may still be unlikely

• Some speculate Shein has floated the idea of going public in London to get better terms elsewhere, such as in the US

KEY STORY
Race Graph Controversy

Some geneticists are calling for the modification or retraction of a high-profile genetics paper over allegations that it reinforces racist beliefs

• The study, published in the prestigious journal Nature, is part of a US government-funded effort to promote diversity in genetics by obtaining genetic data from 1M Americans. The study included the graph above, which plots genetic diversity and is color-coded by participants’ race (see the key on the right)

• Some geneticists criticized the figure, saying that the way it groups different races into distinct blobs reinforces the idea that race is based in genetics – something that nearly all geneticists reject. The academic consensus is that race is “socially constructed”

• Some called on the study’s authors to modify or take down the paper, although a Vanderbilt professor who co-authored the study said he will not do so, claiming that the graph is “consistent with representations [of genetic data] in other similar studies”

Dig Deeper

• In a lengthy post on X, the director of the European Bioinformatics Institute said the graph can “easily be read as ‘race is pretty real, and associated with genetics’ which is not a good interpretation”

• A Stanford geneticist also criticized the way they displayed their data, writing that it “exaggerates the distinctiveness of the most frequent ancestries,” which led to the distinct-looking blobs

• Geneticists have long faced scrutiny over how they display their data, especially since a gunman killed 10 black people in Buffalo, New York, after writing a racist manifesto that cited genetics papers

RUNDOWN
Some Quick Stories for the Office

🇳🇱 A Dutch court sentenced the Netherlands’ most-wanted man to life in prison. Morocco-born Ridouan Taghi led the Dubai-based “Angels of Death” drug trafficking organization and is suspected of ordering numerous killings

🥩 France’s government issued a decree forbidding the use of words such as “steak,” “filet,” and “ribeye” to describe plant-based meat imitations

🏛️ After meeting with congressional leaders and President Biden, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) said he was “very optimistic” the government will avoid a shutdown on Saturday

💉 Shares of US biotech company Viking Therapeutics more than doubled after data showed its weight loss drug may be more effective than Ozempic and other treatments

🌐 ChatGPT maker OpenAI alleged the New York Times “hacked” the chatbot to produce “highly anomalous results” that would strengthen its lawsuit against OpenAI. The NYT is currently suing the AI company over allegations it trained its chatbot with the NYT’s intellectual property

🍎 Apple announced it is shuttering a decade-long, multibillion-dollar electric vehicle project. Elon Musk responded to the news on X with a saluting emoji and a cigarette emoji

COMMUNITY
Weekly Debate

Most news companies repress ideas they don’t agree with. We are different. To prove it, we’re making this a place where people can have a free and open debate. Each week we lay out a debate on Monday and feature responses below, replies to those the following day, and so on.

This week’s Roca Votes Wrap asks: Do you consider obesity a major issue in your country? If yes, do you find semaglutide’s popularity a helpful or harmful development?

Have thoughts or want to respond to Brenda or Jonathan? Reply to this email to let us know what you think!

Find yesterday’s poll results and more replies to this week’s debate below the Wraps.

COMMUNITY
Treasure Hunt

Welcome to the weekly Roca treasure hunt! The rules are simple:

• Every day we give a hint. You get one guess, which you submit by emailing [email protected] with a Google street view screenshot

• Unlock an extra hint each Thursday once you refer five friends

• The first person to guess the answer wins this week’s prize: A free year of Roca premium!

Clue 1: Three continents strong

Clue 2: Conceived by a coward

Clue 3: 🎶 Tin soldiers and Nixon's comin' 🎶

Know the answer? Send the Google street view screenshot to [email protected].

POPCORN
Some Quick Stories for Happy Hour

👟 Shaq Claus: Shaquille O’Neal gifted a Missouri teenager who struggled to find shoes for his size 23 feet with three boxes of clothes and 20 pairs of shoes

🚐 Thanks for the ride, Jeff: Palo Alto, California, police arrested a 36-year-old woman who allegedly stole an unoccupied Amazon delivery van with the engine running because she needed a ride

🐀 Oh, rats: Family Dollar must pay $41.6M for distributing products from a rodent-infested warehouse to ~400 stores, marking the largest criminal penalty for such a case

🏀 Maxes 🤝 Max: Cleveland Cavaliers guard Max Strus hit a game-winning shot from half court against the Dallas Mavericks. The Cavs are currently the #2 seed in the Eastern Conference

🐕‍🦺 Saving Sparkle: Animal rescuers said a local resident rescued a 10-week-old chihuahua named Sparkle from a highway on-ramp near Boston. She’s since found a new home

🇦🇺 Commissioner Swift: An Australian police commissioner defended her handling of a Sydney couple’s alleged double murder, saying “There will always be haters. Haters like to hate, isn’t that what Taylor [Swift] says?”

ON-THE-GROUND
Roca in Serbia

We send our co-founder Max Frost to investigate topics around the world and he writes about them here. He’s currently writing from Serbia. Subscribers receive the full stories.

Central and Eastern Europe is the land of the Slavs: Russians, Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, Ukrainians, Slovenians, Croats, Serbs, Bosniaks, Macedonians, Montenegrins, Bulgarians – all of those are Slavic groups. 

Today, each of those groups has their own countries. 200 years ago, most of them belonged to the Ottoman, Austro-Hungarian, or Russian Empires. In the early-to-mid-18th century, though, the ideology of nationalism began to spread through this part of the world. 

Until that point, there was little “nationalism.” People were subjects of an empire and were often loosely bound to other people in the empire. Following the French Revolution, though, that started to change: The French – a group of people who shared French language, culture, and symbols – had brought down their monarch and established the French nation. That sent ripples across Europe and inspired people to identify with their own nations. In practice, this meant that, say, Serbs wanted to live together and govern themselves, rather than be governed by others.

That sentiment culminated in Serbia gaining independence in 1868, followed by other Slavic territories in the following decades. As they did so, the concept of “pan-Slavism" spread. 

Pan-Slavism said that all Slavs should belong to the same political organization, or country. That especially resonated in the Balkans, where independence had left the Serbs, Montenegrins, and other Slavic groups in small countries at risk of being gobbled up by larger ones. That is exactly what happened to Bosnia in 1906, when the Austro-Hungarian Empire took it over despite fierce protests from its Slavic population. 

That development fueled extremism among pan-Slavists. In Serbia, people close to the military began plotting terror attacks and conducting assassinations. Their goal was to unite the Slavs, or at least the Balkan, or southern, Slavs into one country. In many Slavic languages, “south” translates to “yug,” so they called this nation “Yugoslavia.”

Among those to turn to extremism was Gavarillo Princip, a Bosnian Serb living in Sarajevo, the Bosnian capital. Princip was livid about Austria-Hungary’s takeover of Bosnia. He traveled to Belgrade for terrorism training, where a group with ties to Serbia’s military – ”The Black Hand” – provided weapons and expertise. He returned to Belgrade just before Austro-Hungarian Crown Prince Franz Ferdinand was due to visit. 

Princip ended up assassinating Ferdinand. In response, Austria-Hungary invaded Serbia, which they accused of plotting the assassination, beginning World War I. During the war, Serbia would lose between 17% and 25% of its population – a higher share than any other country. 

At the end of the war, the Serbs worked with the Allied Powers to free the Balkans from Austro-Hungarian control. As they did so, they liberated Bosnia, Croatia, Slovenia, and other territories. Several weeks before the war ended, these South Slavic countries declared themselves the “Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes.” A decade later, they rebranded to “Yugoslavia.”

Not all sides benefited from this system equally. Serbia was the most populous part of the kingdom and controlled its capital city and military, but Slovenia and Croatia were wealthier. Non-Slavic ethnic minorities found themselves oppressed. Even the Slavs were diverse – their languages, cultures, and religions varied – and found themselves competing for Yugoslavia’s resources and resentful over age-old grievances (“They sided with the Ottomans against us,” “They betrayed us to the Austrians”).

In World War II, those tensions erupted into some of the fiercest violence of that conflict. The Yugoslavs fought along ethnic and religious grounds, working with the Nazis to eliminate their internal opponents. Amid this, fascist states were established in the various Yugoslav republics.  

As the war dragged on, an organized communist resistance became the fascists’ main opposition. This group, “The Partisans,” waged guerilla war and worked with the Allies, especially the Soviets, to undermine fascist rule. Toward the end of the war, a Partisan commander emerged as Yugoslavia’s leader: Marshal Josip Broz Tito.

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

ROCA WRAP
Everything Will Be Fine

On February 21, 2022, I (Roca co-founder Max Frost) sent a message to a Ukrainian couple in the city of Mariupol: “How’s the situation over there in Mariupol? Is it calm?”

Natalya, an army nurse, responded: “Yes, everything is relatively calm. How are you? :)”

Andrew, her boyfriend and an army engineer, added, “Max, hi. We hope that everything will be fine and that there will not be a full-scale war.” Less than a day later, the war began.

I met Natalya and Andrew in summer 2021 while on Roca’s first-ever reporting trip, a journey across Ukraine. 

My first conversation of that trip was with a Ukrainian army officer named Sasha who offered me a ride between western Ukrainian cities. Sasha spent nine months a year on the front line of the civil war in Ukraine’s east but said he didn’t care if Ukraine won: He didn’t trust President Zelensky and said, “The separatists are not Ukrainians, they were never Ukrainian, they don’t want to be part of Ukraine.” He added, “Our president [Zelensky] is under Russian influence. He is undermining us and NATO. It’s clear.”

At the time, Ukraine was in year eight of a civil war that had begun in February 2014.

That month, Ukrainian police snipers opened fire on protesters who had been challenging the president’s decision to choose closer ties with Russia over a trade deal with the EU. The killing of dozens of protesters undermined the president’s support, prompting him to flee to Russia

Russia retaliated days later by seizing the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea and arming Russian. speakers in eastern Ukraine. They soon seized territory and sparked a civil war that never ended.

When I was there, the country was undergoing a cultural purging that had begun in 2014: Soviet-era statues lay disassembled; the Ukrainian language had been printed over Russian on signs and menus; and people were actively giving up their native Russian and forcing themselves to speak in Ukrainian. Many people were intensely patriotic, yet had little faith in a rampantly corrupt government whose failures had helped make Ukraine Europe’s poorest country. 

The further east I traveled, the less fond people were of the “European” transformation.

Sasha told me that the main threat to his soldiers were pro-Russia Ukrainian saboteurs who attacked them from behind. Throughout eastern towns, many of which had been occupied by the separatists and taken back by the Ukrainian government in brutal battles, billboards praised the Ukrainian military for defending them and keeping the peace. Yet in these grim and depressed places, the signs read like hollow propaganda.

Toward the end of my trip, I traveled along the “ceasefire” line that separated separatist- from Ukrainian-held territory. Every day, the opposing sides would sporadically exchange artillery fire over the line, making life in the area hell. The factories here had closed, there were no jobs and few stores, and bunkers and checkpoints dotted the landscape: Why would anyone stay, I wondered, and why would anyone fight?

Andrew answered my question when I reached Mariupol.

The separatists had captured Mariupol in 2014 and held it for two months until the Ukrainian military retook it. While sitting in Andrew’s apartment, he tapped on the window and made a “tat-tat-tat” sound imitating the sound of gunfire he recalled hearing while a university student.

The separatists continued to shell the liberated city, on one occasion targeting a marketplace and killing numerous civilians. A mural in the city center is dedicated to a young girl who lost her hand and mother in that attack.

The people who attacked the city – and eastern Ukraine – were “terrorists,” Andrew said, and Ukrainians needed to fight against them any way they could. To do his part, he had given up his native language, Russian, and joined the military. He now helped disarm landmines, the remains of which he had as souvenirs throughout his apartment.

When I pressed Andrew about why he would risk his life, he said it was simple: “We’re free,” and the Russians wanted to change that. Seven months later the war began.

I found myself back in Ukraine and Andrew found himself fighting for his beliefs – and his life.

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

ROCA WRAP
Everything Will Be Fine

On February 21, 2022, I (Roca co-founder Max Frost) sent a message to a Ukrainian couple in the city of Mariupol: “How’s the situation over there in Mariupol? Is it calm?”

 Natalya, an army nurse, responded: “Yes, everything is relatively calm. How are you? :)”

Andrew, her boyfriend and an army engineer, added, “Max, hi. We hope that everything will be fine and that there will not be a full-scale war.” Less than a day later, the war began.

I met Natalya and Andrew in summer 2021 while on Roca’s first-ever reporting trip, a journey across Ukraine. 

My first conversation of that trip was with a Ukrainian army officer named Sasha who offered me a ride between western Ukrainian cities. Sasha spent nine months a year on the front line of the civil war in Ukraine’s east but said he didn’t care if Ukraine won: He didn’t trust President Zelensky and said, “The separatists are not Ukrainians, they were never Ukrainian, they don’t want to be part of Ukraine.” He added, “Our president [Zelensky] is under Russian influence. He is undermining us and NATO. It’s clear.”

At the time, Ukraine was in year eight of a civil war that had begun in February 2014.

That month, Ukrainian police snipers opened fire on protesters who had been challenging the president’s decision to choose closer ties with Russia over a trade deal with the EU. The killing of dozens of protesters undermined the president’s support, prompting him to flee to Russia

Russia retaliated days later by seizing the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea and arming Russian. speakers in eastern Ukraine. They soon seized territory and sparked a civil war that never ended.

When I was there, the country was undergoing a cultural purging that had begun in 2014: Soviet-era statues lay disassembled; the Ukrainian language had been printed over Russian on signs and menus; and people were actively giving up their native Russian and forcing themselves to speak in Ukrainian. Many people were intensely patriotic, yet had little faith in a rampantly corrupt government whose failures had helped make Ukraine Europe’s poorest country. 

The further east I traveled, the less fond people were of the “European” transformation.

Sasha told me that the main threat to his soldiers were pro-Russia Ukrainian saboteurs who attacked them from behind. Throughout eastern towns, many of which had been occupied by the separatists and taken back by the Ukrainian government in brutal battles, billboards praised the Ukrainian military for defending them and keeping the peace. Yet in these grim and depressed places, the signs read like hollow propaganda.

Toward the end of my trip, I traveled along the “ceasefire” line that separated separatist- from Ukrainian-held territory. Every day, the opposing sides would sporadically exchange artillery fire over the line, making life in the area hell. The factories here had closed, there were no jobs and few stores, and bunkers and checkpoints dotted the landscape: Why would anyone stay, I wondered, and why would anyone fight?

Andrew answered my question when I reached Mariupol.

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

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COMMUNITY
Weekly Debate

Yesterday’s Poll:

Should society should tread more cautiously with Ozempic and other new drugs, or embrace them as it has?

Tread more cautiously: 86%
Embrace them: 14%

EDITOR’S NOTE
Final Thoughts

Happy Hump Day Roca! We hope you’re having better weeks than the Willy Wonka Experience marketing managers.

See you tomorrow,

— Max, Max, Jen and Alex