🌊 Mike Waltz Has Left the Chat

Happy Cinco de Mayo Weekend, Roca Nation.

With Cinco de Mayo taking place on a Monday, most Americans will be celebrating Cinco De Mayo this weekend. The holiday — commonly mistaken for Mexico's Independence Day — has become one of America's 5 biggest drinking days of the year, with beer consumption rivaling that of the Super Bowl. Doesn’t it feel deeply American to turn someone else’s Independence Day into a drinking occasion, and it not even be their Independence Day? Either way, whether you contribute to those drinking numbers or not, have a great weekend and here’s 20 Questions!

–Max and Max

KEY STORY

Mike Waltz Fired + Appointed

President Trump fired National Security Adviser Mike Waltz and then nominated him to serve as UN ambassador

• Waltz’s termination has been attributed to both his accidentally including a journalist in a military planning Signal group chat, and his relatively establishment and hawkish views toward Russia and Iran, which are out of line with many in the administration

• Secretary of State Marco Rubio will be the interim national security adviser until a replacement is announced

• Waltz will replace Rep. Elise Stefanik, whose nomination to serve as UN ambassador Trump recently withdrew

Dig Deeper

• Waltz’s hawkish foreign policy views made him a target of hardline Trump supporters, including MAGA social media personality Laura Loomer, who reportedly played a role in Trump’s decision to fire several Waltz staffers in April

• Along with those firings, Waltz will depart alongside his deputy national security adviser and other aides. Loomer celebrated Waltz’s firing on X, writing, “SCALP”

KEY STORY

Eye-Scan ID Comes to the US

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman launched World, his eye-scanning, blockchain-based digital ID, in the US

• Altman co-founded World in 2019. It uses iris scans and blockchain to create a verified ID, something he says is needed to prevent fraud in the age of AI

• World’s “orb,” a round biometric device, scans users’ faces and eyes to create a unique “IrisCode,” which can be used as an online sign-in method and identity verification

• Customers can now get their eyeballs scanned at six US locations, including Austin, Nashville, San Francisco, and Miami

Dig Deeper 

• While World says all biometric data is anonymously stored, a number of countries have expressed concerns about user security and privacy

• Last year, Spain’s data protection regulator banned World, alleging that it was collecting personal information about minors

• It has also faced bans, investigations, or fines in France, Portugal, South Korea, and Hong Kong

QUOTE OF THE DAY

ROCA’S SPONSOR

Apple's New Smart Display Confirms What This Startup Knew All Along

Together with Ryse

Apple has entered the smart home race with its new Smart Display, firing a $158B signal that connected homes are the future. When Apple moves in, it doesn’t just join the market – it transforms it. One company has been quietly preparing for this moment 

• Their smart shade technology already works across every major platform, perfectly positioned to capture the wave of new consumers Apple will bring

• While others scramble to catch up, this startup is already shifting production from China to its new facility in the Philippines – built for speed and ready to meet surging demand as Apple’s marketing machine drives mass adoption

• With 200% year-over-year growth and distribution in over 120 Best Buy locations, this company isn’t just ready for Apple’s push – they’re set to thrive from it

• Shares in this tech company are open at just $1.90

• Apple’s move is accelerating the entire sector. Don’t miss this window

• Invest before Big Tech makes their move

KEY STORY

Israel Redraws, Shrinks Gaza

Israel has seized roughly 70% of Gaza, redrawing the enclave’s map over the six weeks since the war resumed

• Last month, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that his military would begin seizing large amounts of territory in Gaza to pressure Hamas to return the remaining hostages, 59 of whom (24 presumed alive) remain in Gaza

• Israel has since declared that about 70% of Gaza is now under either a “red zone” or evacuation order. It argues that evacuations are necessary to let civilians escape fighting while enabling IDF troops to continue attacks on Hamas

• Activists have accused Israel of mass displacement and widespread human rights violations

Dig Deeper

• Alongside the displacement, Israel has blocked food, medical aid, and fuel from entering the territory since March 2

• The World Food Program said last week that the “situation inside the Gaza Strip has once again reached a breaking point,” while Israel has said it will allow aid to resume if Hamas frees the remaining hostages

KEY STORY

Nuclear Renaissance?

Energy Secretary Chris Wright called for a nuclear energy “renaissance” in the US

• While nuclear energy accounts for 18% of US energy generation, just three new reactors have been built this century, far behind other major economies. Many blame stringent regulations that make reactor construction slow and costly

• Last week, Wright stated that the DOE would boost spending to expand US uranium production and called for a nuclear “renaissance”

• That pledge follows a recent push and lawsuit from nuclear startups seeking to reduce nuclear power regulation so they can pioneer new technologies

Dig Deeper

• This month, several nuclear start-ups and five states sued the NRC, blaming the agency for “so restrictively regulat[ing] new nuclear reactor construction that it rarely happens at all”

• The lawsuit argues that the NRC is misinterpreting the 1954 Atomic Energy Act (AEA), which mandates the regulation of facilities that use a level of uranium significant for defense or in a way that affects public health

• The companies and states say that smaller-scale reactors use less nuclear material, are less dangerous than large reactors, and therefore don’t fall under the NRC or AEA’s jurisdiction

RUNDOWN
Some Quick Stories for the Office

⚖ A court battle between a group of authors and Meta began on Thursday. The case revolves around whether Meta had the right to train its AI on texts without compensating the authors

📱 Language learning app Duolingo announced it would replace all contract workers with AI and that AI had enabled the company to more than double the number of courses it offers

💉 Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced that the US is investing $500M to make “universal” vaccines, which protect against several virus strains at once, per the WSJ

👨‍⚖️ A Trump-appointed Texas judge blocked the Trump Administration from using the Alien Enemies Act (AEA) to deport alleged foreign gang members without due process

🛢 President Trump said that any country that buys oil from Iran will be subject to sanctions, a move that ramps up pressure on Iran and China, the biggest buyer of Iranian oil

What does Roca Nation think?

🧐 Yesterday’s Question: Should members of Congress have term limits?

20 Questions!

Ladies and gentlemen, the Weeknd.

Earlier this week, we asked if Disney movies were really better in the 90s than they are now. Reading your answers made us nostalgic for the days of Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, Hercules, Tarzan, etc. One thing they all share in common is they have great villains. So today we're going to do a "Rate This Villain" on a scale of 1-10, 1 being the lamest and 10 being the best. We'll do some Disney but also some non-Disney so that we beat the "Disney adult" allegations. Have a great weekend.

Link to 20 Questions!

Last Week’s Responses

Average responses to last week’s “life’s little annoyances” ratings edition of 20 Questions (1-10, 10 being the most annoying).

Constantly accepting cookies on the internet - 8.0
Waking up with a sore throat - 7.6
When the toilet won’t flush at someone else's house - 8.3
Getting a paper cut - 6.3
When your phone is on low battery so you have to use it on the floor near the charging port - 5.0
Stubbing your toe - 7.1
Smelling expired milk - 6.2
Squirting ketchup and straight up water shoots out - 6.7
Pulling up to a gas pump, and realizing it’s out of service - 6.1
Christmas music and decorations in October - 6.5
Soggy bread in packet sandwiches - 7.2
People that walk through a doorway and just…stop - 7.5
Slow walkers - 6.7
Uncomfortable pillows at a hotel - 6.9
Smoke detector being out of batteries. Beep….Beep…..Beep - 8.0
Hot Uber cars - 5.8
Losing the battery cover for the TV remote - 5.5
Bread that doesn’t fit in the toaster properly - 4.9
Putting a duvet cover on - 5.5
Entering your password incorrectly, clicking the forgotten password link only to be told your new password must be different from the old password - 8.3

POPCORN
Some Quick Stories for Happy Hour

🐩 Sausage Dog Stampede: Hundreds of dachshunds and their owners gathered in Hungary to break the record for the biggest ever single-breed dog walk

💻 Bot Booby Trap: A software programmer and blogger set up a “zip bomb” on his blog that detects bots trawling the internet and infects them with a file that crashes their server

🥫 Soda Gun Suspension: A 13-year-old boy in Missouri is suing his school after being suspended for gluing soda cans together into the shape of a rifle and posting an image on social media

🚛 Stopping on a Dime: An 18-wheeler tipped over on a Texas highway, spilling roughly 8M newly minted dimes onto the road and causing hours of delays as crews picked them up by hand

㊙️ Reddit Ruse: Researchers from a Swiss university ran a secret experiment in a popular Reddit forum using AI-generated comments to test how persuasive AI models could be

ROCA WRAP
The Sunken Place

Iran

This country is sinking.

Iran, one of the Middle East’s largest and most populous countries, faces numerous challenges, from sanctions and domestic unrest to threats of Israeli and American military intervention. Yet one of the country’s biggest problems may be more geological than geopolitical.

While Iran’s land holds the world’s second-largest natural gas reserves and fourth-largest crude oil reserves, it suffers major ground subsidence, or sinking, driven by climate change, droughts, and mismanagement of water resources.

Iran’s National Cartographic Center has found that the ground under the capital, Tehran, is sinking up to 12.2 inches every year – substantially higher than the 5mm rate designated as dangerous by most international standards.

In recent years, sinking has caused cracks that have endangered critical infrastructure and public safety. While this is happening across the country, the ground subsidence issue is particularly threatening in urban areas, particularly Tehran, where cracks have damaged railroad tracks and the main airport.

Geological analysts estimate that subsidence directly threatens 11% of Iran’s land mass and the ground upon which a majority of the country’s 90M citizens live. The crisis has reached such a point of urgency that officials are considering relocating the capital: Iran’s president recently declared that “menacing” subsidence and water scarcity risk making Tehran “unlivable.”

A correction may require drastic measures: The government is planning to cut water consumption by nearly 12T gallons by 2032 to address the water crisis and drought that is accelerating the collapse, but Iran’s sanctions-hit economy has little cash to spare on new investments.

The sinking also threatens some of humanity’s oldest sites, with ground fissures spreading around the ancient city of Persepolis and other millennia-old archeological sites and monuments.

If the subsidence continues, both Iran’s past and future risk collapsing into the ground.

EDITOR’S NOTE
Final Thoughts

Thank you for another great week of email responses. We had a near 100% consensus in the inbox about term limits yesterday: Virtually all of you who wrote in support them. The only other time in recent memory we had a near consensus was with banning pharma ads from TV. Always so interesting to read your takes.

Have a great weekend!

–Max and Max