🌊 Another Whistleblower Bites the Dust

Tried to do a drone story but it didn’t take off…

We spent our Sunday just as our ancestors intended — drone hunting in New Jersey. We drove around northern Jersey talking to locals, visiting the alleged drone hot spots, interviewing a state senator, learning about drones from an ex-CIA drone pilot, and, of course, eating pizza. Key questions remain unanswered, but we were able to eliminate one potential culprit: Aliens. Because why would they — with 50 states to choose from — pick New Jersey?

Editor’s note: Our third cofounder, Billy, is from New Jersey. We’re hoping he doesn’t read the newsletter today.

–Max and Max

KEY STORY

ABC Owes Trump $16M

ABC News will have to pay Trump $15M plus $1M in legal fees to settle a suit over comments made by anchor George Stephanopoulos

• Trump sued ABC News and Stephanopoulos for defamation in March after the anchor asked Congresswoman Nancy Mace (R-SC) why she was endorsing someone who was found “liable for rape.” He repeated this claim ten times throughout their interview

• Trump, however, was not found liable for rape, as defined by NY law. He was found liable for sexual assault. ABC News and Stephanopolous will also have to issue an editor’s note and statement of regret

Dig Deeper

• The editor’s note will read: “ABC News and George Stephanopoulos regret statements regarding President Donald J Trump made during an interview by George Stephanopoulos with Rep. Nancy Mace on ABC's This Week on March 10, 2024”

• An ABC News spokesperson said in a statement the company was “pleased that the parties have reached an agreement to dismiss the lawsuit on the terms in the court filing”

KEY STORY

Big Tech Big Donates

A series of tech companies and billionaires pledged $1M donations to Trump’s inaugural fund

• Big Tech had a generally hostile relationship toward Trump during his first term, culminating in Trump being booted from various social platforms while companies, including Amazon, pledging to stop donations to the Republican Party

• Now, though, they’re lining up with donations to support Trump’s inauguration: Since last weekend, Meta, Amazon, and Sam Altman have each pledged $1M to support the inaugural fund

• Some tech executives reportedly fear being boxed out by Elon Musk, the president-elect’s biggest tech backer; others hope to shape his policies

Dig Deeper

• Separately, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday, “Donald Trump’s tariff threats have triggered a behind-the-scenes lobbying campaign to soften or alter the president-elect’s plans. But the effort faces a potentially insurmountable roadblock: Trump isn’t budging. That has left business executives scratching their heads about how to lobby for exemptions from the steep tariffs Trump has promised on imports from China, Canada, Mexico and other countries”

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KEY STORY

South Korea President Impeached

South Korea’s legislature voted to impeach President Yoon Suk Yeol

• Yoon, a conservative, declared martial law earlier this month, effectively an attempt to suspend democracy, sparking impeachment attempts

• While Yoon survived the first such vote last weekend, he lost it this weekend after ~12 members of his party defected

• The impeachment immediately suspends Yoon and makes the country’s prime minister the acting president. The top court must now decide whether to approve Yoon’s removal. If it does, a presidential election will be scheduled for within 60 days

Dig Deeper

• Initial polling suggests that a left-wing candidate would win an election if held today

• Yoon, meanwhile, has described the impeachment as a “temporary pause,” adding, “Though I am pausing for now, the journey towards the future that I have walked with the people over the past two and a half years must never stop”

KEY STORY

OpenAI Whistleblower Dead

OpenAI whistleblower Suchir Balaji was found dead

• Balaji, 26, spent around four years at OpenAI, organizing data used to train ChatGPT. He left the company, saying, “If you believe what I believe, you have to just leave”

• In a feature New York Times interview, he said AI will destroy the internet by stealing info from websites, media outlets, and others: “This is not a sustainable model for the internet ecosystem as a whole,” he said. OpenAI faces many lawsuits about that claim

• This weekend, it emerged that Balaji was found dead in his San Francisco apartment. His death was ruled a suicide; police found no signs of foul play

Dig Deeper

• The Times described Balaji as one of “the first employees to leave a major AI company and speak out publicly against the way these companies have used copyrighted data to create their technologies”

• The Times is one of the many companies/people suing OpenAI over that claim. OpenAI maintains that it uses only publicly-available data unless paying for copyrighted data

RUNDOWN
Some Quick Stories for the Office

💰 Bashar al-Assad airlifted nearly two tons of cash worth $250M to Russia in 2018 and 2019, per documents obtained by the FT

📱 Apple is preparing an extra-thin iPhone along with a foldable phone and laptop in an effort to boost slowing device sales growth

🧗 Spain’s fifth-richest man died in a climbing accident. The man – Isak Andic, 71 – founded the fashion chain Mango

🇺🇸 McKinsey will pay $650M to settle US criminal allegations that it conspired to misbrand prescription drugs. The settlement – which adds to $1B in civil settlements McKinsey has paid over the work – will also prohibit McKinsey from doing work related to controlled substances for the next five years

🛩️ Mystery drones continued to be sighted throughout the northeast, including above all five boroughs of New York City, water facilities, nuclear power plants, and airports

COMMUNITY

🧠 Today’s question: Who would you have picked to be Person of the Year? Why?

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

POPCORN
Some Quick Stories for Happy Hour

⚖️ Duke Accuser Comes Clean: Crystal Magnum – who in 2006 falsely accused three Duke University lacrosse players of rape – publicly admitted for the first time that she made the story up

💪 Gym Short Denier: RFK Jr. went viral for working out at a New York City Equinox, a high-end gym, in tight blue jeans and hiking boots

🎅 Yule Be Sorry: An English reverend apologized after telling primary school students that Santa Claus isn't real, explaining to the 10 and 11-year-olds that their parents buy the presents and eat the cookies left out for him

🏃‍♂️ Run For Your Art: A Toronto accountant ran over 700 miles to create art within the Strava run-tracking app

🇨🇦 Cello and Goodbye: A pair of cellists were forced to cancel their sold-out Toronto show after Air Canada refused to let them board with a $4.5M, 300-year-old cello, despite having purchased a seat for the instrument

ROCA WRAP

Luigi Celebrations: Worrying?

In the wake of his killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, Luigi Mangione has received a stunning level of fanfare.

Should we be worried?

Luigi Mangione, 26, comes from a prominent Baltimore family that owns country clubs, nursing homes, and a radio station. He attended the $40k-a-year prep school Gilman School for high school and the Ivy League’s University of Pennsylvania, where he received a bachelor’s and Master's degree in engineering and computer science.

While working for a California-based tech company, Luigi joined a surfing community in Hawaii, but eventually left it due to back pain, per sources close to him. Roca heard from Luigi’s Penn classmates that he changed radically around this time, apparently due to his back pain.

Luigi became a voracious reader, leaving hundreds of reviews on Goodreads, a book review site. His reviews included one on “Industrial Society and Its Future,” the manifesto written by Ted Kaczynski (“The Unabomber”).

Luigi said Kaczynski was rightly imprisoned for killing innocent people, but he praised the book: “It’s easy to quickly and thoughtlessly write this off as the manifesto of a lunatic, in order to avoid facing some of the uncomfortable problems it identifies. But it’s simply impossible to ignore how prescient many of his predictions about modern society turned out,” he wrote.

Like Kaczynski, Mangione used violence to air his grievances with the modern world. 

Inscribed on the bullet shells he used to kill Thompson were the words “deny,” “defend,” and “depose,” an apparent nod to health insurance companies’ efforts to avoid covering claims. United, whose CEO he killed, has the highest denial rate in the industry, rejecting around one in three claims – a rate that rose under Thompson’s tenure.

Also like Kaczynski, Mangione wrote a manifesto of sorts. Police say they found a three-page document on him when they arrested him. While they haven’t released it, they did reveal excerpts, including, “These parasites simply had it coming.” Based on the public’s reaction, many agree.

Thompson’s killing and Luigi’s arrest sparked an outpouring of glee that made Luigi into an overnight celebrity. Social media filled up with posts arguing that UnitedHealthcare and Thompson got what they deserved, alleging that they – through high-cost or low-quality healthcare – were guilty of harming and killing people

Luigi’s defenders pointed to United’s 30% denial rate, which forces many patients to forgo necessary treatments and/or become burdened with medical debt, all while Thompson made $10M per year and the United Health Group’s profit rose to $22B last year.

This group would say that extreme measures are warranted to change the dismal state of American health insurance. After all, neither the companies nor the government have been able to curse rising prices and medical debt.

Yet for every defender was a horrified critic, who deemed the killing a cold-blooded murder of a man with a family, a wife, and two kids.

Murder is murder, this group said, and to celebrate it is not just sickening, but the start of a slippery slope. Besides, killing Thompson will change nothing – he’s part of a system in which companies provide health insurance for profit.

All of this leads to today’s question: What do you think about the killing of Thompson? 

Let us know by replying to this email. We’re eager to hear your thoughts.

EDITOR’S NOTE
Final Thoughts

Huge win for Max F’s Bills last night. Now all we need is Notre Dame to take care of business Friday for a perfect sports week for the Maxes.

Hope you all had restful and peaceful weekends. Let’s finish strong with the last full week of the year!

–Max and Max