🌊 Trump Travel Ban, The Sequel

Happy St. Patrick’s Day. Blame any typos on Guinness.

If you're not already on your second McDonald's Shamrock Shake, time to catch up. Today is also the birthday of Irish singer Hozier, auto-tune's worst enemy. Celebrate by watching this 2019 video of him performing "Take Me to Church" in the Subway (recorded by a dear Roca friend and founder of Subway Creatures, Rick McGuire).

–Max and Max

KEY STORY

New Travel Ban

The Trump Administration is considering restricting entry for citizens of dozens of countries

• In his first term, Trump banned visitors from around eight countries – mostly majority-Muslim and unstable, but also Venezuela and North Korea. His team is now working on a new travel ban proposal

• A draft list categorizes 43 countries into "red" (no entry allowed), “orange” (some entries allowed), and “yellow” (restrictions coming if they don’t improve certain policies). The “red” countries are either unstable or overstay their visas at abnormally high rates: Afghanistan, Bhutan, Cuba, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Venezuela, and Yemen

Dig Deeper 

• An "orange" list contains 10 countries whose citizens would face partial restrictions, requiring specific visas and in-person interviews: Belarus, Eritrea, Haiti, Laos, Myanmar, Pakistan, Russia, Sierra Leone, South Sudan and Turkmenistan.

• A "yellow" list includes 22 countries, many in Africa, that would have 60 days to address "deficiencies" or risk being moved to more restrictive categories

• White House officials have said that they have not made a final decision and that security specialists and embassy officials at the State Department are currently reviewing the proposal and providing feedback

• Trump's first-term ban went through multiple iterations before being upheld by the Supreme Court in 2018

KEY STORY

US Mid East Strikes

US launched air strikes against Houthi rebels in Yemen and killed ISIS' second-in-command in Iraq

• Houthi militants had threatened to resume attacks on shipping in the Red Sea after a Gaza ceasefire pause, while ISIS has maintained a presence in Iraq despite losing territorial control in recent years

• On Saturday, the US conducted air strikes against Houthi rebels in Yemen, with President Trump warning that "hell will rain down upon" the Iran-backed group if they continue attacking shipping in the Red Sea

• US forces also killed Abdallah Makki Muslih al-Rifai (Abu Khadijah) in Iraq on Thursday, who was described as overseeing global operations and directing "a significant portion" of ISIS' global financing

Dig Deeper

• The strikes and Trump's comments prompted an angry response from Tehran, whose foreign minister Abbas Araghchi said the US government "has no authority or business dictating Iranian foreign policy. That era ended in 1979"

• President Trump characterized the military operations as supporting "PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH" on social media, praising US forces as "intrepid warfighters"

QUOTE OF THE DAY

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KEY STORY

Ukrainian Troops in Trouble

Russian forces have nearly driven the last Ukrainian soldiers from western Russia, reducing Ukraine's seven-month incursion in the Kursk region to a small fraction of its original size

• In August, Ukraine launched a cross-border offensive and seized much of Russia’s Kursk region. The attack – the largest on sovereign Russian territory since 1941 – sought to distract Moscow's forces, gain bargaining chips, and embarrass Putin

• A lightning Russian offensive this month has reduced the area under Ukrainian control to about 78 square km (30 square miles), down from more than 1,295 square km (500 square miles) claimed by Kyiv last year

Dig Deeper

• Russia’s advances came alongside decreased US support, which included the US cutting military and intelligence aid to Ukraine. The US restarted that aid last week after Kyiv said it would support Washington's 30-day ceasefire proposal

• Putin said on Thursday that Russia supports the truce proposal in principle, but that fighting could not be paused until several of its demands were met

• In response, the US voted with six other “G7” partners on Friday to threaten Russia with expanded sanctions if it doesn’t agree to a ceasefire

KEY STORY

NYT: Lab-Leak Flip Flop

The New York Times ran an extended article detailing a concerted effort to cover up and undermine the "lab-leak" theory

• During the pandemic, the lab-leak theory was widely discredited as a conspiracy theory by government health officials, social media companies, and media outlets, including the NYT, which called it a “fringe conspiracy.” Numerous government agencies have since said it is the most likely explanation for Covid's origins

• On Sunday, NYT columnist Zeynep Tufekci wrote that officials and scientists "hid or understated crucial facts, misled at least one reporter, orchestrated campaigns" and compared notes about hiding communications to prevent the public from hearing the whole story

Dig Deeper

• The story also documented how scientists were explicitly conducting gain-of-function research on bat coronaviruses

• It quoted one scientist who published an influential article undermining the lab-leak theory. In private, they wrote, “The lab escape version of this is so friggin’ likely to have happened because they were already doing this type of work and the molecular data is fully consistent with that scenario”

• Per the story, one senior scientific adviser to Dr. Fauci at NIH wrote that he had learned how to make “emails disappear,” so the pandemic’s origins could be hidden

• The report concluded, "To this day, there is no strong scientific evidence ruling out a lab leak or proving that the virus arose from human-animal contact in that seafood market. The few papers cited for market origin were written by a small, overlapping group of authors, including those who didn’t tell the public how serious their doubts had been”

RUNDOWN
Some Quick Stories for the Office

🌪️ Tornadoes caused dust storms, wildfires, and car pile-ups, killing at least 34 people across the southeastern US

💲 Gold prices have climbed nearly 14% in 2025 and broke $3,000 per ounce last week, a new record

🧑‍🚀 The SpaceX mission to return the two NASA astronauts stranded on the International Space Station safely reached the ISS, paving the way to return the astronauts

🔥 A fire at a nightclub in North Macedonia killed 59+ after fireworks reportedly set the club’s roof on fire

📺 President Trump ordered Voice of America (VOA), a US government-funded news agency that distributes news overseas, to be dismantled after he alleged it promotes left-wing views

What does Roca Nation think?

🧠 Today’s Question: A new CNN poll found that the Democrats’ favorability rating has fallen to a record low. Why do you think that is?

Reply to this email with your response!

POPCORN
Some Quick Stories for Happy Hour

🇺🇸 In With the Old: Illinois voters voted overwhelmingly to keep their current flag after state lawmakers gave residents the chance to submit new ideas to pick a new design

🐍 A Slippery Heist: Thieves used two pythons to intimidate employees during a heist at a Tennessee gas station before stealing $400 worth of CBD oil

📱 AI Turns Life Coach: A software developer got unexpected career advice when his AI coding assistant stopped coding to say that using AI “leads to dependency and reduced learning opportunities”

🚲 Naked Biking’s Civil War: Portland, Oregon will host two competing naked bike ride events this year after leadership disputes led a group to split off and create their own

🍾 From Bottles to Buildings: A modular home company is helping Los Angeles wildfire victims rebuild by 3D printing tiny homes from recycled plastic bottles

💰 Small Island Nation’s Big Offer: Nauru, the world's smallest sovereign nation, launched a "golden passport" program offering citizenship starting at $105,000

ROCA WRAP
Red Listed

Bhutan

This Himalayan kingdom is on a draft “Red List” for a complete travel ban to the USA.

Bhutan is a small, landlocked Buddhist kingdom nestled between China and India, known for its dramatic mountain scenery, ancient monasteries, and unique development philosophy of “Gross National Happiness.” The country has traditionally maintained a policy of cautious engagement with the outside world, only opening to foreign tourists in the 1970s and introducing television and internet in 1999.

With a population of less than 800,000, Bhutan has generally maintained positive international relations and is not associated with security threats to other nations.

According to a New York Times report, though, Bhutan has appeared on a draft "Red List" of 11 countries whose citizens would be completely barred from entering the United States. The proposed ban is part of a broader Trump Administration initiative targeting citizens from as many as 43 countries, divided into three color-coded lists: Red, Orange, and Yellow. Other countries on the reported Red List include Afghanistan, Cuba, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Venezuela, and Yemen.

State Department officials have reportedly been developing and reviewing the list for several weeks, with changes likely before it reaches the White House. While the New York Times saw a draft placing Bhutan on the Red List, Reuters later reported seeing a draft with Bhutan on the Yellow List, which would give countries 60 days to address perceived deficiencies.

A US official speaking anonymously cautioned that changes to the list are possible and that it has yet to be approved by the administration, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

The inclusion of Bhutan on any restricted travel list has puzzled many observers, as the country doesn't share obvious characteristics with other banned nations.

One potential explanation involves immigration concerns – US Department of Homeland Security data shows that 200 Bhutanese citizens were apprehended for residing illegally in the USA between 2013 and 2022, and that a relatively high share of Bhutanese overstay their visas. In 2023, a major immigration scam in Nepal involved many Nepalese citizens posing as "Bhutanese Refugees" to enter the USA, potentially raising red flags about identity verification.

WikiLeaks cables from US Embassies have also previously highlighted concerns about Bhutanese overstaying visas or providing incorrect contact information.

In 2010, a cable described how a group of supposed Bhutanese cultural performers was actually a front for human smuggling, with members intending to work illegally in the US.

The final status of Bhutan on these lists will only be known once the administration releases its official decision, expected within the coming weeks.

EDITOR’S NOTE
A War Is Brewing Within MAGA

Last week was a revelation for the Republican Party. It exposed a fracture that could break MAGA into two. And that fracture is Israel.

The MAGA media and Trump administration are coming apart over the Israel issue and last week accelerated this split. Led by Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens, and Joe Rogan, the MAGA media had an eye opening week of anti-Israel rhetoric while the Trump administration announced crackdowns on Antisemitism and issued its strongest pro-Israel commitments yet. So who's on which side? And what will happen next? Why is it so divisive? This video investigates.

EDITOR’S NOTE
Final Thoughts

Hope you all had a nice weekend. It was a great one for the Maxes: Max F saw UVA friends he hadn’t seen in a year, and Max T spent his in New Orleans, where drunken tourists shouted from the balcony, “Show me your news hits!” Who knew the French Quarter had so many news junkies?

Shoutout to Michael Burke (whose bachelor party was in Nola), who will be getting married in May. He also holds a special place in Roca lore as a former anonymous voting member of the now-defunct Roca college football ranking committee. Should we bring it back next year?

Anyways, hope everyone has a great week!

–Max and Max