🌊 We The Potheads

Happy anniversary of the internet’s first viral moment?

On this day in 2005, Tom Cruise jumped on Oprah’s couch mid-interview, proclaiming his love for Katie Holmes. The Top Gun star was so head over heels for his new flame that he nearly went heels over head. Why he felt the urge to jump, we will never know. But we also haven’t seen a toxicology report from that interview.

P.S.: Speaking of embarrassing moments, last week we had a link gaffe with our RYSE advertisement. Turns out all the traffic to the RYSE investment opportunity caused the site to crash. For those who reached out saying you couldn't access the site, it's back and running at this link! If you have any other difficulties, please let us know!

In today's edition:

–Max, Max, and Alex

KEY STORY

Space Weapon?

The US accused Russia of launching an anti-satellite weapon into orbit

• Per the US Department of Defense press secretary, Russia’s “counter-space weapon” is on the “same orbit” as a US government satellite

• After denying the launched rocket was carrying a weapon, a Russian spokesperson said the launch and operation are “in the interests of [Russian defense]”

• Russia launched the rocket – Soyuz-2.1b – last week. US officials did not elaborate on whether their satellite is in immediate danger

Dig Deeper

• The Pentagon spokesperson said the weapon is “presumably capable of attacking other satellites in low Earth orbit”

• Russia has previously accused the US of weaponizing space

KEY STORY

Three Countries Recognizing Palestine

Spain, Ireland, and Norway announced they will recognize the State of Palestine on March 28

• 140 of 193 UN countries recognize Palestine. The US, most European countries, and many of their allies do not

• Since October 7, several European countries have hinted they may do so; on Wednesday, the leaders of Norway, Spain, and Ireland jointly said they would on May 28

• Recognition will likely do little for Palestine in the short term but is seen as strengthening its demand for statehood

Dig Deeper

• Spain’s prime minister said recognition is about “peace, justice and consistency”; Ireland’s head of state called it a “statement of unequivocal support for a two-state solution,” a vision for peace in which both Palestine and Israel are independent countries

• Israel responded by recalling its ambassadors for consultations and warning of further “severe consequences.” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called recognition a “prize for terrorism,” suggesting the countries are rewarding Hamas for October 7

KEY STORY

A Smokey Nation

A new study found that more Americans use marijuana daily or near-daily than drink alcohol

• Per the new study, in 2022, 17.7M Americans reported daily or near-daily (DND) marijuana use – defined as using the substance 21+ days in the previous month – versus 14.7M for alcohol. Twenty years prior, there were 10 times as many DND alcohol users as marijuana

• Far more people drink alcohol than use marijuana, but marijuana users tend to consume the drug more frequently. In 2022, the median drinker reported consuming alcohol 4-5 days in the prior month, while the median marijuana user reported using it 15-16 days

• DND marijuana use is up fifteenfold over the past 20 years. The study’s author, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University, concluded that “cannabis use now appears to be on a fundamentally different scale” than before states began legalizing it

Dig Deeper

• Since 2008, DND marijuana use has risen 269%, while DND alcohol use has declined 7%

• People aged 35+ accounted for more days of marijuana use than those under 35

• The study, published this week in the journal Addiction, drew data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health

KEY STORY

Klaus Schwab to Retire

Klaus Schwab, founder of the World Economic Forum (WEF), is resigning as its executive chair

• While working as a business professor in Switzerland in 1971, Schwab, a German engineer, founded a business conference in Davos, Switzerland

• That conference has since grown into the world’s most prominent gathering of political and business leaders and the anchor of the WEF. This year’s event attracted 50+ heads of state

• Schwab, now 86, will stop overseeing the conference next year, when a former foreign minister of Norway will take over from him

Dig Deeper

• The WEF claims it is impartial and independent and that it focuses on “facilitating progress on systemic challenges” and “addressing large-scale global challenges”

• The WEF has also attracted criticism for its elitism, with major political and business deals having allegedly been reached there

• In recent years, fewer major heads of state have attended the conference, leading some to speculate that it's in decline

ROCA REVIEW
Roca Recommends…

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RUNDOWN
Some Quick Stories for the Office

🗳️ UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak scheduled elections for July 4. Polls suggest Sunak’s center-right Conservative Party – which has ruled for 14 years – will lose in a landslide to the center-left Labour Party

⛰️ Nepali mountaineer Kami Rita Sherpa broke his own record by climbing Mount Everest for the 30th time. His closest competitor is another Nepali mountaineer who climbed the mountain 27 times

🎤 A candidate in EU elections for Germany’s right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party stopped campaigning after saying that not all members of the Nazi SS were criminals. In an interview, the candidate said the SS, a paramilitary group involved in the Holocaust, “took part in crimes” but that not all its members were “automatically a criminal”

✈️ The leader of Hamas and deputy chief of Hezbollah attended the funeral for Iran’s president, who died in a helicopter crash on Sunday. During a speech at the funeral, Hamas’s leader said that with Iran’s support, the group will “continue the resistance until the liberation” of Palestine

🇺🇸 During her first public event since dropping out of the Republican primary, Nikki Haley endorsed Donald Trump: “Trump has not been perfect on [many] policies…I have made that clear many, many times. But Biden has been a catastrophe. So I will be voting for Trump,” she said

COMMUNITY

We founded RocaNews because we wanted news companies to give us just the facts – not tell us what to think. That inspires us to do the “Roca Votes” story each week, in which we summarize a controversial topic and see how Roca Nation feels about it.

This week’s question: Should women cover up while breastfeeding in public?

Suggested by Lindsay from Tennessee

Keep the debate going and reply to this email to let us know what you think!

POPCORN
Some Quick Stories for Happy Hour

🍟 Average Australian McDonald’s: A McDonald’s customer in Australia caught an employee using a heat lamp designed for french fries to dry a wet mop

🏀 Small baller brand: NBA star LaMelo Ball allegedly ran over the foot of a young fan trying to get his autograph. The fan’s mother is now suing

🥩 Trash day in Ohio: A large pile of meat was dumped on an Ohio roadside, where it’s been rotting for about a week. The meat pile included chicken, steak, bacon, shrimp, and more

🐋 (Sea)World Wrestling Entertainment: A New Zealand man received a $365 fine over an Instagram video in which he tried to “body slam” an orca swimming next to his boat

🍩 Mmm, warm donuts: Authorities charged a Kentucky man with felony arson and endangerment after he allegedly set a Krispy Kreme on fire

ROCA WRAP
As Fate Would Have It

The American Civil War began and ended with Wilmer McLean.

In 1854, McLean bought a house in Manassas, Virginia. Seven years later, the first major battle of the Civil War, the Battle of Bull Run, began just miles from his house.

During that battle, Confederate General P.G.T. Beauregard commandeered McLean’s house and used it as a headquarters. The general wrote in his diary during the battle, “A comical effect of this artillery fight was the destruction of the dinner of myself and staff by a Federal shell that fell into the fire-place of my headquarters at the McLean House.”

McLean supported the Confederacy and made a killing off selling commodities, such as sugar, to the Confederate army. Nonetheless, when fighting again broke out near his house the following year, he decided to relocate his family further south, away from active fighting.

He purchased a property in a quiet town in southern Virginia – Appomattox Court House.

Years later, in 1865, McLean received a knock on his door.

By that point, the Confederacy was on its dying breath, with Federal troops having seized its capital and sent its armies into retreat.

The visitor identified himself as an aide to Robert E. Lee, the top Confederate general, and asked McLean if he could provide a place for Lee to meet with another general. McLean reluctantly agreed.

Lee showed up later that afternoon – and, to McLean’s shock, the “other general” was Ulysses S. Grant, the commanding general of Union forces.

With his army defeated and exhausted, Lee had arrived at Appomattox to surrender – and signed papers to that effect in McLean’s parlor.

Once the surrender ceremony was over, Union forces stripped McLean’s house of most of its furniture for souvenirs, offering McLean a small amount of money as compensation. Some of McLean’s household items, such as his coffee table, are still on display in museums or in personal collections.

McLean would later remark, “The war began in my front yard and ended in my front parlor.”

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

EDITOR’S NOTE
Final Thoughts

‘Tis nearly the end of the week. We saw a few headlines from this morning that more and more outlets will be doubling down on AI. The Washington Post wants it “everywhere” in its newsroom, and News Corp (the owner of the Wall Street Journal, NY Post, and others) just signed a deal with OpenAI.

Roca, however, is still human-powered. And these humans appreciate you.

— Max, Max, and Alex