🌊 For That Reason, Haiti's PM Is Out

Happy Chernobylversary to all who celebrate. Or, for you weirdos, Happy Friday 🎉

38 years ago, the worst nuclear disaster of all time went down. In the wee hours of the morning, a reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant exploded, causing a meltdown and massive fire that would rage for over a week and cover 58,000 square miles of Europe in radioactive fallout. Although we could dwell on the fact that it took the Soviet Union bureaucrats two days to announce their little $70B oopsie daisy, let’s instead remember the Chernobyl divers. Three days after the disaster, three engineers dove into the toxic sludge to prevent a catastrophically worse explosion from taking place. Pour one out for the Chernobyl Three!

In today's edition:

Today’s syllabus-themed 20 Questions.

–Max, Max, Jen, and Alex

KEY STORY

US Fertility Plummets

The US fertility rate fell to 1.62, the lowest level since the US began tracking the statistic in the 1930s

• The fertility rate of a population is the average number of children a woman is expected to have over her lifetime. Replacement level fertility – the rate needed to keep a population stable – is ~2.1

• Per newly-released preliminary data, roughly 3.6M children were born in the US last year, down 2% from the year prior and the lowest total number since 1979

• Teenagers aged 15-19 recorded 13.2 births per 1,000 women in 2023, the lowest recorded teen pregnancy rate and down 79% from 1991

• Women aged 30-34 had the highest birth rate of any age group, with 95.1 births per 1,000 people. The second-highest rate was among 25- to 29-year-olds

Dig Deeper

• Among all age groups, pregnancy rates declined, although they did so at varying rates

• Hispanic people had the highest birth rate (65 per 1,000), followed by black people (53.5). White people had 51.6; Native Americans 47.9; and Asian people 47.7, the lowest of any racial group

KEY STORY

Apple’s Conflict Minerals

Lawyers representing the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) accused Apple of using “illegally exploited” minerals from the DRC for its devices

• The DRC, Sub-Saharan Africa’s largest country, has for years accused neighboring Rwanda of funding a rebel group and stealing the country’s natural resources

• This week, law firms contracted by the DRC’s government sent letters to Apple accusing it of sourcing minerals from Rwanda, making them “tainted by the blood of the Congolese people”

• Apple claims 100% of the metals in its devices are ethically sourced

Dig Deeper

• The DRC is rich in tin, tungsten, and tantalum (the “3T”), all of which are vital for smartphones

• Apple claims that in 2023, “100 percent of [3T] smelters and refiners in Apple’s supply chain completed assessments to verify compliance with our standards.” It also received certification from the Tin Supply Chain Initiative, a group that audits supply chains to ensure minerals have no ties to conflicts or human rights violations

KEY STORY

Haiti Leader Resigns

Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry officially resigned, handing power to a transitional council

• Gangs control much of Haiti, the Western Hemisphere’s poorest country. In March, a coalition of gangs overran Haiti’s main airport and prisons, forcing Henry to agree to resign

• On Wednesday, Henry officially did so, handing power over to a transitional council

• “Barbecue,” the leader of the coalition of gangs, demanded gangs be given a say in the government. “Whether or not you’re installed [on the council], this message is for you: Brace yourselves,” he said

Dig Deeper

• Henry’s former economy minister, Michael Patrick Boisvert, will take over as interim president, with a democratically-elected president expected to be sworn in by early 2026

• The UN has called the security and humanitarian situation in Haiti “cataclysmic,” with roughly 5M of the country’s 11.5M people suffering from acute food insecurity

• Large portions of the country are outside the government’s control

KEY STORY

Weinstein Conviction Dropped

A New York appeals court overturned Harvey Weinstein’s 2020 conviction

• Since 2017, 100+ women have accused Weinstein, a prominent Hollywood producer, of a range of sexual crimes, sparking the #MeToo movement

• In 2020, a NY jury found Weinstein guilty of raping and sexually assaulting two women, sentencing him to 23 years in prison. In a separate trial two years later, a California court sentenced him to 16 years for rape

• On Thursday, an appeals court overturned Weinstein’s NY conviction after finding that the judge overseeing the case prejudiced the jury against him

• Weinstein will now be transferred to the custody of California prison officials to serve out his sentence for the separate rape conviction

Dig Deeper

• On appeal, Weinstein’s lawyers argued that the judge prejudiced the jury against Weinstein by allowing four women other than the two alleged victims to testify that Weinstein had assaulted them

• On Thursday, in a 4-3 ruling, the NY appeals court agreed: We conclude that the trial court erroneously admitted testimony of uncharged, alleged prior sexual acts against persons other than the complainants of the underlying crimes,” it said

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RUNDOWN
Some Quick Stories for the Office

💰 The US economy grew 1.6% over the first quarter (Q1) of 2024 on an annualized basis, well short of expectations. However, inflation rose at a 3.4% annual rate, much higher than the 1.8% increase from Q4 last year

🇷🇺 Russia vetoed a US-backed UN Security Council resolution calling on all countries to prevent an arms race in outer space

🏛️ US Supreme Court justices appeared skeptical of Donald Trump’s claim of absolute immunity from criminal prosecution

🇨🇺 A Cuban diplomat denied US media reports last year of a Chinese spy base on the island, claiming the US has never produced evidence to back that claim

🪱 Putting worms on ice greatly improves their memory span, a researcher at Tel Aviv University announced in a preprint article

🇵🇸 The UN, as well as the US and other countries, have called for investigations into mass graves found at a Gaza hospital

POPCORN
Some Quick Stories for Happy Hour

🐈‍⬛ If it fits, it ships: A Utah couple accidentally shipped their cat, Galena, to California with an Amazon return. It was trapped in the box for six days until an Amazon employee discovered her

🪳 Round up the usual insects: Cicadas emerging in South Carolina have been so loud that residents in one county mistook their noise for sirens or roars and called the sheriff’s office

🐊 Gator vs. Wild: A South Carolina animal rescuer freed an alligator that Hilton Head residents said had been stuck in a drainage pipe for nearly six months

🏈 Offensive Picks: The Chicago Bears selected USC quarterback Caleb Williams first overall at the NFL draft, making him the first of six QBs drafted over the first 12 picks. The first defensive player was drafted at #15, breaking the 2021 record of seven offensive players to start the draft

😨 Buzzer beater: A man on his deathbed confessed to killing a mother and her 10-year-old daughter in West Virginia. He revealed he had buried the bodies in his backyard, solving the 24-year-old cold case

ROCA WRAP
Vermeer

Until centuries after his death, few people knew Johannes Vermeer’s name.

Vermeer was born in 1632 in the Dutch city of Delft, which was renowned for its signature blue-and-white pottery. His father – an innkeeper and art dealer – passed along his businesses to his son upon his death.

The exact circumstances of Vermeer’s training as a painter are unclear. No record exists of who he apprenticed for, and few records exist about his formative years as an artist.

Vermeer married a wealthy woman in 1653 and promptly converted from Protestantism, his family’s religion, to Catholicism, her religion. Later that decade, the couple moved in with Vermeer’s wife’s mother, who was a distant relative of another famous Dutch painter.

Around that time, Vermeer began producing his first major pieces of art. His paintings from that period reflected several different artistic styles, typically with religious themes.

Toward the later stages of his career, though, Vermeer launched his own style – one that would make him world-famous.

Many of Vermeer’s most famous works depicted people – usually women – performing mundane, routine daily tasks in interior settings.

The works were particularly valued for the high quality of their paint, their skillful use of light, and their ability to capture the quiet dignity of people going about their daily lives.

Vermeer’s most famous work is “Girl with a Pearl Earring,” shown above, which is currently displayed at an art museum in The Hague. Little is known about the painting, including its subject’s identity: Some speculate she was a model; others claim it was Vermeer’s daughter or a biblical figure.

Since 2014, doubts have also been raised about whether the woman’s earring is even pearl: One Dutch astrophysicist has argued that the earring’s shape, color, and texture suggest Vermeer actually painted a girl with a tin earring.

Vermeer likely sold his paintings for a decent sum. However, the Netherlands’ economy collapsed during the latter years of his life, throwing his family into hardship.

He died at 43, leaving his wife and 11 children indebted.

His name faded into obscurity until the late-19th century, when art historians and dealers began circulating his works and recording parts of his legacies.

Today, Vermeer and his works are among the most famous in the history of Dutch art.

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

COMMUNITY
20 Questions

As is Roca tradition, every Friday we ask our readers 20 questions or polls and include the answers the following Friday. Let us know your thoughts!

Ladies and gentlemen, the Weeknd. We're feeling oddly nostalgic about high school this week. Maybe it's because one of us is rewatching Friday Night Lights and the other is reading lots of books these days — both activities, of course, indicate great intellects. Accordingly, today we're doing something we've never done before: A syllabus-themed 20 Questions. We'll give you different books, topics, subjects, and other random stuff from high school, and you tell us which you prefer. We can't wait to see the results. Also, everybody gets an A on this assignment... unless you choose the Quadratic Formula.

Here’s the link! Have a wonderful weekend.

Last Week’s 20 Questions:

Last week in honor of wedding season fast approaching, we ran our first-ever "Best Wedding Songs" edition of 20 Questions. We bolded the winner of each prompt below:

Part 1: The First Dance

1. All of Me by John Legend or At Last by Etta James?

   All of Me

   At Last

2. Perfect by Ed Sheeran or A Thousand Years by Christina Perri?

   Perfect

   A Thousand Years

3. Can't Help Falling in Love by Elvis or Let's Stay Together by Al Green?

   Can't Help Falling in Love

   Let's Stay Together

4. The Way You Look Tonight by Frank Sinatra or Your Song by Elton John?

   The Way You Look Tonight

   Your Song

5. Unchained Melody by The Righteous Brothers or Thinking Out Loud by Ed Sheeran?

   Unchained Melody

   Thinking Out Loud

6. Lover by Taylor Swift or Wonderful Tonight by Eric Clapton?

   Lover

   Wonderful Tonight

7. Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You by Frankie Valli or We've Only Just Begun by The Carpenters?

   Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You

   We've Only Just Begun

8. Yellow by Coldplay or In My Life by The Beatles?

   Yellow

   In My Life

9. Unforgettable by Nat King Cole or God Only Knows by The Beach Boys?

   Unforgettable

   God Only Knows

10. What a Wonderful World by Louie Armstrong or Fly Me to the Moon by Frank Sinatra?

    What a Wonderful World

    Fly Me to the Moon

    Part 2: Wedding Dance Floor

11. I Want You Back by The Jackson 5 or Dancing Queen by ABBA?

    I Want You Back

    Dancing Queen

12. Uptown Funk by Bruno Mars or Brown Eyed Girl by Van Morrison?

    Uptown Funk

    Brown Eyed Girl

13. Mambo No. 5 by Lou Bega or    
    Play That Funky Music by White Cherry?

    Mambo No. 5

    Play That Funky Music

14. Country Girl (Shake It For Me) by Luke Bryan or    
    Ice Ice Baby by Vanilla Ice?

    Country Girl

    Ice Ice Baby

15. Levels by Avicii or Call Me Maybe by Carly Rae Jepsen?

    Levels

    Call Me Maybe

16. December 1963 (Oh, What A Night) by The Four Seasons or Any Man Of Mine by Shania Twain?

    December 1963

    Any Man of Mine

17. Sweet Caroline by Neil Diamond or Turn Down for What by DJ Snake and Lil John?

    Sweet Carolina

    Turn Down for What

18. Closer by The Chainsmokers or Hooked On A Feeling by Blue Swede?

    Closer

    Hooked On a Feeling

19. Yeah! by Usher or Shut Up and Dance by Walk the Moon?

    Yeah!

    Shut Up and Dance

20. Mr. Brightside by The Killers or Footloose by Kenny Loggins?

    Mr. Brightside

    Footloose

EDITOR’S NOTE
Final Thoughts

Have a great weekend, Roca. Nothing like an art history Wrap to kick off the weekend. Let us know: What’s your best guess for the identity of the girl in Vermeer’s “Girl with a Pearl Earring?

See you on Monday!

— Max, Max, Alex and Jen