Wolves are officially back in Colorado. On Monday, the state released five gray wolves into the wild, prompting Colorado’s governor to declare, “For the first time since the 1940s, the howl of wolves will officially return to western Colorado.” Granted, it’s a different Colorado than the one the gray wolves knew in the 1940s. So here’s hoping that gray wolves like indie music, Subarus, flannels, craft beer, and half-peeled Coexist bumper stickers.

In today's edition:

• A record day at the US-Mexico border

• British grandma charges kids for Christmas dinner

• Netflix Casting Scandal

 🔑 Key Stories

Record US Migration

US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers encountered 12,600 migrants at the US-Mexico border on Monday, an all-time record

• During fiscal year 2023 (October 2022-September 2023), CBP encountered a record 2.48M migrants at the southern border

• While immigration typically slows in November and December, it has surged in recent weeks. Amid that, on Monday, CBP encountered an all-time high 12,600 migrants

• Particularly hard-hit was Eagle Pass, Texas. Authorities closed parts of the border in response

Now Over to European Immigration 

EU lawmakers reached a major migration deal on Wednesday

• The EU’s migration rules collapsed in 2015 amid a record migrant surge, causing members to adopt their own uncoordinated policies. EU lawmakers have since been negotiating new migration rules

• On Wednesday, lawmakers reached an agreement. That gave members wide authority over their borders; added new policies allowing quicker processing of asylum applications; and included mechanisms to share the burden of immigration among EU member countries

• Human rights groups blasted the deal, arguing it would worsen the suffering of migrants entering the EU

Denmark  🤝 USA

This month, Denmark, Finland, and Sweden announced deals to allow US troops to be stationed on their territory

• Finland and Sweden were both neutral countries until last year, when they applied to join NATO after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine

• Denmark is a founding NATO member but had a longstanding policy prohibiting foreign troops on its soil. This week, it approved a deal granting US forces access to three of its air bases for ten years. Denmark’s prime minister said, “It must not be possible to get even a sheet of paper between the Danish and American relationship”

SCOTUS to Weigh In?

The Trump campaign said it would “swiftly” appeal the Colorado Supreme Court’s ruling to the US Supreme Court (SCOTUS)

• On Tuesday, Colorado’s high court ruled that Trump is ineligible to run in the state due to the 14th Amendment

• Trump’s campaign called the ruling “completely flawed” and said it would appeal to SCOTUS

• SCOTUS – with a 6-3 conservative majority, three of whom were appointed by Trump – is likely to rule on the case, although it doesn’t have to. Legal analysts claim it’ll likely overturn Colorado’s ruling

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🍿 Popcorn

ICYMI

• PS5 Supremacy: Sony said it has sold 50M PlayStation 5 (PS5) consoles, reportedly surpassing Xbox Series X and S sales by nearly three to one this year

• As blind is my witness: A Chicago man wrongfully convicted of murder based on testimony from a legally blind witness was freed after 12 years in prison

• The Crisis-Building: An Austrian court ordered that the co-owner of New York City’s Chrysler Building must sell its share. Signa, a struggling real estate company, owns 50% of the building

Wildcard

• Ante up, kids! A British grandmother who began charging her family for Christmas dinner after her husband died in 2015 has increased her 2023 prices due to rising grocery costs

• Fast (Meat) & Furious: Meat snack brand Slim Jim reported the theft of its custom “Fast Meat” sports car. Slim Jim urges anyone with information on the car’s whereabouts to contact the authorities

• Waffle Heist: Georgia police are searching for a woman who they say posed as a Waffle House employee, worked for two hours, then stole an unknown amount of money from the cash register

👇 What do you think?

Today's Question:

Today’s question is below the Wrap!

See yesterday's results below the Wrap! 

🌯 Roca Wrap

17 years ago this week, 67 people gathered for a conference in Iran.

The two-day meeting had an academic name: The International Conference to Review the Global Vision of the Holocaust.

It drew 67 people, including David Duke, an ex-KKK leader; Georges Theil, a French politician repeatedly convicted under Holocaust denial laws; and Bendikt Frings, an ultranationalist German politician who said he had been waiting "all my childhood" for such a conference.

Iran’s foreign minister said his government was hosting the conference to "create an opportunity for thinkers who cannot express their views freely in Europe about the Holocaust."

He added, "If the official version of the Holocaust is thrown into doubt, then the identity and nature of Israel will be thrown into doubt. And if, during this review, it is proved that the Holocaust was a historical reality, then what is the reason for the Palestinians having to pay the cost of the Nazis' crimes?"

Over the two days, the conference’s attendees dismissed the narrative that 6M Jews were killed in the Holocaust.

Some people claimed the Holocaust had never happened; others claimed Jewish leaders were behind it or that if Jews died, it was not a planned extermination. Historians and Western leaders blasted the conference as a “Holocaust denial” convention. The UK’s prime minister called it “shocking beyond belief”; President George W. Bush called it an “affront to the entire civilized world.”

For Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the criticism was nothing new.

A year prior, Ahmadinejad had delivered a speech to a crowd in southern Iran. "They have created a myth in the name of Holocaust and consider it to be above God, religion and the prophets," he said. Given that the Holocaust was a myth, he added, Israel should be "wiped off the map."

New data released this week suggests that 17 years later, those views have taken root among young Americans. Those data come from an Economist/YouGov poll of 1,500 US adult citizens between December 2 and 5.

One question asked if it was antisemitic to deny the Holocaust.

Across all ages, 67% of respondents said it was, 9% said it was not, and the rest were unsure. Among 18-to-29-year-olds, though, 46% said it was antisemitic while 17% said it was not and 37% said they were unsure.

Another asked if people agree that the Holocaust was a myth.

Across all ages, 7% said yes while 77% did not. Among 18-to-29-year-olds, though, 20% agreed while 30% said they did not know.

Another asked if people agree that the Holocaust was exaggerated. Across all ages, 9% said yes while 74% did not. Among 18-to-29-year-olds, 23% agreed while 26% neither agreed nor disagreed. Only 52% disagreed. 18-to-29-year-olds were outliers across all these questions.

Biden and Trump voters, urban and rural, men and women – when sampling across all ages, they mostly agreed that the Holocaust happened, that it was not exaggerated, and that denying it is antisemitic.

Many people have been trying to explain the trend among younger people by blaming social media, bad education, and general distrust of authority and information.

Some have suggested that this was bound to happen in the US, where Holocaust denial is constitutionally protected. In France, Germany, Canada, and other countries, those answers could violate Holocaust denial laws.

That leads us to today’s question(s) of the day.

Should Holocaust denial be a crime? Do these trends alarm you? What do you think explains them? Let us know by replying to [email protected]!

And if you want to share this story, you can use this link.

 🌊 Roca Clubhouse

Yesterday's Poll:

Do you prefer:
Being home for the holidays: 90%
Traveling for the holidays: 10%

Yesterday's Question:

Should Colorado have disqualified Trump from the state’s 2024 presidential ballot?

Frank from Portland, Oregon: "Most Definitely!! Donald Trump is at best an embarrassment to our nation, and at worst a criminal that belongs in prison for the rest of his life.”

Heidi: “This is getting ridiculous! Let the voters decide. BTW former president Trump has not even been convicted of anything to do with the January 6th protest.”

Trel from Wilkes County, North Carolina: “I despise Trump, but he has not been convicted of insurrection yet,  therefore he must be presumed innocent until proven.  I hope he rots in prison.”

Jennifer: “Absolutely. I believe he should be removed from every ballot. I voted for him, twice, but his behavior after the 2020 election was reprehensible. And even crazier since. I don't understand why so many folks still support him. He's nutz.”

David: “Sure, if it's okay for states to disqualify Biden too - after all, what's good for the goose is good for the gander!”

🧠 Intermission

If anyone has seen Slim Jim’s sports car, please don’t alert authorities. We are thoroughly enjoying our new ride and are rebranding it to RocaNews today.

Also, you may have noticed that we are introducing a great new way to share articles! You can now share Wraps with friends to spread the good (Roca)News. Start today with the link here!

And keep scrolling for our premium deep dive on Roca Premium, but to everyone else: Have a wonderful Thursday!

–Max and Max

🌎 Roca Reports

Yesterday we concluded our Roca Reports series in Finland where we tried to answer the pivotal question: Is it truly the world’s happiest country? We’ll be back soon with our next installment in Serbia. Today’s premium Wrap covers a casting scandal at Netflix. We hope you enjoy!

North Africans have accused Netflix of destroying their history.

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