Sorry for any typos today… late night working the Newark airport control center.
What’s going on with Newark International Airport? It’s suffered multiple radio and radar outages in recent weeks, and several whistleblowers have come forward to basically say that it’s safer to fly over the Bermuda Triangle than land on one of EWR’s tarmacs. Granted, there haven’t been any crashes there, and 2025’s recorded the fewest flight disruptions/crashes in recent history but still… Newark, we shouldn’t have a problem. Hold air traffic controller tryouts! Hire some ex-Jets players! Actually don’t do that.
But who are we to make fun of others when we botched the 20 Questions link on Friday by failing to make the link public at first? If you’d still like to complete the music-themed trivia edition of 20 Questions you can do it here.
📉 Apple's awful year
🇷🇺 Putin defies Trump's peace push
🤯 Record-breaking Smurf gathering
–Max and Max
KEY STORY
Apple’s Terrible Year
Apple stock is down 20% year-to-date and 6% since last week, dropping it to the world’s third-most valuable company
In 2023, Apple became the first company to pass a $3T market cap. Around this time last year, it became the first to surpass $3.5T, and in December it peaked at $3.85T
Since then, it has fallen to $2.9T, making it the world’s third-most valuable company, after Microsoft ($3.3T) and Nvidia ($3.2T)
The causes include US and EU lawsuits; tariffs; and an underwhelming AI rollout
Dig Deeper
Earlier this month, Apple was found to have violated a judge’s order about App Store restrictions. The court said Apple failed to improve anticompetitive practices after a 2021 antitrust ruling, opening the company up to new, potentially criminal, penalties
CEO Tim Cook has also lost his "Trump whisperer" nickname, after his decision to snub the president's Middle East tour led Trump to criticize him. Trump has since threatened steep tariffs on iPhones made outside the US
Investors have also been surprised by Apple’s lackluster AI rollout, which included the rolling back of some initial “Apple Intelligence” features. Last week, Jony Ive – a designer of the iPhone and other Apple products – announced that he would be joining OpenAI to help that company move into hardware, dealing another blow to Apple
KEY STORY
Harvard’s International Enrollment
A federal judge blocked President Trump’s effort to stop Harvard from enrolling international students
President Trump has been feuding with Harvard University since April, accusing the school of promoting “woke ideology,” engaging in discriminatory diversity practices, and failing to protect Jewish students from antisemitism
In May, the Trump Administration froze over $2B in federal funding for Harvard after the school rejected demands from the government to overhaul its practices
Last Thursday, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) revoked Harvard’s authorization to enroll international students. A day later, a federal judge temporarily blocked the move
Dig Deeper
DHS had requested records of international students who participated in “illegal and violent activities” to be sent to them by April 30. However, the school partially declined to comply with this request, prompting DHS to blocking its ability to enroll students. Foreign students account for roughly 27% of Harvard’s student body
You can get our full deep-dive on the topic here
QUOTE OF THE DAY
Never get too high; never get too low
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KEY STORY
German Troops in Lithuania
Germany announced it will permanently station troops in Lithuania’s capital city
Germany has been pacifist since the end of World War II, with no permanent military deployments. Its constitution explicitly allows only defensive military action
On Friday, Germany’s Chancellor Merz announced a permanent deployment of German troops to Lithuania, a NATO member that borders Russia
The move comes as the US, which also has troops in Lithuania, threatens to reduce its commitments to Europe. In announcing it, Germany’s chancellor said, “Protecting Vilnius is protecting Berlin”
Dig Deeper
In the background of the announcement are Trump's demands about boosted European defense spending
In his first term, Trump demanded that NATO countries spend at least 2% of their GDP on defense. In his second, he’s called for them to spend 5%. Calls to boost defense spending initially prompted pushback in Germany, but that’s changed since Russia invaded Ukraine. In recent months, it and other EU countries have pledged to dramatically boost spending
KEY STORY
Russia Attacks Ukraine
Russia launched one of its biggest airstrikes of the war, defying President Trump’s peace push
The strikes began Friday and intensified through the weekend, resulting in dozens of casualties and destroyed infrastructure. They came days after Trump spoke with both countries’ leaders and said the two sides were close to a ceasefire agreement
Trump said of the attacks, “[Putin] has gone absolutely CRAZY...He’s killing a lot of people, and I don’t know what the hell happened to Putin. I’ve known him a long time. Always gotten along with him. But he’s sending rockets into cities and killing people, and I don’t like it at all”
Dig Deeper
On Sunday, Zelensky said, “This cannot be ignored. America's silence, and the silence of others in the world, only encourages Putin”
Trump responded by posting, “Likewise, President Zelenskyy is doing his Country no favors by talking the way he does. Everything out of his mouth causes problems, I don’t like it, and it better stop”
RUNDOWN
Some Quick Stories for the Office
✈️ The US Justice Department reached a deal with Boeing that will let the company avoid being branded a convicted felon regarding two plane crashes that killed 346 people
🧠 “Uptown Girl” singer Billy Joel canceled all upcoming concerts after being diagnosed with a brain disorder
☢️ President Trump signed executive orders to accelerate construction of nuclear power plants
💍 Eight people were found guilty of robbing Kim Kardashian in a $10M Paris jewelery heist nearly a decade ago
🇺🇸 President Trump approved a controversial merger between Japan’s Nippon Steel and US Steel
What does Roca Nation think?
🧠 Today’s Question: What movie makes you feel most patriotic?
POPCORN
Some Quick Stories for Happy Hour
🌭 Hot Dogs Hit the Speedway: Oscar Mayer held the first-ever Wienie 500 race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on “Carb Day”
🇫🇷 Blue Away the Record: A French town broke the record for the largest Smurf gathering, with over 3,000 attendees
🗲 Shocking Views: NASA Photo Captures Lightning: An astronaut captured an image of a lightning storm over Alabama and Georgia from the International Space Station
🗡️ Lightsaber Assault: A 25-year-old Nebraska man was arrested after striking a woman and her child with a Star Wars lightsaber
📱 Claude’s Code of Conduct: Anthropic's latest AI model, Claude Opus 4, resorted to blackmail during a simulated test scenario
ROCA WRAP
Goner-hea
England
The country will launch the world's first routine gonorrhea vaccination program.
England is home to the National Health Service (NHS), one of the world's most comprehensive public healthcare systems. Despite that, the country has been grappling with rising rates of sexually transmitted infections, particularly among young adults. Cases of gonorrhea in England surpassed 85,000 in 2023, the highest number since records began in 1918. Health authorities have become particularly alarmed by strains that no longer respond to standard treatments and say that resistance to common antibiotics is quickly rising.
Starting August 1, England will become the first country to roll out a routine gonorrhea vaccine using 4CMenB, currently used to protect children against meningococcal B disease. Due to genetic similarities between the bacteria that cause meningitis and gonorrhea, studies show the vaccine offers up to 42% protection against gonorrhea.
Eligible individuals will be invited to receive the vaccine at local sexual health clinics, where they may also be offered vaccines for mpox, HPV, and hepatitis A and B during the same visit.
Health authorities hope the vaccine will reduce both the spread and severity of infections, with advocates calling the roll-out a “huge step forward.” Critics, meanwhile, have said that using a vaccine to stop the spread of an STI only puts a bandaid on a bigger issue.
Others hope that as antibiotic-resistant infections become an increasingly global threat, England's vaccination program could serve as a model for other nations wrestling with similar challenges.
EDITOR’S NOTE
Final Thoughts
It was impossible to commemorate Memorial Day Weekend without thinking of those in our lives who’ve paid the ultimate price for our country — particularly Max T’s Delta Force cousin Hank Griffith whose war-induced PTSD took his life on January 5, 2023. We are grateful to all of your relatives who’ve also given their lives for our freedom.
With Max F having recently visited Pakistan, we are more grateful than ever for the freedoms and prosperity we have in the US and understand that freedom came at a high price. Hope you all had a nice weekend, and let’s have a great week!
–Max and Max
