🌊 Time to Google “Damage Control”

Roca got its first mention in The New York Times…

…and it wasn’t a hit piece! Here’s the blurb: “Other news accounts include Roca News, founded by 20-somethings who view Instagram as a key way to reach peers who feel alienated by traditional news outlets.”

Frankly, we’re a bit disappointed it wasn’t a hit piece because we’ve long said we’ll know we’ve made it when the NYT writes a hit piece on us. Well, Roca Nation, back to the whiteboard...

In today's edition:

And so much more!

–Max, Max, Jen, and Alex

KEY STORY
Chinese Hacking Leak

Leaked documents show a Chinese security firm offering a range of hacking services to China’s government

• Last week, 570 documents from I-Soon, a private Shanghai-based security firm, were posted to GitHub, a developer website. They describe a range of hacking services that I-Soon claims to be able to deliver for clients, including the ability to obtain iOS smartphone data, spread disinformation, and hack X accounts

• The documents also suggest I-Soon hacked government websites in neighboring countries, such as Vietnam, Thailand, and India, although they indicate it had less success with Western countries

Dig Deeper

• The documents show that I-Soon had obtained access to 459 gigabytes of road maps of Taiwan, which would be useful information to plan an invasion

• Another file lists targets in the UK, including its Home and Foreign offices and its Treasury

• Yet the documents also suggest a degree of amateurishness, including correspondences of employees complaining about working conditions and the poor quality of I-Soon’s services

KEY STORY
Google’s Gemini

Google paused Gemini image generation after it depicted white historical figures as people of color

• Google rebranded Bard, its ChatGPT competitor, to Gemini earlier this month 

• Gemini-produced pictures have since gone viral for depicting white historical figures as people of color. Among other things, users posted images depicting a Nazi as a black man; a US founding father as a black woman; and an “early French novelist” as an Asian man

• In response to backlash over what critics called its “woke” image generation, Google paused Gemini’s image generation feature and pledged to “re-release an improved version soon”

Dig Deeper

• One X user tested the algorithm by asking Gemini to generate pictures of “Zulu warriors,” for which it generated pictures of black men – i.e., no diversity

• Dug-up tweets have since shown Gemini’s product head writing on X that “racism is the #1 value [America] seeks to uphold”

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Dig Deeper

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KEY STORY
Alabama’s IVF Ruling

At least two of Alabama’s eight in-vitro fertilization (IVF) clinics paused treatments after Alabama’s top court ruled that embryos are children

• In 2020, three families sued an IVF clinic for wrongful death of a minor after a patient got access to a cryogenics lab and dropped a tray holding frozen embryos, leading to their destruction

• On Friday, Alabama’s Supreme Court ruled that  “unborn children” – i.e., frozen embryos – “are ‘children,’” opening the door for the three families to sue the IVF clinic for wrongful death

• Since then, two IVF clinics in Alabama have paused treatments

Dig Deeper

• In last Friday’s ruling, the chief justice wrote that the "People of Alabama" have adopted a "theologically based view of the sanctity of life" that says "life can not be wrongfully destroyed without incurring the wrath of a holy God"

• He also quoted scripture: “‘Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, Before you were born I sanctified you.’ Jeremiah 1:5,” he wrote

• The ruling will expose IVF clinics to greater financial liability, potentially increasing their costs and forcing some to leave the state

KEY STORY
Venezuela Stops US Deportations

Venezuela is no longer accepting flights of migrants deported from the US and Mexico, the Wall Street Journal reported

• The Biden administration struck a deal with Venezuela in October under which the US would loosen sanctions if Venezuela allowed free elections and accepted the return of deported migrants

• Between October and December, the Biden administration flew ~1,300 migrants to Venezuela

• Last month though, Venezuelan courts banned the opposition leader from standing in elections, causing the US to reimpose some sanctions. Now, Venezuela has stopped accepting deportees

Dig Deeper

• The US has sought to use sanctions relief as a tool to reduce the flow of migrants from Venezuela. While the flights deported a small percentage of Venezuelan migrants, they were intended to deter other Venezuelans from coming

• ~500,000 Venezuelans have entered the US in the past two years

Today’s poll is sponsored by Surfshark, a leading virtual private network (VPN) provider. Browse the web like a ghost!

RUNDOWN
Some Quick Stories for the Office

🎒 Yale reinstated standardized testing requirements starting with the Class of 2027, citing data showing that standardized tests are good predictors of college success

🇪🇸 A Barcelona court sentenced Brazilian soccer player Dani Alves to four and a half years in prison for rape. Alves – widely considered one of the greatest fullbacks in soccer history – was arrested in January 2023

🇷🇺 Alexei Navalny’s mother said she has been shown his body and signed a death certificate. She also said officials pressured her to host a secret burial

📈 Nvidia’s stock surged 16.4% on Thursday, gaining $277B in market cap – the largest-ever single-day gain. The surge occurred after Nvidia, which makes chips for AI, reported better-than-expected profits last quarter

🪧 Social justice protests erupted after the death of Nex Benedict, a 16-year-old trans and nonbinary student in Oklahoma, a day after they were involved in a fight in a school restroom. Police have yet to determine Benedict’s cause of death, noting it was not due to injuries from the fight

🌝 The US landed a spacecraft on the Moon for the first time in 51 years. US-based Intuitive Machines built the unmanned spacecraft, and it’s the first time a commercial company has ever landed a spacecraft on the Moon

COMMUNITY
Weekly Debate

Unlike most news outlets that suppress dissenting opinions, our platform encourages free and open debate. We introduce a topic every Monday and publish responses throughout the week to continue the discussion.

This week’s Roca Votes asks: Should the president have to undergo an annual cognitive exam?

That’s it for this week. Let us know what you think Roca should debate next!

COMMUNITY
Treasure Hunt

Welcome to the weekly Roca treasure hunt! The rules are simple:

• Every day we give a hint. You get one guess, which you submit by emailing [email protected] with a Google street view screenshot

• Unlock an extra hint each Thursday once you refer five friends

• The first person to guess the answer wins this week’s prize: A free year of Roca premium!

Clue 1: Distillery’s yield but not a peak

Clue 2: The legacy of my mentor at sea

Clue 3: Ha-ha separations

Clue 4: Along my beloved Potomac

Know the answer? Send a street view screenshot to [email protected]!

POPCORN
Some Quick Stories for Happy Hour

 🇺🇸 The Bite House: Newly-released Secret Service records reveal that Joe Biden’s German Shepherd, Commander, bit agents at least 24 times between October 2022 and July 2023

🐕 Fraud alert: Guinness World Records stripped a dog of its title as the world’s oldest, citing a lack of evidence that the dog – which passed away in October – reached his purported age of 31 years and 165 days

🚔 Good cop, bad cop: Police arrested an on-duty, uniformed Mississippi officer for allegedly shoplifting a $140 pair of shoes from Dick’s Sporting Goods

🐴 Lucky’s lucky escape: 40+ Los Angeles firefighters rescued a 1,200 lb horse named “Lucky” from a backyard sinkhole. Lucky reportedly fell into the muddy hole while her owner was walking her

🇯🇵 Impractial Nukers: US prosecutors have charged a 60-year-old Yakuza, or Japanese mafia member, with conspiring to traffic nuclear materials intended for bomb construction in Iran

😡 “Hey Siri, return me to civilization”: Two German tourists got lost in Australia for over a week due to a Google Maps error. They veered off a main road onto a dirt track and then got stuck ~40 miles in

ROCA WRAP
Indonesia, Part 3: Nickel Nation

Every day we take a deep dive into an interesting story, place, or person. Subscribers get full access.

Joko Widodo promised to transform Indonesia’s economy. His tool for doing so was a silvery-gray metal.

Before Joko Widodo – ”Jokowi” – took power, Indonesian leaders were widely seen as corrupt, out of touch, and arrogant. Jokowi, though, was different: He grew up in a slum and became a carpenter before getting into the furniture export business and later politics as his hometown’s mayor.

In 2012, he became the governor of Jakarta, Indonesia’s megacity capital; in 2014, he was elected president on a promise to unleash his country’s potential by developing infrastructure, social services, and natural resources.

Indonesia is rich in natural resources, including nickel, of which it has the world’s largest deposits. In 2014, Indonesia banned the export of unprocessed nickel to force companies to establish nickel processing plants in the country. Luckily for Indonesia, nickel is a vital ingredient for electric vehicle batteries.

In the decade since, Indonesia has come to supply half of the world’s nickel, with some analysts expecting that to reach 60% by next year.

Companies including Ford, Hyundai, and China’s BYD have invested billions of dollars in the country to process the metal, while several home-grown companies have reached multi-billion-dollar valuations.

The industry has wrought havoc on parts of Indonesia’s rainforests and other ecosystems, but created jobs and made the country geopolitically vital.

Jokowi’s other promise was to physically develop the country so it could become a high-income economy by 2045. To do so, he earmarked $800B for infrastructure projects, much of which has been spent to build thousands of miles of roads, airports, ports, and more.

The investment made Jokowi one of the world’s most popular leaders and grew the economy, but, critics say, led to high levels of debt and waste.

Jokowi’s most ambitious project was to build an entirely new capital.

Jakarta – a sprawling, congested, and polluted city of 10M+ people – is one of the world cities most vulnerable to rising sea levels: 40% of the city is below sea level and up to a quarter of it could be submerged by 2050. Parts of it are sinking by up to two inches a year.

Jokowi’s solution was to build an entirely new city.

Under him, the government began construction of Nusantara, located more than 620 miles (1,000 kilometers) away in a rainforest on Borneo, another island. The government says the capital – which is expected to cost $34B and be ready in 2045 – is going to be 65% rainforest, powered by clean energy, and free of congestion and pollution.

Whether Nusantara will pan out remains in the air, as does Jokowi’s legacy.

Under his rule, the country’s economy grew at around 5% annually, short of the 6-7% economists say the country should attain. Critics say he wasted money on projects and failed to make beneficial reforms, along with various social criticisms.

Some also accuse him of setting up the country to lose its democracy.

With Jokowi’s term ending this year, he endorsed his defense minister, Prabowo Subianto, a former general accused of having democratic activists killed in the 1990s.

Jokowi also had his 36-year-old son become Prabowo’s vice president – a deal made possible because Jokowi’s brother-in-law, a judge, cast the deciding vote that relaxed the 40-year age requirement for the position.

The general, Prabowo, easily won the election this month. He’ll soon take power in the world’s fourth-most populous country and will be tasked with helping it reach its full potential at last.

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

ROCA WRAP
Indonesia, Part 3: Nickel Nation

Every day we take a deep dive into an interesting story, place, or person. Subscribers get full access.

Joko Widodo promised to transform Indonesia’s economy. His tool for doing so was a silvery-gray metal.

Before Joko Widodo – ”Jokowi” – took power, Indonesian leaders were widely seen as corrupt, out of touch, and arrogant. Jokowi, though, was different: He grew up in a slum and became a carpenter before getting into the furniture export business and later politics as his hometown’s mayor.

In 2012, he became the governor of Jakarta, Indonesia’s megacity capital; in 2014, he was elected president on a promise to unleash his country’s potential by developing infrastructure, social services, and natural resources.

Indonesia is rich in natural resources, including nickel, of which it has the world’s largest deposits. In 2014, Indonesia banned the export of unprocessed nickel to force companies to establish nickel processing plants in the country. Luckily for Indonesia, nickel is a vital ingredient for electric vehicle batteries.

In the decade since, Indonesia has come to supply half of the world’s nickel, with some analysts expecting that to reach 60% by next year.

Companies including Ford, Hyundai, and China’s BYD have invested billions of dollars in the country to process the metal, while several home-grown companies have reached multi-billion-dollar valuations.

The industry has wrought havoc on parts of Indonesia’s vulnerable rainforests and other ecosystems, but created jobs and made the country geopolitically vital. 

Jokowi’s other promise was to physically develop the country so it could become a high-income economy by 2045. To do so, he earmarked $800B for infrastructure projects, much of which has been spent to build thousands of miles of roads, airports, ports, and more.

The investment made Jokowi one of the world’s most popular leaders and grew the economy, but, critics say, led to high levels of debt and wasted funds.

Jokowi’s most ambitious project was to build an entirely new capital…

Join Roca Premium

This is the start of a Roca Wrap, a deep dive into a interesting person, place or story from around the world. Try a free two-week trial for Roca Premium and you’ll unlock:

• A daily Roca Wrap

• Ad-free newsletter

• Daily On-the-Ground reporting

• And so much more!

ON-THE-GROUND
Roca in Serbia

We send our co-founder Max Frost to investigate topics around the world and he writes about them here. He’s currently writing from Serbia. Subscribers receive the full stories.

Right now, the world’s best basketball player isn’t from Brooklyn, Chicago, or Los Angeles. He didn’t go to the University of Kentucky or Duke. He is from Sombor, a small city in northern Serbia. 

When you’re approaching Sombor, it’s impossible to believe an NBA superstar was raised there. For two hours, our bus traveled past farms, factories, abandoned hotels, and dilapidated bus stations. We passed dump trucks full of potatoes; babushkas sitting on the curb. Graffiti on street signs said, “Serbia Russia are Brothers.” Some showed the “Z” symbol that symbolizes support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The bus was bound for the hometown of Nikola Jokić, who is a two-time NBA MVP and led his Denver Nuggets to an NBA championship last year. Head and shoulders above most of the competition, at just 29, he’s already regarded as one of the best centers in basketball history. To get a full picture of Serbia, I wanted to learn what Jokić meant to his hometown. 

I had been given directions to the court where Jokić played as a child. To get there, I walked through a network of high-rise communist housing blocks. Many had pro-Serbia and anti-NATO graffiti. On one, it rhymed: “Fak Fak NATO PAKT!” (“F*ck F*ck the NATO alliance.”) These were the apartments where Jokić grew up.

I eventually reached a school where a crowd of parents stood out front waiting for their kids. 

On its front was graffiti in big red letters: “KOSOVO IS SERBIA.” The parents told me this was Jokić’s elementary school, although when I told them I was an American journalist, they avoided the conversation. 

A few people politely told me that yes, Jokić was their hometown hero; one said that their daughter had played in his camp and taken pictures with him. But the Somborians weren’t keen to speak with me.

Jokić is similar: In the NBA, he’s avoided the celebrity life, living with his two brothers and saying little in press conferences. After winning the NBA Finals, he was asked, “You’re an NBA champion. How does that feel?”

“It’s good,” he said, monotone. “The job is done. We can go home now.” He could go anywhere but this – Sombor – was where he wanted to go.

On the school’s side is a towering mural of Jokić:  “Don’t be afraid to fail BIG,” it says. 

Standing under that, I approached a tall man who looked like he could have been a basketball player himself. 

“Does it mean a lot to people here?” I asked.

“It’s a different perspective compared to North America,” he said. “It’s kind of whatever. We’re proud he’s from here, but we’re not going after him and chasing him...He’s like, you know, just a regular guy.”

Once he loosened up, the man disclosed that he knew Jokić well. “We grew up together,” he said, and they played basketball together. This man had opted to play pro in a different Balkan league, while Jokić had stayed in Serbia. He later gave up basketball and moved to Canada.

“The North American approach to sports is just like trying to have an idol. But he's just avoiding that image,” he said. “He's down to Earth and he's just doing his part, which is good. So people are shocked about it in North America. But that's what he brings down there.”

“We were in Toronto when it was All-Star weekend in 2016. So we spent an interesting weekend together,” he said. “It was like family and stuff. Nikola was just doing his part. He said, ‘Guys, I'm just going there’ [referring to some celebrity event]. And then he comes back and just behaves normally like a regular guy.”

Nearby was the dilapidated basketball court on which Jokić learned to play.

For now, no apparent blossoming NBA star was present; just a group of kids running around the court throwing the ball at each other. A middle-aged man sat on some bleachers supervising. He introduced himself as Simon.

“[Jokić] was my neighbor,” he said. “I lived two floors under him…I was his art teacher. I know him from seven, eight years old.” He said his brother coached Jokić at some point, too. 

“I must tell you: Basically, he was very quiet in school and everywhere. Nikola was a little bit… little bit… I cannot tell. Strange, maybe different. We would pass each other in the hall of the building. He just passed. No ‘Hello,’ ‘Ciao,’ nothing. Even though he knows we will see each other in the school after 45 minutes, one, two hours. I know him like that kind of guy.”

Years later though, that changed: “A student was asking to go outside to take a picture with a sportsman. And I thought they just didn’t want to have class, just to go outside. And a few seconds later it clicks, ‘Oh yes, probably Nikola.’ So okay, let’s go out. So I come up to [Jokić] and it feels different. He just came to me, shakes my hand, ‘Hello professor, how are you?’”

“I was pretty surprised…that was for me a change. Even though you live in the same building as him, he was a little bit strange.”

After this, the conversation took a turn. This man wanted to talk – but not about sports. 

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!

Roca Nation, it's been a bit since our last open-ended 20 Questions. So this week you won't be bound by the binary of "This or That" or "Smash or Pass." We leave you a blank, Google Form canvass.

Can't wait to sit down to a coffee on Sunday and read them all. Then we'll go back to the whiteboard and figure out how we're getting this NYT hit piece.

Here’s the link! Have a great weekend.

Last Week’s 20 questions:

Last week, we asked you a President’s themed 20 Questions in honor of Presidents Day weekend. Here’s the Roca breakdown per prompt:

1. President Homer Simpson or President Peter Griffin?

   Homer Simpson: 40%

   Peter Griffin: 60%

2. President The Rock or President Dolly Parton?

   The Rock: 37%

   Dolly Parton: 63%

3. President Flo from Progressive or President Jake from State Farm?

   Flo from Progressive: 38%

   Jake from State Farm: 62%

4. President Mark Zuckerberg or President Taylor Swift?

   Mark Zuckerberg: 30%

   Taylor Swift: 70%

5. President George Santos or President Sam Bankman-Fried?

   George Santos: 38%

   Sam Bankman-Fried: 62%

6. President Dave Chappelle or President Oprah Winfrey?

   Chappelle: 61%

   Oprah: 39%

7. President Kronk from Emperor's New Groove or President Edna from The Incredibles?

   Kronk: 25%

   Edna: 75%

8. President Atticus Finch from To Kill a Mockingbird or President Denzel Washington in Remember the Titans?

   Atticus Finch: 47%

   Denzel Washington: 53%

9. President Yoda or President Ted Cruz?

   Yoda: 80%

   Ted Cruz: 20%

10. President Papa Smurf or President Martha Stewart?

    Papa Smurf: 44%

    Gandalf: 56%

11. End iPad tipping or make Super Bowl Monday a federal holiday?

    End iPad tipping: 58%

    Super Bowl Monday holiday: 42%

12. Repopulate bisons in the west or end private exotic farms?

    Repopulate bisons: 40%

    End private exotic farms: 60%

13. Implement national soda tax or implement a Zyn ban?

    Soda tax: 45%

    Zyn ban: 55%

14. Mandate cognitive test for presidential candidates or require a civics test for 18-25 year olds to determine if they can vote?

    Cognitive test for candidates: 65%

    Civics test for young voters: 35%

15. Ensure bags of chips have less air/more chips or force airlines to have faster customer service?

    More chips: 50%

    Faster airline customer service: 50%

16. Four day workweek or high-speed rail across country?

    Four day workweek: 60%

    High-speed rail: 40%

17. Ban social media for kids under 16 or ban phones from schools?

    Ban social media for kids: 63%

    Ban phones in schools: 37%

18. Give every state a Waffle House or every state an In N Out?

    Waffle House: 42%

    In N Out: 58%

19. Invade Greenland or colonize the Moon?

    Invade Greenland: 30%

    Colonize the Moon: 70%

20. Nationalize RocaNews or not nationalize RocaNews?

    Nationalize RocaNews: 86%

    Be a bad president: 14%

EDITOR’S NOTE
Final Thoughts

Roca’s Alex here with yet another space update! Last year, I interviewed the CEO of Intuitive Machines – the company mentioned above that landed a spacecraft on the Moon yesterday – who said a successful Moon landing would be a “wild success” that would create a “blueprint” for future space exploration beyond the Moon. You can read that interview here.

Congratulations to the Intuitive Machines team. Roca is excited to watch space exploration unfold over the coming years!

— Max, Max, Jen and Alex