Another day, another famous art heist anniversary. On this day in 2004, a gang of masked men with guns stole Edvard Munch’s “Madonna” and “Scream” from a museum in Norway. By the way, “Scream” must be the first painting in history to show a proper reaction to being stolen. Police found the paintings two years later.

If you work at an art museum, stay on the lookout this month. And if you’re an art thief, it ain’t worth the Monet.

In today's edition:

• United States of Weed

• Rare giraffe born in Tennessee zoo!

• The Rise and Fall of US Steel

 🔑 Key Stories

Study: Marijuana Use at Record High

New research suggests that adult marijuana use reached an all-time high in 2022

• Every year, the University of Michigan releases a “Monitoring the Future” report, which tracks substance abuse trends among Americans

• The newest report found that 43.6% of adults aged 19 to 30 used marijuana in 2022, a record-high. Also in 2022, 30.5% reported binge drinking – defined as five or more drinks in a row over the prior two weeks

• Record levels of 35-60-year olds reported using marijuana (27.9%) and binge drinking (29.2%) within the past two weeks. Psychedelic use increased; other drug use fell

Dig Deeper

• The data also showed that white people are most likely to drink alcohol and use all drugs other than marijuana, however white, black, and Hispanic people are roughly equally likely to smoke marijuana

Fighter Jets to Ukraine

The US has approved sending advanced US-made fighter jets to Ukraine

• The US has given Ukraine $43.1B in military aid since Russia invaded, primarily through transfers of existing US military supplies. The US has given it tanks and allowed its allies to give it Soviet-era jets

• In May, President Biden told NATO allies he would allow them to supply Ukraine with F-16s, although he didn’t specify when or if that would happen

• Last week, the US authorized Denmark and the Netherlands to transfer 61 F-16 jets to Ukraine once Ukrainian pilots are trained, which may take months

Dig Deeper

• Ukraine and Russia are largely deadlocked along a hundreds-of-miles-long front in eastern Ukraine. A Ukrainian counteroffensive that began several months ago has failed to break through Russia’s lines, and although fighting continues, neither side has made notable gains

• Ukraine partially blames its slow progress on Russia’s air superiority, which Ukrainian officials say allows Russia to bomb Ukrainian troops and heavy weaponry with near-impunity

West Virginia Slashes Programs

West Virginia University (WVU) announced plans to slash nine percent of its majors and fire seven percent of its staff

• WVU is West Virginia’s top-rated and largest public university, with ~25k students

• Last week, WVU announced plans to cut 32 of its 338 (9%) majors, including most of its language and creative writing majors. It also proposed laying off seven percent of its faculty, many of whom work in those majors

• WVU framed the cuts as a means of reducing the university’s deficit and reallocate money toward popular courses. Critics accused the school of mismanagement & called the cuts “unprecedented”

Dig Deeper

• In an interview with The Washington Post, WVU’s President said that although WVU is the first major university to cut its spending in this manner drastically, others will likely follow suit. He also said the decision is part of a broader adjustment toward teaching practical skills that he said will restore faith in higher education

• “The people of the state are telling us what they want,” he said. “And for once, we’re listening to them”

Return of the Sailing Ship

The world’s first wind-powered cargo ship embarked on its maiden voyage

• The UN estimates that the shipping industry generates around two percent of global carbon emissions. Last month, a UN maritime body pledged to reduce emissions from global shipping to net-zero by 2050

• On Monday, a cargo ship outfitted with two specially-designed sails embarked on a maiden voyage from Singapore to Brazil. The sails are made of the same material as wind turbines and are fully retractable

• The company operating it said it will reduce the cargo ship’s fuel consumption by 30%

Dig Deeper

• Other shipping companies hope to outfit hundreds of cargo ships with wind-assisted technologies over the next several years

• Last month, Danish shipping giant Maersk announced the launch of its first methanol-powered cargo ship, which emits far less greenhouse gasses than traditional fuels. It has ordered 24 other methanol-powered ships as part of its bid to decarbonize

🍿 Popcorn

ICYMI

• Trump bye week? Donald Trump confirmed he’ll skip the first GOP presidential primary debate. He wrote on Truth Social that he doesn’t need to join his rivals because of his polling lead

• Swing and a kiss: Luis Rubiales – Spain’s soccer federation president – apologized for kissing a player on the lips after Spain’s Women’s World Cup win

• Going, going, gone: A Cuban coach at the Little League World Series in Williamsport, PA, has vanished. The coach disappeared from the team complex on Saturday night and hasn’t returned

Wildcard

• Spotless birth: A spotless giraffe – believed to be the only of its kind – was born at a Tennessee zoo. It sports a uniform brown color, unlike typical giraffes that have distinctive patched patterns

• Wahoo! Retirement! Nintendo announced that Charles Martinet – Mario’s original voice actor – will step back from recording and become a “Mario Ambassador”

• Air Nowhere: Air Koryo – North Korea’s national airline – abruptly canceled its first international commercial flight since 2020. The flight was set to go from Pyongyang to Bejing

👇 What do you think?

Today's Question:

If you could invent a new holiday that everyone would celebrate, what would it be about and how would people celebrate it?

Reply to this email with your answers!

See yesterday's results below the Wrap! 

🌯 Roca Wrap

In 1900, Charles Schwab gave a speech.

Schwab was the president of Carnegie Steel, one of the US’ largest steel companies. He argued that if the US largest steel companies all merged, they would dominate the global steel industry. They could set the global price of steel, he argued, and make a fortune.

In the crowd was J.P. Morgan, the US’ most powerful financier. After the dinner, he discussed with Schwab how they could turn his vision into reality. They agreed that they needed to convince Andrew Carnegie.

Carnegie was a Scottish immigrant born into an impoverished family.

He dropped out of school at age 13 and worked at a cotton mill as a child. He worked his way into the railroad industry, though, and foreseeing that steel would become the next great American industry, poured his life savings into it.

Steel is a mixture – “alloy” – of iron and carbon that is stronger and more fracture-resistant than most types of iron. It powered the Industrial Revolution and became a major US industry.

By 1900, Carnegie’s company – Carnegie Steel – had become one of the world’s largest.

Schwab visited Carnegie at his New York cottage to try to convince him to merge his company with others. Carnegie agreed to sell his company for $303M – $11B today. “Congratulations on becoming the richest man in the world,” Morgan said as they shook hands.

In 1901, with the backing of J.P. Morgan, Carnegie Steel merged with several of its largest rivals to form a new company: US Steel Corporation (USS), based in Pittsburgh.

Valued at $1.4B ($51B in 2023 dollars), USS was the world’s first billion-dollar company. For comparison, the US federal budget that year was $525M. By 1902, USS produced 67% of the US’ steel.

By 1914, on the eve of World War I, US steel production had more than doubled from its 1900 level. By the end of the war four years later, it had doubled again.

After the war, USS steel supplied building projects including the Empire State Building, then the world’s tallest building. It also supplied the raw materials for new industries, such as automobiles. With ~500,000 employees, USS was one of the US’ and world’s largest employers.

During World War II, steel labor organizers created the United Steelworkers of America (USWA), a union that lobbied for higher wages and benefits for steelworkers. It called strikes in 1946, 1949, 1952, 1955, and 1959, many of which involved hundreds of thousands of workers, virtually halted USS steel production, and lasted for weeks or months.

In the 1960s, USS started to fall behind its competitors. It failed to cut costs and use new, more efficient steel technologies. It also remained heavily reliant on the traditional, relatively inefficient “blast” furnace.

By the end of the decade, the US steel industry had entered a prolonged crisis. As US companies were failing to invest in new technologies and labor unrest was impeding production, foreign countries were increasing their steel capabilities, including with subsidies that let them sell in the US at cheap rates.

American companies soon found it cheaper to import their steel than buy American. USS’ profits declined and it lost its title as the world’s largest steel producer.

By 1981, it was producing less steel than it had been in 1950 and was making far less money. By 1985, the US imported 25% of its steel and accounted for only 11% of global production.

To change the tides, the US government gave USS and other steel companies substantial tax breaks in the 1980s, a policy meant to revitalize steel production and make US mills more competitive with foreign ones. USS used savings from those policies to buy Marathon Oil, an energy company.

It continued expanding into the more lucrative oil industry and in 1986 reorganized as “USX.” That same year, the USWA organized another major strike against USX; after, USX closed many of its steel mills, laying off thousands of workers.

USX spun US Steel off from its oil business in 2001, making it an independent company steel company once again. USS bought steel mills abroad, invested billions of dollars into converting many of its own mills to newer, more efficient methods, and received government subsidies.

USS is now the US’ fifth-largest and the world’s 17th-largest steel company by market cap.

This month, the CEO of Cleveland-Cliffs, one of the US’ largest steel companies, announced it had offered to buy US Steel. It offered US Steel shareholders a 43% premium on the value of their shares. USS rejected the offer as “unreasonable.”

It subsequently said it had received multiple “unsolicited offers” to acquire it, and that it will consider its various options to determine the best path forward. Yet the powerful USWA released a statement calling the Cleveland-Cliffs deal the “only one the union will consider.”

The CEO of Cleveland-Cliffs also noted that a merger would give the new company control over 100% of domestic iron ore reserves, making the merged company the sole supplier of the auto industry and placing it among the world’s top ten steel producers.

“That’s a situation that the United States has not had for decades,” the CEO said. “It’s a very good reset and restart with a national champion in the United States.”

If you have thoughts, let us know at [email protected]!

 🌊 Roca Clubhouse

Yesterday's Poll:

Do you know what a capybara is?
Yes: 75%
No: 25%

Yesterday's Question:

Were the police justified in raiding the Kansas paper?

Kenny: “No, government is overstepping in all levels of government.”

Michael from Hinton, West Virginia: “This is what people do in small towns. I was raised in a small town, that was crooked. The police and the city officials all worked together. I was legal organized crime. (Hinton, W.V.) The paper probably obtained information on a DUI/ city official or friend of an official. The city wanted to make the paper to go away and never try anything against them again by making them pay.”

Anonymous: “No. And no, again. Good Ole boys network raided in retaliation for the newspaper reporting news, albeit unflattering but true, about one of their distant -by-marriage good Ole boys drunken driving violations.”

Marc from Los Angeles: “No idea if the police were justified in raiding the Kansas newspaper. There are stories with several claims on both sides, and until everything is investigated, and if and when the truth comes out, then we will know. This is the biggest problem with today's news cycle. From individual private citizens up to the biggest media corporations, no one is actually after the truth. They are after the fastest way to get "news" out to whom ever they are trying to get it to. We'll find out the truth later.”

Yesterday's Wrap Replies:

Hernani, “a Brazilian living in Vancouver, Canada”: “Being a Brazilian, it always hurts to see people having wild animals as pets. It feeds the contraband industry, poachers and mafia all around the world, especially in South America. If there's demand for this kind of animals, there will be need for a supply, isn't it the basic market law? No demand, no interest for poaching. I have seen people with blue macaws, snakes, parrots, a lot of endangered species as pets, and now capybaras... Those are tropical animals, they are not supposed to be in countries where it gets cold in the winter. These so called ‘animal lovers’ are nothing but selfish people looking for ‘likes,’ virtually or in person.”

🧠 Final Thoughts

Happy Tuesday, all. We hope your weeks are off to a good start. We're curious what you think about Trump's refusal to join the debate: Does he already have it locked up? Does it set a precedent that will lead to the demise of debates? We want to know your thoughts.

Have a nice day.

—Max and Max