🌊 US Steel's Last Stand?

The 1975 presidential assassination that almost was.

49 years ago today, “Squeaky” Fromme — a notorious member of the Manson Family cult — nearly killed Gerald Ford in a botched assassination attempt. Dressed in a red robe and determined to save California redwoods by sacrificing the 38th president, Squeaky confronted Ford during his visit to Sacramento. She got two feet from him and held a gun to his face but the chamber was empty. As agents wrestled her to the ground, she reportedly said, “Take it easy, the gun didn’t go off.”

Wow, those secret service agents really have no chill, huh? Relax, guys!

–Max, Max, and Owen

KEY STORY

US Steel Showdown

US Steel (USS) warned of mass layoffs as President Biden indicated he would block the company’s acquisition

• Pittsburgh-based USS was the world’s top steel company until the mid-20th century. Bad decisions, union relations, and foreign competition have since made it a shell of itself. Last year, Japan’s Nippon Steel offered to buy it and invest billions in US steel plants

• The steelworkers union, Donald Trump, Biden, and Kamala Harris have all opposed the deal. On Wednesday, Biden vowed to block it on national security grounds. USS warned that would force it to cut staff and move from Pittsburgh, setting up a showdown

Dig Deeper

• Analysts widely see the “national security” excuse as purely political, given that Japan is arguably the US’ closest ally

• On Wednesday, the company’s CEO said, “I don’t have the money” to keep investing in the Pittsburgh facilities

• The steelworkers union, meanwhile, called him “greedy” and “reckless”

KEY STORY

Workers Lose Their Cut

Workers’ share of economic output lost during the pandemic hasn’t recovered, per new UN data

• The share of global GDP going to employees and self-employed workers – which fell from 52.9% in 2019 to 52.3% in 2022 – remained flat in 2023 and 2024

• The drop and failure to recover is an acceleration of an already steady decline since 2004 when the UN started tracking the metric: 40% of the dip in worker GDP share since 2004 has taken place since 2019

• Economists cite globalization, weakening unions, the rise of mega-corps, and technological advancements – notably AI – as the culprits driving the trend

Dig Deeper

• The ILO’s head of data analysis called the drop “a strong sign of rising inequality” and called on policymakers to take notice

• Analysts have voiced additional concern about the dip, citing that while capital income has long been concentrated amongst the wealthy, employment income has historically been evenly distributed

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KEY STORY

TikTok’s Election Plan

TikTok announced it will expand its election resources and crack down on misinformation before the election

• The platform, owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, will add a landing page that explains how elections work and why they can be trusted and run in-feed videos on media literacy

• 170M+ Americans use TikTok, and over half of its users under 30 get news on the platform

• Although President Biden signed a bill in April that would ban TikTok if ByteDance doesn’t sell it to a US entity within a year, it has become an increasingly important player in the news ecosystem

Dig Deeper

• Among the updates are voting FAQs from “authoritative sources,” media literacy guides, analyses of various ballot measures, and fact-checking partnerships

• TikTok will partner with MediaWise, an initiative from the Florida-based Poynter Institute, for media literacy matters. As Roca has previously covered, the Poynter Institute has leadership that evidently skews left and has close ties with The Washington Post

KEY STORY

German EV Slump & Plans

Germany’s government approved a plan to promote EVs days after Volkswagen threatened to close factories

• EV sales in Germany – Europe’s largest economy and auto market – have plummeted, with consumers reportedly concerned about insufficient charging stations and EV ranges

• The resulting drop in EV demand – paired with high EV investment and government regulation – has led carmakers to struggle. This week, Volkswagen said it may close plants in Germany for the first time

• On Wednesday, Germany’s government approved a draft bill to subsidize EV purchases

Dig Deeper

• The bill lets companies deduct up to 40% of the value of new electric and zero-emission vehicles from their tax bill, among other measures

• Also Wednesday, Sweden-based Volvo ditched its plants to only sell EVs by 2030, strengthening concerns

RUNDOWN
Some Quick Stories for the Office

🏫 Four people were killed and 30 injured in a shooting at a Georgia high school

🎓 Donald Trump’s son Barron was confirmed to be attending New York University

🇺🇦 President Volodymyr Zelensky conducted the biggest shakeup of Ukraine’s government since the war began

🦠 A new study published in the journal Nature identified 36 new viruses, including a novel bat coronavirus, among animals on Chinese fur farms

👻 Snapchat announced that it will introduce ads on its main tab for the first time

COMMUNITY

🧐 Yesterday’s question: What do you consider the ultimate comfort food?

🧠 Today’s question: What's something that's “not a cult” but feels like a cult?

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

POPCORN
Some Quick Stories for Happy Hour

👨🏻‍⚖️ Better Call Sperm: Jonathan Meijer, the sperm donor featured in the documentary “The Man With 1000 Kids,” is suing Netflix over the movie, which he called “sensationalist.” He insists he only fathered 550 kids

⚾️ Zippy McGee! Los Angeles Angels rookie reliever Ben Joyce fired a 105.5 MPH fastball to strike out a batter, just 0.3 MPH shy of Aroldis Chapman’s MLB pitch speed record

💰 Million-dollar doorstep: An elderly Romanian woman unknowingly used a 7.7 lb amber nugget worth over $1M as a doorstop for decades. Its age is estimated to be between 38.5M and 70M years

🍿 Nacho Li-brick: Warner Bros. released the first trailer for “A Minecraft Movie” on Wednesday. Jack Black and Jason Momoa star in the movie, set for release on April 4, 2025

🏔 Man v. Mountain: A 39-year-old hiker who went missing in Washington state’s North Cascades at the end of July was found alive last Friday

ROCA WRAP

RocAround the World

Dust in the Wind

A massive dust storm pummeled tens of thousands of festival-goers in Nevada.

Burning Man – first held in 1986 and, since 1991, located in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert – is an annual week-long event celebrating “community, art, self-expression, and self-reliance.” The event culminates in the symbolic burning of a large wooden effigy – known as “the Man” – on the Saturday night before Labor Day.

The festival has faced challenges before, such as last year’s 12-hour rainstorm that forced a temporary closure before the event even began, along with a series of controversies, including a drug-related death, false rumors of an Ebola outbreak, and general chaos due to mud. This year’s Burning Man was the first in over a decade that didn’t sell out.

Attendees faced up to ten-hour delays while leaving the site as a brutal dust storm on the festival’s final day reduced visibility to just five feet. The storm reportedly began on Friday night and intensified over the weekend, with fierce winds making it nearly impossible to move faster than a crawl. The dust was allegedly so severe that it stung the skin of anyone with exposed legs.

A 39-year-old attendee also died on the first day this year, though the cause of death remains unreported. Additionally, reports suggest that up to 2,600 participants purchased temporary medevac coverage, possibly prompted by an incident where a woman fell about 30 feet from a climbable art installation resembling a sinking ship. As the dust settles on this year’s festival, it’s clear Burning Man isn’t for the faint of heart – or the dust-averse.

***

Christmas in October

Venezuela’s president announced that he will move Christmas to October this year.

In what many view as the biggest political challenge of his 11-year rule, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro claimed victory in the country’s July presidential election despite the US and other Western countries saying “overwhelming evidence” shows opposition leader Edmundo González won.

But Venezuela’s Supreme Court – loyal to the president – declared him the winner, dismissing the opposition’s claims of a landslide victory. Election observers questioned the official result’s credibility, and on Monday, Bloomberg reported that the US plans to impose sanctions on 15 senior officials for alleged obstruction of “the holding of free and fair presidential elections.”

As tensions escalate, Maduro is now turning to the Christmas spirit.

On Monday, during his weekly TV address, Maduro said moving Christmas from December to October would bring “peace, happiness, and security.”

Hours before the Christmas announcement, an arrest warrant was issued for González, the latest repressive action by Maduro following the election. Since then, over 2,000 people – including journalists, politicians, and aid workers – have been arrested.

In Venezuela, an early embrace of the Christmas spirit might be as elusive as political stability.

***

Rage Room

People in Nigeria are taking their anger out in the rage room.

In Nigeria – where 40% of people live on below $2 a day – few people have access to counseling, therapists, or other mental health services. The entire nation of 220M people has only 400 licensed psychologists. That inspired Dr. James Banjoko to create a novel way of managing their stress.

Banjoko, a physician, created “rage rooms” – a facility where people can pay the equivalent of $5 and be given protective gear, a sledgehammer, and a bat, and then electronics, furniture, or other items to strike. People are allowed 30 minutes in the rooms, which Banjoko said are “safe spaces” for people to let out pent-up emotions.

Dr. Banjoko said the idea came to him during the pandemic when his mother died, and he was struggling to find work. It’s been since used by people suffering from similar stress, in addition to couples who have been fighting and people facing other challenges.

Dr. Banjoko told Africanews he has been pleased with the room’s results.

One attendee agreed: “As an average Nigerian, you get to deal with a lot every day.”

He continued: “The anger has been piling up. Instead of venting on somebody, this is the best avenue for me, and I feel a lot renewed.”

ROCA VIDEO
What Is Fracking and Why Might It Be Banned?

Fracking has turned the United States into an energy superpower. But many people – including Kamala Harris – have called for banning it. Here's the history of fracking and a preview of its future.

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EDITOR’S NOTE
Final Thoughts

One more thing about Squeaky Fromme: Although she got a life sentence, she now lives in upstate New York. Remember, too, that John Hinckley Jr. — the man who shot Reagan to impress Jodie Foster — roams free in rural Virginia as well. Who would’ve thought that attempting to kill the leader of the free world could lead to such peaceful retirements?

–Max and Max