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  • 🌊 Vax Populi: RFK Jr. Sweeps Panel

🌊 Vax Populi: RFK Jr. Sweeps Panel

Plus: Islam vs. Christianity, states vs. AI, & Florida v. Burmese pythons

June 11, 2025

Two good things


1) Thanks to your support, our RocaNews YouTube channel is up to 167k subscribers and growing fast! Thank you to all of you who’ve watched our recent videos from Connecticut and Pakistan — a natural combo — and we can’t wait to explore more of the country soon. It’s crazy to think how much the channel has grown in one year and we haven’t even touched Florida, Texas, or California yet! Wild!

2) The teacher stories you sent in were touching. We could only feature a few, but shoutout to all of you teachers out there. You all are the best!

💉 RFK Jr. sweeps vax panel

📉 Islam grows while Christianity shrinks

🐍 Florida vs. Burmese pythons

–Max and Max

KEY STORY

RFK Sweeps Vaccine Panel

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. removed all members of a vaccine panel in what he says is a move that will “restore public trust”

  • The panel, called the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), guides national vaccine policy, including recommendations for childhood immunizations

  • The HHS released a statement saying that the panel – all 17 members of which were appointed by Biden – was plagued by “conflicts of interest”

  • Critics blasted the move, while RFK said, “A clean sweep is needed to re-establish public confidence in vaccine science
Public trust has since collapsed, but we will earn it back”

Dig Deeper

  • The panel consists of a variety of health experts including pediatricians, epidemiologists and geriatricians – who make recommendations to the CDC

  • The health secretary has authority to appoint and dismiss ACIP members, who typically serve four-year cycles

  • The statement read that all 17 current members of the panel were appointed by President Biden, with 13 of them being appointed in 2024. It also asserted that not replacing them “would have prevented the current administration from choosing a majority of the committee until 2028”

KEY STORY

Islam Grows, Christianity Slips

A new Pew report found that the global share of Christians declined from 2010 to 2020 while Islam expanded

  • The report analyzed over 2,700 censuses and surveys to assess religious changes across major faiths

  • It found that Christianity remains the world’s largest faith with 2.3B adherents, but now represents just 28.8% of the global population. Meanwhile, the number of Muslims increased by 347M to 25.6% of the global population

  • The report attributed Islam’s growth to a younger population and Christianity’s plateau to “religious switching”

Dig Deeper

  • The report attributed Islam’s growth to a younger population — with Muslims having an average age of about 24, lower than the global average age among non-Muslims of about 33

  • By contrast, Christianity is losing ground largely due to religious switching. “Among young adults, for every person around the world who becomes Christian, there are three people who are raised Christian who leave,” said the research author, Conrad Hackett

  • He also said that religion will continue declining overall, “Sometimes we hear rumors of religious revival, and it’s certainly possible that in particular places religion could grow
 But the broad trend is that in many places people are moving away from religion.”

QUOTE OF THE DAY

Great leaders inspire greatness in others.

Steven Melching

ROCA’S SPONSOR

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KEY STORY

UK, Others Sanction Israeli Ministers

The UK, Canada, Australia, Norway, and New Zealand sanctioned two Israeli ministers

  • Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich are considered “hardliners” in the Israeli cabinet. Among various statements, they have spoken of “conquering” and “cleansing” Gaza

  • On Tuesday, the countries froze the ministers’ assets, the first time European countries have sanctioned Israeli ministers since the war began

  • The US called the sanctions “extremely unhelpful,” while Ben Gvir posted, “We overcame [the] pharaoh and we will overcome [UK PM] Keir Starmer”

Dig Deeper 

  • Ben-Gvir has been convicted for incitement to racism and supporting a terrorist organization, a move he claims was political persecution

  • Smotrich, meanwhile, recently said that Israel’s goal is “destroying everything that’s left of the Gaza Strip
We are conquering, cleansing, and remaining in Gaza until Hamas is destroyed”

  • The moves mark one of the harshest rebukes yet from Western governments

KEY STORY

10-Year Moratorium

Senate Republicans are seeking to curb states’ abilities to regulate AI

  • The House-passed "One Big Beautiful Bill" included a 10‑year freeze on all state laws to regulate AI. Supporters say the move will ensure AI innovation, while critics – from both parties – have expressed concerns that it will take away states’ much-needed ability to regulate AI

  • The bill is now in the Senate, where senators are discussing the proposal

  • Their new version would withhold federal funds allotted to broadband internet and AI infrastructure from states that seek to regulate the technology

Dig Deeper 

  • Critics argue the moratorium would override state autonomy and weaken protections around discrimination, privacy, deepfakes, biased algorithms, and other potential AI downfalls

  • Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) has said the provision needs to be part of a non-budget law, and therefore requires 60 votes to pass, while Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) said, “When we look to the future, we cannot take away states' rights to regulate or make laws to protect the people in their state or to regulate businesses that operate in their state”

  • Many in Silicon Valley, meanwhile, support the provision: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has said that it would combat a “patchwork” of state-based AI regulation that would inhibit innovation

  • Senator Cruz (R-TX) said, “These provisions fulfill the mandate given to President Trump and Congressional Republicans by the voters: To unleash America’s full economic potential and keep her safe from enemies”

RUNDOWN
Some Quick Stories for the Office

đŸ« A school shooting in Graz, Austria, left at least 10 dead and 12 injured

đŸ„” A severe heat dome is bringing triple‑digit temperatures to the Pacific Northwest

🧊 Khaby Lame, an Italian-Senegalese TikToker known for his viral reaction videos, self-deported after being detained by ICE

💉 Fatal overdoses among Americans under 35 dropped by nearly 40% last year, reversing a decade-long fentanyl-fueled surge

đŸȘ§ House Speaker Mike Johnson said California Gov. Gavin Newsom “ought to be tarred and feathered” for allegedly defying federal immigration enforcement in response to Los Angeles protests

What does Roca Nation think?

🧠 Yesterday’s Question: Who was your favorite high school teacher? Why?

My favorite high school teacher was Ms. Kaberline. She taught English and Literature, and she also ran the yearbook and newspaper like a boss before anyone used that word. She was the first adult besides my mom, who didn’t just tolerate my love of reading and writing—she fueled it. That alone was a gift. But the real spark came junior year, when she handed me a camera and told me to go chase the story.

That moment changed everything. Turns out, I didn’t just love words—I loved capturing the world in frames. Faces, moments, light slanting just right across a hallway floor. I didn’t know it then, but that was the beginning of a lifelong creative fire. I never made a full-time career out of photography, but it’s been my side hustle, my soul food, and my spark through every season of life. And it all started with her.

Becky from Kansas

I actually had a lot of great teachers that I could write about, but I have to go with my English teacher for junior and senior year, Ms. Bonnem. She ran one of the strictest classrooms in terms of being on time, turning in assignments, etc., and yet we all loved her. She demanded respect, but she respected us just as much in return, and the strict guidelines she set helped create a culture of discipline and focus in her classroom. I was (and am) a math/science guy, but she helped me to genuinely love the literature we went through (especially Wuthering Heights, Hamlet, and Heart of Darkness). She turned what could have been a hard, mundane few years of English, a subject I knew I didn't want to study beyond high school, into some of my favorite classroom experiences that I still treasure. I know for a fact that I wouldn't have scored a 5 on the AP Literature exam without her excellent teaching and care!

And beyond the curriculum, she cared about us as people so well. Her door was always open to talk, whether it was about an assignment or just about life. The culture she cultivated was one of a kind, and I'm very thankful I got to experience it. We've kept up since then as well, which just goes to show you the kind of teacher and person she is!

Daniel from Charlottesville, VA

LONG ONE, you’ve been warned.

110% Mr. Jensen, whom I had for AP English and British Literature in high school.

All my life I’ve been told that I’m an excellent writer, but AP English put me to the test. Jensen had some mathematical formula worked out in a spreadsheet that took your last 3 writing samples and vocab/comprehension quizzes and came out with your estimated number on the AP Exam (3-5 is passing). Unfortunately, I kept getting lower scores on my samples and was expected to walk out of the exam with a 2
which was a huge blow to my self esteem and the narrative of knowing I was a good writer.

He didn’t give up on me though, and through a lot of homerooms spent in his classroom trying to retrain my brain to write more “professionally” like the AP Exam required, my scores started to get higher. I was now expected to get a 3 if everything was going my way. And boy, did they. I got a 4 on the exam and immediately emailed him the good news (granted, the results came out in the summer, so I don’t know if he checked his email that often
haha).

My senior year, he had me editing the literary magazine for the school and nominated me for 1/3 of the English “Olympiad Awards” given to graduates. That’s still one of my proudest moments.

I heard through the grapevine that he retired this year, so I hope he’s enjoying the first summer in a while where he can actually relax and not prepare more kids for AP Exams. Then again, he did a pretty great job with me. 😉

Jillian from Wisconsin

🧐 Today’s Question: Was life better in the early 2000s? Or is that just nostalgia?

POPCORN
Some Quick Stories for Happy Hour

🧰 Zambia’s Past, Reframed: A wooden hunter’s toolbox inscribed with an ancient Zambian script has gone viral, challenging colonial myths about African literacy and heritage

🩓 Zebra’s Escape Ends via Helicopter: A runaway pet zebra named Ed – on the loose in Tennessee for over a week – has finally been recaptured

đŸ‹ïž Gym Cancellation Refund: Luxury gym chain Equinox has reached a $600,000 settlement over making it difficult for customers to cancel their memberships

🐍 Python Pound Party: Florida conservationists have removed a whopping 20 tons (40,000 lbs) of invasive Burmese pythons from the Everglades since 2013

🌑 Lunar Oops: Japan's private lunar lander Resilience, by Tokyo-based company ispace, crashed into the Moon

ROCA WRAP
Ancient Discovery

Syria

A 1,500-year-old Byzantine tomb complex was discovered beneath a war-damaged home in Syria. The complex contains some of humanity's most significant archaeological treasures, including the ancient cities of Damascus, Aleppo, and Palmyra.

The country's 14-year civil war, which ended in December when former President Bashar Assad fled to Russia, left much of the country in ruins and countless historical sites damaged or destroyed. Now, Syria is in the process of rebuilding and making new discoveries about its past.

In the town of Maarat al-Numan, a contractor working beneath a war-destroyed home discovered an underground burial site. The site contains two chambers with six stone tombs each, marked with Christian crosses etched into stone columns. Residents immediately notified Syria's directorate of antiquities, which deployed experts to investigate and secure the site in the residential neighborhood of damaged cinder-block buildings.

"Based on the presence of the cross and the pottery and glass pieces that were found, this tomb dates back to the Byzantine era," said the province's director of antiquities. The Byzantine Empire, which emerged from the Roman Empire in the 4th century with Christianity as its state religion, controlled much of Syria until the 7th century. Abandoned Byzantine settlements known as "Dead Cities" are scattered across the country.

Local residents hope that this and other discoveries can bring tourists back to the area, which once attracted foreigners but is now desperately in need of economic opportunity. After 14 years of war, Syria's ancient past is now rising from the rubble – and with it, hopes that the country will rise again, too.

EDITOR’S NOTE
Final Thoughts

Calling all videographers/editors! As we continue to grow our YouTube channel, we are looking to hire another talented and committed videographer/editor. We care less about experience and more about mission alignment and eagerness to learn. The job will require making YouTube videos with one of the Maxes, who will be the video host/interviewer. You will travel around the country and world and capture different places without bias or fear. To apply, fill out this Google Form! Feel free to pass along to any friends of your who you think may be interested.

–Max and Max