🌊 TikTok, It's Almost Midnight

52 years ago today, the last humans to walk on the moon..

… or sorry, successfully stage walking on the moon — made their lunar landing. Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt, astronauts on the Apollo 17 mission, spent a record 74 hours on the moon’s surface and recorded silly videos like this one. The funny part about Apollo 17 — aside from the fact that many believe it was filmed in Albuquerque — is that nobody talks about Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt today. They spent three days walking on the moon, and they’re less known than Moo Deng.

–Max and Max

KEY STORY

The Battle for TikTok

The TikTok ban is nearing

• A law requires Bytedance to sell TikTok by January 19, 2025 – a day before Trump’s inauguration – or face a ban. Last week, a federal court affirmed the ban’s legality; on Monday, Bytedance filed an emergency request for SCOTUS to overturn the ruling. Analysts say it’s unlikely to do so

• Biden could extend the January 19 deadline by 90 days, but only if ByteDance proves it has made progress toward a sale. Trump, meanwhile, has said he will “save” TikTok and could order the Justice Department not to enforce the law, but the risk of later enforcement would likely make it impossible for TikTok to operate

Dig Deeper

• Last week's ruling may prove a final blow: The federal court ruled that the threat of China using TikTok to "manipulate public discourse" makes the ban constitutional. While TikTok and some civil rights groups have called the ban a free speech violation, the court wrote that China’s ability to restrict speech on TikTok poses a risk to Americans’ free speech: “Its ability to do so is at odds with free speech fundamentals. Indeed, the First Amendment precludes a domestic government from exercising comparable control over a social media company in the United States"

KEY STORY

Crypto’s New Landscape

Late last week, Trump nominated former SEC commissioner and crypto advocate Paul Atkins to run the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)

• Atkins – who has advocated for less red tape around the industry – represents a stark contrast to Biden’s SEC commissioner, Gary Gensler, who notably cracked down on digital currencies

• In practice, potential crypto deregulation could include simpler/cheaper registration for crypto firms, more leeway for initial coin offerings (ICOs), softer reporting requirements for small firms, clearer guidelines over which tokens are securities vs commodities, and more

Dig Deeper

• Some cryoto enthusiasts have tapered their expectations for Atkins' SEC. Like Gensler, Atkins believes that the SEC’s core purpose is to protect consumers: It’s unlikely the industry gets the free pass many may be hoping for

ROCA’S SPONSOR

Tires on Fire: Solving a Deadly Hazard

Together with GACW

Mining is already a dangerous job. But you’re 11x more likely to die in the tire bay than anywhere else on the mining site. One company is stepping in to help prevent this

How? By eliminating the need to replace the rubber tires. GACW’s revolutionary Air Suspension Wheel:

• Is engineered to last the lifetime of the vehicle

• Cannot overheat or explode like rubber tires

• Is 100% recyclable

They’re already shipping to top mining companies. And for a limited time, you can become a GACW shareholder

Disclosure:

This is a paid advertisement for Global Air Cylinder Wheels’ Regulation CF Offering. Please read the offering circular at invest.globalaircylinderwheels.com

KEY STORY

Netanyahu Testifies

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu took the stand in his corruption trial

• Netanyahu has been Israel’s prime minister for 17 of the last 28 years. He faces corruption charges over allegations that he offered favors in exchange for luxury gifts and favorable media coverage. Trial proceedings began in 2020 but have been repeatedly delayed due to Covid and war

• On Tuesday, Netanyahu testified for the first time in what could be weeks of testimony. He said that he’s the victim of a “witch hunt” and said the accusations against him were manufactured by a left-wing media: “There has never been such a biased media in any democracy, possibly in any country on Earth, as there is in Israel”

Dig Deeper

• Netanyahu claimed that even if he were corrupt, he wouldn’t have time to enjoy the benefits, citing 17-hour workdays: “Sometimes I sin with a cigar that I can’t even smoke in peace because of the constant interruptions…and by the way, I hate champagne,” he said

• In the coming days, prosecutors will have their chance to question Netanyahu, whose staunchest critics accuse him of drawing out the war in Gaza to deflect from the corruption allegations

KEY STORY

Stop Hiring Humans

Tech startup Artisan has blitzed San Francisco with a “Stop Hiring Humans” ad campaign, sparking backlash and previewing a wave that could sweep the country soon

• Goldman Sachs claims that AI could eliminate or diminish 300M jobs by 2030. Administrative support positions, legal positions, and jobs in architecture and engineering are at the greatest risk of replacement, per Goldman

• The taglines Artisan used for the campaign include “Artisans won’t complain about work-life balance” and “The era of AI employees is here”

Dig Deeper

• Artisan's own CEO admits that the ad campaign was “dystopian”

• “[The ads] are somewhat dystopian, but so is AI,” he told SFGate. “The way the world works is changing”

• The company sells what it calls “AI Employees” or “Artisans.” In reality, it sells software that's designed to help with customer service and sales workflow. It claims its "Artisans" cost 96% less than human workers

RUNDOWN
Some Quick Stories for the Office

💲 Consulting giant McKinsey has agreed to pay $122M to settle charges that it bribed South African officials to win millions of dollars of consulting contracts between 2012 and 2016

🛒 A federal judge blocked Kroger’s $25B acquisition of Albertsons, a merger that would have created one of the US’ largest grocery companies. The companies had said the deal was needed to compete with Walmart and Amazon; regulators had said it would disadvantage consumers

🇷🇺 Russian state media reported that Russia’s strategically vital Syria bases are safe. Analysts have cast doubt on that

🇺🇸 Trump wrote on Truth Social that he would make it easier for developers investing $1B+ in the US to secure the necessary approvals. Developers have long complained that major projects can be costly and burdensome, while supporters of regulation say the approvals are necessary to protect the environment and other concerns

🇧🇷 Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, a.k.a. Lula, was hospitalized in the ICU after undergoing emergency brain surgery

COMMUNITY

🧐 Yesterday’s question: What was your favorite part about 2024? Could be a personal highlight or news related.

🧠 Today’s question: Let’s say money is not an issue and every artist is touring… what would be your dream concert?

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

POPCORN
Some Quick Stories for Happy Hour

⚖️ Drop the Offender, Just, “Justice Impacted Individuals”: A modification to an Illinois law means that beginning in 2025, the state will in many – but not all – cases replace the term “offender” with “justice impacted individual”

💰 Fool’s Gold: An American woman traveling to Australia for clown school was jailed for smuggling a $2,000 24-carat gold-plated Colt 45-style pistol into the country. She told border officers that she "forgot" about the weapon

💻 Cell-ebration Time: Toronto financial modeling director Michael Jarman won the 2024 Microsoft Excel World Championships in Las Vegas, defeating three-time champion Andrew "The Annihilator" Ngai

🚽 Relief of Duty: A Texas first-grade teacher lost her job after banning her class from using the bathroom as punishment for losing their "restroom badge," resulting in about five students urinating on themselves

🐐 In Russia, Goats Get You: Russia has shipped 100 "elite" dairy goats to North Korea, adding to the 2,200 live animals, including horses and Holstein cows, that have been sent from Russia to North Korea as goodwill gestures since 2022

ROCA WRAP

Bury that Pyramid!

Hidalgo, Mexico

This Mexican state must rebury a newly discovered ancient pyramid due to budget cuts.

Located in central Mexico north of Mexico City, Hidalgo state is named after Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, a Catholic priest who launched Mexico's war of independence from Spain in 1810. The region has been inhabited since pre-Columbian times, though much of its ancient history remains mysterious. The area's Sierra Alta region was once home to the little-known Metzca lordship, a multiethnic society that flourished between 650 and 1519 CE.

This June, construction workers expanding a highway in Hidalgo uncovered a 1,375-foot-tall pyramid, along with remnants of 10 temple mounds. Archaeologists later recovered over 155 artifacts including shells, ceramics, and rock paintings, providing rare insights into the mysterious Metzca culture.

Despite the site's historical significance, Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology announced it will now rebury the pyramid to preserve it. The decision comes after President Claudia Sheinbaum cut the institute's annual budget from 8M pesos to 4.5M ($222,000), leaving insufficient funds for proper excavation and preservation.

Before reburial, archaeologists are photographing the site and creating 3D models for virtual study, while tourism officials emphasize the find's importance, noting that its the only pre-Hispanic remains from the period to have been discovered in the area.

Unfortunately for the officials and would-be tourists, though, the pyramid will soon be back in the ground from which it came.

ROCA VIDEO
How a Killer Is Uniting the Country

In a bizarre and unexpected fashion, the country is coming together over the killing of a prominent healthcare CEO. The twist that people are uniting in support of the shooter, not the victim.

This video investigates three key questions: 1) Who is Luigi Mangione and what were his motives? 2) Why do Americans hate United Healthcare and its former CEO so, so deeply? 3) Why is this event uniting the left and right?

EDITOR’S NOTE
Final Thoughts

A reader wrote in a beautiful email about our recent Ohio video, and we wanted to share. One section:

“Watching your guys' coverage of different southern Ohio towns was wonderful for me. I think the enjoyment came from seeing the real side of people--we all have friends/family that have turned to drugs or other vices out of boredom, corrupt medicinal practices, etc. However, traditional media has turned their backs on these people to benefit off of their stories. The sensationalization of the drug epidemic has made it impossible for people to contextualize addicts as people that we see everyday. They take their stories, chop them up, then point to one root cause... There is never one cause but life.”

Our mission is to show “the real side” of people and places. We greatly appreciated this email.

–Max and Max