🌊 "Anyone Seen My Missing Nuke?"

A Rust Belt town in Appalachian Ohio, Wellsville has lost a lot of its jobs and a lot of its people. Facing struggles with poverty and addiction, on paper, it might seem like a grim place. But it’s not, because of people like Brenda.

Brenda had the idea to start a free restaurant in downtown Wellsville. Running purely off donations, The Gathering Place has become a pillar of the community, bringing life, joy, and hope to the town. In much of this area, you hear pessimism and despair. But here, it’s the opposite.

We stopped in by chance and heard people recount their stories of what The Gathering Place meant to them. Young or old, rich or poor – everyone could come here to find company, a delicious meal, and someone to talk to. Many communities are struggling. If they each had a Gathering Place, they would all be better off.

After spending much of the last year on the road, this was the most inspiring place we came across. We’d love to send some help their way this Christmas. With their budgets tight and donations small, we thought we’d share it with the Roca audience. You can donate here.

–Max and Max

KEY STORY

A New War Brewing

A Turkish invasion of Syria looks increasingly likely

• The Kurds are widely considered the world’s largest stateless group. For decades, they’ve waged guerrilla war against Turkey, which has the largest Kurdish population and has often repressed them

• Amid the anarchy of Syria’s civil war, Kurds carved out their own territory in northeast Syria. The US supported them as a counterweight to both ISIS and Bashar al-Assad; Turkey worried it could fuel terrorism and secessionism

• Now, Turkey appears to be preparing an invasion of Kurdish-controlled Syria. Kurdish leaders are pleading with American leaders to intervene

Dig Deeper

• This week, the leader of the Syrian Kurds wrote a letter urging Donald Trump to pressure Turkey not to invade

• The letter said that Turkey’s goal is to “establish de facto control over our land before you take office, forcing you to engage with them as rulers of our territory…If Turkey proceeds with its invasion, the consequences will be catastrophic”

KEY STORY

Nuclear General Killed

Ukraine assassinated a top Russian general overseeing nuclear and chemical weapons

• Igor Kirillov was a high-ranking general who oversaw Russia’s nuclear, biological, and chemical “defense” operations. On Monday, Ukraine’s security service put out a warrant for him, alleging that he ordered the use of chemical weapons in Ukraine

• On Tuesday, Kirillov was exiting his Moscow home with an aide when a scooter exploded, killing him

• Kirillov may be the highest-profile Russian yet killed by Ukrainian security. Ukraine’s security services quickly claimed responsibility, calling him, “A war criminal and a completely legitimate target”

Dig Deeper

• He spent “many years exposing the crimes of the Anglo-Saxons,” said the Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman

• “Attempts to stop the advance of the Russian army and sow fear are doomed to failure, and vengeance awaits the senior military-political leadership of Ukraine,” said another top Russian security official

ROCA’S SPONSOR

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Together with Brad’s Deals

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• Check them out here

KEY STORY

Ozy Media Sentencing

Former Ozy Media CEO Carlos Watson was sentenced to ten years in prison

• In late 2021, The New York Times reported a series of scandals involving rampant fraud and misbehavior at Ozy, a high-flying media startup. The report sparked a DOJ investigation, resulting in fraud charges against several Ozy execs

• The digital media company – launched in 2013 – raised over $80M from investors over seven years

• Ozy execs were found to have inflated social media metrics, impersonated a YouTube executive, pretended Ozzy Osbourne was an investor, and more. Executives have since been found guilty of a range of crimes, and this week, the company’s former CEO received a 10-year prison sentence

Dig Deeper

• In January of 2021, Watson said the company was making $50M a year and had become profitable. Many news outlets questioned Watson’s claims, which spurred investors to begin suing and the NYT to investigate

• The company’s former COO – who pleaded guilty – explained the behavior as a result of the pressure to survive: “Survival within the bounds of decency, fairness, truth, it morphed into survival at all costs and by any means necessary”

KEY STORY

Drones Sniffing for Nukes?

A New Jersey mayor has suggested that missing radioactive material could be the culprit behind New Jersey's mass drone sightings

• According to a Nuclear Regulatory Commission alert, radioactive material went missing on December 2. “It was a shipment. It arrived at its destination. The container was damaged, and it was empty,” Mayor Melham of Belleville, NJ, said

• He theorized that maybe the drones are “sniffing” for this material across the state and nearby areas

• In a Joe Rogan podcast episode released this week, a former Navy fighter pilot cast doubt on this theory, saying that his sources in the DoD and CIA have assured him there is no radioactive risk. If there were, the pilot said, drones wouldn’t be the best way to search for it

Dig Deeper

• On Sunday, Roca interviewed New Jersey State Senator Jon Bramnick. He said that New Jersey officials are left in the dark. He also noted that one of the government’s longstanding national security concerns is a “dirty bomb,” that would combine radioactive materials with a traditional bomb

• Yet he doesn’t believe the theory either: “It’s either the private sector or the government”

RUNDOWN
Some Quick Stories for the Office

🔫 The shooter who killed a teacher and student at a Wisconsin school was identified as a 15-year-old girl who attended the school

⚖️ Rex Heuermann – accused of being Long Island’s “Gilgo Beach Killer” – was charged with a seventh murder

🇬🇧 Elon Musk declared his support for the UK’s upstart anti-immigration party ReformUK. The endorsement came after he and Reform’s leader, Nigel Farage, met at Mar-a-Lago

🇺🇸 Hannah Kobayashi – the Hawaiian woman whose disappearance during an LAX layover sparked a far-reaching search – spoke publicly for the first time since her disappearance

🤖 Databricks – a San Francisco-based company that helps businesses build and manage AI – reached the biggest venture capital deal of the year

COMMUNITY

🧐 Yesterday’s question: What do you think is the explanation for the mass drone sightings in New Jersey?

🧠 Today’s question: Is gambling getting out of control in the US? Hard to watch sports without getting inundated in ads.

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

POPCORN
Some Quick Stories for Happy Hour

👮 No-Man’s Interstate: A woman was left stranded on the side of a Georgia highway for six hours after multiple police departments refused to help following an accident, each claiming it wasn't their jurisdiction to write a report

🇺🇸 That’s “Governor Trudeau” To You: Donald Trump continued his “Governor Trudeau” bit, writing “The Great State of Canada is stunned as the Finance Minister resigns, or was fired, from her position by Governor Justin Trudeau”

👮 Neigh-ve Comment?: Minneapolis City Council Member LaTrisha Vetaw faces criticism for using the phrase "say their names" – traditionally used to remember black victims of police violence – while listing police horses' names during a budget debate

⚖️ Digital Danger: Google-backed Character.AI faces a lawsuit over allegations that its chatbots encouraged a teen to consider killing his parents over screen time limits and exposed a 9-year-old to "hypersexualized content"

🧑‍🎄 Bad Santa: Massachusetts police say a 33-year-old suspect attempted "Santa-like antics" by climbing down a chimney to evade police, only to get stuck and require rescue by the same officers he was fleeing from

ROCA WRAP

No WhatsApp For You

Scotland

This country's government has banned WhatsApp from official phones.

A nation of 5.5M people in Britain's northern third, Scotland has significant autonomy through its devolved government in Edinburgh. While still part of the United Kingdom, it maintains distinct policies and practices, particularly in areas like health and education.

The latest unique policy came this week, when the Scottish government announced it would remove all "non-corporate mobile message apps" from official devices starting spring 2025. The ban extends beyond WhatsApp to include other messaging platforms like Signal and Facebook Messenger, marking a significant shift in official communication policy.

The decision follows controversy during Britain's Covid-19 inquiry, which raised controversy about the use of messaging apps for official purposes.

Some officials were found to have sent embarrassing WhatsApp messages, while Former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon faced criticism for deleting pandemic-era messages and her successor Humza Yousaf's profanity-laden exchanges – in which he called one lawyer a “fuckwit” and a politician an “arsehole” – became public.

While Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes acknowledged that WhatsApp use during the pandemic was "understandable in such pressing times," she said times have changed: In the new normal, officials will be able to use official communication channels only.

EDITOR’S NOTE
Final Thoughts

Phew… when we saw media founder sentenced to 10 years we each were worried that the other Max might not show up to work today. Thankfully, we live to fight another day. Please nobody tell the FBI about our laser tag chain in Delaware….

Also, today is the anniversary of Chris Farley’s death. Every year, we celebrate with a clip: Here’s his entrance on a random David Letterman appearance. Enjoy.

–Max and Max