Plus: A snowstorm, Chinese leak, and massive french fry spill
Jan 26, 2026
Maye Day. Maye Day.
The stage is now set for Super Bowl LX. The Seattle Seahawks will face off against the New England Patriots. But the real battle will take place off-screen between my Uncle Gary and the Bad Bunny halftime show, as the Puerto Rican megastar will reportedly don a dress at some point during the production. The line is currently -8000 that he’ll walk out mid-performance. Unplugging the HDMI cord is at -2000. Baseball bat to the TV? Vegas isn’t even taking bets on that.
🚔 Minneapolis shooting
🇨🇳 China’s #2 accused of leak
🍟 Massive french fry spill
–Max and Max
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We want to spice things up a bit, so we’re trying out this new daily trivia section. The questions are related to the day’s news; the answers are at the end of the newsletter!
Alex Honnold became the first person to free solo which monolith in 2017?
In what year did Mao Zedong take over China?
KEY STORY
Minneapolis Shooting
Federal agents shot and killed Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse, in Minneapolis over the weekend – the second person killed there by federal agents this month
Videos show Pretti filming ICE agents before being pepper sprayed and pinned down by a group of agents who toss away a gun. Pretti is shot seconds later
Pretti had a handgun and a permit allowing him to legally carry in public. DHS claimed that Pretti “approached US Border Patrol officers with a 9 mm semi-automatic handgun” and “violently resisted” disarming. Video evidence gives no indication that Pretti attempted to use or brandish his weapon
Dig Deeper
Protests, already widespread in Minneapolis, intensified after the shooting, prompting Governor Tim Walz (D) to deploy the National Guard in the city
President Trump approved federal emergency declarations in 12 states as winter storm Fern impacted the US
Winter storm Fern stretched approximately 2,000 miles from New Mexico to Maine, affecting two-thirds of the country. Parts of the Northeast saw as much as 18 inches of snow, while southern and mid-Atlantic areas dealt with icy conditions
Trump’s Saturday declarations allow FEMA to coordinate disaster relief and provide federal funding. As of Sunday morning, more than 850,000 people were without electricity
More than 10,000 Sunday flights were canceled, adding to over 4,000 Saturday cancellations
Dig Deeper
Some power companies warned customers to prepare for outages lasting two to three days
Washington, DC's Reagan National Airport canceled all Sunday flights. American Airlines scrapped over 1,400 flights as JetBlue cut more than 70% of its Sunday schedule
China's top general was accused of leaking nuclear weapons information to the US, the WSJ reported
Gen. Zhang Youxia, 75, has served as vice chairman of the Communist Party's Central Military Commission since 2017, making him the military's second-ranking officer after Xi Jinping
On Saturday, China's defense ministry announced Zhang was under investigation for "grave violations of discipline and the law," including leaking classified information about China's nuclear weapons program to the US
Analysts said the purge will likely weaken the military's ability to conduct complex operations in the near future
Dig Deeper
Zhang was also accused of creating rival factions within the military, accepting large bribes in exchange for officer promotions, and elevating former Defense Minister Li Shangfu in exchange for bribes
Authorities also placed Gen. Liu Zhenli, chief of staff of the Joint Staff Department, under investigation on Saturday
Resentment is like drinking poison and then hoping it will kill your enemies.
-Nelson Mandela
KEY STORY
Potential Government Shutdown?
Senate Democrats threatened to block a government funding package, raising the prospect of a partial shutdown
Congress needs to pass six spending bills by Friday to keep federal agencies – including DHS – funded through September. The House approved the bills, sending them to the Senate and requiring 60 votes to pass, but Republicans only hold 53 Senate seats
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (NY) announced Democrats would not advance the package if it included DHS appropriations, following a fatal shooting by a Border Patrol agent in Minneapolis
Democrats called for warrant requirements for ICE arrests and restrictions keeping Border Patrol at the border
Dig Deeper
Only part of the government would shut down, as lawmakers already approved six of the 12 annual spending measures. However, critical operations at unfunded agencies, including the Departments of Defense, Labor, and Health and Human Services, would be disrupted
The House is scheduled to be out of session for the week, making it difficult to resolve the impasse before Friday's deadline
A series of viral posts claim Democrats are pushing a wave of radical policies in Virginia, just months after voters elected a “moderate” governor
Abolishing minimum sentencing for rape, manslaughter, and possession of child pornography? Making it illegal for federally-funded NGOs to be investigated for fraud? Allowing internet voting?
We dug into the bills behind these claims, separating what’s actually been proposed from what’s been misunderstood or exaggerated
🧗🏻♀️ American climber Alex Honnold free-soloed Taiwan's Taipei 101 skyscraper on Sunday morning, scaling the 1,667-foot building without ropes or safety equipment in 90 minutes.
What does Roca Nation think?
❄️ Today’s Question: Send in snow pics! - We will feature the best pics this week.
Hannah from Ohio
Josh from Undisclosed (a cold Undisclosed): "Winnie from Minnesota enjoying -17 degrees…seriously she loves it.”
POPCORN
Some Quick Stories for Happy Hour
⚽ Got Game: Trinity Rodman signed a three-year deal with Washington Spirit worth $2M annually, making her the world’s highest-paid female soccer player.
🪨 Rock Tour: A beloved climbing practice rock known as Portable disappeared from its spot in Squamish, British Columbia, and mysteriously turned up over 1,700 miles away in California.
🛤️ Emu-gency Stop: Network Rail removed an emu from railway tracks in East Yorkshire, UK, after it wandered onto the line and disrupted train service.
🐺 Wolver-Win: Colorado wildlife authorities plan to reintroduce wolverines to the state after a century-long absence, aiming to bring in about 45 animals to establish three high-elevation populations.
🍟 Fish & Chips: A beach in East Sussex, England, has been blanketed in uncooked French fries and onions after a container ship lost 17 refrigerated food containers during a storm.
ROCA WRAP
The Barefoot Philosopher
Socrates
The philosopher who claimed to know nothing became the foundation of Western thought.
Born around 470 BC in Athens to a stoneworker and a midwife, Socrates grew up as an Athenian citizen in relatively affluent circumstances. He received the standard education for wealthy Athenians, learning reading, writing, gymnastics, poetry, and music. He was notoriously ugly, with a flat turned-up nose, bulging eyes, and a large belly, which his friends joked about constantly. Socrates was indifferent to material pleasures and personal comfort, neglecting hygiene, bathing rarely, walking barefoot, and owning only one ragged coat. He moderated his eating, drinking, and sex but did not practice full abstention.
Socrates spent his time wandering Athens, engaging citizens in philosophical discussions using a distinctive question-and-answer technique. He would approach supposed experts on subjects like virtue, justice, or courage and ask them for definitions. Through careful questioning, he would reveal contradictions in their beliefs, demonstrating that the expert didn’t actually understand what they claimed to know. Socrates frequently proclaimed his own ignorance, saying he was only sure that he did not know. This became encapsulated in the famous phrase, “I know that I know nothing.”
In 399 BC, at age 70, Socrates was accused of impiety and corrupting the youth of Athens. The charges came during a politically tense period following Athens’s defeat by Sparta and the brief tyrannical rule of the Thirty Tyrants. At his trial, which lasted a single day, Socrates defended himself unsuccessfully before a jury of hundreds of male Athenian citizens. When found guilty and asked to propose his own punishment, he suggested that Athens should give him free food and housing for the services he had rendered the city. The jurors were not amused and sentenced him to death.
Socrates spent his last day in prison among friends who offered him escape routes, which he refused. He believed that fleeing would be unjust and would contradict everything he had taught about respecting the law. According to Plato’s account, his last words before drinking the poison hemlock were: “Crito, we owe a rooster to Asclepius. Don’t forget to pay the debt.” Socrates wrote nothing himself, and everything known about him comes from the accounts of his students Plato and Xenophon.
For someone who never wrote a word, the man had an awful lot to say.
NEWS TRIVIA ANSWERS
El Capitan
1949
EDITOR’S NOTE
Final Thoughts
Thank you for the first batch of snow pics — we look forward to the next one today.
On that note, we hope all of you weathered the storm okay, and that you enjoyed your weekend. We had a wonderful time celebrating our third cofounder Billy’s bachelor party in Miami. We would like to apologize to all of those who also wanted electrolyte powder at CVS in Miami on Sunday.
–Max and Max
This Substack is reader-supported. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
I think we still need to give the latest shooting "time" for the facts to be revealed. You have sworn federal law enforcement officers working under the most unruly of conditions. Get into a heated confrontation with a LEO while you're carrying a firearm(s) - bad things will happen. This is common sense. There are consequences for the choices people make. In this situation, under the duress these LEO's are working under - there's never going to be criminal prosecutions. Minnesota's sanctuary city leaders are part of this hysteria as well. The juxtaposition is the same type of DHS operations in Texas. That's all the precedent needed. You'll never change my mind, or anyone else's that has common sense.
I think we still need to give the latest shooting "time" for the facts to be revealed. You have sworn federal law enforcement officers working under the most unruly of conditions. Get into a heated confrontation with a LEO while you're carrying a firearm(s) - bad things will happen. This is common sense. There are consequences for the choices people make. In this situation, under the duress these LEO's are working under - there's never going to be criminal prosecutions. Minnesota's sanctuary city leaders are part of this hysteria as well. The juxtaposition is the same type of DHS operations in Texas. That's all the precedent needed. You'll never change my mind, or anyone else's that has common sense.