🌊 Release the Oil Reserves!
Plus: AI's popularity plummets, Iran withdraws from WC, & "Literally Anybody Else" runs for office
“Honey, did you pay our intelligence bill this month?”
Yesterday, at a BlackRock summit in Washington, DC, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said, “We see a future where intelligence is a utility, like electricity or water, and people buy it from us on a meter.” A long way from those nonprofit days, huh, Sam? Now you want to meter intelligence to the masses? And my wife will blame me for using up our entire ration to look up where NFL players went to high school? This is dystopian!
On a happier note, don’t forget that we’re hosting a livestream Q&A tomorrow at noon EST with the Maxes on Max F’s trip to the Middle East. Submit your questions here, and be sure to upgrade your subscription to watch live. Don’t miss it!
🛢️ Countries to release oil reserves
📉 AI about as unpopular as Iran
🗳️ A candidate named “Literally Anybody Else”
– Max and Max
Middle East Update March 12
We’re running a daily breakdown of what’s going on in the Middle East. You can read today’s installment here.
Among notable events:
Trump told reporters that the US is "not finished yet" with strikes on Iran;
Three commercial ships were struck near the Strait of Hormuz;
Banks told staff to vacate or avoid offices in Dubai and Qatar amid threats from Iran;
Get the full update here.
Countries to Release Oil Reserves
The International Energy Agency (IEA) announced it would release 400M barrels of oil stockpiles, the largest reserve release in the agency’s history.
The move followed a G7 finance ministers’ call after oil prices briefly topped $120 a barrel – the highest since 2022. Initially, France said, “We are not there yet” on releasing reserves.
To stabilize prices, the IEA announced Wednesday that it would release 400M barrels – more than double its prior record set after the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Analysts cautioned that the release would only replace a fraction of the oil cut off by the Strait of Hormuz closure and that relief would not be immediate.
Adebayo Breaks Scoring Record
Miami Heat center Bam Adebayo became the second-highest single-game scorer in NBA history after scoring 83 points on Tuesday.
Only Wilt Chamberlain (100 points, 1962) has scored more in a single game; Adebayo surpassed Kobe Bryant’s 81-point record. Adebayo had never scored above 50 points in a single game before.
Adebayo also set the NBA record for free throw attempts in a game, making 36 of 43 – with critics citing Washington’s league-worst defense.
Of Kobe, Adebayo said, “That was my idol growing up.” He summarized his place in the record books: “Wilt, me, and then Kobe.”
NBC Poll: Voters Dislike AI
A new poll found that most American voters viewed AI negatively and did not trust either political party to manage it.
On Tuesday, NBC News released a survey of 1,000 registered voters that found 57% believed the risks of AI outweighed its benefits. Just 26% held a positive view – the third-worst rating of any entity polled, behind only the Democratic Party and Iran.
Voters showed little confidence in either party on the issue, with a pollster describing AI as “up for grabs.” Young voters and women under 50 expressed the most concern.
Ships Struck Near Strait of Hormuz
Iran struck three commercial vessels near the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps had warned that any vessel passing through the strait would be considered a target. On Wednesday, it struck a Thai-flagged cargo ship, causing a fire and damaging its engine room, while Japanese and Marshall Islands-flagged vessels were also hit.
Iran said it would continue blocking oil shipments bound for the US, Israel, and their partners, with a spokesman warning, “Get ready for the oil barrel to be at $200 because the oil price depends on the regional stability which you have destabilised.”
Oil prices rose 5% on Wednesday with US crude passing $90 a barrel.
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QUOTE OF THE DAY
Man is condemned to be free.
-Jean-Paul Sartre
The Biggest CIA Coverup of the Modern Era?
In 2015, the US reopened its embassy in Cuba, restoring diplomatic relations that had been frozen for 50+ years.
A year later, a CIA officer stationed there began experiencing unexplained neurological problems, including headaches and hearing loss. Dozens of other officials experienced similar symptoms, yet the government maintained it was “highly unlikely” that a high-tech weapon was the cause.
But just this week, a high-level CIA source called it “the biggest cover-up I’ve seen in my adult life.” Read our deep-dive here with the facts.
World
A US military investigation has preliminarily determined that an American Tomahawk missile strike killed at least 175 people – most of them children – at an Iranian elementary school on February 28.
Iran’s sports minister announced on Wednesday that the country will not participate in this year’s World Cup.
Three Norwegian brothers of Iraqi origin were arrested on suspicion of a “terrorist bombing” at the US embassy in Oslo, which caused minor damage but no injuries last Sunday.
National
A Florida woman was charged with attempted murder after firing a rifle into Rihanna's Los Angeles home on Sunday.
Economy
February’s inflation rate came in at 2.4%, in line with forecasts, though the figures predate the oil price spike that followed the outbreak of war in the Middle East.
What does Roca Nation think?
🇺🇸 Yesterday’s Question: What’s an issue that you think almost all Americans agree with that — for whatever reason — hasn’t become law/reality?
I believe most Americans are against politicians being allowed to trade stocks. Additionally, I think most Americans are against gerrymandering. Most Americans are likely for term limits on congressional representatives.
Paul from Delaware
Daylight Savings! I don’t know anyone who wants to continue with that ridiculousness. Can we just end it, please?!
Gabrielle, currently in Uruguay that does not practice DST
Congressional term limits. Most polls show it at 80%+ support among ALL Americans. But of course, those in charge won’t limit their own power or ability to hold that power, so we will never see it become a reality.
Mason from California
💰 Today’s Question: Where have you seen the most obscene wealth in the US? What town/neighborhood?
Reply to this email with your response!
🇺🇸 Literally Running Again: Army veteran Dustin Ebey, who legally changed his name to “Literally Anybody Else” during a 2024 presidential run, is now seeking the mayoral seat in North Richland Hills, Texas.
🖥️ Esquire.AI: A life insurance company is suing OpenAI after ChatGPT allegedly convinced a woman to fire her attorney, reopen a settled disability case, and flood the court with AI-generated filings – costing the insurer nearly $300,000 in legal fees.
🥻 Perry v. Perry: An Australian fashion designer named Katie Perry has won a High Court trademark dispute against pop star Katy Perry over the right to sell clothing under their shared name.
🪙 X Marks the Free Man: A deep-sea treasure hunter has been released from federal prison after a decade behind bars, after refusing to reveal the location of 500 missing gold coins from one of history’s greatest shipwreck discoveries.
🍷 Gains and Cocktails: Buffalo Wild Wings announced that it is launching an espresso martini spiked with Buffalo Dry Rub seasoning and 10g of protein – available at participating locations this weekend only.
The Christian Coast
“There’s a running joke that anything before the tunnel we’re about to reach is Lebanon,” Ramzi told me. “And everything you see after the tunnel is another Lebanon.”
We were driving north out of Beirut, along the mountains and up the Mediterranean coast.
I wasn’t sure what he meant. Then we exited the tunnel, and a gigantic statue of Jesus gazed down upon us from the mountaintop.
“Lebanon’s Christ the Redeemer,” Ramzi’s girlfriend Elizabeth joked.
For centuries, foreigners have projected their visions of Christian civilization onto this region. The presence of millions of devout Christians in a sea of Muslims led the French to carve out a special treaty that let them protect and trade with the group beginning in the 1500s; in 1982, Israel invaded Beirut, thinking that if it installed a Christian government, its problems with Lebanon would disappear. Many Western diplomats believed that the Christians were inherently progressive and civilized; the Muslims, less so.
The truth is more complicated.
Nikola Tesla
This Serbian-American inventor rewired the modern world – then died broke and alone in a New York hotel room.
Born in 1856 in the village of Smiljan in present-day Croatia, then part of the Austrian Empire, Nikola Tesla was the son of an Orthodox priest. His mother, who never received formal schooling, could recite lengthy Serbian poems from memory – a talent Tesla credited for his own remarkable mind. He showed early brilliance in math, solving complex calculus problems in his head so quickly that teachers accused him of cheating.
After studying in Graz and Budapest, Tesla moved to Paris in 1882, working for a subsidiary of Thomas Edison’s company. Two years later, he emigrated to the US, arriving in New York with four cents in his pocket and a letter of introduction to Edison himself. Edison had built his business around direct current (DC), a system that required power stations every mile or so to maintain voltage – practical for cities, but difficult to scale. Tesla was convinced that alternating current (AC), which could travel far greater distances without losing power, was the superior technology. After Edison reportedly offered, then reneged on, a $50,000 bonus for Tesla’s work, Tesla quit and struck out on his own.
Tesla partnered with George Westinghouse to develop and market his AC motor, igniting a fierce commercial battle with Edison over which electrical system would power the country. The stakes became clear at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, where Westinghouse lit the entire fairgrounds using Tesla’s AC system. The demonstration helped secure a contract to harness power from Niagara Falls – the moment AC electricity effectively won the war.
Tesla’s ambitions grew larger than any investor could support. He became fixated on wirelessly transmitting electricity across the globe, building a massive tower on Long Island intended to beam power through the Earth itself. The project collapsed when funding dried up. Tesla spent his final decades moving between New York hotels, leaving unpaid bills behind, feeding pigeons in the park, and announcing increasingly fantastical inventions at annual birthday press conferences – among them a death ray capable of destroying an army 200 miles away.
Tesla died alone in Room 3327 of the Hotel New Yorker in 1943, at the age of 86. The FBI seized his belongings, fearing his papers contained weapons secrets. They found nothing dangerous. Seventeen years later, the scientific community named the international unit of magnetic flux density the tesla in his honor.
The man who electrified the modern world couldn’t keep the lights on in his own hotel room.
EDITOR’S NOTE
Final Thoughts
River Oaks in Houston was unbelievable. I’d say it’s a top three wealthy town/neighborhood we’ve seen in the country — and we’ve now visited the richest towns in New York, Connecticut, Florida, Minnesota, California, Maryland, and Virginia. The people there were very friendly, too. Hope you enjoy!
–Max and Max