June 30, 2022

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In today's edition:

• TikTok feels the heat!
• Your favorite local restaurant?
• Story of Jonestown, Pt. 3

 Key Stories

FCC Commissioner Pushes for TikTok Ban

The commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) asked Google and Apple to take TikTok off of their app stores

• TikTok is owned by Bytedance, a Chinese company. President Trump had threatened to ban TikTok from app stores in 2020 due to data privacy concerns
• The request, sent by commissioner Brendan Carr, stated that the app “functions as a sophisticated surveillance tool that harvests… sensitive data”
• TikTok denied all data harvesting allegations, saying: “We employ… encryption and security monitoring… [that] is overseen by our US-based team”

• In 2020, President Trump pressured Bytedance to sell TikTok to an American company. Although Oracle, a Texas-based software company, entered into discussions to acquire a minority stake in the app, the deal fell through. TikTok still stores all of its US-based data on Oracle servers

Fossils of "Humanoid" 3.6M Years Old

Fossils of a human ancestor were dated back 3.6M years, reviving debates over the origins of mankind

• The fossil — the skull of a female named “Mrs. Ples" — was found in South Africa. Prior to the discovery, it was believed to be ~2M years old. Mrs. Ples was a member of the Australopithecus africanus species
• The finding questions the long-held belief that humans descended from a different “humanoid” species, Australopithecus afarensis, in East Africa
• Scientists now believe that both species could have interacted and even mated, complicating our current understanding of the origins of humanity

Justice Breyer to Step Down

US Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, 83, has announced that he will officially retire this Thursday

• Breyer, appointed by President Bill Clinton in 1994, served on the Court for 27 years. He is one of the Court’s 3 Democrat-appointed judges
• In a letter to President Biden, Breyer wrote: “It has been my great honor to participate as a judge in the effort to maintain our Constitution and the Rule of Law”
• Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, who was confirmed by a 53–47 Senate vote in April, will replace him. Jackson will be sworn in on Thursday

R. Kelly Sentenced to 30 Years

A federal judge sentenced R&B singer R. Kelly, 55, to 30 years in prison for sex-related charges

• R. Kelly, who made his music debut in 1992, has faced numerous accusations of sexual abuse and misconduct since 1996. The latest charges, filed in 2019, accused him of racketeering and sex trafficking
• A federal jury found R. Kelly guilty of nine charges in September 2021. 10+ victims testified against him at trial
• R. Kelly’s defense team portrayed him as the victim of an abusive childhood and asked for 10 years. He is also awaiting an August trial for federal sex crimes

• In August, R. Kelly will face charges of producing child pornography and enticing underage women to have sex with him; later, he will face sex-related charges in Illinois and Minnesota

• Still finding Nemo: A quarter of Earth's ocean floors have now been mapped. Roughly 3.6M sq. miles of data were added this year
• It's Jason Bourne: A British daredevil posing as a workman hung on a grease-covered bar 77 stories above the streets of Dubai
• Rocky road back: Ben & Jerry's owner Unilever reached a deal with Israel to sell its iconic ice cream brand in the West Bank again

 What do you think?

See yesterday's results below the Wrap!

 Roca Wrap

By 1978, more than 900 people had joined a socialist preacher named Jim Jones at Jonestown, a hideout deep in the jungles of Guyana, South America. After years of predicting the demise of his group – the People’s Temple – at the hands of the CIA, a US politician arrived on a visit.
 
For Jones – paranoid and obsessed with his group’s demise – it appeared that the apocalypse he had been warning of was coming to fruition.
 
The politician was a California congressman named Leo Ryan, who had been friends with a Temple member that had been killed in 1976. Ryan had since remained in frequent contact with concerned family members of the cult, including the Stoen family, whose child was Jones’ biological son and was being held in Jonestown against their will.
 
Ryan traveled to Jonestown with a delegation of 18 people, including family members of the cult. Upon entry to the community, Jones performed a pre-prepared ceremony to convince Ryan that the residents of Jonestown were happy and healthy. Several hours in, though, 2 cult members passed Ryan notes begging to take them with him.
 
The next day, 10 other residents approached Ryan about leaving Jonestown. After processing their claims, he loaded the 12 “deserters” onto a truck and sent them off to a local airport. Soon after the truck left, a Jonestown resident tried to stab Ryan; he failed, but sensing the growing threat, Ryan and several others quickly left for a nearby airport.
 
An ambush awaited the group at the airport: Heavily-armed Temple followers attacked the group, killing 5 – including Ryan, who was shot over 20 times.
 
Meanwhile, at Jonestown, Jones informed his followers that the time for “revolutionary suicide” had arrived. Gathering the 900+ members of Jonestown, he warned them that the CIA would be “parachuting in” at any moment to subject Jonestown to “unimaginable” forms of torture and cruelty.
 
“Lay down your life with dignity; don’t lay down with tears and agony,” he told his followers. “I tell you that…death is a million times preferable to 10 more days of this life.” Jones instructed the doctor of the camp to begin lacing buckets of Flavor Aid with liquid cyanide.
 
Over the next hour, 600+ adults and 300+ children consumed lethal doses of the concoction. Many refused to voluntarily drink it, and so were given it via syringes. Guards stood by, blocking anyone from leaving.
 
As for the leader, Jim Jones: He didn’t drink the poison himself, but his body was later found with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.
 
Until 9/11, the Jonestown massacre remained the deadliest peacetime event for US citizens in American history. An enduring testament to the dangers of blind obedience to authority, the tragedy gave birth to a now-familiar expression: “Don’t drink the Kool-Aid”...

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