March 8, 2022

Gas prices are officially higher than Snoop Dogg at the Super Bowl halftime show. Maybe that's an exaggeration, but humor is a great coping tool for pricey commutes. Our commute concerns in New York City are much tamer: We'd prefer to be pushed on the Subway tracks than pay $3.79 a gallon.

2 things: 1) We are hiring for a UI/UX designer role. More info here! Please send your talented friends our way. 2) Enjoy today's Wrap – it's part 1 about Max F's 4-day stay in Ukraine.

― Key Stories

Brittney Griner's Pineapple Express
Overview

• Brittney Griner, who plays for both the Phoenix Mercury and the Russian club UMMC Ekaterinburg, was arrested at a Moscow airport on drug charges
• Griner is a seven-time WNBA all-star and a two-time Olympic gold medalist. Griner rose to prominence during her college career as she led Baylor University to a national championship in 2012
• Russian authorities allegedly found hash oil on her while she was attempting to leave the country
• It is not yet clear if Griner's incarceration had any political motivations. Saturday, the US recommended all Americans in Russia leave immediately

Oil Prices Surge

• US oil surged to $130 a barrel on Monday. Gas prices surged to $4+ per gallon, a 14-year high
• Sanctions on Russian oil and gas are driving the surge; Russia is the world's 3rd largest oil producer. The US is considering easing sanctions against Venezuela to help boost supply
• The surge hit the stock market, causing the S&P 500 to fall 3.0%, the Dow to drop 2.4%, and Nasdaq 3.6%
• The spike comes as consumers face decades-high inflation. In some states, gas prices have surpassed $6. In Europe, a gallon of gas is now well above €6 ($6.52)

No Breakthroughs in Third Peace Talks

• The third round of peace talks between Russia and Ukraine ended without a breakthrough Monday
• Discussions near the Belarus border concluded after about 4 hours. The only material solution was a plan to improve the logistics of humanitarian corridors
• Russia has laid out several demands for Ukraine, such as a new constitution that pledges to never join the EU or NATO, and acknowledgment of Crimea as Russian and Donetsk/Lugansk as independent states
• Ukraine is yet to directly respond to Russia’s demands. Russia’s military continues to shell Ukraine but has yet to occupy any major cities

Columbian Drug Lord Seized
Overview

• Colombian drug kingpin Florentino Fernandez, better known as Don Carlos, was arrested at a cafe in Marbella, Spain
• Police have been monitoring Carlos since 1993, when they began investigating his links to high-ranking members of the Medellin and Cali Colombian cartels
• Carlos, a Spanish citizen, is one of the longest standing figures of the drug trade between Colombia and Spain
• The arrest follows an 18-month police operation that monitored Carlos and traced a shipment of 132 lbs (60 kg) of cocaine in flower boxes headed to Seville

See yesterday's results below the Wrap!

 Popcorn

Culture & Sports 

• No FanDuel League: Atlanta Falcons wide receiver Calvin Ridley is being suspended for the 2022 season for gambling on games in 2021
• But you can bet on NFL commentators making bank! Joe Buck may soon join Troy Aikman and Tony Romo in the $1M per game club
• Yay, more apocalypse! AMC has greenlighted a Walking Dead spinoff show titled Isle of the Dead, expected to air in 2023

• Silicon Valley roadkill: Robinhood, Wish, and Peloton are among the tech stocks down 75% or more from their 52-week highs
• Saudi prince Mohammed bin Salman is hoping to woo Wall Street investors next month with his futuristic city megaproject "Noem"
• "Burger with a side of bitcoin please?" Shake Shack will offer bitcoin rewards to customers who pay for their order using Cash App

• Queen Elizabeth is reportedly moving out of Buckingham Palace permanently. The 95-yo monarch plans to live full-time in Windsor Castle
• The Italian brown bear nicknamed "Juan Carrito" who went viral for breaking into a bakery has been captured and sent away
• A Russian gymnast wore the "Z" symbol (which stands for support of Russia's invasion of Ukraine) on the medal stand next to a Ukrainian
• Oink of death: Wild pigs have been spreading across central Alberta in Canada, threatening "absolute destruction" of the local ecosystem

― Roca Wrap

A Newsletter Exclusive

Roca co-founder Max Frost has spent the last 10 days in eastern Europe, including 4 days in Ukraine. He's writing about it here this week. 

“Is it peaceful there?” I asked the truck driver I was riding with in Slovakia to the Ukrainian border.

“Peaceful? How can it be peaceful?” He returned to the thought a minute later: “It can’t be peaceful until Putin is dead.” 

That was Vasya, a Ukrainian who was picking up his 5th humanitarian shipment from Slovakia in 5 days. “For those of us who can’t fight, we must help in other ways,” he explained. I had waved him down on the Slovak highway asking for a ride to the border where I wanted to meet more refugees. When he told me he was going into Ukraine, just over the border, I couldn’t resist. I asked if I could tag along for the day, then exit the country with him at night. 

I ended up staying 4 days and going far deeper into the country than I planned.

I had to go without Vasya, though, because after 3 hours of waiting, Slovak customs rejected his truck for lack of an itemized list of the goods on board. A border guard told me I could ask any other driver for a lift, “but you really shouldn’t. It’s not safe.”

I knocked on the doors of 4 or 5 vehicles before I met Ivan, who was transporting a moving van of mattresses, food, and other humanitarian goods. I told him I was an American journalist; he had a daughter in America. He’d be happy to take me, he said. Then as we waited at customs, he told me he’d be going 100km past the border. “Don’t worry,” he said in Russian, “you can stay with my family for a day, 2, 3 — however long you want.” I insisted I had to go back to the border that night. I was worried about getting trapped in a conflict. “As you wish!” he said.

From where we were headed, the nearest war activity had been a rocket attack about 200 miles away on the first day of the war. Since then, nothing had happened for 100+ miles further. Yet it was a bit nerve racking, mainly because as an independent journalist, if the war came to us I would be stuck. Border waits were days-long.

The first city over the border was Uzhorod. Normally home to 110,000 people, displaced Ukrainians have caused its population to swell. The main sign of anything being off was how lively it was: Provincial Ukrainian cities are normally quiet and empty seeming. These streets were packed, though, with people holding hands out on the street, walking their dogs, just living normally. “See, everything is normal here,” Ivan said, gesturing at the streets. 

I did run into one issue with an AK-47-toting soldier when I tried to discreetly take a picture of a line of refugees at the border. He waved us over and ran up screaming. “What are you doing? Delete that! Delete that!”

We continued on, weaving through the Carpathian mountains through villages and towns. After 2 hours or so, we reached our destination – Khust, a town of 25,000 people. We first stopped at the church and unloaded our shipment – mattresses, rice, canned meats, baby food, clothes. A dozen beds had replaced pews in the main room of the church. There were currently 9 displaced Ukrainians staying there. 

Unlike the refugees I met in Slovakia and Poland, this group included men, whom the Ukrainian government has forbidden from leaving the country. One guy, Vlad, was about my age and spoke good English. He told me that he had run a music studio in Kyiv. He fled before he could bring his gear. Other young men told me similar stories. Some were there with families; others were alone after their families had fled abroad.

There were volunteers at the church, mostly locals who were members there. One man, Roman, had arrived in Khust 8 years ago after being displaced by the war against separatists in Ukraine’s east. “I can’t explain to you the generosity of the people here,” he told me, tears in his eyes. He said the church community had saved his family, which has since made the town their home: “When I arrived here, I was like a drug addict. You know, from the adrenaline, from the shootings, the explosions.” 

The generosity became evident while I was there. By the time I left, there were 30 people staying at the church and dozens more at the homes of people in the community. 

It was dark when we arrived at Ivan’s, so I decided to stay another night. Ivan’s family welcomed me at the door: His wife Nina, his son Sergei, his other son Vlad; Vlad’s wife Dvora and their daughter Sarah; and Yurii, a family friend who had fled from his city in northern Ukraine and come to Khust after sending his family abroad. 

They greeted me with a bowl of soup, bread, and tea. “Make yourself at home,” they said, “and tell your parents not to worry."

 Games

1. Claire
2. Ophelia
3. Saoirse
4. Eloise

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