Buzz
Staying on top of the news is no easy feat—it's so tough, in fact, that we've decided to spare you the trouble by compiling the most mind-blowing stories from this week. One particular tale has everyone talking, and the media has never been more excited about it! But before we dive into that, here's a look at what else has been going on globally while you’ve been absorbed in the White House drama.
10. Spain Chose to Rebury Its Late Dictator
General Francisco Franco is the fascist figure you should probably hold in more disdain than you currently do. As Spain’s dictator from 1939 until his death in 1975, he oversaw a dark period of violence so horrendous that historian Paul Preston referred to it as the 'Spanish Holocaust.' Franco had ties with Hitler, established cruel concentration camps, bombed innocent civilians, commanded his soldiers to commit atrocities against women, and encouraged his followers to revel in the bloodshed of those he had murdered.
In brief, he was truly one of the worst. However, it wasn’t until the end of last week that the Spanish government finally decided to put an end to the reverence of this deceased tyrant. Madrid passed a symbolic resolution to relocate his remains from its monumental mausoleum and give him a proper burial.
Franco’s remains rest in an enormous tomb atop a mass grave of 30,000 victims from the Spanish Civil War. The tomb itself was partially constructed by forced labor, with political prisoners involved, and fresh flowers are placed on Franco’s grave daily. The new resolution aims to prevent fervent Franco supporters from using the macabre crypt as a site of celebration and instead turn it into a memorial for the fallen from both factions.
9. Ivorian Soldiers Took Over An Entire City Over A Pay Dispute
After Ivory Coast’s decade-long civil war ended in 2011, the government devised a smart strategy to reintegrate the rebels. They offered the rebels positions in the army, securing their loyalty with employment. It was a clever move, but it only worked as long as the money kept flowing. Last Friday, that financial support came to an end. Within hours, large-scale mutinies erupted across the country, with rebel soldiers taking control of the second-largest city.
The former rebels make up about 8,400 of Ivory Coast’s 22,000-strong army. That’s a considerable fighting force, which likely influenced the Ivorian government’s choice not to send loyalist troops to retake Bouake. The prospect of reigniting the civil war must have weighed heavily on everyone’s mind as well.
Fortunately, the tensions were eventually eased. After backing out of a peace agreement just minutes after it was signed on Tuesday, the mutineers agreed to disarm on Thursday. In exchange, they received approximately $12,000 each.
8. Britain’s Most Hated Serial Killer Finally Passed Away
All serial killers are loathed, but few are as universally condemned as Ian Brady. Between 1963 and 1965, Brady kidnapped five children. Together with his girlfriend, Myra Hindley, he tortured, sexually abused, and ultimately murdered them, burying their bodies in the desolate moors of Manchester.
The sheer depravity of Brady and Hindley became legendary. During their 1966 trial, it was revealed that they had recorded a tape of one of their victims, Lesley Anne Downey, pleading for her life. Downey was just 10 years old when Brady murdered her.
Brady was apprehended only a few months after the UK abolished the death penalty. Consequently, he spent the remainder of his lengthy life in a secure psychiatric facility, occasionally making headlines due to his unsettling habit of writing bizarre letters to the media.
The most tragic part? One of Brady’s victims—12-year-old Keith Bennett—has never been located. Every time Brady spoke publicly, Bennett’s family was left to wonder if they would ever find their missing son.
Those hopes were tragically dashed last week. Brady passed away at 79 on May 15. In his final moments, police officers pleaded with him to disclose the location of Bennett’s body. A monster until the very end, Brady took the secret to his grave.
7. Brazil’s President Was Caught on Tape Offering to Bribe Witnesses
Currently, Brazil is embroiled in a corruption scandal of unprecedented scale, one that may soon eclipse all previous scandals. A third of the government’s cabinet members, powerful business figures, and numerous prominent lawmakers have already been caught up in a massive anti-corruption investigation conducted by Brazilian police.
However, President Michel Temer had managed to remain untarnished—until yesterday. On Thursday, it was revealed that Temer had been recorded discussing ways to bribe witnesses into keeping quiet about key allies.
Ironically, Temer ascended to power after orchestrating the impeachment of former President Dilma Rousseff during an earlier phase of the scandal. Now, it appears the tables have turned, as the latest revelations have sparked widespread protests across the nation.
But simply replacing Temer may not be enough. The newly surfaced recordings suggest that many other influential figures in Brazilian politics are also implicated, hinting that this already enormous scandal could expand even further. Given Brazil’s existing high levels of civil unrest and political distrust, it's difficult to see how this situation could resolve in a positive way.
6. Japan’s Princess Mako Gave Up Her Royal Title to Marry a Commoner
After all the scandal and despair, here’s a story that’s bound to lift your spirits. On Thursday, Princess Mako of Japan, at 25 years old, made a shocking declaration: She would give up her royal status and embrace life as a commoner. The reason? She had fallen in love with a regular man.
Under Japanese law, royals are not permitted to marry commoners. If they choose to marry someone without noble blood, they must relinquish their royal title beforehand. While rare, this situation is not entirely without precedent.
Back in 2005, then-Princess Sayako married an urban planner working for Tokyo’s city government, marking the first time in Japan’s history that a royal voluntarily gave up their title. Over ten years later, the couple is still happily together.
In Princess Mako's case, she reportedly fell for lawyer Kei Komuro while the two were studying together. They are now scheduled to marry next year.
5. Chelsea Manning Was Released
Before Edward Snowden made headlines, there was Chelsea Manning.
In 2010, then-intelligence analyst Bradley Manning (now Chelsea Manning) leaked a massive collection of US government documents to WikiLeaks, exposing a range of uncomfortable truths about torture and the Iraq War, along with other materials that were simply embarrassing.
While Snowden's actions later sparked a divide in public opinion in the US, Manning's case received a much more unfavorable public verdict. She was branded a traitor, convicted of espionage, and handed a 35-year sentence, the longest ever given to a leaker.
Since you're likely reading this before 2045, you're probably curious what happened next. Well, as one of his final acts in office, President Barack Obama commuted Manning's sentence to just seven years. On Tuesday, her sentence officially ended, and she walked out of prison a free person.
This conclusion is tinged with irony, as President Obama had been one of the key figures behind the crackdown on leakers, which led to Manning's original conviction. Now, Manning faces a world where her legacy is still debated. Was she a hero or a traitor? We'll leave that to you to discuss in the comments.
4. Iran Held Its Most Crucial Election in Decades
As you read this, Iranians are heading to the polls for a tense election that could have a profound impact on the future of the Middle East. While it may seem unusual since Iran isn’t a democracy, the election still holds significant weight. Citizens vote, but only for candidates pre-approved by the Guardian Council, and the president ultimately answers to the supreme leader.
Despite this, Iranian elections still serve as a barometer for public sentiment. Public opinion is a key factor in determining the most crucial question in Iranian politics: Who will succeed the current supreme leader?
At 77 years old, Ayatollah Khamenei is the aging second supreme leader of the Islamic Republic, and it’s rumored that he’s undergoing treatment for prostate cancer. The outcome of this election will likely influence who becomes his successor, shaping the country’s future in a way that makes controversial US Supreme Court nominations seem small by comparison.
The main opponent to the current moderate (by Iranian standards) President Hassan Rouhani is Ebrahim Raisi, an ultra-hardline cleric. If Raisi wins, he is expected to take the role of the next supreme leader, a position that could shape the entire Middle East, thanks to Iran’s influence in the region.
3. An Independent Special Counsel Is Now Leading the Russian Investigation
Looking back, one of the White House’s biggest blunders might have been pinning the blame for firing FBI Director James Comey on Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. This week, Rosenstein struck back by appointing an independent special counsel to oversee the investigation into the president.
A special counsel differs from a special prosecutor. The law that once allowed for the creation of special prosecutors lapsed in 1999, after a series of exhaustive investigations into President Bill Clinton left Congress weary of the process.
A special counsel holds less independence and can be dismissed at any time by the attorney general, or in this case, by his deputy, since Attorney General Jeff Sessions has recused himself from the investigation.
Nonetheless, this is a significant move. It indicates that the Department of Justice believes there’s something worth investigating in the Russia affair, whether it directly involves the president or former advisers like Michael Flynn. While it's not on par with Watergate, it has the potential to make the coming months increasingly uncomfortable for the White House.
Our prediction? This story is bound to unfold for a long, long time.
2. President Trump Experienced the Most Challenging Week of His Presidency
Now we turn to the biggest story of the week: the whirlwind of scandals engulfing the Trump White House.
It all began last week when President Donald Trump dismissed FBI Director James Comey, the man responsible for investigating the Trump administration’s connections to Russia. Comey’s firing triggered a cascade of stories, which quickly grew into a massive controversy.
There’s so much going on here that we might miss something important. During a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Trump reportedly shared intelligence secrets from a US ally. Initial reports suggested Israel, though some sources are now pointing to Jordan.
The intel was so sensitive that the partner didn’t even want the US to pass it along to the other members of the Five Eyes network (Canada, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, and Australia), let alone to Russia.
However, this issue was quickly overshadowed by reports claiming that Trump personally urged Comey to drop the FBI investigation into the disgraced general and former Trump adviser Michael Flynn. Additionally, it was revealed that the Trump team might have known about Flynn’s compromised status long before his ties to the Russian and Turkish governments became public.
Finally, as we were writing this on Thursday, anonymous sources indicated that members of President Trump’s team had 18 undisclosed interactions with the Kremlin during the 2016 election campaign, yet they claimed, “they had seen no evidence of wrongdoing or collusion between the campaign and Russia.” With all of these scandals, there could only be one possible conclusion.
1. The ‘Big One’ Cyberattack Finally Happened
It began with a massive ransomware attack that crippled Britain’s National Health Service, putting thousands of lives in jeopardy. It ended with global companies on the brink of collapse, critical infrastructure going dark, and millions of users locked out of their computers. This was the ‘Big One’ cyberattack that experts had been warning about for years, and it almost brought the world to its knees.
Named WannaCry, the malware spread across nearly 100 countries, affecting a wide range of targets, from the Russian Interior Ministry to Spain’s largest telecom provider. By pure chance, a researcher found a kill switch hidden in the code, halting its spread just before the cyber apocalypse could unfold. The real bombshell came when it was revealed that the NSA and North Korea were behind the tools used to create and possibly release WannaCry.
WannaCry was made possible by EternalBlue, a hacking tool created by the NSA to exploit vulnerabilities in Windows computers. Ironically, hackers broke into the NSA, stole EternalBlue, and unleashed it on the world. Remember those politicians claiming you could make an electronic ‘back door’ into any system and only give the good guys access? Well, this is the catastrophic result of such misguided thinking.
While it’s still uncertain who exactly was behind WannaCry, cybersecurity experts from Symantec and Kaspersky have found evidence suggesting North Korea’s involvement. If the Kim regime really has the capability to take down half the world’s networks, that’s far more terrifying than we ever imagined.
+ The Murder Of Seth Rich
While the mainstream media focused on their preferred Russian-collusion narratives, a crucial event went largely ignored. A private investigator hired by the family of slain DNC staffer Seth Rich revealed that he had uncovered evidence suggesting Rich had leaked 400,000 DNC emails to Wikileaks just before his death. Rich’s family later rejected this information on the advice of their lawyer from the Democratic National Committee.
Seth was shot twice in the back while walking home from a bar on July 10, 2016. The police initially claimed it was a robbery, even though nothing was stolen from him, and the case was quickly closed. However, suspicion grew as Wikileaks began releasing the Podesta emails soon after. This led to speculation that Seth Rich might be another victim of the Clinton death toll.
The same investigator also claimed that both the police and the FBI were instructed to ‘shut down’ the investigation by the Department of Justice, which was led by Loretta Lynch, who had met privately with Bill Clinton during the election campaign.
The Podesta emails revealed that Hillary Clinton’s campaign had knowledge of a leaker within their ranks, with Podesta even suggesting that an example be made of him. This, along with the revelations of plans by Podesta and Hillary’s campaign manager Robby Mook to blame Russian interference for their election loss, has sparked a surge of new conspiracies about the DNC and the Clintons.
Adding fuel to the ongoing controversy, Russian hacker Yevgeniy Nikulin recently claimed that the FBI had offered him money and immunity in exchange for publicly admitting that he had hacked the DNC on behalf of the Russian government.
Currently, there is a reward pool totaling $175,000 for any information that leads to the conviction of the person responsible for the murder of Seth Rich.
