Keeping up with the news is a wild ride. So wild, in fact, that we’ve decided to spare you the headache by rounding up the most significant, unusual, or just plain old 10 mind blowing stories each week.
10 Mind Blowing Highlights
10 Canada Got Legal Pot
It felt like every seasoned stoner’s fantasy collided at once. On Wednesday, October 17, legal cannabis finally went live across Canada. After a vote earlier this year by Justin Trudeau’s administration, Canada became the second nation on the planet where marijuana is fully legal everywhere. (The first was Uruguay.)
Even though weed is no longer illegal, the nitty‑gritty rules—such as the legal purchasing age, the quantity you can buy, the sources you may buy from, and the price points—vary from province to province and territory to territory. A striking example is that Quebec and Manitoba have both prohibited residents from growing cannabis plants at home, a move that is expected to spark a constitutional showdown.
The rollout of legal pot and the cash‑generating power of Big Marijuana in a G20 country suggests humanity’s war on the plant may finally be losing steam. Hopefully, more nations will follow suit soon.
9 Crimea Was Hit By A Horrific School Shooting
Just two days earlier, an 18‑year‑old stormed Kerch Polytechnic College in Crimea and opened fire. His twin‑gun and bomb assault left at least 20 dead, with some reports pushing the toll to 21, and injured more than 40 others—scenes of carnage never before witnessed on the peninsula during peacetime.
Initial speculation pointed to terrorism as a motive. Indeed, Crimea’s speaker of parliament, Vladimir Konstantinov, instantly blamed Kiev, alleging the attack was revenge for Russia’s 2014 annexation of the region. However, it soon became clear the shooter was simply another lonely, disturbed individual who chose to unleash his frustrations with bullets.
Now that the bloodshed has ceased, questions arise. Russia has experienced four other school attacks this year, none approaching this level of deadliness. People are already asking how a teenager obtained a license for such a lethal weapon.
8 A Hostage Crisis Gripped Cologne
Sticking with the grim side of the news for a moment, this week also saw a violent standoff seize the German city of Cologne. On Monday, a 55‑year‑old barged into the city’s main train station and hurled a Molotov cocktail into a McDonald’s, mildly injuring two people and leaving a third woman with severe burns to her legs. The attacker then seized another woman as a hostage inside a drugstore, sparking a hostage crisis that looked like it could spiral into tragedy at any moment.
Fortunately, his repeated threats to set his hostage ablaze never materialized. Police stormed the pharmacy shortly after contact, shooting and apprehending the assailant. The hostage escaped with only minor injuries.
The perpetrator, a Syrian refugee, appeared to have been influenced by ISIS, although German police also cite possible psychological issues. Luckily, his violent scheme collapsed under its own incompetence, joining a long list of recent attackers—from the failed New York suicide bomber to the driver who crashed his car outside Westminster—who were foiled by their own ineptitude.
7 The UK Considered Making Misandry A Hate Crime
Misandry (the outright hatred of men as a social group) is the yin to misogyny’s (the hatred of women) yang. While misogyny dominates headlines worldwide, misandry rarely makes the news—until this week. In a surprising move, British Home Secretary Sajid Javid announced a fresh review of hate‑crime legislation in the UK. Alongside many other categories, the Law Commission will now debate whether to add misandry.
UK hate‑crime law currently permits harsher sentences when the motive is proven to target a community as a whole. At present, the law covers five protected categories: sexuality, race, religion, transgender identity, and disability. Additionally, local police forces can add their own definitions, a practice introduced in 2007 after 20‑year‑old Sophie Lancaster was murdered for being a goth.
The new review aims to broaden the categories to include hatred toward women, hatred toward the elderly, and possibly hatred toward men. Some argue the UK is already too eager to label behaviours as hate crimes, while others welcome the expansion.
6 China Unveiled Plans To Launch An Artificial Moon Into Space
If there’s a wildly ambitious scheme being unveiled anywhere today, chances are it’s emanating from China. The Middle Kingdom is rapidly accelerating technologically, setting its sights on the cosmos. This Thursday, we received the most out‑there announcement yet: the city of Chengdu disclosed plans to launch an artificial moon into orbit, a fake moon that would then be used to illuminate the city at night.
Sounds a little bonkers?
Surprisingly, this notion isn’t entirely novel. Not long ago, Russia announced a similar plan to employ a satellite to reflect the Sun’s rays onto Siberia during the darkest winter months, providing artificial daylight.
The Russian project was abandoned, but Chengdu is reviving the concept. The ambition is to eventually launch four artificial moons, brightening the city enough at night to save billions of yuan in electricity costs.
The mastermind behind the venture, a Mr. Wu, claims the moons will generate an eternal “dusk‑like glow” over an area of 50 square kilometers (19 mi²). Whether his vision will outshine Russia’s aborted attempt remains to be seen.
5 The Gambia Launched A Truth And Reconciliation Commission For Its Dictatorship
In December 2016, a strange turn of events unfolded in the tiny African nation of The Gambia. Yahya Jammeh, the eccentric dictator who had ruled the country for 22 years with an iron fist, surprisingly lost what was meant to be a rigged election to his rival, Adama Barrow. When Jammeh attempted to cling to power, ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States) forced him out. Suddenly, The Gambia transitioned from dictatorship to democracy.
This week, Barrow finally moved to purge the country of Jammeh’s poisonous legacy. His government announced The Gambia would launch a Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission to investigate crimes committed by the former regime. The plan centers victims and seeks to bring those responsible for state‑sponsored murder and torture to justice.
A major question remains whether Jammeh himself will face trial. In January 2017, he fled The Gambia for Equatorial Guinea, where he currently lives in exile. Whether his new host will extradite him is still uncertain.
4 A Bavarian Upset Shook Up German Politics
It was absolutely terrible news for Angela Merkel, but it wasn’t exactly good news for her opposition either. On Sunday, Bavaria went to the polls for state elections. Although Merkel’s CDU party wasn’t on the ballot, its “sister” party, the CSU, certainly was. Under Horst Seehofer’s leadership, the CSU had tracked right, attempting to outflank the right‑wing AfD. If that was the plan, it fell flat like a lead balloon.
While the CSU still captured more votes than any other party, its support effectively tanked, dropping ten percentage points from 2013 and losing its absolute majority. Even more ominously for Merkel, her junior coalition partners, the centre‑left SPD, plummeted to fifth place in one of their worst ever showings. The current coalition could already be doomed.
News wasn’t any brighter for anti‑Merkel right‑wingers. Although the AfD posted a strong showing, they fell far short of expectations, slipping to fourth place. They were leapfrogged by the centre‑right Bavarian Free Voters and by the Greens.
The Greens were the night’s real winners. Doubling their vote in a notoriously conservative state and finishing second on a pro‑EU, pro‑immigrant platform, they seemed to demonstrate that the populist left is now also on the rise in Germany.
3 France Launched An Investigation Into Its Leading Left‑Wing Firebrand
Jean‑Luc Mélenchon is a name you might not have heard, but he’s a household figure in France. The veteran left‑winger pulled down 20 percent of the vote in the first round of last year’s presidential election, barely missing third place. He’s known for his outspoken opposition to Emmanuel Macron and his simultaneous softness toward Vladimir Putin.
This week, however, he became famous for something else. On Tuesday, Mélenchon’s Paris home was raided by police investigating alleged misuse of election funds. The real shock came when video surfaced of the raid. Mélenchon was filmed shouting “I am the Republic!” at officers and shoving them. When one officer visibly bristled, Mélenchon taunted the officer, daring him to “go on, just try and touch me!”
The footage has essentially trashed Mélenchon’s reputation in France—for now. The unflattering sight of a wealthy politician bullying a cop hasn’t gone over well with the public. It also landed Mélenchon with an additional charge of “intimidation” alongside his graft accusations. At the time of writing, he is being questioned by police.
2 A Politically Charged Schism Split The Orthodox Church
In the end, the schism unfolded frighteningly fast. Last Thursday, Ukraine’s Orthodox Church was granted autocephaly from Moscow’s and became independent. Previously, the Ukrainian church answered to Russia, but a split had been looming ever since the 2014 annexation of Crimea.
The response from Russia was the real headline. On Monday, the Russian Orthodox Church announced it had cut ties with the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople.
The Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople is roughly the Vatican of the Orthodox world—a leading authority that other churches look up to. Russia’s Church severing ties represents a massive schism and a crisis for the planet’s 300 million Orthodox Christians.
Yet this wasn’t merely a religious split; it was political, too. Russia’s Orthodox leader, Patriarch Kirill, is a staunch Putin supporter who warned Constantinople not to indulge the Ukrainian Church. The Ukrainian president declared the autocephaly move part of a pro‑Western drive.
1 The Hunt For Vanished Saudi Journalist Jamal Khashoggi Got Even More Intense
Last week, we reminded you about Jamal Khashoggi, the Saudi‑born Washington Post journalist who vanished inside the Kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul. That story is still ticking over, growing more troubling and gruesome by the day. Khashoggi still hasn’t resurfaced, and Turkey continues to assert that he was murdered by a Saudi hit squad. Now, Ankara says it has the evidence to prove it.
Turkey claims Khashoggi was beaten inside the embassy, tortured, drugged, and then killed and dismembered. This week, Ankara released a tape allegedly from inside the consulate. On it, Saudi forensic specialist Salah Al Tabiqi is heard ordering music to be played so he could begin chopping up Khashoggi. It’s unknown how Turkey obtained the tape. Saudi Arabia says it’s a fake.
This was also the week Turkish police searched the consulate for evidence. If they uncover anything, the killing of Khashoggi could cause huge problems for the Saudi Crown Prince’s current reform drive and his attempt to give the country a makeover. We’ll be keeping an eye on this story for the foreseeable future.