Hot take: What if we just arrested Trump AND Putin?
Just a thought... ¯\_( ͡❛ ͜ʖ ͡❛)_/¯
Good morning my absolute besties!! So many Big Feelings for you all today. First, thank you ENDLESSLY for all your love re: what I wrote about Ozempic yesterday. That one was hella personal, but you all make sharing things that I thought would stay in the pages of my diary SO much easier (it’s still hard, I can’t lie.)
The second dose of Big Feelings go out to all our new Close Friends!!! If you missed it, I sent out a cute email yesterday about something new we’re giving all our paid supporters to give you a closer and more behind-the-scenes look into our bizarro lives & how we run this thing!! Basically, paid supporters are being added to our Instagram ‘Close Friends’ list (meaning you get access to a whoooole lot of hilar Instagram stories that the other 3.6m people are NOT going to get.)
As a ‘Close Friend’ you can expect:
behind the scenes peeks into interviews with celebs, secret projects, events I speak at, and the general running of SYSCA
unhinged and unfiltered theories and rants
memes & hilar screenshots from the SYSCAverse
hot takes on whatever I’m watching in bed
embarro shit that I do basically daily
cameos from all ur fave members of the SYSCA universe (including Squish, Bel & Normy if we’re lucky…)
quotes and updates from all the books we’re reading
a bunch of recipes (like Hayden’s smashburgers - he said he’s keen to do a takeover this weekend…)
early access to competitions and giveaways
+ all the other weird shit that tends to happen in our day-to-day lives
Can’t wait to see what chaos comes of the Close Friends group (and to take you on all my travels this year! Fun!!!) PS, reply to this with your Instagram username if ur already a paid supporter xxx
Trump reckons he might be arrested
Putin could ✨also✨ be arrested (but probs won’t be)
WE'RE GIVING AWAY TICKETS TO THE 1975!!
Introducing… Our New Breakup Podcast ❤️🩹
Three men have been found guilty of murdering XXXTentacion
Trump reckons he might be arrested
Fingers crossed! I am quite proud to say I have never once been on Trumps “““““social media platform””””” (can’t put this in ENOUGH quotation marks), but every now and again some of his bullshit makes its way onto my timeline. That happened the other day, when he said:
“THE FAR & AWAY LEADING REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE AND FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, WILL BE ARRESTED ON TUESDAY OF NEXT WEEK. PROTEST, TAKE OUR NATION BACK!”
But, as reported by The New York Times, two hours later a spokesperson released a statement saying that:
Mr. Trump had not written his post with direct knowledge of the timing of any arrest, adding, “President Trump is rightfully highlighting his innocence and the weaponization of our injustice system.”
But why might he be arrested?
There are several things that Trump is under investigation for atm, but this case - the one that he reckons might get him arrested - focuses on “alleged hush money paid on Mr Trump's behalf by his lawyer to porn star Stormy Daniels prior to the 2016 presidential election.”
In 2016, adult film star Stormy Daniels contacted media outlets offering to sell her account of what she said was an adulterous affair she had with Donald Trump in 2006.
Mr Trump's team got wind of this, and his lawyer Michael Cohen paid $130,000 to Ms Daniels to keep quiet.
This is not illegal. However, when Mr Trump reimbursed Mr Cohen, the record for the payment says it was for legal fees. Prosecutors say this amounts to Mr Trump falsifying business records, which is a misdemeanour - a criminal offence - in New York.
And will he be?
WE DON’T KNOW! But if he is, he will be the first former President to face criminal charges. Here’s a reaaaally good article about what could happen next from the BBC if you’re interested in knowing more!
Putin could ✨also✨ be arrested (but probs won’t be)
Big week for pieces of shit! The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russian official Maria Lvova-Belova on Friday, for an alleged scheme to deport Ukrainian children to Russia.
The court said there “are reasonable grounds to believe that Mr Putin bears individual criminal responsibility” for the alleged crimes, for having committed them directly alongside others, and for “his failure to exercise control properly over civilian and military subordinates who committed the acts.”
The Kremlin (in natural Kremlin fashion) has labelled the ICC’s actions as “outrageous and unacceptable,” saying that they “do not recognize the jurisdiction of this court and, accordingly, any decisions of this kind are null and void for the Russian Federation from the point of view of law.”
It is important to note that Russia is not a member of the ICC (neither is the US, Ukraine or China) and the court “does not conduct trials in absentia.”
And just quickly - what is the ICC?
The International Criminal Court is meant to be a court of “last resort” and is not meant to replace a country’s justice system. It’s based in The Hague, Netherlands, and while it was first brought before the United Nations, the ICC operates independently.
Most countries on Earth – 123 of them – are parties to the treaty, but there are very large and notable exceptions, including Russia, the US, and China.
The court, which has 18 judges serving nine-year terms, tries four types of crimes: genocide, crimes against humanity, crimes of aggression and war crimes.
This is absolutely NOT a hot take, but sometimes I just cannot BELEIVE the people that get put (or put themselves) in power.
WE'RE GIVING AWAY TICKETS TO THE 1975!!
I am still DEEP in my Matty Healy/ The 1975 obsession - so much so that I'm going to BOTH of their New Zealand shows - and I want you to have the chance to go too!!! Thanks to our literal besties at Live Nation (who support us in all our obsessions) we have a double pass to their Wellington show (April 19th 2023) AND two double passes to their Auckland show (April 21st 2023) show to give away!!!
All you need to do is make sure you’re subscribed to our newsletter, fill out the form below, and we'll announce the winner in a week's time xxxx
We’re launching a breakup podcast!!
New podcast alert!!! Next Monday we’re launching a brand new podcast series (within our Culture Vulture feed) all about how to break up better. It’s called ‘Own The Feels,’ it’s brought to you by Love Better, and it’s based around YOUR breakup stories. We cover it all - from ghosting, to revenge, to stalking - you all provided us with some juicy stuff!
Listen to Own The Feels in our Culture Vulture feed, wherever you get your podcasts, from next Monday!!!
🗺Around the world🗺
Environment
IPCC climate change report: Can we avoid 1.5°C of global warming? (New Scientist)
“The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a global group of climate scientists, has released its latest report today. It yet again warns that without immediate and massive emissions reductions, limiting global warming to 1.5°C will be beyond reach.”
Music
Three men have been found guilty of murdering XXXTentacion (The Guardian)
Three men have been found guilty of murdering rapper XXXTentacion in 2018. The rapper, whose legal name was Janseh Onfory, was shot outside a motorcycle shop in Florida, and robbed of $50,000.
If you want to know more about this story, or about his complicated past, Liv and I recorded a podcast all about it a while back:
The online world
TikTok now has 150 million active users in the U.S., CEO to tell Congress (NBC)
Startups Are Already Using GPT-4 to Spend Less on Human Coders (VICE)
To get my Friday diary entry, a whole bunch of links and recommendations, and Bel’s Sunday morning newsy ‘No News Is Good News’ become a paying supporter 💌
Why do I always start to read "SYSCA" as "So You Think You Can Dance"
_jessrwest