Hungary's Revolution and Bieberchella, Explained
Viktor Orbán and Justin Bieber in one newsletter is very on brand for us
Gooooood morning angels!!!! How was your weekend??? Mine was full of Coachella content - and let me tell you, I am EATING IT ALL UP. My favourite poeple to watch are Sophia and Cinzia (iykyk) because they’re just so cute and funny, and their outfits are SO extra. I love it. And now that I’ve run out of content from them, I’m rewatching all of Emma Chamberlain’s old Coachella vlogs, because at the end of the day, I’m just a girl (who’s having so much fun.)
Over the weekend, we had a farewell dinner for our flatmate Lara, who’s off on her overseas adventure, and the theme was FORMAL dress, so we got the boys in suits, and we all had an excuse to dress up. I highly recommend hosting events where you all get dressed up to the nines more often 𓆩♡𓆪
Viktor Orbán has lost the Hungarian election!
The Iran peace talks are dead
Shit You Should Read About
Bieberchella was for the fans
Viktor Orbán lost the Hungarian election
Some context: Orbán has been Prime Minister of Hungary since 2010. He has spent those 16 years dismantling democratic institutions, gutting press freedom, cozying up to Putin, and being the EU’s most insufferable member by a significant margin. He has openly called himself an “illiberal democrat,” which is a fun phrase that means “I love elections as long as I win them.” He stacked the courts. He redrew electoral boundaries to benefit his own party. He is one of the main architects of the democratic backsliding we’ve seen across Europe this past decade.
But not anymore, sucker!!! His opponent, Péter Magyar - a former Orbán loyalist who turned on him and ran on an anti-corruption, pro-EU, pro-democracy platform - pulled it off in a landslide. The Tisza party is projected to win a two-thirds supermajority. Voter turnout hit 77%, which is a record in any post-Communist Hungarian election - people showed the fuck up.
This is also a loss for Trump:
Days before the election, JD Vance had travelled to Budapest, with the US vice-president saying that he had come to “help” Orbán. Donald Trump had also repeatedly endorsed Orbán, most recently on Friday when he vowed to bring US “economic might” to the country if Orbán was re-elected. The Guardian
I want to be careful here because we don’t know yet what the transition looks like, and Orbán is absolutely not the kind of person who lets go of power gracefully, but the fact that Hungarian voters came out like this, that the opposition managed to actually unify and beat him, matters. We take what we can get!
The Iran Peace Talks Are Dead and Trump Just Threatened to Blow Up the Global Oil Supply
Sooooo the Iran-US peace talks are cooked. JD Vance announced on Sunday that negotiations in Islamabad (which went for 21 hours btw), have officially collapsed, and once you hear what was on the table, it’s hard to be surprised…
The main sticking point on the US side was nuclear enrichment. The Trump administration wanted Iran to completely end all uranium enrichment, dismantle its major enrichment facilities, and hand over its stockpile of highly enriched uranium. Iran’s position was that they have a right to a civilian nuclear programme, and they weren’t giving that up. They also wanted toll rights over the Strait of Hormuz.
If you don’t know what the Strait of Hormuz is, it’s a narrow waterway between Iran and Oman, and about 20% of the world’s oil supply passes through it every single day. So Iran wanting to charge every oil tanker that passes through it is an enormous amount of leverage and the US was like… absolutely not.
Then, in classic Trump fashion, he threatened to blockade the Strait of Hormuz over the idea of tolls, and so the entire US negotiating team left Islamabad with nothing. Not a deal, not a pathway, nothing ◡̈
This section is written by ☆ book club abby ☆ , SYSCAs designer, podcast host and leader of the cutest book club on the internet!!! Each week she pops in here to let you know what we’re up to, and to remind you to become a paying subscriber to join the book club xx
Kia ora bookies!!
It’s been so long, but the book club has been thriving in the cutest corner of the internet with over 800 members now!! We started the year with just under 300 so it has been sooooo cute having new bookies joining and dissecting books with us each month 🥺
We’re currently reading a highly reviewed book, The Correspondent by Virginia Evans and no spoilers but it is REALLY FUCKING GOOD and devastating and beautiful.
We also have a book club TBR that we’re planning to read throughout the year:
Yesteryear, Caro Claire Burke
Famesick, Lena Dunham
Perfume & Pain, Anna Dorn
If these picks sound like a bit of you, join the Shit You Should Read About book club by becoming a newsy subscriber!!
See you in Fable,
Book Club Abby xxx
Bieberchella was for the fans
Justin Bieber headlined Coachella on Saturday night, and I have to admit, I got teary eyed watching it from mybedchella.
For those who missed it, Justin performed largely alone on a massive stage with minimal production. He sung a few songs (his voice remains unreal), and then he pulled up YouTube on his laptop, projected old videos of himself onto the screen, and sang along to them.
I have to say, this really got me. As someone who started listening to Justin Bieber when he was in his My World era, and developed a full on obsesh with him (can you tell I was prone to an obsession as a kid?), seeing him sing back to himself, harmonise with himself, and acknowledge all his past lives was kinda… healing.
What I really loved was that he didn’t do those self-deprecating things that some celebs do to their younger selves, he didn’t say anything mean to little Justin, he didn’t cringe at his old music, and he even laughed at some old viral videos of himself (running into the glass wall, “you’re not clocking that I’m standing on business, etc.) Anyway, I loved it, and the girls that get it get it.
And for the ones that don’t, I hear you that if you were expecting a spectacle, you were disappointed, but I can’t relate. The whole of Coachella is a spectacle; there were many other extravagant sets (hi Sabrina!), but this one? This one was for the Beliebers 𓆩♡𓆪
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I giggled at “mybedchella” 🤭 thank you for writing better than the news and keeping me updated on the world
These are the shit that I really care abt thank u for this xx