Hot News This Week: Justice for Gisèle Pelicot, Luigi Mangione Not Guilty, Blake Lively lawsuit, Honey Scandal, German Christmas Market Attack and More!
+ some dishes made in the Hot Source Kitchen (Christmas Edition)
Welcome to this week’s issue of Hot News This Week. I notice that we have gained some new subscribers and I would like to start by thanking you all for staying tuned. We started this in the beginning of December and we hope that we can continue to provide you your weekly dose of current affairs in the upcoming year. Every little helps, so if you’re enjoying the regular content, we would be ever so grateful if you can help us out by sharing our stack with your friends, families and colleagues.
For this week’s Break Time Segment, we have a special Christmas edition with a recipe link for our website. This issue contains a large variety on the latest current affairs in the passing week. However there are some stories that cover heavy themes. Hence, this warrants a (TW) Trigger warning: Mentions of Sexual Abuse, Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment. We also have some updates from last week’s issue on the Luigi Mangione verdict. Now without further ado, here’s the News:
Luigi Mangione found Not Guilty
Breaking News: Luigi Mangione found not guilty for 11 charges including Murder and Terrorism. At least on the state level. Let us explain:
On last week’s “Hot News This Week”, Luigi Mangione was charged for murder for assassinating the United Healthcare CEO Brain Thompson, and his manifesto (published by Ken Klippenstein) criticising the practices of US health insurance companies was going viral. Moreover, the Manhattan district attorney charged Mangione with multiple counts of murder, including murder as an act of terrorism at a state level.
At the federal level, prosecutors charged Mangione with two counts of interstate stalking, one count of murder through use of a firearm and one count of using a firearm silencer during a violent crime a few days ago. There is a possibility for the federal charges to make him eligible for the death penalty.
Prosecutors said both the state and federal cases will run on parallel tracks, with the state level New York charges going on trial first.
On Monday 23rd December, Luigi Mangione pleaded not guilty to the 11 charges he faces in the state level, including first-degree murder in furtherance of terrorism, second-degree murder in furtherance of terrorism and multiple weapons offences. This means that he will not face mandatory life in prison without parole.
All is not over, even though state verdict declares Mangione as not guilty. Federal charges remain along with a potential death penalty. Mangione is set to appear in federal court on January 18. He could return to court for a bail hearing or for a preliminary hearing if prosecutors don’t get a grand jury indictment by mid-January. His next scheduled appearance in New York is set for February 21.
Justice is Served: Gisele Pelicot’s Ex-husband Dominique is found Guilty on all charges of Rape
Gisèle Pelicot’s ex-husband Dominique Pelicot has been found guilty with a 20-year jail sentence, after drugging and raping her and inviting 50 other men to also abuse her for nearly a decade.
The 50 other men were found guilty of at least one charge. However, their jail terms ended up lesser than what prosecutors initially demanded.
France’s largest ever rape trail which shocked the world, spanning across three months, has been brought to an end with these convictions. The Siren Newsletter here on the stack, has published a brilliant article with a full rundown of the case:
Under french law, the current definition of rape stands: ‘any act of sexual penetration of any kind whatsoever, or any oral-genital act committed … by violence, coercion, threat or surprise.’ Noticeably, there is no explicit mention of seeking consent among each party. With this, some men on trial pled “not guilty” to rape, despite substantial video evidence.
Some defendants have claimed innocence on trial, by saying that they believed that they had no way of knowing Gisèle had not consented, as they claimed they were partaking in a role-playing fantasies. This horrific ordeal has led to french lawmakers taking action to modify France’s rape law by adding the notion of ‘consent’ to the country’s law defining rape.
Near the beginning of the trial, Gisèle Pelicot waived her automatic right to anonymity so she could support and raise awareness for other victims of similar crimes:
"I want all women who have been raped to say: Madame Pelicot did it, I can too."
~ Gisèle Pelicot.
German Christmas Market Attack Updates
In the passing Friday, a car drove into a large crowd at a German Christmas market in Magdeburg, which killed five people and left more than 200 injured.
What should have been the busiest weekend of the season has now turned into a period of mourning for the victims of the attack.
The suspect that has been arrested and held on murder charges, is a 50-year-old doctor from Saudi Arabia, named by German media as Taleb al-Abdulmohsen. The judge has ordered pre-trial detention for five counts of murder, multiple attempted murder and multiple counts of dangerous bodily harm.
Local media reported that Taleb had shown support for the far-right Alternative for Germany party (AfD), with a Saudi source telling Reuters that the kingdom had warned German authorities about the attacker, who the source said had posted extremist views on his personal X account. The suspect is also found to have anti-islamic rhetorics, as he accused the German authorities of carrying out a covert operation to hunt down Saudi ex-Muslims while granting asylum to Syrian jihadis.
Despite the details, there has been a political fallout from the attack as Far-right AfD and its opponents held a rally on Monday (23rd December). However, Magdeburg residents formed a human chain around the Alter Markt in Magdeburg on the same evening in a gesture of remembrance for the victims of the attack .With the German election coming up in February, German leaders are under immense scrutiny for failing to prevent the attack.
Bangladesh wins the Economist Country of the Year award
Bangladesh, which threw out an autocratic government over the summer, has been crowned as country of the year by The Economist.
According to The Economist, their pick for the winner “is not the richest, happiest or most virtuous place, but the one that has improved the most in the previous 12 months”.
In the summer of 2014, student led protests forced out Sheikh Hasina from her authoritarian and dynastic reign over Bangladesh. This followed from students protesting for fairer job quotas in the public sector. The protests turned violent due to the military getting involved under Hasina’s command. Several Human rights violations were made under Hasina’s Awami League government.
With Hasina fleeing, Bangladesh now has an interim government, led by Nobel Peace Prize winner Dr Muhammad Yunus.
In an interview with the Economist, Yunus said: “we feel really proud that we really made a big change because of the student uprising that took place. and from then on we are saying that we are creating a new Bangladesh”
BREAK TIME CHRISTMAS EDITION: Here’s what we made in the Hot Source Kitchen in the past week:
Christmas Special: Recipes for the Roast Potatoes and Reverse-Seared Roast Beef are now available at the Hot Source Website Food Section.
Matt Gaetz paid for Drugs and Sex with a Minor while in Office according to Ethics Report
The former Florida congressman, and shortly Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the US justice department as attorney general, violated multiple state laws according to the report made by the House Ethics Committee.
The committee found “substantial evidence for the following:
Shortly before the House ethics report was released, Gaetz took to X to criticise its findings. The report comes after a three-year investigation and represents a volte-face following an earlier committee vote not to issue the results of an inquiry it began in the spring of 2021, when Gaetz was the subject of an FBI investigation.
The report has been released almost a month after Gaetz withdrew his nomination for attorney general amid fierce backlash and lack of party votes.
Honey Scandal: Browser Extension under Internet Fires-storm for Shady Practices.
Honey, the browser extension that alleges to scour the internet for the best deals and discounts for everyday consumers, is under internet-wide scrutiny for it’s shady practices.
The popular browser extension, meant to save you money is under fire after one user posted a 23-minute exposé to YouTube investigating the application of misrepresenting itself to consumers and influencers, and engaging in shady practices like opening hidden tabs to simulate referral links, ensuring commission on any online sale.
The investigation by MegaLag found Honey to prioritise coupon codes from its partnering stores, even if there are better discounts elsewhere, Thus intentionally hiding discounts of higher values. It was also found that Honey overrides affiliate links from influencers, replacing them with its own, to claim commission on sales.
Representatives from Honey has not made any statements as of yet.
Blake Lively sues Justin Baldoni on grounds of Sexual Harrassment and Reputational damage
Actress Blake Lively is suing her co-star Justin Baldoni for sexual harassment and a carefully coordinated PR smear campaign to “destroy” her reputation, months after the release of their box office hit It Ends With Us.
Lively had a number requirements in order for her to work on the film according to the lawsuit cited by TMZ. She demanded that Baldoni stop the following alleged actions: showing nude videos or images of women to the actor, purportedly mentioning his previous “pornography addiction”, discussing his sexual experiences in front of Lively and others, mentioning the cast and crew’s genitalia, and asking about Lively’s weight.
The lawsuit includes 22 pages of texts from Baldoni’s publicist to Baldoni’s PR Crisis Manager Melissa Nathan, about how he “wants to feel like [Ms Lively] can be buried”, to which Nathan replied: “we can’t write we will destroy her.”
Such a good news update!! Those roast potatoes are TO DIE FOR 😍😍 they look sooo delicious