Three news stories summarized & contextualized by analytic journalist Colin Wright.
Trump guilty on all counts in hush-money case
Summary: Former President (and current Presidential Candidate) Trump was convicted of all 34 felony counts that he was charged with in a New York case that centered around falsifying business documents to conceal hush-money payments made in 2016, when he was initially running for President.
Context: This is big news in part because this is the first time in US history that a former president has been convicted of a felony, and in part because this is the only case against Trump, out of four total ongoing cases, that is likely to culminate before the November election, and this outcome—depending on who you listen to—will either rally Trump’s supporters to his side, or cause vital independent votes to drift away in favor of Biden, or in favor of simply not voting for anyone, in either case influencing the outcome of that contest in a potentially significant way.
(More on this case and its significance in tomorrow’s Let’s Know Things episode.)
—The New York Times
South Africa's ANC facing coalition as election ends decades of dominance
Summary: For the first time since the end of apartheid in the country, South Africa’s African National Congress, or ANC party has not won a majority of the vote, which will force it to build a coalition government with another party or parties.
Context: In 2019, the ANC claimed 57.5% of the vote, and this time around it looks like it’ll have around 40%, so this represents a significant drop in support, and that drop is being attributed, in part, to the party’s seeming inability to rein-in corruption and crime, and keep the lights on, the nation long suffering regular power outages; markets have been responding to this outcome cautiously, as depending on which smaller party or parties the ANC decides to form a government with, South Africa could become more or substantially less business-friendly.
—Reuters
US dismantles 911 S5 botnet used for cyberattacks and arrests admin
Summary: The US Justice Department has announced that it, in collaboration with law enforcement entities from around the world, have taken down what seems to be the world’s biggest botnet, the 911 S5 botnet, and arrested its administrator in Singapore.
Context: This botnet, which was formed by installing malware on victims’ computers, usually via malicious VPN software, allowed its controller to create a network of more than 19 million compromised devices, access to which was sold to clients for all sorts of criminal behaviors including fraud, harassment, bomb threats, and child exploitation; the botnet’s administrator faces a maximum penalty of 65 years in prison if convicted on all counts.
—Bleeping Computer
Though many DTC (direct-to-consumer) businesses have flagged (after a period of relative success in the early 2000s) in recent years, pet supply company Chewy has been consistently killing it, increasing sales to 153-times their 2013 levels in 2023.
—Sherwood News
$135 million
Value of aid pledged to Eastern European nation, Moldova, to help bolster its energy security and capacity to deal with disinformation efforts that are attempting to keep it from turning further Westward, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Russia has been supporting local separatists, similar to how they supported such groups in Crimea leading up to their initial incursion into Ukraine in 2014, and there are concerns that Kremlin higher-ups might be eyeballing Moldova as a next-step means of weakening the alliance European nations have been building against Russia’s expansionism.
—The Associated Press
One Sentence News / June 3, 2024