Hi friends! Welcome back to another Freaky Friday Files and today's one is gonna be a little different. I was inspired for today's blog post when I learned about that robot in Saudi Arabia who s*xually harassed a reporter at the unveiling. Now, I'll get into that soon but I thought for this week's post, we could take a look at some of the creepier/weirder/unfortunate things that have happened so far in 2024 (and we're only halfway through March). I'm actually starting to get quite worried for the world. And I do sometimes enjoy watching the news, when I was tutoring for sociology, I would watch the news regularly because I had to be in the know all the time - it was literally part of my job and ever since we've had increasing geopolitical tensions, I've really struggled to watch the news. It's absolutely awful, but what's going on right now, needs to be talked about.
I know 2020 felt like we were living in a real-life Black Mirror episode, but honestly, this year just feels worse. And I don't want to be a pessimist, I want things to get better, but we all have to be aware of what's going on. I'm a bit worried about talking about this content on my blog as I don't want any policy violations and in no way am I condoning anything here, just simply making people aware of the issues. So here's a rundown of all the weird sh*t that's happened so far!
Noto Earthquake, Japan (1st Jan 2024)
Around 4:10 pm, a 7.5 earthquake struck Northeast of Suzu near the Noto Penisula. This earthquake caused significant shaking in Nanao and light to mild shaking in Tokyo. The quake was also followed by a three-foot-tall tsunami. According to Wikipedia, as of the 28th of February, there have been 241 deaths confirmed, 12 people still missing, and over 1200 people injured. This particular quake is said to be caused by an earthquake swarm (i.e., one big quake then a whole lot of aftershocks - both big and small). If you want to read more about the aftereffects of this, check out "this" Guardian article. Now, I'm no stranger to earthquakes myself, and trust me, this would have been terrifying, for anyone in Japan.
Jeffrey Epstein Associate Name Files Released (3rd January 2024)
Ugh, just ugh and so gross. I can't believe that this man did so many cruel and horrible things (I'm not gonna go into what he did, you can look that up but I'm sure you are aware). Anyway, at the start of this year, many court documents were made public that identified Epstein's associates or people who knew what he was up to before he was convicted (it's not 100% clear if they did know, but they probably did). The names were released as part of Virginia Giuffre’s lawsuit against Ghislaine Maxwell. And honestly, I used to think that this p***** r*** thing was absolutely absurd until this information came to light. Safe to say I expected a few names to come up on the list, but also a few of them I was very disappointed in. A lot of the media articles say that these associates are just people who associated with Epstein himself, which okay maybe that's the case, but wouldn't you figure out what's going on and say something? Some names were Prince Andrew (ugh), The Clintons, Ghislaine Maxwell (his ex), Trump, David Copperfield (don't trust magicians), Leonardo DiCaprio (not surprising considering his dating history), Kevin Spacey, Stephen Hawking (very surprising but I'm hoping this is just because he visited Epstein's island for a science trip) and so many more. You can read the full list of names "here". What a world we live in.
Tall Aliens (mid-January 2024)
According to Forbes, there have been claims that people are now seeing what they term as "tall aliens". The increased interested in aliens and the paranormal (+ The Occult etc) is likely to do with how Congress have been taking the time to hear alien/UFO testimonies. Read about that "here". Anyway, there were two viral videos (on TikTok I believe) of people claiming to see tall aliens - the footage of course, is very blurry and the user's who posted the videos claim that these tall aliens were simply walking around (like none of that pop culture sh*t you would expect). The first video took place at Miami Mall on NYD where some teenagers were lighting fireworks mistaken by people for g*nshots. This prompted panic and a giant police response (probably a bit of hysteria too). Some online communities started to post footage of the day (and many people started to believe such chaos simply couldn't have been created by a teenage brawl). Now, I don't think it's that hard to start a riot - I would never do it, but if people are already riled up and panicked, it can easily escalate but that's just my sociological opinion. Following this brawl, some posted information on X (formerly Twitter) that on this day, the police were responding to claims of "tall alien" sightings, and the brawl just happened to be in the same place. Many influencers backed up these claims and videos of a tall blurry head were posted online. After the information came out as "misinformation", some influencers said they were just joking about seeing such aliens.
The second sighting happened only a week later, this time on the Brazilian island of Ilha do Mel. The video features blurry figures walking on a hilltop. An eyewitness by the name of Sara Dalete who filmed this "video" made the bold claim that this area was unaccessible, so it would be hard for people to walk up there. I don't know if this is AI, a joke, or legit, but one thing is for certain, conspiracy theories are continuing to grow on social media.
Ongoing Conflict in the Middle East (January 2024 onwards) + Further Conflict with Russia and Ukraine (ongoing)
I'm not going to go into too much detail with this one, because I don't want to get into trouble with Google, but you know what's going on in the Middle East. And it's gotta stop. Seriously, we need a ceasefire especially when civilians are getting hurt/k*lled. You can read more "here".
As for the geopolitical tension and conflict in Russia and Ukraine, it's really awful and has been going on for way too long. I hope this also stops. Are we really heading towards WWIII?
Anthony Albanese and Others Referred to ICC for complicity in g*noc*de (6th March 2024)
I feel like the title kinda sums up the whole thing, but if you want to read more, you can do so "here". I'm not a lawyer and this isn't a cop-out, just not my area of expertise so I don't feel super comfortable doing a deep dive here, just letting you know it's one of those more uncomfortable things that has happened this year. Albanese has hit back at these claims suggesting they're "misinformation". I kinda feel like I'm on the fence about this as there's not a lot of information available yet but I'm interested to see how it plays out.
Haiti Jail Break (2nd - 3rd March 2024)
Ahh the two things I remember about Haiti were the devastating 2010 earthquake (that was awful) and the Cholera outbreak (which for some reason I remember being told it turned people into zombies or something - like their symptoms made them paralysed they were like zombies, but I can't find anything to back this up). Maybe it was just folklore or maybe it's because some people believe pufferfish can cause zombification. Anyway, let's move on from that now. Sometime in early March, the Haiti government declared a 72-hour state of emergency (+ a night-time curfew) over a weekend as armed gangs stormed two prisons: one in Port-au-Prince and the other in nearby Croix des Bouquets. According to good ol' Wikipedia, over 4700 inmates escaped. The gangs demanded that the Prime Minister resign from his position of power. I believe the gangs wanted Ariel Henry to resign as people believed him to be corrupt. You can read more "here". There have been at least 36 casualties and over 15000 people forced to leave their own homes. I believe Henry has since resigned to help stop this attack.
287 Nigerian Children Abducted in Nigeria (7th March 2024)
So I'm not 100% sure on the date here, but there have been more than 300 children kidnapped from a school in Northwest Nigeria, taken by g*nmen. Some have been rescued, but still 287 remain in the hands of the "bandits". One member of the public who confronted the armed men unfortunately was k*lled. These g*nmen are now asking for a $622,000 ransom - this information was obtained as the bandits called a member of the community from a hidden number with their demands (idk how reliable this source is but that's what all the news outlets are saying). This ransom is valid for 3 weeks or 20 days and they intend to k*ll the children if their demands are not met. This is really awful and I hope we don't see a child m*****cre here.
A Male Robot Gr*pes a Woman (9th March 2024)
Ah the event that inspired me to write this week's blog post (I don't think that's a good thing though). So there was a tech festival called DeepFest in Saudi Arabia where a male robot was unveiled for the first time. One reporter (who happened to be a woman) was touched by this robot, on her a**. Now people were warned not to stand too close to the robots, but if you look at the video closely, where else is she supposed to stand? And the reporter (who is a man) seems to be standing a similar distance as she was). And yes, I get that there's a whole ethics debate here, but are people really programming robots to do this? And why did the company blame the woman for standing too close? Some explanations have been that the robot was encouraging her to move forward or that he wanted to shake hands. I dunno man, it's really hard to trust robots. The company that made the robot also conducted a review and found no errors. This sh*t is weird AF to me.
Another one of those "Monoliths" were found (13th March 2024)
Remember back in 2020 when someone stumbled upon a weird monolith-looking thing in Utah and then more started popping up around the world and there was a whole conspiracy theory that aliens were coming? It felt a little too Marvel's Agents of SHIELD to me. Like I think they debunked it as artists just copying the original one to scare people OR maybe they were all fake. But, it's four years later, and we got another one. This time, in Wales. A hiker called Craig Muir was hiking up the summit of a hill (one you can't drive up) when he noticed this thing that he legit thought was a UFO (okay Craig). Anyway what he saw is what we'd term a monolith - basically, a rectangle metal thing stuck somewhere it wouldn't be able to be carried to get there. And Craig thinks that it was either dropped off by a helicopter or something fishy is going on. I kinda feel like anything like this is usually put by a woke artist or used just to mess with people because spoiler alert, it works.
The Return of Trump (13th-14th March 2024 + ongoing)
Have you ever taken a psychology class, specifically one about social psychology? Well, I remember learning in social psychology all about narcissism and the lecturer (I think his name was Kevin) saying that you can easily spot a narcissist - especially if you take a look at their Facebook page. Now, this doesn't go for every narcissist (I know a few who didn't post on socials at all). But the point here is that it's someone who is constantly posting selfies, and nothing else, and there's not always a lot of likes on them. Posting selfies isn't the problem, it's when that's the only thing you do. Ah, I'm getting judgemental and I'm getting off track here. Anyway, Trump is definitely a bloody narcissist and it's terrifying to think what will happen if he gets re-elected but it's definitely going to be Trump vs Biden again and that's not fun.
I recently heard Trump being described as "evil" and I mean, he's not a good man, but I wouldn't say he's evil. To me, he's just another rich white man exploiting his white male privilege in Western society with some f*cked up views and policies. But that's a representation of what's going on in society. Why do so many white men think they can control women's bodies? We'll get into that debate another time.
If we think back to 2016, Trump was elected following a black president. Americans weren't happy. It was a backlash. Obama was great, don't get me wrong, and I don't wanna get too political, but it's not likely that a country that has never had a woman president is going to go for that option following a black president (but it would have been epic if they did). Honestly, it's going to take a long time for America to change and I don't know if it ever will. But I'd love to see it as a country where kids shouldn't be afraid to go to school, people are treated equally and humanely, gun control is a priority, and women's bodies aren't controlled by men. And that it should be a full democracy, not a state democracy. Okay, now I'm getting political but the point of this event was just to say that Trump is back.
Anyway, on that note, that's the end of the blog for today! I hope you enjoyed it (I may not have a Freaky Friday Files next week but we'll see how we go).
Thank you so much for reading! Don't forget to subscribe to my mailing list and my YouTube Channel!
Much Love,
Ash xx
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