Passing the Torch

Start your day smarter with the most important world news, plus intriguing and offbeat stories. www.ozy.com [OZY]() Your World. Bold & Bright [Presidential Daily Brief]( Start your day smarter with a dossier on the most important world news, rounded off with a shot of intriguing and offbeat stories. Like the president, you deserve no less. May 10, 2022 Today Ferdinand Marcos Jr., son of the Philippines’ former dictator, is poised to win a landslide victory in yesterday’s presidential election. Sri Lankan Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa resigned Monday as months of protests turned deadly. Russia pounded civilian targets in the port city of Odesa with its new hypersonic missiles. And the U.S. stock market suffered another plunge, continuing a five-week trend. All this and more in today’s PDB. IMPORTANT Short-Term Memory Ferdinand Marcos Jr. Bound for Philippines Presidency Nearly complete tallies from yesterday’s election put Marcos, son of the country’s brutal former dictator, more than 16 million votes ahead of former human rights lawyer Leni Robredo. The win marks an astonishing reversal for the [Marcos family](: The elder Marcos, who ruled for nearly 20 years, fled to Hawaii in 1986 after mass protests over years of corruption, electoral fraud and human rights abuses. Marcos Jr., who ran on the slogan “Together we shall rise again,” refused to denounce his family’s legacy, alarming activists and survivors of the former regime, who fear he will deepen corruption and weaken democracy. (Sources: [France24](, [CNN](, [The Guardian]() Set Ablaze Sri Lankan Protesters Torch Leaders’ Homes in Deadly Night of Unrest Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa resigned Monday as months of protests over the country’s deepening economic crisis escalated into fierce street clashes​​ that left five people dead, including a lawmaker, and more than 200 injured. But Rajapaksa’s resignation didn’t stop thousands of anti-government protesters from storming his residence and setting it ablaze with Molotov cocktails overnight. Rajapaksa and his family were evacuated in a military operation, but mobs across the country torched more homes belonging to the family and other political leaders. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the outgoing PM’s brother, ordered an island-wide curfew and granted sweeping powers to the military. (Sources: [NYT](, [BBC](, [The Guardian]() Heavy Fire Russia Targets Odesa With New Hypersonic Missile Ukraine’s Black Sea port city of Odesa came under heavy fire Monday night as Russia marked its biggest patriotic holiday in Red Square. The strikes, which destroyed two hotels, a shopping center and a warehouse, included three of Russia’s new Kinzhal, or “Dagger,” hypersonic air-to-surface missiles. Footage showed widespread devastation in the wake of the attack and Ukrainian authorities reported one person killed and five injured. Meanwhile, the U.S. military said it’s seen “indications” that Ukrainians are being forcibly removed to Russia, supporting Kyiv’s allegation that 1.2 million citizens have been sent to detention camps there. (Sources: [AP](, [CNN](, [DW]() Roller-Coaster Ride Stocks Continue to Plunge, Reaching 2022 Low The U.S. stock market suffered another plunge yesterday, continuing a six-week trend that’s knocked 16.3% off the index so far this year. The latest drop marks a new low for 2022 and follows a five-week selling stretch — the longest decline in over a decade. “The days of market whiplash are just beginning,” said Andy Kapyrin, co-chief investment officer at RegentAtlantic. Though the latest roller coaster has investors worried, few predict an imminent recession, as the labor market continues to add jobs, wages climb and unemployment remains at a 50-year low. But economists predict a slowdown in the coming year. (Sources: [NYT](, [WSJ]() Briefly Here are some things you should know about today: Washington Post wins Pulitzer. The prestigious prize for public service, which honors more than 100 contributing journalists, was awarded for the paper’s in-depth coverage of the Jan. 6 insurrection. (Sources: [AP](, [WaPo](). Warhol breaks record. Pop artist Andy Warhol’s portrait of Marilyn Monroe sold for a whopping $195 million on Monday to become the most expensive artwork sold at auction. (Source: [NYT]() Ex-prison guard dead. An 11-day manhunt is over after former Alabama corrections officer Vicky White died from self-inflicted gunshot wounds. She and escaped inmate Casey White were apprehended after a car chase in Evansville, Indiana. (Sources: [CNN](, [BBC]() INTRIGUING ‘Blood on Your Hands’ Putin’s Victory Day Speech Hacked With Anti-War Message Hackers altered Russian satellite TV menus during Monday’s Victory Day celebrations with messages on every channel decrying the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine. One directed to President Vladimir Putin read, “You have the blood of thousands of Ukrainians and hundreds of dead children on your hands.” Another said, “The TV and the authorities are lying. No to war.” Meanwhile, in a rare act of dissent, two journalists at the popular pro-Kremlin website Lenta.ru filled it with more than 40 anti-war articles Monday, calling Putin a “pitiful paranoid dictator.” The journalists urged readers, “Don’t be afraid! Don’t be silent! Fight back!” (Sources: [Forbes](, [Yahoo News](, [The Guardian]() Sacked London’s National Gallery, Guggenheim Drop Sackler Name Bowing to pressure from activist groups and public opinion, the two cultural institutions are the latest to strip the toxic name from their walls. The Sacklers, owners of Purdue Pharma, paid a record [$6 billion settlement]( and face hundreds more lawsuits over the opioid OxyContin, the cause of record numbers of overdose deaths. The two latest museums to drop the Sackler name from their galleries come late to the party: In 2019, Paris’ [Louvre]( removed the family name from its walls and the [Metropolitan Museum in New York]( declined any further Sackler donations, finally dropping the name from its galleries in 2021. (Sources: [Artnews](, [Artnet]() Nature or Nurture? Identical Twins Raised in US, South Korea Have Wildly Different IQs Twin girls born in Seoul in 1974 were separated two years later, when one got lost in a supermarket and later ended up being adopted by American parents. The sisters, reunited in 2018, were evaluated to compare their personalities and medical histories. Researchers were surprised to discover that while their personality scores were almost identical, the sibling raised in South Korea scored a remarkable 16 points higher on an intelligence test, though identical twins typically have no more than 7 points difference. Researchers noted that the U.S.-raised twin had a more disrupted home environment marred by conflict and divorce. (Sources: [IFLScience](, [Newsweek]() Face the Music Clearview AI Banned From Selling Facial Recognition Software The controversial surveillance company has finally reached an agreement in a 2020 lawsuit that alleged it built its business selling billions of facial photos scraped from social media. The American Civil Liberties Union sued Clearview AI, arguing that it had violated Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act, which prohibits using individuals’ biometric data without consent. In the settlement, filed in an Illinois court on Monday, Clearview agreed to be banned from selling its facial recognition database to private companies and individuals. However, the company was granted exceptions to work with federal agencies like the FBI and Homeland Security. (Sources: [TechCrunch](, [The Verge]() Flag on the Play Brett Favre Named in Lawsuit Over Misspent Welfare Funds The Mississippi Department of Human Services has sued the NFL Hall of Famer and others, including former pro wrestler “The Million Dollar Man” Ted DiBiase. The lawsuit aims to recoup nearly $24 million that was “squandered” from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families anti-poverty program, a scandal State Auditor Shad White called the “largest public fraud in state history.” Mississippi’s suit alleges Favre was a major stockholder in a pharma company developing a concussion drug when he asked investors — who have since pleaded guilty to criminal charges related to the case — to use welfare grant money to invest in the company. (Sources: [Yahoo Sports](, [Bleacher Report]()  Catch the Newest Episodes of The Carlos Watson Show, Season 4! COMMUNITY What else are you curious about? 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