Sam Bankman-Fried might be having a rough go of it as he faces 25 years in the slammer,  but hey, at least he didn’t commit large-scale financial fraud in Vietnam. 

What happened: Real estate developer Truong My Lan has been sentenced to death by a Vietnamese court for orchestrating the country's largest-ever financial fraud. She embezzled over US$12 billion (or ~3% of Vietnam’s GDP) from the Saigon Joint Stock Commercial Bank.

After catching flack for not spending enough on defence, the feds fished around their proverbial couch cushions and came up with a hefty chunk of change. 

What happened: As part of Canada's first major defence policy update since 2017, the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) will receive an additional $8.1 billion in federal funding over the next five years.

The Japanese royal family wants you to know that it’s not outdated and it’s actually really cool — and it has 80+ new Instagram photos to prove it.

What happened: This week, the famously private imperial family chose to start sharing their lavish life on social media for the first time by launching an Instagram account. 

The tragic bridge collapse this week in Baltimore is putting the spotlight on the safety of North American bridges.  

Driving the news: Investigators are still trying to determine the series of events that led a 290-metre cargo ship to crash into the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, a collision that completely destroyed the bridge and led to the presumed deaths of six people. 

Donald Trump claims he has almost “$500 million in cash” at his disposal, which sounds like a lot until you realize what the guy is forking over in legal fees. 

What happened: Yesterday, investors approved a plan to take Trump’s struggling social media business public next week, which would unlock a potential US$3 billion windfall for the former U.S. president as he looks to drum up cash to cover his massive legal costs. 

Money can’t buy happiness. But enough of it can buy you a home, which we’re slowly learning is pretty much the same thing. 

What happened: This year’s rankings of the world’s happiest countries revealed that while Canada is still one of the happiest in the world — ranking 15th overall — the happiness gap between younger and older populations is the widest seen in every country on the list.

 On this week’s episode of Free Lunch by The Peak, we sat down with Graeme Thompson to talk about the record-setting number of elections happening around the world this year, what the likely outcomes are in countries like the U.K. and U.S., and what it all means for Canada. 

The Russian election is perhaps the only one this year for which the results had been reported well before the first ballots had been cast. 

Driving the news: People in Russia and occupied Ukraine are heading to the polls this weekend to vote in the national election, but given the lack of genuine opposition to current President Vladimir Putin, the Russian leader is all but guaranteed another six years in power. 

As the situation worsens in Haiti, some Canadian diplomats are getting out. 

What happened: Canada evacuated most of its embassy staff in Haiti, leaving only essential employees in the Caribbean nation, including Ambassador André François Giroux. Meanwhile, the ~3,000 Canadian citizens in Haiti have received shelter-in-place orders. 

Of all the days to decide how the constitution should define the duties of women in society, Irish voters headed to the polls on International Women’s Day to cast their votes. 

Driving the news: Yesterday’s referendum posed two questions to citizens — to vote “yes” or “no” to loosen the definition of family and to remove references to a woman’s role being solely as a caregiver within the home, long seen as crucial to the “common good” of society.