Okay, Chelsea. Yeah. Once again, you're going
to get an option. But instead of giving you a
vague idea of what the article is about, I'm
going to give you the source. And you can pick
from the source. Yes. I like the style. I don't
know why, but I like it. Now, I think it's because
it's more random. Yeah. So first up, we have
Live Live Science, which we never know. We will
never look it up. We will never know. Popular
Mechanics, BioRxiv. BBC, Daily Mail, ARS Technica,
The Register. I'm fishing for something, so I'm
going to go BBC. Okay. Oh, and you are not getting
what you're expecting here. Damn it. So, article
on the BBC from September 22, 2025, written by
Kelly Ng. I never know how to say that. It's
a Vietnamese last name and it has no vowels.
So ing, I don't know. Article title, Mooney's
church leader arrested over gifts to ex -South
Korean first lady. Oh, okay. Yeah. Not what I
was looking for. Yeah. I didn't think you would
pick this. So it was kind of a trick in there.
Actually, you probably would have picked it if
I described it because I would have said an update
on a cult. So. South Korea has arrested the leader
of the controversial Unification Church over
allegations the organization bribed South Korea's
former first lady in exchange for business and
political favors. Han Hak -ja's church is accused
of giving Kim Kyung -hee, the wife of ousted
President Yoon Suk -yeol, two Chanel bags and
a diamond necklace together worth 80 million
won or $60 ,000. American. Okay, that's not that
much. Well, it is, but... Two bags and a necklace.
Yeah. Han, the 82 -year -old widow of the church's
founder, Sun Myung Moon, has repeatedly denied
the allegations, calling them false. The church
said Tuesday it would faithfully engage with
authorities, end quote, do its best to use this
as an occasion to restore trust in our church,
end quote. It also apologized for, quote, causing
concern to the people, end quote. Prosecutors
had sought an arrest warrant for Han on four
charges, including improper solicitation and
graft and occupational... Huh. I've never heard
those terms before. Neither have I. It doesn't
matter. We'll keep going. In court on Monday,
Han rejected the charges, insisting that she
has neither interest in nor knowledge about politics.
Her lawyer argued against the arrest, citing
her age and worsening health. I like that. So
she's friends with the First Lady and she's arguing,
oh, I'm not political. I just give my friends
good stuff. Yeah, that's a good argument. That
is a good argument. I'm just an idiot who inherited
this church worth billions. Yeah, like I just
give nice gifts. Han is also accused of colluding
with former church official surnamed Yoon. to
offer 100 million won in bribes to conservative
lawmaker Kwon Sung -dong ahead of the 2022 presidential
election in exchange for favors for the church
in the event that Yoon won... Sorry. I thought
this was the last name. It's not. It's Yoon won
the election, not won. Okay. No, Koreans are
funny. It's all very confusing. Yes. Kwon, once
seen as a close confidant of Yoon... was arrested
last Wednesday. He denied accepting bribes. And
I honestly think, this is unfortunate, why we
don't know more about Asian history and famous
stories is because we get confused by the characters
because their names are not something we're expecting.
It's not like Chris gave Jeff. It's Kwon was
a close confidant of Yoon. Which is like the
same equivalent in Korean. Probably. There's
a billion Kims and Wons over there. Those are
kind of equivalents, but whatever. So, Kwon,
once seen as a close confidant of Yoon, was arrested
last Wednesday. He denies accepting bribes. Unification
Church had pinned the blame for both sets of
allegations involving Kim and Kwon on the former
church official, saying he acted alone in offering
those gifts. The official has since been arrested.
Kim, the former first lady, was indicted last
month on various charges, including bribery and
stock manipulation, which she denies. Her trial
started this week. Her arrest marked the first
time that both a former president and former
first lady had been jailed in South Korea. Yoon
was detained in January and is facing a separate
trial over a failed martial law attempt last
year that plunged the country into chaos and
led to his impeachment. Which, by the way, if
you're not up to date on Korean politics, they
had a wild 2024. Basically, they had a guy who
kind of tried to pull a Trump, but the people
rebelled against it and he ended up in prison.
That sounds vaguely familiar, but I'm just so
exhausted from everything that's been going on
in the world. There's enough politically in English
to focus on. But that does sound very familiar,
actually, now that you're saying that. Yeah,
he declared martial law and everybody's like,
no, that's stupid. We're going to protest. And
then he's like, Kate, I just pretended. I didn't
actually mean to do that. And then he got arrested.
No, no, I do know this one. Yes. The Unification
Church, known formally as the Family Federation
for World Peace and Unification, was founded
in South Korea in the 1950s by Moon Seung -myung,
who proclaimed himself the Messiah. The church
is best known for holding mass weddings involving
thousands of couples. We kind of know this. Please
go listen to our episode. I can't remember if
it's their own episode or if it had to do with
the Japanese history. No, I don't think we did
a full episode on it because right now I'm going,
this sounds familiar, I should know it, but I
don't think we actually did. episode well the
reason we did the episode we do have something
i think the whole reason we did the episode on
the moonies is because somebody who the moonies
ripped off ended up um assassinating um uh oh
uh shinzo abe the former prime minister of japan
and then we ended up talking about the moonies
am i listening to this in the right language
it's never the right language chelsea for english
is not pure Yeah, yeah, no. Moonies have come
up. Did they get their own episode? You guys
go look and tell us. Anyhow, that's, I'll incorporate
that in the 48 hours thing. Don't worry. Critics
have described the group. Also take a thumbs
up. Yes. Your guys' thumbs don't seem to work,
by the way. No. Critics have described the group
as cult -like. Lawyers have accused it of coercing
devotees known colloquially as Moonies after
its founder to donate large sums of money. The
Unification Church has come under the spotlight
in Japan after the 2020 new... Oh, there we go.
The 2022 assassination of the country's former
leader, Shinzo Abe. The alleged assassin blamed
the group of bankrupting his family and held
a grievance against Abe for allegedly promoting
it. The group is banned in parts of the world,
including Singapore. In Japan, it has been ordered
to dissolve. End of article, end of story, end
of... I don't know why I... It didn't end in
a quote, so I just need to say end. It ends there.
I just love when people who are incredibly rich,
incredibly influential, argue, oh, what? I didn't
know that. How was I to know that? 60 ,000, this
was just a friend. I mean, what's wrong with
that? Maybe they are just friends and they do
give nice gifts. I like to think of myself as
a nice gift giver. Is your defense not also giving
her nice things and they don't mention that at
all? Maybe. Like, it's a two -way street with
friendships. A one -way street is bribery. Yeah,
but no. What if my friend is poor? They still
give you stuff. Friendship? Yes. That's what
the poor first lady of South Korea was given.
She didn't know. She's not political. I would
hope that she was giving friendship if I was
giving nice gifts. Otherwise, that's pretty hurtful.
Otherwise, she should be sued for bribery. I
would think. If anything, she was taking advantage
of the Moonies. I agree. Exactly. Did I just
argue on the wrong side? I don't know. It's really
confusing with these Korean names. I know. Anyhow,
you guys got 48 hours. Relisten as many times
as you need to figure out who's who in this story.
Yeah, probably listen to the Moonies ones too.
Yes, and then relisten the Moonies ones and then
come back and make sure we did a good job. Anyhow,
bye. Bye.