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78 Of BuzzFeed News' Biggest Stories Of 2018

We told the biggest, newest stories in the world this year. Join us!

By Maggie Schultz and Kayla Smalls

Maggie Schultz

BuzzFeed News Managing Editor

Kayla Smalls

BuzzFeed News Reporter

Posted on December 28, 2018, at 7:04 p.m. ET

1. We Saw Nuns Kill Children: The Ghosts of St. Joseph’s Catholic Orphanage

2. Trump Moscow: The Definitive Story Of How Trump’s Team Worked The Russian Deal During The Campaign

3. She Thought She Was In Bed With Her Boyfriend, Until She Saw His Face

4. An 18-Year-Old Said She Was Raped While In Police Custody. The Officers Say She Consented.

5. Growth At Any Cost: Top Facebook Executive Defended Data Collection In 2016 Memo — And Warned That Facebook Could Get People Killed

6. Nobody Believed Neil deGrasse Tyson's First Accuser. Now There Are Three More.

7. The Money Trail: A Series Of Suspicious Money Transfers Followed The Trump Tower Meeting

8. Does This Recording Say "Yanny" Or "Laurel"????

What do you hear?! Yanny or Laurel

9. Beto O’Rourke Could Be The Democrat Texas Has Been Waiting For

10. Alt-Right Troll To Father Killer: The Unraveling Of Lane Davis

11. “I Killed Them All.” The Life Of One Of America’s Bloodiest Hitmen

12. The 9 Minutes That Almost Changed America

13. Our on-the-ground reporting with the migrant caravan

A Huge Caravan Of Central Americans Is Headed For The US, And No One In Mexico Dares To Stop ThemThey Wanted Everyone To Hear About The Migrants Coming To The US. Then Everyone Did.A Mysterious Imposter Account Was Used On Facebook To Drum Up Support For The Migrant CaravanThis Is What The World Looks Like For Kids Traveling In The CaravanThe Mother In This Iconic Photo Of Sunday’s Border Teargassing Was Thinking Only Of Getting Her Children To Safety

14. Secret NYPD Files: Officers Who Lie And Brutally Beat People Can Keep Their Jobs

15. How A Player In The Trump–Russia Scandal Led A Double Life As An American Spy

16. Inside The North Carolina Republican Vote Machine: Cash, Pills — And Ballots

17. Doctors Respond To The NRA By Sharing Gruesome Photos Of Treating Shooting Victims

18. Our Brexit coverage

Let Trump Handle Brexit: An Explosive Leaked Recording Reveals Boris Johnson’s Private Views About Britain’s Foreign PolicyThis Leaked Government Brexit Analysis Says The UK Will Be Worse Off In Every Scenario

19. A Middle East Monarchy Hired American Ex-Soldiers To Kill Its Political Enemies. This Could Be The Future Of War.

20. Congratulations, Mr. President: Zuckerberg Secretly Called Trump After The Election

21. Our coverage of the school shooting in Parkland, Florida.

This Is What A 14-Year-Old Girl Left Behind After She Died In A Mass ShootingThis Is What It’s Like The Day After There’s A Mass Shooting At Your SchoolHere’s What It’s Like At The Headquarters Of The Teens Working To Stop Mass Shootings

22. The Disturbing Secret Behind An Iconic Cartoon: Underage Sexual Abuse

23. This Is What Will Happen To Your Body If You Eat A Tide Pod

24. Here’s How Cornell Scientist Brian Wansink Turned Shoddy Data Into Viral Studies About How We Eat

25. Our morning show on Twitter, AM to DM, became the most successful show on the platform

Parkland student activists on what life has been like during the month since the shooting: “It’s been hard, going to a safe place [that isn’t] safe anymore” — AM to DM’s Isaac Fitzgerald sat down with Parkland students on life after the horrific mass shooting.
Lin Manuel-Miranda debuted the video for his April #Hamildrop single, "First Burn," live with Saeed Jones on AM to DM.
Terry Crews joined AM to DM to discuss Brooklyn 99, Deadpool 2, and his involvement with #MeToo.
Cynthia Nixon called out Andrew Cuomo for New York Democratic Party mailers claiming she was soft on anti-Semitism.
Patti LaBelle made a 9-year-old's dream come true when she surprised her on AM to DM.

26. Inside The Country Where You Can Buy A Black Man For $400

27. Meet The New California Counterculture: College Republicans

28. Terry Crews Is Not Going Down Without A Fight

29. Hollywood Wanted An Edgy Child Actor. When He Spiraled, They Couldn't Help.

30. We talked to some of the biggest stars in news and entertainment on our newly launched Facebook Watch show, Profile

View this post on Facebook

Facebook: video.php

Actor Stanley Tucci had a candid discussion on Profile about how "it's really scary" that journalists are under attack in the Trump era.

Bobby Brown told Audie Cornish exactly what he thought about Kanye West using a photo his ex-wife's bathroom for his album cover.

Drew Dixon joined Profile for her first on-camera interview after accusing hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons of sexual harassment and rape.

Chelsea Handler defended her friend, former senator Al Franken, after he was accused of sexual misconduct.

31. Meet The Women Who Are Building A Better Romance Industry

32. The Trump Administration Is Quietly Denying Federal Housing Loans To DACA Recipients

33. Our California wildfire coverage

Families Left Homeless By California’s Deadliest Wildfire Are Now Living In A Walmart Parking LotCalifornia’s Rich Are Protecting Their Homes With Private Firefighters. Officials Say It’s Only Making Their Jobs Harder.Nothing Can Prepare The People Who Have To Search For Charred Bodies After The California WildfiresThere’s No Looking Away From This Year’s California Fires

34. The Real Story Behind The Anti-Immigrant Riots Rocking Germany

35. Is Your Home At Risk Of Flooding From Rising Seas By 2050? Check This Map.

36. Republicans Say The Timing Of The Kavanaugh Letter Is "Disturbing." But Here's What Actually Happened.

37. Grindr Is Letting Other Companies See User HIV Status And Location Data

38. “Girl, Wash Your Face” Is A Massive Best-Seller With A Dark Message

39. Will Time Ever Be Up For Abusive Men In Hip-Hop?

40. The Opioid Crisis Is Not Just An American Epidemic

41. Inside The Trump Administration’s Secret War On Weed

42. Mexico's "King of Fake News" has a story that's beginning to sound familiar everywhere.

Facebook: video.php

43. Tiffany "New York" Pollard Is The Meme Queen, But There's So Much More To Her

44. When A Blogger Died From Silicone Genital Injections, His Fans Blamed His Partner

45. Apps Installed On Millions Of Android Phones Tracked User Behavior To Execute A Multimillion-Dollar Ad Fraud Scheme

46. They Played Dominoes Outside Their Apartment For Decades. Then The White People Moved In And Police Started Showing Up.

47. Guns, God, And Trump: How An Accused Russian Agent Wooed US Conservatives

48. Celebrities Say White Supremacists Used A New Video App To Trick Them Into Endorsing Anti-Jewish Conspiracy Theories

Brett Favre; Soulja Boy.

49. White Nationalist Richard Spencer’s Wife Says In Divorce Filings That He Physically And Emotionally Abused Her

50. The Trump Administration Is Considering Making People Pay For The Right To Apply For Asylum

51. Pregnant Women Say They Miscarried In Immigration Detention And Didn't Get The Care They Needed

52. Why Did The Border Patrol Shoot Claudia Gómez?

53. He Predicted The 2016 Fake News Crisis. Now He's Worried About An Information Apocalypse.

54. Why Paris Hilton Disappeared

55. “He’s A Predator”: Two More Women Speak Out About R. Kelly’s Alleged Sexual Abuse

56. An Alleged Tinder Rape Told On Instagram Stories And The Limits Of #MeToo

57. Our reporting on how Facebook transformed global politics

This Country's Democracy Has Fallen Apart — And It Played Out To Millions On Facebook How Duterte Used Facebook To Fuel the Philippine Drug WarHow Facebook Failed The Rohingya In MyanmarThe "Yellow Vest" Riots In France Are What Happens When Facebook Gets Involved With Local News“We Had To Stop Facebook”: When Anti-Muslim Violence Goes Viral

58. A Coach Admitted To A Sex Crime On Tape. But When The Victim Died, He Walked Free.

59. Think Elizabeth Warren And Bernie Sanders Are The Same? She Doesn’t.

60. She Is The World's Most Renowned Empathy Researcher — And Is Alleged To Have Been Harassing Employees For Years

61. Apple CEO Tim Cook Is Calling For Bloomberg To Retract Its Chinese Spy Chip Story

62. Suburban Women Are Fed Up With The Republican Party And Could Drive A Blue Wave

63. Dennis Hof, A Pimp And Trump-Inspired Politician, Has Died. This Is How His Campaign Embodied Politics In 2018.

64. BuzzFeed Brazil’s exclusive on the backstage fight between the president of the Senate, Eunicio Oliveira, and the future Finance minister, Paulo Guedes.

65. Transgender Teens Could Destroy The Bathroom Predator Myth Once And For All

66. How WhatsApp Destroyed A Village

67. Landlords Are Offering Young Men Free Rooms In Return For Sex, And Facebook Is Letting It Happen

68. Inside Andrew Gillum's Big, Black, Progressive Campaign For Governor Of Florida

69. BuzzFeed Japan had an exclusive interview with Kazuyo Katsuma, a TV celebrity and best-selling writer, who talked openly about her sexuality.

70. The Professor At The Center Of The Trump–Russia Probe Boasted To His Girlfriend In Ukraine That He Was Friends With Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov

71. This Leaked Report Reveals The Stark Warnings From Judges About Defendants With No Lawyer

72. In A New Email, Elon Musk Accused A Cave Rescuer Of Being A “Child Rapist” And Said He “Hopes” There's A Lawsuit

73. She Spent 14 Years In Prison After Her Unexpected Birth Was Ruled A Homicide

74. Inside Amazon’s Fake Review Economy

75. Here's What It Was Like To Be An Orthodox Jew Cut Off From Electronics During The Pittsburgh Shooting

76. Australia's Child Refugees Are Suffering A Rare Psychological Illness Where They Withdraw From The World

77. Why I’ve Had Trouble Buying Hollywood’s Version Of Girl Power

78. The Parkland Playbook Doesn’t Work In Santa Fe

And two things to follow in the new year: Hella Opinions, our new show hosted by Sylvia Obell on all things black culture, airing every Wednesday on Twitter, and our World Instagram account.

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Maggie Schultz is the Managing Editor for BuzzFeed News and is based in New York.

Contact Maggie Schultz at maggie.schultz@buzzfeed.com.

Got a confidential tip? Submit it here.
Kayla Smalls is an editorial assistant for BuzzFeed News and is based in New York.

Contact Kayla Smalls at kayla.smalls@buzzfeed.com.

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