This week's long reads takes a look at Conor McGregor's "retirement" (which lasted less than 48 hours), the historical basis for the death and slaughter in Game of Thrones, and a look at the biggest corruption investigation in Brazil's history. 

Peter Carroll: Dana White will blink first because UFC 200 needs Conor McGregor

Conor McGregor is likely to force UFC’s hand in putting him back on the UFC 200 card with a personal statement he made on his Facebook page.

In the post, ‘The Notorious’ took back his retirement announcement that he posted on Twitter on Tuesday when he declared, “I AM NOT RETIRED”, at the end of the lengthy post.

Irish papers paraded McGregor and Dana White’s rift on their front pages. On Wednesday evening, BBC’s news broadcast carried a segment on McGregor’s stepping away from the sport, while CNN had a think tank on the issue. McGregor’s post proved that he was quite aware of the stir that he caused.

The violent real-life historic events that parallel the "Game Of Thrones" story

There is, obviously, a lot to Game Of Thronesthat author George R R Martin has made up. Dragons, for example. Or the Undead Ice King, for another. Quite clearly fictional.

However, anyone with a passing interest in history will be able to draw some pretty defined parallels between some of the plot-threads in the previous five seasons of Game Of Thrones and some of the truly horrific stuff that has actually happened in real life.

Corruption and impeachment: What's happening in Brazilian politics?

Last week, the lower house of the National Congress of Brazil voted to impeach the president of the country, Dilma Rousseff, in a historic move. 

The anti-government protesters on the streets of Brasilia and beyond greeted the news with cheers and tears of joy, showing that the country long known for the bright yellow shirts of their football team may well be about to grab global attention for something else: political corruption. 

With an increasingly long list of the accused, including the country's biggest political figures, what exactly is happening in Brazil as they look to root our corruption across the board? 

"I Wanna Be Your Lover" to "Breakfast Can Wait" - journeying through Prince's music catalogue

Prince Rogers Nelson passed away at the age of 57, having recorded no less than 39 official albums, winning seven Grammys, an Oscar, a Golden Globe and selling hundreds of millions of records the world over.

The influence of his career has been felt almost from the moment it began, and will likely to be felt for as long as there is music in the world.

A console revolution: How the Xbox 360 helped change the way we play games

Image: Tim Ireland / PA Archive/Press Association Images

This week, Microsoft announced that they are ending production of the Xbox 360 - more than ten years after the launch of the company's second Xbox console.

Although the Wii won entire new demographics over to the video games, it was the 360 that best reflected some of the changes and successes of a very significant era in video games. It did, one could argue, live up to its name and offer something of a revolution...