It seem possible the journalists are just looking at huge end of session volumes, which happens every day, and then writing their fantasy fiction news article.

CME transactions are anonymized in the market data feed there is a seller for every buyer, but one side is an aggressor or initiator. Now even if they are aggregating initiator transactions in a specific direction it is perhaps slightly more meaningful and could indicate a rush of orders from an informed trader or group of traders. However most likely these journalists are clueless and have been misinformed by some amateurs.

Probably no one. This is very common, and you don't know why people trade futures, in the sense that you don't know why was this or that trade executed. A lot of that activity is institutions hedging their portfolios.

It's like when people get excited that someone buys a LOT of put options on, say, Apple. But you don't know that someone's portfolio! Perhaps they already own a ridiculous amount of Apple stock. And the option seller may instantly hedge by getting an appropriate amount of short AAPL.