| There are only three viable presidential candidates, according to Mike Bloomberg's campaign Posted: 18 Feb 2020 10:46 AM PST  Only three candidates out of the more than half dozen vying for the White House have a viable path to the nomination, a senior official for the Mike Bloomberg campaign told reporters Tuesday.
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| Lawyer: Assange was offered US pardon if he cleared Russia Posted: 19 Feb 2020 12:06 PM PST  WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange plans to claim during an extradition hearing that the Trump administration offered him a pardon if he agreed to say Russia was not involved in leaking Democratic National Committee emails during the 2016 U.S. election campaign, a lawyer for Assange said Wednesday. Assange is being held at a British prison while fighting extradition to the United States on spying charges. At a preliminary hearing held Wednesday in London, lawyer Edward Fitzgerald said that now-former Republican congressman, Dana Rohrabacher, visited Assange at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London in August 2017.
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| George Zimmerman is suing Elizabeth Warren and Pete Buttigieg over Trayvon Martin birthday tweets Posted: 19 Feb 2020 11:24 AM PST  George Zimmerman, who in 2013 was acquitted after being charged with murder for his fatal shooting of unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin, has filed a lawsuit against two Democratic presidential candidates seeking $265 million in damages. The complaint, reported Wednesday, accuses Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg of defamation.At issue are tweets each candidate posted on what would have been Martin's 25th birthday in early February:> My heart goes out to @SybrinaFulton and Trayvon's family and friends. He should still be with us today.> > We need to end gun violence and racism. And we need to build a world where all of our children—especially young Black boys—can grow up safe and free. https://t.co/9lXXlRnvzL> > — Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) February 6, 2020> Trayvon Martin would have been 25 today.> > How many 25th birthdays have been stolen from us by white supremacy, gun violence, prejudice, and fear?BlackLivesMatter> > — Pete Buttigieg (@PeteButtigieg) February 5, 2020The posts were made "for political gain in misguided and malicious attempts to bolster their standings amongst African-American voters, all at Zimmerman's expense," the lawsuit filing claims, arguing the timing was merely "a pretext to demagogue and falsely brand Zimmerman as a white supremacist and racist to their millions of Twitter followers."Zimmerman is already suing Martin's family, including his mother, whom Warren tagged in her tweet. That lawsuit seeks $100 million in damages and alleges falsified testimony.More stories from theweek.com Mike Bloomberg is not the lesser of two evils Has Trump solved his biggest 2016 campaign problem? Bernie Sanders aide denies report he considered a primary challenge to Obama
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| Hate crimes go unchecked at Syracuse University, students say Posted: 19 Feb 2020 01:02 PM PST  The black-led movement NotAgainSU launched the sit-in Monday to protest the administration's handling of racial incidents at the university.
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| Coronavirus updates: Quarantine ends on cruise ship as death toll passes 2,000 Posted: 19 Feb 2020 03:45 AM PST  As the death toll for the coronavirus outbreak in China passes 2,000, here is the latest news for Wednesday Feb. 19.
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| Report: Obama reportedly expects he'll have to play a 'prominent role' in uniting Democrats this summer Posted: 18 Feb 2020 03:02 PM PST  The New York Magazine reports former president Barack Obama's radio silence on the 2020 Democratic primary is part of a "choreographed strategy" on the part of Obama, who is "increasingly sure he will need to play a prominent role in bringing the party back together and calming its tensions later this summer."
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| ICE says it plans to destroy a trove of detention records, including numbers on detainee deaths and sexual assaults Posted: 19 Feb 2020 07:21 AM PST  The ACLU races to retrieve years of ICE detention records that they say are critical to holding ICE accountable for abuses and misconduct.
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| South Korea coronavirus cases jump by two-thirds in one day Posted: 19 Feb 2020 12:57 AM PST  South Korea reported 20 new confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus on Wednesday -- increasing its total by nearly two-thirds -- including a cluster of at least 16 centred on the southern city of Daegu. The trade-dependent nation has been hit by the economic fallout from the virus outbreak in neighbouring China, but until Wednesday's jump, its own case numbers had hardly changed for several days. The Korea Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) said in a statement that 20 new coronavirus cases had been confirmed, raising its total from 31 to 51.
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| Democrats Still Haven’t Come to Terms with 2016 Posted: 19 Feb 2020 07:50 AM PST  In an otherwise excellent Politico article advising Democrats how to avoid the fate of 2012 presidential candidate Mitt Romney, former Obama staffer Dan Pfeiffer offers his team some self-soothing revisionism regarding the 2016 election:> When all is said and done, the 2016 election might end up being a black-swan event. The combination of Russian interference, Comey intervention and multiple third-party candidates make that election a hard one to extract guidance from.Guess what? Every election is conducted under a unique set of circumstances. Every election is a black-swan event. But that doesn't mean you should rewrite history to excuse your side's performance.The so-called "Comey intervention" has become a security blanket for Democrats unable to acknowledge that Hillary Clinton was merely acting in the same reckless and corrupt manner she always had. In reality, Democrats were incensed that the FBI director didn't bury evidence pertaining to an ongoing congressional investigation of their preferred candidate. They had demanded Comey operate as a political actor even before Trump won.Comey, a bureaucrat who likely had zero interest in angering the consensus front-runner for the presidency, had no choice but to inform Congress of this evidence. Not only because Department of Justice rules stipulate that relevant congressional committees should be apprised of new evidence when it appears, but because Comey had promised Congress after letting Clinton off the hook in July 2016 that he would notify it if new evidence emerged.New evidence did emerge, and there was nothing Comey could do about it. A high-level Hillary staffer, Huma Abedin, was in possession of classified emails that should have been handed over to the FBI. Moreover, her high-profile husband, Anthony Weiner, then under investigation for carrying on with an underaged girl, had access to those emails. If Comey had kept silent and that story had leaked out in bits and pieces later, it surely would have destroyed his career (and badly damaged Clinton).What's more, it takes some chutzpah to claim Comey doomed Clinton by revealing that story when he had previously intervened in the campaign to save her from becoming the first major-party presidential candidate to have to run under an indictment. The mass of evidence in the broader Clinton email scandal showed, at the very least, that her staff had engaged in lawlessness and obstructed justice in ways that make the actions of George Papadopoulos and Michael Flynn look piddling in contrast.What about the Russians? Well, they did not "meddle" or "interfere" in the presidential election as Pfeiffer claims. They tried but failed to interfere in the election, and probably could have changed votes, but didn't. Such an attack by a foreign power is a serious issue, but there is absolutely no evidence that a few Facebook ads or John Podesta's hacked emails changed voters' minds about the election.Nor is there any evidence that Clinton was uniquely hurt by third parties. Democrats might hate Jill Stein, but she won 1,457,218 votes, or around 1 percent of the vote. The Libertarian Party ticket of Gary Johnson and Bill Weld pulled in 4,489,341 votes, a better-than-usual performance for the party driven by antagonism toward the decidedly non-libertarian Trump. The Never Trump McMullin/Finn ticket won 731,991 votes from, one assumes, mostly disgruntled Republicans. Another 203,090 votes went to the Constitution Party, which definitely doesn't sound like a group that would appeal to most Democrats. In short, if anyone was hurt by third-party candidacies, it was probably Trump.In reality, there is plenty of guidance we can extract from 2016. "How did the party lose one of the most winnable elections in recent history?" Pfeiffer asks. Well, Trump's populism connected with voters in places such as Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania, voters who had been throwing Democrats out of office for almost the entirety of Obama's two terms. Clinton was a uniquely terrible candidate undone by her own grating personality, her insincerity, and her policy positions, all of which the party was aware of when it nominated her.Pfeiffer offers three really good pieces of advice to Democrats for winning in 2020: "do not make this election solely about Donald Trump," "find ways to frame this economy on your own terms," and "get out of the liberal Twitter bubble." But like most members of his tribe, he still hasn't come to terms with the reality of 2016.
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| Pope tenderly kissed on forehead by man in front-row seat Posted: 19 Feb 2020 10:44 AM PST  Well-wishers at Pope Francis' weekly audience have thrust soccer T-shirts, flowers and many a wailing baby into his arms. On Wednesday, Francis seemed to thoroughly enjoy a surprise expression of affection: a long, tender kiss planted on his forehead by a man in one of the front-row seats reserved for ailing or disabled people at the end of his audience. Francis appeared to be smiling when the man, who stood up when the pontiff approached to greet him and others in the front row, pulled the pope's head toward him and gave a kiss lasting several seconds, pressing his nose against Francis' forehead in the process.
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| Federal judges association holding emergency meeting over DOJ interference in Stone case Posted: 17 Feb 2020 09:47 PM PST  The Federal Judges Association will hold an emergency meeting on Tuesday to discuss concerns members have over President Trump and top Justice Department officials intervening in the case of longtime Trump friend and adviser Roger Stone.The association has more than 1,000 members, and says it supports a "fair, impartial, and independent judiciary." The group's president, U.S. District Judge Cynthia Rufe, told USA Today that members decided they "could not wait" until the organization's spring conference to address the matter. "There are plenty of issues that we are concerned about," added Rufe, a George W. Bush appointee. "We'll talk all of this through."Stone was found guilty of lying to Congress and witness tampering, and last week, Trump complained about federal prosecutors recommending Stone receive a sentence of seven to nine years. Attorney General William Barr and other DOJ leaders quickly reversed course on the recommendation, which resulted in the four Stone prosecutors quitting the case. On Friday, it was reported that Barr has also appointed an outside prosecutor to review the criminal case of Michael Flynn, Trump's first national security adviser. Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI, but has since backtracked, claiming he was coerced.Since an open letter was released on Sunday night, more than 2,000 former Justice Department officials have signed on, calling on Barr to resign. The letter says it is "unheard of for the department's top leaders to overrule line prosecutors, who are following established policies, in order to give preferential treatment to a close associate of the president, as Attorney General Barr did in the Stone case."More stories from theweek.com Mike Bloomberg is not the lesser of two evils The family of 1 new Trump pardon recipient donated $200,000 to Trump's re-election effort last fall Trump's pardon of Bernie Kerik also apparently wiped out Kerik's $103,300 debt to taxpayers
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| Security guard sentenced to prison for murdering US woman in Costa Rica Airbnb Posted: 18 Feb 2020 11:43 AM PST  A security guard for an apartment complex with Airbnb rental units has been sentenced to 16 years in prison for the 2018 murder of an American tourist.Carla Stefaniak, a Venezuelan-American who lived in Miami, was in San Jose, Costa Rica, celebrating her 36th birthday when she was brutally murdered.
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| China kicked out 3 Wall Street Journal reporters after it published an op-ed using a term that invokes the biggest humiliation in Chinese history Posted: 19 Feb 2020 03:32 AM PST  China's foreign ministry cited a February 3 headline, titled "China Is the Real Sick Man of Asia," as the immediate reason for the expulsions.
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| Russia Hates This: Why the Astute-Class Submarine Is the Pride of the Royal Navy Posted: 18 Feb 2020 04:45 PM PST  An excellent submarine.
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| Crash near Orlando kills 3 members of Massachusetts family; son, 11, on life support Posted: 19 Feb 2020 07:04 AM PST  The Smith and Fay families, who were vacationing together, were driving Tuesday night when a pickup truck rear-ended their vehicle, causing it to roll over.
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| 9 Rural Farms of the 21st Century Featuring Stunning Modern Design Posted: 19 Feb 2020 11:53 AM PST |
| Secession in the Pacific Northwest? Some Oregon residents petition to join Idaho Posted: 19 Feb 2020 05:22 AM PST  Frustrated by liberal policies, some Oregon residents petition to leave the state by moving the border with Idaho.
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| US judge sides with migrants in case against Border Patrol Posted: 19 Feb 2020 12:55 PM PST  Conditions at most Border Patrol facilities in Arizona are punitive and unconstitutional, a U.S. judge in Arizona said Wednesday while ruling in favor of migrants who have long-complained about inhumane and unsanitary conditions in holding cells. The ruling came weeks after the conclusion of a seven-day trial in which attorneys for migrants who sued in2015 argued that the agency holds immigrants in extremely cold, overcrowded, unsanitary and inhumane cells. The order makes permanent a preliminary injunction that U.S. District Court Judge David C. Bury issued in 2016 requiring the Tucson Sector to provide clean mats and thin blankets to migrants held for longer than 12 hours and to allow them to clean themselves.
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| A millionaire fashion designer is accused of sex trafficking and raping women and girls during 'pamper parties' at his exclusive Bahamas estate Posted: 19 Feb 2020 01:58 PM PST  Several women have come forward since the lawsuit was filed alleging they had been sexually abused by other men and women at the direction of Nygard, a lawyer for the plaintiffs told Insider.
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| Bloomberg campaign suggests other candidates drop out so Bloomberg can stop Sanders Posted: 19 Feb 2020 11:27 AM PST  Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) could soon build an "insurmountable" delegate lead, Michael Bloomberg's campaign warned in a memo, per Axios. And they think other, more centrist candidates should get out of the billionaire's way so he can stop him."The fact is if the state of this race remains status quo – with [former Vice President Joe] Biden, [former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor] Pete [Buttigieg], and [Sen.] Amy [Klobuchar (D-Minn.)] in the race on Super Tuesday — Bernie is likely to open up a delegate lead that seems nearly impossible to overcome," said Kevin Sheekey, Bloomberg's top strategist. "I don't think many people understand the dire consequences here."In the memo, Sheekey and his colleague Howard Wolfson, wrote the three candidates mentioned above have "no path" to accruing delegates and would essentially block Bloomberg from ably challenging Sanders.Former President Barack Obama's 2008 campaign manager David Plouffe backed up Sheekey's claim that Sanders could be close to locking things up, saying he'll "never relinquish" his lead if projections hold true and he's still on top after Super Tuesday in March. Read more at Axios.More stories from theweek.com Mike Bloomberg is not the lesser of two evils Has Trump solved his biggest 2016 campaign problem? Bernie Sanders aide denies report he considered a primary challenge to Obama
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| Virginia lawmakers reject assault weapons ban over fears of potential civil war Posted: 19 Feb 2020 07:11 AM PST  Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam's push to ban the sale of assault weapons has failed after members of his own party balked at the proposal. Senators voted to shelve the bill for the year and ask the state crime commission to study the issue, an outcome that drew cheers from a committee room packed with gun advocates.
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| 26 of the Best Stainless-Steel Bathroom Faucets Posted: 19 Feb 2020 12:29 PM PST |
| Russia raises eyebrows with blanket ban on Chinese visitors Posted: 19 Feb 2020 07:14 AM PST  Moscow is to impose a blanket ban on Chinese visitors over coronavirus fears in a move that will hit its tourism industry as experts question the need for such "draconian" measures. Moscow will ban all Chinese citizens from entering its territory from Thursday. It has already halted visa-free tourism for Chinese nationals and stopped issuing them with work visas and suspended rail links and restricted air travel.
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| Vegas debate: Growing animosity between Buttigieg, Klobuchar could flare up Posted: 19 Feb 2020 03:00 AM PST  The former South Bend mayor and the senator from Minnesota are competing for the same voters, and the fight is getting nasty.
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| Abbott says top Malaysian leaders suspected pilot of MH370 Posted: 19 Feb 2020 12:02 AM PST  Former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has said the "top levels" of the Malaysian government long suspected that the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 almost six years ago was a mass murder-suicide by the pilot. Australia, working on Malaysia's behalf, coordinated what became the largest search in aviation history, but it failed to find the plane before being ended in 2017. Speaking in a Sky News documentary to air on Wednesday and Thursday, Abbott said high-ranking Malaysian officials believed veteran pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah deliberately downed the jet.
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| Death toll from coronavirus surpasses 1,100; US confirms 13th case Posted: 19 Feb 2020 08:42 AM PST  The one-day death toll of 103 pushed the total past 1,000 and provided an ominous warning that the coronavirus epidemic was accelerating.
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| Chelsea Manning's lawyers renew call to release her from jail Posted: 19 Feb 2020 10:12 AM PST  * Incarceration is form of 'punitive sanction', says lawyer * Manning in jail after refusing to testify before grand juryLawyers acting for Chelsea Manning, the former US army intelligence analyst who leaked hundreds of thousands of secret documents to WikiLeaks, have renewed efforts to secure her release after almost a year of incarceration.The former soldier's attorney, Moira Meltzer-Cohen, has lodged a motion with a federal court in the eastern district of Virginia calling for her to be set free more than 11 months after she was detained.Manning is being held at the Alexandria detention center after she refused to testify before a federal grand jury investigating WikiLeaks and its founder Julian Assange.In December the UN's special rapporteur on torture, Nils Melzer, denounced Manning's ongoing incarceration as itself a form of torture. In addition to being jailed the former soldier is also being heavily penalized financially.For every day she refuses to testify, she is being fined $1,000. The total has already reached about $230,000.In the motion for release, Meltzer-Cohen decries Manning's prolonged incarceration as a form of unlawful "punitive sanction" on the grounds that it is serving no purpose because the inmate will never be coerced into testifying.As the motion puts it: "Over the last decade Chelsea Manning has shown unwavering resolve in the face of censure, punishment, and even threats of violence. As Ms Manning's resolve not to testify has been unwavering, and as her moral conviction has become only more developed since her confinement, her incarceration is not serving its only permissible purpose."Manning, who spent seven years in military prison for her massive intelligence dump to WikiLeaks in 2010, refused to testify to the grand jury on a point of principle.In a statement she explained her position was based on "my long standing belief that grand juries, as they function in the contemporary era, are often used by federal prosecutors to harass and disrupt political opponents and activists through secrecy, coercion, and jailing without trial".She added: "No matter how much you punish me, I will remain confident in my decision."Manning initially refused to testify before a grand jury in the eastern district of Virginia in March 2019. She was called to ask questions about WikiLeaks and Assange who had been the subject of a secret US government investigation for years.Assange is now being held in Belmarsh prison in London. He faces extradition proceedings to the US after a grand jury returned 18 charges against him relating to receiving secret diplomatic and military documents.
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| Michael Bloomberg is not the candidate who can beat Donald Trump Posted: 19 Feb 2020 07:21 AM PST  Michael Bloomberg is trying to hide his Republican New York City mayoral record.
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| Note to Trump: America Should Not Send B-52 Bombers To Israel Posted: 18 Feb 2020 07:29 PM PST  Israel doesn't need them.
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| Pompeo says 'mature, responsible countries' don't 'restrict speech' after China expels reporters Posted: 19 Feb 2020 10:35 AM PST  Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is condemning China for its decision to expel three reporters from The Wall Street Journal from the country."Mature, responsible countries understand that a free press reports facts and expresses opinions," Pompeo said in a statement on Wednesday. "The correct response is to present counter arguments, not restrict speech."This came after China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said three journalists from the Journal would have their credentials revoked over the paper's recent headline, "China Is the Real Sick Man of Asia," The New York Times reports. The reporters weren't actually involved with the article, which was an opinion piece, but Beijing called the story "racist" and "malicious." The journalists, two of whom are American and one of whom is Australian, have been ordered to leave China within five days, although the Times notes it's not clear if that's possible, as one of is currently in Wuhan, the epicenter of the coronavirus.Journal editor Matt Murray called China's actions "harsh and unprecedented," saying the paper "will continue in the coming days to push for this action to be reversed." The Foreign Correspondents' Club also called the expulsion "an extreme and obvious attempt by the Chinese authorities to intimidate foreign news organizations." The Journal noted this is "the first time in the post-Mao era that the Chinese government has expelled multiple journalists from one international news organization at the same time."Pompeo's condemnation came after he warned African countries in a speech Wednesday to "be wary of authoritarian regimes and their empty promises" in an apparent swipe at China. The State Department also told China Tuesday that five major Chinese news outlets will be treated as foreign state operatives by the United States going forward.More stories from theweek.com Mike Bloomberg is not the lesser of two evils Has Trump solved his biggest 2016 campaign problem? Bernie Sanders aide denies report he considered a primary challenge to Obama
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| Turkey reveals new plan to buy drones, helicopters and air defense systems Posted: 18 Feb 2020 10:41 AM PST  Turkey's defense procurement agency has unveiled an ambitious procurement plan for 2020, even as its economy seeks to recover from a recession and the government spends money fighting wars in multiple theaters, including Iraq and Syria.
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| Obama Team Asked Harry Reid to Quash Bernie Sanders’s 2011 Primary Challenge: Report Posted: 19 Feb 2020 11:11 AM PST  Former Senate Majority Leader and Nevada Democrat Harry Reid convinced Bernie Sanders not to mount a primary run against former President Barack Obama in 2011, according to The Atlantic.Reid was reportedly tasked by an "absolutely panicked" Obama campaign team to dissuade Sanders — who had privately disclosed his intentions to fellow Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy — because they were fearful that Sanders would pose a serious challenge."Every president who has gotten a real primary has lost a general," Obama's 2012 reelection-campaign manager Jim Messina told The Atlantic.After being told of the situation by Leahy, Messina then asked Reid to talk Sanders out of the race. The two men reportedly discussed the matter twice over the summer of 2011, with Reid telling Sanders that he needed to stop. The dialogue proved fruitful: Sanders never entered the race.Reid, though retired, made headlines Wednesday by telling Bloomberg News that Sanders's primary opponents need to "speak up" if they "don't like what Bernie's doing.""If Bernie is the one that comes out ahead, we'll just have to see what happen," Reid said, remaining coy on who he supported in the race. "But if people don't like what he does, they're going to have to start saying they don't like it rather than pat him on the back." He added that the other Democrats need to shift their strategy and start taking initiative, rather than thinking "'if I say something negative, maybe people won't like me.'"Reid also said Saturday that "people should not be counting Joe Biden out of the race yet."Last week, Nevada's politically-powerful culinary union decided not to endorse a Democratic nominee for the state' upcoming primary caucus, with Politico reporting that the union's top adviser helped the group arrive at its decision after "multiple conversations" with Reid.The culinary union circulated a flyer to its 60,000 members ahead of the announcement which highlighted that Sanders would "end Culinary Healthcare."
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| 'Gun Girl' Kaitlin Bennett's appearance on Ohio University campus sparks protests Posted: 18 Feb 2020 12:58 PM PST  The provocateur posted video of herself in a truck as students threw drinks and shouted expletives at her as the vehicle attempted to leave.
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| Maduro accused of "disappearing" US oilmen as trial delayed Posted: 19 Feb 2020 12:07 PM PST  Family members of six American oil executives jailed in Venezuela are accusing Nicolas Maduro's government of "forced disappearance" after the men were inexplicably missing for the scheduled start of their trial on Wednesday. Veronica Vadell said that lawyers for her father, Tomeu Vadell, and the five other executives from Houston-based Citgo had been waiting at a Caracas courthouse for more than six hours for the men to be transferred by the nation's intelligence police. The arrest took place the same day opposition leader Juan Guaidó met with President Donald Trump at the White House, fueling speculation the detention was politically motivated.
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| What happened to winter? And where's the polar vortex? Posted: 19 Feb 2020 01:30 PM PST  The first two months of winter – December and January – were the warmest on record across the U.S.
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| Death row inmate scheduled to die by electric chair loses last attempt at life in prison Posted: 19 Feb 2020 03:31 PM PST  The Tennessee governor has denied clemency to a murderer on death row following a last-ditch effort to get him life in prison made by multiple people, including a former guard who says the man saved his life.Nicholas Sutton, 58, is scheduled to die by electric chair on Thursday evening for the 1985 murder of inmate Carl Estep.
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| Have we reached peak Bloomberg? New poll shows potential drop off and a spike in dissatisfaction Posted: 19 Feb 2020 10:59 AM PST  Insider's latest poll shows stalling support behind Michael Bloomberg, with his dissatisfaction numbers spiking between New Hampshire and this week.
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| Donald Trump Thinks Climate Change Is a Hoax. The U.S. Military Disagrees. Posted: 19 Feb 2020 05:18 AM PST  They've been warning pretty loudly about it.
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| Malaysia suspected MH370 downed in murder-suicide: Aussie ex-PM Posted: 19 Feb 2020 02:11 AM PST  Former Australian prime minister Tony Abbott has claimed "very top" level Malaysian officials believed vanished Flight MH370 was deliberately downed by the captain in a mass murder-suicide. No sign of the plane was found in a 120,000-square kilometre (46,000-square mile) Indian Ocean search zone and the Australian-led search, the largest in aviation history, was suspended in January 2017. The disappearance of the plane has long been the subject of a host of theories -- ranging from the credible to outlandish -- including that veteran pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah had gone rogue.
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| Tennessee death row inmates wrestle with how to die Posted: 19 Feb 2020 07:44 AM PST  After more than three decades on death row, Don Johnson weighed the options for his own demise: He could keep a promise to his daughter that he wouldn't die in the electric chair. Or, he could opt for the chair and avoid a method that he had heard might make him feel like he was being buried alive.
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| Obama reportedly expects he'll have to play a 'prominent role' in uniting Democrats this summer Posted: 18 Feb 2020 09:15 AM PST  Expect former President Barack Obama's radio silence on the 2020 Democratic primary to continue in the coming months. After all, he's reportedly got a very specific reason for staying out of it.Obama has intentionally remained on the sidelines throughout the primary so far, not throwing his support behind any candidate, including former Vice President Joe Biden. This, New York Magazine reports, is part of a "choreographed strategy" on the part of Obama, who is "increasingly sure he will need to play a prominent role in bringing the party back together and calming its tensions later this summer."Between now and then, Obama is "committed to not allowing his personal thoughts to dribble out" into the open, the report says, since this might make it more challenging for him to serve as an "honest broker." Apparently, this effort could be going better considering this very same report features a few of Obama's personal thoughts, including that he's supposedly "unimpressed" with Biden's campaign.A Fox Business report recently suggested Obama was considering speaking out about Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) as he becomes nervous that he'll secure the Democratic nomination. But there's reportedly not much truth to that, and a source told New York Magazine, "there is no way Barack Obama is intervening, unless something very strange happens."In fact, Obama reportedly isn't paying a whole lot of attention to the "day-to-day dynamics" of the race, following it through newspaper reports but not even watching all of the Democratic debates. But Obama is reportedly "sure that he'll have to catch up" on these dynamics he's been missing out on later, meaning some binge-watching of the Democratic primary may soon be in the cards. Read the full report at New York Magazine.More stories from theweek.com How to ensure it's a boy (according to 100-year-old pregnancy guides) Has Trump solved his biggest 2016 campaign problem? Mike Bloomberg is not the lesser of two evils
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| Some Americans are attempting the journey back home to Wuhan Posted: 19 Feb 2020 08:05 AM PST  "I was married in Wuhan. I had a son in Wuhan. Wuhan is my home, and I will forever be tied to this city, so I need to be there," Christopher Suzanne said.
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| Ex-S. Korea President Lee sent back to jail over corruption Posted: 19 Feb 2020 01:05 AM PST |
| New coronavirus spreads more like flu than SARS: Chinese study Posted: 19 Feb 2020 03:31 PM PST  Scientists in China who studied nose and throat swabs from 18 patients infected with the new coronavirus say it behaves much more like influenza than other closely related viruses, suggesting it may spread even more easily than previously believed. In at least in one case, the virus was present even though the patient had no symptoms, confirming concerns that asymptomatic patients could also spread the disease. Although preliminary, the findings published on Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine, offer new evidence that this novel coronavirus, which has killed more than 2,000 people mostly in China, is not like its closely-related coronavirus cousins.
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| What liberals and conservatives get wrong about free expression on college campuses Posted: 19 Feb 2020 06:00 AM PST  When it comes to understanding disputes over free expression on college campuses, such as speakers getting disinvited or having their speeches interrupted, conservatives tend to blame liberal professors for indoctrinating students and ostracizing those who don't agree with liberal viewpoints. One prominent conservative organization, Turning Point USA, has gone so far as to create a database of faculty it says "discriminate against conservative students and advance leftist propaganda in the classroom."Liberals, in contrast, argue that concerns about free speech on college campuses are overblown. They also accuse conservatives of co-opting the language of free speech proponents in an effort to falsely position themselves as victims.Our research indicates that each of these narratives is flawed. We are researchers who study political behavior, as well as strategies for business.For the past year, we have been studying free expression issues at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a campus that has had a number of flare-ups related to free expression in recent years. We wanted to look beyond single episodes and better understand the typical student's experience concerning free expression.We found that students who identify with the political right do indeed face fears of being ostracized that students who identify with the left do not. However, we also found signs that right-leaning students worry at least as much about reactions from peers as from faculty. Much of this plays out silently in classrooms at Chapel Hill and – we believe – at other colleges and universities throughout the nation. It's not about professorsFor our research, we sent surveys to all 20,343 students – the entire undergraduate population at Chapel Hill. Two-thousand of these students (randomly selected) were offered a US$10 incentive to participate in the survey. This feature helped ensure we heard from a representative cross section of students. We received 1,087 complete responses. About half of those respondents were those who got $10 for their participation.For each student who responded, we randomly chose one class from their schedule and asked – for that particular class – how many times during the semester they kept a sincere opinion related to class to themselves because they were worried about the consequences of expressing it. We found a large liberal/conservative divide – 23% of self-identified liberals said they censored themselves at least once, while 68% of self-identified conservatives did so.You might presume that behavior by instructors is to blame for this stark difference. But the evidence we gathered does not seem to support this view.We asked students whether their course instructor "encouraged participation from liberals and conservatives alike." Only 2% of liberal students and 11% of conservatives disagreed that the instructor did so. Similarly, only 6% of liberals and 14% of conservatives disagreed that the same instructor "was interested in learning from people with opinions that differed from the instructor's own opinions." These are low numbers and the splits are small. They are simply not what one would expect if the narrative that liberal instructors try to indoctrinate their students were broadly true. Fears about peersIn contrast, students reported substantially more anxiety about how their own peers would respond to expressing sincere political views – and the divides between liberal and conservative students are larger. Seventy-five percent of conservative students said they were concerned that other students would have a lower opinion of them if they expressed their sincere political views in class. But only 26% of liberal students had this concern. Forty-three percent of conservative students were concerned about a negative post on social media. Only 10% of liberal students had this concern.Pressures that disproportionately affect right-leaning students were evident outside the classroom as well. We asked how often students hear "disrespectful, inappropriate, or offensive comments" about 12 social groups on campus. Students – even those who identify as liberal – acknowledged hearing such comments directed at political conservatives far more often than at any other group.We also examined whether liberal or conservative students might be more inclined to employ obstructionist tactics, such as blocking the entrance to a public event that featured a speaker with whom they disagree. To do this in an evenhanded way, we presented students with a list of ten political opinions. Then we asked them to choose the opinion that they find most objectionable. We chose a slate of opinions that really exist at UNC, such as ones concerning affirmative action, LGBT rights, and Silent Sam – a Confederate monument that is subject of a long-running campus controversyAfter students chose which opinion they found most objectionable, we asked whether it would be appropriate to take various actions toward people who hold that view. Nearly 20% of liberal respondents indicated it would be appropriate to prevent other students from hearing a campus speaker express the disliked view. But just 3% or less of moderate and conservative respondents indicated that doing so was appropriate.In order to better understand the typical experience of a university student, we believe it's important to go beyond singular dramatic confrontations. The deeper story about free expression on campus, as our study shows, is not just about the shouting that takes place during high-profile incidents on campus. It's also about what students say – and feel compelled to keep to themselves – in lecture halls and classrooms throughout the school year.[Expertise in your inbox. Sign up for The Conversation's newsletter and get a digest of academic takes on today's news, every day.]This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts.Read more: * Campus free speech laws being enacted in many states, but some may do more harm than good * Four campus free speech problems solvedThe authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
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| A staggering 542 passengers have been diagnosed with COVID-19 on the quarantined Diamond Princess cruise ship Posted: 18 Feb 2020 09:30 AM PST  "The quarantine process failed," said the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
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