The Washington Post stories, Page 16
Smallest and farthest worlds ever explored by NASA are really weird
HOUSTON — In recent months, NASA has explored the smallest object ever orbited and the most distant body ever encountered — and found that both worlds are weirder than anyone could have imagined. The 800-foot-wide asteroid Bennu, which is being studied by the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft, produces strange plumes of dust...
Militant groups use New Zealand mosque shootings to spread hate
Militant groups are using the attacks at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, to spread a message of hate, pushing a narrative that says the West is at war with Islam and Muslims worldwide, security officials and experts say. Al-Qaida, the Islamic State and other groups have cited the massacre,...
Trump attacks John McCain again, saying he didn’t get ‘thank-you’ for approving funeral
WASHINGTON — President Trump continued Wednesday to attack the late Sen. John McCain, even as a growing number of Republican senators rose to McCain’s defense, calling him a war hero and a patriot — although most were careful not to criticize the president directly. During a White House event at...
Britain’s Theresa May asks EU for 3-month Brexit delay
LONDON — One thousand days after British voters said they wanted to leave the European Union, Prime Minister Theresa May conceded Wednesday that she now must ask EU leaders to delay Brexit for three months — because Parliament has failed to pass her unloved deal for departure. Standing in the...
Spy cameras secretly live-streamed 1,600 hotel guests for subscribers
Four individuals were booked by authorities in Seoul on Wednesday for live-streaming secretly obtained video feed from dozens of local hotel rooms, South Korean police said. The Korean Herald reported that since launching in November, the site sold monthly subscriptions, raking in more than $6,000. It had more than 4,000...
God, country and chickenpox: How outbreak entangled school in vaccine showdown
Bill Kunkel used to vaccinate his kids, before he read where some vaccines come from. He is skeptical of the pharmaceutical industry’s motives and came across anti-vaxxer theories online, though they aren’t supported by science. But his main objection is about abortion. Decades ago, cells were taken from legally aborted...
Analysis: Mike Trout, baseball’s $430 million man, is actually underpaid
Mike Trout’s nearly completed 12-year, roughly $430 million contract extension with the Los Angeles Angels, which when finalized would set a new benchmark for North American sports, will undoubtedly spark a new round of complaints and criticism, not exactly unfounded, that athletes are egregiously overpaid relative to their contributions to...
Loss of old Myspace artifacts highlights impermanence of the Web
The most surprising thing people may learn about Myspace this week is that it still exists. But the old social network’s accidental purge of 12 years’ worth of its users’ music uploads - that’s an estimated 50 million songs - is probably a close second. The tremendous loss of digital...
West Virginia lawsuit accuses diocese of knowingly employing pedophilesVideo
West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey sued the Catholic diocese of Wheeling-Charleston and its former bishop Michael Bransfield on Tuesday, charging that they “knowingly employed pedophiles and failed to conduct adequate background checks” for people working in Catholic schools and camps, a news release from Morrisey’s office says. The lawsuit,...
Mike Trout, Angels reportedly finalizing a record 12-year, $430 million extension
The climax of an offseason spent contemplating and debating the value of some of baseball’s biggest stars, as it turns out, was not the record-setting free agent contracts signed last month by Manny Machado and Bryce Harper, but what reportedly came Tuesday: a massive extension for Los Angeles Angels center...
Elizabeth Warren wants to kill the electoral college
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., on Monday endorsed ending the electoral college, arguing for a system where “every vote matters.” Many Democrats, including Warren, have disparaged the electoral college following the presidential election results in 2000 and 2016, when Al Gore and Hillary Clinton both won the national popular vote, yet...
Blake Bortles signs with Rams on one-year deal to back up Jared Goff
If Jared Goff gets injured next season, the Rams will be able to call on the BOAT to keep their quarterback situation afloat. The team announced Monday that it signed former Jaguars starter Blake Bortles to a one-year deal. Bortles, whose BOAT (as in “best of all time”) nickname comes...
Alan Krueger, former White House economist, dead at 58 from suicide
Alan Krueger, a labor economist who advised two presidents and drew on empirical research, rather than abstract theories, to generate surprising insights into the impact of minimum wage increases, the origins of terrorists and the rising price of concert tickets, has died. He was 58. He died by suicide over...
New Zealand prime minister says gun reforms are coming
CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand – New Zealand’s coalition government plans to announce gun law changes within the next week in response to Friday’s deadly shooting rampage at two mosques in Christchurch, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said Monday. The measures could include restricting the military-style semiautomatic weapons that were used in the...
NCAA tournament gambling guide: Will the underdogs have their day?
According to an American Gaming Association survey, 47 million Americans will wager $8.5 billion on the NCAA tournament this year, and while more than half of that astounding sum will be wagered via bracket pools, $3.9 billion will be bet on the games themselves via a sportsbook (either in person...
Rousing theories on why yawning is so contagious
Have you ever found yourself starting to yawn just because you saw someone else do it? It’s not your imagination: Yawns really are contagious! In fact, humans can feel the urge to yawn after seeing, hearing or even just thinking about someone else doing it. Scientists have been trying for...
10 mistakes to avoid when spring-cleaning your house
Another year, another article telling you how to spring-clean your home. Not so! In fact, we’re here to tell you what not to do when giving your house the deep clean it so deserves this time of year. Here are 10 cleaning mistakes you’ll want to avoid this spring. 1....
Create a morning sanctuary with a well-ordered coffee station
Tricia Huntley says coffee is a priority for her, but there is no way she could start her day at a chaotic Starbucks. Her morning Zen moment begins at the charming coffee station she created in her Washington home. The ritual starts with grinding Peet’s French Roast beans, brewing the...
RNC links ‘noted Irishman’ Beto O’Rourke’s heritage to 1998 DWI arrestVideo
The Republican National Committee on Sunday sent out a tweet linking Democratic 2020 presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke’s Irish heritage to his 1998 drunken-driving arrest, in an attack that Democrats and some Republicans criticized as being based on stereotypes. Republicans have previously sought to focus attention on O’Rourke’s DWI arrest, but...
Sen. Bernie Sanders’s presidential campaign staff will join a union
Employees on Sen. Bernie Sanders’s presidential campaign are joining a labor union, officials announced Friday, a historic move that comes amid a Democratic primary featuring intense competition for working-class voters. All campaign employees below the rank of deputy director will be represented by the United Food & Commercial Workers Local...
Former HUD contract specialist pleads guilty in bribery scheme
WASHINGTON — A former contract specialist for the U.S. Housing and Urban Development agency has pleaded guilty in a federal bribery scheme that involved giving private information on contracts to a Maryland business in exchange for more than $38,000 in money, travel and hotels, and tickets to Washington Redskins and...
‘Our friends are dying, so we march’
WASHINGTON - On Thursday morning, a curious scene emerged on Pennsylvania Avenue: Between the throngs of tourists snapping photos of the Washington Monument and commuters rushing to work, high school students pushed their way toward the White House. At 9 a.m., hundreds of teenagers from the District and suburban Maryland...
O’Rourke’s history with big pro-GOP donors
EL PASO, Texas - Before Beto O’Rourke became the darling of liberal online donors, his top financial backers hailed from a different set entirely: wealthy businessmen who have sought political influence by collectively donating millions of dollars to Republicans. Several of El Paso’s richest business moguls donated to and raised...
What a spike in toilet paper sales says about Brexit
While British lawmakers fumble through Brexit negotiations, sales of two items might hint at how the public is bracing for impact: toilet paper and painkillers. On a recent earnings call, David Potts, chief executive of British supermarket Morrisons, said the chain had seen a “small amount” of stockpiling, and that...
Why Wikipedia will go offline for 24 hours in Germany
BERLIN — Online encyclopedia Wikipedia’s German edition will go offline for 24 hours next Thursday as its authors try to rally Europeans against a proposed European Union law that would tighten online copyright regulations. Critics fear that the directive could pose risks to freedom of speech in Europe. If E.U....
