Newsweek 3/4/2016

Columbia, South Carolina—Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush returns to his bus on February 18, two days before suspending his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination after a fourth-place finish in South Carolina’s primary. Despite name recognition and a sizable war chest, Bush failed to mobilize enough support to contend with the GOP front-runners, such as Donald Trump, who won this primary by more than 10 percentage points over his closest competitors. After Bush’s exit, several of his donors pledged to back Florida Senator Marco Rubio, his onetime protégé…

London—Mayor Boris Johnson announces on February 21 that he will campaign for Britain to leave the European Union. Johnson is among the most popular Conservatives in Britain, so his declaration was a blow to Prime Minister David Cameron, who negotiated revised membership terms for Britain in the EU before calling for a referendum to take place on June 23. Polls suggest most Britons would vote to stay in the EU, but the margin is narrowing because of fears about the growing numbers of migrants and refugees, as well as criticism of how Europe has handled that crisis.…

Ggaba, Uganda—A policeman struggles to keep hold of a ballot box as hundreds of voters who had waited more than seven hours to cast ballots surround him on February 18. President Yoweri Museveni, who has ruled Uganda for 30 years, was declared the winner of the election, but the United States and the European Union criticized the harassment of opposition figures and other problems with the vote. The main opposition leader, Kizza Besigye, who was put under house arrest after the election, called it a sham.…

AMERICANS no longer deserve America. The Founding Fathers’ experiment in democracy, forged in blood and scholarship, has failed. There is no other way to interpret the obscene debate that has enveloped the country since the death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. Almost before Scalia’s body went cold, prominent Republicans rushed to proclaim they would never vote to confirm any nominee submitted by President Barack Obama to fill the vacancy. Their declaration stemmed from a bizarre, anti-constitutional argument that a president should be allowed to have any Supreme Court nomination confirmed only during 75 percent of the executive term of office. Make no mistake: That is exactly what the Republicans are saying with their “a president shouldn’t have the power to select a justice in an election year.” (Or is it just…

“I WAS A SMALL LAMB IN A WOLF’S DEN, BUT I WAS NOT AFRAID.” AS THE BAND began playing a Latin-style beat, only Sahar Arian’s silhouette was visible to TV audiences across Afghanistan. Slumped onstage, microphone in hand, she began singing cloaked in darkness. “Poets only see my body in a poetic way,” she sang mournfully, in Persian. “When I bared my soul, they laughed at me.” In late January, millions of Afghans watched Arian’s performance on Afghan Star, a wildly popular singing contest modeled on American Idol. As the lights illuminated the 23-year-old singer, one of only two female contestants, it became apparent this wasn’t an ordinary performance. It was a protest. Cloaked in a blue burqa, pulled back to show her face, Arian had smeared on dramatic makeup to simulate…

Proportion of English JUNIOR DOCTORS WHO VOTED TO STRIKE over a proposed new contract BASIC SALARY for a junior doctor in England, equivalent to $32,900 Junior doctors in England start on a basic salary of a little under £23,000 ($32,900), so you’d think they’d be happy to be offered a pay raise of 13.5 percent. Not so fast. The government wants to change the way overtime is calculated in return, making most hours worked on Saturday normal hours rather than overtime—a move that would leave many of them losing out. Asked to vote on a proposed new contract in November, 98 percent voted to strike. They’ve held two 24-hour stoppages this year, the first strike action by English doctors in 40 years. The latest, on February 10-11, led to the cancellation of…