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Turkey’s mass trials come to an end, a French city opens its borders to migrants, and milk isn’t just for mammals. Here’s the latest:
Turkey’s mass trials deepen wounds
Courts are close to concluding the mass trials of thousands of security personnel and civilians accused of involvement in a failed coup attempt in 2016 that left 251 people dead and more than 2,000 wounded.
The trials have widened political divisions in the country and deepened a sense of persecution among opponents of the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The government and its supporters are welcoming the sweeping verdicts, but critics say the process has been deeply flawed.
The scene: Tensions run high in many of the trials. Government supporters erupt with anger, and police officers and prison guards line courtrooms the size of sports arenas. The judges are often disdainful, and critics say they are far from impartial.
Further arrests: Mr. Erdogan’s government continues to crack down weekly on those suspected of being associated with the man it accuses of organizing the plot, the Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen. Mr. Gulen, who lives in the United States, has also been indicted, but Americans say there is not enough evidence for his extradition.
Republicans pressure Trump to accept border deal
President Trump said he was “not happy” with a bipartisan border security compromise negotiated by congressional leaders in time to avert another partial government shutdown, but he did not say whether he would veto it.
Details: The deal would provide $1.375 billion for physical barriers at the southern border with Mexico, far lower than the $5.7 billion Mr. Trump had demanded. And it would allow for 55 miles of new fencing, a fraction of the 200-mile steel-and-concrete wall the president had envisioned.
The deal appeared to be a win for Democrats, who were able to weave in a reduction in the number of migrants and undocumented immigrants who can be held in detention centers.
What’s next? The deal could be finalized rapidly but would still need to be approved by both the House and Senate, as well as Mr. Trump.
Go deeper: In an interactive, we lay out what barriers are already in place on the southern border.
One of Huawei’s most prized European markets at risk
For the last four years, the Chinese technology giant has had a contract to fulfill the communication needs of the Czech president, Milos Zeman, and his staff.
But in recent months, parts of the Czech government have taken aggressive steps to limit the use of Huawei in 5G technology — to the surprise of Mr. Zeman, who is known for being close to China. The fight is being watched across Europe, where the company is running into increasing difficulty.
The response: Huawei has threatened legal action against the Czech cybersecurity agency, which labeled the company a national security threat, as well as economic retaliation against the country.
Bigger picture: The U.S. has aggressively engaged in a campaign warning European countries to steer clear of Chinese technology companies, like Huawei, that officials view as proxies for espionage.
The company also stands in the cross hairs of the U.S.-China trade war that has yet to be resolved, with negotiations underway in Beijing this week. Mr. Trump said that if the talks went well, he would consider delaying the March 2 deadline to reach a trade deal and the higher tariffs on Chinese goods that would come with it.
A French mayor at the front line of migration
The French government disapproves, but one local mayor doesn’t care: He says he’ll continue sheltering Africans crossing the Spanish border into France.
For Jean-René Etchegaray, the mayor of Bayonne, welcoming migrants into the small French Basque Country city is a humanitarian obligation. He wants the migrants, while in his city, to exist in a “condition of dignity,” as he put it. “I don’t think I can do less,” he said.
Background: Since Italy all but closed its borders to migrants and France has tried to close its border to migrants coming from Italy, Spain has become the prime gateway into Europe for migrants from Africa, with more than 57,000 arriving last year.
Pushback: The mayor’s approach has pitted him against President Emmanuel Macron, even as he has become a case study for how to manage Europe’s migration crisis. The government has not offered any aid.
Here’s what else is happening
Brexit: Prime Minister Theresa May pleaded with British lawmakers to wait another two weeks before they vote on her Brexit plan and possibly seize control of the process. The British leader says she needs more time to negotiate with the E.U., but critics say she is trying to pressure Parliament by running down the clock on the March 29 deadline for withdrawal.
France: Anti-Semitic episodes have risen sharply, jumping 74 percent last year, officials said. The figures illustrate the rise of the far right, especially online.
El Chapo: The Mexican drug kingpin was found guilty after a three-month trial in New York that exposed the inner workings of his brutal and corrupt cartel. He faces life in prison.
Germany: A police official says that Facebook-based misinformation has become such a serious threat to public safety that he has set up a special team to fight rumors through on-the-ground detective work.
Spain: Twelve people went on trial for their roles in Catalonia’s attempt to secede from Spain in 2017, and Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez is scrambling to keep the issue from toppling his leadership.
Both scales address two major calibration points (freezing and boiling), but divide the temperature range between them in differently sized degrees. There are a lot more degrees in Fahrenheit, and the two intersect at just that one point.
Daniel Fahrenheit, an 18th-century physicist and inventor, made his scale for a mercury-in-glass thermometer that was the first accurate and practical way to measure temperature.
He used a frigid mix of ice, water and salt to define zero degrees. Then he borrowed and refined other reference points from an existing scale, which is how other commonly used points ended up with untidy values like 32 for water’s freezing point and 212 for its boiling point.
Anders Celsius, whose lifetime overlapped Fahrenheit’s, set those reference points at 100 for freezing and zero for boiling. Those were reversed after his death.
Kenneth Chang, a science reporter who says he “hates the Fahrenheit scale — and miles and ounces and those other British units that even the British dropped decades ago,” wrote today’s Back Story.
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