These are the top maybe-not headlines from the past 36-hours presented by The Conversation Project from raw engagement data from our social media to the headlines posted over the past day.
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The 8 topics that our followers ranked as the most conversational are:
SYRIAN GIRL WHO WENT VIRAL LAUGHING AT BOMBS IN IDLIB MAKES IT TO SAFETY IN TURKEY
Video of three-year-old Salwa Mohammad laughing at the sound of bombs slamming down near her home in Syria’s last frontline city of Iblid went viral last month. Desperate to help his daughter get over her fear of the bombing raids, Abdullah Mohammad made a game out of it, showing her videos of other children letting off fireworks with glee and teaching her that loud noises can be funny. According to BBC News, he said the unusual tactic changed his daughter’s attitude to the thunder of war, helping her keep calm and happy throughout the bombings. Relentless bombing raids have left hundreds dead in Idlib since the Russian-backed offensive by Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad’s forces began late last year, aiming to reclaim the last urban area held by rebels. The United Nations says about 1 million people have fled their homes in the region.
[SOURCE: cbsnews.com]
BASKETBALL RECRUIT ASHLEY JAMES DIES IN ACCIDENTAL SHOOTING
Ashley James, a three-star shooting guard for the 2020 recruiting class out of Chatham (Va.) Hargrave Military Academy who also known as AJ, died Monday evening in an accidental shooting, according to Chesapeake (Va.) Police Department spokesperson Leo Kosinksi. According to Larry Rubama of the Norfolk (Va.) Virginian-Pilot, Kosinski said that the 19-year-old James suffered a gunshot wound in the 600 block of Montauk Lane. James received emergency medical care after police responded to a report of an injured person. An investigation into the situation determined that he was at the location with another adult made and handling a handgun before it went off and killed him. There was no criminal intent, according to Kosinski. Therefore, Kosinski said, no criminal charges were filed.
[SOURCE: 247sports.com]
BLOOMBERG ENDS PRESIDENTIAL RUN AND ENDORSES BIDEN AFTER SUPER TUESDAY REJECTION
After spending more than half a billion dollars and winning an estimated 31 delegates on Super Tuesday, former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg ended his presidential run in the face of a stinging rejection by Democratic primary voters, saying he no longer has a path to the nomination. Bloomberg released a statement saying he would be leaving the race and endorsing Joe Biden. Bloomberg said Wednesday that it had become evident Biden is the candidate to unite behind with the best chance at defeating Mr. Trump in November.
[SOURCE: cbsnews.com]
RONAN FARROW CALLS OUT HIS PUBLISHER AFTER THEY ACQUIRED FATHER WOODY ALLEN’S MEMOIR
Ronan Farrow says he “can’t work with” his publisher Hachette after the company acquired his father Woody Allen’s memoir. Grand Central Publishing, a division of Hachette Book Group, announced Monday that the book is called “Apropos of Nothing” and will be released April 7. One day later Farrow shared on Twitter that he was “disappointed” that Hachette went behind his back to obtain Allen’s memoir, which Farrow claims hasn’t been fact checked. The Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist said his sister Dylan – who has long accused Allen of molesting her as a child – was never contacted by any fact checkers to verify her father’s memoir. He called Hachette’s behavior “wildly unprofessional,” adding that the book publisher displayed “a lack of ethics and compassion for victims of sexual abuse.”
[SOURCE: msn.com]
NICKI MINAJ’S HUSBAND ARRESTED FOR NOT REGISTERING AS SEX OFFENDER
According to TMZ, Kenneth Petty turned himself in to federal Marshals on Wednesday. He is set to face a judge later today. Petty moved to California in July 2019, but his legal troubles started last fall when he was pulled over in Beverly Hills. During a traffic stop on Nov. 15, the Beverly Hills Police Department determined that Petty was a registered sex offender in New York state but had not registered in California. The L.A. County D.A. charged him for failing to register as a sex offender and released him on a $20,000 bond. It appears he still didn’t register after the incident and has now been indicted in federal court for failing to register. Petty was convicted in 1995 for first-degree attempted rape. He served almost four years in NY state prison for the crime and was required to register as a sex offender.
[SOURCE: rap-up.com]
YANKEES CHANGING THE WAY THEY DEAL WITH AUTOGRAPH SEEKERS AMID CORONAVIRUS FEARS
Stuck all day in close, contained areas with an overload of fan interaction, it’s only natural the Yankees are at least moderately spooked as the coronavirus begins its spread into the U.S. With a few confirmed cases in Florida, MLB teams fighting through Spring Training are taking moderate precaution when possible, though no extreme measures seem likely to be unilaterally implemented. Among the light recommendations that seem commonplace now? No more autographs, if you feel comfortable avoiding them. This advice is taking among some Yankees, it seems, but not others.
[SOURCE: msn.com]
MANY YOUNG VOTERS SAT OUT SUPER TUESDAY, CONTRIBUTING TO BERNIE SANDERS’ LOSSES
Young voters cheer Bernie Sanders’ anti-establishment message. They turn out in throngs at his rallies. And they form the core of his grassroots efforts to win the Democratic presidential nomination. But their fiery passion did not translate into the robust turnout he needed on Super Tuesday to win a number of key states, notably in the South where a strong showing by Joe Biden has made the nomination contest a two-person race, especially now that former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has dropped out of the race and endorsed Biden. Exit polls for several states Biden won, including Massachusetts, Texas and several southern states that helped catapult the former vice president into front-runner status, found that while more young voters went to the polls this election cycle, they did not show up at the rate they did in 2016. At a news conference Wednesday in Vermont, Sanders acknowledged the difficulty of convincing young voters to show up and vote.
[SOURCE: usatoday.com]
CORONAVIRUS PATIENT IGNORED SELF-ISOLATION ORDER TO GO TO BUSINESS EVENT
New Hampshire’s first coronavirus patient shrugged off his quarantine and went to an event in a different state — potentially exposing almost 200 people to the deadly illness, officials revealed. The dimwit Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center staffer showed symptoms of the virus after returning from a trip to Italy, and was told to stay home while awaiting test results — which came back positive Monday, state health officials said. But three days earlier, he had ignored the instructions and gone to a party over the border in Vermont, officials said. About 175 people were at the bash, organized by Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business and held at The Engine Room in White River Junction, right across the river from the New Hampshire hospital.
[SOURCE: nypost.com]
Eight Things To Talk About uses the raw engagement data from the social media engagement from The Conversation Project to generate the top-ranking headlines over the course of the past day.
A full weeks’ data (from Friday to Friday) is compiled, weighed, and sorted to produce the content for the Weekly Wrap-Up with J Cleveland Payne, published every Saturday as a podcast available at ThisIsTheConversation.com or wherever your favorite podcasts are found.
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