Do you remember Samsung’s Bixby-powered Galaxy Home smart speaker that was created to compete directly with the Amazon Echo?
The smart speaker was announced in August last year, but the company gave no official release date during the announcement. Now, we finally have one — well, sort of.
At Samsung’s Unpacked event today — where the company announced four new Galaxy S10 phones (S10e, S10, S10+, and S10 5G) and a foldable phone — the head of Samsung’s mobile division DJ Koh told CNET the Galaxy Home will launch in April.
Koh didn’t share a specific release date or even say how much the smart speaker would cost. But he did promise that it’s coming later this year.
At this point, you have to wonder who is left to care about the Galaxy Home. In the time it has taken Samsung to actually release the smart speaker, Google Assistant- and Alexa-powered smart speakers have invaded homes worldwide.
Can Samsung even catch up to Google and Alexa, who are already so far ahead of the smart speaker and smart home game? It seems unlikely, especially considering how universally loathed Bixby is.
Even Apple is struggling to get people to buy HomePods, but that might have more to do with its more expensive price, lack of integration with music services other than Apple Music, and weak Siri intelligence.
The last time we checked out Galaxy Home, it didn’t exactly blow us away with its design or its features. So again, is anyone really on the fence about Samsung’s smart speaker?
If there’s one thing that united Democrats and Republicans in the Reagan era (besides their unfortunate fixation with perms), it was their near universal hatred of weed. Everybody was a cop back then. Walter Mondale, the Democratic candidate for president in 1984, called for another “War on Drugs” — all drugs. Ronald Reagan, for his part, believed that marijuana was “probably the most dangerous drug in the United States.”
Fast forward to the 2020 election, when politicians have largely done an about-face, at least when it comes to weed. Politicians aren’t just campaigning for medical marijuana, they’re advocating for recreational marijuana to be legalized: explicitly, vocally, and on their campaign pages.
Were it not for the hundreds of thousands of people arrested for marijuana law violations every year, it’s almost like the past 40 years of aggressive anti-marijuana drug policy didn’t exist.
Here’s what Daniel Mallinson, assistant professor of public policy and administration at Penn State Harrisburg, thinks of the tectonic political and cultural shift on marijuana legalization:
“It started in the liberal states. There was a big political shift there that has since shifted to more conservative, battleground states — specifically when it comes to medical marijuana,” Mallinson told Mashable in a phone interview. “Even the majority of Republicans now support some form of legalization. That’s a rapid political shift among individuals that’s now being captured in state policy and brought to the national level.”
Recreational marijuana is now legal in 10 states and Washington, DC, while medical marijuana is legal in 33. And the remarkable historical progress is only expected to grow.
Mallinson isn’t surprised to see Democratic candidates latching onto this issue:
“Democrats are all jostling to be the most progressive right now. At least the ones who have declared already,” Mallison said. “You have to check a box for marijuana legalization if you want to run in that space.”
Will recreational marijuana legalization help candidates in the general election? Mallinson isn’t so sure. The current 2020 presidential candidates have a range of views, not all of them exactly alike. Here’s where each Democratic presidential candidate stands on legalized marijuana, and where they appeared to have once stood — as much as they might try to deny it.
2020 Democrats
How the candidates stand on marijuana legalization
Amy Klobuchar
Blazin’ on through the snow: What’s Amy Klobuchar’s stance on marijuana?
Image: stephen maturen/Getty Images
Minnesota will be voting on recreational marijuana in 2019. Despite widespread public support, it’s unclear whether the bill will pass and where Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar will stand. The candidate from Minnesota is considered one of the more centrist of the pack. And her position on legalization is somewhat more muddled than that of her opponents.
Klobuchar has signed onto the “Strengthening the Tenth Amendment Through Entrusting States (STATES) Act,” which protects states that have legalized marijuana from federal meddling. So has Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren. Unlike Warren, however, Klobuchar has not signed onto the Marijuana Justice Act, which would remove marijuana’s classification as a schedule 1 drug in the Federal Controlled Substances Act.
Klobuchar has supported cannabis research in the past, especially as it applies to medical research. Although, its classification as a schedule 1 drug makes this nearly impossible. It’s much harder for scientists to obtain legal samples of the drug when it’s classified this way.
Her record on marijuana as Minnesota’s Attorney General is much more conservative. In 2016, she was given a “D” rating by NORML (the National Organization for Reform of Marijuana Laws), indicating a “hard on drugs” stance.
Bernie Sanders
Bernie Sanders has one of the most progressive records on marijuana legalization in the Senate.
Image: win mcnamee/Getty Images
Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders hails from one of the most liberal states in the country. In 2019, recreational marijuana was made legal in Vermont — not through a referendum, but through a vote in the state legislature. Vermont became the first state in the country to legalize marijuana using this route.
Sanders has long advocated for marijuana reform. In 1995, he co-sponsored a bill in the House that would authorize medical marijuana in cases of “life-threatening” and “sense-threatening” illness. In the decades following, Sanders became one of the most vocal advocates for marijuana reform. Four years ago, Sanders filed the first bill in the Senate to end cannabis prohibition. He has signed onto New Jersey Senator Cory Booker’s Marijuana Justice Act and called for the de-scheduling of the drug.
Sanders has also demanded banking reform, hoping to make it easier for legal marijuana businesses to operate accounts. In 2016, Sanders became the first major presidential candidate from both parties to call for removing marijuana from the list of controlled substances.
He is largely considered to be one of the most marijuana-friendly candidates running for president.
Cory Booker
Booker is one the most vocal advocates for marijuana legalization.
Image: scott olson/Getty Images
New Jersey Democratic Senator Cory Booker is one of the more progressive candidates when it comes to marijuana reform. It helps that he comes from a progressive state. In November of of 2018, New Jersey’s state Senate and Assembly passed legislation easing the way for marijuana legalization. Governor Phil Murphy is now working with Senate President Stephen Sweeney to establish a more formal path for legalization and government regulation and taxation of the drug.
They should have Booker’s support. In 2017, Booker authored the Marijuana Reform Act, which had multiple, historic, and radical elements: expunging convictions for those prosecuted for marijuana-related offenses, punishing states for disproportionately targeting groups of people (historically, that’s people of color), and legalizing the drug on a federal level.
People who were serving federal sentences for marijuana-related offenses would be eligible for re-sentencing, presumably for a lighter sentence.
It was a transformational piece of legislation that could have improved the lives of millions of people. But it never made it out of the Senate, thanks to a secure Republican majority.
Every current Democratic presidential candidate who is also serving in the Senate has signed onto Booker’s legislation, with the exception of Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar.
Unlike other senators on this list, Booker has a strong record on legalization. As far back as 2012, Booker, then mayor of Newark, New Jersey, decried the drug wars, accusing the federal government of “pouring huge amounts of our public resources into this current effort that is bleeding our public treasury and unnecessarily undermining human potential.”
Elizabeth Warren
Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren comes from a progressive, marijuana-friendly state, so it’s not surprising that she’s one of the most vocal advocates for legalization. In 2016, Massachusetts voted to legalize cannabis recreationally and in November of 2018, began selling cannabis to adults.
Warren has taken her advocacy to a federal level. Along with Senator Cory Gardner of Colorado, Warren is one of the lead sponsors of the STATES Act, which protects states in which marijuana is legal from federal interference. Cannabis is still illegal on the federal level.
She’s also signed onto multiple major drug policy reform bills, including the Marijuana Justice Act, a transformative piece of legislation that would financially punish states that fail to legalize marijuana and who disproportionately incarcerate or arrest people for marijuana-related offenses.
Because of the legal status of marijuana on the federal level, cannabis companies are often barred from using federally-backed banks. Like Sanders, Warren has supported cannabis-related banking legislation, designed to push the industry away from cash-only models and integrate it with the modern banking system, where it’s safer for businesses and will be better monitored.
Warren might look like the model of marijuana reform now, but it wasn’t always that way. In her 2013 campaign against Republican Dan Winslow, she came at her opponent with this accusation: “He has a 100-percent ranking from the gun lobby and he’s for the legalization of marijuana. He wants us armed and stoned.”
Julián Castro
Julian Castro, a less well-known candidate, has a record as a strong progressive.
Image: Edward omelas/Getty Images
Democrat Julián Castro hails from Florida, where only medical marijuana is legal. Recreational marijuana legalization is a long way off — advocates are currently working to ease access to medical marijuana, which was only made legal in 2016.
Castro previously served in Obama’s White House as the Housing and Urban Development Secretary. Consequently, he doesn’t have a Congressional voting record on marijuana, making his views a bit harder to decipher.
Castro has previously made social media posts in support of at least partial legislation. Two years ago in a Facebook post, he discouraged the federal government from cracking down on recreational marijuana crimes.
Castro has also said he supported voters passing marijuana legalization laws by state.
It’ll be interesting to see how Castro can distinguish himself in an already crowded Democratic field.
Kamala Harris
Kamala Harris has come a long way on marijuana legalization.
Image: chip somodevilla/Getty Images
Oh, California Senator Kamala Harris. Harris, who now admits she both smoked marijuana and inhaled it in the past, wasn’t always an advocate for legalization. Her home state, meanwhile, has been one of the drug’s most vocal advocates: a whopping 57.1 percent of voters voted yes on Proposition 64 in 2017 to legalize marijuana.
It took until 2015 for the former attorney general to come out in support of medical marijuana. Back in 2014, she laughed in the face of a local news reporter who asked if she supported legalizing recreational marijuana.
Harris has a new book in which she advocates for clearing the criminal records for people convicted of non-violent marijuana offenses, as well as for legalizing the drug.
The senator has come a long way from her earlier, more prosecutorial days, but it may not be enough to make some legalization advocates happy.
Kirsten Gillibrand
Gillibrand has signed several key pieces of marijuana legalization.
Image: alex wong/Getty Images
New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand has one of the most liberal voting records in the Senate. It’s easy for Gillibrand to hold this position, given her home state’s support for the drug (New York is poised to become the 11th state to legalize recreational cannabis). And while we personally don’t know if she’s ever smoked, Gillibrand has signed her name to several key pieces of marijuana reform legislation, including Booker’s Marijuana Justice Act.
She’e been outspoken about the effects of drug war policy and the racial inequities in the criminal justice system, even prior to announcing her candidacy.
DOJ should investigate how pharma helped create the opioid crisis, not institute policies that take marijuana based medicines from patients and needlessly target non-violent minority youths.
Marijuana laws in this country are discriminatory and unjust – and communities of color are paying the price. Congress needs to pass the Marijuana Justice Act to finally address the decades of harm caused by our failed drug policies.
Discriminatory drug policies rob black and Latino families of their futures. I’m fighting to help right this wrong, but I need 254 more people to stand with me before 11:59 p.m. tonight. Sign the petition to urge Congress to decriminalize marijuana.
After starting her career as a conservative, Blue Dog Democrat, Gillibrand has leaned hard to the left in recent years. I expect her to follow her party’s progressive wing on this issue in the years to come.
Pete Buttigieg
Buttigieg could become America’s first openly gay president.
Image: alex wong/Getty Images
Pete Buttigieg is one of the least known potential Democratic candidates on this list. As a result, the chances of him winning the nomination are slim.
Buttigieg hasn’t spoken on a national stage about his views on marijuana legalization. However, he is largely considered a progressive in the city of South Bend, Indiana, where he serves as mayor. His home state of Indiana is far more conservative: Neither recreational marijuana nor medical marijuana are legal in the state, and progress on the issue has been slow.
A representative from Buttigieg’s office told Mashable that the mayor supports legalization.
Tulsi Gabbard
Gabbard has one of the most progressive records on marijuana in the House.
Image: Getty Images for Teen Vogue
Currently, the Hawaiian legislature is considering marijuana legalization. And, questionable views on Assad aside, Hawaiian Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard is the one most progressive candidates when it comes to marijuana legislation. According to Marijuana Moment, she was lead sponsor on a bill that would require the government to research the effects of marijuana legalization on a state level.
She has called on the federal government to decriminalize marijuana, encouraged the federal government to fund additional research on medical marijuana, publicly explored the relationship between opioid abuse and punitive marijuana laws, and slammed former Attorney General Jeff Sessions for taking a regressive approach to drug policy.
Gabbard is one of the most visible advocates for legalized marijuana in the field, even if her presidential polling numbers are currently very low.
2020 Independents and Republicans
How the candidates stand on marijuana legalization
Howard Schultz
Do you really want to know the CEO of Starbucks’ views on marijuana?
Image: santiago felipe/Getty Images
Howard Schultz comes from progressive roots: His home state of Washington was the first in the country to legalize recreational marijuana in 2012. That being said, Pop-Tarts got more likes on Twitter than Starbucks CEO Schultz did when they announced that they were running for president, so I’m not entirely sure we need to be concerned with a Schultz presidency. Because Schultz has no political experience to speak of, his views on the marijuana issue are unclear.
He is, however, the founder behind the Frappuccino, which is its own kind of intoxicant. So there’s that.
We have reached out to Schultz for comment and have not yet received a response.
Donald Trump
President Trump’s official policy position on marijuana is:(*)#$@)$(*$&
Image: michael reynolds-pool/Getty Images
Prior to becoming elected, Trump said he believed marijuana legalization should be left up to the states. In New York, Trump’s liberal home state, Governor Andrew Cuomo plans to legalize the recreational drug (medical marijuana is already legal) and establish an Office of Cannabis Management.
Upon becoming president, however, Trump appointed Jeff Sessions as attorney general. Sessions proceed to lift a critical Obama-era marijuana policy that made it clear that the federal government would not intervene with states who had legalized marijuana.
In 2017, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said the Trump administration was considering strengthening anti-marijuana enforcement on a federal level.
It’s unclear whether the president will be a candidate in 2020, depending on his incarceration status, but it’s important to keep his political worldview (absolute ideological chaos) in mind.
Even if there’s a Democratic president in office, it’ll be hard to push comprehensive marijuana reform, depending on the partisan makeup of Congress. Still, it’s an exciting time for marijuana advocates. A record 6 in 10 Americans now support legalization, following a decade of steady progress on the issue.
Change will happen — in fact, it’s already happening.
We’ll be updating this post as more candidates come forward.
Atletico Madrid took a big step towards the quarter-finals of the UEFA Champions League on Wednesday, beating Juventus 2-0 at the Wanda Metropolitano in Madrid in the first leg of their tie. Jose Gimenez and Diego Godin shut down Cristiano Ronaldo throughout the contest and bagged the goals in the second half.
Both team’s defenders dominated proceedings, but the hosts were the better side and increased their attacking output after the break. Former Bianconeri Alvaro Morata had a goal ruled out by the video assistant before Gimenez and Godin scored just minutes apart.
The two teams will meet again in the return leg in Turin on March 12.
Ronaldo Trolls, but Atletico Defence Gets the Last Laugh
Ronaldo and his fellow attackers on both sides were kept relatively quiet on Wednesday in a defensive stalemate that lived up to the expectations most fans likely had.
The former Real Madrid man came into the tie with a sublime scoring record of 22 career goals against Atletico, per FOX Soccer.
The Rojiblancos did a phenomenal job shutting down the 34-year-old, doubling up on him throughout the contest. When he did find some space, Godin made a fantastic effort to catch up with him in the nick of time to deny a shooting opportunity.
The biggest highlight of Ronaldo’s night was arguably his trolling of the home fans, reminding them of how many Champions Leagues he has won by raising five fingers (U.S. viewers only).
By the end of the night, Ronaldo’s best sight of goal came from a set piece―his free-kick was kept out by Jan Oblak―and his best contribution was a great cross that Leonardo Bonucci should have converted.
There’s little doubt Godin, Gimenez and company had the last laugh, and if VAR had been a little more helpful Atletico would have traveled to Turin with an even bigger lead.
As it stands they lead the tie by two and didn’t concede an away goal, despite Federico Bernardeschi going close in the final minutes and Bonucci’s header in the first half.
Diego Costa and Thomas Partey will be suspended for the return leg but the focus will once again be on the Atletico defence, which seems unlikely to concede twice against a Juventus side sorely lacking creativity.
Their defence also looks far more vulnerable than in recent years and isn’t likely to keep a clean sheet in Turin.
What’s Next?
Juventus visit Bologna on Sunday, while Atletico host Villarreal.
An woman who left Alabama to join the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) group in Syria is not a US citizen and will not be allowed to return to the United States, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Wednesday.
In a brief statement that gave no details as to how the determination was reached, Pompeo said Hoda Muthana, who says she made a mistake in joining the group and now wants to return with her 18-month-old son, has no “legal basis” to claim American citizenship.
“Ms Hoda Muthana is not a US citizen and will not be admitted into the United States,” Pompeo said. “She does not have any legal basis, no valid US passport, no right to a passport nor any visa to travel to the United States.”
Muthana’s status had been considered by lawyers from the departments of State and Justice since her case arose, according to one US official who was not authorised to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. In speaking to the Associated Press, the official would not elaborate but said Pompeo’s statement was based on the lawyers’ conclusions.
A lawyer for the Muthana’s family, Hassan Shibly, said the administration’s position is based on a “complicated” interpretation of the law involving her father.
“They’re claiming her dad was a diplomat when she was born, which, in fact, he wasn’t,” Shibly told The Associated Press.
Muthana was born in 1994 in Hackensack, New Jersey, the lawyer said.
Most people born in the United States are accorded so-called birthright citizenship but there are exceptions.
Under the Immigration and Nationality Act, a person born in the US to a foreign diplomatic officer is not subject to US law and is not automatically considered a US citizen at birth.
Regrets
The 24-year-old, who joined the ISIL says she regrets aligning herself with the armed group and wants to return to the United States, Shibly said on Tuesday. He said Muthana is putting herself at risk by speaking out against ISIL from a refugee camp where she has lived since fleeing the group a few weeks ago.
Muthana, who dodged sniper fire and roadside bombs to escape, is ready to pay the penalty for her actions but wants freedom and safety for the son she had with one of two ISIL fighters she wed, he said. Both men were killed in combat. The New York Times reported Muthana also married and divorced a third husband in Syria.
In a handwritten letter released by Shibly, Muthana wrote that she made “a big mistake” by rejecting her family and friends in the United States to join ISIL.
“During my years in Syria I would see and experience a way of life and the terrible effects of war which changed me,” she wrote.
After fleeing her home in suburban Birmingham in late 2014 and resurfacing in Syria, Muthana used social media to advocate violence against the United States. In the letter, Muthana wrote that she didn’t understand the importance of freedoms provided by the United States at the time.
“To say that I regret my past words, any pain that I caused my family and any concerns I would cause my country would be hard for me to really express properly,” the letter said.
Shibly said Muthana was brainwashed online before she left Alabama and now could have valuable intelligence for US forces, but he said the FBI didn’t seem interested in retrieving her from the refugee camp where she is living with her son.
Muthana’s father would welcome the woman back, Shibly said, but she is not on speaking terms with her mother.
Ashfaq Taufique, who knows Muthana’s family and is president of the Birmingham Islamic Society, said the woman could be a valuable resource for teaching young people about the dangers of online radicalisation were she allowed to return to the United States.
“Her coming back could be a very positive thing for our community and our country,” Taufique said.
Like an unexpected splat of cold, wet snow right to the face in the middle of a long, dark winter, Sean Spicer is back in our lives once more.
The former Press Secretary for the Trump Administration is back in the public eye as a “special correspondent” for, of all things, the syndicated ExtraTV entertainment news show.
In a new video posted by ExtraTV on Twitter, a hiking-vested Spicer is seen joshing around with current Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and his wife Susan about the Oscars. Why? We have absolutely no idea.
Spicer discovered that Pompeo likes AC/DC and Toby Keith! He really liked Bohemian Rhapsody! It’s the kind of empty content aunts across America will devour. How could Pompeo screw up negotiations with North Korea? He watched A Star Is Born!
Of course, for all its puffery, this short segment, teasing a longer feature set to air on ExtraTV’s Wednesday night episode. Despite it being weird and kinda wrong, it still feels more authentic than, well, any press conference Spicer ever held.
And in case you’re wondering, yes, the internet has taken notice and is just as confused as you are.
his pick of “Bohemian Rhapsody” is not even in the top 100 worst things about this
Hey, remember when Sean Spicer lied to the press about crowd sizes on the first day on the job? But hey now he is a correspondent for @ExtraTV interviewing the Secretary of State for his former boss so it’s all good.https://t.co/sIMWavnubh
We’ve reached out to both Spicer and ExtraTV for more details on Spicer’s new role and what more we can expect from him. For now, though, we’ll just stare in amazement in how a middle-aged white man that was terrible at his job continues to fall into new gigs.
Good luck, Sean. Just stay the hell away from Beyoncé.
London, United Kingdom – A flurry of defections by MPs from the UK’s two main political parties has raised the prospect of a realignment in British politics as the clock ticks towards the deadline for the country to leave the European Union.
The breakaway “Independent Group” created by 11 MPs from both the opposition Labour and ruling Conservative parties threatens to upend the normal rules of politics as divisions over Brexit deepen.
Nonetheless, the development does not change the parliamentary arithmetic – and Brexit remains on schedule to take place on March 29 unless MPs force Prime Minister Theresa May to delay.
Tim Bale, professor of politics at Queen Mary University London, told Al Jazeera: “These resignations are a crack in the dam and we might see a trickle to begin with, but then again dams can burst quite quickly.
“We know both parties are polarised, there is a gap among voters, neither party seems particularly competent and neither is seen as having the national interest at heart – so there is actually a lot of space for politicians who can convince people that they do.”
For the Labour MPs it was anti-semitism first, and then Brexit; for the Conservative MPs it is about Brexit, and about it undoing the modernisation of the Conservative Party.
David Jeffery, lecturer in British politics at the University of Liverpool
The resignantions began on Monday when seven Labour MPs quit.
Chuka Umunna, Luciana Berger, Chris Leslie, Angela Smith, Mike Gapes, Gavin Shuker and Ann Coffey were on the right of the party and hostile to changes under its leftwing leader Jeremy Corbyn. They were followed on Wednesday by an eighth, Joan Ryan.
Then MPs Anna Soubry, Heidi Allen, and Sarah Wollaston left the Conservatives on Wednesday saying the party had been hijacked by hardline advocates of Brexit who were “destroying” efforts to modernise it.
For some time analysts have been predicting splits of this kind as divisions over Brexit create new tensions in British politics.
A key factor that will now determine the fate of the new independent grouping, and whether it moves to form a new party, will be the MPs’ reasons for defecting.
The Labour breakaways were motivated strongly by allegations of anti-semitism among party members and Corbyn, a longstanding advocate of Palestinian rights, with Brexit just one factor in their decision.
They are angry at Corbyn’s apparent efforts to block a new referendum that in theory could reverse the decision to leave the EU taken in a plebiscite in 2016.
Bale said: “The Labour split was more inevitable than the Conservative split; there is so much unhappiness on the Labour benches with Jeremy Corbyn for so many reasons that it was almost unavoidable because there is no possibility of getting rid of him before the next election.
“Those MPs are deeply politically and personally upset with what has happened to the Labour Party under his leadership.”
For the Conservative defectors, a key motive was anger at May’s Brexit strategy. Critics say she is trying to run down the clock until March 29 without a potential EU withdrawal deal in order to compel MPs to back her own proposals.
May’s apparent appeasement of hardline Brexiters in a lobby within the party called the European Research Group (ERG) has disappointed many colleagues.
Britain’s Labour Party MP Chuka Umunna makes an announcement he is leaving the party [Simon Dawson/Reuters]
David Jeffery, a lecturer in British politics at the University of Liverpool, said that on balance, the splinter group does not represent the tectonic shift that some had predicted.
“It doesn’t seem like a grand realignment because these MPs are not where the empty space in British politics is.”
He added that although the defections are more damaging to the Conservative Party because it is in power, the Labour MPs were taking a moral stand.
“For the Labour MPs it was anti-semitism first, and then Brexit; for the Conservative MPs it is about Brexit, and about it undoing the modernisation of the Conservative Party.
“If Brexit wasn’t an issue or if there was a different policy that wasn’t beholden in their eyes to the ERG, they probably wouldn’t have defected.”
The rebels’ next steps
These ideological differences will be significant in determining the rebels’ next steps.
Registering as a new political party would be a high-stakes gamble in Britain’s political system, where newcomers find it notoriously difficult to survive.
Previous splits of this magnitude have ended in tears for the splinter groups. In 1981, for example, leading Labour figures quit to launch the Social Democratic Party – which was massacred in the subsequent general election.
The Liberal Democrats, an existing party with 11 MPs that claims the centre ground of British politics, could take advantage of the latest resignations – or find itself being squeezed.
Jeffery said: “Where the Independent group goes next is important. Will they act like a party or will they act simply as a pressure group and then, come the next election, will they try to defend their own constituencies?”
Moreover, Brexit has already spawned new parties such as the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP), which campaigned successfully to quit the EU but failed to win parliamentary seats.
If it looks as if this has captured the public imagination then it may have more legs than some cynics imagine
Tim Bale, professor of politics at Queen Mary University London
Ideological differences and hard political reality could, therefore, make the new alliance fragile – although not without influence.
Bale said: “I don’t think it will prosper unless more MPs follow, but those who might be tempted both in the Labour and Conservative ranks will be watching both leaders’ reactions to this – particularly when it comes to Brexit.
“They will also be keeping a careful eye on opinion polls because if after some Conservatives have joined this group you begin to see a kind of snowball effect, then other MPs might think it is worth jumping ship.
“So it really depends on the kind of excitement and momentum that this generates. If it looks as if this has captured the public imagination then it may have more legs than some cynics imagine.”
Can the defections impact Brexit?
Despite the buzz that the defections have generated, however, they do not change the parliamentary arithmetic over Brexit.
Jeffery said: “These are MPs who were already willing to vote against the government on key Brexit votes, so in terms of the arithmetic it’s not significant.
“On Brexit, the power is all in Jeremy Corbyn’s hands and with the ERG at the moment.
“The clock is ticking anyway and they have a fight on their hands to stop Brexit, but they will have an even bigger fight come the general election. They face a very steep uphill battle.”
Nonetheless, Bale believes the new group could succeed in influencing the Brexit stance taken by both party leaders.
He said: “The mathematics may not change but I think it does change the morale in both parties.
“Both May and Corbyn will now have to think whether their Brexit positions may actually increase the chances of other MPs leaving.”
Because everyone definitely wants some Facebook-affiliated software pre-installed on their smartphone, Samsung announced at the Feb. 20 Unpacked event that its Galaxy S10 camera would come with an Instagram mode.
Exciting, right? The mode, the result of a Samsung and Instagram partnership, would place Stories features directly in the phone’s camera app. Think stickers, locations, etc., all at the tip of your fingers without having to leave the camera app itself.
Details on the mode are light at this time (like, for example, if users will be able to disable it), but this partnership clearly shows that Samsung is looking to differentiate the user experience on its devices.
Instagram Mode in the Galaxy S10’s camera lets you share photos and videos right to Instagram Stories #unpacked
Samsung is no stranger to smartwatches and has been releasing them since before the Apple Watch even launched.
Over the years, Samsung’s tried myriad designs, from the original rectangular Galaxy Gear to the most recent round-shaped Galaxy Watch.
The new $199.99 Galaxy Watch Active is once again similar, but different compared to the regular Galaxy Watch.
Most notable is the removal of the Samsung’s signature bezel around the watch’s 40mm display. The bezel wasn’t merely for show — rotating it controlled the Tizen OS-powered interface. Having used both, I can honestly say it was a solid alternative to the Apple Watch’s Digital Crown.
Snazzy.
Image: samsung
Getting rid of the rotatable bezel means the touching and tapping the Galaxy Watch Active is the only way to interact with the smartwatch.
As its name implies, the Galaxy Watch Active, is geared towards sporty people. In addition to the usual fitness-tracking features (steps, distance, automatic workouts, etc.) the Galaxy Watch Active also monitors your sleep and blood pressure. There’s also a breathing app to better help manage your stress.
You can never go wrong with black.
Image: samsung
Pink’s not bad either.
Image: SAMSUNG
The Galaxy Watch Active is compatible with Android and iOS devices. However, as usual, many of the smartwatch features work best with Samsung phones.
The pricing is the real story here. At $199.99, the smartwatch is significantly cheaper than the Galaxy Watch, which starts at $349.99. It’s also cheaper than the Apple Watch Series 4, which starts at $399.
The Galaxy Watch Active launches on March 7 and pre-orders start on Feb. 21. Anyone who pre-orders by March 7 will also get a free wireless charging pad.
In 2016, Bernie Sanders started what he called a “revolution” as an independent candidate. He ran for US president on a platform of progressive ideas such as free healthcare for all, but eventually lost the Democratic nomination to Hillary Clinton.
The 77-year-old is making a second attempt, launching his campaign to be Democratic candidate in 2020 and believes he still has what it takes to win the White House.
He has described Donald Trump as the most dangerous president in modern American history.
The list for the Democratic primary looks a crowded one and one of the most diverse ever. At least 12 candidates so far have confirmed they’ll run – dozens more have still to decide.
There are already a record number of women, vast age differences between candidates, and ethnic minorities.
But have any of them got what it will take to face up to Trump?
Presenter: Hashem Ahelbarra
Guests:
Jeffrey Stacey – former State Department official in the Obama administration
Adam Quinn – senior lecturer in American Politics, University of Birmingham
By Raymond Wong
(@raywongy) 
Daily Trends Hunter 