Jesse Jackson, Strait of Hormuz, and a Pancake Race

 Need To Know 

Civil Rights Icon Dies

The Rev. Jesse Jackson, the civil rights leader and two-time Democratic presidential candidate, died yesterday at age 84 after battling progressive supranuclear palsy, his family announced.

Born in Greenville, South Carolina, in 1941, Jackson rose from student activism to become a close aide to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and a leading voice in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. An ordained Baptist minister, he helped lead the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s and 1970s. Jackson founded Operation PUSH in Chicago in 1971 and later the Rainbow Coalition, merging them to advocate for racial, economic, and political justice. He ran for president in 1984 and 1988. He also negotiated the release of American prisoners, including three US soldiers held in Yugoslavia in 1999. In 2000, President Bill Clinton awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

PSP is a rare neurodegenerative disease similar to Parkinson’s that affects an estimated five people per 100,000 worldwide. See Jackson's life in photos here and tributes here.

Iran Closes Oil Port

Iran announced yesterday it is temporarily and partially closing the Strait of Hormuz, through which 20% of the world’s oil passes. The announcement came as the US and Iran held their second round of nuclear negotiations in Geneva, which ended without a date scheduled for further talks. 

Iranian officials reportedly signaled they’re willing to pause uranium enrichment for up to three years and move some of their stockpile offshore (most of Iran’s uranium stockpile is believed to be buried under rubble after strikes by the US and Israel last year). In exchange, Iran is seeking sanctions relief and access to $6B in blocked oil revenue. The negotiations ended after three and a half hours and took place against the backdrop of a US military buildup in the Middle East.

Separately, the third round of Russia-Ukraine negotiations also began yesterday in Geneva, with Russia pressing for control of the Donbas region. The talks come a week before the fourth anniversary of Russia’s large-scale invasion.

Weeding Out Lawsuits 

German agrochemical giant Bayer proposed a $7.25B settlement yesterday to resolve tens of thousands of current and future US lawsuits alleging its Roundup weedkiller causes cancer. 

If approved, the deal would fund up to 21 years of annual payments to people exposed to Roundup and later diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma. The weedkiller’s active ingredient, glyphosate, is classified as a probable carcinogen by a World Health Organization agency, but the Environmental Protection Agency says it’s unlikely to cause harm when used as directed. Bayer, which maintains Roundup is safe, says the settlement is intended to alleviate mounting legal costs. Bayer paid roughly $10B in 2020 to settle pending lawsuits and now faces about 65,000 new plaintiffs. 

The Supreme Court will hear a case in April on whether the EPA’s approval of Roundup without cancer warnings preempts state-level lawsuits against Bayer. A ruling in Bayer's favor would leave the proposed settlement unchanged, while preventing future lawsuits. 

Sports, Entertainment, & Culture

> Interview with Democratic Texas Senate candidate pulled from "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" broadcast to comply with Trump administration's equal-airtime rule for all candidates (More) | Anderson Cooper resigns from "60 Minutes," citing desire to spend time with his children; Cooper plans to stay at CNN (More)

> DNA on gloves found about 2 miles from Nancy Guthrie's home yields no matches in national database; the search continues without a named suspect (More)

> Bruce Springsteen announces tour with the E Street Band, beginning March 31 in Minneapolis (More) | Frederick Wiseman, an honorary Oscar-winning documentarian, dies at age 96; notable films include the once-banned "Titicut Follies" (More)

Science & Technology

> Ford Motor is developing all-electric vehicles with high-voltage batteries similar to those used in Tesla Cybertrucks; the technology is expected to lower the cost of Ford's EVs, with a $30K pickup truck slated for release next year (More) 

> Researchers create AI-powered algorithm that classifies pediatric brain tumors with 92% accuracy from liquid biopsies; the noninvasive method of diagnosis and monitoring tumors may be applicable across many pediatric cancer types (More) 

> Seal pup communication appears more similar to human communication than previously believed; pups speak in turn and adopt each other's vocal features when they spend time together, according to over 1,000 hours of audio (More) 

Business & Markets

> US stock markets close up (S&P 500 +0.1%, Dow +0.1%, Nasdaq +0.1%) (More)

> Warner Bros. Discovery reopens deal talks with Paramount, says media giant has until Feb. 23 to submit best and final offer to rival Netflix (More) | Shein faces EU probe over sale of illegal products and alleged addictive design features (More) 

> Cloud startup Render raises $100M in funding at $1.5B valuation as AI app surge drives cloud demand (More) | Nvidia to sell Meta millions of chips for Meta's AI data centers in multiyear deal; financial terms not disclosed (More) 

Politics & World Affairs

> US government releases information on alleged Chinese nuclear test in June 2020, which it says triggered a magnitude 2.75 earthquake detected in Kazakhstan (More) | Peru ousts interim President José Jerí amid corruption probe (More) 

> Ramadan begins today in Saudi Arabia, with many other Muslim-majority countries following the kingdom's lead; nearly 2 billion Muslims begin the month of fasting after sighting the crescent moon (More) 

> Eighteen-year-old arrested after carrying a loaded shotgun toward the US Capitol; police have not provided a motive as of this writing (More) 

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Pizza Hut stirs curiosity with vertical pizza box.

See retro '80s-style city logos.

Hundreds join unofficial Trader Joe's singles mixer.

A 3D-printed, self-playing chess board. (w/video)

See photos from London's Pancake Day race.

Clickbait: Introducing the sleepcation.

Historybook: Artist Michelangelo died (1564); “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” published in the US (1885); Astronomer Clyde Tombaugh discovers Pluto (1930); Novelist Toni Morrison born (1931); Auto racing legend Dale Earnhardt killed in crash at Daytona 500 (2001).