GRAMMY HOST TREVOR NOAH MOCKS TAYLOR SWIFT CONSPIRACY THEORIES — AS SHE ARRIVES LATE FOR CEREMONY:

I agree, I thought the Atlantic was pretty out there, as well: Who Said It, Adolf Hitler or Taylor Swift?

OPEN THREAD: It’s Saturday night.

THE NEW SPACE RACE: China launches 20 satellites on separate inland and sea rocket launches.

EVERYTHING IS AWFUL: Antifungal Creams Could Be Triggering a Wave of Superfungal Skin Infections.

PUBLIC HEALTH SUFFERS FROM LOST TRUST: Measles, once controlled through widespread vaccination, is resurging due to misinformation and vaccine hesitancy. “The UK was deemed measles-free in 2016 but lost its status just two years later. And now there are rising case numbers across England, with significant outbreaks in London and the west Midlands.”

NOW OUT FROM ANDREW WAREHAM: The Last Campaign (Innocents No More Book 7).

A FIRE VICTORY AT PRINCETON, AN INTERVIEW WITH MICHAEL MALICE, AND ME ON BIG THINK: On this week’s Weekend Free Speech Update. 

PATRICK MAHOMES SR. ARRESTED ON DWI CHARGE EIGHT DAYS BEFORE SUPER BOWL 2024.

THE CORBYNIZATION OF JEREMY CORBYN’S PARTY CONTINUES APACE: Amid disbelief that ‘chemical attacker’ was allowed to stay in Britain, BBC editor who is paid to help 15 Somalian criminals stay in the UK quits the Beeb after shocking Daily Mail exposé.

A BBC editor was hired as an expert witness to help at least 15 Somalian criminals fight deportation – including a vile offender who sexually attacked a deaf teenage girl.

Last year, The Mail on Sunday exposed how Mary Harper, Africa Editor for the World Service, was paid to give expert witness evidence for Somali gang rapist Yaqub Ahmed during his five-year legal battle to stay in the UK.

Now an investigation by this newspaper can reveal Ms Harper has given expert witness evidence in a string of other controversial deportation appeals by Somali offenders – including for another three sex attackers, three drug dealers and a career criminal who spent a decade in British jails.

Following a series of questions from the MoS, the BBC last night announced that Ms Harper was leaving the Corporation, but refused to say whether she had been sacked or had quit.

In one of the most shocking cases, Ms Harper warned that a Somali man who committed a horrific sexual assault on a profoundly deaf 17-year-old girl would be at ‘severely heightened risk’ if he was sent back to Somalia because he had committed a sex crime.

Earlier: BBC employee called Jewish people ‘Nazis’ and whites ‘parasites.’

IF YOU’RE BUYING “GAS STATION HEROIN” ISN’T IT BASICALLY JUST EVOLUTION IN ACTION? Synthetic pot detected in samples of ‘gas station heroin’ Neptune’s Fix.

I mean, I guess it’s safer than gas station sushi . . . .

OUR FOREIGN POLICY ELITES: Bring Back Playground Psychology: American foreign policymakers would be more successful if they relied more often on a few simple rules of human nature.

WELL, DUH: Survey Shows Auto Dealers Still Annoyed With Biden EV Strategy.

THE ATLANTIC: “Is American Journalism Headed Towards an ‘Extinction-Level Event?'” As Ace of Spades quips, “Dear Jesus, please, I don’t ask for much:”

Is American Journalism Headed Toward an ‘Extinction-Level Event’?

The news industry has been in decline for decades, but the latest round of layoffs is especially ominous.

By Paul Farhi

For a few hours last Tuesday, the entire news business seemed to be collapsing all at once. Journalists at Time magazine and National Geographic announced that they had been laid off. Unionized employees at magazines owned by Condé Nast staged a one-day strike to protest imminent cuts. By far the grimmest news was from the Los Angeles Times, the biggest newspaper west of the Washington, D.C., area. After weeks of rumors, the paper announced that it was cutting 115 people, more than 20 percent of its newsroom.

On the other hand, Jim Geraghty writes: The Collapse of News Is Nothing to Cheer.

I don’t think it’s a good idea to publicly cheer on the layoffs of other people, even if you’ve vehemently disliked their past work. (I’ll make an exception for certain NFL head coaches.) It certainly isn’t very Christian to take pleasure in other people’s suffering and misfortune. If you want to privately feel a sense of satisfaction and say to yourself, “Good, they had it coming,” I suppose there’s less harm in that. But what goes around comes around, and the axe comes for us all sooner or later. I don’t see why you would want to advertise to the world, via social media, that you’re the kind of person who takes glee in kicking a person when they’re down.

When you see larger-scale layoffs or buyouts at major media institutions, the management’s perception of who should stay and who should go probably won’t align with yours. The columnists whom you know, who irked you so, have a better shot at surviving the cuts because they’re well-known enough for you to have heard of them. It’s the less-known figures like the assistant city-hall reporter and the copy editors who are most likely to get the axe. That said, there’s an inverse effect, as the younger, less experienced staffers are also likely cheaper.

And on the gripping hand:

Look how stupid everything has become. pic.twitter.com/1i6M5kpTLX

— Omri Ceren (@omriceren) February 2, 2024

* Classical reference.

UPDATE: ‘A Racist and a Tyrant:’ David Frum Tries to Uncancel Racist Woodrow Wilson in the Atlantic, Gets Schooled Instead.

(Updated and bumped.)

WHEN YOU’RE BOTH VARIETIES OF HOMO SAPIENS, IT’S NOT BESTIALITY: Neanderthals and modern humans intermingled in Europe 45,000 years ago.

DON’T KNOW MUCH ABOUT HISTORY:

I was mystified many years ago to discover that some wealthy educated young folk in the SF bay area, didn’t even know that the USSR was an environmental catastrophe, as well. That argument was persuasive to them in a way that “they were also mass murderers” was not. https://t.co/QYGVeyDH35

— Greg Lukianoff (@glukianoff) February 3, 2024

But why not eliminate the rot right from the start? Question Asked: Will Cancel Culture Find Out About Karl Marx The Racist?

STICK IT TO THE MAN: A camera-based anti-facial recognition technique. This isn’t the sort of thing I’m looking for, though.

QUESTION ASKED AND ANSWERED:

What exactly is preventing you from moving to London? pic.twitter.com/KADSMcqDGU

— Culture Critic (@Culture_Crit) February 3, 2024

Good question. How much time do you have for the response?

• How to respond to an acid attack: Woman and children hospitalized in Clapham.
• BBC employee called Jewish people ‘Nazis’ and whites ‘parasites.’
• 1350% Increase in London Anti-Semitic Crimes Amid Israel-Hamas War.
• ‘Blade Runners’ Fight London’s Car Emission Monitoring Cameras.
• ‘Palestinians’ Want London to Give Back ‘Big Ben.’
• AI cameras introduced in London to monitor social distancing and lockdown restrictions.
• London’s Natural History Museum to review potentially ‘offensive’ Charles Darwin collection.
• London Times: Coronavirus will Kill All the Old Climate Skeptics.
• London Bridge knife attacker known to cops, wore electronic tag, had links to jihad terror groups.
• Alleged Scientists at London Aquarium Seek Public’s Help in Naming Their ‘Gender-Neutral’ Penguin.
• Video: Fed-Up Working-Class London Commuters Drag Extinction Rebellion Protesters Off Trains.

WELL, GOOD: High efficacy and good safety profile for the R21/Matrix-M malaria vaccine in African children.