Part of our “News That Matters” Series, “Midweek Update” is a weekly feature that offers brief overviews of important news that you may have overlooked in the course of a busy week. Here’s what you may have missed in the period February 14 through February 17, 2025.
IN THIS ISSUE
Why You May Die in a Plane Crash – @OP-ED
Midwest Weather is So Cold Satellites Think the Ground is Just Clouds – @WEATHER
The New Apple iPhone 16e – @TECHGEAR
Parking-and-traffic expert Prof. David Shoup dies at 86 – @PASSINGS
Trump’s rekindled infatuation with Moscow – @DEADLINE
DOGE’s $8 billion rounding error – @DEADLINE
@DEADLINE
Police Prevent Terror Attack in Vienna’s Westbahnhof
The Bundespolizei and the Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz und Terrorismusbekämpfung, or the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, said they prevented a terrorist attack in Vienna last Monday.
The 14-year-old suspect was planning the attack at Vienna’s Westbahnhof, a major railway station in the west part of the city. As the Interior Ministry announced on Wednesday, February 12, investigators from the Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz und Terrorismusbekämpfung, or State Office for the Protection of the Constitution and Counterterrorism, in conjunction with the WEGA Sondereinheit, or WEGA Special Forces of the Wiener Polizei, arrested the youth on February 10.
See full story here.
@PASSINGS
Parking-and-traffic expert Prof. David Shoup died on February 6 at the age of 86. A professor of urban planning at the University of California, Los Angeles, he famously pointed out in a 2018 opinion piece in the New York Times, how to solve New York City’s parking problems, which were legion, how large a problem it was: “Laid end-to-end, New York’s three million on-street parking spaces would stretch almost halfway around the earth.”
Columbine High School shooting survivor Anne Marie Hochhalter, wounded in the 1999 mass shooting, died of her injuries over a quarter century later, at the age of 43.
David Lynch, the United States’ most surreal filmmaker, mesmerizing filmgoers with mystery, beauty, and horror, died on January 16 at the age of 78.
@IN BRIEF
The Trump Pivot. As President Trump pivots towards Putin’s Russia, he is upending untold decades of U.S. policy in the region. He also suggested that Ukraine was to blame for being invaded.
DOGE – The Game. The team putatively led by Elon Musk at the Department of government Efficiency said it saved the U.S. government $8 billion in a contract for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. It turns out that DOGE’s calculations had a slight rounding error: The real amount saved was $8 million.
The Man from Brazil. The attorney general in Brazil charged former President Jair Bolsonaro with attempting to overthrow the government and overturn an election that had not turned out in his favor.
Flu Deaths Outpace Covid’s. The number of deaths from influenza have outpaced deaths from Covid-19 in 22 states plus New York City and Washington, D.C.
@OP-ED
Why You May Die in a Plane Crash
In the moments following the all-too-recent crash of a Delta Airlines Bombardier CRJ-900 regional jet last week in Toronto, all 80 people who had been on board – a figure that included 4 crewmembers – made it out of the upside-down burning aircraft. Only two passengers appear to have suffered severe injuries, while 19 were treated at a hospital and released.
Deborah Flint, CEO of the Toronto Pearson International Airport applauded the crews’ actions, saying it had been a textbook response. At a press conference held several days after the incident, Flint said that “the crew of Delta Flight 4819 heroically led passengers to safety, evacuating a jet that had overturned on the runway on landing that was amidst smoke and fire.”
“Thank you for all that you do every day and every night in service of safe air travel,” Flint said as she concluded her remarks.
But all was not well in the land. Several days after the press conference, video footage of the evacuation of the Delta emerged, painting a more chaotic picture of willful passengers spitefully ignoring crew evacuation orders and endangering their own lives as well as the lives of other passengers.
See full story here.
@TRAVEL
Stewardess, Breng Mij Een Stroopwafel
United Airlines said it was bringing back a passenger favorite, the Stroopwafel. Stroopwafels will be available on flights exceeding 300 miles (482 km) thanks to customer demand. Passengers launched multiple social media campaigns demanding its return when it suddenly was withdrawn from the snack menu in 2024.
The Big Snooze
Southwest Airlines, which in the course of its 54-year history has never offered scheduled overnight flights, launched five redeye flights from the West Coast.
The new routes include Las Vegas to both Baltimore/Washington and Orlando, Los Angeles to Baltimore/Washington and Nashville, and Phoenix to Baltimore/Washington.
Alaska Partners With AA, BA
Alaska Airlines flyers can now book reward flights that incorporate legs on American Airlines and/or British Airways. The move comes after the airline joined the oneworld alliance in 2024.
@WEATHER
Arctic Mass Brings Record Cold and Record Flight Delays to the Midwest This Week
The Midwest will continue to experience record cold temperatures thanks to the Arctic mass. For those who take note, low temperature records will likely continue to be broken through at least Friday, the National Weather Service said.
Meanwhile, the NWS predicts heavy snow on Wednesday that will move from the Mid-Mississippi Valley into southeastern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina.
The agency said that there will be “significant icing” in southeastern North Carolina.
Airports in Midwest, Especially Smaller Ones, Report Record Numbers of Flight Cancellations
The Arctic mass that is causing record and dangerously cold conditions in much of the country is also causing significant numbers of flight cancellations. The effect is more noticeable in smaller airports where there are fewer flights.
While the number of flight cancellations within, into, and out of the United States this past Sunday and Monday averaged over 10,000 and flight cancellations averaged about 1,500, the number of delays dropped on Tuesday and Wednesday to an average of 6,400 delays and 710 additional cancellations.
See full article here.
@REALLY GOOD TECH GEAR
Apple Kills Off the SE With the New iPhone 16e
The Apple iPhone SE is dead. Long live the Apple iPhone 16e, a smartphone with a far more appropriate monitor for 2025. While Apple still considers this an SE replacement, it is at the same time a new product line and comes with an increase in price. Like the original
The Apple iPhone 16e will go become available to order on February 21 and will be available in stores on February 28 for $599, a move that kills off the last under $500 iPhone.
Written in lower case in the manner of the BMW 328e, which is a member of the E30 class of 3er with an “eta” engine, the “e” in this case mourns the loss of the “S” in the outgoing SE model.
See full story here.
Nomad Returns to Its Roots with Tiny High-Speed Charger
Nomad, the company that introduced the ChargeCard, an ultraportable charging cable, back in 2012, has continually released extremely useful and usable products with the smartphone at its nexus. The company just introduced the ChargeKey USB-C portable charger, a charger not that much larger than its original ChargeCard cable-only product. The ChargeKey provides support for 240 W charging with 10 Gb per second transfer speeds.
@LONG COVID RESEARCH
A recent study published in The Lancet links Long Covid to lasting physical and mental health challenges, and that vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 offers protective outcomes. The study compared those with Long Covid to those who were never diagnosed or who had fully recovered from Covid-19.
The study a cohort of 3,663 individuals from the INSPIRE or Innovative Support for Patients with SARS-CoV-2 Infections Registry and the data was collected between July 12, 2020, and February 4, 2024.
Members of the cohort who had never had Long Covid had higher scores on all patient-reported outcome measures, or PROMs, as compared to those with current or resolved Long Covid. In addition, individuals without a history of Long Covid had an average PROMIS, or patient-reported outcomes measurement information system, physical and mental health score that was 7.8 and 9.4 better, respectively, as compared to those in the cohort who currently were suffering from Long Covid-related symptoms.
Long Covid cases were twice as likely to have moderate-to-high levels of stress, 60% more likely to be moderately to severely lonely, and three times more likely to suffer from moderate to severe fatigue as compared to those who never had Long Covid.
Study participants with Long Covid were also 40% less likely to have adequate physical activity and nutrition, as well as 30% less likely to complete 30 minutes of moderately vigorous physical activity five days each week. Breathlessness was also five-fold worse in individuals with current Long Covid.
@BARTLEBY
[Editor’s Note: @Bartleby is this publication’s attempt to fill the void left by the great William Safire’s “On Language” columns in the Sunday New York Times Magazine which ended their run around the time of his death in 2009. If there any comments, please note my policy as relates thereto: “I would prefer not to make any change.”]
Absurde, Bene, Omnia: The Absurdity of, Well, Everything
Today, your faithful scrivener presents a look at things that simply look or sound absurd. The word “absurd” comes from the Latin “absurdus,” which means “out of tune” (and yes, boys and girls, it is that simple), and related to “surdus,” “deaf,” or “out of
The word “absurd” itself has many meanings and the following will likely encompass all of them. For starters, wildly unreasonable, illogical, or inappropriate, arousing derision, ridiculous, or causing amusement.
The leader of Germany’s Far-Right party, the AfD, or Alternative für Deutschland, is something of a study in contradictions. Alice Weidel, leader of the nationalist and anti-immigrant party, lives not in Germany but in Switzerland, where she is married to a Sri Lankan woman.
See full story here.
William Safire and Edwin Newman, wherever you both are, please take note.
Jesse Sokolow, Timothy Perry, Jonathan Spira, Kurt Stolz, and Paul Riegler contributed to this issue of Midweek Update.
(Photos: Accura Media Group)
