Format update: The votes are in, and man, you guys really did not care for yesterday's Sentences format! It wasn't even close. 177 people wrote in, and 169 expressed a clear preference one way or the other (many thanks to the very sweet people who said they'd read it in any format). 32 preferred the new version, while 137 liked the old one better.
That's an 81 percent to 19 percent margin. Dictators win elections by smaller margins than that. We'll keep experimenting with how we do Sentences — today's the first day we'll have pictures in the email version, for example — but for now, it's back to bullets all the way through. Many thanks to everyone who wrote in and tweeted. Your feedback was invaluable.
1. Ceasefire
Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Francois Hollande and French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius make a statement to the media following peace talks on February 12, 2015 in Minsk, Belarus. (Steffen Kugler - Pool/Getty Images)
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Besides the ceasefire, the agreement requires the withdrawal of heavy weapons by both sides, and the withdrawal of foreign militias (although since Russia denies having troops in Ukraine, it's unclear how meaningful that provision is).
[The Guardian / Matthew Weaver and Alec Luhn]
2. "Brink of civil war"
Houthi militants on guard in Sanaa. (Mohammed Hamoud/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)
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The Houthis are Shia, while the old government is Sunni. The highly active al-Qaeda insurgency in Yemen is, of course, Sunni and vociferously anti-Houthi/Shia.
[FT / Simeon Kerr]
3. Officers of the law ordered to enforce the law
Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore testifies in front of Congress in 2004. (Matthew Cavanaugh / Getty Images News)
4. Misc.
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Geoengineering is an insane, reckless, irresponsible thing we should think about anyway, given how bad climate change has gotten.
[Vox / Brad Plumer]
5. Verbatim
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"One man, in his forties, overweight and wearing a Ron Paul T-shirt, was vacuuming while doing a spot-on impression of the vacuum."
[BuzzFeed / Bob Plantenberg]
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"Liz Mair, a Republican strategist who more often contacts me about tax policy issues, asked to be quoted on the record about her distaste for the candies, but unfortunately she described them with a word that is unprintable in The Times."
[NYT / Josh Barro]
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