Vox Sentences is your daily digest for what's happening in the world, curated by Dara Lind and Dylan Matthews. Sign up for the Vox Sentences newsletter, delivered straight to your inbox Monday through Friday, or view the Vox Sentences archive for past editions.
Another blow to democracy in Venezuela; Michael Flynn seeks immunity; Arkansas’s arguably cruel and unusual execution schedule.
Cries of a coup in Venezuela
:format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/8262097/490560754.jpg)
- Late Wednesday night, Venezuela’s supreme court seized power from its elected legislature, the National Assembly. The move further consolidates the power of President Nicolás Maduro, and is an enormous blow to the country’s struggling democracy. [New York Times / Nicholas Casey, Patricia Torres] https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/30/world/americas/venezuelas-supreme-court-takes-power-from-legislature.html
- Opponents of President Maduro — some of whom held demonstrations Thursday — and their international allies allege that the move is a “self-inflicted coup.” [BBC] http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-39449494
- Surprisingly, on Friday, Venezuela’s top prosecutor, Luisa Ortega Díaz — an ally of Maduro’s — came out in agreement with Maduro’s critics. "We call for reflection, so that the democratic path can be retaken,” she said, calling her denouncement an “unavoidable historical duty.”
- Maduro has been in power since 2013, when he narrowly won the presidency after President Hugo Chávez died. The National Assembly, however, is led by the opposition party, and (perhaps not coincidentally) Maduro’s allies have accused it of acting in “contempt,” leading to its loss of power this week. [Reuters / Diego Oré, Andrew Cawthorne] http://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-politics-idUSKBN17122M
- This power grab is the latest in the ongoing turmoil in Venezuela. The country is in the midst of an economic crisis; it faces the possibility of being barred from a coalition of North and South American countries called the Organization of American States for violating its charter, due to opposition party repression and human rights abuses; and it recently lost its right to vote in the UN General Assembly for the second year in a row. [New York Times / editorial board] https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/29/opinion/crisis-upon-crisis-in-venezuela.html
Flynn seeks to speak — with immunity
:format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/8262099/634600128.jpg)
- Former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn has offered to testify to the House Intelligence Committee on the Trump administration’s ties to Russia in exchange for immunity from prosecution. [CNN / Tom LoBianco, Manu Raju, Shimon Prokupecz] http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/31/politics/mike-flynn-investigation-russia-immunity/
- (Flynn in 2016, regarding Hillary Clinton’s associates: “When you are given immunity, that means you probably committed a crime.”) [Washington Post / Fred Barbash] https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/03/31/michael-flynn-in-2016-immunity-means-you-probably-committed-a-crime/?utm_term=.df543d08fa98
- President Trump has encouraged this action, tweeting, "Mike Flynn should ask for immunity in that this is a witch hunt (excuse for big election loss), by media & Dems, of historic proportion!” — which is odd, since if Flynn gets immunity it would probably be because his testimony could finger others in the administration. [Reuters / Mark Hosenball] http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-russia-flynn-idUSKBN1713AG
- At present, this is all hypothetical. The top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Adam Schiff, indicated it was too early to say, but did add, "We should first acknowledge what a grave and momentous step it is.” [CNN / Tom LoBianco, Manu Raju, Shimon Prokupecz] http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/31/politics/mike-flynn-investigation-russia-immunity/
- But some argue the investigation is too pressing for Schiff and company to take too long — at stake, after all, is the possibility that Flynn’s testimony will shed light on foreign attempts to influence the outcome of a US election. [New York Times / Richard W. Painter, Norman Eisen] https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/31/opinion/trump-is-right-give-michael-flynn-immunity.html
- Another reason to decide quickly: The White House might already be walking back support of Flynn’s request, per a strange exchange between CBS’s Major Garrett and White House press secretary Sean Spicer during today’s daily press briefing. [Washington Post / Aaron Blake] https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/03/31/does-the-white-house-really-want-michael-flynn-to-get-immunity-apparently-maybe-not/?utm_term=.4f6f551aa369
- Meanwhile, the cloud of suspicion hanging over the House Intelligence Committee investigation isn’t clearing up anytime soon.
- The senior Republican on the committee, Rep. Devin Nunes, has been under scrutiny since an explosive press conference where he claimed that he reviewed mysterious surveillance evidence on White House grounds but wouldn’t name his sources. [Vox / Yochi Dreazen] http://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/3/29/15096442/house-intelligence-committee-devin-nunes-trump-wiretapping-obama
- That mystery has been solved — which is bad news for Nunes. On Thursday, the New York Times reported that his sources were two White House officials. Which means the White House gave Nunes information that he then sped to the White House to “reveal.” [New York Times / Matthew Rosenberg, Maggie Haberman, Adam Goldman] https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/30/us/politics/devin-nunes-intelligence-reports.html?_r=0
Death row in Arkansas
:format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/8262263/GettyImages_631905134.jpg)
- The state of Arkansas plans to execute eight men over the course of 10 days in April, in order to use its expiring supply of midazolam (part of a cocktail of drugs used in executions) before it goes bad. [New York Times / Megan McCracken, Jennifer Moreno.] https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/20/opinion/arkansass-cruel-and-unusual-killing-spree.html
- But the plan has faced statewide and national resistance on more than a few fronts — not least of which is the constitutional prohibition on “cruel and unusual punishment.” [Columbia Journalism Review / Tasneem Raja] http://www.cjr.org/united_states_project/arkansas-executions-reporters.php
- The biggest problem is the drug itself. Midazolam is a sedative that was never intended to be used in executions. [New York Times / Alan Blinder] https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/13/us/midazolam-death-penalty-arkansas.html?_r=0
- And its use on death row is notorious for being linked to botched, extremely painful executions — like Clayton Lockett’s, whose death was described as a prolonged, “bloody mess” in a Pulitzer-winning series about Oklahoma’s death penalty. [Tulsa World / Ziva Branstetter, Cary Aspinwall] http://www.pulitzer.org/finalists/ziva-branstetter-and-cary-aspinwall
- In Lockett’s case, his execution was one of two scheduled for the day. This kind of double booking is atypical. Arkansas’s plan to execute eight men, however, involves killing two per day on April 17, 20, 24, and 27. [NPR / Camila Domonoske] http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/03/31/521967661/arkansas-readies-for-8-executions-despite-outcry-over-pace-method
- In 2015, the Supreme Court issued a 5-4 opinion that the use of midazolam in executions did not constitute cruel and unusual punishment. [NPR / Krishnadev Calamur] http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/06/29/418520718/supreme-court-says-okla-s-use-of-midazolam-in-lethal-injection-is-legal
- But suppliers don’t want the drug used in executions anymore, which is why Arkansas is trying to use the last of its supply while it can. [New York Times / Alan Blinder] https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/13/us/midazolam-death-penalty-arkansas.html?_r=0
- As for the prisoners scheduled to be executed? Their cases, in a report from the Fair Punishment Project, have been “defined by mental illness, intellectual disability, and bad lawyering.” [Fair Punishment Project] http://fairpunishment.org/new-report-arkansass-executions/
- Arkansas’s plan isn’t ready to move forward without a hitch. The state’s highest court is currently deliberating whether prison officials must release more information than they already have about the drugs that will be used in the upcoming executions. [ABC, AP / Andrew Demillo] http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/arkansas-asks-court-block-order-execution-drugs-46491502
- And as of Friday, the state still cannot find enough volunteers to witness the executions, which each require six “respectable citizens” to observe. [KTLA / CNN Wire] http://ktla.com/2017/03/31/arkansas-plans-to-put-8-inmates-to-death-in-10-days-but-state-cant-find-enough-volunteers-to-witness-executions/
- It’s underdiscussed, but witnessing and carrying out executions can have a huge psychological impact, as one former commissioner of the Department of Corrections in Georgia has attested — he quit in 1995 after ordering five executions, but continues to have nightmares. [Guardian / Ed Pilkington] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/mar/29/arkansas-executioners-mental-health-allen-ault
Miscellaneous
- Penn researchers did lab experiments testing male aggression both before and after Election Day last year. Take a wild guess how Trump winning changed things [Knowledge@Wharton]
- Coal mines in the US employ fewer people than Arby’s. [Washington Post / Christopher Ingraham]
- Thomas Royen, an obscure retired statistician in Germany, proved a decades-old mathematical conjecture that some mathematicians spent their whole careers working on. But few people in the math world seemed to notice. [Quanta / Natalie Wolchover]
- Mohammed Abad and Andrew Wardle are the two men on earth with bionic penises. They do not like each other at all. [MEL / C. Brian Smith]
- Uwe Boll was widely regarded as the single worst film director in the world. Now he’s retired and runs a restaurant in Vancouver. And he’s still mad as hell about the whole thing. [Vanity Fair / Darryn King]
Verbatim
- “Imagine that door is soundproof and the only noises you’ve heard for almost two years are your own voice and the occasional faint metallic banging as someone loses his mind in another room near yours. Imagine being so deprived of stimulation that watching ants race to a chunk of cookie for hours was the most exciting event of those nearly 600 days. What you are imagining was my life.” [Minnesota Star Tribune / Robert Ives]
- “We are gang-less.” [Senior Senate source to Politico / Burgess Everett and Seung Min Kim]
- “I guess I just don’t know if I’m a good person because I’m a good person or if I’m a good person because I was taught to be a good person.” [Anonymous to NYT Mag / Taffy Brodesser-Akner]
- “There is a thing all parents do. Our grandparents did it. Our parents did it. We do it, too. Everyone accepts it, as if parents always parented this way. There is even a cultural touchstone — that one scene from the movie we all loved, with that quote all parents say to each other ironically.” [Los Angeles Magazine / Joe Donatelli]
- “Turns out that when you live with a federal symbol up close and personal, day in and day out, it’s a little harder to think of them as majestic. Bald eagles show up in the local police blotter alongside reports of drunk fishermen passing out in the wrong bunk or taking off in someone else’s forklift.” [California Sunday / Laurel Braitman]
Watch this: Why losing a dog feels like losing a family member
Their life arc is our life arc — from city to suburb, from tragedy to bliss. [YouTube / Dion Lee, Alvin Chang]
