This Day In History: Feb. 16

MALIBU, Calif. — Officials in Southern California reported significant overnight growth of a wind-driven wildfire that has forced thousands of people, including celebrities like Cher and Dick Van Dyke, from their homes in Malibu, but forecasters said firefighters would get a break from improving weather conditions. With much of the coastal city under evacuation orders and warnings, residents waited anxiously to see whether their properties had been spared by the fire, which erupted late Monday and grew to more than 6 square miles (16 square kilometers) by Wednesday morning.

Can a Big Tech company be sued in Kenya for alleged abuses at an outsourcing company working on its behalf? That’s the question at the heart of two lawsuits that are attempting to set a new precedent in Kenya, which is the prime destination for tech companies looking to farm out digital work to the African continent.

The political stakes in purple states — those with small electoral margins that can swing back and forth between the two major parties — are enormous. Unlike bright blue and red states, where one party perpetually dominates all branches of government, the party in power in the small handful of competitive states is constantly worried about losing control.

We’ve had so many post-mortems on the election that a wave of post-mortems on the post-mortems is now coming in. But if we zoom out—way out—and look at the larger picture, what we most urgently need to examine is not only why we are so polarized and divided, but also why we are so lacking in compassion, empathy, and understanding for those we disagree with. The seeds of this decline were sown long before the 2024 campaign.

Event Will Feature Appearances by TIME Athlete of the Year Caitlin Clark, TIME CEO of the Year Lisa Su, TIME Icon of the Year Elton John, and More in New York City New York, NY–December 11, 2024 – Today, ahead of the announcement of the 2024 TIME Person of the Year on December 12, TIME will host its annual A Year in TIME celebration in New York City, recognizing leadership and impact that defined 2024.

Few saw it coming. The sudden and dramatic fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria came on Sunday after over a decade of brutal conflict. “It took 12 days for the Syrian regime to collapse after 13 years of war,” Timour Azhari, the Iraq bureau chief at Reuters, wrote on X. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] The Assad family had ruled Syria for over half a century that was marked by atrocities, mass incarceration against regime critics, and other grave human rights violations.