FiveThirtyEight’s top stories this week

1 A [FiveThirtyEight]( email [Popular This Week] Sunday, December 16, 2018 [1. A Weird NFL Weekend Leaves Us Even More Confused]( [SportsChat-1210-4×3]( gfoster: (Geoff Foster, sports editor): NFL Week 14 was very odd in many respects (and the week isn’t over) with the Raiders, Niners and Giants winning and the Rams, Texans, Steelers and Patriots all losing. It all went a long way to making the playoff picture even murkier. What was your biggest takeaway from the week? [Read more]( [2. Trump Is Only Popular In Rural Areas]( [1206_POLLA_4x3]( Welcome to Pollapalooza, our weekly polling roundup. [Read more]( [3. Zion Williamson Is The Best College Basketball Player In At Least A Decade]( [Eastern Michigan v Duke]( Ten games into what will almost certainly be his lone season in Durham, Duke’s Zion Williamson has treated college basketball like a rim on a breakaway. Which is to say, he has left it trembling. [Read more]( [4. What Should Trump’s 2020 Strategy Be In 2019?]( [SlackChat-1212-4×3]( Welcome to FiveThirtyEight’s weekly politics chat. The transcript below has been lightly edited. [Read more]( [5. Why It Might Be Impossible To Overturn A Presidential Pardon]( [TRUMP DOCKET-1210_4x3]( If the American president has a superpower, it might be the ability to grant pardons. With the stroke of a pen, the president can wipe away the consequences of a federal criminal conviction, without having to ask permission from Congress or prepare for a battle in the courts. In the past, presidents have used this power in a variety of sweeping and controversial ways, perhaps most famously when Gerald Ford pardoned his predecessor, Richard Nixon, for any crimes he might have committed while in office. [Read more]( [6. White Voters Without A Degree Remained Staunchly Republican In 2018]( [DEMO-FACTORS-4×3]( Since the election, we’ve made it our mission here at FiveThirtyEight to uncover the variables that best explain why things shook out the way they did. We’ve already shown you the strong correlation between partisanship and U.S. House results. We have also pointed out how Republicans won a huge share of rural seats, while Democrats won every single urban seat and many, many suburban seats. Today, we’re taking a look at how well educational attainment predicted the 2018 House results, especially among non-Hispanic white voters. [Read more]( [7. It’s Been More Than 30 Years Since The House Reversed An Election Outcome]( [CONTESTED-ELECTIONS-4×3]( What’s going to happen in North Carolina’s 9th Congressional District? That’s a question currently without an answer. Republican Mark Harris was initially declared the winner, but after allegations of election fraud cast doubt on the integrity of the vote, the next steps remain uncertain. With The Washington Post now reporting that Harris personally directed the hiring of the operative at the center of the potential fraud — even after being warned of his suspect methods — it’s entirely possible that the state board of elections could order a brand new election. [Read more]( [8. Brexit Could Drastically Change English Soccer]( [BREXIT_4x3]( As debate has intensified over the plan for the United Kingdom to leave the European Union, industries across Britain are preparing for a post-Brexit world. Along with the agriculture, automotive, pharmaceutical and financial services fields, there’s another prosperous British business that could feel the brunt of Brexit: the English Premier League. [Read more]( [9. What Comes Next In That Contested Election In North Carolina]( [Election fraud allegations in NC congressional race: What we know (and what we don’t]( It has been 13 days since we last wrote about potential election fraud in the North Carolina 9th District, and we are no closer to a resolution. The week of Nov. 26, the North Carolina State Board of Elections twice refused to certify the results of the congressional election between Republican Mark Harris and Democrat Dan McCready as both reports from voters and irregular patterns in the data suggested that absentee votes in the district were being illegally cast or discarded. As it currently stands, the extent of the suspected election fraud could be enough to change the outcome of the election — Harris leads by just 905 votes. What follows is an update of what’s happened in the past two weeks, including who might be connected to the alleged fraud, what types of voters may have been targeted and how this election might be resolved. [Read more]( [10. Have Republicans Given Up On Winning Black Voters?]( [US-POLITICS-TRUMP]( George W. Bush was president when I first started covering national politics. He had come into office with barely any support from black voters. He won re-election with almost as little. But Bush still paid some heed to the interests of black Americans. When then-Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott praised the pro-segregation 1948 presidential campaign of Strom Thurmond, for example, Bush slammed Lott, helping lead to his removal as majority leader. Bush also appointed Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice, two African-Americans whose views on racial issues were not particularly conservative, to top posts in the administration. [Read more]( --------------------------------------------------------------- Weekly Listen [Play]( [Politics Podcast: Trump’s Turbulent Week]( [FiveThirtyEight] [View in browser]( [ABC News]( [Unsubscribe]( Our mailing address: FiveThirtyEight, 147 Columbus Avenue, New York, NY 10023.