Boeing, the world's largest aerospace company, has lost $29 billion in market value since Sunday's crash of an Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 8 jet, with all 157 people on board killed. Most countries and airlines have grounded their 737 MAX 8 aircraft, U.S. lawmakers and others have called for the FAA to follow suit, and Boeing's fastest-selling aircraft ever now faces uncertain skies.

Boeing has a lot riding on the 737 MAX. But 85 years ago, it bet everything on its Model 299, later called the B-17 — and it nearly lost everything when its "Flying Fortress" crashed during a key test flight. Two highly experienced test pilots died.

In 1934, the U.S. government forced Boeing to spin off United Airlines and United Technologies, and rival "Douglas was really starting to dominate the American aircraft industry," Roger Connor, a curator at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, told NPR's Hidden Brain in February. "Their DC-2 was becoming the hot passenger airliner and was quickly putting Boeing into the background in that industry."

Company founder Bill Boeing resigned in 1934, and Claire Egtvedt took over and essentially "bet the company" on the Model 299, a four-engine next-generation bomber, Boeing in-house historian Mike Lombardi recounted last year to Seattle's KIRO radio. The U.S. Army Air Corps, precursor of the Air Force, announced a head-to-head contest for a major government contract in 1935; Boeing, Douglas, and Martin entered bombers, and Boeing was the clear frontrunner. As Seattle historian Feliks Banel recounts, the Boeing plane crashed on its second flight, on Oct. 30, 1935.

"Everything the company had went into this prototype and there it was, a burning wreck on the field," Lombardi told Banel. "We didn't have an airplane to finish and Douglas won. So that was the end of the Boeing Company." The Army placed a large order for Douglas B-18 Bolo bombers — but using a loophole, it also ordered 13 Boeing B-17s in January 1936. That "relatively small contract literally saved the company," Banel said. The B-17 proved to be the superior aircraft, and more than 12,000 were built during World War II.

The crash of the Model 299 — attributed to human error and technological innovation — also led to the creation of the preflight checklist, Hidden Brain explains below. The Boeing part starts at the 3:40 mark. Peter Weber

U.S. officials told Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) that Russia is interfering in the 2020 campaign to help him win the presidency, people familiar with the matter tell The Washington Post.

President Trump and other lawmakers are also reportedly aware of the assistance, which is an apparent "effort to interfere with the Democratic contest," the Post writes. The Post didn't learn what kind of interference Russia was undertaking, but Russia did try to aid Sanders' 2016 campaign against Hillary Clinton via social media.

Sanders denounced Russian interference on anyone's behalf in a statement to the Post, saying "I don't care, frankly, who Putin wants to be president. My message to Putin is clear: Stay out of American elections, and as president I will make sure that you do."

Trump and the House Intelligence Committee reportedly learned earlier this week that Russia was interfering in the 2020 election to aid Trump's re-election. Read more at The Washington Post. Kathryn Krawczyk

Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg will release three women from the nondisclosure agreements he'd signed with them "to address complaints about comments they said I had made," his campaign announced Friday.

In a statement, Bloomberg said his company "identified 3 NDAs that we signed over the past 30-plus years with women," and that "if any of them want to be released from their NDA so that they can talk about those allegations, they should contact the company." And after "a lot of reflecting," Bloomberg pledged to no longer "offer confidentiality agreements to resolve claims of sexual harassment or misconduct" while he was still running his company.

Bloomberg's choice is in no doubt influenced by Wednesday night's Democratic primary debate, where Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) called on Bloomberg release women from their NDAs. Bloomberg said those women didn't "accuse me of doing anything; maybe they didn't like the joke I told."

Warren followed up by writing her own contract that Bloomberg could use to invalidate the NDAs and sharing it publicly on Thursday. Kathryn Krawczyk

The jury in the Harvey Weinstein rape trial has indicated it's facing a potential deadlock on the most serious charges against him.

During the fourth day of deliberations on Friday, jurors in the Weinstein rape trial asked what they should do if they can't reach a verdict on the two predatory sexual assault charges, but can on the other three, Variety reports.

Weinstein is facing sexual assault and rape charges stemming from the allegations of Mimi Haleyi, who alleges Weinstein forcibly performed oral sex on her in 2006, and Jessica Mann, who alleges Weinstein raped her in 2013. But among the other accusers who testified was Annabella Sciorra, who alleges Weinstein raped her in 1993 or 1994.

Sciorra testified to support the two charges of predatory sexual assault, and it's her testimony that jurors have appeared to be focused on in recent days. On Friday, they revisited her cross-examination, and earlier in the week, they asked the judge to clarify why it is Weinstein didn't face charges specifically stemming from Sciorra's allegation. Her case is too old to prosecute, but the first count of predatory sexual assault relates to the allegations of Haleyi and Sciorra, while the second count relates to the allegations of Mann and Sciorra, The Wrap reports. Weinstein is also facing charges of criminal sexual act in the first degree, rape in the first-degree, and rape in the third-degree.

The prosecution on Friday said they wouldn't accept a "partial verdict," and the judge instructed jurors to continue deliberations, per The Hollywood Reporter. Not long after, the jury was dismissed for the day, with deliberations set to pick back up on Monday. Brendan Morrow

Will another caucus catastrophe unfold this weekend in Nevada?

Democrats sure hope not, with a Nevada Democratic Party spokesperson telling NBC News that
"we have been working around the clock to ensure that what happened in Iowa will not happen here," also saying the party will be "taking no chances when it comes to reporting."

To that end, Nevada Democrats, NBC reports, have hired a call center with 200 paid operators to take in results on Saturday, with the party spokesperson saying steps like these should "ensure that our precinct chairs and site leads will be able to successfully report results on caucus day." In Iowa, problems arose both due to technical issues with an app and due to clogged phone lines that made it difficult to report results.

In a memo distributed to the 2020 campaigns, the Nevada state party's executive director said that a dedicated phone hotline will be the "primary source of the precinct caucus results," The New York Times reports. Precinct chairs, the memo said, will "call a hotline to securely report their results to a trained operator, will submit via text a photo of their caucus reporting sheet to state party staff through an established MMS reporting hub, and then they will return their caucus reporting sheet and other materials to their Site Lead."

The plan was originally for the Nevada caucus to use an app developed by the same company behind the disastrous Iowa app, but those plans, obviously, were ditched. Still, DNC Chair Tom Perez, who NBC reports will actually be on the ground for the caucus this time, earlier this week couldn't commit to the same-day release of the results, telling The Associated Press, "We're going to do our best to release results as soon as possible, but our North Star, again, is accuracy." Brendan Morrow

The new horror sequel Brahms: The Boy II is, according to critics, pretty bad — and you can apparently thank Jared Kushner memes for its existence.

Director William Brent Bell in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter on Friday explained that the creepy doll sequel, a follow-up to his 2016 film The Boy, got off the ground specifically because there were so many memes comparing the doll to Kushner.

"That's when Lakeshore called me and said, you know, 'this is really taking on a life of its own now in the zeitgeist of pop culture," Bell explained. "You want to think about an idea for a sequel?'"

Bell further explained to UPI that producer Gary Lucchesi called him "after about six months" of The Boy-related Kushner memes proliferating online, as this proved that "the doll is still hanging around, so we have something that interested people." It was, evidently, memes first, sequel idea second.

Given the follow-up's dismal 8 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes, there may be a lesson to be learned here: be careful when you meme. You may just inadvertently spawn a terrible horror movie. Brendan Morrow

Attorney Gloria Allred would like Prince Andrew to give the FBI a ring.

Allred, who represents some of late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein's accusers, has reportedly paid to have a bus drive around London with an ad putting Prince Andrew on blast after prosecutors said he hasn't been cooperating with their Epstein investigation.

"If you see this man please ask him to call the FBI to answer their questions," an ad reads on the bus, which was seen driving near Buckingham Palace not long after Prince Andrew's birthday, The Wrap reports.

Last month, Geoffrey Berman, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that Prince Andrew has provided "zero cooperation" as they continue to investigate Epstein's co-conspirators. Virginia Roberts Giuffre has claimed Epstein forced her to have sex with Prince Andrew when she was 17, a claim he has denied. He stepped back from public duties after his ties to Epstein came under scrutiny and after a widely-panned interview in which he said Epstein "conducted himself in a manner unbecoming."

When he decided to step back in November, Prince Andrew said he was "willing to help any appropriate law enforcement agency with their investigations, if required." Allred in a press conference on Friday urged him to do just that, per The Guardian, saying, "I implore you, Prince Andrew. You must do the right thing and stop shaming your family — the Queen, your children. If you have done nothing wrong then just talk to the FBI."