Given a document and an entity the task is to select the author's sentiment towards the entity. Sentiments can be Positive, Neutral and Negative. Select Positive if the article expresses a positive view towards the given entity or praises its quality or skills. Select Neutral if the document expresses no clear view towards the entity or has equal amounts of positive and negative statements or expressing some fact/quote by someone else. Select Negative if the article expresses a negative view towards like harsh remarks, criticizing entities action/decision etc. Note that URLs in the text have been replaced with [Link].

Q: What is the sentiment of the following document towards the entity Joseph Mifsud ? This mystery professor is likely  Joseph Mifsud of the University of Stirling in Scotland . According to a calendar entry on the Valdai clubâs website   Mifsud  spoke on a Valdai panel on April 19  2016  titled  âWorld Energy: Key Trends and Political Risks.â  Mifsud  grew up in the Mediterranean nation of Malta  where  he  served in various government posts;  he  was the only Londoner and the only professor on the panel. The Mueller legal filing revealed that Papadopoulos had extensive contacts with the professor as part of an effort to set up a meeting between Trump campaign representatives and Russian officials. Papadopoulos told his campaign supervisors about this effort and was encouraged to proceed. Papadopoulos has pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his communications with the professor and others connected to Russia.
The Washington Post noted on Monday that  Mifsud  is probably the professor cited in the Mueller statement. One of the emails quoted in the document  according to the Post  âappears to match one described to the Washington Post in August in which Papadopoulos identified the professor with whom he met as Joseph Mifsud  the director of the London Academy of Diplomacy.â But the Post reported that in August Mifsud told the newspaper he had âabsolutely no contact with the Russian government â and he insisted his ties to Russia were purely academic.
The public record  though  contains information contradicting  Mifsud  and showing that  he  has had contacts with Russian government officials. According to photos on the website of Russiaâs embassy in the United Kingdom   Mifsud  met with embassy representative Ernest Chernukhin in July of this year (weeks before  he  issued  his  denial to the Post). A biography from a 2013 business conference says  Mifsud  âhas advised Governments on international education issues in many countries including Morocco  Syria  Russia  Tunisia  and Italy.â  Mifsud  also met with Russian Ambassador to the UK Alexander Yakovenko in May of 2014  according to a 2014 Russian embassy press release.
Additionally  in early 2017   Mifsud  invited Alexey Klishin  a department head and professor in the international law division of the Moscow State Institute of International Relations  a school run by Russiaâs Foreign Ministry  to the London Academy of Diplomacy to present a lecture. Klishin was a former member of the upper house of the Russian parliament. According to a January 2017 press release from the Institution of the Russian Academy of Sciences  âKlishinâs presentation was devoted to international law and national legal systems [and] to their coexistence in the era of Brexit and the new presidency in the United States.â The release noted that Klishin had âvisited the London Academy of Diplomacy at the University of Stirlingâ¦at the invitation of  the Director Joseph Mifsud .â Hereâs a photo with  Mifsud  (second from the right) and Klishin (center) standing next to each other:
 Mifsud  did not respond to a request for comment from Mother Jones.
One obvious question for the professor is why he told the Post he had âabsolutelyâ no contacts with Russian officials when on-line material suggests he has. There are no indication in the Mueller statement whether his team has questioned  Mifsud  about the Clinton âdirtâ or Papadopoulosâs initiative to create a back-channel bond between the Trump campaign and Vladimir Putinâs office.
Thereâs another reason why  Mifsud  could be of interest to Mueller and his investigators. In the past year  the New York Times has reported that US intelligence agencies collected information in the summer of 2016 indicating that top Russian intelligence and political officials were looking to gain influence over Trump through his advisers and that US spy agencies had intercepted calls showing that Trump campaign aides and other Trump associates had repeated interactions with senior Russian intelligence officials  perhaps unwittingly. (In June  former FBI chief James Comey  in congressional testimony  disputed the Times story disclosing contacts between the Trump aides and Russian intelligence  but he did not specify what was wrong with the article.) So Mueller is no doubt looking for possible instances of when Russian intelligence infiltratedâor tried to infiltrateâthe Trump campaign  either directly or through witting or unwitting cut-outs. And the Papadopoulos episode could be a case not only of a Trump aide trying to establish a campaign connection with the Kremlin but of Russian intelligence attempting to score a contact within the Trump campaign.

A: Positive
****
Q: What is the sentiment of the following document towards the entity Susan Collins ? According to CNN  members of the group met in  GOP Sen. Susan Collins'  office and passed a stick around to ensure there were no interruptions. Only the member holding the stick could speak.
The stick was relatively effective  members told CNN  but there was one incident in which a senator threw the stick at another member who was asking questions while the first spoke. The stick missed the mark and ended up damaging a glass elephant on  Collins ' shelf.
In a statement after the Senate vote on the deal   Collins  applauded the work of the bipartisan group.
"Today  we saw the power of the center in the US Senate  " Collins  said. "Joe [Manchin] and I worked very hard in leading the effort of the Common Sense Coalition â a group of 25 Republicans  Democrats  and Independent Angus King â which proposed the compromise to end the government shutdown."

A: Neutral
****
Q: What is the sentiment of the following document towards the entity Patricia Whitaker ? Kent and Patricia Whitaker and their two boys  had returned home the night of Dec. 10  2003  following a restaurant dinner to celebrate Bart Whitaker’s college graduation when  they  were confronted by a gunman wearing dark clothes and a ski mask.  Patricia Whitaker  and her 19-year-old son  Kevin  were killed.  Kent Whitaker  and Bart were wounded.
 Thomas Whitaker's  father   Kent Whitaker   said he loves his son and has forgiven him. (JON HERSKOVITZ/REUTERS)
Nearly two years later   Bart Whitaker  was arrested in Mexico after investigators determined  he  arranged the plot in hopes of collecting a family estate  he  believed was worth more than $1 million.
“I’m 100 percent guilty ”  Whitaker  testified at  his  trial in 2007. “I put the plan in motion.”
 Whitaker ’s father said he loves and has forgiven his son  calling him a changed person.
The gunman  Chris Brashear  pleaded guilty in 2007 to a murder charge and is serving life in prison. Steve Champagne  who drove Brashear from the  Whitaker  house the night of the shootings  took a 15-year prison term in exchange for testifying at  Whitaker ’s trial.

A:
Positive
****