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FILE PHOTO: Asylum-seeking migrants cross the Rio Grande to El Paso, Texas, U.S., as seen from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, October 3, 2022. REUTERS/Paul Ratje/File Photo (Paul Ratje/Reuters)
Migrant families who were released along the border last year with instructions to show up later at U.S. immigration offices generally complied with those directives, but most of the addresses initially gathered by the government were wrong or incomplete, an oversight report to Congress said Monday.
The findings by the U.S. Government Accountability Office, the nonpartisan congressional agency that is the government’s primary oversight body, examined some of the ad hoc practices deployed by the Biden administration to contend with record numbers of border-crossers in U.S. custody.
When the number of migrants entering the country illegally soared in the months after Biden took office in 2021, U.S. Border Patrol stations were quickly overwhelmed and detention facilities became crowded beyond their pandemic-rated capacity. The administration responded by issuing some family groups a “Notice to Report” directing them to go to an office of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement at their destination city within 60 days.
The process reduced paperwork for U.S. agents along the border, but it essentially amounted to an honor system for migrants asking them to initiate their own potential deportations.
U.S. authorities recorded 1.7 million detentions along the Mexico border during the 2021 fiscal year, and this year’s figure is projected to exceed 2.3 million, the highest ever.
In 2021, about 450,000 migrants arrived as part of a family group, and that figure rose to approximately 550,000 during the 2022 fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, according to the latest U.S. Customs and Border Protection data.
The GAO found the Border Patrol issued nearly 94,000 Notice to Report documents to migrant family members between March 2021 and Sept. 2021, primarily in the Rio Grande Valley of south Texas. For the first three months of the new process, about 60 percent of the address info gathered by U.S. agents was often incomplete or invalid, the report said.
“For example, officials stated that Border Patrol sometimes recorded the onward destination state but not a street or city," it said. "These officials also stated that the addresses were sometimes associated with an apartment building, but the apartment number was not included. Or, they stated agents may have misspelled the address in the data system or listed an (ICE) field office as the family unit’s destination.”
Border Patrol officials also failed to coordinate the program with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, whose offices in U.S. cities were unprepared to receive hundreds of migrants per day lacking court appointments, the report said.
Adding to the confusion, migrants were provided with lists of ICE field offices but not instructed to go to specific locations, so immigration officials at those locations had little idea how many people to expect, the GAO found.
Sen. James Lankford (R-Oklahoma), who asked the GAO to evaluate the Biden administration’s Notice to Report process, said the findings reflected a “hurried process to get people into the country faster.”
“The administration has created a new process at the border and it’s important to understand how it’s working,” Lankford said, in an interview. “Basically they had a backlog at the border and they just moved it into the interior of the country.”
The lack of coordination between CBP and ICE during the initial phases of the Notice to Report process in 2021 generated “significant challenges,” the GAO found, as hundreds of migrants began showing up daily on a walk-in basis at ICE field offices. ICE administrative staff couldn’t handle the workload, and crowds of parents with children were left waiting in long lines in the streets outside agency offices, including one with “a waiting room that can accommodate only six people.”
The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the GAO report.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection responded to criticism of the Notice to Report process by significantly improving the accuracy of the address collection process after June 2021, the GAO said. CBP phased out that process in favor of a different procedure known as Parole with Alternatives to Detention that allowed the government to keep better track of released migrants using electronic monitoring apps and other technology.
Migrants released from custody after entering the United States illegally are typically issued a charging document known as a “Notice to Appear," which initiates the deportation process. Completing the paperwork for those forms typically takes border agents 2 to 2.5 hours, but the new fast-track procedures launched under Biden only take about 30 minutes, the GAO found.
Families have generally complied with the government’s instructions, according to GAO. About three-quarters of the roughly 180,000 migrant family members released into the United States under the new programs between March 2021 and February 2022 have reported to ICE offices. In about half of those cases, ICE has initiated deportation proceedings, which generally allows families to remain in the United States while seeking asylum or some other legal residency status through immigration courts, the report said.
To track down the roughly 45,000 migrant family members who failed to show up at ICE offices as directed, the agency has sent notices via mail and attempted to contact individuals by phone, the report said. Migrants who do not respond are referred to ICE fugitive operations for possible arrests. ICE officials told the GAO they are concerned about their growing workload because CBP has released about 100,000 additional migrants using Parole with Alternatives to Detention since the spring.
Migrants who arrive as part of a family group and state a fear of persecution if returned to their home countries are generally released into the United States and allowed to seek humanitarian protections under U.S. law. The backlog of unresolved asylum claims has ballooned in recent years, and the cases often take years to resolve, creating what is widely acknowledged to be an incentive for migrants who may not have valid claims to avoid a quick deportation and detention. | 2022-10-17T19:58:43Z | www.washingtonpost.com | GAO examines U.S. border practices in facing record numbers of migrants - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/10/17/border-report-migrants/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/10/17/border-report-migrants/ |
President Biden after delivering remarks on lowering costs for American families at Irvine Valley College in Orange County on Oct. 14 in Irvine, Calif. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)
For many Americans, the looming midterm election doesn’t pose much of a choice at all. The majority of Americans are Democrats or Republicans. The vast majority of those partisans who cast a vote next month (or earlier, where available) will vote for the candidates from their party. This is why parties exist, of course, to make it easier to figure out who you’re aligned with. But it also means that, for all of the attention paid to what voters want and where they’ll end up in November, the answer is often simply: exactly where you’d expect.
Yet elections often come down to the hard-to-predict margins. In Georgia, for example, the Senate race may be determined by people who split their tickets between the parties. Nationally, myriad races may similarly be settled by where swing voters land or whether partisans come out to vote.
Over the weekend, Fox News published new polling from its bipartisan polling arm evaluating how Americans viewed the issues that have emerged as central to the midterm cycle. What the polling shows is that, for the issues that Americans say they’re most concerned about, Republicans hold an advantage among swing voters.
Before we get to that, we should highlight an unusual question Fox asked poll respondents. We often talk about how voters view various issues as important to their vote. People are complicated; it’s generally the case that we’re worried or enthusiastic about more than one thing at a time. So Fox asked a more pointed version of the question: What, if anything, is an issue for which a candidate’s position would be a dealbreaker? In other words, what’s an issue where a candidate must agree with you or they lose your vote?
The most common response was abortion, with about a fifth of voters identifying the issue as key to their vote choice. That included 19 percent of Democrats and 27 percent of suburban women, a voting bloc that helped Democrats win a majority in the 2018 midterms.
More striking, though, is how little agreement there is on dealbreakers. The economy was the second-most identified issue, with only 14 percent of respondents saying that candidates need to agree with them (however broad that category might be). About 1 in 8 voters said there was no dealbreaker.
Interestingly, crime is not seen as a critical priority for many voters. Inflation (subsumed into “economy”) fares a little better, but is still in the single digits. In part, one might assume, because candidate positions on inflation are pretty consistent: It should go down. It’s not really clear what disagreement with a candidate on inflation would even mean, beyond using it as a shorthand for a candidate’s broader partisan grouping.
Fox’s poll addressed inflation and crime in a different way, too, asking respondents how concerned they were about various issues. (Crime, I’ll note, was framed as “higher crime rates across the country,” which isn’t surprising.) In another question, the pollsters asked which party voters think would do a better job addressing the concern. The result is that we can get a decent sense of which party has the advantage on the issues of most concern to Americans — the answer, again, being Republicans.
Here are the seven issues for which Fox’s pollsters asked both about level of concern and about partisan advantage. Dots higher up in each graph indicate a higher expressed level of concern about the issue. Dots to the left of the centerline indicate that the identified group (independents, suburban women, etc.) have more confidence in Democrats on net; dots on the right give the advantage to Republicans.
If we start at top left, you can see that there’s a rough correlation between concern and confidence in the GOP’s ability to address the concern. Imagine a diagonal line overlaid on the overall-independents-suburban women dots. It looks roughly like this.
That’s the trendline only for the overall response, but it reflects the broader pattern.
The rest of the charts in the large image above are ordered according to overall concern. Inflation is the issue on which Americans express the most concern; most Americans (including swing groups) are more likely to say that the GOP would do a better job handling the problem. Republicans are also far more likely to express concern about inflation than Democrats, in keeping with a pattern in which the party that has an overall advantage on an issue is more likely to express concern about the issue. (This is probably a conflation of interest in the subject, spurring more awareness among voters, and of framing as more important those things their party is better at.)
Democrats are seen by swing voters as better able to address the nation’s political divide and — to the question about dealbreakers — abortion. The party’s advantage among suburban women on abortion is about 17 points; it’s safe to assume that there’s a lot of overlap between that group and those who consider abortion a dealbreaker. (Among those suburban women identifying it as a dealbreaker, they were much more likely to say they held a pro-abortion position than an antiabortion one.) Republicans, though, have double-digit advantages on inflation and crime, which 9 in 10 and 8 in 10 Americans (respectively) say they’re concerned about.
Again, many Americans are very clear about why they are going to the polls this year and what they want to see in a candidate. There are a lot of Democrats and Republicans who view the choice as clear-cut and near-existential. There are also a lot of people that pay relatively little attention and make up their minds as the election nears based on their sense of the country’s problems and the culpability of incumbents or the incumbent party.
In many places, those voters will decide an election’s outcome. | 2022-10-17T19:59:27Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Republicans hold the advantage on the issues most concerning Americans - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/10/17/elections-republicans-inflation-crime-polling/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/10/17/elections-republicans-inflation-crime-polling/ |
‘Marvel Snap’ devs’ first idea was so good they refused to believe it
“The first idea’s never the best,” said Ben Brode, co-founder of Second Dinner. But for ‘Marvel Snap,’ it was.
By Tim Rizzo
Though better known for its comics and cinematic universe, Marvel Entertainment has published video games since the 1980s. From “The Amazing Spider-Man” on the original Game Boy to “Marvel’s Avengers” on the PlayStation 5, dozens of titles over the decades have allowed players to live vicariously through their favorite superheroes and villains. Still, Marvel’s place in the video game industry pales in comparison to its role in Hollywood.
Bill Rosemann, vice president and creative director of Marvel Games, wants that to change. He believes “Marvel Snap,” an upcoming free-to-play mobile and PC title that releases Oct. 18, is a step in the right direction.
“We don’t just want to make a great Marvel game. We don’t just want to make a great Marvel card game. We want to make a great game,” Rosemann said in a recent video interview with The Washington Post.
And who is Marvel Games putting in charge of developing said title? The entertainment titan partnered with Ben Brode, former game director for Blizzard Entertainment’s “Hearthstone,” one of the most successful online collectible card games in history. Brode, and his new team at Second Dinner — many of whom are ex-Blizzard talent — wanted to create a game that would resonate with fans of the superhero genre and video games alike.
“We saw the team that Ben was assembling and we had no doubts from the beginning [Second Dinner] were going to make the best card battler in the world,” Rosemann said.
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The game is relatively simple to pick up and understand. Players create a deck of 12 cards featuring heroes and villains from the Marvel universe. They go back and forth playing cards in different locations from the Marvel universe, with an energy allotment determining how many they can play each turn. Whoever has the highest power at two of the three locations after the final turn wins. Games last only a few minutes and are easy to fit into spare moments on the go.
The barrier to entry is low, by design. However, the intricacies of the title lie in the progression system and ranked ladder experience.
In “Marvel Snap’s” sole game mode (for now), players rank up based on the number of cubes to their name. Cubes are won and lost in matches and the numbers vary on how long each bout goes and the utilization of the “Snap” mechanic. Games typically last a maximum of six turns. At any point, a player can Snap to put more cubes at stake. If one person Snaps, it suggests to the opponent that they’re confident they’re going to win, thus making the risk of cubes a calculated gamble. The opponent can play the game out, Snap back to raise the stakes even further or escape and leave the match early, losing a lesser amount of cubes than they would have if they played the game out and lost.
The game’s unique Marvel-themed cosmetics and art were designed to be compelling in their own right, but it’s the mind games that Rosemann believes will keep players coming back for more.
“There’s the bluffing portion of it that is new and innovative and really fun and makes it very strategic,” Rosemann said. “I think you will find it’s a game that you can jump into very quickly, play very quickly, but then discover, ‘Oh, there’s real [strategic depth] here.’ And then that’s infused from the ground up with Marvel.”
Brode, whose history includes working on the World of Warcraft Trading Card Game (now out of print) before acting as an early member on “Hearthstone’s” original design team, knows a thing or two about what makes a card game fun. In 2018, four years after launch, Blizzard announced that its collectible card game reached over 100 million downloads. In the eight years since its release, “Hearthstone” has continued to release content and entertain millions.
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In 2018, Brode, whose colorful personality and signature cackling laugh became synonymous with the multibillion dollar company, announced that he was leaving Blizzard Entertainment to start a game company with a few of his friends and former colleagues. The decision was a difficult one, with plenty of risk, but Brode wanted to return to his roots.
“I was getting very involved in leadership and management for the last couple years of my job,” Brode told The Washington Post. “I really enjoyed doing it, but I was itching to get back into actually programming and designing and getting my hands dirty directly.”
Alongside co-founder Hamilton Chu, the pair agreed on the name Second Dinner for their company as an homage to the late nights they’d spent together brainstorming ideas. With a name decided, it was time to get the team together and begin working on creating … something.
“We didn't have any game ideas when we left, but we knew that we wanted to do a blend of really earth-shattering gameplay and a really high business opportunity. And I think that there's kind of a nexus,” Brode said.
Despite his roots in game design starting on desktop computers, Brode found another medium more immediately appealing.
“Mobile is a great place to have a successful game. At the core of it, what I wanted to do was make a game I really wanted to play,” said Brode. “I had just become a father. My son was born basically the day Hearthstone was released and I found that it was much easier for me to play mobile games. So I wanted to build something that I would be able to play more often.”
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With no intellectual property to base their game around, the team at Second Dinner began creating prototype mobile games until a familiar face provided them with an opportunity. Jay Ong, executive vice president and head of Marvel Games, worked at Blizzard with Brode in the early 2000s before departing for his current company in 2014. When he caught wind that the team at Second Dinner was looking for a partner for a mobile game, a meeting was set.
“We had a meal, we sat down, and the confidence that they could bring Marvel to life, and would make [the game] as authentically and excitingly Marvel as possible, was evident,” said Rosemann, who attended the meeting. “We just geeked out about our collective Marvel history.”
There was a shared interest in the Marvel Universe trading cards from the ’90s, and the attendees gushed over the comics and the role the characters had played in their lives. It was a perfect fit, Rosemann said.
“[Second Dinner is] like Wolverine: They're the best at what they do,” Rosemann said with a laugh. “Except what they do is very nice.”
The Second Dinner team had experience channeling the vast World of Warcraft universe into a card game. But there were some stark differences between that property, and Marvel’s universe.
“I came from working on the Warcraft IP where there’s tons of creatures and enemies to slaughter by the hundreds, and that’s just not Marvel,” Brode said. “Marvel is much more focused on heroes fighting a single villain.”
It wasn’t long before the Second Dinner team struck creative gold.
“We came up with the idea for ‘Marvel Snap’ pretty quickly. In fact, it was so fun so fast, we actually put it on pause and said, ‘Look, we’ve got to explore some other stuff. We can’t have this good of an idea this quickly,’ ” Brode said, reminiscing. “Like the first idea’s never the best. But after a bunch of iterations, all we could think about was playing this game. So we ended up going back to it and fleshing it out. It’s been fun ever since.”
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And while player enjoyment is the goal for any game to be successful long term, many find deeper meaning in titles they dive into. Given the difficulties of life in recent years, an escape from reality is important as well, according to Rosemann.
Before ending the conversation with The Washington Post, Rosemann’s demeanor suddenly shifted, as did his tone.
“It’s a challenging world we’re living in for many, many reasons and what is helping all of us collectively over the past few years is this opportunity,” said Rosemann. “We get to make a game that we know is going to entertain people and, man, people need that. … The power of games, now that we’re all isolated, for many reasons, is to be able to play a game that connects you to people around the world and makes you feel good and gives you some hope. We know that’s so important.”
Tim Rizzo is a freelance journalist with over a decade’s worth of experience in the news industry. He can be found at @TimRizzo on Twitter. | 2022-10-17T20:01:15Z | www.washingtonpost.com | ‘Marvel Snap’ devs’ first idea was so good they refused to believe it - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/video-games/2022/10/17/marvel-snap-ben-brode-hearthstone-interview/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/video-games/2022/10/17/marvel-snap-ben-brode-hearthstone-interview/ |
People gather during a protest against the renewal of hostilities between government forces and Tigrayan rebels in northern Ethiopia, at the headquarters of the African Union in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on Oct. 4. (Amanuel Sileshi/AFP/Getty Images)
NAIROBI — Government soldiers seized control of a key city in Ethiopia’s northern region of Tigray on Monday after days of airstrikes and an artillery barrage, according to a diplomat who spoke to witnesses, accelerating an exodus of civilians amid some of the most intense fighting since a five-month cease-fire was shattered in August.
Thousands of terrified inhabitants fearing a repeat of previous atrocities — including gang rapes and mass killings — began streaming out of the opposition-held city of Shire over the weekend, said an aid worker who was among a group of people evacuated from the city.
He said the wealthy bought bus tickets — prices have shot up from $6.60 to nearly $100 — and crowds of poor families trudged along the highway, carrying children on their shoulders who were at times startled awake by the sound of distant explosions. As buses pushed through crowds, families banged on the windows, begging drivers to take pregnant women or crying children, he said. The aid worker and some others interviewed for this story spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.
The renewed hostilities, pitting Tigrayan forces against the Ethiopian military and its Eritrean allies, have triggered fresh anxieties among diplomats that Africa’s second-most-populous nation will remain mired in a long, devastating war that will further destabilize the already volatile Horn of Africa region.
“The situation in Ethiopia is spiraling out of control. The social fabric is being ripped apart & civilians are paying a horrific price,” U.N. Secretary General António Guterres wrote Monday on Twitter after the news that Shire had fallen. “Hostilities in Tigray must end now — including the immediate withdrawal and disengagement of Eritrean armed forces from Ethiopia.”
Shire had been held by forces from Tigray, which have been fighting Ethiopia’s central government for nearly two years, and is home to about 100,000 residents and another 60,000 people who have fled hostilities elsewhere. The city is a strategic crossroads and the gateway to the main highway leading into Tigray’s capital, Mekelle, from the west. Its airport could also be used by Ethiopian forces to significantly extend the range and time in the air of their drones.
A Western diplomat estimated that about 87,500 Ethiopian soldiers and 25,000 to 60,000 Eritrean soldiers are engaged in the latest hostilities. Information from hospitals indicated about 5,000 soldiers have been killed in this latest round of fighting, said the diplomat, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
Less information is coming from Tigrayan-controlled territory, where there have not been working phone connections for more than a year. A humanitarian worker said trucks packed with wounded were coming from the front line into Tigray earlier this month.
On Monday, the Ethiopian government issued a statement saying it aimed to take control of airports and other infrastructure in Tigray, adding that unnamed “hostile foreign actors” had been violating Ethiopian airspace.
“The [Ethiopian National Defense Forces] strictly abides by all pertinent norms and principles of international humanitarian law,” the statement added. “Strict instructions have been given to all combat units to reinforce this commitment.” It did not mention Eritrean troops, which have been blamed for many previous abuses.
The government also said it was ready to ensure humanitarian access in areas controlled by the Ethiopian military.
With fighting now flaring on three fronts — to the north, west and south — many Tigrayans fear for their survival.
“People say if they come here, there will be no mercy,” one resident of Shire wrote on WhatsApp to The Washington Post. That fear is driving young people to join forces commanded by the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), the political party that controls Tigray, he said, after a period earlier this year when many sought to avoid having to fight and were forcibly conscripted.
During the first eight months of the war, when Ethiopian and Eritrean troops controlled most of Tigray, the United Nations, international rights groups and journalists documented many mass killings of civilians and gang rapes, including in small villages. At the time, Ethiopia said that reports of atrocities were exaggerated, although the government acknowledged it had arrested some soldiers for various crimes.
Eritrea has always denied committing war crimes despite extensive documentation of abuses by rights groups and journalists. For months at the beginning of the conflict, both countries repeatedly denied that Eritrean troops were even in Tigray.
Tigrayan forces have also committed gang rapes and killed civilians when they pushed into neighboring regions, although not on the same scale, the United Nations has said.
Eritrea — often referred to as “the North Korea of Africa” — has not commented publicly on the fighting. Constant state surveillance and repression of dissidents make it hard to speak to fearful residents inside the country. But diplomats and exiles with family members inside Eritrea say it has significantly ramped up enforced military recruitment, including of men over 50 years old.
Citizens who flee Eritrea can expect to see their families punished, said Mussie Zerai, an exiled Eritrean priest who works with refugees. He said that in one case he had confirmed, soldiers had pulled worshipers out of church and marched them off at gunpoint.
An Eritrean woman living in exile told The Post that police had come to her father’s house several times three weeks ago, seeking to force her 45-year-old brother to join the military. Her brother had hidden with friends, only enlisting after their father was threatened with jail, she said. Her female cousin, 27, had joined up after local authorities threatened to lock up her parents’ house, leaving them homeless, she said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to protect her family from reprisals.
Eritrean Information Minister Yemane Gebremeskel did not return calls seeking comment.
Previous attempts at peace talks have stalled. The United States brokered a meeting between Ethiopian and TPLF officials in Seychelles and twice in Djibouti earlier this year, after the government declared a humanitarian cease-fire that finally allowed more food aid to reach the starving region.
But aid groups were not permitted to deliver many desperately needed medicines or the fuel required for aid distribution. Phone lines, banking services and electricity, which were cut when Ethiopian and Eritrean troops pulled out more than a year ago, were also not restored.
At the end of August, TPLF leader Debretsion Gebremichael issued a stark warning that Tigray could either fight or starve. Days later, fighting resumed.
Fighting erupts near Tigray border, dashing hopes of peace in Ethiopia
The United States is backing an African Union-led process, and both parties have said they would attend talks. But despite a public invitation earlier this month for the two sides to meet in South Africa, the A.U. appears to have made few logistical or diplomatic preparations for talks, diplomats said. It’s also unclear if Eritrea would be included.
On Friday, a drone strike in Shire killed a member of the International Rescue Committee (IRC), an aid worker said. The IRC said the aid worker was killed and a colleague was wounded while delivering humanitarian assistance. Two civilians were also killed. At least 26 aid workers have been killed since the war in Tigray began, according to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
Earlier this month, another drone strike on a civilian convoy near the town of Adi Daero killed more than 60 people, the aid worker from Shire said.
He said his friend’s father had been among the dead. The family was unable to identify him because he was so badly disfigured. “They couldn’t even find his face,” he said.
Ethiopian military spokesman Col. Getnet Adane did not return calls or messages seeking comment on the strikes, but the government on Monday said it “deeply regrets” any harm to civilians or humanitarian personnel and promised to investigate. | 2022-10-17T20:24:19Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Ethiopian war in Tigray intensifies as government soldiers capture strategic Shire - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/10/17/ethiopia-tigray-eritrea-war-shire/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/10/17/ethiopia-tigray-eritrea-war-shire/ |
I’m hooked on ‘Clash Royale.’ It’s a problem.
Characters from "Clash Royale," by the gaming company Supercell. (Supercell)
This is a confession of sorts. I’m a grown man with a family. I have what most people outside of the comments section here would call a career. Occasionally, I am asked to go on television and comment on affairs of state. I own a tuxedo.
And yet, for precious minutes of every day, while various people are relying on me for various things, I’m on my iPad battling elite barbarians and skeleton bombers and a giant purple-eyed robot called a P.E.K.K.A., though no one seems to know what the letters stand for. Well, sometimes it’s precious minutes. Sometimes it’s … more.
I first wrote about the game “Clash of Clans,” made by the gaming behemoth Supercell, for the New York Times in 2013. My son, Ichi, was 8 then, and we had joined a clan together. This led me, ultimately, to fly to San Francisco to interview the No. 1 player in the world, who turned out to be an altogether lovely guy named George.
A few years ago, Ichi introduced me to “Clash Royale,” a spinoff of the original. It’s sort of like 3D chess, but with dozens of pieces, all with their own abilities and weaknesses. (These days, I use an elixir golem with battle healer, in case you were wondering.)
Ichi quickly mastered the game and moved on to other distractions, like actual chess and an electric guitar. I haven’t. In fact, I don’t want to brag, but I recently passed the 6,000-trophy mark, briefly surging to the top of my clan. I’m pretty sure my wife is more impressed than she’s letting on.
To be totally transparent, it’s not as though “Clash Royale” is the only game that interrupts my workflow. I’ve completed 1,732 consecutive Times crossword puzzles (not that anyone’s counting). I’ve played years of Scrabble games with online friends I’ve never met. I rarely miss a Wordle, or a Quordle.
But all those pastimes have some professional value, or at least that’s what I tell myself. They’re word calisthenics. It’s entirely possible that one day, decades from now, a doctor will say to me: “It’s only because of Scrabble that you can still write coherently at 103.”
There’s nothing so redeeming about “Clash Royale.” The feeling of accomplishment you get from, say, upgrading your minion horde to level 14 has no intellectual rationale. Your real life is no richer for having graduated from Serenity Peak to Legendary Arena.
No, the chief allure of “Clash” is that it’s always there. It takes three minutes to play a single battle, and at any time of the day or night, I can find a player in South Korea or Brazil who’s at my level and ready to go.
So there’s never an irritating commercial break I have to endure, no dull moment of waiting around for the Uber Eats guy to arrive, without the quick rush of a trophy push. The game is an ellipsis between moments, running constantly in the background of my life. Sometimes, I dream about it.
That’s not to say it’s mindless or requires no concentration. On the contrary, it is nearly impossible to win a “Clash Royale” match while someone is talking to you, or while a certain puppy is thrusting its favorite toy in your face. And losing what you’ve gained can be intensely maddening.
A few years ago, I turned a friend of mine on to the game, and after months in which he dominated his clan, his fiancee finally made him delete it. The game affected his mood. I’d be lying if I said it never affected mine.
But what bothers me more about my “Clash” addiction is the way it obliterates idleness.
Back when I was a magazine writer working out of a newsroom some days, my colleagues who were daily reporters would sometimes chide me for staring out windows and generally doing nothing. “So this is what magazine writers do all day?” they might say, peering over between frantic phone calls.
But, yes, that is precisely what a writer — or anyone who’s thinking deeply about anything — needs to do every so often: nothing. We’re all smarter for time spent staring out windows. We’re less self-certain for the minutes we lose pondering questions no one else can hear. Like every annoying insect in nature, boredom has its purpose.
And I wonder whether that might be a problem not just for me, but for society as a whole. We have so many distractions — games, podcasts, Twitter, TikTok — that we’ve forgotten how to be with our thoughts. Maybe we talk at each other so incessantly and so thoughtlessly because we’re no longer able to find comfort in the intermittent silence.
This is hard to contemplate, but I’m thinking it might be time to delete the game and revel a bit more in the void, the way I used to. I might want to finish this season with a good run, though, just so I can go out on top.
Besides, the baseball playoffs are in full swing now, and that’s an awful lot of commercial breaks. | 2022-10-17T20:33:02Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Clash Royale has me hooked, and that's a problem - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/10/17/clash-royale-video-games-addiction-matt-bai/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/10/17/clash-royale-video-games-addiction-matt-bai/ |
Don’t legalize marijuana in Maryland
Regarding Eugene Monroe’s Oct. 9✓ Local Opinions essay, “Legal marijuana in Maryland is a step toward equity”:
No one wants to see anyone’s life ruined by the law because they are using marijuana. But because possession of small amounts of marijuana is already decriminalized here, that is no longer what happens to those who are apprehended for simple possession.
Ruin can occur, however, through marijuana’s mental health effects. I’ve witnessed this in my extended community. By legalizing marijuana, communities of all backgrounds will have to confront the horrible damage caused by vastly greater rates of psychosis and more associated violence. In states that allow recreational marijuana, there has been an increase in the production and sales of illegal black-market product because the legal product cannot compete. You see, the black-market pays no taxes, and it can more easily hide once marijuana is everywhere.
Hundreds of peer-reviewed mental health studies have been conducted on marijuana containing THC, with the vast majority documenting harmful effects. Not everyone who uses it will be harmed, but the most vulnerable users are teens and young adults whose brains are still developing. Let’s protect them and vote “Against” Ballot Question 4.
Mark Marchione, Parkton, Md. | 2022-10-17T20:33:04Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Don’t legalize marijuana in Maryland - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/10/17/dont-legalize-marijuana-maryland/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/10/17/dont-legalize-marijuana-maryland/ |
Kanye West’s antisemitism has no deeper meaning. Stop looking.
Kanye West and Candace Owens attend the premiere screening for “The Greatest Lie Ever Sold” in Nashville on Oct. 12. (Jason Davis/Getty Images)
Explanations for Kanye West’s antisemitism and anti-Black conservative views have become a cultural industry unto themselves, and no wonder. The multi-hyphenate artist now legally known as Ye is a kind of political kaleidoscope. From one angle, his descent invites debates about what mental illness does and doesn’t do to those who suffer from it. From another, it’s about what kind of Black person conservatives are willing to embrace.
West’s rants against “Jewish Zionists” and “the Jewish media,” are a tired repetition of one of the oldest, and most dangerous antisemitic tropes portraying Jews as some sort of transnational cabal that controls the world. This is hate speech, pure and simple.
West’s words do not come in a vacuum. The Anti-Defamation League reported in April that there were 2,717 reported incidents of antisemitic assault, harassment and vandalism in the United States in 2021 — an all-time high since the ADL began tracking such incidents four decades ago, and a stunning 34 percent increase over 2020. During a peak in May 2021, wrote ADL National Director Jonathan Greenblatt, “Jews were being attacked in the streets for no other reason than the fact that they were Jewish.”
None of that is true. The medical examiner ruled that Floyd’s death was a homicide, caused by cardiac arrest resulting from the pressure of former officer Derek Chauvin’s knee on Floyd’s neck. Chauvin was convicted of murder and is serving a 22½-year prison sentence. | 2022-10-17T20:33:16Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Kanye West's antisemitism has no deeper meaning - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/10/17/kanye-west-antisemitism-meaning/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/10/17/kanye-west-antisemitism-meaning/ |
The sad state of American democracy
Video footage of President Donald Trump is shown on Thursday during a hearing of the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)
In his Oct. 14 op-ed, “The Jan. 6 committee preaches to the choir” Gary Abernathy wrote that President Donald Trump’s efforts to reverse the results of the 2020 election were shameful. “Shameful” is hardly the word for Mr. Trump’s actions. Mr. Trump’s actions before and subsequent to that day were and are undemocratic, unconstitutional and un-American.
The committee’s rehash of the attack on the Capitol, the threats to Congress and the vice president, and the subpoena for Mr. Trump were hardly a political stunt. That the committee might have been preaching to the choir, is an extremely sad commentary on the status of democracy in 2022 in the United States. Can we get an amen on that?
Frank DeGrace, Bowie
I want Gary Abernathy to know that I do not watch MSNBC, and I don’t consider myself a left-leaning partisan. I am a voter with a conscience. I want to know every crumb of evidence concerning the Jan. 6 insurrection because of my grave fear of bullies who become fascists.
I am horrified by the rising tide of antisemitism and the cruel language of racial assault. I only want the “sermon” of the committee to end in a conviction of all those responsible for the antidemocratic event that took place on Jan. 6, 2021.
Penny Morrill, McLean
I was perplexed by Gary Abernathy’s lament about the “tedious” Jan. 6 committee hearings. The videos and other evidence presented by the committee clearly illustrate that more than just “a few members of fringe armchair militia members” were involved in attempting to overturn the results of the 2020 election. I can only conclude from Mr. Abernathy’s apparent nausea that he must have skipped church for the much longer but less consequential Benghazi sermon.
Don Boselovic, Ashburn
Gary Abernathy’s dismissal of the Jan. 6 committee’s work — “monotonous rehash,” “political stunt,” “what was the point of it all?” etc. — denied the importance of the committee’s work to document for posterity what President Donald Trump and his followers did in an effort to destroy the democratic processes and principles on which this country was founded and built.
There remains a crucial role for Congress to tell this story (it was, after all, Congress that was attacked) and to document in the public sphere as full an account as possible. The committee relied almost entirely on testimony from Republicans who chose to tell the truth, even if they were among Trump’s many enablers.
Mr. Abernathy also managed a dig at the Biden administration for being “short of inspiring.” Perhaps he pines for the kind of inspiration that Mr. Trump seems to arouse. President Biden might be uninspiring, but he has put the government to work for the good of the country and the world; his myriad accomplishments speak for themselves. If the committee is preaching to the choir, I’ll proudly admit to singing in the bass section and hope that the choir will grow in size and volume to drown out the lies that have festered far too long in this country.
Howard Bass, Arlington
Gary Abernathy was wrong to claim that the Jan. 6 committee served little to no purpose. Though he might have found the most recent hearing a “monotonous rehash,” millions of observers thought the telling of the plot to overthrow the government quite important.
Though importance does not necessarily equal persuasion (this seems to be the criterion Mr. Abernathy applied), it did in this instance equate with the truth.
Mr. Abernathy entirely missed that we did not know the whole story and the ground truth on Jan. 6 as the raid was unfolding. Thus, the committee has performed a task of infinite importance to the future of the United States by working to reveal the truth — nothing more or less. There are no alternative facts to the reality that Jan. 6 was the culmination to date of all things Trump and Trumpism. Establishing this beyond a reasonable doubt for the sake of history and accountability is not a sermon; it’s an indictment.
David Sommers, Kensington
By basing its subpoena of Donald Trump on an ostensible need for more information, the Jan. 6 committee is only inviting the former president to engage in his familiar delaying tactics. That approach further conflicts with the committee’s need to conclude its work in a timely manner using the vast amount of convincing evidence already on hand.
It would have seemed far better to have based the subpoena (or perhaps a mere invitation) upon affording Mr. Trump a meaningful opportunity to defend himself under oath and before a national audience against the accusations leveled against him. In that regard, the committee could emphasize the severe credibility gap between all of the sworn testimony it has acquired and presented against the unsworn denials and claims in Mr. Trump’s speeches and media postings, an imbalance that his sworn testimony could counter.
Peter Gutmann, Chevy Chase | 2022-10-17T20:33:22Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | The sad state of American democracy - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/10/17/sad-state-american-democracy/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/10/17/sad-state-american-democracy/ |
Online sports betting giant FanDuel announced a new show will include regular appearances by Shams Charania. (Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg)
Online sports betting giant FanDuel on Monday announced a new NBA show that will debut this season on the sportsbook’s newly launched TV network. The show will offer news, analysis and, of course, betting lines.
Elite news breakers such as Charania have the ability to dramatically move betting lines with their reports. In the lead-up to this year’s NBA draft, the odds for the first pick fluctuated wildly based on reports from ESPN’s leading NBA reporter, Adrian Wojnarowski. Charania now will be collecting a check from the same company that is setting lines based on the information he is reporting, which could present an ethical dilemma: Who gets his “news nuggets” first — the sportsbook paying him or its audience?
“It will always go to the audience first,” Chris Jones, FanDuel’s vice president of communications, said in an interview. “He’s not sitting in an office; he is a contributor to our network, which is based in [Los Angeles], and not at all tied to our sportsbook operation, now or in the future.”
The Athletic, which was acquired by the New York Times earlier this year, has had an evolving relationship with sports gambling. Last year, the company signed an affiliate marketing deal with gambling company BetMGM, entitling the Athletic to referral fees for customers it sends to BetMGM. But after the Times acquisition, the deal was scaled back to a sponsorship, meaning the Athletic could not collect payments for readers who made bets through their referrals. The Athletic also recently instituted a policy that bars reporters from betting on the sports they cover.
Before the Times purchase, the Athletic had blocked at least one reporter from doing a side deal with a gambling company. However, the Athletic’s publisher, David Perpich, said in a recent interview that the Athletic would not necessarily prohibit its staffers from being paid by a gambling company. “We allow gambling companies to advertise on the website,” he said. “As long as someone isn’t putting themselves in danger of violating journalism and independence ethics, we would be supportive of that situation.”
A Times Company spokesman said the Athletic did not have rules in place prohibiting staffers from working with betting companies and that requests are approved on a case-by-case basis. | 2022-10-17T20:50:26Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Shams Charania to appear on FanDuel NBA show - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/10/17/shams-charania-fanduel-nba/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/10/17/shams-charania-fanduel-nba/ |
Police arrest man in July slaying in Southeast D.C.
Desmond Gaskin Jr., 36, has been charged with second-degree murder while armed
A 36-year-old man was arrested Monday in a July slaying in Southeast Washington, police said.
Desmond Gaskin Jr., from Oxon Hill, Md., has been charged with second-degree murder while armed in the killing of 40-year-old William Whittington Jr.
Four slain in D.C., police say
The incident took place July 19 in the 400 block of Burbank Street SE. Police said officers responded to reports of a shooting around 4:15 p.m. and found Whittington suffering from a gunshot wound. Whittington, from Southeast Washington, died there, police said. | 2022-10-17T20:59:09Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Police arrest man in July slaying in Southeast D.C. - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/10/17/dc-homicide-arrest-gaskin/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/10/17/dc-homicide-arrest-gaskin/ |
Mr. Nice Guys, a D.C. cannabis store, sues city over money police seized
A marijuana dealer's scale. (Evelyn Hockstein/for The Washington Post)
A D.C. cannabis company has sued the city for damages and to demand the return of roughly $70,000 dollars seized as evidence in police raids last year that yielded criminal charges, but no convictions.
Attorneys for Mr. Nice Guys, a company with shops around D.C. that “gifts” marijuana to customers with the purchase of another product — a popular legal loophole in D.C. — filed the suit in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia last week, arguing that D.C. police failed to return the seized money after investigations concluded and related criminal charges were withdrawn or dismissed. The suit seeks $750,000 for damages and legal fees.
“Our goal is have them to produce the information associated with the chain of custody of that money, and to just return it. That’s really it,” said Charles Walton, an attorney representing Mr. Nice Guys, which first opened in 2014.
The company’s website, marked by its signature happy face logo, lists an array of cannabis products like THC lollipops, gummies and chips. Each item includes a description reminding the shopper that the “dollar amount goes toward purchase of art print” and the pictured item “is your gift.” Mr. Nice Guys has been raided at least three other times at the company’s multiple locations around the city, Walton said.
The system is a part of the complex and legally ambiguous market that emerged in D.C. after voters in 2014 passed Initiative 71, legalizing possession of small amounts of marijuana. Congress, which has regulatory oversight over D.C., blocked city officials from establishing a legal recreational market.
Instead of legal recreational dispensaries, a network of shops quickly emerged under a provision of Initiative 71 that allows adults to transfer up to one ounce of marijuana to another adult as long as “no money, goods, or services are exchanged.” The stores instead sell other products like apparel, art or motivational speeches — for seemingly high prices — and give customers a “gift” of marijuana with their purchase.
The shops remain mostly unregulated, and police still occasionally raid stores and arrest employees at the dozens of gifting shops across the district. The searches can be driven by complaints about the shops or other crime or violence connected with a shop, police said.
Over the past year, the City Council has initiated efforts to crack down on enforcement of the shops, which some council members have said are taking business from the city’s seven licensed medical dispensaries.
In April, the council narrowly struck down a bill that would have allowed D.C. to impose harsh civil fines on gifting shops, then in early August, the D.C. Alcoholic Beverage Regulation Administration (ABRA) announced that it would be conducting inspections of the gifting shops for health code, tax and licensing violations, but an ABRA spokesperson said in an email that the start of inspections has been paused.
The lawsuit filed last week focuses on two raids that occurred on the same day in August 2021, when police with warrants searched two Mr. Nice Guys locations at 409 Eighth Street SE and 1922 Ninth Street NW.
According to the lawsuit, police seized more than $67,000 and destroyed two ATMs at the shop while searching the Ninth Street location. An MPD spokesperson said three people were arrested at the store and charged with possession with intent to distribute marijuana and possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance. The U.S. attorney’s office for the District of Columbia chose not to prosecute those who were arrested, according to the lawsuit.
Three people were also arrested after the search of the Eighth Street shop, according to court records. Two were charged with possession with intent to distribute marijuana, and one, who was dressed as a security guard, was charged with possession with intent to distribute while armed, along with other charges for possessing an unregistered firearm without a license.
Police seized about 15 pounds of marijuana from the shop and about $6,200 of shop money from Damani Batchler, an employee who was named as a plaintiff in the lawsuit, according to court records and the complaint. Batchler entered a deferred prosecution agreement, and once he completed community service hours the charges were dismissed.
Lawyers for Mr. Nice Guys argue in court filings that because all the charges were either dismissed or not prosecuted, the money seized from the shop should no longer be required as evidence and returned.
“Defendant District of Columbia’s D.C. police (‘MPD’) routinely and unlawfully holds cash seized from individuals who have been arrested — many of whom are never charged with a crime — for months or even years past the point where the government might have any continuing legitimate interest in retaining said cash while providing no process to challenge that retention,” the lawsuit reads.
MPD directed questions regarding the case to the D.C. Office of the Attorney General, which declined to comment citing the ongoing litigation. A spokesperson for Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D), who is also named in the lawsuit, did not respond to a request for comment. | 2022-10-17T20:59:10Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Mr. Nice Guys wants its roughly $70k back from D.C. police - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/10/17/nice-guys-dc-lawsuit/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/10/17/nice-guys-dc-lawsuit/ |
NEW YORK — Stocks closed sharply higher on Wall Street, marking the latest about-face for a market that has been unsteadily lurching between gains and losses in recent weeks. The S&P 500 jumped 2.6% Monday, more than recovering the ground it lost in a sell-off on Friday. The Dow added 1.9% and the Nasdaq climbed 3.4%. Bank of America rallied after reporting earnings that beat forecasts. U.K. government bonds rallied following news that the country’s new Treasury chief was abandoning nearly all of a series of unfunded tax cuts that had upset markets.
SAN JOSE, Calif. — A key witness in a trial that led to the conviction of disgraced Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes adamantly stood by his testimony during an unusual court appearance Monday. The prosecution witness, former Theranos lab director Adam Rosendorff, made a remorseful appearance at Holmes’ Silicon Valley home after the trial, raising questions about potential misconduct. The hearing focused on Rosendorff, who according to Holmes’ partner William Evans had expressed regrets about his testimony during an Aug. 8 visit. But Rosendorff on Monday repeatedly affirmed that his testimony was truthful and Holmes’ conviction was justified. A judge’s ruling is expected by the end of the month.
LONDON — New U.K. Treasury chief Jeremy Hunt has reversed most of an economic package announced by the government just weeks ago, including a planned cut in income taxes. Hunt said Monday he was scrapping “almost all” the tax cuts announced last month by the Conservative government and also signaled that public spending cuts are on the way. It was a bid to soothe turbulent financial markets spooked by fears of excessive government borrowing. Hunt said a planned 1 percentage point cut to the basic rate of income tax won’t happen. He also scaled back a cap on energy prices designed to help households pay their bills. Hunt also said more spending cuts are coming.
NEW YORK — The rapper formerly known as Kanye West is offering to buy right-wing friendly social network Parler shortly after he was blocked from posting on Twitter and Instagram for antisemitic posts. West, who is legally known as Ye, was locked out of Twitter and Instagram a week ago over antisemitic posts that the social networks said violated their policies. In one post on Twitter, Ye said he would soon go “death con 3 on JEWISH PEOPLE,” according to internet archive records, making an apparent reference to the U.S. defense readiness condition scale known as DEFCON. The potential purchase of Parler would give Ye control of a social media platform and a new outlet for his opinions with no gatekeeper.
NEW YORK — A group of major U.S. businesses wants the government to hide key import data — a move trade experts say would make it more difficult for Americans to link the products they buy to labor abuse overseas. The proposal obtained by The Associated Press was made by an advisory panel comprised of executives from 20 companies, including Walmart, General Motors and Intel. If adopted, it would shroud in secrecy customs data on ocean-going freight responsible for about half of the $2.7 trillion in goods entering the U.S. every year. Human rights activists say it flies in the face of government commitments to be more transparent on trade.
NEW YORK — Bank of America’s profits fell by 8% in the third quarter as the bank set aside cash to cover potential loan losses. It’s the latest bank to start socking away money for a potential recession, as Wall Street’s biggest banks have become increasingly gloomy on the U.S. economy going into the winter. The nation’s second-largest bank said it earned $7.08 billion last quarter, or 81 cents a share, compared to a profit of $7.69 billion, or 86 cents a share, in the same period a year earlier. BofA put $378 million into its loan-loss reserves this quarter — a similar level to Citigroup and Wells Fargo.
NEW YORK — Federal regulators said Dollar General is facing another $1.68 million in fines after government safety inspectors found violations at four of the chain’s stores in Alabama, Florida and Georgia. During inspections in April 2022, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration found dirty and disorderly storage areas and materials stacked unsafely at locations in Mobile and Grove Hill, Alabama; Tampa, Florida; and Dewy Rose, Georgia. OSHA said those conditions put workers at risk of slipping, tripping and getting struck by falling objects. The company was also cited for fire hazards. OSHA said Dollar General has faced more than $9.6 million in initial penalties after 182 inspections since 2017.
PLYMPTON, Mass. — Police say as many as 20 people were arrested when striking truckers used tractor-trailers to block the exits at New England’s largest wholesale food distributor. Police said more than 400 Teamster union members arrived at the Sysco facility in Plympton, Massachusetts, in the early morning Monday and stopped about 100 employees from leaving. Police say after two hours of negotiations, 16 to 20 people were arrested on charges including disorderly conduct and assault and battery. About 300 Sysco drivers represented by the Teamsters started their strike Oct. 1 for better pay and benefits. Messages seeking comment were left with union representatives. | 2022-10-17T21:29:43Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Business Highlights: Wall Street rally, Holmes trial - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/business-highlights-wall-street-rally-holmes-trial/2022/10/17/f6774150-4e5e-11ed-ada8-04e6e6bf8b19_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/business-highlights-wall-street-rally-holmes-trial/2022/10/17/f6774150-4e5e-11ed-ada8-04e6e6bf8b19_story.html |
TOKYO, JAPAN - JULY 29: People wearing face masks cross Shibuya crossing on July 29, 2022 in Tokyo, Japan. The World Health Organization (WHO) announced that Japan’s COVID-19 cases between July 18 to 24 reached 970,000, the highest in the world. (Photo by Yuichi Yamazaki/Getty Images) (Photographer: Yuichi Yamazaki/Getty Images AsiaPac)
With the borders finally open, foreigners arriving in Japan are noticing some things here are different. Dining out is a bargain, thanks to relatively low inflation and the weak yen. Once-familiar areas are now unrecognizable thanks to a building boom. And mask-wearing is still almost ubiquitous, even outdoors.
The feeling is mutual. The return of reluctant-to-mask tourists is triggering internal debate on Japan’s outlier status. From day one, the country has largely followed its own pandemic playbook — eschewing lockdowns, mass-testing and vaccine mandates in favor of a low-tech, common-sense approach.
Despite never ordering mask wearing, encouraging their use in almost all social situations was a core part of this plan. The population was familiar with masks since long before Covid: It was considered polite to wear one when sick, while millions more wore them in hay-fever season. During the pandemic, masks have become such an integral part of society that they’ve been nicknamed “kao pantsu,” or face underwear — such is the idea of being caught without one.
As foreigners return in droves, some Japanese fret that maskless tourists will help set off another surge in infections. Others argue that Japan instead should use the opportunity to imitate the West’s abandoning of masks, with face-coverings alone failing to stem a record-breaking Covid wave this summer.
Implicit in the criticism is a feeling that Japan is lagging the rest of the world, clinging to outmoded methods others have already dropped. Authorities appear divided: Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, keen to get people out spending, has suggested reviewing mask guidelines, and is appearing in public more frequently without one. Those around him are reported to be more cautious, worrying that the elderly population will be struck by a double whammy of Covid and flu this winter.
A poll in late August found that only 20% of the public want to copy other countries in discarding masks entirely. But attitudes are changing nonetheless; GMO Internet Group Inc., the Tokyo tech conglomerate that was the country’s first large firm to switch to work from home after Wuhan went into lockdown in January 2020, has now come full circle and abandoned rules requiring masks in the office.
“The world is moving to escape Covid,” founder and Chief Executive Officer Masatoshi Kumagai wrote in a series of tweets. “If we continue to work from home and wear masks, we can’t win in business.”
Should Japan look to the world for advice, or the other way around? Whatever Japan did during the pandemic, it got something right: While it might be an outlier in persisting with masks, it’s a bigger anomaly when it comes to Covid deaths. Fatalities are a full order of magnitude lower than the UK or the US, despite having no lockdowns and the world’s oldest population.
Eric Topol, director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute, has described it as a “model country” from which we can learn as winter approaches in the northern hemisphere. The changing of the seasons is already causing some nations to reconsider their approaches: Germany’s health minister says he backs wearing masks indoors amid a surge in cases, while Ontario looks set to recommend masking again.
Japan could easily find itself flip-flopping on mask advice. And the costs of getting it wrong are not theoretical: Life expectancy in the US has fallen for two years in a row due to Covid, only the second time in a century that’s happened, while even top performer Singapore has seen lifespans drop for the first time since records began.
There are sensible changes we can make to our lifestyles that reduce risk as we search for a more permanent solution to Covid. Until then, masking in situations such as public transport should remain in our arsenal, along with improved ventilation.
For Japan to copy the approach of countries that so spectacularly failed to contain the pandemic feels akin to repeating the tragedy of Ignaz Semmelweis, the 19th century Hungarian scientist who pioneered the idea that surgeons should wash their hands before they operated to reduce infection. He was right, though he didn’t yet have germ theory to support why; but his theories were ignored by the medical community and recognized only many years after his death, after countless women had died needlessly in childbirth.
The costs and benefits of each pandemic-era tool should be examined. For Japan, lengthy border closures have certainly been too great a cost. The country is right to welcome back tourists who, along with the public at large, should be given clear, easy-to-follow masking guidelines rather than the current confusing hodge-podge — and that should include removing them where they’re no longer needed, such as outdoors. Both visitors to Japan and its residents have a little to learn from one another; with the borders open, it’s time to let that information flow.
• China’s Markets Can’t Survive Xi’s Covid Zero: Shuli Ren
• The Pandemic Isn’t Over for People With Long Covid: Lisa Jarvis | 2022-10-17T21:30:01Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Maskless Tourists in Japan Trigger a Debate Over ‘Face Underwear’ - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/maskless-tourists-in-japan-trigger-a-debateover-face-underwear/2022/10/17/1db90a08-4e57-11ed-ada8-04e6e6bf8b19_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/maskless-tourists-in-japan-trigger-a-debateover-face-underwear/2022/10/17/1db90a08-4e57-11ed-ada8-04e6e6bf8b19_story.html |
Seattle soared to 88 degrees Sunday, its highest temperature on record so late in the season
Jason Samenow
Temperature difference from normal in the Pacific Northwest at 5 p.m. local time Sunday. (PivotalWeather)
Temperatures soared Sunday in the Pacific Northwest as Seattle broke its long-standing record for the hottest day this late in the season, reaching 88 degrees. Dry, gusty conditions helped spread fires burning over the region, which released plumes of smoke, fouling regional air quality.
This is the third historic heat event to hit the Pacific Northwest in two years, as human-caused climate change boosts temperatures ever higher.
The record-shattering heat broke Seattle’s previous Oct. 16 record high by a staggering 16 degrees. It was the city’s second-warmest October day in 130 years. The only hotter October day occurred on Oct. 1, 1987, when it was 89 degrees.
Before Sunday, the latest it had previously reached 80 degrees in Seattle was Oct. 14 (in 1961).
“It still feels like summer never ended,” said Seattle resident Adam Flash. “The stereotypically ‘rainy city’ hasn’t rained in months.” Less than half an inch of rain has fallen in the city since July.
Summerlike temperatures also baked Portland, Ore., which reached a record 86 degrees Sunday, its fifth day in a row in the 80s. On Saturday, it soared to 87, its highest temperature on record so late in the season. The city has set record highs on seven days this month, reaching at least 80 degrees on 12 days, doubling the previous October record of six such days.
Several other cities in the Pacific Northwest set record highs Sunday, including Vancouver (86 degrees), Olympia (85) and Bellingham (80) in Washington, and Hillsboro (86) and Troutdale (83) in Oregon.
Unusually warm air aloft and easterly winds causing warm, dry air to descend from the mountains are creating a perfect recipe for temperatures to increase throughout the day, said meteorologist Dana Felton of the National Weather Service forecast office in Seattle.
The high temperatures, low humidity and breezy conditions fueled fires already burning in the Cascade Mountains and helped ignite new blazes.
“It’s very, very, very unusual for us to have fires going in October,” Felton, who has lived in Seattle for 36 years, told The Washington Post.
The National Weather Service in Portland warned Friday that conditions were “favorable” for “rapid fire spread.” It urged residents to obey all burn restrictions and advised against motor vehicles idling over dry grass.
Satellite imagery showed blazes emitting smoke in Oregon and Washington.
SATELLITE SPOTLIGHT: @NOAA's #GOES18🛰️ monitored the #smoke from numerous #wildfires burning across the Pacific Northwest yesterday. Washington's #BoltCreekFire has burned more than 14,000 acres across the state and Oregon's #CedarCreekFire has burned 124,000+ acres. pic.twitter.com/GmxXnpxFqu
— NOAA Satellites - Public Affairs (@NOAASatellitePA) October 17, 2022
Winds from the east pushed the worst of the smoke from the fires in the mountains into residential areas throughout the Northwest. Air quality across much of the Puget Sound region and coastal Washington ranged from “unhealthy for sensitive groups” to “unhealthy for everyone” on Saturday, according to the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency. Near the Cascades, air quality was predicted to reach “very unhealthy or worse” levels.
People outside for any length of time on Saturday experienced sore throats or chest tightness, Felton said. “It just wasn’t a good day to be outside for very long.”
Flash said residents in the Seattle area could feel, see and smell the pollutants in the air. “It definitely isn’t comfortable being outside,” he said.
Most of the Puget Sound region is having air quality that is UNHEALTHY FOR SENSITIVE GROUPS and UNHEALTHY for everyone. In the Cascades and along US 2, SR 530, and Darrington, the AQ may reach VERY UNHEALTHY or worse. The current conditions are expected to continue through Sunday pic.twitter.com/FtF0oJlUjc
Air quality alerts remain in effect through Thursday in western Oregon and Washington, including Portland and Seattle.
“Pollutants in smoke can cause burning eyes, runny nose, aggravate heart and lung diseases, and aggravate other serious health problems,” the National Weather Service cautioned. “Limit outdoor activities and keep children indoors if it is smoky.”
Winds from the west might improve air quality and push the smoke out intermittently, but the smoke is likely to hover over the region until Friday, Felton predicted.
While smoke might linger, the heat has mostly exited. In Seattle, forecast highs this week are mainly in the 60s, and there’s a chance of rain Friday. Portland is forecast to be mostly in the 70s, although it may nick 80 one more time on Wednesday, the Weather Service predicts.
While it was historically warm in the Pacific Northwest over the weekend, unusually cool weather invaded the Upper Midwest and Great Lakes, which experienced some of their first snowflakes of the season.
This latest bout of heat in the Pacific Northwest is the third to occur in just over a year’s time. To end July, Seattle tied a record for its longest stretch with highs at or above 90 degrees. Portland also experienced a record-long stretch of exceptional heat, with a full week of consecutive days at or above 95 degrees.
In June 2021, an unprecedented heat wave scorched the Pacific Northwest. Portland and Seattle set all-time highs of 116 and 108 degrees, respectively. Scientists concluded that such high temperatures were “virtually impossible” without factoring in the effects of climate change. | 2022-10-17T21:30:13Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Historic October heat shatters records in the Pacific Northwest - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/10/17/pacific-northwest-record-heat-smoke/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/10/17/pacific-northwest-record-heat-smoke/ |
ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan announced an investment of $77 million on Monday for realignment and upgrades to Maryland’s section of U.S. 219 in Garrett County.
The latest improvements to Maryland’s portion of U.S. 219 will renovate and expand the 1-mile (1.61-kilometer) segment between Old Salisbury Road and the Pennsylvania state line. | 2022-10-17T21:30:26Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Hogan announces upgrades to US 219 in Garrett County - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/hogan-announces-upgrades-to-us-219-in-garrett-county/2022/10/17/45e72c86-4e60-11ed-ada8-04e6e6bf8b19_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/hogan-announces-upgrades-to-us-219-in-garrett-county/2022/10/17/45e72c86-4e60-11ed-ada8-04e6e6bf8b19_story.html |
Saad Ibrahim Almadi in Florida in August, 2021. (Ibrahim Almadi)
The Saudi government has sentenced a 72-year-old U.S. citizen to 16 years in prison for tweets he posted while inside the United States, some of which were critical of the Saudi regime. His son, speaking publicly for the first time, alleges that the Saudi government has tortured his father in prison and says that the State Department mishandled the case.
Many dictatorships unjustly imprison Americans. But while the Biden administration has gone to considerable effort to secure the release of high-profile Americans from Russia, Venezuela and Iran, it has been less public and less successful in securing the release of U.S. citizens held in Saudi Arabia. In fact, despite that Saudi Arabia is supposedly a U.S. ally, the Saudi government under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) is dealing with its U.S.-citizen critics more harshly than ever. The latest and most egregious example concerns Saudi American Saad Ibrahim Almadi.
On Oct. 3, Almadi was sentenced to 16 years in prison. He also received a 16-year travel ban on top of that. If he serves his whole sentence, he will leave prison at age 87 — and would have to live to 104 before he could return to the United States.
“I feel empty inside. I feel dead inside. I feel betrayed,” Ibrahim said. “He’s not only my father, he’s my best friend. He is everything to me.”
Since the arrest, Ibrahim had been working behind the scenes to urge the U.S. government to help secure his father’s release. But now, frustrated and desperate, he wants the American public to know his father’s story. Almadi has been tortured in prison, forced to live in squalor and confined with actual terrorists — all while his family was threatened by the Saudi government that they would lose everything if they didn’t keep quiet, Ibrahim said.
The State Department told Ibrahim not to speak publicly about the case, but he no longer believes that staying quiet will secure his father’s freedom. And he says that State has handled his father’s case with neglect and incompetence.
Nobody from the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh visited Almadi until May, six months after his arrest. At that meeting, Almadi declined to ask the U.S. government to intervene. Ibrahim said that Saudi jailers threaten to torture prisoners who involve foreign governments in their cases. In a second consular meeting in August, Almadi did ask for the State Department’s assistance in his case. He was then tortured, Ibrahim said.
That same month, Ibrahim came to Washington to press for action on his father’s case. His main ask was that Almadi be designated as a “wrongfully detained” U.S. citizen. That classification would elevate Almadi’s case in the eyes of the U.S. government and move the file from the State Department’s Consular Affairs bureaucracy to the Office of the Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs (SPEHA), which has a wider variety of tools to secure the release of Americans unjustly detained overseas.
According to U.S. law, an American citizen can be “wrongfully detained” if they meet any of 11 specific criteria, at least six of which seem to apply to Almadi’s case. For example, Women’s National Basketball Association star Brittney Griner was arrested for drug possession in Russia in February and given “wrongfully detained” status three months later. Ibrahim has been told for 11 months that his father’s case was under consideration. And when Almadi came up for sentencing on Oct. 3, nobody from the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh even showed up.
“I told the State Department his hearing was set for October 3 and they should attend. Afterward, over the phone, they said, ‘Oh, I’m sorry we forgot to tell the embassy,’ ” Ibrahim said. “I feel like they are just careless.”
A senior State Department official confirmed that the consular affairs office in Washington failed to alert the embassy when the hearing date was moved up, even though Ibrahim had notified them.
“Unfortunately, that information wasn’t passed [to the embassy],” the official said. “That is something we deeply regret.”
The Biden administration has raised Almadi’s case with the Saudi government at senior levels, the official said. The State Department’s process for determining whether Almadi will get the designation of “wrongfully detained” is still ongoing, the official said.
“We have consistently and regularly raised with Saudi officials our strong concerns over charges brought against Mr. Almadi and other American citizens for exercising what should be fundamental freedoms,” the official told me. “Freedom of speech should never be criminalized.”
The State Department insists that each case is judged on its merits regardless of geopolitical considerations. Yet prisoners who receive plenty of media coverage appear to get lots of attention from the White House. When it comes to Saudi Arabia, the Biden administration has taken a hands-off approach and resisted confronting Riyadh on such cases, which has emboldened the Saudi regime, said Ali al-Ahmed, founder and director of the Institute for Gulf Affairs.
“MBS is acting as if he believes or knows that the Biden administration won’t bring pressure on them regarding American prisoners, let alone oil and other issues,” he said. “The Biden White House’s inaction on American hostages in Saudi prisons led to the harshest sentence against an American abroad.”
The very least the State Department can do now is give Almadi the “wrongfully detained” status he clearly deserves. Until that happens, officials’ assertions they are doing everything possible will continue to ring hollow to Almadi’s family — and the Saudi government will continue to persecute American citizens with impunity. | 2022-10-17T21:30:51Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Saudi Arabia sentences U.S. citizen Saad Ibrahim Almadi to 16 years in prison for tweets - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/10/17/almadi-sentenced-tweets-saudi-arabia/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/10/17/almadi-sentenced-tweets-saudi-arabia/ |
Carson Wentz injured a finger on his throwing hand during the Commanders' 12-7 win over the Chicago Bears. (Katherine Frey/The Washington Post)
Carson Wentz will undergo surgery Monday to repair the fractured finger on his right (throwing) hand, and his timeline for recovery remains uncertain, according to a person with knowledge of the situation. If Wentz does miss time, the team will once again turn to backup and fan favorite Taylor Heinicke to fill the void. Rookie Sam Howell would serve as his backup.
Wentz suffered the injury late in the second quarter of Washington’s win over the Chicago Bears Thursday, but he played the entire the game, without a splint or tape for protection. He said afterward his hand was “a little sore,” but he’d be “all right.”
Wentz saw a specialist in Los Angeles Monday to determine the next steps, which included surgery. Placing him on the injured reserve list is another possible step, but it is not yet guaranteed. If Wentz does end up on IR, he would have to miss at least the next four games before returning to practice.
The Commanders host the Green Bay Packers Sunday at FedEx Field, then travel to Indianapolis to face Wentz’s former team in Week 8. A home game against the Minnesota Vikings and a road trip to Philadelphia follow.
Wentz’s injury is the latest on a long list for the Commanders, who lost starting center Chase Roullier to a knee injury earlier in the season and are still without starting defensive end Chase Young (ACL). Seven other starters have missed time this season because of injuries.
If Wentz is sidelined, Washington will make its ninth quarterback swap since 2020, when Ron Rivera was hired as head coach. It would also mark the team’s third switch to Heinicke.
Heinicke signed with Washington in December 2020 as an emergency quarterback in case of a coronavirus outbreak. He got his first start in the team’s playoff loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in early 2021 and impressed enough to land a second contract with the team.
Last season, Heinicke took over again when Ryan Fitzpatrick suffered a season-ending hip injury in Week 1. He went on to lead Washington to a 7-8 record as a starter. It was clear at the end of the season, however, that Washington planned to find a longer-term starter who could stretch the field vertically in coordinator Scott Turner’s offense.
So in March, Washington traded for Wentz and took on his full $22 million salary. The Commanders swapped 2022 second-round picks with the Indianapolis Colts and gave up two draft picks — a third-rounder in 2022 and a conditional third-rounder in 2023 — in exchange. The 2023 third-round selection would turn into a second-round pick if Wentz were to play 70 percent of the Commanders’ snaps this season. Should Wentz miss significant time, that becomes less likely.
The price was hefty for a starting quarterback, especially one who was dealt twice in as many seasons with a slew of not-so-flattering reports that followed. But Washington believed Wentz could stabilize its offense and that he could possibly revive his career to become a long-term solution. If anything, he had the size and the arm strength, and it seemed as if, with the right pieces around him, the Commanders could create a more explosive offense.
“It allows us to throw the ball vertical even more so than we have in the past,” Rivera said in March during Wentz’s introductory news conference at the Commanders’ headquarters. “... The vertical attack opens up a lot more things, opens up some things underneath in the passing game. It opens up some of the running game, knowing that [a defense is] not going to be able to put eight guys up in the box, forcing them to choose between five, six, seven guys in the box. … I think it will really help us to attack our opponents differently.”
The Commanders’ offense isn’t all new. But sometimes, it looks that way.
But the offense with Wentz at the helm has lagged for much of the past six weeks. Wentz has taken 23 sacks, tied for the league high through six games, and the Commanders rank among the bottom nine in net yards, third-down conversion rate and scoring.
Though Heinicke lacks the coaching staff’s preferred size for the position and doesn’t have Wentz’s arm, his return could jump-start the Commanders — or at least help them play at the level they did last season. Injuries to Wentz’s knee and back over the years have seemingly curtailed his athleticism, limiting the offense and its playbook. Heinicke’s knack for improvising and escaping the pocket to avoid pressure could help Washington keep plays alive and extend drives. | 2022-10-17T21:31:09Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Commanders QB Carson Wentz to undergo surgery on fractured finger - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/10/17/carson-wentz-surgery-finger-heinicke/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/10/17/carson-wentz-surgery-finger-heinicke/ |
The airline agreed to a settlement in a class-action lawsuit
A handful of American Airlines passengers who said they were improperly forced to pay bag fees filed a class-action lawsuit — and the airline has agreed to refund them and others who claim they were wrongly charged.
American said it would pay at least $7.5 million as part of a settlement agreement in the federal suit filed in Texas. The airline denies any allegations of wrongdoing in the case, court filings say. A representative for American declined to comment, as did an attorney working on the case.
The sides reached an agreement in mid-August, 12 days before a trial was scheduled to begin. Terms of the settlement were revealed Friday in a motion for approval of the agreement.
“It is the product of hard-fought, arms-length negotiations between the parties,” the motion says.
According to a complaint filed early last year, five travelers who were told they would not have to pay for at least some of their checked bags — because they held co-branded credit cards, had frequent flier status or for other reasons — were made to do so when they arrived at the airport. The suit says American dangles the promise of free checked bags to certain loyalty members, credit card holders and those who buy first- or business-class tickets.
“AA’s passenger contracts specify that certain of its passengers are permitted to check bag(s), for free,” the complaint says. “Yet, AA systematically required these passengers to pay to check bags and thus breached its contract with affected passengers.”
The lawsuit alleges that the airline failed to program the terms on checked bags in its standardized software system used for determining when passengers have to pay for bags upon checking in at the airport.
“As a result, AA passengers were improperly charged, and forced to pay, baggage fees,” the suit says.
What do airlines owe for canceled flights? A new dashboard tells you.
The settlement applies to two sets of affected passengers: those who received email confirmation that promised one or more of their checked bags would be free but still had to pay; and those who held branded credit cards that entitled them to no-charge luggage checking but who were still charged on domestic trips. Travel had to take place on or after Feb. 24, 2017, and tickets needed to be bought no later than April 8, 2020.
Passengers who were affected will have the opportunity to file claims; according to the settlement, all members of the class will be eligible to get a full refund of the baggage fees. American will pay no less than $7.5 million and “there is no limit or cap” on the amount the airline might pay above that number, according to court documents. The airline will also pay costs for settlement administration and attorney fees.
“That amount represents a strong result given the potential recovery and the risks and delay of ongoing litigation in this case,” the motion says. “The fairness, reasonableness, and adequacy of the proposed settlement is even clearer in light of the risks, expense, and delay that would accompany ongoing litigation.” | 2022-10-17T21:32:10Z | www.washingtonpost.com | American Airlines agrees to pay at least $7.5 million in bag-fee case - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/2022/10/17/american-airlines-bag-fee-lawsuit/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/2022/10/17/american-airlines-bag-fee-lawsuit/ |
Transcript: Race in America: Giving Voice with Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf
MR. BREWER: Hello, and welcome to Washington Post Live. I’m Jerry Brewer, a sports columnist here at The Post, and I’m so excited today because joining me is former NBA player, activist, and author of the new book, “In the Blink of an Eye,” Mahmoud Abdul‑Rauf.
Mahmoud, welcome to Washington Post Live.
MR. ABDUL‑RAUF: Thank you for having me.
MR. BREWER: Let's get started, man. I'm really excited about this. You spoke to former NBA player Etan Thomas recently, and you said something that was right after my heart as a writer: "When you leave a legacy of literature, you leave your story for eternity." Why is the time now to tell your story?
MR. ABDUL‑RAUF: Wow. That's a very good question. You know, there have been a lot of changes that have taken place, socially and politically, and I've been for some years now telling my story. I'm constantly getting some great feedback, and this is a story that needs to be told. And so, for me, looking at all of the responses that I'm getting as well as the conditions the way they are now, I felt it was a great time.
Plus, we have a saying. It's a saying in Islam called "Sadaqah Jariyah," and it's sort of what you just read. Leaving that type of legacy, you know, when we're dead and gone, whether it's building a road, whether it's writing a book, if someone can look back 50 years from now and they can receive or extract something from the book that can impact their life in some way, you're still getting blessings even in your death. So, for me, it's important to be able to leave that legacy.
MR. BREWER: That's wonderful.
Your book wastes no time getting to your famous protests and the backlash that you experienced. Is there a greater risk for Black athletes to acknowledge the historical injustices of America than for other public figures?
MR. ABDUL‑RAUF: I definitely believe so. You know, I was just looking something that Kianja Yumahdatella [phonetic] when she was talking about race and racism as not exceptions in this country. Instead, they're the glue that pulls America together, especially as it relates to Black people. In every walk of life, we feel it. We're crushed by it, and in particular, athletes because we're in positions of notoriety, of visibility, and enormous amounts of wealth, and so with that type of person not to embrace this notion of America being exceptional and you want to go against the grain, you of all people making this money and so‑called made it, it's a major slap in the face to the establishment as far as I'm concerned, so a huge threat when athletes take positions like that.
MR. BREWER: You wrote that you were portrayed as a troublemaker by the media for calling the American flag a symbol of tyranny and oppression. How does your book reclaim your narrative?
MR. ABDUL‑RAUF: Well, I think people will find when they read the book‑‑listen, I've been saying this for years, and I've been living it as well. I'm a people's person. I'm attached to‑‑I'm not perfect. None of us are, but I'm attached to trying to find the truth and articulating the truth as much as possible. I'll dialogue with anybody, but I won't accept any thing.
And sometimes, especially nowadays, if you go against the grain, if you have a different opinion, you know, you're ostracized. You're condemned for that, and when they read the book, they'll come across my personality. And they'll see that those things that were said wasn't the person that was being portrayed.
MR. BREWER: Mahmoud, it was interesting to be reminded in the book that you had quietly had this protest going for a year before anyone noticed, and then you had this moment in which you go from sitting on the bench and stretching to praying. Tell me about the evolution of the protest, particularly after the media started to pay more attention to it, and what did the praying symbolize to you?
MR. ABDUL‑RAUF: Well, the evolution actually had started the previous season. It could be four, five, six months, and I started reading a lot, all different types of authors, man, Noam Chomsky, Arundhati Roy. I mean, you name it, Howard Zinn, Randall Robinson. And I was just coming across information that didn't sit well with me, and so I started to‑‑and then being a Muslim, you know, what Allah tells us, to stand up for justice, even if it's against your own self. You can't be for God and oppression at the same time, and so there's a symbol that in my eyes represent being attached to that. I couldn't stand for it, and I still don't. And so that's the evolution of it.
How it happened, I got a call‑‑a visit, rather, from Todd Eley with the Denver Nuggets, and he came into the locker room. And he said, "Look, someone, you know, has been made aware that you haven't been standing. Would you want to talk?" and I said, "Look, I don't mind talking to anybody." These are conversations that we have all the time as players. We have them on the bus. We have them on the plane. So I don't see anything, you know‑‑anything out of this world about it.
I ended up having this conversation with him. Then next thing I know, I'm coming to practice for a shoot around, and the media just swarmed the court after. And they asked me the famous question, "What do you think about the American flag?" and I spoke my conscience. And then after that, I'm coming to the game the next night, getting ready to play, and Jim Gillen, the trainer, says, "Hey, look, Bernie wants to see you down the hall." I said, "Okay."
And I go down there, and as soon as I get into the office, he said, "Some people from the NBA called me. They want‑‑they want you to stand. If you don't, you'll be fined. What do you say?‑‑or you'll be suspended." I said, "I can't do it," and so he got them on the phone. They identified themselves. Actually, I don't know who. I can't remember who it was, but they identified themselves as Jewish. Don't know why, but they ended up giving me an example, and at that time, I said, "Well, thank you"‑‑I was polite‑‑"for sharing that with me." I said, "But that‑‑that example doesn't apply to me." They said, "Okay."
And I was so green. I had never been suspended for anything in my life. I'm thinking there's going to be this act of legislation, you know, it was going to be a process. I said, "Well, can I put on my uniform and play?" He said, "No." I said, "Why?" I said, "Well"‑‑I said, "Now? I'm fined"‑‑I mean, "I'm suspended?" He said, "Yeah." I said, "Well, can I go into the arena and support my team?" He said, "No. They don't even want you on the premises," and so that's how it all transpired.
MR. BREWER: Mahmoud, I see the LSU jersey behind you, and it takes me back more than 30 years. And for me, that was‑‑that was my childhood, and I still remember Loyola Marymount and LSU, 148 to 141 in 1990, and all the great players who were in the court for that non‑conference came.
But I wanted to ask you about your college coach, Dale Brown, and an autobiography that was just seminal in your life, "The Autobiography of Malcolm X." How did that book impact you, and how did that shape your views on society and then later your protests?
MR. ABDUL‑RAUF: When Dale Brown‑‑I had never heard of Malcolm up to that point. When he gave me that book, I don't even know if he knew the impact that it would have on me. I couldn't put it down, and I'm listening to him and how he articulates issues. And I'm seeing his connection with God, but just as important, man, I just saw his fearlessness. You know, he had a courageousness that just‑‑that I admired, that I didn't have.
And so, as a young man, you know, as a person, myself, when I see something that I really love and I want for myself, I'm trying to do everything I can to get it. So it put me on a journey. It put me on a journey of seeking information but also changing who I was. I didn't want to be that person when I saw something that I was afraid to say something about it or do something about it, and I started‑‑how we psyche ourselves up in the game, right? "Man, you're tough. You can do this." I had to do the same thing academically with myself, learning how to take steps of telling people no, of throwing information out there and seeing how it feels and feeling uncomfortable and coming back.
And so, if it wasn't for that book, I really‑‑I don't know if I would have embraced Islam. I don't know if I would after embracing Islam‑‑I wouldn't have even gotten to the point to even begin probably to think about doing the things that I ended up doing and being firm with that and owning. So his‑‑man, his book impacted my life tremendous‑‑and still does, still does.
MR. BREWER: Mahmoud, you point out that many Muslims did not agree with you that the Quran directed them to oppose nationalism as you did. How did those reactions affect you?
MR. ABDUL‑RAUF: You know what? I was already prepared for that. There's always a different‑‑difference of opinion. I was, though, expecting more unity with us, but at the same time, I wasn't surprised. I mean, Islam is not against, you know, having an attachment to a language, a culture, and a nation, but what I'm talking about is a toxic nationalism, right, an imperialist type of nation, and that's something totally different.
But, look, man, I've grown up in the South. I had a strong Black mother, and I've‑‑I was at that time also‑‑man, I had begun to associate myself with a lot of‑‑a lot of strong Black men as well as strong Black women that I began to have conversations with, and so that didn't‑‑that wasn't going to be something that was going to cause me to bend or to go against what I felt my mission was, was to live up to what I believe to be true. You know, if you can convince me that I'm wrong, I don't have the type of pride not to submit. I'll submit to the truth. I'll say, "Hey, I was wrong," but until you can do that, it has to make sense to me. And I don't care what your label is, you know, Muslim, Christian, you know, philosopher. It has to make sense. So that's‑‑that's how I took it, and I just kept on rolling and continuing to do so.
MR. BREWER: Mahmoud, "In the Blink of an Eye" is published by Kaepernick Publishing. Six years ago, when Colin started his protest, everyone wanted to talk to you and get your insights, you know, 20 years later about how you felt about Colin. What's your relationship like with Kaep today?
MR. ABDUL‑RAUF: You know, Kaep is a busy man. I mean, we talked, especially in the beginning of this project and even, you know, in the middle and towards the end of it, but we did have a meeting when all of this happened. We have a mutual friend in the Bay Area named Hashim Ali Alauddeen [phonetic], and it was pretty much a private meeting. And he said something that resonated with me during that time, and it resonated with me because that's the way I felt and that's the way I feel when I ended up doing what I did years ago. He said this is the most free that he's ever felt in his whole life, and that's the takeaway that I have from everything that‑‑all the conversations that we had, and that once you feel free, it's nothing like it. It's priceless, and it allows you the mobility to do what you do, to move the way he moves. And so that's something that I admire, and many people, many people admire when he took that position and then began to spread himself out to do other things, whether it's the Know Your Rights campaign, whether it's the things that he did for the Somalis of sending a plane of food over. He took it from the plane of words to the plane of action, so this is a lesson for all of us.
MR. BREWER: Mahmoud, I'm really interested in that feeling of freedom and to not feel that way even when you have thousands of people rooting for you because you can throw a football or shoot a basketball. How did you feel before‑‑if that's free, what was the feeling that you had before when you were dealing with all of these things and people were still rooting for you as long as you were on the field of play?
MR. ABDUL‑RAUF: Well, man, you feel restricted. You feel‑‑you feel in prison, and I mean that once you understand‑‑you don't necessarily know it fully at the time because you've been living a certain way for so long. You've been conditioned to, hey, just play the game, right, don't rock the boat, think about your family. I am thinking about my family, but I'm just not thinking about my family. I'm thinking about generations.
And so when you‑‑when you get that sense, it's hard to put it into words. George Jackson has a statement with patience. He said, "Patience taken too far is cowardice."
So I've grown up constantly like having this nervousness when I would see something or hear something, and when that nervousness leaves you, right, so, hey, look, man, we're all going to die. None of us are going to make it out of here alive, right? If I say I fear God and I say I stand for truth, this is‑‑this is part and parcel of it. When you look at all of those great leaders that came before that we say we admire, especially after they die, the Martin Luther Kings, the Malcolm X's, the Marcus Garveys, wherever they are, the Ida B. Wells, the Fannie Lou Hamers, people that stood for something and took risks, then this is‑‑this is how it goes.
And so you don't have a sense of‑‑you don't fear death. When you don't fear dying anymore‑‑I mean, we're all going to die‑‑it allows you that ability to just say, hey, man, I'm going to stand on what I believe, whether you like it or not, and that's my focus is to live with a free conscious and a free soul, whether people like it or not. And it makes it easier.
It doesn't mean that it's not going to be hard, but it makes it easier to do. Just like anything, the more you practice, you get better at it.
MR. BREWER: Mahmoud, let's talk about the idea of progress, and we always often seem to want to measure that linearly, and it never works that way. But I'm struck by the fact that your protests and Colin's happens 20 years apart, yet the exact same thing happened to Colin that happened to you. So what does that say about how society has evolved?
MR. ABDUL‑RAUF: That's a‑‑that's a great question. I don't believe that progress is linear. I believe there's a lot of ebbs and flows. If it was, then we wouldn't still be dealing with what we're protesting, what we've been protesting years before we were even born.
You know, I talk about this a lot. If you take the Black and‑‑if you take what's been happening, whether it's George Floyd and all of those, Sandra Bland and all of those murders that were taking place, protests that were happening, and you turn that into a black and white photo and you look back during the Martin Luther King years and prior to that and after that, nothing seems to have changed. And so there's this notion sometimes of this concept of the narrative of perpetual progress: The more time advances, things just naturally get better. I don't believe that.
And so for me, this is how I explained that. To explain it, it's gradual, and there's going to be ebbs and flows. And unless we become engaged and stay attached to and intimate with these issues, right, there will continue to be those ebbs and flows and those long distances before something is done, where we see, oh, now another 30 years, there's going to be a Kaepernick situation that occurs as opposed to every day. We go through this every day. There should be protests and resistance every day until stuff has changed, right? I mean considerably so, and until that happens, we'll continue to see this huge gap, and old Mahmoud or the Muhammad Alis, the Kaepernicks, 10, 15, 20, 30 years apart.
MR. BREWER: LeBron James. Let's talk about him for a second. When he spoke up, he was told to shut up and dribble, and he came back and famously said, "I am more than an athlete." What does "more than an athlete" mean to you?
MR. ABDUL‑RAUF: We're no different than a politician who may be good at tennis and may have other skills. We're the people that they love to put into a box. I don't know if it's because sports predominantly, like when you think of football and basketball‑‑even baseball is predominantly people of color or Black people, but look, we have‑‑we have Bill Bradley who's a Senator, right? We have Kareem Abdul‑Jabbar, who is a phenomenal speaker and written so many books, right? So more than an athlete means that we have other skills. We have a mind that is just not imprisoned in the world if basketball. We see things like you see things, right? We have opinions on it, and we shouldn't allow those type of‑‑those type statements to threaten us away from utilizing our voice.
It will happen. It will continue to happen until the day we die, but "more than an athlete" to me says just that. We're complex. We're versatile. We have many talents, some more than others, that should be appreciated and respected just like anyone else.
MR. BREWER: Mahmoud, you told The Post back in 2007, it seems like now in many respects, protest has become fashionable. What did you mean by that?
MR. ABDUL‑RAUF: Well, you know, there's a political scientist that actually, I think, summed it up, Richard Iton, and he said once things become routine, it's easily accepted and molded into the, you know, overall hegemony of things, right? You know, the elite, the people in control can take it and fashion it, and so when things become fashionable, right, it's easier to do.
You know, I think about what Dr. Harry Edwards said to me, and these are not my words. I think anyone who stands up for something is a great thing, and we should applaud them as long as we find that it's sincere. But he was saying‑‑he said, you know, when you‑‑when Muhammad Ali did what he did, it was framed under the Black Power movement. When Kaepernick did what he did, it was framed under the Black Lives Matter movement. He said when you and Craig Hodges, right, did what you did, there was no movement to frame it, right? It's like you guys were, you know, out, out in an ocean, you know, or you're out in the ocean by yourself.
MR. ABDUL‑RAUF: Hello?
MR. BREWER: Professional sports leagues now have become a big part of that. I mean, you talk about strength in numbers, right? But some of it is a bit performative. What do you think about what leagues are doing, and do you think it's enough to foster change?
MR. ABDUL‑RAUF: I lost it. Can you say that one more time?
MR. BREWER: Yes. Professional sports leagues, you know, as you were saying, they've become more involved in this push at least in a performative sense.
MR. ABDUL‑RAUF: Mm‑hmm.
MR. BREWER: Do you think they're doing enough to foster change, or do you think this is just something they're doing in the moment because it's fashionable?
MR. ABDUL‑RAUF: I think‑‑I think a lot of it is for public consumption and it's fashionable. NBA, for example, right, you know, I hear a lot of times, well, you know, they're progressive. They may be more progressive than the NFL, and my response is I think that they're just more sophisticated, you know.
And one of the examples I use, you know, they say, well, we allow our athletes to speak out, I heard sometime ago, but when they were in China, I think there was a case with James Harden and I think Westbrook was getting ready to say something. They were immediately stopped, right? Basically, on to the next question, "We don't want to deal with that," because of the situation that's happening in Turkistan, I believe, or with the Uyghur, the Muslims in China, the genocide that's taking place and the relationships that the NBA has, from what I'm told, with facilities in that area, right, not wanting to affect business.
So I look at that, and then I look at even the‑‑what the NBA is doing in terms of being vocal. If you were really progressive as you say you were, right, you have people‑‑I'm going to put myself out of the equation. Take a Craig Hodges. This man had won the three‑point contest three years in a row. No one has ever done that. He should be‑‑at the minimum, he should be at courtside in a God‑doggone‑‑a‑‑sitting in a throne at half court every‑‑every three‑point contest that they have, right, until somebody breaks his record, but also when you're having these venues and you're talking about social justice, why haven't you ever invited a Craig Hodges? Why don't you reach back in history of those people that a lot of people, even people in the NBA would say, hey, man, they were blackballed, and they were treated unfairly? Why don't you pull them back and say, hey, right, we want‑‑we want to make things right with you? But that doesn't happen.
So I don't think‑‑I think it's more so for public consumption. It's not because there's this really altruistic sense of wanting to do the right thing.
MR. BREWER: Mahmoud, if you were in the NBA today, how might you protest, and how do you think it would be perceived?
MR. ABDUL‑RAUF: Oh, that's a‑‑that's a tough question. I mean, now with social media, social media has changed the game. We didn't have that when we were coming up. So the media could control the narrative a whole lot more, which is why I think that's something that catapulted and helped Kaepernick's situation, because you can see the response.
When I came out, you know, I got a lot of letters, and most of the letters that I received‑‑yeah, I had death threats, and I had all of these things given to me. But most of the letters, well, they were from Jews, agnostics, Christians. They were supportive. They were in agreement, right, and didn't like a lot‑‑doesn't‑‑don't like a lot of what's happening in America. But you wouldn't hear that, right? The media can control the narrative more.
So, in this time, it's a little different. So I definitely would have still‑‑I'm still doing it now. I would have utilized those resources a whole lot more.
I love what Kaepernick did, that he had a great team with him, and he was able to‑‑because people are funny. You know, if you‑‑even if you just speak out, they want to know, "Well, what else are you going to do?" Some people aren't even speaking out. Look, applaud the man for doing that if that's all he want to do to bring a light to it, but he took it further. He took it a step further. He began to do other things with prisoners, like I said with Somalia, Know Your Rights campaign. So these are the things that I would like to think that I would have done if I was playing now at the age that I was when I took that position, things that I'm doing in my own way now at 53 years old.
MR. BREWER: We haven't had a chance to talk about all that you have done as a symbol, as an advocate having Tourette syndrome and that compulsive need to have everything feel perfect, as you said before. How has Tourette's and living with Tourette's really defined your life and help shape how you view the world?
MR. ABDUL‑RAUF: How is it? It's a major struggle from the moment you wake up until the moment you go to sleep. You're constantly trying to navigate controlling your mind and your body, put them on the same page. However, I learned at a very young age that blows that don't break your back strengthen it, that God doesn't give you a burden that you can't bear, and for every weakness, potential weakness that you feel you have, he gives you a strength.
And so I believe that Tourette syndrome has taught me a lot about myself. It's made me look at the world differently, made me more sympathetic and empathetic. It's pushed me, right, where I myself wouldn't have gone without it. I wouldn't have been the basketball player that I became without Tourette syndrome. I wanted to stop in an hour and a half, but it was like nope. You have to satisfy this urge. You have to satisfy it or make your life miserable.
You know, the way I look at injustice, the way I look at people, whether they have disorder or disability, right, you know what it feels like, and so you want to do everything within your power to try to alleviate those stresses for people because you live with it every day.
So this is, in a nutshell, kind of like what living with Tourette's is, especially if you embrace it and you understand it and embrace it like this is what I have and I'm going to use it to my advantage. I'm not going to allow it to cripple me. You reap way more benefits than the opposite.
MR. BREWER: Mahmoud, one quick basketball question before we go. Were you born too soon? You see the way that the game is played today. Your style, as Phil Jackson had said previously, sort of mimics the way that Steph Curry plays. How might you fit into today's game?
MR. ABDUL‑RAUF: Oh, wow. Was I born too soon? No, I wasn't born too soon.
MR. ABDUL‑RAUF: Every generation could say that, but, man, this style of play‑‑when we were coming up, we had to feed the big man. Whether the big man was great or not great, we had to go through him. Now it's a guard's game. People are putting it on the floor. They're coming off screens. They're running and gunning. You can't really touch them in certain respects, you know, faced up. So it's almost like shooting practice.
I would like to think‑‑I would like to think that I would have fared very well in today's game with how it's played. You know, you look at a Golden State. They don't have a green light. I always say they have a fluorescent light, and when you have, you know, the freedom to shoot like that‑‑and any shooter or scorer would tell you‑‑the goal is no longer regular size. It looks double and triple size now.
MR. BREWER: You absolutely would have fit into an era of a fluorescent light very well. I think you're being a little bit too humble.
Mahmoud, unfortunately, we're out of time. So we'll have you leave it there.
Mahmoud Abdul‑Rauf, thanks for joining us.
MR. BREWER: And thanks to all of you for tuning in today. To check out what interviews we have coming up, please head to WashingtonPostLive.com to find more information.
I'm Jerry Brewer, and thank you for joining Washington Post Live. | 2022-10-17T21:32:23Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Transcript: Race in America: Giving Voice with Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/washington-post-live/2022/10/17/transcript-race-america-giving-voice-with-mahmoud-abdul-rauf/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/washington-post-live/2022/10/17/transcript-race-america-giving-voice-with-mahmoud-abdul-rauf/ |
The House Jan. 6 committee displays Secret Service reports during a hearing Oct. 13. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)
The Secret Service may have taken its name too literally. Revelations from the Jan. 6 select committee’s latest hearing elevated the need for a thorough examination of what the agency knew before the riot and why it didn’t act.
The agency charged with protecting the president had already been accused of forging a too-chummy relationship with Donald Trump during his tenure. It was discovered this summer that text messages from the days surrounding the attack on the U.S. Capitol — potentially critical pieces of evidence — were deleted during a planned update of employees’ phones. Still more troubling, however, is the newest information that agents had ample warning of the violence that could unfold and appear to have done little to avert it.
The documents unveiled in last week’s hearing come from a trove of more than 1 million pages’ worth of records the Secret Service provided to the investigatory panel after the embarrassment of those missing text messages. They show that the agency was aware of a threat more than a week before the riot. “Their plan is to literally kill people,” one tipster wrote. The morning of the insurrection, one email warned of an alert “regarding VP [Mike Pence] being a dead man walking if he doesn’t do the right thing.” The Secret Service also observed rallygoers with firearms and knew of reports that D.C. police had detained someone with an assault rifle.
A Secret Service spokesperson told The Post in a statement that it was “in constant communication and sharing information with our law enforcement partners.” Yet even within its parent Cabinet agency, the Department of Homeland Security, little was done to avert the assault. The documents, lawmakers have pointed out, also throw doubt on the credibility of closed-door testimony from presidential detail leader Robert Engel and from Tony Ornato — a Secret Service leader who received an unprecedented appointment to the political role of White House deputy chief of staff. Beyond the question of what the Secret Service knew ahead of the attack, and what did it do with that knowledge, it is also important to learn what its agents saw of the president’s actions during the riot at the Capitol.
Unraveling these questions will be tricky. The agency and previous White Houses have a history of resistance when it comes to agents being compelled to testify in investigations of the presidents they are charged with protecting and with whom a relationship based on mutual trust is essential. The Department of Homeland Security’s current inspector general has been criticized as having impeded the congressional probe and is under investigation for misconduct.
Congress should press on to find the truth, but the current administration has a role to play, too. Among other things, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas should conduct an internal review, especially of the phone migration that supposedly caused the text deletions. Looking the other way in a dangerous situation is a dereliction of duty, both for the Secret Service and for those who should hold it accountable. | 2022-10-17T21:51:22Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | The Secret Service’s mishandling of Jan. 6 demands a reckoning - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/10/17/secret-service-jan-6-mishandling-reckoning/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/10/17/secret-service-jan-6-mishandling-reckoning/ |
The team behind ’2000 Mules’ is called out for deception. Again.
It looks increasingly as though there were zero mules all along.
A voter places a ballot in a drop box outside of the Maricopa County Elections Department on Aug. 2, 2022, in Phoenix. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
I saw the film “2000 Mules” soon after its release last spring, having been goaded into doing so by its director, Dinesh D’Souza.
He’d seen an article I wrote about the group True the Vote, which appeared before a legislative committee in Wisconsin to allege that the 2020 vote in the state had been tainted by rampant “ballot trafficking” — the group’s apparently bespoke term for the collection and submission of multiple ballots. The method they used to allege that hundreds of people had shuttled around the state dumping ballots was anonymized cell-phone geolocation data, something that an expert with whom I spoke indicated was not feasible in the way they suggested.
D’Souza challenged me to watch the movie, which I was eager to do. And, sure enough: There was nothing in the film that actually supported D’Souza’s arguments about “mules” bulk-submitting ballots in multiple states — which is to say that True the Vote didn’t actually make the case D’Souza insisted that it did. Not only was there no example shown of anyone submitting ballots in multiple drop boxes, the only map purporting to show someone driving around dumping ballots was fake — by the admission of True the Vote’s Gregg Phillips.
I interviewed D’Souza at length about the film. And while he admitted that he was reliant on the data from True the Vote, he insisted it had outside validators. For example, he noted with approval that the Georgia Bureau of Investigation didn’t say the geolocation data was fake, though they publicly rejected the idea that an investigation into True the Vote’s claims were warranted. (True the Vote also declined to identify a purported whistleblower who made claims about buying ballots.)
“Phillips’s data has been shared with multiple authorities in Wisconsin, in Arizona and in Georgia,” D’Souza insisted to me. He added later that “the sheriff in Yuma [County, Ariz.] has just opened up an investigation based upon the exact evidence provided by True the Vote and unfurled in the movie."
Just as that interview published, NPR reported that a key point in the film — that True the Vote had helped solve a “cold case” murder in Georgia — was false. The day after, an election board in Georgia rejected claims made in the film, including clearing a man who was one of the few depicted in the movie dropping off multiple ballots. (He was doing so on behalf of his family, perfectly legally.) And that Yuma County investigation cited by D’Souza also didn’t exist: the sheriff had, instead, put out a statement touting his work combating fraud.
On Friday, a new development: The office of Arizona attorney general Mark Brnovich (R) sent a letter to the FBI and IRS recommending an investigation into True the Vote. An ostensible nonprofit, the group has raised millions of dollars purportedly centered on proving election fraud. But in its interactions with True the Vote (TTV), Brnovich’s office found a repeated pattern of misinformation and falsehood.
“TTV alleges it has in its possession geolocation data from a number of mobile devices showing those mobile devices making several trips in which it is said people are walking to, from, or past ballot drop boxes,” the letter reads at one point. “Information has not been provided as to the specific location, whether or not there is in fact a drop box at that location, nor is there any information on the person(s) who may be in possession of the mobile device.”
State investigators met with Phillips and True the Vote founder Catherine Engelbrecht on three occasions, the letter asserts.
“Prior to each meeting with TTV, Ms. Engelbrecht and Mr. Phillips stated they would provide us with the information to support their allegations,” it states. “Despite repeated requests, TTV never did provide the information it purported to have in its possession." The letter documents other falsehoods, like that the pair claimed to be FBI informants when they weren’t. (This was one excuse offered for not turning over the data.) The letter also pointed to the false claims about the Georgia murder and a probe in Yuma County.
“Given TTV’s status as a nonprofit organization,” the letter to the federal government concludes, “it would appear that further review of its financials may be warranted.”
Remember, that Arizona had the data and was investigating was a central validator D’Souza offered in defense of the film. But neither was the case.
This was not the only recent embarrassment for True the Vote. Over the summer, the group held a summit at which it promised to — at last — reveal data central to its fraud claims. As part of the meeting, True the Vote made a number of claims about a Michigan-based software company, triggering a defamation lawsuit in response. At a hearing related to the suit, U.S. District Judge Kenneth Hoyt warned the groups attorneys that they might be getting “played” by their clients.
“The judge said he didn’t ‘have any confidence’ in True the Vote’s version of events," the Texas Tribune reported, "in part because he said the group’s leaders haven’t submitted sworn affidavits under penalty of perjury to support them.”
At the event this summer, incidentally, Phillips and Engelbrecht did their best to turn the page on the “2000 Mules” claims. For months, they’d assured fans they were soon to “pull the ripcord” and release scads of data about the 2020 election. Instead, they announced a website that would purportedly be a clearinghouse for election data, which Phillips insisted was the ripcord-pulling. Then Engelbrecht timidly announced the site was “the end of ‘mules.’ End scene. We’re done!”
In other words, there is no public evidence to support True the Vote’s claims and, in fact, the available evidence (including vague maps provided to Wisconsin earlier this year and the faked maps in the movie) explicitly don’t bolster their claims. True the Vote is trying to move on, but their past claims are proving to be an anchor with the authorities.
D’Souza, meanwhile, increasingly looks like he was left holding the bag, albeit one full of cash vacuumed up from an audience desperate to believe that the 2020 election was stolen. He wrote a companion book to the film that was supposed to have already published. But suddenly, at the end of August, the publisher pulled books that had been sent to stores and pushed out the publication day.
NPR got a copy of the original version. One of the claims made in the movie is that liberal nonprofits served as clearinghouses — “stash houses,” in the insinuation-heavy vernacular of the film — for ballots that were then deposited. The purported nonprofits aren’t identified in the movie, but they were in the book. Organizations identified by D’Souza (and contacted by NPR) vehemently denied any involvement in collecting ballots. And, of course, there’s no evidence beyond True the Vote’s dubious data and that one unidentified whistleblower in Georgia that they had been.
In a statement to NPR, True the Vote put all of it on D’Souza.
“True the Vote had no participation in this book, and has no knowledge of its contents,” a representative said. “This includes any allegations of activities of any specific organizations made in the book. We made no such allegations.”
I contacted D’Souza a month ago to ask if True the Vote had provided him the names of those organizations. After all, in our interview in May, he’d insisted that everything he had came from the group.
It was the first time I reached out to him that he didn’t respond.
Noted: Rapper Eminem urges voters to protect abortion access in Michigan
8:50 PMThe elephant in the room at the Utah Senate debate
8:21 PMAnalysis: Don’t sleep on the Oklahoma governor’s race | 2022-10-17T22:08:47Z | www.washingtonpost.com | The team behind ’2000 Mules’ is called out for deception. Again. - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/10/17/team-behind-2000-mules-is-called-out-deception-again/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/10/17/team-behind-2000-mules-is-called-out-deception-again/ |
The Commanders and their owner, Daniel Snyder, right, are under investigation by the office of Karl A. Racine (D), D.C.'s attorney general. (John McDonnell/The Washington Post)
NEW YORK — The office of D.C. Attorney General Karl A. Racine (D) has nearly completed its investigation of the Washington Commanders and their owner, Daniel Snyder, and is planning to take further action in the case, according to a person familiar with the investigation.
Racine and his team “are moving full steam ahead,” according to that person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, adding: “Dan Snyder, the Commanders, and the NFL will soon face accountability for their actions. ... Snyder will no longer be able to dodge subpoenas or avoid testifying or answering questions.”
The development arrives as NFL team owners are scheduled to hold a meeting Tuesday in New York amid the ongoing controversy involving Snyder.
It is not clear what actions are being contemplated by Racine’s office, which includes more than 700 attorneys and staff members and is responsible for enforcing D.C. law through criminal and civil means.
Racine’s office has been investigating Snyder and his franchise since the fall of 2021 following allegations of sexual harassment and workplace misconduct, according to the person familiar with the probe. The investigation also has dealt with the circumstances surrounding the NFL’s handling of the allegations against Snyder and the Commanders and more recently has included the team’s ticket sales practices, according to that person. Racine’s office has reviewed tens of thousands of documents produced by the Commanders and the NFL and has interviewed witnesses that include former cheerleaders and team executives, according to that person.
Racine became the District’s first elected attorney general in 2015; he announced last year that he would not seek a third term. With Racine’s endorsement, D.C. attorney Brian Schwalb won a three-way race in June for the Democratic nomination for the office.
The office first disclosed its investigation of the Commanders and Snyder in April, soon after allegations of financial impropriety by the Commanders and Snyder were detailed in a letter from the House Committee on Oversight and Reform to the Federal Trade Commission. That same day, Jason S. Miyares, Virginia’s Republican attorney general, told attorneys for the team and Snyder that his office would investigate the allegations of financial impropriety outlined by the committee’s letter. The team has denied committing any financial wrongdoing.
Snyder and the team also are being investigated separately by the congressional committee and the NFL. Tom Davis, an attorney for Snyder and a former chairman of the committee, wrote this month in a letter to Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney (D-N.Y.), the committee’s chairwoman, that the panel’s Democratic-led investigation has been “a politically inspired hatchet job” designed to remove Snyder from the NFL.
No formal discussion of Snyder or the Commanders is on the agenda for Tuesday’s quarterly owners meeting, according to multiple people familiar with the agenda, and the owners are not expected to take any official action regarding Snyder with White’s investigation still pending. The committee also could issue a final report on its investigation in the coming weeks.
But the owners could have an impromptu discussion about Snyder during their privileged session at the end of Tuesday’s meeting, when other team executives are not present. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell is likely to be questioned about the situation during the news conference that he typically holds at the conclusion of any league meeting.
Tanya Snyder, Daniel’s wife and the franchise’s co-CEO, and team president Jason Wright are expected to represent the Commanders at the meeting.
Multiple NFL owners told The Post last month that they believe serious consideration may be given to attempting to oust Snyder from the league’s ownership ranks, either by convincing him to sell the franchise or by voting to remove him. “He needs to sell,” one of those owners said. “Some of us need to go to him and tell him that he needs to sell.”
But any move toward taking such a vote could be months off. In the meantime, it is unclear what Snyder’s ownership status is. His attorneys said last week that Snyder is “no longer under any NFL restriction” related to his involvement in the day-to-day operations of the franchise.
But Goodell and the league consistently have said Snyder’s status has not changed since the July 2021 announcement that the team was being fined $10 million, based on the findings of the previous investigation of its workplace conducted by attorney Beth Wilkinson, and that Tanya Snyder would oversee the franchise’s daily operations for an unspecified period. NFL officials have said Goodell will discuss Snyder’s status with him once White’s investigation is complete.
Maske and Jhabvala reported from New York. Clarke reported from Washington. | 2022-10-17T22:26:12Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Daniel Snyder, Commanders to face action from D.C. attorney general - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/10/17/dan-snyder-dc-attorney-general-investigation/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/10/17/dan-snyder-dc-attorney-general-investigation/ |
Four people found fatally shot inside Prince William County, Va., home
Four people were found fatally shot inside a home in Prince William County, Va., on Monday afternoon, county police said.
Officers responded to the 5200 block of Mansfield Court in the Woodbridge area at 4:32 p.m. for a shooting, police said. They found the scene “unsecured” and conducted a welfare check, police said.
Officers found four adults in different areas of the home with gunshot wounds. Each of the four victims was pronounced dead at the scene, police said.
Police said the incident appears to be isolated and there is no ongoing threat. | 2022-10-17T22:30:33Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Four found fatally shot inside Prince William County, Va., home - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/10/17/four-fatally-shot-prince-william/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/10/17/four-fatally-shot-prince-william/ |
Visas for crab processors is a ‘one-year remedy’
Workers pick crabs at Old Salty’s in Fishing Creek, Md., in 2018. (Michael S. Williamson/The Washington Post)
The additional 64,716 would be available in the federal fiscal year that began Oct. 1 and would be on top of the 66,000 visas that DHS can release annually.
The workers, usually women, are used to help pick the crabmeat sold in restaurants and supermarkets. Around the country, such seasonal laborers are also coveted by hotels, restaurants, landscape companies and amusement parks that say they can’t find enough domestic workers. ““It’s good news in the fact that they’re doing it,” sales manager Aubrey Vincent of Lindy’s Seafood in Woolford in Dorchester County said of the government’s announcement. “But we don’t have any idea how they’re going to do it. Will they release half now and half in the spring? Spring is the largest demand for the program.”
DHS said in a news release last week that the visas would be available “at the outset of the fiscal year” and that it would be issuing a regulation about its plans. “The Department of Homeland Security is moving with unprecedented speed to meet the needs of American businesses,” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in the release.
In the early 2000s, Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski of Maryland, a Democrat, intervened when Northern ski resorts and Florida landscapers were scooping up the visas before Maryland crab houses had a chance to apply. She championed a change that divided the annual 66,000-visa allowance into two semiannual allotments.
Democratic Sens. Chris Van Hollen and Ben Cardin of Maryland said in a news release last week that they are working with congressional colleagues “to develop a lasting solution that provides clearer, more certain rules of the road for our seafood businesses.”
Crab companies also have pursued a more limited fix in which returning workers aren’t counted against the annual limits, meaning they would be grandfathered in. | 2022-10-17T23:01:13Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Visas for crab processors is a ‘one-year remedy’ - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/visas-for-crab-processors-is-a-one-year-remedy/2022/10/17/00a84d00-4e27-11ed-90cb-7def33f22f4f_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/visas-for-crab-processors-is-a-one-year-remedy/2022/10/17/00a84d00-4e27-11ed-90cb-7def33f22f4f_story.html |
Different generations of hearing aids. (Shuran Huang for The Washington Post)
For the hard of hearing, it feels like the Food and Drug Administration is finally listening. On Monday, the FDA is allowing hearing aids to be sold over the counter for people with mild to moderate hearing loss. This means you no longer need a prescription or custom fitting to get a hearing aid. Experts have called it a game changer that is expected to make hearing aids more affordable and accessible for millions of people.
Disability reporter Amanda Morris walks us through different types of hearing loss, the range of hearing aids available for consumers, and what this might mean for accessibility for the hard of hearing.
Plus, some good news about our planetary defense system: NASA successfully altered the course of an asteroid, a technique that might someday stop an asteroid from crashing into Earth. | 2022-10-17T23:01:37Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Making hearing more accessible - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/podcasts/post-reports/making-hearing-more-accessible-/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/podcasts/post-reports/making-hearing-more-accessible-/ |
FILE - Independent presidential candidate Evan McMullin speaks during a rally on Oct. 21, 2016, in Draper, Utah. Utah Republican Sen. Mike Lee and his independent challenger Evan McMullin are scheduled to face off on Oct. 17, 2022, evening at a televised debate three weeks before Election Day. The debate will be the only time the candidates appear together in the lead-up to next month’s midterm elections. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File)
Analysis: The team behind ‘2000 Mules’ is called out for deception. Again. | 2022-10-17T23:01:44Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Lee and McMullin scheduled to face off in Utah Senate debate - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/lee-and-mcmullin-scheduled-to-face-off-in-utah-senate-debate/2022/10/17/52f7089e-4e63-11ed-ada8-04e6e6bf8b19_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/lee-and-mcmullin-scheduled-to-face-off-in-utah-senate-debate/2022/10/17/52f7089e-4e63-11ed-ada8-04e6e6bf8b19_story.html |
At Congressional Country Club, veterans turned to golf for therapy
U.S. Army veteran Christopher Cordova reacts to his putt during a PGA Hope event at Congressional Country Club in Bethesda, Md., on Monday. (Katherine Frey/The Washington Post)
Christopher Cordova was a captain in the U.S. Army in 2009 stationed in a remote region of northern Afghanistan when during the predawn hours of Oct. 3 hundreds of Taliban soldiers, armed with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades, attacked Combat Outpost Keating from surrounding mountain positions.
The native of Mechanicsville, Md., was among 20 veterans from across the country invited to participate in Monday’s PGA Hope (Helping Our Patriots Everywhere) outing at Congressional Country Club. The event included players of varying skill levels from all branches of the military for 18 holes at the iconic venue in Bethesda, Md., that has hosted major tournaments, including the U.S. Open, PGA Championship and Women’s PGA Championship.
“The dichotomy is something that I try to talk about,” Cordova said. “Like I’ve been in some of most terrible situations in the world, the worst places on the planet, and those images are with me. They’re not gone, and I vividly remember those locations.
“Yet here I am at another point in my life at one of the most pristine, exclusive country clubs in the country. Life is crazy.”
Like many amateur golfers, the game challenges Cordova’s ability to temper his reactions from shot to shot.
“I take a look back after a round, and I’m like, ‘Man, I really don’t like how I responded to that situation,’” Cordova said. “It really has helped me dial in, get back to an even-keeled manner, which I always strive to be, instead of letting the highs and lows take control of my emotions.”
Chris Nowak, a 59-year-old former U.S. Marine corporal, first struck a golf ball after having his right leg amputated from a training accident in 1987 while teaching a course in San Antonio. Since 2017, he has been military and veterans liaison for PGA Hope.
In high school, Nowak gravitated to ice hockey in part because of the rush he’d get from violent collisions. He dismissed golf as too serene.
The injury left him feeling isolated, distanced from the sports he loved to play. At the time, there were limited veteran services, and PGA Hope didn’t exist.
“It was a hard transition,” Nowak said. “I really didn’t have much going on in my life after losing my leg. Always thought I was going to be athletic and woke up one day after being shot up, and I don’t have a leg. What are you going to do?
“I was left out there alone.”
From the moment the club hit the ball, Nowak recalled becoming hooked and eager to pass along the sport’s restorative benefits to other injured veterans.
“I really needed to get something in the mental space,” he said before teeing off Monday in a group that included Cordova. “Played golf one day, and I was like, ‘Wow, this works. I’ve got to do something with it.’ It just clicked with me, and I knew the therapeutic value in this game is what veterans need.”
“When you hear a veteran who’s been dealing with suicidal thoughts and is paralyzed from the waist down,” Alvarez said, “and they’re in the middle of their backswing, and they go, ‘This is a really great day, thanks for putting this on,’ and he goes, ‘I haven’t felt this at ease for a long time,’ then you’ve done your job.” | 2022-10-17T23:57:36Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Veterans are hitting fairways and greens to ease trauma - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/10/17/veterans-are-hitting-fairways-greens-ease-trauma/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/10/17/veterans-are-hitting-fairways-greens-ease-trauma/ |
What’s Behind Vietnam’s Latest Anti-Corruption Fight
Analysis by Philip J. Heijmans | Bloomberg
Vietnam’s Communist Party chief Nguyen Phu Trong has likened his anti-graft campaign to a “blazing furnace,” one that’s caught hundreds of senior officials, business executives and others in its blast over the years. While the country’s position has improved by more than 30 spots over the past decade on a global corruption perception index, it was still at 87th place last year out of 180 ranked. Now as Southeast Asia’s fastest-growing economy seeks to bolster its appeal as a destination for foreign investment in the midst of mounting trade tensions between the US and China, the fight seems to be flaring again.
1. What is Vietnam targeting?
Trong, who won a rare third term last year, said in a televised speech that “each party cadre and member needs to shoulder the responsibility of being a role model. The higher the position and rank, the more responsibility one must take.” Eight inspection teams have been set up to deal with corruption cases, including at party committees and agencies, according to the Central Steering Committee on Anti-Corruption. In meetings with voters in Hanoi in October, he affirmed that the fight was ongoing, with more cases coming, state-owned broadcaster VTV reported.
2. Who’s in the crosshairs?
In the first six months of 2022, 295 party members were disciplined due to corruption and deliberate wrongdoing, according to a posting on the Party’s website. In the same period criminal proceedings were initiated in 297 cases against 682 individuals for alleged bribery, and more than 9 trillion dong ($371 million) was recovered. Police also have detained a number of executives as part of investigations into alleged fraud tied to corporate bond issuance and trading and stock price manipulation. For example:
• In October, police detained Truong My Lan, chairwoman of the real estate conglomerate Van Thinh Phat Holdings Group, and three other company officials for alleged fraud involving corporate bond issuance and trading. The detention led to a brief run on the privately held Saigon Commercial Bank because of its perceived connections with Van Thinh Phat Group. Regulators placed the bank under “special scrutiny” and directed four others to help manage it.
• In June, police detained former Health Minister Nguyen Thanh Long and former Hanoi Mayor Chu Ngoc Anh for alleged ties to bribery and abuse of power investigations involving Viet A Technology JSC, the maker of Covid-19 test kits. Officials have initiated criminal proceedings against 89 individuals tied to the case, according to the public security ministry.
• A former deputy health minister was sentenced in May to four years in prison for his role in a trading ring for counterfeit medicine.
• The Finance Ministry fired State Securities Commission Chairman Tran Van Dung in May for alleged “serious wrongdoings,” amid an ongoing investigation into stock trading. Soon after the head of the Ho Chi Minh City bourse was fired for what the Vietnam Stock Exchange called “very serious” shortcomings. Among the executives detained are the former chairman of Bamboo Airways and its parent FLC Group JSC, Trinh Van Quyet; Tri Viet Securities former chief executive officer Do Duc Nam and Louis Holdings former chairman Do Thanh Nhan.
• In April police detained deputy Foreign Affairs Minister To Anh Dung over alleged bribery while he organized repatriation flights for Vietnamese abroad during the pandemic. A deputy prime minister’s assistant and a director of the Government Office’s department of international relations also have been detained.
• Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh in April ordered ministries to increase scrutiny over the corporate bonds market amid the detention of Tan Hoang Minh Group chairman Do Anh Dung and six other company executives for investigation of alleged fraud. Dung and allies allegedly appropriated more than 8 trillion dong from more than 6,000 investors through the issuance of corporate bonds, according to the public security ministry.
Vietnam has warned that corruption could put the party’s legitimacy and hold on power at risk as the public grows more intolerant of graft -- echoing President Xi Jinping in neighboring, communist China. Aside from that, Vietnam, a country of roughly 100 million people, has much to gain economically if it can bolster its image as place to do business. Global manufacturers have been exploring ways to diversify their supply chains away from China, which has been caught up in pandemic lockdowns and a trade war with the US, and Vietnam has benefited. Its exports are equivalent to more than 100% of GDP, according to World Bank data, making it one of the most trade dependent countries in the world. Vietnam has also been seeking to have its stock market classified as emerging market -- up from the current frontier status, which is the lowest and riskiest rung -- and this could bring greater foreign investment. As a participant in the US’s new Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, Vietnam also has an opportunity to increase its links to its former wartime foe -- its largest export market.
4. How serious is the crackdown?
People are sitting in jail, and some have been sentenced to death. But in Vietnam’s closely controlled, one-party state, it’s difficult to say if there’s any other motivation beyond building legitimacy. Freedom House, a US-based advocacy group, ranks Vietnam as “not free,” with a score last year of only 19 points out of 100. Human rights groups repeatedly accuse the government of tamping down on dissent. Transparency International, a Berlin-based anti-corruption group, gave it a score of 39 out of 100 last year, from 31 in 2012 -- the year then-Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung’s government was tainted by a series of scandals. Arrests picked up again after a new administration took power in 2016:
• Nguyen Xuan Anh, party chief in the central city of Danang, was removed from his post.
• Nguyen Xuan Son, former chairman of state-owned PetroVietnam and the ex-chief executive of Ocean Commercial Joint Stock Bank, was sentenced to death after being convicted for embezzlement.
• Ha Van Tham, the bank’s former chairman, was given a life sentence after being found guilty of the same charges.
• Former politburo member Dinh La Thang, another former PetroVietnam chairman, was sentenced in 2018 to 18 years for violating state regulations.
In 2021 the anti-corruption committee disciplined 618 party members for “corruption or intentional wrongdoings.” It also reported prosecuting 390 graft cases and recovering at least $400 million in assets.
5. Will there be more?
The campaign is showing no signs of slowing. Anti-corruption steering committees have been formed and operate in every city and province, and the Party chief in an August speech urged officials to be persistent and determined, given the “serious” corruption in some sectors and localities, according to the goverment’s website. Trong also ordered trial proceedings in some major cases to move faster. Chinh, the prime minister, in October called for the anti-graft campaign to be more drastic and effective, according to another statement on the government’s website. Earlier, Tran Khanh Hien, head of research at VnDirect Securities Corp., said the government’s moves have boosted confidence among foreign investors. But she added they would want to see “how persistent and serious the authorities are.”
(Updates with latest probes and arrests) | 2022-10-18T00:32:31Z | www.washingtonpost.com | What’s Behind Vietnam’s Latest Anti-Corruption Fight - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/whatsbehind-vietnams-latest-anti-corruption-fight/2022/10/17/95ac49f0-4e78-11ed-ada8-04e6e6bf8b19_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/whatsbehind-vietnams-latest-anti-corruption-fight/2022/10/17/95ac49f0-4e78-11ed-ada8-04e6e6bf8b19_story.html |
In May, the South China Morning Post published a letter from a reader who wrote to say that Hong Kong’s Mandatory Provident Fund should be abolished as “it has failed on multiple levels from the perspective of ordinary citizens.” Replace it with a universal basic income, he suggested.
Hong Kong was recently graded C+ in the Mercer CFA Institute Global Pension Index 2022. Being in the same category with the US, France and Spain means that MPF has “some good features, but also has major risks and/or shortcomings,” the study noted.
Still, is the MPF so bad that it should be scrapped?
I had argued in early 2019 that Hong Kong’s old-age security ought to be fortified with a state-provided pension to have any chance of a favorable comparison with Singapore’s Central Provident Fund, or CPF, which is rated B in the Mercer CFA Institute survey. (In the Asia-Pacific region, only Australia’s retirement system is graded B+. For really world-beating outcomes, one must live in Iceland.)
Both Hong Kong and Singapore collect defined contributions, but there the similarity between the rival financial centers ends. Singaporeans below 55 years of age mandatorily save 20% of their pay up to a salary cap; their employers funnel another 17%. That works out to about S$2,200 ($1,543) each month. Hong Kong’s forced savings, equally shared by the worker and the firm, top out at HK$3,000 ($382) and comprise the bulk of MPF. Voluntary contributions, which enjoy tax breaks, accounted for less than a quarter of the money that came into the system in the June quarter.
Not only do Singaporeans squirrel away four times more, their triple-A-rated government offers a guaranteed 4% return on so-called special accounts, which can’t be used for housing. (For those who want to dip into their savings for apartment purchases and mortgages, the ordinary account pays a risk-free 2.5%.) By contrast, Hong Kong’s pension outcomes are strictly a private affair: They’re determined by the performance of the funds members select from the menu offered by providers such as HSBC Holdings Plc and Manulife Financial Corp. The annualized net rate of return has been 2.8% since the inception of the MPF in 2000.
In September, total MPF assets fell below the HK$1 trillion mark for the first time since July 2020, when the pension system crossed that milestone, according to MPF Ratings. The independent researcher estimates investment losses so far this year at HK$260 billion. High inflation and rising interest rates, global recession risks, a war and energy crisis in Europe and a meltdown in China’s property industry have all added to volatility. Plus, the average saver has a home bias. That has hurt returns this year as Hong Kong’s economy paid a price for mimicking the mainland’s aggressive stance against Covid-19 infections.
It’s unfair to judge a long-term savings vehicle by one year’s performance. However, the comparison with Singapore is too stark to ignore. The first S$60,000 accumulated in CPF accounts earns a 1% top-up interest rate. In other words, had MPF’s 4.57 million members kept their average December balance of roughly HK$255,000 in the rival city, they would have been earning 5% this year — and not losing 18%. In Hong Kong, to beat inflation, members tilt their portfolios toward equities, which exposes them to excessive risks at times like the present. Singapore, meanwhile, is helping those over 55 years of age to save and earn more so that they have a decent standard of living in their sunset years.
How does Singapore achieve high returns? The city-state borrows pension funds from the CPF Board, mixes them up with regular public debt and unencumbered assets such as money raised from selling government land. The central bank converts the whole lot into foreign currency and hands it over to GIC Pte, the sovereign wealth fund. GIC goes around the world shopping for assets — it’s hunting in Japan right now because the yen is cheap and tourism-related properties would benefit from a border reopening. Private equity has to return investors’ money after seven years. There’s no such pressure on the wealth fund. Even if GIC performs poorly in any year, the government would still pay its committed interest rate on special securities it issues to the CPF Board.
GIC came into existence in 1981 after the export-oriented economy had acquired more foreign-exchange reserves than it would need to defend its currency. Still, its first two decades were devoted largely to building organizational capacity by testing waters in liquid, public securities. Over time, GIC’s tolerance for risk grew. Hong Kong’s MPF, born three years after the city’s 1997 handover to China, has perhaps missed the chance to create a similar institutional mechanism: Almost 38% of the population is aged 55 years or older. Their best years for accumulating wealth are over. Besides, Hong Kong’s economic arrangements after 2047 will be entirely at Beijing’s discretion. So the question boils down to this: How to provide old-age security for the next 25 years?
One solution may be to make an Iceland-style, tax-funded pension the first pillar. In fact, the goods and services levy that Hong Kong has never managed to introduce could become palatable if it pays for old-age security. The provident fund stays mandatory for all employees earning more than a living wage, but the savings should be used by younger workers to offset homeownership costs, which will be a big help in a city that has some of the world’s most expensive real estate.
There’s no need to retire the MPF: It isn’t a defined benefit plan adding to systemic financial risk. But the SCMP reader is right. In its present form, Hong Kong’s pension system doesn’t live up to its billing. Aping Singapore isn’t an option; Iceland looks like a more promising model.
• Hong Kong Need Not Ape Singapore in Pensions: Andy Mukherjee
• Can China’s Prosperity Plan Fix Real Problems?: Clara F. Marques | 2022-10-18T00:32:37Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Why Hong Kong Pensions Are So Much Worse Than Singapore’s - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/why-hong-kongpensions-are-so-much-worse-than-singapores/2022/10/17/8bb68220-4e6f-11ed-ada8-04e6e6bf8b19_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/why-hong-kongpensions-are-so-much-worse-than-singapores/2022/10/17/8bb68220-4e6f-11ed-ada8-04e6e6bf8b19_story.html |
Youngkin to ask Va. legislature for funds to beef up law enforcement
Laura Vozzella
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin speaks at a campaign event for Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp on Sept. 27 in Alpharetta. (Elijah Nouvelage/Getty Images)
NORFOLK, Va. — Gov. Glenn Youngkin on Monday said he will ask the legislature for $30 million to mount an aggressive push to recruit police from other states, part of a broader effort to beef up law enforcement at a time of surging violent crime.
Youngkin (R) announced his plans in downtown Norfolk, surrounded by police and local leaders from across the state — including some Black mayors he has been courting — as well as Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears (R) and Attorney General Jason S. Miyares (R).
Along with recruiting more officers, Youngkin seeks to boost their pay, provide them with better training and equipment, hire more prosecutors, and increase support for crime victims and witnesses.
The General Assembly has already included funding for some of those measures in the budget. For the rest, including the out-of-state recruitment effort, Youngkin will have to ask for the money when the legislature reconvenes in January.
The governor wrapped existing and planned programs under one splashy name — Operation Bold Blue Line Initiative — and gave it a rollout akin to a campaign rally, with “Taking Care of Business” blaring as he made his entrance and exit.
“Over the last several years, too many of our fellow Virginians have fallen victim to violent crime,” he said. “Across Virginia, people wake up and turn on their television or grab their newspaper or grab their iPhone every day and they hear horrific stories. … It makes you want to cry.”
Fatal shootings across the state rose by 39 percent for the first seven months of this year compared to the same period in 2019, Youngkin said, noting that violent crime is “taking a greater toll in some communities versus others.”
A dozen or so of the communities most afflicted by violent crime will partner with the state to address the problem. They are: Norfolk, Hampton. Petersburg, Roanoke, Newport News, Portsmouth, Richmond, Chesapeake, Danville, Martinsville, Lynchburg and Emporia.
Miyares issued a news release separate from the governor’s, saying that he had “declared a Ceasefire in the Commonwealth of Virginia.” It was a reference to Operation Ceasefire, a program pioneered in other states that targets repeat violent offenders.
The General Assembly included $5 million in the two-year budget passed earlier this year for “ceasefire” grants available to local gang-intervention programs.
Miyares also plans to tap five or six federal prosecutors to help prosecute violent crime and to hire two to three violence intervention coordinators. He also plans to seek money from the General Assembly to fund victim and witness assistance programs, which would provide money for protective services.
The surge in crime has been paired with shrinking police forces, Youngkin said, noting that in some cities, police department vacancy rates are approaching 40 percent.
“We must get more badges on the street — full stop,” he said.
One way to do that is to hire police away from states.
“We will launch an effort here at home and across the nation to recruit 2,000 law enforcement officers to serve in Virginia,” he said, adding that he would seek $30 million for a “nationwide campaign to bring sworn law enforcement heroes from other states — especially states that do not support law enforcement.”
He also said he would do more to encourage Virginians to go into law enforcement, including through education programs that allow students to earn community college credits while in high school. And he said he would explore creating a “badge and degree program” that would allow recruits to get a degree “at little or no cost.”
“We need to inspire the next generation of Virginians into this most noble career,” he said.
The state’s G3 program, launched under Democrat Ralph Northam, provides community-college tuition assistance in certain high-demand fields, including law enforcement. Youngkin said he would “prioritize” law enforcement in the program but did not elaborate. His spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a question about what he meant.
He also said they would make an effort to get retired law enforcement officers to return, either in their previous roles or in new ones such as trainers or school resource officers.
Increasing pay will be part of the equation. The current state budget gave police a raise, but Youngkin wants to build on that next year.
Ramin Fatehi, Norfolk’s commonwealth’s attorney, said he and several other prosecutors had been invited to the event, but they stayed away because they “received no meaningful information” about what it was about — despite “multiple” inquiries in advance.
He applauded Youngkin and Miyares for pledging to fund witness protection programs, noting that he and other prosecutors have long supported that.
But he raised concerns about Miyares’s plan to bring federal prosecutors into his office, saying the attorney general would probably “poach” them from understaffed commonwealth’s attorney’s offices. “Other police-centric proposals have promise, and I will leave it to police folks to address them,” Fatehi tweeted. “The big question is whether promises made become promises kept.”
Youngkin left Norfolk to attend a celebration for rapper and Portsmouth native Missy Elliott at that city’s Manor High School, where he read a proclamation in her honor before thousands of spectators on the school’s football field. As the Norfolk State University marching band started up, Youngkin left — shortly before a soaking rainstorm. | 2022-10-18T00:32:44Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Youngkin to ask Va. legislature for funds to beef up law enforcement - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/10/17/youngkin-law-enforcement-missy-elliott/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/10/17/youngkin-law-enforcement-missy-elliott/ |
Tampa Bay's Tom Brady had the ball jarred loose during a loss to Alex Highsmith (56) and Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/Barry Reeger)
Brady then reportedly traveled alone to Pittsburgh on Saturday and met his teammates there ahead of Sunday’s game against the host Steelers. Brady’s travel arrangements caused him to miss a preparatory walk-through his team held Saturday morning in Tampa before leaving for the road game.
While Brady submitted a solid, if unspectacular, individual performance in Pittsburgh, the Buccaneers repeatedly bogged down as they neared the end zone and only scored one touchdown (compared to four field goals) in a 20-18 loss to the underdog Steelers. The defeat, which included Brady’s failure to connect on a two-point conversion pass attempt that would have tied the score late in the fourth quarter, dropped Tampa Bay’s record to 3-3.
The detour for a wedding celebration while en route to a regular season road game became the latest instance of the Buccaneers allowing Brady to take leave from the team. The 45-year-old quarterback had an 11-day excused absence during training camp to “deal with some personal things,” as Bowles put it in August, and Brady is reportedly able to sit out at least some Wednesday practices on an ongoing basis.
“It just kind of comes with the territory. You don’t worry about it too much.”
“We didn’t earn the win,” added the seven-time Super Bowl champion, whose Tampa Bay squad lost for the third time in four weeks. “It’s a game of earning it, and it’s a game of playing well and performing well, and we’re just not doing a good job of that. I don’t think we’ve done it for six weeks. I think we’re all playing less than what we’re capable of.”
According to the New York Post, the event Kraft threw on Friday was not billed as a wedding celebration but rather a “Kickoff and a Touchdown” party. Most attendees, including a number of former Patriots as well as NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, plus several pop stars and other celebrities, were surprised to learn the 81-year-old Kraft had just tied the knot with his fiancee, 47-year-old ophthalmologist Dana Blumberg (via People). | 2022-10-18T01:29:00Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Bucs' Todd Bowles downplays ‘special treatment’ for Tom Brady after Robert Kraft wedding - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/10/17/tom-brady-robert-kraft-wedding-todd-bowles-buccaneers/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/10/17/tom-brady-robert-kraft-wedding-todd-bowles-buccaneers/ |
DALLAS — No bones about it, the Dallas Stars still love Rick Bowness. They will have to wait until next month to see the former coach who took them to the Stanley Cup Final just more than two years ago.
“There’s very few guys that have been in the game as long as him. You can’t find anybody that has a bad word about the man,” new Stars coach Pete DeBoer said. “He did a fantastic job here, and a foundation of defending and being hard to play against and playoff success. ... His fingerprints are on this group from his time here.” | 2022-10-18T02:04:27Z | www.washingtonpost.com | No Bones when Dallas Stars host Jets without their new coach - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/nhl/no-bones-when-dallas-stars-host-jets-without-their-new-coach/2022/10/17/2f178274-4e80-11ed-ada8-04e6e6bf8b19_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/nhl/no-bones-when-dallas-stars-host-jets-without-their-new-coach/2022/10/17/2f178274-4e80-11ed-ada8-04e6e6bf8b19_story.html |
Alex Ovechkin had two goals and two primary assists as the Capitals surged past the Canucks on Monday night. (Scott Taetsch/Getty Images)
Alex Ovechkin was the best player on the ice Monday night during the Washington Capitals’ 6-4 comeback win over the Vancouver Canucks at Capital One Arena, with the 37-year-old captain’s timely scoring and quick hands contributing to an emphatic victory.
Erasing a relatively slow start to his season, Ovechkin scored the first and last goals of the game and added two primary assists for a four-point night during a wild, back-and-forth matchup. With the score tied at 4 midway through the third period, Ovechkin set up Connor Sheary in front, and he beat Canucks goalie Thatcher Demko for the winner at 12:44.
But Ovechkin wasn’t done. He scored his second goal of the night at 17:02, redirecting a shot from Evgeny Kuznetsov to send the home crowd into a frenzy. Ovechkin, who entered the night with one assist in the season’s first three games, now has 782 career goals, leaving him 20 away from passing Gordie Howe for second on the NHL’s all-time list.
Last time out: Capitals find the win column with a 3-1 victory over the Canadiens
The Canucks had scored three straight goals to close the second period — including a pair 11 seconds apart — to take a 4-2 lead heading into the third. The Capitals (2-2-0) answered with four straight in the final frame to prevail.
Washington’s Dylan Strome scored on the power play at 1:16 to cut Vancouver’s lead in half before defenseman John Carlson tied it at 4 with 11:17 to play. Sheary’s go-ahead goal was his third of the season before Ovechkin added some insurance late.
The Capitals lost forward Connor Brown to a lower-body injury early in the third after he was hit hard by Canucks defenseman Noah Juulsen in front of the Washington bench. He did not return, and Coach Peter Laviolette said after the game that he was being evaluated.
The Capitals’ next game is Thursday at Ottawa. Vancouver, led by former Capitals coach Bruce Boudreau, remains winless at 0-3-0.
Monday night’s roller coaster started with a strike from Ovechkin, who notched his first goal of the season 56 seconds in. His shot on the power play hit Demko’s left pad before the goalie appeared to knock the puck backward and into the net.
The Canucks tied the score at 1 after getting a lucky break in the final seconds of the period. After Vancouver dumped the puck off the end boards, it bounced over goalie Darcy Kuemper’s stick as he went to play it. Elias Pettersson collected the loose puck in front and scored with 8.2 seconds left.
Lars Eller put the Capitals back ahead just eight seconds into the second when the Capitals got a break of their own. A dump-in by Martin Fehervary went off the end boards and to the left of the net, then bounced through the crease and in front to a waiting Eller, who rocketed home a shot past Demko (24 saves).
Then Vancouver took over, albeit briefly.
Bo Horvat scored on a rebound off the rush at 8:03. The Canucks took their first lead only 11 seconds later when Curtis Lazar redirected Andrei Kuzmenko’s shot on the rush past Kuemper.
J.T. Miller put the Canucks up 4-2 when he ripped a shot from the left circle to beat Kuemper (26 saves) for a power-play goal with 2:26 left in the period. It was Miller’s second goal of the season but Vancouver’s last goal of the night.
Kuznetsov plays
Kuznetsov was a game-time decision after he surprisingly missed the morning skate. The Capitals said he was absent because of “maintenance.” The center had not appeared to get injured during the Capitals’ 3-1 win over Montreal on Saturday, and Laviolette said Kuznetsov was absent because of “stuff” they were “dealing with with him.”
Kuznetsov skated his normal minutes Monday and had three assists. He made a glaring error late in the second when he whacked the Canucks’ Kyle Burroughs up high and was called for a high-sticking penalty that led to Miller’s tally.
Strome’s strong start
Strome has had a solid start to his Washington tenure, recording one goal and three assists in the first four games. Strome, who started the season on the second line with Anthony Mantha and Aliaksei Protas, was elevated to the first only two games into the year. The center was moved back down to the second line midway through Monday’s contest but continued to create chances with Brown and T.J. Oshie.
Strome has factored in on all three Capitals power-play goals to start the season. With Nicklas Backstrom (hip) out for the foreseeable future, Strome’s offensive production is encouraging. The 26-year-old had 22 goals and 26 assists in 69 games last season for Chicago.
Milano clears
Sonny Milano cleared waivers and was assigned to the Capitals’ American Hockey League affiliate in Hershey, Pa. The Capitals had signed him to a one-year, $750,000 contract Sunday.
Milano, 26, had 14 goals and 20 assists in 66 games for Anaheim last season. This fall, Milano was at Calgary training camp on a professional tryout offer, but the Flames let him go after he went scoreless in four preseason games. | 2022-10-18T02:34:16Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Alex Ovechkin powers Capitals past Canucks with four points - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/10/17/alex-ovechkin-capitals-canucks/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/10/17/alex-ovechkin-capitals-canucks/ |
In Washington, or at least some corners of it, knives are being sharpened for Saudi Arabia. It’s been almost two weeks since Riyadh and its counterparts in the OPEC Plus cartel moved to raise global oil prices by announcing its largest supply cut in years, no matter the desperate entreaties of the Biden administration. The resulting fallout still smolders in Washington, where many interpreted the decision as a calculated act to humiliate President Biden and undermine his party’s prospects ahead of the upcoming midterm elections — on top of boosting the fossil fuel-subsidized war machine of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
In recent days, Democratic lawmakers have touted a series of punitive measures against the kingdom. Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) and Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) announced legislation last week that would immediately halt all arms sales to Saudi Arabia for one year.
“There must be consequences for fleecing the American people in order to support Putin’s unconscionable war,” Khanna said in a statement.
In the summer, Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-N.J.), a former U.S. diplomat, backed Biden’s controversial July trip to Saudi Arabia as a bid to “ensure our client states that depend on our security are on our side.” But earlier this month, he and two other Democrats in the House introduced a bill to mandate the removal of U.S. troops and missile systems deployed in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, which was also party to the cartel’s production cut.
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), a member of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, last week urged that U.S. missile systems and batteries committed to help defend the oil infrastructure of the Gulf kingdoms be transferred instead to protect Ukraine from Russian attacks.
Across the Democratic caucus, a lurking dissatisfaction with the United States’ long-standing entanglements with the Saudis exploded into full-bore rage. There remains disquiet over the outsize Saudi role in the attacks of 9/11, a long record of human rights abuses culminating garishly in the abduction and murder of Washington Post contributor Jamal Khashoggi, as well as wariness over Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s partisan affections for Republicans and former president Donald Trump.
After Biden’s reticent fist bump with MBS, the OPEC Plus decision was seen as a deliberate punch in the gut that had to be met with a tough response. The anger has given new life to the so-called NOPEC bill, long-mooted congressional legislation that would make the cartel’s member states subject to antitrust laws. That some lawmakers now believe a bill that could cause further havoc to energy markets has a chance, albeit a slim one, of passing is a sign of the appetite for confrontation with Riyadh. “It’s time for our foreign policy to imagine a world without this alliance with these royal backstabbers,” Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) tweeted.
This is the Saudis. pic.twitter.com/8eKf4OnlVA
In public remarks, Saudi officials have treated the American reaction with bemusement. “When you are in the election season, what some call ‘the funny season,’ a lot of things are said and a lot of things are done that may not make sense at another period of time,” Adel al-Jubeir, minister of state for foreign affairs, told CNN. “I hope this is what we’re dealing with here.”
Jubeir cast the OPEC Plus decision as one made entirely on technical and economic grounds by oil producers minding their collective interests. There’s an obvious truth to that — and some analysts have stressed the need for U.S. officials to look beyond their domestic frames of reference. “The Saudis weren’t thinking about Ukraine — like many people in Asia and Africa, they don’t think in absolute terms of being pro- or anti-Russian — although that was certainly shortsighted,” wrote Hussein Ibish, senior resident scholar at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington. “And it’s frankly narcissistic for Democrats to imagine that the Saudis are adjusting their national grand strategy around the upcoming midterm vote.”
On Sunday television, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Biden would address the anger in Congress, while also cautioning against calls for an abrupt change to U.S.-Saudi relations. “He is going to act methodically, strategically, and he’s going to take his time to consult with members of both parties, and also to have an opportunity for Congress to return so that he can sit with them in person and work through the options,” Sullivan said.
Yet it’s clear there is little love lost between the crown prince and Biden, who once campaigned on making Riyadh a “pariah” and journeyed begrudgingly to the kingdom this summer largely because of the new economic and political realities created by the war in Ukraine. As my colleague Adam Taylor detailed last week, the Saudi-U.S. relationship has been built on an age-old bargain, defined by the American need for oil and Saudi Arabia’s desire to shelter beneath the security umbrella of the U.S. hegemon. That decades-long transaction is not bound by treaty, is backed by minimal public support and has not led to the confluence of many other serious interests, let alone political values.
Aaron David Miller, a former U.S. diplomat and senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told me that what we are seeing now is “the fraying of this essential trade-off.” The United States no longer needs Saudi oil imports (though it remains vulnerable to Saudi influence over global energy prices), while MBS and his cohort have made clear that the kingdom in the long run is going to diversify its geopolitical portfolio, cultivating closer ties to countries elsewhere from China to Brazil.
Over the weekend, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, on a visit to Riyadh, said that MBS had expressed interest in joining the BRICS nations, an economic bloc of major emerging economies including Russia.
“The bottom line is that MBS doesn’t care,” said Miller, “and that he really does believe he has enormous leverage over the United States and is dealing with a president who is in his eyes an inconvenient speed bump.” After all, a Republican takeover of Congress, followed by a presidential election where Trump or a Trump ally may come to power, would set the table more favorably for the crown prince.
For now, though, the Saudis have few cheerleaders in Washington. Democratic lawmakers want to call MBS on his bluff and strip away the U.S. patronage once unquestioningly bestowed upon Riyadh. The broader foreign policy community is also turning against the Saudis. “Much of the national security establishment, which had supported greater engagement with Riyadh, is affected deeply,” Emile Hokayem, a Middle East expert at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, told the Financial Times. “It’s now a cold transactional relationship at best.”
Miller didn’t believe the “broken crockery” of the moment will lead to a “rupture” in the U.S.-Saudi relationship. But he said a clear-eyed reappraisal is necessary. “I’m hoping that what emerges out of this is a fundamental assessment that Saudi Arabia is not an ally,” he said, “and that, going forward, we should only give what we get.” | 2022-10-18T04:14:21Z | www.washingtonpost.com | U.S. Democrats want tougher response on Saudi Arabia - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/10/18/saudi-congress-democrats-midterms-oil-biden/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/10/18/saudi-congress-democrats-midterms-oil-biden/ |
One killed in triple shooting in Southeast D.C., police say
Gunfire erupted on Congress Street on Monday night, with two wounded
At least one person was killed and two others were wounded in a shooting in Southeast Washington on Monday night, D.C. police said.
The man died at the scene in the 1300 block of Congress Street SE, said Officer Hugh Carew, a police spokesman.
A second victim was conscious and breathing when found at the scene about 8:30 p.m., Carew said. He was taken to a hospital, and his condition is unknown.
The third victim was conscious and breathing when he showed up at a hospital, according to Carew.
It was not clear what prompted the gunfire.
The site is a tree-lined residential street that includes two- and three-story apartment buildings in the Congress Heights/Douglass area. | 2022-10-18T04:36:07Z | www.washingtonpost.com | 1 killed, 2 wounded in Southeast D.C. shooting, police say - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/10/17/male-dead-shooting-southeast-dc/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/10/17/male-dead-shooting-southeast-dc/ |
Carolyn Hax: Is it bad karma to toast your cheating ex’s bad luck?
Dear Carolyn: Is indulging in a little schadenfreude really such a bad thing? Through friends, I just found out that my cheating ex-husband lost his job and the woman he cheated with lost her business, so they will be losing their home soon. My friends say they will be moving in with her parents, who are NOT happy about this.
I had a chuckle at the news, because it’s nice to see jerks get the bad luck they deserve now and then. My boyfriend even bought the table a round of drinks, and we all toasted their bad luck.
My sister didn’t say anything at the time, but later said she’s appalled about my still being so bitter. She suggested that I’m asking for bad karma by laughing at someone else’s misfortune.
Her attitude left me floored. I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about my ex or his girlfriend (who, before I found out about the cheating, was my best friend and business partner), but when this news came my way, it did make me smile. Do I really have to wish well for people who lied to me and deliberately screwed me over, just to be considered a decent person?
— Schadenfreude
Schadenfreude: It wasn’t your best moment, and there’s no way to argue that it was, but this was also an excellent opportunity for your sister to zip it and let you be flawed for one lousy round of drinks. Assuming it was just this once.
Re: Schadenfreude-ian slip: Oh, sister, I hear ya, and as someone whose ex moved in with his affair partner before the divorce was final, I’m totally on your side. I still communicate with my ex about our kids, and sometimes he’ll share something that tells me he and the honey are living their best lives. It rankles in the moment, but I don’t dwell on it. I don’t wish them ill, because that’s what’s best for my soul and my own mental health, but, even more honestly, I don’t wish them well, either. I don’t think I am required to be that evolved.
From the text and tone of your letter, I trust you’re not bitter, because you’ve moved on with your life, and this was just a one-time indulgence, well-deserved. You’re human. After the karma bus ran over your ex and his girlfriend, the driver honked and waved. You waved back. I would have done the same.
I’m sorry your judgmental sister doesn’t get that.
Anonymous: Does the karma bus take passengers?
Dear Carolyn: In 2020, my now ex-husband cheated on me, gaslighted me about it, then left me. We live outside Minneapolis, and the civil unrest was happening at the same time — in addition to the pandemic. It was a very scary and difficult time.
We have children, and he contacts me very regularly. He wants to be friends. I can’t do it. I have been experiencing more anxiety than usual, and I think it is post-traumatic stress disorder. How do I get to a place where I am indifferent to this man?
Anxious: I am sorry about the stress pileup.
Please get evaluated for PTSD. Talk to your regular doctor if you’re not sure where to start the diagnostic process. The National Alliance on Mental Illness also can help (nami.org).
Familiarity often leads straight to indifference, but if time isn’t enough to get you there, then therapeutic help makes sense. Give yourself the gift of appropriate care. | 2022-10-18T05:06:40Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Carolyn Hax: Is it bad karma to toast your cheating ex’s bad luck? - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/advice/2022/10/18/carolyn-hax-bad-karma-ex/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/advice/2022/10/18/carolyn-hax-bad-karma-ex/ |
Masterson's initial attorney in the case,Thomas Mesereau, emphasized his client’s Scientology connections, saying his arrest was the result of anti-religious bias from police and prosecutors. The lawyer attempted unsuccessfully to subpoena alleged communications between the accusers and actor Leah Remini, a former Scientologist who has become on of the church’s foremost detractors, authoring a book and hosting a documentary series.
Weinstein's second rape and sexual assault trial — he’s already been convicted in New York — is happening simultaneously, just down the hall from Masterson’s. In New York, civil trials have begun for actor Kevin Spacey and for screenwriter and director Paul Haggis, who are both being sued for sexual assault. | 2022-10-18T05:06:58Z | www.washingtonpost.com | '70s Show' actor Danny Masterson on trial on 3 rape charges - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/70s-show-actor-danny-masterson-on-trial-on-3-rape-charges/2022/10/18/7e68abd8-4e9d-11ed-ada8-04e6e6bf8b19_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/70s-show-actor-danny-masterson-on-trial-on-3-rape-charges/2022/10/18/7e68abd8-4e9d-11ed-ada8-04e6e6bf8b19_story.html |
Democrat Tim Ryan sought to frame his race with Republican J.D. Vance as a choice between a moderate and an extremist, while Vance tried to tie his opponent to national Democratic leaders
Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio), left, and J.D. Vance. (AP)
A second debate in the Ohio Senate race was filled with heated exchanges as Democratic nominee Rep. Tim Ryan sought to frame his unexpectedly close race with GOP rival J.D. Vance as a choice between a moderate and an extremist, while Vance tried to tie his opponent to national Democratic leaders.
Ryan zeroed in on Vance’s praise for the conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, his about-face on former president Donald Trump and his support for far-right lawmakers such as Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), saying he was “running around backing these extremists, the most extreme people in the country.” Vance said Ryan had voted in lockstep with President Biden and his party, trying to undermine the centrist persona that has helped Ryan remain competitive in a solidly red state.
The men sometimes talked over each other as they clashed over immigration, allegations of racism and the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by a pro-Trump mob in a race that will help determine control of the evenly divided Senate. Vance, a first-time candidate who pulled ahead in the GOP primary with Trump’s endorsement, is neck-and-neck with Ryan in a state that went decisively Republican in 2016 and 2020. He has struggled to raise money and match his Democratic opponent on the airwaves, leading national Republicans to divert millions to a seat many had considered safe.
One of the most contentious back-and-forths Monday erupted over “replacement theory,” a racist conspiracy that Jews, racial minorities and immigrants are actively seeking to replace White native-born Americans through higher fertility rates and migration.
Greene recently echoed the theory at a rally with Trump, saying Biden paved the way for undocumented immigrants “on the verge of replacing you, replacing your jobs and replacing your kids in school and, coming from all over the world … replacing your culture.” And Vance has made unsubstantiated claims that Democratic politicians are allowing undocumented immigrants into the country because they have “decided that they can’t win re-election in 2022 unless they bring in a large number of new voters to replace the voters that are already here.”
Asked about replacement theory, Ryan said of his opponent: “This is who he’s running around with, talking about replacement theory …”
“It’s shameful for you to accuse me of that given my family, ” Vance said. “It’s shameful for you to accuse me of that — ”
“My turn, pal,” Ryan said. “My turn.”
“Oh buddy,” Vance replied, as the candidates spoke over each other.
Vance pointed to his biracial children to rebut criticisms that he has also echoed the theory. Vance’s wife is Indian American.
“This is exactly what happens when the media and people like Tim Ryan accuse me of engaging with the ‘great replacement theory,’ ” Vance said. “ … What happens is that my own children, my biracial children, get attacked … online and in person because you are so desperate for political power that you’ll accuse me — the father of three beautiful biracial babies — of engaging in racism.”
One of Vance’s top campaign promises is bolstering security at the U.S. border. He frequently connects Biden’s immigration policies with increased fentanyl trafficking in the state, suggesting this year that fentanyl crossing the border might be “intentional” on Biden’s part and declaring that this would be effective “if you wanted to kill a bunch of MAGA voters in the middle of the heartland.”
Vance said at the debate Monday that you “can believe in a border without being a racist.”
Ryan said he “struck a nerve with this guy.”
“I’ve never talked about your family,” Ryan said. “Don’t spin this because you don’t want to talk about the fact that you’re with the extremists.”
The candidates also clashed over Vance’s September 2021 tweet calling Infowars founder Alex Jones “a far more reputable source of information” than the liberal TV host Rachel Maddow. “One of them is censored by the regime,” Vance wrote. “The other promoted by it.” Jones was ordered this month to pay $965 million to the families of eight victims of the Sandy Hook shooting for suffering caused by his lies about the massacre.
“He’s like, ‘You know, he’s credible!’ ” Ryan said.
“Complete fabrication,” Vance said.
“J. D., you’re on tape, brother,” Ryan replied. The tweet remained up Monday night, though Vance told Fox News last year that he “was just kind of trolling everybody” with the comment.
Vance and Ryan both sounded open to having Trump testify before the congressional committee probing the Jan. 6, 2021, attacks on the U.S. Capitol by a pro-Trump mob. Vance said it would be “enlightening” to hear what Trump had to say to the panel.
But like other Republicans, Vance dismissed the committee’s work, accusing the panel of being overly partisan and decrying what he called the “media obsession” with the deadly riot.
He compared the Jan. 6 attack to allegations that Trump had colluded with Russia to win the 2016 presidential election; a special counsel investigation found Russian interference but no collusion between Russia and Trump or his campaign.
“There’s been a nonstop political effort to not honor the election of 2016. And I think that’s just as much of a threat to democracy as the violence on January the 6th,” Vance said.
Vance’s attacks on Ryan focused on his votes in alignment with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), whom he invoked early on.
“If you want to run against Nancy Pelosi, move back to San Francisco,” Ryan said, referencing Vance’s time in Silicon Valley after growing up poor in Ohio and attending Yale Law School — a life story that gained a national audience with Vance’s best-selling memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy.”
Ryan argued he had stood up to Pelosi by challenging her leadership post. “I stood toe to toe with her,” Ryan said. | 2022-10-18T05:07:05Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Ohio Senate debate: J.D. Vance and Tim Ryan clash heatedly - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/10/18/ohio-senate-debate-ryan-vance/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/10/18/ohio-senate-debate-ryan-vance/ |
By Michael E. Miller | Oct 18, 2022
The name is a not-so-regal knockoff of an annual royal river boat race hosted by the British town of Henley-on-Thames. The Australians’ competition takes place in the waterless Todd River.
“They only have sculling,” Peter Mostran, the dry regatta’s “commodore,” said of the more staid British version. “We have everything.”
The idea was hatched over a few beers in 1962 to raise money for local Rotary Clubs. Since then, it’s grown into an all-day spectacle that draws a few thousand tourists from across the country and the globe.
The festivities begin with a parade down the main street, followed by sand-shoveling competitions and equally absurd races. But the highlight is always the final “battle of the boats,” in which three teams — the pirates, the Vikings and the Navy — blast each other with water cannons and brightly colored flour mortars.
“It’s a different type of event, and we’re different here,” he said from the grandstand as a male competitor in a hot pink feather boa dress stumbled and crashed his inflatable pink flamingo into the sand, drawing a roar of laughter from the crowd. “This is Alice Springs to a T.”
Expectations were high this year after two years with no regatta because of the pandemic. The big battle didn’t disappoint.
The Vikings were back, dressed in faux animal skins and horned helmets. The pirates were ready, their vessel equipped with 1,000 liters of water, 48 “cannons,” a crow’s nest for launching water balloons and, of course, sails.
The Vikings’ dragon-headed vessel quickly broke down and became stranded in the sand.
“We got bogged,” Vivienne Corish, 25, said afterward as she picked flour from her hair. “They hit me in the head and the shoulder. I’ll be all right, but I’ve got a cracking headache.”
“When it all hits your face like that you can’t actually see,” added her wife, Penny Chatfield, 27. “You just see a silhouette of a ship coming and silhouettes of people and you just try to aim for their heads.”
“Mate, we nailed it!” Edelman shouted. | 2022-10-18T05:19:38Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Australia's boisterous Henley-on-Todd Regatta remains quite a spectacle - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/interactive/2022/australia-henley-on-todd-dry-regatta-/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/interactive/2022/australia-henley-on-todd-dry-regatta-/ |
The era of Mario Draghi as prime minister of Italy has ended, and the era of far-right leader Giorgia Meloni has begun. Investors must hope Italy’s incoming first woman premier sticks to her word and continues Draghi’s pro-Europe, pro-Ukraine, pro-Atlanticist positions — not to mention his market-oriented economic policies.
The first acts of Meloni’s government have drawn a line on the past. The right-wing majority voted Ignazio La Russa, once leader of the Italian neo-fascist youth movement, to be leader of the Senate. The new speaker of the lower chamber, Lorenzo Fontana, a member of the Eurosceptic League, has openly admired Vladimir Putin, adding to his credentials as an ultra-Catholic, anti-abortion, anti-LGBTQ+ spokesman.
Similarly, Meloni’s first international outings have extended a spirit of antagonism with traditional European Union partners (the countries that are keeping her government afloat). Meloni took time out from domestic affairs to speak via video link at a rally for the far-right Spanish party Vox, where she declared “Long live Europe of the Patriots!” Other speakers included Donald Trump and Viktor Orban.
Closer Franco-Italian relations fostered by Draghi and French President Emmanuel Macron also appear consigned to history. Meloni had a public spat with France’s Minister for European Affairs Laurence Boone — who warned that France would monitor respect for the rule of law under her government — requiring President Sergio Mattarella’s intervention to restore diplomatic calm.
This may yet all prove to be red meat for Meloni’s base. I’ve spoken to several politicians on the left and right and those close to Draghi who argue that it is. Coached by Draghi, Meloni has pledged to be pro-Europe and pro-Ukraine, to uphold the values of her predecessor. There’s not a lot of margin for error — either by her new coalition or for investors — as the political and economic firestorms in Britain suggest.
Italy’s sovereign debt load is more than 150% of its gross domestic product, compared to about 100% for the UK. It’s also heading into recession next year, the International Monetary Fund warned last week. The spread on Italian government notes to German bunds have widened to about 240 basis points. The leap from about 100 basis points at the start of the year drives up refinancing costs and threatens the survival of many of the small and midsized companies that predominantly rely on short-term bank loans. They are also, of course, facing soaring energy costs from Putin’s war.
Cracks are already showing in the right-wing coalition. The 86-year-old Silvio Berlusconi was caught on camera on the first day of the new parliamentary term writing a note that described Meloni as “opinionated, domineering, arrogant and offensive.” Meloni later told reporters that the former disgraced prime minister had forgotten one thing: “I’m not going to be blackmailed.”
What’s more, Meloni is likely to disappoint hopes that she’ll appoint a steady nonpolitical hand at the finance ministry. Italy’s new finance minister is widely flagged in the media to be Matteo Salvini’s deputy at the League, Giancarlo Giorgetti. That signals not only a political sea change but an economic one too. Alberto Gallo, chief investment officer and co-founder of London-based Andromeda Capital Management Ltd., sees Italy, along with other countries in Europe, moving from a reform agenda espoused by leaders such as Draghi to a greater focus on state capitalism. “That process is going to put pressure on Italian debt,” Gallo says.
Members of the right-wing coalition have vowed to fully renationalize long flailing bank Monte dei Paschi di Siena and the heavily indebted former monopoly Telecom Italia that’s responsible for Italy’s lagging broadband coverage, and to block the sale of national airline ITA Airways to private equity group Certares.
Perhaps Salvini will row back his demand for big tax cuts and fiscal largesse. Salvini has pushed for extending a flat-tax regime for the self-employed, enabling those with gross earnings of up to 100,000 euros ($98,450) to pay as little at 15%. Oxford Economics calculates the right’s stimulus could add around 1.6 percentage points to GDP growth next year. That increase would also push inflation higher and widen the budget deficit.
Either way, there’s not much room to experiment. UK Prime Minister Liz Truss got her job less than three weeks before Meloni’s victory, and she’s already lost her finance chief and market credibility. Next could very well be her job. That’s hardly a promising template for Meloni. | 2022-10-18T06:38:09Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Meloni Channels Her Inner Truss With Market Gamble - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/meloni-channels-her-inner-truss-with-market-gamble/2022/10/18/8cba7e6e-4ea2-11ed-ada8-04e6e6bf8b19_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/meloni-channels-her-inner-truss-with-market-gamble/2022/10/18/8cba7e6e-4ea2-11ed-ada8-04e6e6bf8b19_story.html |
Iranians protest in Sanandaj, the capital of Iran's Kurdistan province, on Sept. 19, 2022 following the death of a young Kurdish woman while in custody by the “morality police,” which enforces strict dress codes. (AFP/Getty Images)
Security forces with heavy weapons roam the streets of Sanandaj, Kurdistan’s provincial capital, in armored vehicles. They fire into the homes of terrified residents, who are living under a near-total communication blackout.
“Sanandaj is now a military zone with weapons of war being used,” a 30-year-old woman in the city, some 250 miles west of Tehran, told The Washington Post by voice message. Like other locals in this story, she spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals by security forces. “Almost every house in the city has been affected,” she said.
Iran’s long-oppressed Kurdish population has been at the forefront of the month-long anti-government uprising. Now it is bearing the brunt of the government’s intensifying efforts to crush the unrest — a possible harbinger of what awaits protesters in other parts of the country.
In interviews with The Post over the last week, three residents of Sanandaj described a military-style occupation of their city, which has been almost entirely cut off from internet and phone service since mid-September. The Post could not independently verify their accounts, but they were consistent with the findings of rights groups, and with past crackdowns in Kurdish areas.
“The consolidation of authoritarianism” in Iran “has often been consummated through the repression of the Kurdish movement,” said Djene Rhys Bajalan, a professor at Missouri State University who specializes in Kurdish history. “The road to tyranny goes through Kurdistan.”
Protesters in Nowshahr in northern Iran flipped a police car on Sept. 21 during the fifth day of protests sparked by Mahsa Amini's death in police custody. (Video: Storyful)
The demonstrations now sweeping the country first gained speed in Kurdistan province. It’s the hometown of Mahsa Amini — or Jina Amini in her native Kurdish language — whose death in police custody last month fanned long-simmering fury over the iron rule of Iran’s clerical leaders.
But for Iranian Kurds, who make up about 10 percent of the population, the protests are also part of a long tradition of resistance against the Islamic Republic. One of the demonstrators’ key slogans — “Woman, life, freedom” — has its roots in the regional Kurdish struggle.
“Men and women of all generations have come together here to fight for their rights that have been trampled for 50 years,” the 30-year-old woman told The Post. “We will be on the streets until the day we find some peace from this constant injustice and oppression.”
The Kurds are one of the world’s largest stateless ethnic groups, with tens of millions of people in communities spanning Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey. In Iran, they are typically Sunni Muslim, subject to heightened discrimination by Iran’s theocratic Shiite government.
For the first five days of protests, all of those killed — seven people, including a sixteen-year-old boy — came from Kurdish communities. One month in, rights groups estimate around thirty Kurds, including five children, have been killed among some 200 deaths nationwide.
A man was killed inside a vehicle in Sanandaj, Iran, on Oct. 8 as protests around the death of Mahsa Amini continue. (Video: Storyful)
“They have made the city into a military base,” a 37-year-old businessman told The Post. “Sanandaj is fully militarized.”
Residents told The Post they are afraid to leave their homes. Yet despite the danger, they said, protesters are still taking to the streets each day, usually in the evenings.
“They have this look that is filled with hatred and grudge toward us,” he said. “The brutality that you are seeing on videos is real.”
“We know the way the system is,” she said. “It’s been constant waves of protests over the years and killing with impunity.”
Kurds make up half of political prisoners held in Iran and a disproportionately high number of those executed, according to a 2019 U.N. report, part of a history of brutality toward the country’s Kurdish communities.
Armed Kurdish groups seeking autonomy in Iran have periodically fought with government security forces. Many have sought refuge across the border in Kurdistan, Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region.
Iran has retaliated by carrying out strikes across the border in Iraq, including two last month, accusing Kurdish groups there of having a hand in the protests. Kurdish authorities said strikes on Sept. 28 killed 10 people, including at one least one child.
Iran’s Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi, while visiting Sanandaj on Oct. 11, blamed the city’s unrest on “terrorist and separatist groups,” with an “ugly and bad history” of cooperating with Saddam Hussein, western countries and Israel, the IRGC-affiliated Fars News reported.
The 37-year-old businessman in Sanandaj denied accusations that protesters are armed. “The people are fighting with no weapons,” he said, and are being met by security forces with “military grade weapons.”
That was echoed by a 65-year-old woman who described a scene she witnessed while driving around Sanandaj on Oct. 8, when she heard cars honking and saw riot police dressed in black with masks over their faces. Police ran after bystanders, she said, and threw tear gas at a group of women not wearing headscarves. Closer to her home, she heard continuous rounds of gunfire, then saw a group of young people fleeing the scene. | 2022-10-18T06:38:37Z | www.washingtonpost.com | At the center of Iran’s uprising, Kurds now face a mounting crackdown - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/10/18/iran-kurds-protests-mahsa-amini/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/10/18/iran-kurds-protests-mahsa-amini/ |
Ukraine live briefing: Most Ukrainians want to fight until victory, poll shows; Russian jet crash death toll rises to 13
Ukranians gather to protest at the Iranian embassy in Kyiv after Russia launched attacks using Iranian drones against the Ukrainian capital city Monday. At least four people were killed. (Paula Bronstein /Getty Images)
About 70 percent of Ukrainians are determined to keep fighting until their country wins the war against Russia, according to a Gallup poll conducted in early September amid strong Ukrainian counteroffensives retaking swaths of land in the country’s south and east. The majority of Ukrainians backing the war — 91 percent — defined victory as retaking all territories seized by Russia since 2014, including Crimea, Gallup said.
The survey preceded last week’s barrages on Kyiv and energy facilities across Ukraine and drone strikes Monday that caused at least four deaths and many injuries in the capital.
The Gallup poll shows strong support for fighting until victory in the capital, Kyiv, (83 percent) and western Ukraine (82 percent). But there is less enthusiasm in the east (56 percent) and in the south (58 percent), where the front lines are. Twenty-six percent say the Ukrainian government should negotiate an end to fighting as quickly as possible.
The death toll from a Russian fighter jet crash Monday near the Russian city of Krasnodar rose to 13 after more bodies were found in the rubble, the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry reported Tuesday morning. The Russian SU-34 fighter-bomber crashed into a residential building about 120 miles east of Crimea. Nineteen people were injured, the ministry said.
Monday’s kamikaze drone strikes in Kyiv killed at least four people, including a pregnant woman, according to Mayor Vitali Klitschko. More were hospitalized, he said. The central Shevchenkivskyi district — a main target of last week’s barrage — was struck at least four times, he said. Kyiv residents heard the distinctive noise of Iranian-made Shahed drones, now being used by Russia’s military, as they prepared to attack. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky used the drone attack to reiterate his call for “significantly more modern air defense systems.” Tuesday morning, air raid sirens were sounding once again.
Protesters gathered in front of the Iranian embassy in Kyiv following Monday’s attacks. Tehran is “complicit” in the recent deaths and injuries attributed to its drones, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said Monday.
In the past 24 hours, Russia launched dozens of missile, air and rocket attacks against more than 35 Ukrainian settlements including the cities of Kyiv and Odessa, the Ukrainian defense ministry said in a statement Tuesday morning. More than 40 Iranian-made Shahed-136 drones were involved in the attacks, it said.
The “heightened tempo” of Russia’s attacks since Oct. 10 is probably intended to cause widespread damage to Ukraine’s energy network, according to the U.K. Ministry of Defense. Russia has “highly likely gained a greater willingness to strike civilian infrastructure” in addition to military targets, it said in a Tuesday morning tweet.
The European Union on Monday approved a plan to train thousands of Ukrainian troops in Europe. French Navy Vice Admiral Hervé Bléjean will oversee the two-year, $105 million program.
European Union member countries are considering paying billionaire Elon Musk to maintain internet services provided by Starlink to Ukraine, Politico reported. Musk said on Twitter Monday that 25,300 Starlink terminals were sent to Ukraine but that 10,630 are being paid for. Musk’s company SpaceX, which provides the Starlink services, has withdrawn its request for funding from the U.S. Defense Department, Musk tweeted.
The U.S. Commerce Department issued a 180-day ban of Russia’s Ural Airlines from participating in transactions that involve exports or re-exports of goods from the United States, marking the 10th such sanction levied against Russia’s and Belarus’s biggest airlines since the Kremlin’s Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine, the department said in a news release. Ural violated export controls imposed on Russia by the Commerce Department, officials said.
ExxonMobil said it will withdraw from Russia completely, after President Vladimir Putin seized its properties at a major oil and gas project in Russia’s Far East. ExxonMobil held a 30 percent stake at an offshore project in Sakhalin, which once generated more than $16 billion in payments to Russian government entities, The Washington Post reported in March, when Exxon initially expressed its intention to break ties with Russia. “We made every effort to engage with the Russian government and other stakeholders,” the company said in a statement late Monday.
Drones hit Kyiv as Russia aims to destroy Ukraine power grid before winter. In the Ukrainian capital, residents awoke Monday to the ominous sound of buzzing kamikaze drones that struck residential and office buildings, The Washington Post’s Isabelle Khurshudyan, Annabelle Timsit and Kostiantyn Khudov reported. The attacks appeared to be part of a broader Russian strategy of instilling fear in the civilian population, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said. “The enemy can attack our cities, but it won’t be able to break us.”
Ukraine live briefing: Deadly drone strikes rock central Kyiv; Russian plane crash kills at least 4 at apartment complex | 2022-10-18T06:38:43Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Russia-Ukraine war latest updates - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/10/18/russia-ukraine-war-latest-updates/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/10/18/russia-ukraine-war-latest-updates/ |
Frances Vinall
SYDNEY — Gianni Vitellone watched on as climate disasters struck Australia repeatedly in recent years — first wildfires, then floods. But he never thought he’d be beset by the country’s increasingly volatile weather in his own neighborhood, just seven miles from Melbourne’s city center.
After the order to evacuate came with a knock on the door at 5 a.m. on Friday, the 38-year-old travel agent went to work, as usual. From his desk, he monitored the flood reports with growing disbelief, as aerial images showed the floodwaters from the nearby Maribyrnong River rising to 13.7 feet, significantly higher than the benchmark for a major flood on that river.
That night, he donned a pair of waders and forced the door open on the home he shares with his wife, three children, and mother-in-law to find almost all of what they owned had been lost.
“I don’t know how anyone can say that it’s not climate change,” he said as he contemplated his debris-strewn yard on Tuesday. Ruined furniture and household items lined the street, waiting for garbage collectors.
The unseasonal deluge was highly unusual. October — the start of wildfire season Down Under — is typically accompanied by hot and dry conditions. But Australia is experiencing an exceptionally rare third straight year of La Niña conditions — an oceanic and atmospheric phenomenon that typically brings above average rainfall to the country’s east. A periodic cooling of the western Indian Ocean, connected to La Niña, is also contributing to the higher rainfall.
Sydney broke through rainfall records dating back more than a century this month, with three months of the year to go. Parts of New South Wales state, of which Sydney is the capital, have flooded several times over the past couple of years. At least 20 people died and thousands were forced to evacuate when devastating floods inundated parts of New South Wales and Queensland in late February and early March. Two people have been killed in the latest floods.
The country is prone to big swings in weather but scientists say the latest rains are unusual in that rain has fallen across almost the entire continent — which is slightly smaller than the contiguous United States — in the last two weeks. Many dams and rivers are at full capacity.
“Our rain events are usually regional — not national,” said Margaret Cook, a flood historian at the University of the Sunshine Coast. “Dense cloud bands have crossed the desert, carrying moisture evaporating from seas off north-west Australia.”
Researchers say climate change is worsening the situation. Australia has warmed by around 2.6 degrees Fahrenheit (1.5 Celsius) since 1910. A warming atmosphere holds more moisture and can increase the intensity of extreme rainfall events.
The recent floods followed a period of extreme drought, which, coupled with intensifying heat waves, helped fuel catastrophic wildfires in 2019 and early 2020. The increasingly volatile climate is making it hard for residents in some disaster zones to rebuild: about one in 25 Australian homes are at high risk of becoming uninsurable by 2030, according to the Climate Council, an independent advocacy group.
“If the current situation in the eastern states isn’t a sure sign we need to reconsider where and how our houses are built, then there’s a long and volatile road ahead,” said Trivess Moore, a sustainable housing expert at RMIT University in Melbourne. “The majority of existing and new housing in Australia is not suitable for performing in our current climate.”
Paul Williamson, 63, who lives across the road from Vitellone, the travel agent, in the inner Melbourne neighborhood of Maribyrnong, said he had opted out of buying flood insurance two weeks’ ago, because of the almost $10,000 yearly price tag.
The musician lost his piano, which could not be moved out of the floodwaters’ path, as well as sentimental items and scripts belonging to his partner, an actress. “But it’s been a good chance to get rid of a lot of crap,” he quipped.
Policymakers say more needs to be done to avoid development in disaster-prone areas, with Australia’s new center-left government indicating that planning and development regulations could be ripe for reform. A hot housing market has spurred many new real estate developments in recent years, including on flood plains. Some have been paused while governments revise their flood strategies.
Officials warned it could be weeks before floodwaters recede in some areas, as they work their way through the country’s expansive river network. Another storm system is forecast to develop over central Australia, potentially bringing more severe thunderstorms, heavy rain and flooding to already saturated areas later this week.
“We’re living in very dangerous times in the days and weeks ahead,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told reporters during a Monday visit to a flood affected town in western New South Wales.
Vinall reported from Melbourne, Australia. Jason Samenow in Washington contributed to this report. | 2022-10-18T07:25:49Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Floods inundate Australia as climate disasters continue to strike - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/10/18/australia-floods-climate-change-storm/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/10/18/australia-floods-climate-change-storm/ |
Patti LuPone performs at the Grammy Awards at Madison Square Garden in New York in January 2018. (Matt Sayles/Invision/AP)
Actress and singer Patti LuPone said on Monday that she had given up her membership in the Actors’ Equity union, signaling a step away from her celebrated, decades-long Broadway career.
“Quite a week on Broadway, seeing my name being bandied about,” LuPone, a three-time Tony Award winner, tweeted. “Gave up my Equity card; no longer part of that circus. Figure it out.”
The tweet followed a week of high drama in the Broadway world that began when Lillias White, a “Hadestown” cast member, called out an audience member on Wednesday over her use of a captioning device, which White mistook for a cellphone. White drew intense criticism for the mistake, and the incident prompted comparisons to LuPone’s history of confronting audience members about their cellphone use during live shows.
Yet in a statement shared with The Washington Post, LuPone, 73, said she had dropped her union membership following her most recent production this summer — long before last week’s “Hadestown” incident.
“When the run of ‘Company’ ended this past July, I knew I wouldn’t be onstage for a very long time,” the performer said. “And at that point I made the decision to resign from Equity.”
LuPone also criticized the union for Broadway performers, telling People that she “didn’t want to give them any more money,” adding that the Actors’ Equity Association doesn’t “support actors at all.”
She told People that the union accepted her resignation, and she would have to be approved to rejoin. The Actors’ Equity Association, which represents tens of thousands of actors and stage managers, did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Post.
This is not the first time LuPone has talked about leaving Broadway. In 2015, after making headlines for snatching an audience member’s cellphone out of their hands during a performance of “Shows for Days,” LuPone told The Post: “I am so defeated by this issue that I seriously question whether I want to work on stage anymore.”
LuPone had accused that audience member of texting during her performance, and was praised for her actions. Similarly, a crowd applauded her for stopping mid-song during a 2009 “Gypsy” performance to yell at someone who was taking pictures during the show.
The use of electronic devices during theater productions has been an increasingly common complaint among performers. But last week, White, who is Black, received a far different response when accusing an audience member of using a phone during her show. And while the circumstances of White’s engagement with the audience member were different from LuPone’s 2015 and 2009 confrontations, observers said the contrast in treatment represented a double standard.
While LuPone was applauded for her actions, White faced a wave of backlash — some of it so vicious that the audience member whom White called out pleaded with people on social media to “stop harassing” the actress.
“Hadestown” apologized to the theatergoer, but condemned the online response to White, saying in a statement to the New York Times that the reactions on social media had “devolved into racist, ageist and other abhorrently discriminatory language.”
LuPone did not directly comment on the controversy, aside from referencing her name being mentioned over the past week.
The actress has been nominated for eight Tony Awards, winning her first in 1980 for her work in “Evita.” She won her third Tony this year for her work in “Company.” | 2022-10-18T08:09:22Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Broadway actress Patti LuPone says she’s stepping away from the stage - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/10/18/patti-lupone-equity-card/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/10/18/patti-lupone-equity-card/ |
INGLEWOOD, Calif. — Dustin Hopkins kicked four field goals, including a 39-yarder with 2:38 remaining in overtime, and the Los Angeles Chargers rallied for a 19-16 victory over the Denver Broncos.
MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — Tua Tagovailoa is back, and his return will be a welcome sight for a Miami Dolphins team that has not won a game since he suffered a concussion on Sept. 29.
NEW YORK — Gabriel Pereira, Maxi Moralez and Heber had second-half goals and New York City FC beat Miami 3-0.
FRISCO, Texas — Alan Velasco scored the game-winner in a shootout and Dallas advanced past Minnesota 5-4 on penalty kicks after a 1-1 draw in the MLS playoffs.
PARIS — Karim Benzema won the men’s Ballon d’Or for the first time after a brilliant season with Real Madrid capped by the Champions League and Spanish league titles. | 2022-10-18T08:09:52Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Monday's Sports In Brief - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/mondays-sports-in-brief/2022/10/18/5194f106-4eb2-11ed-ada8-04e6e6bf8b19_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/mondays-sports-in-brief/2022/10/18/5194f106-4eb2-11ed-ada8-04e6e6bf8b19_story.html |
Iranian climber’s return home after ditching headscarf raises safety fears
Elnaz Rekabi at an Olympic qualification event in Toulouse, France. (Manuel Blondeau/Icon Sport via Getty Images)
SEOUL — A climber who defied her native Iran’s ultraconservative dress code by competing without a headscarf at an international competition departed for home Tuesday, prompting widespread concern for her safety as anti-government protests continue following the death of a young woman detained by Tehran’s so-called morality police.
Elnaz Rekabi, 33, left South Korea for Iran with other members of her team early Tuesday, according to the Iranian Embassy in Seoul. Seoul Garden Hotel, where Rekabi had stayed with her team, said that she had checked out in the morning. The departure came a day earlier than reportedly scheduled.
The athlete had finished in fourth place in the Combined Boulder and Lead final of the recent International Federation of Sport Climbing (IFSC) Asian Championships, where she removed her headcovering for part of the competition. Iranian women live under a state-mandated dress code that is stricter than that of many other Muslim-majority countries; athletes who represent the nation abroad are also required to wear a headscarf.
In recent weeks, many young women in Iran’s cities have taken off their headscarves to protest the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who was arrested for violating the country’s Islamic dress code. Amini fell into a coma after allegedly being beaten by the “morality police.” Rekabi’s decision to wear a sweatband for part of the competition in South Korea was widely interpreted as a sign of solidarity and an act of protest.
“I don’t think any other [Iranian] women athletes have done anything like that,” said Pardis Minuchehr, who teaches Middle Eastern culture and literature at California State University at Long Beach. “This had a symbolic, political significance.”
Analysis: Iran’s protests pose a challenge for Washington and Silicon Valley
Iranian security forces have responded to the protests over Amini’s death with intimidation and repression. The demonstrations have also been used to air grievances over decades of political repression, poverty, state-sponsored violence and gender discrimination in the country.
Since the protests began in September, dozens have been killed, according to rights groups, and at least 92 members of civil society — including journalists, activists and lawyers — have been arrested.
Rekabi has not publicly spoken after her decision not to wear a headscarf, and it’s unclear what awaits her when she arrives in Iran. The BBC’s Persian Service previously reported that her friends had not been able to reach her, citing unidentified sources. Iranian forces are alleged to have gone as far as killing children involved in the recent protests.
South Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs was not immediately available for comment Tuesday and the IFSC did not return a request for comment.
The athlete, who won a bronze medal at the IFSC Climbing World Championships in Moscow last year, told Russian state media in 2018 that gender is not an important factor in competitive climbing. Women can compete with men “on the same level,” she said.
Another Iranian female athlete, Sadaf Khadem, made headlines after winning a 2019 boxing match while wearing shorts and a sleeveless top, and without a headscarf. The athlete said she had been tipped off to a warrant for her arrest; she now lives in France.
“Because everything is so volatile and intense, we don’t know what might happen to” Rekabi, said Shahla Haeri, a professor at Boston University who has studied law, gender and religion in the Middle East. “What is expected of Iran, no one can predict.”
Babak Dehghanpisheh and Miriam Berger contributed to this report. | 2022-10-18T08:48:32Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Fears rise as climber Elnaz Rekabi returns to Iran after ditching hijab - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/10/18/iranian-climber-elnaz-rekabi-hijab-protests/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/10/18/iranian-climber-elnaz-rekabi-hijab-protests/ |
A memoir in which everything is classified and nothing is secret
Chelsea Manning’s “README.txt: A Memoir” refuses the confessional mode — and offers something more radical in its place
Review by Jordy Rosenberg
Chelsea Manning, a former Army intelligence analyst, was convicted in 2013 for leaking military and diplomatic documents to WikiLeaks. Her sentence was commuted in 2017. (Jahi Chikwendiu/The Washington Post)
When we meet Chelsea Manning in the electrifying opening of her new memoir, “README.txt,” she is 22 years old, on leave from a deployment in Iraq and attempting to upload classified documents to WikiLeaks from a Barnes & Noble computer with a guttering internet connection. Downing a triple grande mocha in a Maryland mall while wrestling with a cumbersome upload to a website she’d only recently learned about had not been Manning’s first choice for releasing this information. She’d initially tried to speak with various news outlets. No one bit. She then planned to go directly to the Politico offices in Northern Virginia, only to be derailed by a historic blizzard.
So, due to redeploy in less than 24 hours, Manning white-knuckled it through unplowed streets in search of a non-traceable computer from which to release the trove of documents she had emancipated from a military computer on DVDs “labeled with titles like Taylor Swift, Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, Manning’s Mix.” We may know some facts of this story, but what we cannot know as an abstract fact — what we can only feel through Manning’s unfurling of narrative detail — is the texture of her choices: not only the anomie of an aughts chain bookstore, but the material conditions of a young millennial finding the cracks in the smooth, implacable face of mall culture and the doldrums of a major recession.
The arc of “README.txt” reaches back from here, then forward again, spanning Manning’s early years in Oklahoma City, enlistment in the military, deployment to Iraq, trials and incarceration, public announcement of herself as transgender, and finally her commutation. In May 2010, Manning was arrested for disclosing military and diplomatic documents that included, as the American Civil Liberties Union puts it, “evidence of civilian deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan, U.S. attempts to cover up the CIA torture program, and other matters of public interest.” Manning was incarcerated at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas and sentenced to 35 years. Her imprisonment included long periods in solitary confinement and other forms of severe and inhumane punishment, including the denial of gender-affirming hormones. In 2015, after more than a year of litigation, and other forms of resistance by Manning herself, including a hunger strike, Manning received hormone treatment. Responding to massive public pressure, President Barack Obama commuted Manning’s sentence, and she was released on May 17, 2017.
In revisiting these events, “README.txt” serves as an insider confessional turned inside out for the 21st century. The perverse secret of our era, one that Manning details in multiple surreal encounters with military bureaucracy, is that everything is already known. Manning is canny in her refusal to simply embrace the confessional mode often demanded of trans writers and whistleblowers alike. Other insider memoirs may open with men in power suits stalking through the halls of the Pentagon while poring over “For the President’s Eyes Only” documents. But Manning’s opens onto the hellscape of the post-2008 financial crash. The hushed sublimity of the halls of the Rand Corp. circa 1970 has given way. In 2010 the distinction between the crucibles of power and the strip mall has dissolved in a monochromatic late-capitalist soup, or something like what critic Anna Kornbluh terms “Fifty Billion Shades of Gray.”
This soup is Manning’s milieu, and her evocation of it is agile and granular. It matters that “README.txt” begins in a Barnes & Noble. Manning’s scene of whistleblowing isn’t the scowling apple-pie-faced consternation of a James Spader, Matt Damon or Adam Driver. It’s Manning, exhausted and precarious, darting between parking lots and coffee shops with a thumb drive and a set of headphones, hijacking and rerouting power from deep within the heart not of the Rand Corp. but a chain store. Treading water in a sea of mass-market books and muffins, Manning conducts a pitched battle against the mass-marketization of death.
In the world to which Manning has access, everything is classified and nothing is secret. Not Manning’s gayness, which she reveals to her father only to be met with an “Okay?” as he throws up his hands. Not the contents of military computers in Iraq: “In our supposedly high-security office, people kept the passwords to laptops containing government secrets stuck to those same laptops, written on Post-its.” And not the “classified courier box” continuing a report on “significant actions” in Iraq that Manning is asked to create “for internal purposes only.” When Manning turned over the report, the public affairs office “removed the classified stamps” and sent it directly to the Iraqi press. The “classification system doesn’t exist to keep secrets safe,” Manning writes. “It exists to control the media.”
Non-confession is an apt approach to this American feint, whereby imperial aggression is alternately cloistered and flaunted at will. And anyway, what other kind of memoir could be written by someone whose life has been made so extensively, excruciatingly public? Manning’s tremendous bravery, much of the information she released, and the ways in which she was punished and tortured in the wake of her disclosures are all a matter of extremely public record. As Manning puts it, “Everyone now knows — because of what happened to me — that the government will attempt to destroy you fully … for bringing to light the truth about its own actions.” Her memoir may thus give us less, not more, of what we may think we know about her. But this is an artful refusal, and an important one.
As a non-confession, “README.txt” functions in part to correct the ways Manning was compelled to frame her identity in the context of her legal travails. She articulates regret about how her gender was made to serve a particular narrative function for her legal case: “My legal team used everything it could, including arguing that gender identity had pushed me to a breaking point. This strategy continues to weigh on me,” she writes. “I worried that the argument we were forced to make gave ammunition to those who want to pathologize trans people.” Manning’s memoir decompresses the false equivalences that have been required of her and reconstructs the epiphanies that cemented her political convictions. One key moment comes in 2008, when Proposition 8, which aimed to ban same-sex marriage in California, passes while Manning is training as an analyst at Fort Drum in New York. “This was my worldview shattering,” she writes. “My whole life, I’d been told that things were always going to get better … that liberal society meant slow but steady ‘progress’ toward democratic inclusion.” This moment is transformative: “My intellectual and political life can be divided into pre- and post-Proposition 8. It made me think long and hard about my blind faith in nationalism.”
While the military still paints leakers as perverts (“nuts and sluts,” as Manning tells us), queerness and transness do not necessarily put anyone at odds with the state, as we well know from the proliferation of rainbow-garnished police cars and fighter jets during Pride Month. Manning’s memoir reckons with this complex relationship of sex and gender to political radicalism, a legacy fraught with Cold War demonization and red-baiting, by showing us the process of her political bildung — that is, the way she came to be herself, especially as Proposition 8 opened a fissure around nationalism for her. But she also shows us how her experiences with homelessness, familial estrangement, sub-minimum-wage jobs and other forms of precarity opened the fissure wider. She is right to be concerned about the ways in which transness has been made to carry the whole weight of her actions. And because it is a memoir and not a legal brief, “README.txt” can refract the vexations of this tangled history while allowing the reader to experience Manning’s layered feelings about these issues.
Late in the book, Manning charts her organization of and involvement in a prison strike at Leavenworth. Her absorbing account begins with her years-long struggle to receive hormones. While awaiting the outcome of this legal battle, Manning builds friendships within the prison, notably with the barbers. Though she is required to receive biweekly haircuts, the barbers treat her kindly, soothing her through the forced conformity to a misrecognized gender, even improvising to provide the feel of a salon experience: “Sometimes they’d wash my hair to make it feel more like a beauty appointment than a ritual shearing.” Are all these barbers queer and trans? Do they treat her gently because they are bolstering their own ranks? No. “The other inmates were supportive of my pursuit of gender reassignment, not necessarily because they believed deeply in trans rights, but because compelling the government to allow me to take hormones was fighting back against the prison. A victory for me would be a victory for prisoners.”
What we can learn from the lawyers who took on Trump
Just as the prison barbers support Manning through the torment of a forced haircut, she stakes her own welfare with the welfare of the rest of the incarcerated population, organizing a general strike against the guards’ arbitrary disruption of mealtime. The narrative progression that unfolds over these pages forms a sublime arc within the memoir. These sections give us a peek into Manning’s political passions and allow us to experience the feelings that have informed her decisions to stand in solidarity with others. For serious legal reasons, Manning simply cannot say certain things about her actions around the WikiLeaks releases (indeed, sections are still classified and blacked out). But this Leavenworth section carries the broad, revolutionary affect that the rest of the memoir must be more cautious around.
Together with the Barnes & Noble disclosure sequence and the events that follow, Manning’s description of the prison strike makes up the heart of her memoir. The two narratives can be read as binary stars, poles of a single, embedded fable in which we don’t have to adjudicate between our passions or parse them for a legal argument. Instead, we can just, as Angela Davis reminded us in a speech that touched on Manning’s then-impending release, aspire to freedom for all political prisoners.
Jordy Rosenberg is a professor at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and the author of the novel “Confessions of the Fox” and the forthcoming hybrid work “The Day Unravels What the Night Has Woven.” | 2022-10-18T09:05:57Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Review of "README.txt: A Memoir" by Chelsea Manning - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/2022/10/18/chelsea-manning-readme-memoir-review/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/2022/10/18/chelsea-manning-readme-memoir-review/ |
As Stephen Curry (middle) chases his fifth championship, the Golden State Warriors will need to survive the NBA's increasingly challenging competitive landscape. (Steven Senne/AP)
“In years past, there may have been three or four teams that were a lock to be in the conference finals,” said TNT commentator Reggie Miller, whose Indiana Pacers reached the East finals five times between 1994 and 2000. “[This year, there are] 10 or 11 teams, under the right circumstances and everyone’s healthy, that could absolutely win it all.”
Counterintuitively, the evolution of the player empowerment era has been another key driver of parity. When James teamed up with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh on the Heat in 2010, he envisioned a long-term home where he hoped to win “not five, not six, not seven” championships. But James reversed course back to the Cavaliers just four years later, and four years after that he headed to the Lakers.
Other stars followed suit: Durant, Kawhi Leonard, Paul George, Kyrie Irving, Chris Paul and Russell Westbrook have played for at least three teams since 2016, and the guardrails restricting their movement have seemingly become less effective with each passing summer. Anthony Davis forced his way from the New Orleans Pelicans to the Lakers with more than a year left on his contract in 2019. Harden pushed out of Houston for Brooklyn in 2021 with two-plus years remaining on his deal. And Durant requested a trade this summer before playing a single game on a four-year, $198 million maximum contract extension he signed with the Nets in 2021, though that last effort has so far been unsuccessful.
Patience, often a key ingredient for a title team, has never been in shorter supply among the superstar class. Their preferred method of movement also has changed: Rather than waiting to become free agents to team up like the 2010 Heat, stars are having their cake and eating it, too, by signing long-term extensions and then leveraging their teams into trading them.
“We will do everything we can, picks included, to make deals that give us a chance to help LeBron get to the end,” Lakers General Manager Rob Pelinka said last month, following a summer of Westbrook trade rumors. “If you include the 2027 and 2029 [first-round picks in a trade], all your picks are gone. If you make that trade … it has to be the right one. You have one shot.”
Breaking the bank
As stars have angled for every advantage, their organizations also have felt the pain inflicted by the stronger luxury tax system that was included in the 2011 collective bargaining agreement. That deal added stiffer financial penalties for teams as their payrolls increase past the luxury tax line and repeater taxes for teams that go over the limit multiple seasons in a row. These rules, intended to help level the playing field by making it financially prohibitive for teams to retain a high-priced roster for years on end, have succeeded in forcing some tough choices.
Looming luxury tax bills were a factor in the Lakers’ decision not to re-sign Alex Caruso in 2021, the Bucks’ parting with P.J. Tucker in 2021 and the Warriors’ inability to retain Gary Payton II this summer. Caruso, Tucker and Payton were valuable, defensive-minded contributors on their title teams, but their organizations concluded that something had to give.
Golden State’s total payroll in salary and luxury taxes reached a record $346 million last season and is projected to reach $359 million this year. After signing Poole to a four-year extension worth up to $140 million and Andrew Wiggins to a four-year extension for $109 million in recent days, Golden State’s total player salary and luxury tax payments could reach $500 million in 2023-24, meaning further roster cuts probably will be necessary next summer. | 2022-10-18T09:06:10Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Wide-open NBA season starts with no overwhelming favorite - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/10/18/nba-warriors-season-preview/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/10/18/nba-warriors-season-preview/ |
A battle for the white working-class vote in a key Indiana House race
The race in Indiana’s 1st Congressional District will test whether Democrats can halt Republicans’ gains with the White working-class voters — including union members — who played a crucial role in electing Donald Trump in 2016.
Rep. Frank J. Mrvan (D-Ind.) and U.S. Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh, center, speak with Mike Noland, president and general manager of the South Shore Line. (Donovan Barrier/La Porte County Herald-Dispatch/AP)
Campaigning at the Northwest Indiana Area Labor Federation’s annual awards dinner last week in this suburban town, though, there was an edge in Mrvan’s voice.
“When you vote for and advocate for working men and women, you get powerful enemies,” Mrvan told about 100 union members and their families Thursday evening, imploring union leaders to talk their members on his behalf.
“I’m asking you, with every fiber of my being and every sense of urgency I have, don’t let big corporations buy this district,” he said.
Democrats have held onto Mrvan’s seat in part because of its diversity: The district was about 17 percent Black and 17 percent Hispanic under the old lines, and its boundaries changed little in redistricting. But Republicans are increasingly competitive with Hispanic voters without college degrees, 41 percent of whom backed Trump in 2020.
A record number of Black candidates for higher offices aim to reshape U.S. politics
“It’s gonna be close — closer than people think,” Randy Palmateer, the business manager of the Northwestern Indiana Building & Construction Trades Council, said on Thursday after Mrvan spoke at the union dinner as he sipped a beer. Two-thirds of the 47,000 union members Palmateer represents voted for Trump in 2020, he added.
Palmateer, who described himself as “a pro-gun, pro-life Democrat,” said he wasn’t excited about Biden or Trump in 2020. But Palmateer has come to believe that Biden has the strongest record on labor issues of any president since Franklin D. Roosevelt. The challenge is communicating Biden’s accomplishments to his members, who lean conservative on cultural issues.
“Our members have no clue what’s going on,” he said.
Cranor, 58, felt validated when Trump followed through on the tariffs, which Biden has kept in place. He also aligns with Republicans on abortion, guns and border security, although he said he believes there are “a lot of problems with both parties.”
Some Democrats in the district acknowledge struggling with union members but say they’re returning to the fold. “We had become complacent and we had taken union support for granted,” said Jim Wieser, the Democratic chairman in Lake County, where most of the district’s voters live. “And we worked to repair that.”
Biden aims to capitalize on Labor’s moment
Green declined an interview request, but Tim Edson, her campaign’s general consultant, made the case that Mrvan doesn’t realize how quickly his district is moving away from Democrats.
“He doesn’t necessarily feel the ground shifting under his feet,” Edson said. “This is the kind of guy who votes down the line with national Democrats.”
Democrats have hammered Green for opposing abortion rights; House Majority PAC included a clip of Green describing herself as “100 percent pro-life” in the super PAC’s latest TV ad.
But Mrvan seems most comfortable campaigning in the Visclosky mold. In a brief interview, he highlighted his support for the infrastructure law and the $1.9 trillion stimulus bill that Democrats passed in the first weeks of the Biden administration, as well as earmarks, which returned last year after Republicans outlawed them a decade ago.
“It’s not romantic, but it’s absolutely what’s necessary for economic development for our communities throughout all of our district,” Mrvan said.
AFP Action has a team of more than 100 canvassers on the ground in the district and has hit more than 60,000 doors, said Josh Webb, a senior adviser to the group.
When an AFP Action canvasser knocked on Terry Wallace’s door in a neat suburban neighborhood of modest ranch and split-level homes on Friday, he assured the canvasser that he’d be voting for Green. Wallace, 71, a retired steelworker with a gray mustache, said he had been voting Republican since the 1990s, when he decided Democrats had gone too far left.
Still, Wallace wasn’t convinced that Republicans would succeed in winning over other union voters in the district.
“Most of ’em I know, they’re all voting Democrat,” he said. | 2022-10-18T09:10:19Z | www.washingtonpost.com | A battle for the white working-class vote in a key Indiana House race - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/10/18/battle-white-working-class-vote-key-indiana-house-race/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/10/18/battle-white-working-class-vote-key-indiana-house-race/ |
Our research finds evidence of Russian ‘stealth resistance’ to the war in Ukraine — including acts of sabotage, resistance art and other forms of activism
Analysis by Evgenia Olimpieva
Irina Olimpieva
Masha Galenko
Authorities detain a woman in Moscow last month. (Alexander Nemenov/AFP/Getty Images)
Since Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine, antiwar street protests in Russia have been frequent — though unimpressive in size. Even Putin’s recent mobilization of reservists, an order that in practice affects nearly all men of conscription age, brought relatively few Russians onto the streets.
Does the limited scale of antiwar protests in Russia mean that Russian society is either unwilling or unable to challenge Putin’s invasion of Ukraine? Research on resistance to autocratic governments suggests that it may take a deeper look to reveal evidence of opposition. In countries with a long authoritarian history, a repressive regime and lack of protest culture, street protests make up only a fraction of societal resistance.
Our research suggests an antiwar movement exists in Russia, despite weak street-level resistance. To understand how Russian society has opposed the war, one needs to look beyond protests, to identify acts of stealth resistance. Stealth resistance can take different shapes as it adapts to new political realities.
Since February, here are some of its manifestations in Russia: collection and dissemination of true information about the war, acts of sabotage, individual acts of violence, resistance art and activism to support Ukrainian refugees. More recently, the resistance has started to include efforts to help Russians avoid conscription, and efforts to sabotage the government’s mobilization plans.
Putin just called up Russian men to the war. He’s taking a big risk.
Why so few protests in Russia?
Russian resistance takes the shape of stealth resistance rather than public protest for several reasons. First, Russians who oppose the war feel isolated. This is not only because the official government surveys report that the majority of Russians support the war, but also because the pro-war agenda and its symbolism dominate virtually all media, official rhetoric and even city spaces and online discussions.
Second, the Kremlin has ensured that protesting the war carries incredibly high risks. Detainees in previous and more recent antiwar protests reportedly faced numerous human rights violations. Men detained during a protest action can now find themselves conscripted to join the war in Ukraine. And police fired warning shots during protests in Dagestan, a republic in the North Caucasus with some of the highest war casualties among Russia’s regions.
And there’s a third reason. Our ongoing research on antiwar resistance in Russia tracks activities of the online antiwar groups and communities, and includes interviews with antiwar volunteers and activists. We find that many Russians who want to resist the war find protests not only dangerous but also futile. Antiwar-minded Russians turn to other means of resistance that they consider more effective.
What do we know about Russia’s stealth resistance?
Today, political organizations do not constitute the bulk of the antiwar movement. This might change now that Russia’s most prominent opposition movement — created by opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who is in jail — has announced plans to return as an “underground guerrilla group.” The Kremlin effectively outlawed Navalny’s movement in 2021, when it labeled the groups and regional network he founded as extremist.
Putin’s arrest of opposition leader Alexei Navalny is a sign of weakness, not strength
Youth, feminist and human rights organizations, along with volunteer and charity networks, have emerged as the core of Russia’s antiwar movement. This effort includes hundreds of online communities and projects that have sprung up overnight to resist specific war-related government initiatives.
One example of this activity is the liberal democratic youth movement Vesna, recently labeled as extremist by the Kremlin. Among its many projects, Vesna announced a campaign to turn Russia’s Victory Day celebrations, commemorating victory in World War II, into a protest action against the war in Ukraine. Vesna’s online community has more than 100,000 members.
Another group, Feminist Anti-War Resistance, emerged following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The group has initiated multiple resistance art projects, and is reportedly working to spread antiwar messages online and in city neighborhoods.
There’s evidence of more radical resistance to the war, including reports of individual Russians setting fire to administrative buildings and conscription offices. And Russian anarchists have reportedly sabotaged railways to undermine the Kremlin’s ability to carry out its military goals in Ukraine.
These networks and organizations were among the first to stand against the military conscription recently announced in Russia by Putin. They have been urging Russians to avoid conscription, calling it a “mo-killi-zation,” and providing practical information about how to do it. The apparent goal is to sabotage the regime’s war efforts — and save lives on both sides.
Numerous online communities and projects have sprung up to help Russians who refuse to take part in the war and are either moving abroad or hiding from authorities within the country. The assistance these groups offer ranges from legal and logistical advice to financial assistance and provision of safe housing.
Our research finds that Russians have pursued another form of antiwar resistance by helping Ukrainian refugees. Our interviews found that people who wish to actively express antiwar sentiment — but see demonstrating as futile — turn to volunteerism as an alternative to street protests.
Dozens of organizations, involving thousands of people across Russia, are assisting Ukrainian refugees by providing food, clothes, shelter, health care and financial assistance. The efforts also provide legal help and psychological counseling. Importantly, these groups assist Ukrainians who want to leave Russia for Europe.
Yet even such initiatives are often stealthy in nature, out of fear that the government might crack down on their efforts. These are not idle fears. The Kremlin is known to be paranoid about grass-roots initiatives, believing that hostile political forces stand behind them. Last month, for instance, authorities reportedly interrogated and tortured an activist, on the suspicion that the work she did for Ukrainian refugees had a political agenda.
Why stealth resistance matters
Understanding that these wider forms of antiwar resistance exist in Russia is important for several reasons.
First, Western observers tend to view Russia as a social and political monolith, buying into the facade of unity and social compliance the Kremlin projects. Just like the belief in the unity of Russia’s elite, the uniform compliance of Russian society is also a myth.
Second, the creation and expansion of such organizations and networks may well help other antiwar Russians feel less isolated and more effective.
And third, as the response to the mobilization efforts has demonstrated, it’s these acts of stealth resistance, rather than street protests, that are likely to grow.
Evgenia Olimpieva is a doctoral candidate at the University of Chicago. Her research revolves around authoritarian politics with a focus on the personnel politics in the bureaucracies.
Irina Olimpieva is the founder and executive director of the Center for Independent Social Research-USA, and a research professor at the Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies at the Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington University.
Masha Galenko is a freelance journalist interested in Russian activism. | 2022-10-18T09:41:17Z | www.washingtonpost.com | What do we know about Russia’s stealth resistance to Putin's war? - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/10/18/russian-dissent-protest-ukraine-war/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/10/18/russian-dissent-protest-ukraine-war/ |
BERLIN — German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has ordered preparations for all of the country's three remaining nuclear reactors to continue operating until mid-April. The move marks another hiccup in the country’s long-running plan to end the use of atomic energy. Here is a look at Germany’s politically charged debate on nuclear power.
The 2011 incident at Japan’s Fukushima nuclear power plant prompted a swift reversal, with Merkel declaring that Germany would in fact now accelerate its exit from nuclear power and shut down the last remaining plant by the end of 2022. The move had broad support among voters, but critics pointed out that Germany risked blackouts unless renewable energy was massively ramped up. To prevent this from happening, Germany planned to import natural gas — much of it from Russia — as a “bridge fuel” until sufficient solar and wind power was available. Efforts to find a long-term storage site for Germany's nuclear waste are also still ongoing because nobody wants it. | 2022-10-18T09:41:23Z | www.washingtonpost.com | EXPLAINER: Why Germany is delaying its nuclear shutdown - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/explainer-why-germany-is-delaying-its-nuclear-shutdown/2022/10/18/6bc61342-4ebd-11ed-ada8-04e6e6bf8b19_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/explainer-why-germany-is-delaying-its-nuclear-shutdown/2022/10/18/6bc61342-4ebd-11ed-ada8-04e6e6bf8b19_story.html |
Robert Sarver, Ime Udoka and Draymond Green have left the NBA desperate for the games to begin. (Christian Petersen/Getty Images, Steven Senne/AP and Jeff Chiu/AP)
The incidents would be damaging to any league’s reputation, but for the NBA — which revels in being labeled a progressive sport — this kind of trouble comes with heavier scrutiny. Considering the pressure that individuals and the NBA as a united entity have applied in calling for social justice, the way the league reacts to its own issues becomes magnified. Silver experienced it when, for one of the few times in his tenure, he was criticized, for not attempting to remove Sarver as an owner. Though his power is limited as a commissioner employed by the 30 NBA owners, the standard for him is higher, especially after the ouster of Donald Sterling eight years ago.
This is James’s fifth season in Los Angeles. The Lakers have been to the postseason twice in his first four years. They’ve made one deep run, when they won the championship in the bubble in 2020. While James remains an essential NBA superstar and American icon, his importance becomes merely superficial if the Lakers can’t do better than compete for the play-in tournament.
“I don’t think you can throw cliches and catchphrases on this one and be like, ‘Let’s move forward,’ ” he said. “I think that’s somewhat irresponsible. I always talk about this being ‘a get to, not a got to.’ Not allowing anything to affect our gym. I don’t think we can do that in this situation. But I do think if we can continue to show a level of respect and love for one another, we can move forward the right way. I think that will enhance our culture. I think it’s going to bring us closer together. But I don’t believe you just can throw some goofy phrase that I’ve come up with over the past three years and say, ‘Let’s bring it in and move forward.’ I don’t think that’s fair to the situation and certainly not sensitive to the people that have been affected.” | 2022-10-18T09:41:35Z | www.washingtonpost.com | On the NBA's Opening Night, the game must be the star - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/10/18/nba-offseason-robert-sarver-ime-udoka-draymond-green/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/10/18/nba-offseason-robert-sarver-ime-udoka-draymond-green/ |
A volunteer puts groceries in a vehicle at a weekly food bank event in Cloverdale, Calif., in 2021. (Melina Mara/The Washington Post)
The percentage of U.S. residents with cardiovascular disease (CVD) who have limited or uncertain access to adequate food has more than doubled in recent decades, going from 16 percent in 1999 to 38 percent in 2018, according to a study published in the journal JAMA Cardiology.
A healthy diet is considered a key factor in preventing heart disease, which is the leading cause of death in the United States.
The study also found that people who have cardiovascular disease (including heart attack, stroke and heart failure) or have risk factors for it (such as hypertension, diabetes, obesity and high cholesterol) are about twice as likely to have a food access issue, known as food insecurity, as are those who do not have cardiovascular disease.
Biden hosts conference on hunger, announces $8 billion of commitments
The researchers describe food insecurity as “bidirectional,” writing that “food insecurity likely increases risk for CVD and [having] CVD affects socioeconomic factors that increase risk for food insecurity.”
For instance, they say, not only do people with food insecurity generally have a poorer quality diet, but they also are more prone to heightened stress and poor adherence to prescribed medication that could treat heart disease or its risk factors. In addition, they note that developing heart disease can make people more likely to also develop socioeconomic problems, such as poor access to transportation and health care.
The study’s findings stem from analysis of data on 57,517 adults (representative of 312 million adults) participating in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, a series of studies sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to assess the health and nutritional status of U.S. residents. The survey has been ongoing since the 1960s. | 2022-10-18T09:41:41Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Food insecurity doubles among those with heart disease - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2022/10/18/heart-disease-food-insecurity/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2022/10/18/heart-disease-food-insecurity/ |
Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong speaks during a press conference, Tuesday in Canberra, Australia announcing the reversal of the previous government's recognition of West Jerusalem as Israel's capital. (AP)
JERUSALEM — Israel reacted with fury Tuesday to Australia’s announcement that it will no longer recognize West Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, reversing a controversial diplomatic move made four years ago by the previous Conservative government.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry summoned the Australian ambassador Tuesday to explain the policy shift, which was announced after two days of contradictory messages on the issue from Canberra. Only hours after officials denied that the change was imminent, Foreign Minister Penny Wong confirmed that Australia would not move its embassy to the Jerusalem until Israelis and Palestinians came to a permanent agreement on the disputed capital.
“Today the Government has reaffirmed Australia’s previous and long-standing position that Jerusalem is a final status issue that should be resolved as part of any peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian people,” Wong said in a statement. “Australia’s embassy has always been, and remains, in Tel Aviv.”
Israelis were withering in their criticism of the move, and the confused way it became public after an Australian newspaper reported over the weekend that language on Jerusalem’s status had been changed on government websites.
“In light of the way in which this decision was made in Australia, as a hasty response to an incorrect report in the media, we can only hope that the Australian government manages other matters more seriously and professionally,” Prime Minister Yair Lapid said in a statement. “Jerusalem is the eternal and united capital of Israel and nothing will ever change that.”
Most countries have refrained from recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and convincing them to move their embassies there has been a foreign policy priority for Israel.
The decision reversed a controversial move by then Prime Minister Scott Morrison, a conservative and a close ally of President Donald Trump, to recognize west Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in December 2018, although the embassy stayed in Tel Aviv.
The Morrison government lost the federal election to Labor Party leader Anthony Albanese in May.
Both Israelis and Palestinians claim Jerusalem, which is a holy city to both Jews and Muslims, as their capital. The city is roughly divided between Jewish neighborhoods in the west and Arab sections to the east. Israel occupied East Jerusalem during the 1967 Six-Day War and annexed it in 1980 in a move that is not recognized by most of the international community.
The “final status” has been one of the most contentious flash points in the decades-long conflict between the two sides. For most of that time, other countries remained neutral, setting their embassies in the coastal city of Tel Aviv even though Israel’s parliament and prime minister’s office are an hour’s drive away in Jerusalem.
In 2017, Trump broke with that diplomatic consensus and announced that Washington would formally recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Australia, along with Guatemala and Kosovo, eventually followed suit, although Australia stipulated it was only recognizing West Jerusalem.
President Biden has declined to reverse Trump’s decision, although most U.S. diplomatic staff are still based in Tel Aviv and Washington has not announced specific plans for a new embassy in Jerusalem.
British Prime Minister Liz Truss has been criticized by some in the United Kingdom for launching her own “review” of Britain’s Jerusalem policy, fulfilling a pledge she made during her leadership campaign last summer. The archbishop of Canterbury, among other religious and political leaders, urged her to maintain the status quo London’s policy that Jerusalem should be the shared capital of both Israel and a future Palestinian state.
Wong told reporters Tuesday that Morrison’s change had been a “cynical play” by the previous administration to win votes in a by-election in a Sydney electorate where the conservatives were fielding a Jewish candidate.
She said the reversal did not represent any lessoning in Australia’s historic stance as “a steadfast friend of Israel.”
“This Government will not waver in its support of Israel and the Jewish community in Australia,” Wong said in the statement. “We are equally unwavering supporters of the Palestinian people, providing humanitarian support every year since 1951 and advocating for resumed peace negotiations.”
Rachel Pannett contributed from Sydney. | 2022-10-18T09:41:53Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Australia angers Israel by withdrawing Jerusalem recognition - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/10/18/australia-jerusalem-recognition-israel/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/10/18/australia-jerusalem-recognition-israel/ |
Amazon warehouse union vote to be counted today
The outcome of the election could have important implications for labor relations at Amazon, the nation’s second-largest employer
Amazon workers and supporters march during a rally in Castleton-on-Hudson, N.Y., on Oct. 10. (Rachel Phua/AP)
Amazon workers at a warehouse near Albany, N.Y., have been voting to unionize this past week, and the results of that election will be tallied and announced Tuesday.
The Amazon warehouse would be only the second in the country to unionize, scoring a victory for the Amazon Labor Union, a small, independent union that won a historic victory at a warehouse in Staten Island this year. However, recent unionization efforts at two other Amazon warehouses have failed.
Tuesday’s election results could determine whether the ALU can replicate its victory against one of the world’s most powerful companies.
Workers at the Albany-area warehouse began voting last Wednesday and concluded Monday night. About 800 Amazon employees were eligible to vote, according to a labor official.
The Amazon Labor Union is asking for higher wages and safer working conditions at the warehouse in Castleton-on-Hudson, N.Y. Employees at the warehouse have described suffering concussions and other serious injuries on the job. The company recently raised the starting wage at the facility from $15.70 to $17 an hour.
“Unionizing is about creating a safe working environment and being able to negotiate with management,” said Emma Yarde, who works in vendor returns at the Albany warehouse as a second job. “These corporations who are making so much money need to take employees more seriously.”
Amazon spokesman Paul Flaningan said the company respects the rights of employees to join a union.
“We’ve always said that we want our employees to have their voices heard, and we hope and expect this process allows for that,” he said.
When asked about injuries at the facility, Flaningan added that the company works directly with its Albany warehouse employees to ensure that they are safe. Amazon has invested billions of dollars in new safety measures and technologies and has expanded its global health and safety team to more than 8,000 employees worldwide, he said.
The e-commerce giant has seen an uptick in union activity this month, as a hot labor market has afforded workers more leverage to make collective demands of their employers. The Amazon Labor Union filed for an election at a facility in Moreno Valley, Calif., last week, its first effort on the West Coast. Meanwhile, Amazon warehouse workers have staged walkouts at facilities in San Bernardino, Calif., and near Chicago.
The Amazon Labor Union has filed 27 unfair-labor-practice charges to the National Labor Relations Board related to Amazon’s conduct at the Albany facility since July, alleging that the company illegally fired workers and prohibited employees from “access[ing] Amazon buildings or work areas during off-duty periods.” The NLRB, the agency tasked with overseeing union elections, is investigating those charges.
In recent days, the union said Amazon has retaliated against employees tasked with observing the election, in violation of their union rights. Company officials have threatened to take away unpaid time off and challenged one worker’s vote, union lawyers said.
“A lot of these employees for the very first time are interacting with the unionizing process and are having their rights violated,” said Retu Singla, an attorney for the Amazon Labor Union. “Amazon is acting with impunity, and we have no ability to stop them.”
Flaningan, the Amazon spokesman, said Amazon does not retaliate against employees for exercising their labor rights.
The Amazon Labor Union faces steep odds in increasing its union foothold at the company. At the Staten Island warehouse, union officials have yet to get the company to bargain a contract. Recently, an NLRB official recommended rejecting Amazon’s request to throw out the results of the Staten Island election. However, Amazon could also spend years appealing the result and delaying bargaining with the union.
Organizers at the warehouse near Albany said Amazon has poured its resources into hiring “union avoidance” consultants who have held mandatory anti-union meetings and circulated “vote no” fliers to influence workers. The company also repeatedly disciplined the warehouse’s lead organizer.
Just one month after winning its first union victory, the ALU lost a separate election at a neighboring Amazon warehouse in Staten Island. Another union election at an Amazon warehouse in Bessemer, Ala., has been caught up in legal proceedings, and the results have yet to be declared. | 2022-10-18T10:11:14Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Amazon warehouse union vote in N.Y. to be counted today - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/10/18/amazon-albany-union-vote-election/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/10/18/amazon-albany-union-vote-election/ |
‘When somebody offers you help here, you know you should take it. Because it comes from the heart,’ said Scott Legried.
Farmers in Frost, Minn., rallied to harvest Scott Legried’s soybean crop on Oct. 4. (Courtesy of Scott Legried)
“Everyone has strength in this community and they’re more than willing to share that strength,” she said. “If there is something you can do to help, you do it because you know that same help will be there if you’re the one who needs it.”
“There’s not a lot of time to waste this time of year, because an early snowfall could take [the whole crop] down,” Steier said. “There are fewer rural farmers all the time. We have to look out for each other.” | 2022-10-18T10:15:43Z | www.washingtonpost.com | A small Minnesota community rallied to help a farmer harvest his crops - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2022/10/18/frost-minnesota-helps-local-farmer/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2022/10/18/frost-minnesota-helps-local-farmer/ |
Quarterback Jalen Hurts and safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson celebrate the Eagles' victory Sunday night over the Cowboys in Philadelphia. (Rich Schultz/AP)
PHILADELPHIA — It promises to be the most enjoyable of bye weeks for the Philadelphia Eagles, who have followed a rapid teardown of a Super Bowl-winning nucleus with an equally accelerated retooling toward top-contender status. They are the NFL’s lone unbeaten team six weeks into the season. And they are coming off a triumph over a division rival in a high-profile game here Sunday night that put the focus on the early-season revival of the NFC East.
“Teams are either coming together or they’re not,” Eagles Coach Nick Sirianni said Sunday night at Lincoln Financial Field, soon after his team’s 26-17 victory over the Dallas Cowboys. “That truly is the way it is. And this team is coming together.”
Indeed it is, far sooner than most could have imagined when Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie dismissed coach Doug Pederson in January 2021, not even three years after Pederson orchestrated the first Super Bowl win in franchise history with that “Philly Special” ingenuity to beat the New England Patriots. In 2020, Pederson had benched former would-be franchise quarterback Carson Wentz in favor of rookie Jalen Hurts late in a miserable 4-11-1 season. Lurie said then he felt the team needed to get younger, and he and Pederson merely had a difference in vision for the path ahead.
“He has a conviction as to what qualities he needs to see to have sustained, long-term success as a head coach,” Joe Banner, formerly Lurie’s top lieutenant as the team’s president, said last week. “And I think he developed some areas with Doug that he was very confident in the answer to that question, and some other areas that he doubted it. … It didn’t mean that Doug was a terrible coach. It just meant that what the Eagles were looking for and what they thought would lead to the most success of a head coach, they had some concerns in some areas about Doug. I don’t think it was a massive indictment.”
Banner, who left the organization in 2012 after an 18-year stint, calls Eagles General Manager Howie Roseman “one of the better GMs in the league.” And the Eagles are among the teams, Banner said, that excel in roster construction, with an eye toward the bigger picture that goes beyond merely evaluating players.
“The Eagles’ philosophy is that you must have a difference-making quarterback,” Banner said. “And you must consistently win both lines of scrimmage even against the best teams in the league. And they put a lot of resources into that, whether it’s teaching or training or coaching or drafting or free agency. I think those are the teams that can turn around quickly and have sustained success, as opposed to a really good year or two and then they fall back. … If they go all the way, deep in the playoffs and win the Super Bowl, then they’re even better than I thought.
“But to turn the team around to the level I think they have — which is to be a very good team but not a great team, in my opinion — it’s because they are good evaluators, but they’re also right on about the proper way to build a team. … I think they get that right.”
Flyin' into Victory Monday#FlyEaglesFly pic.twitter.com/s7AINAwrG7
All NFL teams prioritize building around a top quarterback, of course. But Banner said the Eagles prioritize even more than most, with a philosophy that remained instilled in coaches after they left Philadelphia — including Andy Reid with the Kansas City Chiefs, John Harbaugh with the Baltimore Ravens and Sean McDermott with the Buffalo Bills.
After Pederson’s ouster, the Eagles hired Sirianni; he had been the offensive coordinator for the Indianapolis Colts under Frank Reich, formerly the Eagles’ coordinator. They traded Wentz, the No. 2 selection in the 2016 draft, to the Colts to give a full-time starting opportunity to Hurts last season. Hurts led the team to the playoffs.
“I think they went into it with Wentz thinking, ‘Okay, we’ve got the guy,’ ” Banner said. “It turned out not to be the case. With Hurts, they had a [thought of]: ‘We think we’ve got the guy. Let’s put him on the field and see.’ I think they’re even more hopeful that that’s right. But I’m not sure they’re positive. And my own opinion is that I’m not sure. … If you’re projecting the future, you’ve got to be able to see that he can succeed against all the different types of things he’s going to see on a consistent basis. And for me, it’s hopeful. But it’s not proven.”
It’s getting closer. Hurts has become a reliable dual threat. He’s improving steadily as a passer. He is dangerous as a runner. Other Eagles players praise him as a leader. He seems to have a knack for making big plays when it matters most.
“We needed a spark,” wide receiver DeVonta Smith said after Sunday night’s game, in which Hurts led a fourth-quarter touchdown drive after the Cowboys scored 17 straight points to draw to within 20-17. “That’s what he gave us. That’s what it all came down to.”
Hurts said that night: “I think we left a lot of money on the table. There were some opportunities that we wanted to take advantage of, we could have taken advantage of, that we just didn’t. … The beautiful part about this football team is regardless of the circumstance, regardless of how it looks, we stick together. And we’ve shown that throughout this first six-week stint. We just want to continue to grow.”
The Eagles are a complete team. Their offensive and defensive lines are solid, in keeping with Banner’s blueprint. The one major negative Sunday night for the Eagles was that Lane Johnson, their standout right tackle, exited the game because of a concussion.
Their variety was on display against the Cowboys. Tailback Miles Sanders ran for 71 yards and a touchdown. Hurts threw one touchdown pass apiece to Smith and fellow wideout A.J. Brown. On defense, the Eagles intercepted three passes by Cooper Rush, the Cowboys’ fill-in quarterback who had not thrown an interception while engineering a four-game winning streak.
Darius Slay had one of the interceptions. Fellow standout cornerback James Bradberry tipped a pass that led to an interception by safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson.
“This is the most productive football team we’ve played to date,” Cowboys Coach Mike McCarthy said.
As a team progresses, Banner said, “getting from good to great is hard.” He’s not sure the Eagles are there yet.
“Some people have them as the top-rated team in the league,” Banner said. “I don’t see that. To me, there are some other teams that I think are actually much better. But they are still a good team, and they’ll probably win the division.”
There certainly are possibilities. Smith was asked Sunday night whether the matchup with the Cowboys had the feel of being a big game, even though it was mid-October.
“Every game,” Smith said, “is a big game.”
For these thriving-once-more Eagles, the games only get bigger from here. | 2022-10-18T10:24:18Z | www.washingtonpost.com | The Eagles have made a rapid return to the NFL’s upper echelon - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/10/18/eagles-have-made-rapid-return-nfls-upper-echelon/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/10/18/eagles-have-made-rapid-return-nfls-upper-echelon/ |
Charles Barkley signs ‘life-altering deal’ to stay with TNT’s NBA show
Charles Barkley has been a highly opinionated member of the “Inside the NBA” panel since 2000. (Joe Scarnici/Getty Images for Turner Sports)
As recently as February, Charles Barkley was reiterating — in typically vivid terms — his preference to retire at the end of his contract with TNT and its parent company.
As usual, and to the delight of countless NBA fans, it appears he’s not going anywhere anytime soon.
Warner Bros. Discovery Sports, the conglomerate formerly known as Turner Sports, announced Monday that Barkley and his three cohorts on TNT’s much-loved “Inside the NBA” studio show have reached agreements to “remain together for many years to come.”
The deals for Barkley and fellow analysts Shaquille O’Neal and Kenny Smith, as well as for host Ernie Johnson, run for 10 years, according to multiple reports. Barkley is currently on a contract that ties him to TNT through the 2024-25 season, which is also the end point of the network’s deal to air NBA games. Once that pact runs its course, there could be a furious bidding war among a number of prominent platforms to gain the rights to NBA games and content, and keeping the “Inside the NBA” crew in the fold could be touted by TNT as a selling point to retain the loyalty of the league.
The New York Post suggested that Barkley’s deal might allow him to leave for another platform, should TNT lose the NBA in 2025. The newspaper also reported that the Hall of Famer is making $10 million annually on his existing contract and “could approach $200 million” total over the course of his new deal.
“We’re all a big family. Ernie, Kenny and Shaquille are brothers to me, and I wouldn’t still be here if it wasn’t for them and all the amazing people who work on our show,” Barkley, 59, said in a quote shared by Warner Bros. Discovery Sports. “I’m not gonna lie, though, this is a life-altering deal … and I’m blessed to be able to do live television for a living.”
That wasn’t quite the tone Barkley struck in a conference call with reporters ahead of February’s NBA All-Star Game. At that time (via the Dallas Morning News), he noted the three years left on his TNT contract and said “that’s probably going to be it for me.”
“I love Ernie, Kenny, Shaq and everybody we work with. But I just don’t feel the need to work until the day I die,” Barkley said then. “I don’t, man. I’ll be 61 years old if I finish out my contract.
“And I don’t want to die on TV,” he continued. “I want to die on the golf course or somewhere fishing. I don’t want to be sitting inside over [by] fat-ass Shaq [waiting] to drop dead.”
In 2014, when Barkley had two years left on a contract with TNT, he declared, “I would rather leave too early than stay too long. And 17 years is a long time. I told Ernie [Johnson] when I took the job, I was only going to be here four years. Now 15 years later, I’m still here. I’m leaning heavily toward it, toward finishing my two years and leaving on a good note.”
Earlier this year, Barkley said he was being courted by LIV Golf but turned down what presumably would have been a lucrative offer from the Saudi Arabia-funded challenger to the PGA Tour.
A former NBA MVP and 11-time all-star whose playing career ended in 1990, Barkley joined Johnson and Smith on TNT’s studio panel in 2000. The program was already a darling of critics and fans alike when O’Neal came aboard in 2011.
O’Neal, who has developed a habit of trading mostly-but-perhaps-not-entirely-good-natured barbs with Barkley, asserted last year that his sparring partner was “never gonna quit” the show.
“Charles is going to be here forever,” O’Neal said then. “We need him, and he needs us. I’m convinced that if I’m retired and I don’t do nothing, I will falter away. This is what we do and what we live for. It’s what we’ve been doing, and we need each other.”
In a quote shared Monday, O’Neal said he was “happy” for Johnson and Smith before playfully asking, “Is there someone else I’m forgetting?”
“I’m kidding … love you, Charles,” O’Neal continued. “As long as I say, ‘Are you not entertained?’ and the answer is ‘Yes,’ then we’re going to keep this thing going.” | 2022-10-18T10:37:21Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Charles Barkley sticks with TNT's 'Inside the NBA' after retirement talk - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/10/18/charles-barkley-tnt-contract/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/10/18/charles-barkley-tnt-contract/ |
Since 2015, Australia has hired the admirals and other former Navy officials as high-dollar consultants on shipbuilding
From top, Australian flag, Collins submarine and helicopter, William Hilarides and Thomas Eccles. (Illustration by Frank Hulley-Jones/The Washington Post; Photos by Tamara Voninski/Fairfax Media/Getty Images, Richard Cordell/Australian Defence Force/Getty Images, U.S. Navy)
Two retired U.S. admirals and three former U.S. Navy civilian leaders are playing critical but secretive roles as paid advisers to the government of Australia during its negotiations to acquire top-secret nuclear submarine technology from the United States and Britain.
The Americans are among a group of former U.S. Navy officials whom the Australian government has hired as high-dollar consultants to help transform its fleet of ships and submarines, receiving contracts worth as much as $800,000 a person, documents show.
All told, six retired U.S. admirals have worked for the Australian government since 2015, including one who served for two years as Australia’s deputy secretary of defense. In addition, a former U.S. secretary of the Navy has been a paid adviser to three successive Australian prime ministers.
A Washington Post investigation found that the former U.S. Navy officials have benefited financially from a tangle of overlapping interests in their work for a longtime ally of the United States. Some of the retired admirals have worked for the Australian government while simultaneously consulting for U.S. shipbuilders and the U.S. Navy, including on classified programs.
The HMAS Rankin, a Collins-class submarine, maneuvers off northern Australia last year. The country is working with the United States and Britain to replace its Collins-class subs with nuclear-powered ones. (POIS Yuri Ramsey/Australian Defense Force/Getty Images)
One of the six retired U.S. admirals had to resign this year as a part-time submarine consultant to the Australian government because of a potential conflict of interest over his full-time job as board chairman of a U.S. company that builds nuclear-powered subs.
Australia has leaned heavily on former U.S. Navy leaders for advice during its years-long push to upgrade its submarine fleet, a seesaw effort that has rattled long-standing alliances and remains beset by uncertainty. After abruptly canceling a pact with France last year, Australia is now trying to finalize a deal with the United States and Britain to build a fleet of nuclear-powered submarines that could cost an estimated $72 billion to $106 billion, when adjusted for inflation over the length of the program.
1 In December 2021, the Australian Strategic Policy Institute published a report estimating that building eight submarines the size of the U.S. Navy’s Virginia-class subs could cost as much as 171 billion Australian dollars, the equivalent of 106 billion U.S. dollars at today’s exchange rates.
The outcome will have global ramifications and could alter the military balance of power among the United States, its allies and China. Helping the Australians build nuclear-powered submarines would enhance U.S. national security in Asia overall but could strain U.S. shipyards and delay the Pentagon’s own plans to add more subs to its fleet, according to U.S. military officials and defense analysts.
The Australian government has kept details of the Americans’ advice confidential. The Post was forced to sue the U.S. Navy and State Department under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to obtain documents that shed light on the admirals’ involvement.
Under federal law, retired U.S. military personnel as well as reservists must obtain approval from the Pentagon and the State Department before they can accept money or jobs from foreign powers. The law applies to retirees — generally those who served at least 20 years in uniform — because they can be recalled to active duty. Records show that each of the six retired admirals followed the rules and received U.S. authorization to work for the government of Australia.
Between 2015 and 2021, the Navy received 95 applications from retirees to work for foreign governments — and approved every one, according to the documents that The Post obtained under FOIA. Government lawyers fought the release of the records, arguing that they were of little public interest and that disclosing basic details would violate the retirees’ privacy.
For three of the retired admirals on Australia’s payroll, the U.S. Navy spent less than a week reviewing their paperwork before granting permission, the documents show. Two of the admirals applied to work for the Australians within one month of their retirement from the military.
Officials at the White House and the U.S. Navy declined to comment for this article.
Compared with the U.S. Navy, which has about 290 deployable ships and submarines, Australia’s fleet is small, with only 43 vessels. But Australia’s strategic importance looms large because of its proximity to the Indian and Pacific oceans, as well as the world’s busiest shipping lanes, near the contested waters of the South China Sea.
If Australia acquires nuclear subs, it will become the seventh country to do so. With only 26 million people, Australia would be by far the least populous member of the club.
To an extraordinary degree in recent years, Australia has relied on high-priced American consultants to decide which ships and submarines to buy and how to manage strategic acquisition projects. In addition to the six retired U.S. admirals, the government of Australia has hired three former civilian U.S. Navy leaders and three U.S. shipbuilding executives.
Since 2015, those Americans have received consulting deals worth about $10 million combined, according to Australian contracting records posted online.
The six retired U.S. admirals who have worked for the Australian government declined to be interviewed or did not respond to requests for comment.
Some Australian lawmakers and defense analysts have expressed doubts about whether the U.S. consultants have been worth the expense. The Americans’ recommendations have influenced a series of ill-fated decisions by Australian officials that could delay the arrival of any new submarines until 2040, almost a decade later than planned.
“We were paying a lot of money [for advice] and it wasn’t obvious to me that we were getting value for money,” said Rex Patrick, a former member of the Australian Senate who has criticized the government’s submarine acquisition plans.
$6.8 million for advice on an aging fleet
In September 2021, after years of futile attempts to replace its aging fleet of six submarines, the government of Australia announced two decisions that surprised the world.
First, it abruptly canceled a long-standing $66 billion agreement to buy a dozen French diesel-powered subs. Then it revealed it had reached a historic accord instead to acquire nuclear propulsion technology for submarines from the United States and Britain.
Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, fourth from left, and French President Emmanuel Macron, second from left, aboard the HMAS Waller, a Collins-class sub, in Sydney in May 2018. The U.S.-British deal replaced a French one for diesel-powered subs. (Brendan Esposito/Pool/Getty Images)
The decision to abandon the diesel-powered subs infuriated the French. Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian called it “incomprehensible” and accused the Australians of “a stab in the back.” The French government temporarily recalled its ambassadors to Canberra and Washington in protest, blaming both allies for keeping it in the dark about the nuclear deal.
The nuclear pact also angered China, which saw it as a U.S.-inspired attempt to counter its rising military influence in Asia and the Pacific. The Chinese Foreign Ministry warned Australia to “prepare for the worst” while the state-run Global Times ripped the United States for “losing its mind trying to rally its allies against China.”
The nuclear agreement did not mention China by name, but it was undoubtedly aimed at Beijing. China has amassed an arsenal of long-range missiles that can target aircraft carriers and other warships from thousands of miles away. Nuclear-powered submarines, however, are extremely difficult to detect and can remain underwater for several months at a time.
Under the accord, Australia would become the only country besides Britain to acquire top-secret nuclear propulsion technology from the United States. Australia’s nuclear-powered subs would carry conventional weapons, not nuclear warheads. But they would move faster, stay submerged longer and have far greater range than the French-designed diesel-electric boats, enabling them to linger off China’s coastline.
Australia’s agreement with the United States and Britain, however, was long on promises and short on specifics. The three countries are still negotiating basic details, including which type of attack submarines Australia will purchase — either Virginia-class American subs or Astute-class British models — and how much they will cost. Confidential talks are scheduled to last until March.
As Australia negotiates with the United States, it is paying for expert advice from two people who once served in American uniforms: retired U.S. admirals William Hilarides and Thomas Eccles.
Hilarides
Member, Burdeshaw Associates / Australian Naval Shipbuilding Advisory Board
Member, Burdeshaw Associates / Australian Naval Shipbuilding Expert Advisory Panel
• Commander, Naval Sea Systems Command, 2013-2016
• Program executive officer for submarines, U.S. Navy, 2005-2010
Hilarides, 63, a vice admiral, serves as chairman of Australia’s Naval Shipbuilding Expert Advisory Panel. A graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, in Annapolis, he commanded the USS Key West, a Los Angeles-class nuclear-powered attack submarine, and led the Naval Sea Systems Command, overseeing 80,000 civilian and military personnel who build, buy and maintain vessels for the fleet.
Hilarides applied for federal permission to consult for the Australians in October 2016, two months after he retired from the Navy. At the time of his application, Australia was looking for advice on how to extend the life of its six Collins-class conventional submarines and other shipbuilding programs, not a potential nuclear pact with the United States.
U.S. Navy officials authorized his application within five days and forwarded it to the State Department, which gave final approval 10 weeks later, documents show.
2 Hilarides also previously served as the U.S. Navy’s program executive officer for submarines. He wrote in his application that he would travel to Australia every other month. Read the documents.
In his application, Hilarides said he would be paid through a contract between the Australian government and Burdeshaw Associates, a consulting firm based in Fairfax City, Va.
U.S. Navy officials redacted details of his compensation, citing privacy concerns. But records posted online by the Australian government show that it has signed $6.8 million worth of contracts with Burdeshaw to pay Hilarides and several other American consultants since 2015.
Hilarides declined to comment, referring questions to the Australian Department of Defense.
Australian defense officials declined an interview request, but confirmed in a statement that Hilarides, Eccles and other members of the advisory panel are providing “expert advice on the performance of the naval shipbuilding enterprise. This includes the acquisition of nuclear-powered submarines and other issues relevant to naval acquisition and sustainment.”
Hilarides has also consulted for another foreign client. In 2017, he received federal permission to advise Fincantieri Marine Group LLC, a Wisconsin shipyard company that is majority-owned by the government of Italy, on proposals to sell frigates to the U.S. Navy, documents show.
3 Read Hilarides’ application to consult for Fincantieri Marine Group.
President Donald Trump, at lectern in distance, speaks to workers at the Fincantieri Marinette Marine shipyard in Wisconsin in June 2020. The firm had recently been awarded a $5.5 billion contract to build ships for the U.S. Navy. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)
An online bio for Hilarides says he also serves on the advisory board for “a highly classified U.S. government program,” but gives no further details.
Also on the Australian advisory panel is Eccles, 63, a rear admiral who retired from the Navy in 2013. The holder of four degrees from MIT, Eccles served as the Navy’s chief engineer for ships, submarines and aircraft carriers for five years.
Vice Adm. William Hilarides in an office at the Navy Yard in D.C. in early 2015. He retired from the Navy in 2016. (Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post)
Rear Adm. Thomas Eccles shakes hands with Assistant Navy Secretary Sean Stackley after receiving an award in 2013 at the Pentagon. Eccles retired that year. (Mass Communication Spec. 2nd Class Todd Frantom/U.S. Navy)
LEFT: Vice Adm. William Hilarides in an office at the Navy Yard in D.C. in early 2015. He retired from the Navy in 2016. (Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post) RIGHT: Rear Adm. Thomas Eccles shakes hands with Assistant Navy Secretary Sean Stackley after receiving an award in 2013 at the Pentagon. Eccles retired that year. (Mass Communication Spec. 2nd Class Todd Frantom/U.S. Navy)
Like Hilarides, Eccles applied for federal permission to consult for Australia in 2016. The Navy authorized his request within four days, and the State Department granted final approval one month after that.
The Navy redacted details of Eccles’s compensation. But Australian government records show that he has received four separate consulting contracts since 2016, valued at a total of $825,000, including expenses.
4 All figures in U.S. dollars at current exchange rates. Eccles also serves as the chief executive officer of Trident Maritime Systems LLC, a shipbuilding advisory firm. Read his application to work for Australia.
“In all cases of work for the Commonwealth of Australia I sought and received in advance the appropriate permissions,” Eccles said in an email. He declined to comment further.
Member / Australian Naval Shipbuilding Advisory Board
Member / Australian Naval Shipbuilding Expert Advisory Panel
• Chief engineer for ships and submarines, U.S. Navy, 2008-2013
• Deputy commander, Naval Sea Systems Command, 2006-2008
Four of the six members on the advisory panel are Americans. Besides Hilarides and Eccles, the other Americans are Gloria L. Valdez, a former deputy assistant secretary of the Navy responsible for shipbuilding, and Howard Fireman, a ship design expert who worked for the Navy.
Valdez and Fireman both served the Navy as civilians. Unlike military retirees, they are not required to obtain federal approval to work for foreign governments. They are both paid by Burdeshaw, according to Australian officials. Valdez declined to comment. Fireman did not respond to a request for comment.
‘I wouldn’t trust them to build a canoe’
The influx of American shipbuilding consultants in Australia began eight years ago.
In 2014, Australian defense officials were in the market for independent advice on acquiring navy frigates. They offered a short-term, $84,000 consulting contract to Donald Winter, an engineer with a doctorate in physics who served as the U.S. secretary of the Navy during the George W. Bush administration.
Winter’s consulting contract lasted only a few weeks, Australian records show, but officials there liked his work. In June 2015, then-Defense Minister Kevin Andrews appointed him to lead a panel overseeing a competitive evaluation process for proposals to build a new submarine fleet. Winter was paid through a contract with Burdeshaw Associates worth $518,456 over two years.
The Australian government had been discussing options for new submarines since 2009, when it announced its intent to buy 12 diesel-electric boats to replace and upgrade its collection of six Swedish-designed Collins-class subs.
But Australia had a mixed track record with submarines. Officials had little confidence that ASC Pty Ltd., a government-owned shipbuilder formerly known as the Australian Submarine Corporation, could design and construct a new fleet without foreign help. “I wouldn’t trust them to build a canoe,” then-Defense Minister David Johnston declared in 2014.
ASC officials defended their record. “ASC has been recognised for its exemplar performance,” Bruce Carter, ASC’s board chairman, said in a statement. The company maintains the Collins-class subs and has also built air-warfare destroyers for the Australian navy.
Based on advice from Winter’s panel of experts, the Australian government announced in 2015 that it had narrowed its options to three submarine models offered by France, Germany and Japan. Australian officials stipulated that the vessels would have to be built in ASC’s shipyard in Adelaide to support the domestic economy.
Worried that they lacked sufficient expertise to manage a complex sub-building project, Australian officials decided to hire more outside help. The United States was a prime source: Its Navy boasted the biggest and most capable submarine fleet in the world.
In the summer of 2015, Australian recruiters targeted a U.S. rear admiral, Stephen E. Johnson, a previous commander of the Navy’s undersea warfare center who was about to retire. Even though Johnson was a foreign citizen, the Australian Defense Department offered him a senior government position as its general manager for submarines.
In July 2015, a few weeks after his retirement from the Navy, Johnson submitted papers seeking federal permission to take the Australian job. The Navy and State Department approved his request several weeks later, and he began working for the Australians that November. He did not respond to messages seeking comment.
5 Johnson was specifically tasked with helping to choose a new submarine model to replace the Collins-class subs. Read his application.
About the same time, the Australians recruited another American: Paul E. Sullivan, a retired vice admiral who, like Hilarides, had once headed the Navy’s giant Sea Systems Command.
Stephen E.
Deputy secretary / Australian Defense Department
General manager for submarines / Australian Defense Department
• Director, Navy Strategic Systems Programs, 2006-2010
• Commander, Naval Undersea Warfare Center, 2003-2006
Paul E.
Consultant, submarines / Australian Defense Department
• Director, Applied Research Laboratory, Penn State, 2014-2019
Member / Australian Submarine Advisory Committee
Consultant, Collins-class submarine program / Australian Defense Department
• Chairman of the board, Huntington Ingalls Industries, 2020-present
• Director, Naval Nuclear Propulson, 2004-2012
Consultant, future frigate program / Australian Defense Department
• Program executive officer for ships, U.S. Navy, 2014-2016
Sullivan already had a full-time job in retirement as director of the Applied Research Laboratory at Pennsylvania State University, a national-security lab that conducts sensitive research projects for the Navy valued at hundreds of millions of dollars.
But Sullivan applied for — and within six weeks received — permission from the Navy and State Department to work on the side as a submarine consultant for the Australian Defense Department. Australian government records show he received contracts worth $414,228 over the next four years.
6 Sullivan made clear in his application that he would continue to lead the Penn State lab while working for the Australian government. He also said he was obtaining separate permission from the university. Read his file.
At first, the American advice seemed to pay off for Australia. In April 2016, the Australian government announced that it had chosen a French consortium to produce 12 Shortfin Barracuda submarines for an estimated $38.5 billion. The conventionally powered subs would be French-designed but built at Australia’s shipyard in Adelaide.
Then-Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull emphasized that the decision was endorsed by Winter, the former U.S. Navy secretary, and his expert panel.
7 Turnbull made a point of saying that the American consultants had blessed the deal with the French, singling out Winter, Johnson, Sullivan and Eccles by name in a press release.
Under the plan with the French, construction would begin around 2022 and the first new submarine would go into service around 2032 — just in time to replace the Collins-class subs before they were scheduled to be mothballed.
Australia’s shipbuilding strategy seemed like it was finally on track. Johnson, the retired U.S. admiral serving as Australia’s general manager for submarines, soon received a big promotion. He was named Australia’s deputy secretary of defense, an unusual job for a foreign citizen.
8 In his new role, Johnson oversaw Australia’s entire naval shipbuilding program. Read his application.
Permission to cash in
Meanwhile, the Australian government snapped up other American consultants and contractors.
In 2016, Johnson recruited a fellow retired U.S. admiral, Kirkland Donald. A four-star officer, Donald served for eight years in one of the most important uniformed jobs in the Navy, as its director of Naval Nuclear Propulsion, overseeing nuclear-powered submarines and aircraft carriers.
The Australian Defense Department wanted Donald’s advice on whether the expected life span of the Collins-class submarines could be extended beyond 2032 in case the French subs were not delivered in time. After a six-week review, Navy and State Department officials approved his consulting arrangement in July 2016 and the Australian government awarded him a two-year contract worth about $255,000, records show.
9 In his U.S. Navy application, Donald said he would be compensated “through an ‘eminent persons’ contract.” Read his file.
Donald declined to be interviewed. In a written response to questions, he said he “appreciated the opportunity to work with one of our most trusted allies to improve overall submarine capability in the vitally important and increasingly contested” Pacific Ocean. He noted that the U.S. Navy and Australian navy have “deeply shared national security interests” that are “particularly aligned for submarine capability.”
As Donald’s contract was approved, another U.S. admiral applied for federal permission to consult with the Australian navy on its “future frigate” program, documents show.
David Gale, a rear admiral, was on active duty when he submitted his paperwork to work for the Australians. He received final approval on Aug. 10, 2016, about six weeks before his last day on the job with the Navy.
10 Gale also reported that the Australian government would pay him via an “eminent person” consulting contract. Read his application.
Navy Secretary Donald Winter, right, receives a model of the Virginia-class submarine USS Hawaii from Adm. Kirkland Donald, director of Naval Nuclear Propulsion, in January 2008. (Mass Communication Spec. 2nd Class Kevin S. O'Brien/U.S. Navy)
Rear Adm. David Gale, the Navy's program executive officer for ships, tours the USS America, an amphibious assault vessel, in November 2015. He retired about a year later. (Mass Communication Spec. 3rd Class William Berksteiner/U.S. Navy)
LEFT: Navy Secretary Donald Winter, right, receives a model of the Virginia-class submarine USS Hawaii from Adm. Kirkland Donald, director of Naval Nuclear Propulsion, in January 2008. (Mass Communication Spec. 2nd Class Kevin S. O'Brien/U.S. Navy) RIGHT: Rear Adm. David Gale, the Navy's program executive officer for ships, tours the USS America, an amphibious assault vessel, in November 2015. He retired about a year later. (Mass Communication Spec. 3rd Class William Berksteiner/U.S. Navy)
The Australians awarded Gale’s Virginia-based consulting firm, Form One Inc., an 18-month contract worth about $222,000, Australian government records show. Gale did not respond to requests for comment.
By then, more retired Navy officers were lining up for federal permission to cash in on work for the Australian government.
Gunter Braun, a retired Navy captain, accepted a $140,000 job to work as a submarine program manager. He declined to comment. “Not interested,” he said in an email.
11 Braun worked for the Australian navy on a contract via Equator Corp. His job was to help extend the life cycle of the Collins-class subs. Read his application.
Vernon Hutton, another retired Navy captain, took an Australian Defense Department post in Adelaide as the technical director for future submarine combat systems, also earning about $140,000 annually, documents show. He did not respond to messages seeking comment.
12 Hutton served for 28 years in the U.S. Navy as a submarine officer. He worked for the Australian government on a contract via AECOM Inc., a U.S. company. Read his application.
The Australian government created additional naval advisory committees — and stocked them with Americans.
In October 2016, Australian officials announced a new Naval Shipbuilding Advisory Board with Winter, the former Navy secretary, serving as the chairman. He was joined by three retired admirals: Eccles, Hilarides and Sullivan.
13 When he sought federal approval to serve on the board, Sullivan wrote that “payment terms have not been discussed” but that he would receive “some reasonable consulting compensation.” Read his application.
The next year, the Australian government launched a Submarine Advisory Committee. Among the members: Donald, the retired four-star admiral, who received a second consulting contract, worth about $420,000.
14 Read Donald’s federal application to serve on the Australian Submarine Advisory Committee.
Lesley Seebeck, an Australian defense expert who served on the Naval Shipbuilding Advisory Board in 2019 and 2020, said the panel had no decision-making authority and met only periodically. But she said the former U.S. Navy leaders provided invaluable guidance on how to manage big, complicated shipbuilding programs. “I think it was highly beneficial to the government,” she added.
Others questioned whether the Americans carried too much influence and too narrow a view.
Marcus Hellyer, a senior defense analyst with the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank based in Canberra, said the advisory panels could have used more European perspectives to balance out those of the Americans. Unlike the U.S. Navy, he noted, the Australian navy does not design its own ships from scratch and is accustomed to relying on foreign models.
“It’s a very different kettle of fish to the U.S. system,” he said.
A carousel of consultants
By 2019, Australia’s landmark submarine deal with France appeared to be in jeopardy. Delays plagued the design phase. Projected costs rose. Doubts spread about whether the Shortfin Barracudas, which the Australians dubbed their Attack class of subs, would be capable of deterring China’s more imposing undersea fleet.
Workers for DCNS, a French consortium now known as Naval Group, stand near a Barracuda sub at the shipyards of Cherbourg, France, in late 2016. The industrial group had been chosen to design 12 diesel-electric Shortfin Barracuda subs for Australia. (Thibault Camus/AP)
The American carousel of hired help continued to spin. Sullivan, the retired vice admiral, left the shipbuilding advisory board in 2019. That same year, Johnson resigned as Australia’s deputy defense secretary. But the Australian government added three more U.S. civilian consultants to its advisory panels.
Australian lawmakers grew impatient with the submarine program’s delays and irritated by the Australian government’s unwillingness to let its highly paid U.S. advisers answer questions.
Hellyer, the defense analyst, noted that because the advisory groups worked behind closed doors, their work product was never made public. “There were questions about how thorough and robust their analysis was and what the government was getting in return for these large amounts of money,” he said.
Under pressure to be more forthcoming, Winter, the former U.S. Navy secretary, issued a rare public statement in May 2020 defending the work of the National Shipbuilding Advisory Board.
He praised the progress of Australia’s overall shipbuilding program, saying it “has been swift, substantial and extremely impressive. There is much to be proud of and celebrate.” But he insisted the board’s deliberations and recommendations had to remain confidential, or else “significant commercial and national security harm could result.”
Seven months later, the Australian government shuffled its roster of naval consultants again, abolishing Winter’s shipbuilding advisory board and replacing it with a smaller but similarly named panel of experts, most of them Americans.
Winter moved higher up the Australian government ladder into another, more influential role as a special adviser to then-Prime Minister Scott Morrison. Hilarides, the retired U.S. vice admiral, was appointed chairman of the new advisory panel.
‘It’s confidential’
In June 2021, worried about the fate of the submarine agreement with France, the Australian Senate insisted on hearing directly from Hilarides and senior Australian defense officials.
Lawmakers wanted answers: Had the American consultants urged the Australian government to consider modifying, or even killing, the Attack-class submarine deal?
Testifying remotely from the United States, Hilarides was as tight-lipped as Winter had been.
“Because that advice is used to support government decision-making, it’s confidential,” Hilarides said.
Three months later, the Australian government canceled the submarine contract with the French. It also announced a new three-way defense alliance with the United States and Britain, including an agreement to admit Australia to the exclusive club of nations with nuclear-powered submarines.
Only four other countries — China, Russia, France and India — operate nuclear subs. Brazil is trying to develop nuclear reactors for submarines, but its progress has been slow.
Left undecided was whether Australia would buy U.S. or British nuclear subs, and where they would be built. But defense analysts predicted the United States would probably win out.
Australian lawmakers soon began to raise questions about the American consultants and their connections to the U.S. submarine industry.
Donald, the retired four-star admiral on Australia’s Submarine Advisory Committee, has also served as chairman of the board of Huntington Ingalls Industries since 2020. The defense contractor, based in Newport News, Va., is the maker of Virginia-class submarines, the same model that the government of Australia was now thinking about buying.
At a parliamentary hearing in October 2021, a senior Australian defense official acknowledged that Donald’s role with Huntington presented a potential conflict of interest. But the official said the Australian government and Donald hadn’t yet decided if it was necessary for him to resign as a consultant.
Donald remained on the committee for six more months. In his written response to questions, Donald said he resigned in April to avoid any conflicts after “it became evident” his committee “would need to become involved in providing independent critical assessment” on acquiring nuclear-powered subs.
But Australia is still paying other Americans for advice on how to negotiate with the U.S. government.
Winter, the former U.S. Navy secretary, registered with the U.S. Justice Department in September 2021 as a foreign lobbyist working for the Australian prime minister’s office. In his disclosure form, Winter said he would be paid $6,000 a day, plus expenses, to support Australia during its nuclear submarine talks with Washington.
15 Winter reported that he worked directly for then-Prime Minister Scott Morrison. Read his lobbyist registration.
In April, Winter filed an updated lobbying report, indicating that business had been light. He said he had received $62,563 in consulting fees over the preceding six months from the Australian government but had not been asked to lobby any U.S. officials on Canberra’s behalf.
16 Read Winter’s April 2022 lobbying update.
U.S., British and Australian officials say they expect to iron out details of their submarine pact by next March.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin tours the Virginia-class sub USS Mississippi with Australian Defense Minister Richard Marles in October in Hawaii. Under the current deal, Australia could buy either Virginia-class U.S. subs or Astute-class British models. (Chad J. McNeeley/DOD)
While the Australian government says it wants to build as many nuclear submarines as possible in Adelaide, defense analysts say it would take decades to develop a homegrown workforce capable of doing so.
Australia has almost no experience with nuclear power. The country has no nuclear power plants, save for a single hospital that operates a tiny reactor for research purposes.
Instead, experts said, Australia will almost certainly have to buy its first nuclear subs off American or British production lines.
U.S. Navy and British Royal Navy officials, however, say their shipyards are booked solid making their own submarines. The only way to squeeze in orders from Australia would be to spend billions expanding U.S. or British shipyards.
Hellyer, the Australian defense analyst, said it is hard to envision a scenario under which Australia would receive its first nuclear submarine before 2040. With the Collins-class vessels scheduled for retirement a decade from now, that could leave Australia without submarines for eight years.
“I can’t really see what the way forward is at the moment,” he said. “The whole thing has been completely disastrous.” | 2022-10-18T10:41:42Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Retired U.S. admirals advise Australia on deal for nuclear submarines - Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/interactive/2022/australia-nuclear-submarines-us-admirals/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/interactive/2022/australia-nuclear-submarines-us-admirals/ |
The “Father of the American Navy” commanded a Russian warship but said he had not forsaken the United States
A 1781 French engraving of Capt. John Paul Jones, American naval hero of the Revolutionary War. (AP)
Craig Whitlock
American officers have parlayed their military experience into financial gains from foreign governments since the Revolution. Even the man some call the “Father of the American Navy,” Capt. John Paul Jones, cashed in on his service and fame as a war hero to command a Russian warship for Catherine the Great.
Jones, a native of Scotland, arrived in Fredericksburg, Va., in 1774 and was soon appointed to the Continental Navy. During the Revolutionary War, he commanded ships off the Atlantic coast, in the Caribbean and in European seas, capturing and destroying more than a dozen British vessels.
The war made Jones aware of “emoluments,” defined at the time to include bounties or money paid for naval victories. In an Oct. 17, 1776, letter to Robert Morris, a member of the Second Continental Congress’s Marine Committee, Jones listed 16 ships he had captured or destroyed and bemoaned the “paltry emolument[s]” paid by the Continental Navy.
He warned that Britain and other foreign powers paid more and that there was a “necessity of making the emoluments of our navy equal, if not superiour, to theirs,” or else lose the best men.
The framers of the Constitution shared his concern that foreign payments could harm American interests. In Federalist Paper 22, Alexander Hamilton warned: “One of the weak sides of republics … is that they afford too easy an inlet to foreign corruption.”
Some of the framers had received lavish gifts from foreign states. When Benjamin Franklin departed as minister to France, King Louis XVI presented him with a snuffbox encrusted with 408 diamonds and inset with the king’s portrait. Thomas Jefferson and two other ministers to France were also given snuffboxes. The king of Spain, Charles III, presented Minister John Jay with a horse.
To combat potential bribes, the framers in 1787 adopted — with almost no debate — language based on the 1781 Articles of Confederation that prohibited all persons “holding any Office of Profit or Trust” from accepting any “present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind” from any “foreign State” without approval from Congress. This provision is now known as the foreign emoluments clause.
The crypt of John Paul Jones, under the main chapel at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis. (Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images)
As Edmund Randolph, Virginia’s governor and a delegate to the Constitutional Convention, said at the time: “This restriction is provided to prevent corruption.”
The foreign emoluments clause has remained unchanged for more than 230 years, but for one key adjustment: In 1977, Congress delegated its authority to approve foreign work by retired military personnel to the secretary of their military service and the secretary of state.
In June 2017, the state of Maryland and the District of Columbia sued President Donald Trump for violating the foreign emoluments clause by profiting on payments from foreign leaders to his D.C. hotel. Trump appealed to the Supreme Court, which eventually held that the case was moot because he was no longer in office.
At the height of the Revolutionary War, Jones sought approval from Congress to sail on a French ship to attack the British in Jamaica. The Continental Congress approved, though James Madison argued against it. In the end, the colonies defeated Britain before Jones and the French fleet saw battle.
After the war, the Continental Navy was disbanded, and Jones, in his late 30s, found himself without a ship to command. Despite the American prohibition against receiving emoluments from a foreign power, Jones decided to take advantage of the fact that foreign governments wanted to reward him.
In 1788, Jones was offered a command in the Russian navy by Catherine the Great, who sought his expertise to battle the Ottoman Empire in the Black Sea. Jones accepted the offer and went to work as a rear admiral commanding the 24-gun flagship Vladimir.
Jones later wrote Jefferson, then minister to France, that despite the job, he had not “forsaken” America. He wrote: “I can never renounce the glorious Title of a Citizen of the United States!”
He admitted that he had not secured “explicit approval” from Congress to work for the Russian navy. But he argued that the Continental Congress’s 1782 approval for him to serve in the French navy should also apply to his service in Russia, because both jobs “facilitate my improvement in the Art of conducting Fleet and Military Operations.”
Because the United States had no navy, there was “no public employment for my Military talents” and “no emolument or profit whatever” from the military, Jones said. He asked Jefferson to smooth things over with Congress.
Despite the constitutional prohibition, Jefferson endorsed the idea. He wrote to a friend that Jones was “young enough to see the day” when an American navy could fight the British “ship to ship,” and that “we should procure him then every possible opportunity of acquiring experience.”
Jones’s command of the Vladimir helped the Russian navy defeat the Ottomans in a key battle in 1788 and secure control of the Crimean Peninsula.
Despite the victory, Jones — disliked and discredited by fellow officers in the fleet — was recalled to St. Petersburg. There he was accused of raping and beating a 10-year-old girl. A campaign in the Russian court led by the French ambassador saved Jones from standing trial. However, Catherine the Great effectively banished Jones from Russia for his actions and he fled to Paris in international disgrace.
Jones lived his final years in France, surviving on his Russian pension. He died on July 18, 1792, and was buried in what would become an unmarked grave. The “Father of the American Navy” was largely forgotten until 1905 when the U.S. ambassador to France had his body exhumed and returned to the United States.
Jones’s remains were interred at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis. President Theodore Roosevelt eulogized Jones as a man whom “every officer in our Navy should feel in each fiber of his being an eager desire to emulate.” The president made no mention of Jones’s time in the Russian navy.
Jones rests in an ornate marble tomb in the academy chapel. The tomb lists each of the ships he commanded in war, with one exception — the Vladimir.
Share your feedback by emailing the author. Have a question about our comment policies? Review our guidelines or contact the commenting team here. | 2022-10-18T10:41:49Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Foreign governments have hired American officers since the Revolution - Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/interactive/2022/foreign-jobs-us-officers/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/interactive/2022/foreign-jobs-us-officers/ |
Retired Gen. Jim Mattis and others guided the UAE as it intervened in regional civil wars and U.S. politics
From top, UAE soldiers, Mohamed bin Zayed, CV-22 Osprey and James Mattis. (Illustration by Frank Hulley-Jones/The Washington Post; Photographs Gehad Hamdy/picture alliance/Getty Images, Geoffroy Van Der Hasselt/AFP/Getty Images, U.S. Air Force, 380th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs, U.S. Marine Corps)
The hottest overseas job market for retired U.S. service members is a tiny Persian Gulf nation that outsources much of its military to foreign advisers and mercenaries.
Over the past seven years, 280 military retirees have sought federal authorization to work for the United Arab Emirates — far more than for any other country, according to documents obtained by The Washington Post under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
Those who have worked as military contractors or consultants for the Emiratis include generals who made their mark fighting U.S. wars in the Middle East. Among them: retired Marine Gen. Jim Mattis, who was a military adviser to the UAE before he became defense secretary in the Trump administration, the documents show.
Defense Secretary Jim Mattis meets in Washington in 2017 with Mohamed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, then crown prince of Abu Dhabi. Today Mohamed is ruler of the city-state and president of the UAE. (U.S. Air Force Tech. Sgt. Brigitte N. Brantley/DOD)
The influx of American veterans willing to sell their military expertise to a foreign power — most with the consent of the Pentagon and the State Department — has helped the small but oil-rich UAE build what many experts regard as the most powerful military in the Arab world.
Military adviser / UAE
• Secretary of defense, 2017-2019
But for U.S. national interests, the outcome has proved a blessing and a curse. While the Emiratis remain a close partner, their newfound military muscle has emboldened them to send troops into Yemen and Libya, inflaming civil wars in both countries.
Meanwhile, in Washington, Congress and human rights groups have become more critical of the UAE, including for its decision this month to band with Russia and other members of the OPEC Plus cartel to curtail global oil production. In addition, the Justice Department has scrutinized the country’s leaders for interfering in U.S. elections and politics.
“The Emiratis have gathered immense influence and they punch way above their weight class, but they have used that to undermine U.S. foreign policy in terms of our support for the rule of law, democracy and counterterrorism,” said Jodi Vittori, a professor at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and a retired U.S. Air Force officer. “It’s hard to see how this is a good thing.”
Federal law prohibits retired military personnel as well as reservists from taking jobs or gifts from foreign governments without approval from the State Department and the Pentagon. The purpose is to prevent veterans from becoming beholden to foreign powers or undermining U.S. interests. The law applies to retirees — generally defined as those who served at least 20 years and receive a pension — because they can be recalled to active duty.
The armed forces and the State Department declined interview requests from The Post. In a written response to questions, the State Department said it judges job applications based on whether they “would adversely affect the foreign relations of the United States.”
Asked whether the U.S. government had made it easier for the UAE to intervene in Yemen and Libya by allowing the Emiratis to hire so many U.S. military contractors, the State Department said: “The UAE has long been a vital U.S. partner on a wide range of regional security issues. … We intend to continue to help them improve their capabilities to defend their territory and are confident that our strong relationship will continue.”
The 280 military retirees identified in the records are only a partial accounting of Americans working as military contractors in the UAE.
Analysts estimate that hundreds of other U.S. veterans are employed by the Emirati government or state-owned companies. Americans who served fewer than 20 years in uniform do not have to seek federal permission to take foreign jobs, and the U.S. government doesn’t track how many work overseas.
The UAE is a federation of seven tribal monarchies that includes the city-states of Abu Dhabi and Dubai. It has 1.1 million citizens, about the same as Rhode Island. Yet the country launched a massive military buildup a decade ago during the Arab Spring, when its royal families became alarmed by the potential for domestic unrest and tensions with Iran.
A military contingent from the UAE marches in New Delhi for India's 68th Republic Day in 2017. Many experts regard the UAE's military as the most powerful in the Arab world. (Parveen Negi/India Today Group/Getty Images)
Since then, the Emirati armed forces and government-owned defense firms have hired American military contractors of all stripes by offering double or triple what they earned at home. The country’s flashy, tax-free lifestyle is a major draw, with ostentatious attractions that include the world’s tallest building, an Arab branch of the Louvre, indoor ski slopes, and vending machines that dispense bars of gold.
All the wealth and glitz mask the UAE’s record of chronic repression. Freedom House, a pro-democracy group, ranks the absolute monarchy among the least free countries in the world. There are no elections, no political parties and no independent judiciary. Criticism of the government is banned. Trade unions and homosexuality are outlawed.
In Washington, the UAE has dodged condemnation of its human rights record by binding itself to the Pentagon.
Emirati armed forces have fought alongside U.S. troops in Afghanistan and against Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria. The UAE allows the Pentagon to station 5,000 personnel at al-Dhafra Air Base and to berth warships at Jebel Ali, a deep-water Persian Gulf port. Since 2012, the country has been the third-biggest purchaser of U.S. weapons, behind Saudi Arabia and Australia, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, which tracks global arms sales.
UAE officials said their overall partnership with the United States has greatly benefited both countries in trade and security.
“Over the last 50 years, no country has played as important a role in the UAE’s progress and security as the United States,” Yousef Al Otaiba, the UAE’s ambassador to the United States, said in an email. “We have tapped into US expertise in virtually every area to build know how, to develop our economy and to advance and protect our society.”
Emirati and U.S. officials, however, have obscured the extent of the UAE’s dependence on American military contractors.
The Post had to file two Freedom of Information Act lawsuits to compel the U.S. military and the State Department to release documents about retired troops who work for the UAE and other foreign governments. Agencies redacted the names of personnel except for retired generals and admirals, saying that disclosure of their identities could lead to “embarrassment and harassment.”
In September, a federal judge ruled that the agencies’ justification for withholding the names was “weak” and “unconvincing,” and ordered the military and State Department to release more information. The Justice Department said it is considering whether to appeal.
1 Read U.S. District Judge Amit P. Mehta’s order in the FOIA lawsuit.
A military machine guided by Americans
The documents reveal that the UAE has hired Americans to help manage almost every part of its military machine.
They serve as strategic consultants, aircraft mechanics, instructor pilots, drone operators, missile defense experts, artillery trainers, radar specialists, cybersecurity advisers, logistics planners and maintenance supervisors. Most are U.S. Air Force and Army veterans. About one-third are retired officers.
Most of the Americans secured jobs with a network of defense contractors controlled by the UAE government. The largest firms are subsidiaries of Edge Group, a state-owned defense conglomerate that reports $5 billion in annual revenue.
The UAE keeps much information about its armed forces confidential, but analysts estimate that the UAE spends $22 billion a year on defense, about the same as Turkey. According to the CIA, the Emirati armed forces have 65,000 troops on active duty, similar to Canada and Australia.
The Arab monarchy relies heavily on foreigners to staff its armed forces, just as it does to power the entire economy — immigrant workers outnumber Emirati citizens by 9 to 1. Andreas Krieg, a professor of security studies at King’s College London, estimated that foreigners make up 40 percent of the UAE’s uniformed personnel.
Besides hiring Americans as civilian contractors, the Emirati military fills its uniformed ranks with thousands of mercenaries from other countries. Many come from Pakistan, Oman and Yemen, while others are recruited from as far afield as East Africa and South America. A former Australian major general commands the UAE Presidential Guard, leading 12,000 elite troops.
The UAE’s outsourcing of military work to Americans ramped up in 2010 when the country retained Erik Prince, the founder of Blackwater Worldwide, a prominent U.S. private security firm that gained notoriety in 2007 when its guards killed 14 unarmed Iraqi civilians in Baghdad. Prince, a former Navy SEAL, served in the U.S. military for four years before he started Blackwater and created a 7,000-acre training facility in North Carolina.
2 Four U.S. employees of Blackwater Worldwide were convicted in the 2007 killings and sentenced to long federal prison terms. President Donald Trump pardoned the men in December 2020. Blackwater has changed ownership and the name of the company multiple times since 2009.
Working on behalf of the Emiratis, Prince helped recruit hundreds of ex-soldiers from Colombia, South Africa and other countries to form a commando force that trained at a camp near Abu Dhabi. Plans for the commando unit flopped and Prince fell out with UAE leaders, but the country continued to look outside its borders for combat experience and military expertise.
3 The New York Times first reported details of Prince’s role with the UAE’s mercenary force in 2011.
Toumajan
General manager / UAE National Search and Rescue Center
• Operations officer for aviation, Joint Special Operations Command
• Aviation task force commander, Iraq
About the same time, the UAE armed forces welcomed another American into its ranks. Stephen Toumajan, a retired lieutenant colonel who served 20 years in the U.S. Army, became the commander of a UAE special operations aviation unit called Group 18. He later took charge of the UAE’s Joint Aviation Command.
Federal regulations prohibit retired military personnel as well as reservists from swearing allegiance to other governments or taking uniformed jobs in foreign armies. Those who violate the rule can face financial penalties.
Toumajan has given conflicting explanations about whether he is a uniformed officer in the UAE military. He and the UAE government list his title and rank on official websites as “His Excellency Major General Staff Pilot Stephen A. Toumajan PhD.” He’s also depicted in photos wearing a flight suit adorned with an Emirati flag. Yet in 2018 he told BuzzFeed News that he was working as a civilian contractor and had “not sworn allegiance to the UAE.”
Blackwater founder Erik Prince, seen on Capitol Hill in 2017, tried to help the UAE form a commando force, but the plan flopped and the former Navy SEAL fell out with UAE leaders. (Jacquelyn Martin/AP)
Stephen Toumajan, left, then head of the UAE's Joint Aviation Command, shakes hands with Michael X. Garrett, then commanding general of U.S. Army Central, in the UAE in March 2016. Toumajan is a retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel. (Sgt. Youtoy Martin/U.S. Army)
LEFT: Blackwater founder Erik Prince, seen on Capitol Hill in 2017, tried to help the UAE form a commando force, but the plan flopped and the former Navy SEAL fell out with UAE leaders. (Jacquelyn Martin/AP) RIGHT: Stephen Toumajan, left, then head of the UAE's Joint Aviation Command, shakes hands with Michael X. Garrett, then commanding general of U.S. Army Central, in the UAE in March 2016. Toumajan is a retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel. (Sgt. Youtoy Martin/U.S. Army)
U.S. Army officials investigated Toumajan’s affiliation with the UAE after he submitted a foreign-employment request to the Pentagon in 2014. Cynthia Smith, an Army spokeswoman, said in an email that officials determined Toumajan had violated the law “by accepting a foreign title and by wearing the military rank of the UAE Armed Forces.”
But the Army did not dock Toumajan’s pension or otherwise penalize him because it was unable to prove that he had received any compensation from the UAE government, Smith added. She declined to elaborate or explain the apparent discrepancy in the Army’s findings.
Toumajan did not respond to requests for an interview. Today, he serves as general manager of the UAE National Search and Rescue Center and publicly touts his close relationship with Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, the president of the UAE and a fellow military pilot.
During a May conference for entrepreneurs in Dubai, Toumajan paced the stage in his tan flight suit as he gave a motivational speech and lauded the UAE’s rulers as “the greatest leaders in the world.” He described how Sheikh Mohamed once made a point of holding hands with him while walking in public, a sign of respect and affection in the Arab world.
4 President George W. Bush famously held hands with Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah and kissed him on the cheeks during a 2005 visit to Bush’s ranch in Crawford, Tex.
“He said, ‘Come with me, Steve,’ and I’m holding hands with Sheikh Mohamed,” Toumajan said, according to a video of his talk. “That was pretty incredible.”
‘Little Sparta’ retains a four-star general
The most prominent American cheerleader of the Emirati armed forces is former defense secretary Jim Mattis, who refers to the UAE as “Little Sparta” because of its prowess in warfare. The retired four-star Marine general commanded all U.S. troops in the Middle East before he ran the Pentagon during the Trump administration.
In a video testimonial posted in January to mark the UAE’s 50th birthday, Mattis fondly recalled first visiting the country as a junior Marine officer in 1979. He also reminisced about building a “trusting relationship over many years” with Sheikh Mohamed and praised the country’s troops as “equal brothers in arms who knew how to fight.”
What Mattis did not mention is that he previously worked for the UAE government.
In June 2015, two years after he retired from the Marine Corps, Mattis applied for federal authorization to “accept civil employment” with the UAE as a “military advisor.” The Marines and State Department approved his request in August 2015, according to the records obtained by The Post, though the agencies withheld other documents that specified his exact duties and expected compensation.
5 The Marine Corps failed to produce Mattis’s 2015 application. But the State Department released a document showing that it had granted final approval to his request. Read the Mattis letter.
It is unclear how long Mattis held the role. He returned to U.S. government service as President Donald Trump’s defense secretary in January 2017.
Mattis declined an interview request. Robert Tyrer, co-president of Cohen Group, a Washington consulting firm where Mattis works as a senior counselor, said in an email that Mattis advised the Emiratis on “the operational, tactical, informational and ethical aspects” of military operations.
According to Tyrer, Mattis did not request or accept payment from the UAE government other than reimbursement for travel expenses. “Consistent with his belief in the importance of ethical conduct, he sought approval for his uncompensated activity through a process which would ensure the most robust review from the proper officials in the U.S. government,” Tyrer said.
He added that Mattis also did not receive payment for taping the UAE birthday video. “General Mattis has great respect for the UAE, a nation which has stood by the U.S. in numerous conflict and relief operations,” Tyrer said.
Mattis served two years as Trump’s defense secretary. In March 2019, two months after leaving the Pentagon, he once again applied for approval to accept employment from the Emirati government, this time as a featured speaker at a conference on U.S.-UAE relations hosted by Sheikh Mohamed.
Mattis prepares to speak on U.S.-UAE ties at a May 2019 conference in Abu Dhabi. With him is Yousef Al Otaiba, the UAE's ambassador to the United States. (Eissa Al Hammadi/Ministry of Presidential Affairs/Emirates News Agency/AP)
In his application, Mattis said the UAE would pay him an “honorarium” and cover his travel expenses. The Marine Corps redacted details of the financial arrangements, saying that disclosing them would violate Mattis’s personal privacy. According to Tyrer, however, Mattis accepted payment only to cover his travel costs.
6 Read Mattis’s 2019 request for foreign-government employment with the UAE.
The conference was held in May 2019 at Al Bateen Palace, a royal residence in Abu Dhabi. In his remarks, Mattis said he turned down “99 percent” of his invitations for speaking engagements but made an exception for the UAE and Sheikh Mohamed because of their close relationship with the United States.
“It is broad enough, it is deep enough and it’s strong enough to withstand any temporary challenges of any sort, because the underpinnings are just that strong,” Mattis said, according to a videotaped portion of his speech posted online by the UAE Embassy in Washington. “Whenever the going gets tough, we have found our militaries working alongside each other.”
In a best-selling memoir published four months after his Abu Dhabi speech, Mattis again extolled Sheikh Mohamed and downplayed concerns about human rights in the UAE and other countries in the region.
“I constantly had to argue with those in government who wanted human rights to be the singular criterion of our foreign policy,” Mattis wrote, referring to his tenure as a four-star general during the Obama administration. “The Arab monarchies and strongman leaders were not reforming at the pace our human rights idealists insisted upon. But those nations that had stood behind us after 9/11 had records far better than those of hostile, oppressive regimes like Iran and Syria.”
Mattis isn’t the only Marine general who went to work for the UAE shortly after leaving government service, according to the documents obtained by The Post.
Charles F. Bolden Jr., a retired Marine major general and astronaut, served as NASA administrator during the Obama administration. In June 2016, he traveled to Abu Dhabi to sign a cooperation agreement between NASA and the UAE Space Agency. He also delivered a lecture about NASA’s mission to Mars to an audience of dignitaries, including Sheikh Mohamed.
Charles F.
Bolden Jr.
Member, Space Advisory Committee / UAE Space Agency
• NASA administrator, 2009-2017
• NASA astronaut, 1981-1994
Nine months after Bolden’s term as NASA’s leader ended, he applied for federal approval to work as an adviser to the UAE Space Agency, documents show. In his application, he said the agency would pay him to attend two advisory board meetings a year. The Marine Corps and the State Department approved the request but redacted financial details from the documents, citing his right to privacy.
7 During his career as a Marine and an astronaut, Bolden flew on four space shuttle missions and spent over 680 hours in space. Read his application to work for the UAE Space Agency.
In an interview, Bolden said that the eight-member space advisory board has not met since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic and that he last traveled to the UAE for a board meeting in 2019. He declined to say how much the Emiratis have paid him.
NASA Administrator Charles F. Bolden Jr. points as he watches an Orion splashdown from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in 2014. In more recent years, he has been an adviser to the UAE Space Agency. (Bill Ingalls/NASA/Getty Images)
“Some people would say they were generous, others would say not even close,” he said. “That’s not the reason I joined.” He noted that the UAE has an active and ambitious space program. The country launched an unmanned interplanetary spacecraft that began orbiting Mars in 2021.
Foreign salaries and U.S. pensions
While the Pentagon kept foreign pay packages for generals and admirals a secret, it disclosed salaries for lower-ranking officers and enlisted personnel.
Those documents show that the Emiratis pay well.
A retired senior chief petty officer from Navy SEAL Team 6 received a $348,000 salary, plus $54,400 for housing and travel, to work in the UAE as a firing range trainer. A retired U.S. Army colonel accepted a $324,000-a-year job as an adviser for the Emirati army.
8 Read the Army colonel’s 2016 application to become an adviser to the UAE land forces.
Retired American personnel who move to the UAE often receive five-figure housing and transportation allowances, while continuing to collect their U.S. military pensions, records show.
Those with specialized skills or advanced degrees earn the most. Sean Connors, a retired Navy commander, received federal permission in 2019 to take a $600,000-a-year job as a vice president with Nawah Energy Company, a state-owned firm that constructed the first civilian nuclear power plant in the Arab world.
The Navy redacted Connors’s name, but other details in the application match public information about his work history in the nuclear industry. He confirmed his employment in the UAE but otherwise declined to comment.
9 Connors’s duties included oversight of the construction and testing of the Barakah commercial nuclear power plant in the UAE. Read his application.
When Sheikh Mohamed founded a National Defense College to educate UAE officers a decade ago, the school went on a hiring binge and began recruiting military academics from the United States.
Thomas Drohan, a professor at the U.S. Air Force Academy, was lured to the country with a $240,000 salary and a $49,000 housing allowance, documents show. Daniel Baltrusaitis, a retired Air Force colonel, moved to Abu Dhabi to become dean of the college, with a $338,000 salary and $53,200 in housing perks.
Air Force officials redacted their names, but The Post identified them through LinkedIn profiles and other online biographies. Neither responded to requests for comment.
10 The Air Force did not redact Drohan’s surname in three places, which made it easier to identify him. Read his documents. Baltrusaitis wrote that he “intended to mentor an important U.S. ally.” Read his application.
Former enlisted personnel working in the UAE can also make excellent money, with mechanics, welders and painters earning $100,000 or more annually, records show.
The Emiratis depend on Americans to teach them how to use an extensive arsenal of U.S.-built weaponry, including F-16 fighter jets, Predator drones, Patriot missile batteries and THAAD missile interceptors. American mechanics also take care of the specialized equipment while embedding with UAE military units.
A CV-22 Osprey assigned to the U.S. Air Force's 8th Expeditionary Special Operations Squadron flies over Abu Dhabi in September 2021. (Master Sgt. Wolfram M. Stumpf/U.S. Air Force)
American military expertise may not come cheap, but the contracting arrangements are still a bargain for the UAE, according to Krieg, the King’s College professor.
The UAE “can hire people for as little as 90 days, or a few years, then have no responsibility for them,” he said, while American taxpayers continue to bear the expense of their pensions and health benefits.
Krieg noted that the U.S. government spends huge sums to train and educate its military personnel during their long careers in uniform, “and now you’re exporting it for free to a foreign government. They just get the finished product.”
A recruiting office in Virginia
One of the foremost recruiters of U.S. talent is Knowledge Point Educational Consultant LLC, an Abu Dhabi-based company.
In 2010, Knowledge Point established a subsidiary with an office in Alexandria, Va., and advertised scores of open jobs with the UAE military as senior strategic advisers and planners. The positions were tailored for recently retired U.S. Army generals and colonels, many of whom were looking for work after serving in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Several retired U.S. generals signed fixed-term contracts with Knowledge Point to move to the UAE and work as military consultants, The Post found.
James Chambers, a retired two-star Army general who formerly oversaw U.S. military logistics in the Middle East, led a team that advised the UAE’s Joint Logistics Command from 2018 to 2020, documents show. William G. Webster Jr., a retired three-star Army general, spent one year in Abu Dhabi as a Knowledge Point senior manager working on a “capabilities development review” for the UAE military. Chambers declined to comment, and Webster did not respond to messages.
11 Read Chambers’s application to work for Knowledge Point and the UAE armed forces. Webster disclosed his work for Knowledge Point in his LinkedIn profile.
Others have stayed for longer. John MacDonald, a retired two-star Army general who served in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan, has been working in Abu Dhabi since February 2018 as a senior adviser to the UAE army, documents show.
U.S. Army officials redacted salary information for MacDonald and other generals. He declined an interview request about his work with the Emirati military. “Not interested,” he wrote in an email. “I don’t like how you twist words, what you misrepresent nor the paper (and leadership) you work for.”
12 MacDonald wrote in his application to work for the UAE: “EVERYTHING I DID IN 33+ YEARS IN THE US ARMY HAS TO DO WITH WHAT I DO HERE.” Read his documents.
Adviser, Knowledge Point / UAE Land Forces
• Assistant chief of staff, U.S. forces in South Korea, 2010-2012
• Deputy commanding general, U.S. forces in Afghanistan, 2009
Project lead, Knowledge Point / UAE Joint Logistics Command
• Director of logistics, U.S. Central Command, 2010-2011
• Commander, Fort Lee, 2008-2010
Webster Jr.
Senior project manager, Knowledge Point / UAE Armed Forces
• Commanding general, Third Army, 2009-2011
• Commander, 3rd Infantry Division, 2003-2006
Knowledge Point provides consulting services for numerous industries and has about 2,000 employees. Its chief operating officer is John J. Prendergast III, a rear admiral who retired from the Navy in 2009 after a 30-year military career. He has worked for Knowledge Point in Abu Dhabi since 2017, according to his LinkedIn profile.
The Navy said it had no record of Prendergast applying for authorization to work for Knowledge Point or the UAE government. He did not respond to requests for comment.
Another Emirati defense contractor that employs droves of Americans is Global Aerospace Logistics. Since 2015, records show, the state-owned company has hired more than 100 retired U.S. military personnel, mostly Air Force and Army veterans with aviation backgrounds.
Some American veterans who work for the Emiratis do so as consultants based in the United States. In 2017, the UAE government retained Fairfax National Security Solutions LLC, a small firm in Arlington, Va., to provide consulting services.
William Mooney, a retired Army colonel who served as Fairfax’s senior vice president, reported that he earned a $480,000 annual salary with the firm and did consulting work for both the UAE and Saudi governments, documents show. He did not respond to requests for comment.
13 The Army redacted Mooney’s name from his application, but his title and work history match details in his LinkedIn profile. He later became Fairfax’s chief executive officer. Read his documents.
In 2019, Todd Harmer, a retired U.S. Air Force colonel, received federal authorization to work as a D.C.-based lobbyist for the UAE government. Documents show that he lobbied Congress to approve major arms sales to the UAE and that he received a $180,000 annual base salary from his employer, American Defense International.
In an email, Harmer said his work was “in full compliance with U.S. laws and regulations,” but declined to comment further.
14 Read Harmer’s application to work for the UAE as a lobbyist and adviser. He also works as a senior adviser to Scopa Industries Corp. LLC, a Saudi defense contractor.
Interventions and alleged abuses
With their military capabilities boosted by American contractors and weapons, UAE leaders have become more aggressive about intervening in conflicts far from home — often with little regard for human rights.
After sending thousands of troops to Yemen in 2015, the UAE ran a secret network of prisons where Yemeni men were beaten, flogged and sexually assaulted while detained in shipping containers, according to human rights groups. The Associated Press reported that some prisoners were shackled to a “grill” and slowly roasted alive over open flames.
15 In a 2017 statement to the AP, the UAE’s government denied the allegations, saying: “There are no secret detention centers and no torture of prisoners.” Human Rights Watch also reported on the alleged abuses, as did Amnesty International and other groups.
UAE troops fighting in Yemen as part of a Saudi-led coalition board a helicopter in January 2019 at a military base in Khokha, about 60 miles south of the flash-point city of Hodeida. (Saleh al-Obeidi/AFP/Getty Images)
In Libya, the UAE military sent its forces to aid Khalifa Hifter, a rebel commander trying to seize control of the country. In 2020, the Defense Department inspector general reported that the UAE government was helping to finance the Wagner Group, a Russian mercenary army close to the Kremlin that has been accused of atrocities in Libya and elsewhere in Africa. The Wagner Group has also sent forces to fight on behalf of Russia in Ukraine and Syria.
The UAE is a longtime friend of Saudi Arabia and has spied on dissidents on behalf of Riyadh. Emirati security services gathered intelligence about Jamal Khashoggi, the Washington Post contributing columnist who was assassinated by a Saudi hit squad in October 2018 for his criticisms of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
In July, UAE officials arrested a onetime lawyer for Khashoggi as he was catching a connecting flight in the Dubai airport. Asim Ghafoor, a U.S. citizen who lives in Virginia and represents Arab dissidents, was detained on charges of money laundering and tax evasion.
The arrest occurred while President Biden was visiting the Middle East to meet with Arab leaders, including Prince Mohammed. Ghafoor was released a month later after protests by human rights groups and U.S. lawmakers.
Vittori, the Georgetown professor, said that by arresting Khashoggi’s lawyer, UAE officials sent an unmistakable message to Biden and members of Congress that the country would continue to crack down on political dissent.
“You couldn’t be more transparent in thumbing your nose at the United States,” she said. UAE officials said they investigated Ghafoor at Washington’s request, but U.S. officials denied asking for his arrest.
The UAE has developed advanced surveillance and cyber capabilities to target dissidents, work aided by the hiring of former American and Israeli hackers and spies.
In September 2021, three former employees of the National Security Agency admitted to violating U.S. computer-fraud and export-control laws by working on behalf of DarkMatter, an Emirati cyberintelligence firm that hacked computer servers in the United States and spied on enemies of the UAE government in other countries. The former NSA cyber operatives agreed to pay $1.68 million in fines as part of a deferred-prosecution deal.
U.S. officials have become alarmed by the number of former intelligence officers who have taken jobs with foreign governments. Last year, the CIA’s counterintelligence chief sent an unusual letter to retired spies, warning them not to sell their skills to foreign powers.
Yet retired U.S. troops with backgrounds in intelligence and cyberwarfare have faced no such restrictions. Among those who have taken jobs in the UAE are two retired U.S. Army colonels, according to their LinkedIn profiles.
Dennis McFarland, a former senior intelligence official at the Pentagon, took a job with Knowledge Point as a lead adviser to the UAE government on cyber and intelligence matters in 2017. That same year, Knowledge Point also hired Mark Benedict, a former senior National Security Agency official, to work as a cyberwarfare consultant for the UAE armed forces.
Both declined to comment.
Photos used in the card illustrations from Department of Defense and Martin Cherry. | 2022-10-18T10:41:55Z | www.washingtonpost.com | UAE paid hundreds of U.S. veterans to build up its military - Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/interactive/2022/uae-military-us-veterans/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/interactive/2022/uae-military-us-veterans/ |
An Army general oversaw defense policy toward Qatar as he negotiated work as a military consultant for the country
A Qatari air force C-17 transport plane performs an airdrop in May 2018 after training by the U.S. Air Force. (Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images)
In June 2018, Army Brig. Gen. Joseph W. Rank sought federal permission to accept a tempting opportunity: to work as a paid consultant for the defense minister of Qatar, a wealthy Persian Gulf nation trying to upgrade its armed forces.
At the time, Rank was two months away from retirement in his military job as the acting deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Middle East, which meant that he oversaw U.S. defense policy toward Qatar while he negotiated personal employment with the country.
Rank was seeking to work for Qatar via a small consulting firm, Global Alliance Advisors, owned by six former senior Pentagon officials, according to documents obtained by The Washington Post under the Freedom of Information Act.
Rank’s proposed salary was redacted from the documents. Records submitted by other members of Global Alliance Advisors show the firm was seeking to negotiate an unusually lucrative consulting deal with Qatar worth $23.6 million over three years, although that proposal later fell through. The Army gave preliminary approval to Rank’s request in August 2018, three weeks after he ended his assignment at the Pentagon, the documents show.
1 Rank noted in his federal application that he worked on matters involving Qatar while at the Pentagon. Read his documents.
In the end, Rank took a different job and never consulted for the Qataris. But the case illustrates how easy — and legal — it can be for senior U.S. military officers to arrange employment with foreign governments, even while they’re still on active duty.
Under federal ethics rules, military personnel who manage weapons programs or major defense contracts must observe a “cooling off” period of one or two years before they can accept jobs from companies they did business with while in uniform. The regulations, which also apply to other federal officials who interact with government contractors, are intended to prevent conflicts of interest and self-dealing. In some cases, officials face a lifetime ban from taking such jobs.
But the conflict-of-interest rules do not apply in the same way to retired U.S. troops who want to work for a foreign government. While they must obtain federal approval for the job, they are allowed to negotiate foreign employment before they retire, whenever they want, even with countries where they have been stationed for the U.S. military.
When Rank asked for U.S. approval to work for Qatar, he was wrapping up a 31-year military career during which he specialized in the Arab world. He had spent the previous 14 months in charge of the Pentagon’s policy shop for the Middle East, following four postings as a defense attache in the region and an assignment as the Joint Staff’s director for the Persian Gulf.
In response to questions, Rank, 57, acknowledged by email that he had had “discussions with potential employers” before his retirement from the Army and said he followed “U.S. requirements.” He declined to comment further.
Besides Rank, documents show that several other U.S. military officers sought employment with the government of Qatar after working closely with the country while on active duty.
For example, Air Force Lt. Col. Dave Haworth headed the office of military cooperation at the U.S. Embassy in Doha until shortly before his retirement in June 2018. Six months later, he applied for federal authorization to work as a $200-an-hour consultant for the Qatari armed forces, advising them on their purchases of U.S. weaponry.
The Air Force and State Department approved Haworth’s request in April 2019, documents show. He has been working as a military consultant in Qatar since then.
2 U.S. officials redacted Haworth’s name from the documents, but he confirmed his work for Qatar to The Post. Read his application.
Haworth declined to comment on details of his work for Qatar. But he said the country was a natural place to look for a job once he retired from the Air Force. “What better place to find opportunities than your last duty assignment?” he said in a phone interview.
Located on a peninsula that juts into the Persian Gulf, Qatar is slightly smaller than Connecticut. But the Arab country has outsize strategic importance. It hosts the largest U.S. military installation in the Middle East — al-Udeid Air Base, with about 10,000 U.S. troops — and sits on the world’s third-biggest reserves of natural gas.
Like other gulf monarchies, Qatar has faced criticism from human rights groups, primarily allegations that it has tolerated abusive working conditions for migrant laborers. Freedom of speech is limited, though the emir of Qatar permitted the country to hold limited legislative elections last year for the first time.
Another retired Air Force officer, Lt. Col. Steve Bergey, applied for federal permission in 2017 to work as a military consultant for the Qatari Embassy in Washington, records show. Bergey had been stationed in Qatar for five years as a military attache at the U.S. Embassy and as an officer at al-Udeid Air Base before retiring from the Air Force in 2014.
In his application, Bergey noted that Qatar had signed more than $25 billion worth of U.S. weapons contracts over the preceding three years. He said the Qatari defense attache had “asked for my assistance in helping his office manage the production and delivery schedules of these contracts.” For his advice, he would be paid at a rate of $1,000 a day.
3 U.S. officials redacted Bergey’s name from the documents, but his duty assignments and other details matched his LinkedIn profile. Read his application.
“There is absolutely no reason why employment by the State of Qatar would be inadvisable at this time,” Bergey wrote on his application. “On the contrary, this will only reflect favorably on the United States.”
The Air Force and State Department approved Bergey’s request in April 2018. He declined to comment.
A captain in the U.S. Navy Reserve received a similar job offer in 2016 to work as a military adviser for the Qatari Embassy in Washington at a rate of $6,000 a month, documents show. The captain had previously served in Qatar as a liaison officer at the U.S. Embassy in Doha. The Navy and State Department approved the officer’s request in 2017, though they redacted his name, citing his privacy.
4 The Navy captain said he would work part time for Qatari officials and “identify key points of contact” for them in Congress, among other duties. Read his documents.
At al-Udeid Air Base in Qatar, American C-17s wait in August 2021 to ferry Afghan civilians being evacuated from Kabul. Al-Udeid is the largest U.S. military installation in the Middle East. (Lorenzo Tugnoli for The Washington Post)
Qatar has spent heavily to boost its military and improve relations with the United States since 2017, when Saudi Arabia and three other Arab countries imposed a trade embargo and travel blockade on Qatar because of its ties to Iran, alleged support for Islamist extremist groups, and other grievances.
In response, Qatari leaders recruited retired U.S. military officers and diplomats to help them lobby the Trump administration in hopes of pressuring the Saudis and other countries to end the blockade. To further enhance its relations with the United States, Qatar announced a $12 billion arms deal with Washington in June 2017 to purchase F-15 fighter jets.
Among those whom Qatar enlisted for help in Washington was retired Marine Gen. John R. Allen, the former deputy commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East. According to an FBI affidavit filed in federal court in April, federal agents are investigating whether Allen lobbied the Trump White House on Qatar’s behalf in 2017 without registering with the Justice Department as a foreign agent, and later lied to U.S. authorities about his ties to the Qataris.
Allen has denied wrongdoing. A spokesman for the retired general said Allen has voluntarily cooperated with the investigation and received no fees from Qatar.
One year after Saudi Arabia and the other countries imposed the blockade and severed diplomatic relations with Qatar, Qatar’s Defense Ministry considered the proposed $23.6 million consulting contract with Global Alliance Advisors LLC, the firm led by several former senior Pentagon officials.
The co-owners of Global Alliance Advisors include William “Fox” Fallon, 77, a retired four-star admiral and former commander of all U.S. troops in the Middle East; John “Fozzie” Miller, 65, a retired vice admiral and former commander of U.S. naval forces in the region; and Jeffrey Kohler, 71, a retired three-star Air Force general.
Consultant, Global Alliance Advisors / Qatari Defense Ministry
• Commander, U.S. Fifth Fleet, 2012-2015
• Director, Defense Security Cooperation Agency, 2004-2007
The firm’s principals also include two 75-year-old retired Navy captains: Charles “Tom” Burbage, a former executive vice president with Lockheed Martin Aeronautics, and Richard Kirkland, another former Lockheed Martin vice president.
5 U.S. officials redacted the identities for Burbage and Kirkland from the documents, but other details match their online biographies. Read Burbage’s application and Kirkland’s documents.
All five retired officers with Global Alliance Advisors applied for federal authorization to consult for the government of Qatar in March 2018. Three months later, they were joined by Rank, the one-star Army general. In his application, Rank sought permission to advise the Qatari defense minister while working for Global Alliance Advisors as its vice president for operations.
The Pentagon and State Department approved the requests in August 2018 but redacted other details from the documents. Fallon and Kohler declined to comment. Miller, Burbage and Kirkland did not respond to messages.
6 Read Fallon’s documents, Kohler’s application, and Miller’s documents.
The proposed $23.6 million deal between Qatar and Global Alliance Advisors never materialized, according to Mary Beth Long, another co-founder of the firm, who served as an assistant secretary of defense during the George W. Bush administration.
Long initially agreed to a phone interview to discuss the company’s work with Qatar. But she ended the interview after being asked about Rank’s affiliation with the firm and other questions, saying she would respond further only in writing.
Jennifer Huber, an attorney representing Long, said in a letter that the government of Qatar decided not to award the proposed $23.6 million consulting contract to Global Alliance Advisors. She called the offer “premature.”
Huber said the firm later carried out a year-long, $600,000 consulting project for Qatar’s Defense Ministry that was in “full compliance” with U.S. laws and regulations. The Qatari Embassy in Washington did not respond to emails seeking comment.
Huber said that Rank had discussed “a potential business relationship” with Global Alliance Advisors, but that it “never came to fruition.”
In the end, Rank took a different job shortly after he retired from the Army: as defense contractor Lockheed Martin’s chief executive for Saudi Arabia, another gulf country that had been in his policy portfolio when he worked at the Pentagon. Rank was not obliged to observe a cooling-off period with Lockheed Martin because he didn’t oversee contracts with the firm while he was on active duty.
Retired U.S. generals have also found their services in high demand in another gulf country: Kuwait.
David San Clemente, a retired two-star Air Force general, applied in April 2020 for federal permission to work as a strategic adviser for the government of Kuwait, documents show. San Clemente was a familiar face in Kuwait. From 2016 to 2018, while he was on active duty, he headed the office of military cooperation at the U.S. Embassy in Kuwait City.
U.S. officials approved San Clemente’s request to take the job in July 2020. He did not respond to messages seeking comment.
7 San Clemente negotiated his contract with Kuwait through his advisory firm, S10 Consulting LLC. He did not disclose his pay to the Army. Read his documents.
A year earlier, four retired Army generals — Michael Barbero, William Hix, Peter Jones and Randall McIntire — also applied for and received federal approval to work as strategic advisers for the Kuwaiti Defense Ministry, documents show.
The Army redacted their compensation details from the documents. None responded to requests for comment. Officials with the Kuwaiti Embassy in Washington also did not respond to a request for comment. | 2022-10-18T10:42:01Z | www.washingtonpost.com | U.S. veterans return to work in Mideast countries where they served - Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/interactive/2022/us-veterans-jobs-qatar-kuwait/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/interactive/2022/us-veterans-jobs-qatar-kuwait/ |
U.S. government lawyers fought to keep records of foreign work by military retirees secret
Americans working for the federal government who also receive money — or emoluments — from foreign powers became an issue for the first time in years under President Donald Trump when he and some in his administration were accused of violating the rules. Retired military personnel are subject to the same rules — though these former troops receive little scrutiny. The Washington Post wanted to know: To what extent are they seeking work from foreign governments?
The Post sued the armed forces and the State Department to obtain the records on foreign jobs sought by military personnel, including the type of work, compensation and countries involved. So far, The Post has obtained more than 4,000 pages of documents, including case files for about 450 retired soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines.
The government had resisted releasing the records under the Freedom of Information Act, arguing that disclosure was not in the public interest and violated the privacy of military personnel. After a two-year legal battle, U.S. District Judge Amit P. Mehta ruled in September that the government’s arguments were “unconvincing.”
“The public has a right to know if high-ranking military leaders are taking advantage of their stations — or might be perceived to be doing so — to create employment opportunities with foreign governments in retirement,” Mehta wrote.
Here are key takeaways from what those records reveal:
Hundreds of retired U.S. military personnel have taken foreign jobs
More than 500 retired U.S. military personnel — including scores of generals and admirals — have taken jobs as contractors and consultants for foreign governments since 2015, cashing in on their military expertise and political clout.
Most have worked as civilian contractors for Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and other Persian Gulf monarchies, playing a critical, though largely invisible, role in upgrading their militaries.
Foreign governments pay handsomely for U.S. military talent, with salary and benefit packages reaching six and sometimes seven figures — far more than what most American service members earn while on active duty.
Most are hired by countries known for human rights abuses, political repression
Among those who have worked as paid military advisers to Saudi Arabia since Khashoggi’s slaying are a former White House national security adviser, a former director of the National Security Agency and a former commander of U.S. troops in Afghanistan.
Retired Army Gen. Keith Alexander, director of the NSA during the George W. Bush and Obama administrations, received approval from the State Department to work for the Saudis two months after Khashoggi’s assassination. The Saudis hired Alexander to help develop a new institution: the Prince Mohammed bin Salman College of Cyber Security. Alexander’s consulting firm worked for the Saudis until 2020.
Americans’ work for the Saudis expanded after Khashoggi’s assassination
Retired Gen. James L. Jones, a former NATO commander and Marine commandant, expanded his consulting business with the Saudi Defense Ministry following Khashoggi’s assassination.
His firm now employs eight retired U.S. generals and admirals in Riyadh, plus 32 lower-ranking U.S. military retirees.
In a Post interview, Jones said he was “very shocked and surprised at what evidently happened” to Khashoggi. But he said the U.S. government encouraged him to keep working for the Saudis. “I don’t know what the alternative would have been if we pulled away. I was worried that [the Saudis] would possibly drift off to other relationships with the Chinese and the Russians.”
The UAE is the most popular foreign job market
Over the past seven years, 280 retired U.S. service members have worked as military contractors and consultants for the United Arab Emirates, more than for any other country by far.
The Emiratis have relied on U.S. military contractors and advisers to build what many experts regard as the strongest military in the Arab world. But the UAE has used its armed forces to intervene in civil wars in Yemen and Libya, worsening the humanitarian crises in both countries.
The Emiratis pay well for U.S. help. A former Navy SEAL received a $348,000 salary, plus $54,400 for expenses, to work as a UAE firing range instructor. A retired U.S. Army colonel accepted a $324,000-a-year job as an adviser to the Emirati army.
Before serving Trump, Mattis worked for the UAE
Retired Marine Gen. Jim Mattis served as a military adviser to the UAE before becoming secretary of defense for Trump.
A spokesman for Mattis said he advised the UAE on “the operational, tactical, informational and ethical aspects” of military operations, but accepted no compensation for his work.
Shortly after he resigned as Pentagon chief, Mattis applied for federal permission to work with the Emiratis again and gave a speech in Abu Dhabi. Documents show he was supposed to receive an “honorarium” from the UAE, but a Mattis spokesman said he accepted only reimbursement for travel expenses.
Former admirals are consulting with Australia on top-secret technology
Former U.S. Navy leaders are working as paid, confidential advisers to the government of Australia to help it acquire top-secret nuclear submarine technology from the United States and Britain.
Australia is now trying to finalize a deal with the United States and Britain to build a fleet of nuclear-powered submarines that could cost more than $74 billion. The outcome will have global ramifications and could alter the military balance of power in Asia among the United States, its allies and China.
Since 2015, retired U.S. admirals and other former senior U.S. Navy leaders have received consulting deals from the Australian government worth more than $10 million combined.
Some retired U.S. admirals have worked for the Australian government as paid advisers while simultaneously consulting for the U.S. Navy. One retired U.S. admiral was hired by the government of Australia to serve as its deputy secretary of defense and to oversee its submarine program.
Requests to work for foreign governments are largely rubber-stamped
Retired troops seeking foreign work must first obtain approval from their branch of the armed forces and the State Department. The Post found these requests are largely rubber-stamped: Of more than 500 submitted since 2015, about 95 percent were granted.
The Post also identified scores of retirees on LinkedIn who say they have taken military contracting jobs in the Persian Gulf, but for whom there is no record of federal approval. There is no criminal penalty for violating the law. Enforcement is almost nonexistent. | 2022-10-18T10:42:07Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Key findings from The Post’s series on veterans' foreign jobs - Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/interactive/2022/veterans-foreign-jobs-foia-takeaways/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/interactive/2022/veterans-foreign-jobs-foia-takeaways/ |
Hundreds of veterans have taken lucrative foreign jobs that U.S. officials approved — but fought to keep secret
From top, Saudi soldiers, Mohammed bin Salman, Keith Alexander, James Jones, U.S. Seal. (Illustration by Frank Hulley-Jones/The Washington Post; Photographs by Abdullah Al-Qadry/AFP/Getty Images, Giuseppe Cacace/AFP/Getty Images, U.S. Marine Corps, Mark Wilson/Getty Images, U.S. Department of Defense)
Retired Gen. James L. Jones, center, national security adviser at the time, with Defense Secretary Robert Gates at Camp Lejeune, N.C., in 2009. Jones has two firms that have held contracts with the Saudi Defense Ministry. (Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images)
Security consultant, Ironhand Security / Saudi Defense Ministry
Security consultant, Jones Group Intl. / Government of Libya
• White House national security adviser, 2009-2010
• Commandant, Marine Corps, 1999-2003
Foreign governments have long advanced their interests in Washington by paying Americans as lobbyists, lawyers, political consultants, think tank analysts and public relations advisers. But the hiring of retired U.S. military personnel for their expertise and political clout has accelerated over the past decade as oil-rich gulf monarchies have splurged on defense spending and strengthened their security partnerships with the Pentagon.
Saudi soldiers fire artillery from Jazan, on the kingdom's Red Sea coast, toward the border with Yemen in April 2015, just weeks after a Saudi-led coalition intervened in Yemen's civil war. (Hasan Jamali/AP)
To shed light on the matter, The Post sued the Army, the Air Force, the Navy, the Marine Corps and the State Department in federal court under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). After a two-year legal battle, The Post obtained more than 4,000 pages of documents, including case files for about 450 retired soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines.
1 The Post submitted its first FOIA requests for the documents in May 2020. After getting little or no response from the military services and the State Department, The Post filed a lawsuit in federal court in April 2021. Read the legal complaint.
Saudi Arabia hired a former Navy SEAL to work as a special operations adviser for $258,000 a year. The UAE gave annual compensation packages worth more than $200,000 to helicopter pilots and $120,000 to aircraft mechanics. In Indonesia, a government-owned mining firm employed a retired U.S. Marine master sergeant as a transportation consultant at a rate of $500 a day, plus living expenses.
2 Read the SEAL’s application for permission to work for the Saudi Interior Ministry.
Many U.S. generals and admirals have profited from connections built during wartime by later working for Middle Eastern countries where they were once stationed. Records show that a few American officers even negotiated jobs with foreign governments while they were still on active duty.
Military officials redacted the pay packages for retired generals and admirals, as well as the names of lower-ranking personnel. In legal motions, U.S. officials argued that releasing the information would violate former service members’ privacy and could subject them to “embarrassment and harassment” and “unfairly harm their public reputation.”
The Post identified some of the names and redacted details through reporting. It has continued to sue the armed forces and the State Department to obtain the rest of the information.
In September, U.S. District Judge Amit P. Mehta ruled largely in favor of The Post and ordered the government to release the pay packages and other withheld material.
In his order, Mehta called the government’s privacy arguments “unconvincing.” In particular, he added, “the public has a right to know if high-ranking military leaders are taking advantage of their stations — or might be perceived to be doing so — to create employment opportunities with foreign governments in retirement.”
3 Read Judge Mehta’s full order.
An attorney for the Justice Department said it was considering an appeal of the judge’s decision.
The Project On Government Oversight (POGO), a nonprofit watchdog group based in Washington, filed a similar public-records lawsuit against the State Department to learn more about how former U.S. service members are selling their military expertise to foreign powers. POGO shared the documents it received from the State Department with The Post.
Read the Project On Government Oversight's own investigation into the documents
Brandon Brockmyer, POGO’s director of investigations and research, said retired senior military officers often testify before Congress and appear on television to debate national security, but rarely divulge whether they are on a foreign government’s payroll.
“The public is working on the assumption that their sole loyalty is to the United States,” he said. “The public has the right to know whether and how a foreign power has access to their expertise.”
Prohibited without permission
Under federal law, retired U.S. military personnel — generally defined as those who served at least 20 years in uniform and are entitled to a pension — are restricted from receiving anything of value from foreign governments that could compromise their sworn allegiance to the United States.
The prohibition stems from the foreign emoluments clause of the Constitution, which forbids federal officeholders to accept gifts, jobs or titles “from any King, Prince, or foreign State” without the consent of Congress. The law applies to military retirees because they can be recalled to active duty at any time. In 1977, Congress delegated the authority to approve veterans’ foreign work to the Pentagon and State Department.
Those approvals are necessary before the retirees can accept any compensation, even travel expenses, from a foreign government or state-owned company. Retirees may work only as civilians, not as uniformed personnel.
Those seeking authorization for foreign work must also pass a background check and counterintelligence review. The State Department and the armed forces have wide latitude to deny any application they think “would adversely affect the foreign relations of the United States.” But The Post investigation found that approval is almost automatic. Of the more than 500 requests submitted since 2015, about 95 percent were granted.
The armed forces rely on retired military personnel to self-report their intent to work for foreign governments. Many veterans don’t bother. The Post identified scores of retirees on LinkedIn who say they have taken military contracting jobs in the Persian Gulf, but for whom there is no record of federal approval.
There is no criminal penalty for violating the law. Enforcement is almost nonexistent.
Documents show that one case involved retired Army Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, 63, who briefly served as national security adviser to President Donald Trump. An investigation by the Defense Department’s inspector general found that Flynn collected $449,807 from Russian and Turkish interests in 2015, one year after he retired from the Army, but failed to clear his work with U.S. officials.
4 Using FOIA, The Post obtained the inspector general’s investigation into Flynn in July. Read the documents.
Speaker / RT television network, Russia
• White House national security adviser, 2017
• Director, Defense Intelligence Agency, 2012-2014
Flynn’s unauthorized work for foreign governments came to light after he was photographed sitting next to Russian President Vladimir Putin at a 2015 gala in Moscow celebrating the 10th anniversary of Russia Today, or RT, a propaganda arm of the Kremlin. RT paid Flynn $38,557 to travel to Moscow and speak at the event.
Flynn’s ties to Russian officials led to his downfall. In 2017, he pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with the Russian ambassador to the United States. Trump pardoned him three years later.
An image from a Dec. 10, 2015, video shows retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, right, reaching out to shake hands with Russian President Vladimir Putin at a Russia Today anniversary gala in Moscow. (Ruptly/AP)
The inspector general opened an investigation into Flynn’s work for foreign governments in 2017, but the case took five years to resolve. In May, the Army ordered him to forfeit the $38,557 that he received from the Moscow trip. But Army officials decided, without explanation, not to penalize him for the remaining $411,250 he collected from Russia and Turkey.
5 Flynn acknowledged the financial penalty in a television interview in May, but suggested it was politically motivated. Read the Army’s letter to him.
Flynn’s work for Russia helped prompt Congress to pass legislation in 2019 and 2020 requiring the Pentagon to submit annual reports to lawmakers about retired generals and admirals who work for foreign powers. Since then, the Pentagon has complied, but its reports include only a few lines of information and do not name the generals and admirals.
Of the 500 cases reported to the armed forces and State Department since 2015, only one involved Russia. In that instance, a retired Air Force colonel sought — and received — permission in March 2020 to take a $300,000 job as an executive with a satellite-launch company based in the United States but majority-owned by the Russian government.
6 The satellite company is International Launch Services Inc., which is majority-owned by the Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center in Moscow. The retired Air Force colonel was seeking approval to become the firm’s senior vice president and general counsel. Read the documents.
The documents released in response to The Post’s lawsuits include no other instances of retired military personnel seeking to work for nations that the U.S. government categorizes as “foreign adversaries,” such as China, North Korea, Iran, Cuba or Venezuela.
‘We did real, serious, detailed work’
Almost two-thirds of the jobs taken by U.S. veterans have been in the Middle East and North Africa, where governments pay top dollar for American military expertise honed by two decades of war and counterterrorism operations in the Arab world.
Documents show that 25 retirees from the Air Force, Army, Navy and Marine Corps were granted permission to take jobs in Saudi Arabia. Most were high-ranking officers who received job offers to serve as consultants to the Saudi Defense Ministry.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at an investment conference in Riyadh on Oct. 24, 2018. Journalist Jamal Khashoggi was killed inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul three weeks earlier. (Giuseppe Cacace/AFP/Getty Images)
Since 2015, the ministry has been ruled by Prince Mohammed, whose leadership has upended the status quo in the Middle East.
Two months after Mohammed became defense minister at age 29, Saudi Arabia led a coalition of regional forces — with intelligence, refueling and logistical support from the United States — that intervened militarily in Yemen’s civil war. The move further destabilized the kingdom’s much poorer neighbor, and an estimated 375,000 people have died in the fighting or of hunger.
In June 2017, Mohammed amassed even more power when his father, 82-year-old King Salman, shook up the Saudi line of succession and named him crown prince, or heir apparent. Mohammed quickly seized control of the kingdom’s institutions and sidelined potential competitors to the throne, arresting more than 200 princes and other prominent Saudis.
He also cracked down on dissenters outside the kingdom.
In October 2018, a team of Saudi assassins flew from Riyadh to Istanbul to silence Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi-born journalist who had criticized the crown prince in opinion columns in The Post. Khashoggi was lured into the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, where the hit squad killed him and dismembered his corpse with a bone saw, according to a Turkish government investigation.
Saudi officials first denied any knowledge of what happened to Khashoggi. Later, they admitted that Saudi agents were responsible and blamed them for carrying out a “rogue operation” without the crown prince’s knowledge. But U.S. intelligence agencies concluded Mohammed had ordered the killing and noted that seven members of the hit squad served on his personal security detail.
A prominent beneficiary of Mohammed’s reign has been 78-year-old James L. Jones, the retired general who served as Obama’s national security adviser and had been commandant of the Marine Corps. Jones owns two Virginia-based consulting firms — Ironhand Security LLC and Jones Group International LLC — that have held contracts to advise the Saudi Defense Ministry.
Jones applied for authorization to work for the Saudis in November 2016 and received U.S. approval four months later, documents show. In an interview, Jones said he was approached by Adel al-Jubeir, Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister, who asked him to meet with Mohammed during the prince’s visit to the United States that year to discuss the possibility of consulting for the Defense Ministry.
7 The State Department approved Jones’s request to work for the Saudis in March 2017. Read his application.
“The crown prince basically said that he was concerned about the amount of money that Saudi Arabia was spending on military hardware and equipment, as opposed to capabilities,” Jones said. “[He] was wondering if there was something that we could do to help them in transforming their Ministry of Defense and the armed forces into something that would be more useful and less expensive.”
Saudi Arabia spends more on its military than any other nonnuclear power in the world. In 2021, its defense budget exceeded $50 billion — roughly the same as in Britain, a country with nuclear arms.
Jones said he agreed to conduct an organizational assessment of the Saudi armed forces for Prince Mohammed starting in 2017, but only after checking with officials at the White House, State Department and Defense Department and obtaining their support. “Had that not been the case, I would not have done it,” he added.
To carry out the project, Jones assembled a team of about a dozen former senior Pentagon officials, including William S. Cohen, who served as secretary of defense in the Clinton administration. A spokesman for Cohen said he worked on the team for about a year.
Documents show that four retired generals obtained U.S. permission in 2017 to work with Jones’s team in Riyadh: Charles Wald, a four-star Air Force general; Michael Barbero, a three-star Army general; Arnold Punaro, a two-star Marine general; and John Doucette, a one-star Air Force general.
8 Read Barbero’s application to work for the Saudis. Read Doucette’s documents.
Principal adviser, Jones Group Intl. / Government of Libya
• Deputy commander, U.S. European Command, 2002-2006
• Commander, U.S. Central Command Air Forces, 2000-2001
Senior adviser, Intelligent Decisions Systems / Kuwaiti Defense Ministry
National security consultant, Jones Group Intl. / Government of Libya
• Director, Joint IED Defeat Organization, 2011-2013
• Commander, NATO Training Mission - Iraq, 2009-2011
Punaro
• Staff director, Senate Armed Services Committee, 1987-1995
• Director of Reserve Affairs, Headquarters Marine Corps, 2001-2003
Eikenberry
Senior adviser / Saudi Defense Ministry
• Commander, U.S. forces in Afghanistan, 2005-2007
• U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, 2009-2011
Brig. Gen.
Security consultant, Jones Group Intl. / Saudi Defense Ministry
• Deputy commander, NATO Joint Warfare Center, 2012-2014
• Commander, 36th Wing, 2010-2012
Senior adviser, Jones Group Intl. / Government of Libya
• U.S. ambassador to NATO, 2013-2017
• White House deputy national security adviser, 2007-2013
Barbero and Doucette did not respond to requests for comment. Punaro, 76, a longtime Pentagon adviser and former congressional staffer, said he worked for Jones as a consultant from April 2017 to April 2018, traveling to Riyadh every month or two.
“We did real, serious, detailed work,” Punaro said, adding that the group briefed U.S. officials on their progress. He declined to say how much he was paid, citing a confidentiality clause in his contract with Ironhand Security.
9 Read Punaro’s application to work for the Saudis.
Gen. Jones, seen in 2016 in New York, said he agreed to consult for the Saudis starting in 2017, but only after obtaining U.S. approval. “Had that not been the case, I would not have done it,” he said. (Riccardo Savi/Getty Images/Concordia Summit)
Wald, 74, spent 35 years in the Air Force, including as deputy commander of U.S. forces in Europe and as a forward air controller and F-16 pilot who flew in combat in Vietnam and Bosnia. He headed Jones Group International’s business in the Middle East until last year. In an interview, he said he felt it was important to help the Saudis improve their military so the United States didn’t have to act as their primary protector. “It’s time for the U.S. not to be doing all the defense of the Middle East,” he said.
10 Wald received approval from the State Department to work for the Saudis and Ironhand Security in March 2017. Read his application. He later became president of Jones Group Middle East, overseeing the firm’s operations in the region. He left the company in September 2021.
Though the U.S. military has refused to disclose the compensation packages earned by retired generals, other public records show that the Saudis pay their consultants generously. Four lower-ranking retired officers working for Jones — two Marine colonels, an Army colonel and a Navy captain — earned salaries ranging from $200,000 to $300,000 to advise the Saudi Defense Ministry. Military officials redacted those officers’ identities, asserting that the public had no right to the information.
11 One Marine colonel earned a monthly salary of $25,000 as an Ironhand Security project manager, reviewing “internal military modernization reports” for the Saudi Defense Ministry. Read his application.
Jones’s companies continue to advise the Saudis on how to reorganize their military command structure so that the armed forces can operate jointly instead of as separate fiefdoms, documents show. Traditionally, the primary mission of the Saudi military and security services has been to guarantee the protection and survival of the al-Saud family, with different princes controlling different branches as competing power centers.
Officials with the Saudi Embassy in Washington did not respond to requests for an interview.
Because of Saudi Arabia’s vast oil deposits, U.S. presidents since Franklin D. Roosevelt have pledged to help defend the kingdom militarily. Saudi Arabia buys more U.S. weapons than any other country in the world by far. More than 200 active-duty American troops are stationed in Saudi Arabia as trainers and advisers.
But Washington has long struggled to reconcile its robust security partnership with Saudi Arabia and the kingdom’s troubling record on human rights.
The U.S.-Saudi security partnership came under severe strain after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks — 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudi nationals — and again over the war in Yemen, and then again after Khashoggi’s assassination. During his 2020 presidential campaign, Joe Biden promised to make Saudi Arabia “pay the price and make them, in fact, the pariah they are.”
Yet, less than two years later, President Biden traveled to Jiddah, Saudi Arabia, and exchanged a fist bump with Prince Mohammed to reaffirm the relationship. During their meeting at the Al Salam Royal Palace, the two leaders addressed a range of issues, including oil production and human rights.
Since then, the relationship has again hit the skids. On Oct. 5, Saudi Arabia, Russia and other members of the OPEC Plus cartel announced they would slash oil production to raise prices. The decision infuriated the Biden administration. It accused the Saudis of siding with Moscow, whose oil is under Western sanctions because of the war in Ukraine. Biden warned that the Saudi government will face “consequences,” but didn’t say how.
President Biden meets with Prince Mohammed at Al Salam Royal Palace in Jiddah on July 15. Upon Biden's arrival, the two men fist-bumped. (Bandar Algaloud/Saudi Royal Court/Reuters)
After Khashoggi, business as usual
Another high-profile senior officer who has done business with Saudi Arabia is Keith Alexander, 70, who served as director of the National Security Agency as well as the first head of the U.S. Cyber Command.
In July 2018, Alexander’s consulting firm, IronNet Cybersecurity, signed a partnership agreement with the Saudis to develop a new institution: the Prince Mohammed bin Salman College of Cyber Security. The college billed itself as the kingdom’s first training program for cyberwarfare and was established under the direction of Saud al-Qahtani, an influential aide to the crown prince.
12 The Saudi Press Agency publicly announced IronNet’s partnership with the college in July 2018.
Adviser, IronNet Cybersecurity / Mohammed bin Salman College of Cyber Security, Saudi Arabia
Adviser, IronNet Cybersecurity / Japanese Ministry of Economy, Transportation and Industry
Adviser, IronNet Cybersecurity / Monetary Authority of Singapore
Adviser / Singapore National Research Foundation
Committee member / Singapore Infocomm Development Authority
• Director, National Security Agency, 2005-2014
• Commander, U.S. Cyber Command, 2010-2014
Qahtani also oversaw a network of computer hacking and surveillance operations that targeted the crown prince’s critics and enemies around the world, including Khashoggi. U.S. officials have accused him of managing the plot against the Post contributor. In November 2018, the Treasury Department imposed sanctions on Qahtani, declaring that he “was part of the planning and execution of the operation that led to the killing.”
Yet two months later, during the Trump administration, the State Department approved Alexander’s request to help develop the cyberwarfare college and serve on its board of advisers, documents show. U.S. officials redacted details on how much money Alexander stood to earn.
13 Read Alexander’s application to work for the Prince Mohammed bin Salman College of Cyber Security.
Alexander, who is the founder, chief executive and chairman of IronNet, declined to comment. Bridget Bell, a spokeswoman for IronNet, said that the firm’s contract with the Saudis “focused on the development of the college’s educational efforts” and that the arrangement lasted until 2020.
Alexander was originally supposed to serve on the college’s board of advisers, but he never attended any meetings “nor worked directly on the company’s contract,” Bell said. She added that Alexander and IronNet did not “have any interaction” with Qahtani.
Army Gen. Keith Alexander, seen here in 2013, retired from the military in March 2014. He soon founded IronNet Cybersecurity, which went on to receive U.S. approval — weeks after Khashoggi's killing — to help the Saudis develop a cyberwarfare college. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)
Alexander has also served as a cybersecurity consultant to other foreign governments. Since 2017, he has sought U.S. approval for four separate deals to advise the governments of Singapore and Japan.
14 Read Alexander’s applications to consult for the governments of Japan and Singapore.
Many U.S. companies ceased doing business with Saudi Arabia in the weeks after Khashoggi’s murder, including lobbyists and public relations firms that had represented the kingdom in Washington. At the time, a spokesperson for Jones told the Daily Beast that the retired Marine general was “disturbed” and “horrified” by Khashoggi’s death, and downplayed his firms’ work in Riyadh, saying one contract with the Saudis had recently ended and a second was scheduled to expire soon.
In fact, Jones’s firms not only remained in Saudi Arabia but expanded their partnership with the Defense Ministry after Khashoggi’s slaying.
In his interview with The Post, Jones said he was “very shocked and surprised at what evidently happened” to Khashoggi. But he said Jones Group International applied for, and accepted, more work from the Saudi Defense Ministry in 2019 because “we received encouragement” from the Trump administration to do so. He said his companies now hold four Saudi contracts and employ 53 Americans in Riyadh. Of those, eight are retired generals and admirals, and 32 are lower-ranking military retirees.
“Nobody ever came to us and said, ‘Hey, we think you ought to pull out,’ ” Jones added. “I don’t know what the alternative would have been if we had pulled away. I was worried that [the Saudis] would possibly drift off to other relationships with the Chinese and the Russians, and I didn’t think that would be very good.”
But Wald, the retired four-star Air Force general, said he and other Jones Group consultants debated whether to stop working with the Saudis after Khashoggi’s assassination. “We discussed that almost every day,” he recalled. “We asked ourselves, are we basically turning a blind eye toward immorality? Or supporting a legitimate government?” In the end, they decided to stay.
Wald said Saudi Arabia had made “measurable progress” on reforming its military by the time he stopped working for Jones Group in September 2021. Yet he said he was glad to leave Riyadh. “I certainly don’t regret that I’m not there anymore,” he added. “The Saudis aren’t always easy to work with.”
In recent years, Jones Group International has expanded into other foreign markets. In 2019, Jones, Wald and two retired Army lieutenant generals working for the company — Michael Barbero and Douglas Lute — applied for and obtained U.S. approval to advise the Libyan government on the disarmament and reintegration of militia fighters, documents show.
15 Read Barbero’s application. Read Lute’s documents.
Jones Group was hired by the U.N.-backed government in Tripoli at the time. U.S. military officials redacted information on how much money Libyan officials paid the retired generals. But a retired Army colonel who applied for federal approval to work for Libya with Jones Group reported that he expected to earn $10,000 a month.
16 The Army redacted the colonel’s name, but he had worked for the Defense Intelligence Agency for four years, overseeing “strategic intelligence products on Libya.” Read his application.
A delegation of representatives from Jones Group International arrives at Mitiga International Airport, east of Libya's capital, Tripoli, on Aug. 25, 2020. (AFP/Getty Images)
In his application, Wald noted that when he was an Air Force colonel, he planned Operation El Dorado Canyon, the 1986 U.S. airstrikes on Libya that nearly killed then-ruler Moammar Gaddafi. Wald told The Post that Jones Group worked in Libya for only a few months.
17 Read Wald’s application to work in Libya.
“Libya is a nut case,” he said. “Their government is ineffective. Their military is ineffective. … Their military is basically a ragtag group of militias.”
Jones said his company stopped working in Libya at the State Department’s request because of the country’s political instability. Lute, who served under Jones in the Obama White House as a deputy national security adviser, declined to comment. Barbero, an infantry officer who held senior command positions in Iraq and retired from the Army in 2013, did not respond to requests for an interview.
Rubber-stamping the requests
Officials from the Air Force, Army, Navy and Marine Corps declined interview requests about their approval processes for foreign employment. But records show they rarely reject a job request.
R. Philip Deavel, a lawyer who oversaw the Air Force program from 2012 to 2016, said in an interview that he denied a small number of applications by retired personnel to work for “Third World countries with a reputation for brutality in conflict.” He declined to name the countries.
Overall, however, Deavel said he viewed most of the job opportunities as supportive of U.S. foreign policy. He said the countries involved were almost always friendly to Washington and looking for American expertise to make their militaries more professional. “If you embed with another military as trainers, it may not make that country into Switzerland, but it won’t make it worse,” he said.
Once the armed forces approve employment requests, the State Department’s Bureau of Political-Military Affairs performs a final review. But records produced by the government suggest that the bureau functions as little more than a rubber stamp, authorizing all but five cases since 2015.
State Department officials declined interview requests from The Post to discuss their criteria for approving applications from retired military personnel to work for the Saudis and other foreign governments. But in a written response to questions, the department said it took human rights considerations into account and was “confident” that security cooperation with the Saudis “will serve to elevate respect for human rights.”
“The President has made it clear that the rule of law and respect for human rights are front and center in U.S. foreign policy. We will continue decades of U.S. partnership to help strengthen Saudi Arabia’s defenses through security cooperation, defense trade, training, and exercises, but we are also clear-eyed about the challenges ahead,” it said.
18 The State Department called its high approval rate of foreign-employment requests “reasonable,” noting that it was only conducting a secondary review of applications already scrutinized by the armed forces.
One of the few cases denied by the State Department concerned a retired Navy commander who landed a $291,000-a-year job with Saudi Arabian Military Industries (SAMI), a state-owned arms supplier, as its director for weapons systems. The Navy approved the request in August 2020, but the State Department overruled the decision four months later, concluding that the arrangement would “adversely affect the foreign relations of the United States.” No further explanation was given.
19 Read the Navy officer’s application and the State Department’s denial.
SAMI was founded by the Saudi government in 2017. It is wholly owned by the Public Investment Fund, a $620 billion sovereign wealth fund controlled by Prince Mohammed. SAMI’s mission is to help the kingdom create a domestic arms industry and reduce its dependence on the United States and other foreign suppliers.
20 The Saudi Public Investment Fund also invested $2 billion last year in a private equity firm run by Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s son-in-law, according to a New York Times report.
In August 2020, the Navy gave preliminary approval to another retired officer — Timothy Carter, a former executive with Northrop Grumman — to take a job with SAMI as its executive vice president for weapons and missiles. Carter’s annual compensation was even more lucrative: $514,200 in salary and living expenses, plus a yearly bonus worth up to $330,000.
What happened to Carter’s application after that is unclear. A Navy spokeswoman said the service has been waiting more than two years for the State Department to make a final determination. The State Department did not respond to questions about the case. Carter did not respond to requests for comment.
Regardless, Carter didn’t wait for a green light from U.S. officials before he began working for the Saudis. SAMI announced his hiring on Sept. 4, 2019, almost a full year before he received tentative approval from the Navy. Documents show Navy officials were aware he had already taken the job.
21 The Navy redacted Carter’s name from the documents, but his job title and other details match his online biography at SAMI. Read his application.
Under federal law, the Defense Department can force retirees to pay back any foreign money they receive before their applications are approved. But there is no evidence the armed forces have ever imposed penalties in such cases.
Working without approval
The Post found that many military retirees take foreign jobs or gifts without notifying the U.S. government at all. The armed forces and the State Department have no mechanism to identify such cases. Unless rulebreakers come to public attention — as did Flynn — or someone reports them, they have no reason to fear getting in trouble.
Karl Eikenberry, 70, is a retired three-star Army general who commanded U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan and later served as the U.S. ambassador in Kabul. Since 2021, Eikenberry has also described himself in multiple online biographies as a senior adviser to the Saudi Defense Ministry. But there is no record of his seeking clearance for the job from the Army or State Department. He did not respond to messages seeking comment.
Retired Gen. Karl Eikenberry, then U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, at the July 2011 funeral for a slain brother of Afghan President Hamid Karzai. In years since, Eikenberry has described himself as a senior adviser to the Saudi Defense Ministry. (Massoud Hossaini/AFP/Getty Images)
By examining LinkedIn profiles and other publicly available sources, The Post identified 20 other retired officers — including four generals and admirals — who reported working for Jones Group International or Ironhand Security as advisers to the Saudi military but for whom there is no record of federal approval.
Among them are Edward Cashman, a retired Navy rear admiral; Sean Jenkins, a retired Army major general; and Cathal O’Connor, a retired Navy rear admiral. All began working for Jones Group in 2021, within weeks of their retirement from the U.S. military.
None of the three responded to requests for comment. Jones said his employees are instructed to “complete all of the requirements that they need to do” before working with the Saudis.
Other generals have moved to Saudi Arabia for employment after they were forced to retire from the U.S. military for misconduct.
Bradley Becker, a retired Army three-star general, was hired by Jones Group International in September 2020 as a project manager in Riyadh. Becker’s military career ended in 2019 after the Army relieved him of command for engaging in “an inappropriate relationship with a woman” while he was separated from his wife. Becker did not respond to messages seeking comment. Last year he told Task & Purpose, a news site that covers the military, that he did not commit adultery and was merely communicating with a woman while going through a divorce.
The rules about what foreign jobs require U.S. government approval are fuzzy and open to interpretation. The armed forces have said authorization is necessary if veterans work directly for a foreign government, or if foreign officials can exert control over their employment or compensation by a private firm.
Retirees who are assigned by large U.S. companies — such as Lockheed Martin or General Dynamics — to work with foreign governments are generally exempt. The distinction is that foreign governments cannot hire or fire those individuals, and that their employers can reassign them to other jobs if they fall out of favor with their foreign clients.
For example, retired Navy Rear Adm. Steven G. Smith worked in Riyadh from 2017 to 2020 as an adviser to the Defense Ministry under a contract with Booz Allen Hamilton, a major international consulting firm. Smith did not seek approval for the work from the Navy and the State Department. He told The Post he did not need it because he worked directly for Booz Allen “and was not involved in any contract issues with the Saudis.”
The military services have at times applied inconsistent standards on what qualifies as foreign control. The Marines, for example, have concluded that retirees who work for U.S. subsidiaries of firms owned by foreign governments do not need U.S. approval. Other services have said they do.
In May 2020, the Army denied an application by a retired officer who had a $300,000-a-year job lined up with Jones Group International to serve as a consultant to the Saudi Defense Ministry. It cited disciplinary problems in his military record.
At the same time, the Army said it was “unclear” whether the officer needed U.S. authorization because he was working for Jones Group International, an American company. The Army informed the officer that if the Saudi government had “control over your activities,” then he could not take the job.
22 Read the officer’s application to work for Jones Group and the Saudi Defense Ministry.
The Army redacted the name of the officer from the documents, but details of his service record match the biography of David Haight, another general who left the U.S. military under a cloud. Haight was demoted three ranks — from major general to lieutenant colonel — and forced to retire in 2016 over a personal misconduct scandal.
An Army investigation determined that Haight, a married Army Ranger who had served as a brigade commander in Afghanistan, embraced a “swinger lifestyle” and carried on an 11-year affair with a female government employee. Adultery is a punishable offense under military law, and Army officials said Haight’s sexual escapades put him at risk of blackmail.
23 USA Today reported extensively on Haight’s double life and downfall. Haight’s attorney told the paper he deeply regretted the affair but denied it affected his military service. Haight also was a top aide to Adm. Mike Mullen, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Read the Army inspector general’s investigation.
Haight began work in Riyadh as a consultant to the Saudis in July 2019, eight months before the Army handed down its decision on his application, according to his LinkedIn profile. In a brief phone interview, Haight said he left the job in December 2021. He added that while he worked in an advisory capacity for the Saudi Defense Ministry, his contract was with Jones Group International.
Asked if he had any concerns about the Saudi government’s human rights record, Haight said Jones Group “was always very careful that our efforts were consistent with U.S. policy to bring stability to the Middle East” and to professionalize the Saudi military.
The distinction between state-controlled firms and independent ones is often blurry in nondemocratic countries, especially absolute monarchies such as Saudi Arabia, where the royal family dominates commerce and there is little transparency in the business sector.
In February, for example, a brand-new Saudi defense contractor — Scopa Industries Corp. LLC — opened for business with an ambitious agenda.
Describing itself as the kingdom’s “preeminent defense company,” Scopa said its purpose was “to meet the guidance” of Prince Mohammed by contributing to “the defense revolutionary process” and creating domestic jobs. The firm is owned by the Ajlan family, a conglomerate run by three billionaire brothers. In practice, however, Saudi companies cannot operate in the defense sector without the blessing of the crown prince.
Scopa Industries’ website features five American senior advisers: Barbero, retired Navy Vice Adm. Rich Brown, retired Rear Adm. Michael A. Brown, retired Army Col. Dominic Caraccilo and retired Air Force Col. Todd Harmer.
Harmer said in an email that his activities for Scopa Industries “are in full compliance with US laws and regulations,” but declined to comment further. The other American advisers to Scopa Industries did not respond to interview requests.
Another Saudi defense contractor, Vinnell Arabia LLC, employs hundreds of Americans to train the Saudi Arabian national guard. Vinnell Arabia is a joint venture of Northrop Grumman, the giant U.S. defense firm headquartered in Falls Church, Va., and Arab Builders for Trading, a Riyadh firm owned by a brother-in-law of the kingdom’s late King Abdullah IV.
As of 2015, a Northrop Grumman subsidiary owned 51 percent of Vinnell Arabia, according to court papers the company filed in response to a federal lawsuit in Virginia. But the Riyadh-based firm also submitted a declaration stating that it was subject only to Saudi law and that “no American employer — including Northrop Grumman — exerts any control over Vinnell Arabia.”
Documents show that none of Vinnell’s American employees have applied for permission from U.S. officials to train Saudi forces since at least 2015. Vinnell Arabia did not respond to a request for comment. | 2022-10-18T10:42:13Z | www.washingtonpost.com | U.S. fought to keep veterans' jobs with foreign governments secret - Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/interactive/2022/veterans-us-foreign-jobs-saudi-arabia/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/interactive/2022/veterans-us-foreign-jobs-saudi-arabia/ |
Amid legal and medical risks, a growing army of activists is funneling pills from Mexico into states that have banned abortion
By Caroline Kitchener
At a “packing party” in a Republican-led state in the South, a woman prepares abortion pills for distribution. (Jonathan Newton/The Washington Post)
Monica had never used Reddit before. But sitting at her desk one afternoon in July — at least 10 weeks into an unwanted pregnancy in a state that had banned abortion — she didn’t know where else to turn.
“I need advice I am not prepared to have a child,” the 25-year-old wrote from her office, once everyone else had left for the day. She titled her post, “PLEASE HELP!!!!!!!!”
Within hours, she got a private message from an anonymous Reddit user. If Monica sent her address, the person promised, they would mail abortion pills “asap for free.”
Monica didn’t know it at the time, but her Reddit post connected her to a new facet of the battle for abortion access: the rise of a covert, international network delivering tens of thousands of abortion pills in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling in June that struck down Roe v. Wade.
“You’re truly [an] angel,” Monica wrote in a string of messages reviewed by The Washington Post. “I think tonight will be the first night i will actually be able to sleep.”
This account of the illegal abortion movement that has grown quickly since the Supreme Court ruling is based on interviews with 16 people with firsthand knowledge of the operation, and includes on-the-ground reporting in four U.S. cities and Mexico. Many who spoke to The Post did so on the condition of anonymity to discuss activity that potentially breaks multiple laws, such as practicing medicine without a license and providing abortions in states where the procedure is banned. The Post was permitted to observe distributors handling pills in antiabortion states on the added condition that their locations not be identified.
“Soon there will come a moment when we won’t be able to count any of this,” said Verónica Cruz Sánchez, the director of Las Libres, adding that the group works with a U.S.-based volunteer network that numbers about 250 and is “growing, growing, growing.”
The leader of another Mexico-based group that supplies pills, Red Necesito Abortar, said the elaborate volunteer structure was “like a spiderweb.”
“Once we get the pills into the U.S., they can distribute them across the whole country,” said Sandra Cardona Alanís, the group’s co-founder.
Most people interviewed for this story acknowledged that the network they are building is far from ideal, with participants taking legal and medical risks they would not face if abortion was still permitted nationwide.
The medication — a two-step regimen of mifepristone and misoprostol — was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2000 with a prescription, for use during the first seven weeks of pregnancy, a limit that was then extended to 10 weeks in 2016. But people involved in the network described a process that goes beyond what the FDA has endorsed. Organizations like Las Libres offer abortion pills without a prescription and, typically, without access to a medical professional — occasionally providing medication to those who say they’re at or beyond the FDA’s 10-week limit. To avoid detection in antiabortion states, the group also mails pills unmarked and unsealed, often in old bottles used previously for other medicines.
Some experts worry that as demand soars and cross-border networks expand to include less credible suppliers, women could start to receive illegitimate pills that are ineffective or, worse, dangerous. Fake abortion pills have been circulating in other countries with strict antiabortion laws, said Guillermo Ortiz, an OB/GYN and senior medical adviser with Ipas Partners for Reproductive Justice, an international abortion rights nonprofit.
“It’s scary,” he said. If women don’t know how to recognize real abortion pills, “it could cause huge harm.”
Other experts are less skeptical. Kristyn Brandi, a doctor and spokesperson for the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the leading professional organization for OB/GYNs, said she feels confident that patients can carry out abortions safely without medical supervision — as long as the pills they receive are clearly labeled.
“Medication abortion is one of the safest processes that you can go through,” she said. “Regardless of where you get that medication, based on the science … what’s happening in your body shouldn’t be any different.”
Monica’s abortion pills arrived in the mail on a Friday afternoon, hidden inside a cat flea medication box. While the pills themselves were sealed and labeled, Monica’s boyfriend said he wasn’t sure if she should take them.
“What if they’re fake?” he recalled asking. He’d recently read news reports of other drugs that had been laced with fentanyl.
“What if they’re sending you something that isn’t even the abortion pill?”
By that point, Monica — who relayed her experience to The Post in real-time texts and calls, and then later in a lengthy interview at her home — had known about her pregnancy for over a month. She knew she wanted to have kids one day, but she and her boyfriend lived paycheck to paycheck, without health insurance. At the end of the month, they’d sometimes get down to their last $40 — and have to decide between groceries and gas.
Without the money or time to get an abortion out of state, Monica had tried to give herself a miscarriage — first with mugwort tea, an herbal remedy she read about online, then with a heavy night of drinking. When none of that worked, she turned to Reddit.
“I’m scared, too,” she said she told her boyfriend.
“But this is my only option.”
A nurse joins the network
Two weeks earlier, on the day Roe fell, a nurse in a different city rushed from room to room at the abortion clinic where she worked — frantically telling patients where they could order illegal pills now that their state had banned abortion.
“Do you have Insta?” she asked at least 20 patients that day, waiting as they pulled up their Instagram accounts.
She instructed each patient to follow an online resource called Plan C, which compiles a list of sources where patients can buy abortion pills on the internet. The nurse reviewed various options, including Aid Access, the prominent online service run by Dutch physician Rebecca Gomperts, as well as various online pharmacies that sell abortion pills illegally to people in antiabortion states.
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The next day, one of those patients found the nurse in the grocery store.
“I have the money,” the woman said, her eyes desperate. “Will you buy the pills for me?”
The nurse couldn’t remember the patient’s name, but she remembered other details the woman had shared about her life — pleading in Spanish in the clinic hallway five hours after the Supreme Court overturned Roe. A mother of four, the woman was an undocumented immigrant from Mexico with a history of severe pregnancy complications and a Catholic husband who did not believe in abortion.
She couldn’t order the pills herself, she explained, because she didn’t speak English and had no reliable access to the internet. If the pills came to her home, she also worried her husband would find them.
Hyper-aware of the other grocery carts moving around her, the nurse considered all she might lose if she helped the woman and got caught. Where she lived — a Republican-led state in the South — she knew she could be stripped of her nursing license for distributing abortion pills. Maybe even go to jail.
The nurse promised herself she would do it just this once.
“I’ll tell you when I have them,” she said to the woman.
Securing the pills was easier than the nurse ever imagined: She called a friend, who sent her the number for Las Libres. The organization, she learned, had been working with many volunteers like her — helping patients who, for one reason or another, couldn’t buy pills on their own.
Many patients had never heard of Plan C or Aid Access. Some couldn’t afford the advertised price tag of $100 or more. Then there were patients like the woman in the grocery store, desperate for pills but without a safe place to receive them.
On the phone with Las Libres, the nurse had requested just one set of abortion pills — enough to help her former patient. But, she said, the package arrived three days later with the means to end five pregnancies.
Las Libres soon followed up with the address for a woman in a different city.
“Can you help her?” a Las Libres activist asked over text.
The nurse, in her late 20s, thought about the lawmakers who had ushered in these laws — and those who had implemented similar restrictions years ago in Mexico, where she’d had to secure her own illegal abortion at age 16. She still remembered her feet in the stirrups in an empty apartment building. The unsure medical student who performed the abortion. The speculum and dilator boiling in a pot of water on the stove.
She mailed her second set of pills the next day.
A supplier secures the pills
Before the pills arrived in the nurse’s mailbox, they occupied a corner of Cruz Sánchez’s closet — tucked away in the central Mexico headquarters that has housed Las Libres for almost two decades.
The pill supplier and her team of seven employees work from a mountainside home in Guanajuato, hidden from the road by an eight-foot electric gate and a tangle of red trumpet vines. Inside, the Las Libres office hums with the rhythms of a family: Cruz Sánchez’s nephew brews a pot of coffee while her sister fries up leftover chilaquiles, chatting about everybody’s weekend plans before they all have to get to work.
When Cruz Sánchez, 51, started Las Libres in 2000, she envisioned a feminist activist organization that would help Mexican women in desperate situations. In its early years, the group provided legal counsel for victims of domestic violence and demanded freedom for women whose abortions had landed them in jail. They’ve long provided free abortion pills without facing any legal trouble, despite recent laws in Mexico that criminalized abortion.
It wasn’t until Texas banned most abortions in the fall of 2021 — one week before Mexico’s Supreme Court decriminalized the practice across that country — that Las Libres began to consider an international expansion. Suddenly, Cruz Sánchez was getting calls from women across the border, begging for pills.
“We wanted to help the women in Texas because we understood their situation,” Cruz Sánchez said. “We’d experienced it.”
Demand skyrocketed as soon as Roe was overturned in June, Cruz Sánchez said. Las Libres went from sending 10 sets of pills to the U.S. every day to sending over 100 — all at no cost to the patient.
The rapid expansion has only been possible, Cruz Sánchez said, with the help of U.S. volunteers who find some of the patients and shepherd the pills along to their final destinations. Since the Supreme Court decision, she said, she has been inundated with messages from Americans eager to take a stand against the ruling. In one state, she says, she is working with a group of registered nurses. Elsewhere, 50 pastors and priests.
Some of the volunteers work with U.S.-based abortion funds and other abortion rights groups, connecting with pregnant patients through established pipelines that existed long before Roe fell. Others are doing this work for the first time, Cruz Sánchez said.
“They just show up and say ‘I want to organize my community, my neighbors, my friends — and I’m going to make a network,’” she said.
These days, the women of Las Libres spend much of their time fielding calls and texts from Americans, hunched over laptops at a table strewn with sticky notes and boxes of mifepristone. Cruz Sánchez regularly logs five or six Zoom calls a day — fundraising with American donors, or teaching volunteers how to safely join her efforts.
Until recently, Cruz Sánchez said, Las Libres received all its pills as in-kind donations. International advocacy organizations mail large shipments of pills to their office, she said. Individuals come by with donations of misoprostol, widely available at Mexican pharmacies to treat stomach ulcers. Sometimes Mexican pill distribution companies send over a batch of pills that is about to expire, free of charge, Cruz Sánchez said.
When American demand started outpacing the stash in her closet, Cruz Sánchez said, she called her contacts around the world, searching for the cheapest supplier. Las Libres had roughly $15,000 to spend, she said, from mostly American donors — the product of fundraising efforts they’d stepped up since June. On one recent Zoom call, a leader of a U.S.-based abortion rights group pledged $4,000, adding that she hoped to make the same payment quarterly.
Cruz Sánchez declined to disclose her group’s donors and said she has not been keeping detailed records of the money she has received from donors in the United States. Between 2009 and 2018, Las Libres received at least $193,000 in public grants from the Mexican government, according to government records.
On its search for cheap pills, Las Libres determined that Mexico-based suppliers were too expensive. One set of mifepristone and misoprostol costs about 26 U.S. dollars in Mexico, Cruz Sánchez said. But in South Asia, pills are a fraction of that price, according to Chris Purdy, chairman of the board of DKT International, one of the largest organizations that registers, imports and distributes abortion pills around the world. In India, where many of the largest abortion-pill manufacturers are based, combo-packs of mifepristone and misoprostol are widely available at pharmacies for as little as $1.50, Purdy said.
In mid-September, Cruz Sánchez boarded an overseas flight from Guanajuato, returning four days later with thousands of abortion pills. From there, Cruz Sánchez began sending the pills to towns along the U.S.-Mexico border, where volunteers were waiting to carry them into the United States.
When selling directly to patients, suppliers typically offer pills at a significant markup. Europe-based Aid Access prescribes and sells pills for just over $100 per dose, sometimes offering discounts or free pills for low-income customers. Other online pharmacies charge hundreds of dollars. A medication abortion at a licensed U.S. clinic typically costs between $500 and $600, on top of the price of transportation and accommodations for those who have to travel out of state.
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Cruz Sánchez says she will never charge patients for abortion pills, which she believes should be widely accessible to all. She is critical of organizations that sell pills to patients for more than they bought them for, accusing these groups of engaging in the “corporatization” of illegal abortions.
The Aid Access website invites people who can’t afford to pay for the pills to “tell us,” so the organization can help.
“Aid Access believes that a just and equal system means that women with the financial means can pay this way and also support the service for women who cannot afford to pay,” Gomperts said.
While Gomperts and other Aid Access-affiliated physicians write prescriptions for abortion pills — and provide medical consultations to anyone who asks for assistance up to 12 weeks of pregnancy — Cruz Sánchez and her network of volunteers offer their own, more informal support services to women who need guidance while taking the pills. Cruz Sánchez has been expanding these connections, connecting with U.S.-based hotline services and medical professionals.
As far as she knows, Cruz Sánchez said, no one in the U.S. has had severe medical complications after receiving pills from Las Libres.
For most Americans working with Las Libres, Cruz Sánchez said, the more pressing concern is a legal one. Many of her U.S.-based volunteers are terrified of the prison sentence they could face if they get caught, adopting aliases and avoiding police.
Cruz Sánchez tells them not to worry.
“If they stop you, just point at your stomach and try to look old,” she advised one 80-year-old who picked up 500 pills en route home from her Mexican vacation.
“What’s the government going to do? Open every package in the mail? Conduct an inspection inside every woman’s home?”
“They don’t have a way to do it,” she’ll say with a smile. “There’s no way.”
A lawyer defines the ‘legal lines’
One thousand miles north, in Dallas, Tex., nearly 100 abortion rights advocates squeezed into a hotel conference room in late August to learn about the illegal abortion movement — and the risks of signing up.
The lawyer at the front of the room did not explicitly mention the abortion pills flowing into the U.S. from Mexico. But she singled out a group she calls “the helpers”: people who are helping American women secure pills in antiabortion states.
This group was particularly vulnerable to legal risk, she said.
At a conference led by SisterSong, a national reproductive justice group, attendees flocked to this particular session, “Self-Managed Abortion in the US After Roe.” Many in the room worked for abortion funds and other abortion rights groups, eager to bring what they learned back to their communities.
“Let’s say this one together,” the lawyer told the audience, gesturing to the all-caps message on the projector: “Don’t talk to cops.”
“One more time for the people outside.”
The room reverberated with dozens of voices: “DON’T TALK TO COPS.”
The lawyer leading the chants that day was Jill Adams, the executive director of If/When/How, an abortion rights group that in 2015 started supporting people prosecuted for ending their own pregnancies, or assisting in that process.
Staffed by over two dozen lawyers and bolstered by a network of law students, the organization runs a legal help line for those charged — and those who fear they might be charged. The hotline now receives 14 times more calls than it did before the Supreme Court decision, Adams said.
To get a sense of what their clients are facing, the group has been tracking pregnancy-related prosecutions over time. Between 2000 and 2020, 61 people were criminally investigated or arrested for either ending their own pregnancy or helping someone else end theirs, according to a preliminary report the organization published in August.
That number is likely a significant undercount, Adams said — and almost certain to climb now that the Supreme Court has overturned Roe.
Adams and her team don’t know of anyone who has gone to jail for shepherding abortion pills since the June ruling, she said. But she warned that could start happening soon. While the new wave of abortion bans explicitly prohibit prosecutors from going after the people seeking abortions, volunteers caught securing or distributing abortion pills could be charged as abortion providers, Adams said — subject to the same punishment as a doctor who performed a surgical abortion at a shuttered clinic. Across much of the South and Midwest, that means at least several years in prison.
Adams, in an interview after the conference, said that If/When/How doesn’t promote breaking the law.
“We don’t encourage them,” she said of her clients. “We just provide the information so they can conduct their own risk analysis. Our job is to make sure that everybody understands where the legal lines are drawn.”
The abortion pill pipeline creates a challenge for conservative state lawmakers, who had hoped the Supreme Court’s ruling would be a major step toward eliminating abortion. With the push for self-managed abortions and increased funding available for out-of-state travel, Missouri state Rep. Mary Elizabeth Coleman (R) said in an interview that she expects the number of abortions to increase in the wake of Roe’s reversal.
“People don’t know that it’s happening,” said Coleman, who has championed aggressive antiabortion legislation.
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Now that strict new bans have taken effect across much of the country, some lawmakers have turned their attention to local prosecutors, eager to make sure their laws are enforced.
Once prosecutors realize the extent of the illegal activity, Coleman said, “they are going to be interested in making sure that the law is followed.”
A distributor hosts a ‘packing party’
By the time Roe was overturned, some abortion rights activists had been mailing pills illegally, without prescriptions, for years.
In one Republican-led state in the south, a leader of a high-profile abortion rights group launched her organization’s “shadow side” in 2019, sending medication to women who couldn’t make it to a clinic: Minors with antiabortion parents. Domestic violence victims trapped with abusive partners. Anyone who couldn’t afford the high cost of clinic care.
When she first started out, the distributor mailed a few sets of pills a year.
Now, she mails 12 a day — more than the number of abortions performed at many clinics.
The distributor, in her sixties, messages Cruz Sánchez of Las Libres every few weeks to ask for more inventory. Once the pills arrive, she convenes what she calls “packing parties” at her suburban home, where she and her colleagues mete out the medication, dose by dose.
“It would be nice to be able to send them something more professional,” the distributor said as she readied a new batch in early September, pouring 150 misoprostol pills out of a calcium bottle.
The pills she poured into a bowl were slightly different shapes and sizes. Some scored, others smooth. The distributor plucked out a few that had broken in half.
When she used to buy pills from various online pharmacies, the distributor said, they would arrive in individual blister packs, with an expiration date. But those were $200 a set — and Cruz Sánchez sent hers for free.
“I want women to feel like it’s legitimate,” said another participant at the packing party, a younger activist. “Like they haven’t just gotten drugs in a nightclub, you know?”
“Like we’re not a back-street type of organization,” said a third helper, an 80-year-old who had smuggled the pills from Mexico.
They did what they could to create a dignified operation in the distributor’s living room. While the pills were out on the coffee table, the women would not eat. They would not drink wine. They would wear blue latex gloves.
“If I were taking pills that someone sent me, I’d hate to think that they’d been rumbling around in hands that might have just pet a dog,” said the distributor, her fingers swirling around in the misoprostol.
The 80-year-old raised her eyebrows.
“You just pet your dog with that glove on,” she said.
“I did?” said the distributor.
“Well, you know what?” said the younger activist, throwing up her hands. “We’re not f---ing doctors, we’re not health-care workers. Everyone is taking some risk in this somewhere along the line, and what can you do when it’s illegal?”
Since Roe fell, the distributor has become a teacher of sorts for newcomers joining her in the abortion pill movement. Among her students was the clinic nurse who had recently begun distributing Las Libres pills after reconnecting with a patient at a grocery store. By the end of the summer, the nurse was receiving bulk shipments of 150 abortion pills and consulting with women across eight states.
On a call in late August, the distributor offered the nurse a long list of tips: Look up houses for sale to use as return addresses. Set your messages with Las Libres to delete after 24 hours. Absolutely never meet a patient in person. If you have legal questions, reach out to If/When/How.
“It’s legally risky to do this,” the distributor told the nurse. “You need to take every precaution possible.”
As these networks expand, the distributor said, there will be even more to worry about. She said she recently saw a public service announcement issued by Ipas Partners for Reproductive Justice, the abortion rights nonprofit, warning about online abortion pill scammers — a message that echoed concerns frequently voiced by antiabortion advocates.
“We don’t know what’s coming in the mail,” said Ingrid Skop, an OB/GYN and a senior fellow at the Charlotte Lozier Institute, an antiabortion organization. “We’re inclined to think they’re getting misoprostol and mifepristone — but are there contaminants in the drugs? Does it contain the quantities that is advertised?”
Asked if she worries about the authenticity of her pills, the distributor is quick to shake her head.
“I get them from a verified source,” she says, her tone reverent: “Verónica,” the founder of Las Libres.
With Cruz Sánchez’s blessing, the distributor says, she has helped send pills to women as far as 15 weeks along in their pregnancies. Many in the medical community, including Brandi, the spokesperson for the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, say it’s safe to take abortion pills beyond the 10-week limit imposed by the FDA.
The distributor refers the later-term cases to an abortion doula she’s known for years, who counsels them over text about exactly what they will see when they pass the pregnancy. A 12-week fetus is roughly the size of a plum; a 15-week fetus, the size of an apple.
These cases, in particular, present significant legal risk to the patient, who has to figure out how to surreptitiously dispose of the remains. The abortion doula said she often sends a small amount of acid so the client can dissolve some of the fetus, and bury whatever is left.
“I try to emotionally prepare them and say, ‘It’s going to look like a baby,’” the doula said.
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The distributor has seen enough of these complex cases to know how to respond, she said. She worries about the new volunteers joining the movement: eager to help, but green.
“Someone is going to end up getting less than ideal treatment, and someone is probably going to get arrested,” the distributor said. “There are just so many things that could go wrong.”
Sitting in her living room, the distributor shook her head and sighed: Time to focus on the things she could control. She powered up her burner phone and logged into her Proton Mail account, an encrypted email service she uses to correspond with patients who need pills.
Some of the women get her contact information from Cruz Sánchez. A few hear through a friend, or a friend of a friend. One of the biggest spikes in demand came after the distributor met several volunteers who offer advice in a Reddit forum frequented by anonymous women searching for abortion care.
“I can handle more traffic,” the distributor had told the volunteers.
She immediately started mailing packages to Reddit users — answering their frantic calls for help.
A woman takes the pills
Monica’s cramps didn’t start until she took the second set of pills on a Sunday morning. She said she lay down in bed as soon as she felt the first one coming on, wearing her favorite oversized T-shirt and a diaper pad.
This was her first pregnancy, but Monica imagined this was what contractions might feel like: intense pain, a few minutes of relief, then more pain — each wave of cramping a little worse than the one before. Balled up in the fetal position, she said she called a friend who’d had a medication abortion a few years before at Planned Parenthood, with a doctor beside her.
“Dude, I don’t know if this is normal,” her friend said when Monica described the pain. “Maybe you should go to the hospital.”
But Monica couldn’t go to the hospital — surely, she thought, the doctors would know what she’d done and report her. Her boyfriend threw some clothes in a bag anyway.
“Turn on the bath,” Monica said she yelled out to him. “I need to get in there.”
She felt a flood of liquid in her underwear and stepped into the bath with her clothes still on. Lying back in the tub, she said, she felt some pressure release. Then she screamed.
The fetus was floating in the water. Slightly smaller than her palm, the fetus had a head, hands, and legs, she said. Defined fingers and toes.
She leapt from the bath and collapsed in her boyfriend’s arms. Desperate for some guidance, soaking wet and crying, she took out her phone.
“I just passed the fetus,” Monica wrote to whomever had sent her the pills. She learned later that her fetus matched descriptions of those roughly 13 weeks along, well beyond the 10-week cap set by the FDA for taking abortion pills.
“I’m just feeling a little scared,” she added.
The anonymous user, whose identity is not known by The Post, immediately started typing. Everything would be okay, they assured Monica: The worst was over. Whatever she was feeling — sadness, relief, grief, anger — it was all normal.
“Going through an abortion can bring up a lot of emotions,” they wrote. “Just take some time for yourself.”
Three hours later, Monica said, she and her boyfriend selected a tree in a quiet corner of their favorite park — far enough back in the forest, they hoped, that a dog wouldn’t catch the scent. While most people flushed the fetus down the toilet, the Reddit user had told her, others preferred to do some kind of ritual.
Monica knew she wanted to say goodbye.
When she was ready, she gathered a handful of wildflowers. Her boyfriend dug a small hole. As Monica lowered the cardboard box into the ground, she said, she knew she’d made the right choice. She couldn’t give that fetus a good life yet, she thought to herself. She wasn’t ready to be a mom.
“I hope in the future, when I am ready, your soul will find me again,” Monica remembers saying as she knelt in the dirt.
“It just wasn’t our time.”
Story editing by Peter Wallsten. Photo editing by Natalia Jiménez-Stuard. Copy editing by Sam-Omar Hall. Design by Madison Walls. Alice Crites, Mary Beth Sheridan, Nora D. Palma, Alejandra Ibarra Chaoul, Danielle Villasana, Antonio Campos Ayala and Gabriela Montejano Navarro contributed to this report. | 2022-10-18T10:54:46Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Desperate pleas and smuggled pills: A covert abortion network rises after Roe - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/10/18/illegal-abortion-pill-network/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/10/18/illegal-abortion-pill-network/ |
Truck makers tout an electric future. Privately, they’re stalling it.
Diesel trucks are some of the biggest health and climate offenders on the road. The industry isn’t racing to change that.
A Volvo Trucks VNR electric class 8 tractor during an electric vehicle showcase and display outside the Department of Transportation headquarters in D.C. on Oct. 20, 2021. (Craig Hudson/Bloomberg News)
Under pressure to phase out diesel-powered trucks, major manufacturers have offered plenty of assurances. Volvo plans to be “fossil free” by 2040 and boasted in its latest annual report that it was “leading the transformation” of the industry. Daimler Truck, the largest maker of heavy trucks globally, has set a goal of selling only carbon-neutral trucks and buses in the United States, Europe and Japan by 2039.
But behind the scenes, the truck industry’s lobbyists are working to delay that clean-truck future. The Truck and Engine Manufacturers Association, which represents the nation’s largest truck manufacturers, has pushed to weaken tougher federal rules curbing planet-warming gases and other pollutants. The industry has also led a campaign against a new California rule, adopted by five other states, that would require manufacturers to sell more zero-emission trucks.
If truck makers win, environmentalists argue, they will be able to continue selling diesel vehicles for longer, postponing a transition to electric power.
“What we’re seeing from their lobbying is they want to commit to as little as possible,” said David Cooke, a senior vehicles analyst with the Union of Concerned Scientists. “Promises in press releases don’t actually mean anything. They can say we’re setting a target, we’re spending money, but that doesn’t have to produce results.”
While the push to convert America’s passenger cars to electric power is accelerating, the same transition for medium- and heavy-duty trucks has only begun. Truck makers say they can only move as quickly as the market allows, while environmentalists counter that these companies have already waited too long to electrify and will keep dragging their feet without hard deadlines.
Policymakers are targeting the sector because it accounts for nearly a quarter of all greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles in the United States and generates harmful pollutants that cost thousands of lives each year. A recent American Lung Association report estimates switching to zero-emission trucks would prevent 66,800 premature deaths over the next 30 years.
Truck makers and their lobbyists say they don’t see a disconnect between their public and private actions.
Dawn Fenton, vice president of government relations and public affairs for Volvo Group North America, said the company is “very committed to eventually getting to 100 percent fossil free by 2040.”
But she said government mandates don’t account for supply-chain snarls, the lack of a nationwide charging network and the fact that electric trucks are too costly for some buyers. Volvo recently announced a deal to sell 20 heavy-duty electric trucks to Amazon, and the company plans to complete an electric-truck charging corridor in California by next year. But, Fenton added, “there’s so much that we don’t have control over.”
Under President Biden, the Environmental Protection Agency has begun work on rules to cut pollution and climate-warming emissions from trucks, buses and delivery vans. The first, which is slated to be finalized by the end of the year, would toughen limits on truck pollution for the first time since 2011 and tighten the current greenhouse gas standards. The second rule would lower greenhouse gas limits starting in model year 2030, speeding the transition to all-electric trucks.
Truck makers and their lobbyists have met repeatedly with EPA officials to push back, urging them to adopt a less strict standard for nitrogen dioxide, which damages the lungs. They have argued that the agency’s proposal requiring them to cut nitrogen dioxide 90 percent by 2031 would be too costly, diverting money from their electrification plans. They have also warned that this standard would increase trucks’ cost, causing buyers to delay making new purchases and leaving older, dirtier, diesel-burning vehicles on the road for years.
The industry appears to be making some headway in Washington. EPA’s proposal is weaker than California’s new emissions rule, which requires manufacturers to start rolling out cleaner trucks beginning in 2024. And climate advocates have complained that it would do little to accelerate electrification because it only requires certain categories of vehicles — mainly school and transit buses, commercial delivery trucks, and short-haul tractors — to cut their greenhouse gas emissions.
And while truck manufacturers say they need to devote their attention and money to electrifying their fleets, they are fighting regulations that would speed that shift.
In 2020, California air quality regulators adopted a landmark regulation mandating that more than half of all trucks sold in the state be zero-emissions by 2035. It was the first rule of its kind in the United States and, to enforce it, state leaders need an EPA waiver allowing them to set stricter tailpipe rules than the federal government.
The Truck and Engine Manufacturers Association has challenged the state’s waiver request, arguing that it doesn’t give manufacturers enough lead time. The group represents about 30 truck makers and bus makers, including major players like Daimler Truck, Volvo Truck, Paccar, Navistar and Cummins, a maker of diesel engines.
“It’s hard for me to reconcile the lobbying these companies and their association are doing versus what they’re saying,” said Margo Oge, an electric vehicles expert who directed the Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Transportation and Air Quality from 1994 to 2012. “Already, we’re seeing many models of electric heavy-duty trucks and buses. We’ve come a long way for the industry to be complaining at this point.”
Some of the companies opposing the state’s electrification targets have taken money from its zero-emission incentive programs, according to the California Air Resources Board, the state’s air quality regulator. Since 2017, Volvo has accepted about $122 million from the board to develop electric trucks and buses. Daimler had received $100.5 million. Both companies have battery-powered trucks for sale in the United States, with plans to develop hydrogen fuel-cell trucks that can travel longer distances over the next several years.
Congress has also taken action to bolster the market, providing a $40,000 tax credit for electric and hydrogen-powered trucks and buses in the recently passed Inflation Reduction Act.
“They’re trying to have it both ways,” Adrian Martinez, an attorney for the environmental law firm Earthjustice, said of the truck makers. “They’re fighting the regulations to compel the technology and then they’re also trying to get pats on the back for developing it.”
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Jed Mandel, president of the Truck and Engine Manufacturers Association, said that turning California’s dream of zero-emission trucks into a reality is more complicated than the state’s regulators acknowledge.
“Our concerns are with the design” of the new rule, he said, noting that it sets sales requirements for manufacturers for a range of vehicles, from 18-wheeler trucks to school buses and delivery vans. The regulation requires truck makers to sell a larger percentage of zero-emission vehicles each year, eventually reaching a target of selling all-electric or hydrogen fuel-cell trucks by 2045.
“To California’s credit, they’ve invested a lot in infrastructure and incentives,” Mandel said, but electric trucks are still significantly more expensive than diesel ones. The problem, he said, is “there is no obligation that anyone buy them.”
California regulators hope to spur the market by making diesel-powered trucks obsolete. Later this month, the board is expected to consider a proposal to phase out diesel truck sales by 2040, and other states will likely follow.
But the truck makers’ lobbying group has tried to discourage other states from following California’s lead, telling other environmental regulators to hold off.
“Rushing ahead to adopt California’s rules in New Jersey will lead to major unintended negative consequences that will hurt the economy, the environment, and will set back, not advance, New Jersey’s goals,” EMA and other industry groups wrote last year to New Jersey’s Commissioner of Environmental Protection, Shawn LaTourette.
New Jersey did ultimately adopt California’s clean-truck rule, as did Massachusetts, New York, Oregon and Washington. Together, those states represent about 20 percent of the country’s medium- and heavy-duty truck market.
But other states have opted against it, at least for now.
In Maine, where the Board of Environmental Protection was weighing whether to adopt California’s truck electrification rule late last year, fleet owners and other opponents raised enough concerns to derail the process. “At this time, we have not scheduled any future rulemaking,” Lynne Cayting, an official with the state’s bureau of air quality, said in an email.
Later this fall, the EPA is expected to decide whether to allow California to enforce its new truck rules. That could spark a messy court battle with truck manufacturers, which could have unintended consequences. California air regulators said that if the industry undermines this policy, they would have to crack down harder to combat air pollution — perhaps with an even more aggressive electrification mandate. | 2022-10-18T11:12:35Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Truck makers fight climate rules while touting an electric future - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/10/18/electric-truck-transition/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/10/18/electric-truck-transition/ |
How restaurateur Keem Hughley would spend a perfect day in D.C.
By Priscilla Ward
Keem Hughley. (Shannon Finney/Getty Images/The Recording Academy)
Massive teen parties were the start of Keem Hughley’s 15-year career in hospitality. He and four teenage friends started Team Major, a promotion group that spanned their high school years at what is now known as Jackson-Reed High School and went on for a decade. They threw parties at the now-defunct Zanzibar, drawing upward of 3,000 kids, and promoted go-go concerts and dances around the city. Parties were a gateway to the music industry, and he went on to manage artists with Andre Hopson.
Then Franklin Thompson, an artist and entrepreneur who works under the alias Apt. 50, introduced Hughley to Erik Bruner-Yang, the owner of Maketto. A soccer game with Bruner-Yang scored him the role of events manager at Maketto in 2016, and then director of sales. Now, he’s a partner in the H Street NE restaurant and retail store.
Later this fall, the 31-year-old is opening the doors of his own restaurant, Bronze. The restaurant is located at 1245 H St. NE, inside the former Smith Commons restaurant, just blocks from where Hughley grew up. The 150-seat space with a cocktail bar and back patio will highlight the history of the African diaspora through the lens of Afrofuturism and tell the story of the fictional character Alonzo Bronze.
“I started to realize that Afrofuturism is the vessel that I can tell this story because it really unchains the mind,” Hughley says. He credits Ytasha L. Womack’s book “Afrofuturism: The World of Black Sci-Fi and Fantasy Culture,” the work of author Octavia Butler and artists like Sun Ra as significant sources of inspiration.
“We’ve imagined a new history for our ancestors. One without strife and so much struggle,” he says. “It will be something where people from all walks of life can come in and feel like they will be treated exactly the way that they are supposed to be treated.”
Set on bringing Bronze full scale, the Navy Yard resident spends much of his ideal day in D.C. working on his restaurant.
Let’s pick a Friday. That’s definitely my ideal day. I would get up around 7:45 a.m. and go for a run at 8, around the National Mall and the Wharf. After going for a run, I would go to Heat Da Spot Cafe. I’m doing the French toast platter with a mango smoothie. If I don’t grab breakfast there, I’d head to Maketto and get a chamomile tea and check in with the team.
Then I would walk over to Bronze, which is an active construction site — that’s usually where I would be for the majority of the day. I’m working with the construction teams, assisting chef Toya [Henry] with setting up the kitchen, cocktail R&D with Al Thompson and working via Zoom with our global teams. It really takes a village to open a restaurant.
Then I would go get lunch at Las Placitas, which is on Eighth Street SE. I would order the Tex-Mex fajita. My family has been going there for 31 years, so since they’ve been open, which is really cool.
After that, I would meet up with my wife and we’ll go to the Smithsonian Pollinator Garden. It’s one of my favorite places in D.C., and I appreciate the craft of the gardeners to maintain it year-round.
Then I would head back to Bronze. I’d finish off the construction there and see what is going on with the team. For dinner, I would definitely go to a spot like Cubano’s in Silver Spring, Md., and I’d order the snapper Tropicana.
After dinner, I’d head to Silver Lyan for drinks with a few friends. My favorite cocktail there was the Project Apollo, but it’s sadly not on the menu anymore. I’m always looking forward to trying new cocktails from Clinth Lopez and Ryan Chetiyawardana. For the ultimate day, it would end with strawberry ice cream from Thomas Sweet in Georgetown. | 2022-10-18T11:12:48Z | www.washingtonpost.com | How restaurant owner Keem Hughley would spend a perfect day in D.C. - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/10/18/keem-hughley-dream-day/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/10/18/keem-hughley-dream-day/ |
Race, class and gender shape how we see age and childhood
Assessing age — and protecting children — has always been subjective
Perspective by Bill Bush
Erin Mysogland
A mural dedicated to George Floyd, left, Breonna Taylor, Trayvon Martin and Ahmaud Arbery in Tampa. (Octavio Jones for The Washington Post)
On Jan. 6, 2021, Leonard Pearson “Pearce” Ridge IV, a 19-year-old from Bucks County, Pa., spent nearly 40 minutes in the U.S. Capitol, where he vandalized the offices of Sen. Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. The Department of Justice charged Ridge, who is White, for his participation in the attack. During Ridge’s trial, his attorney cited studies suggesting the brain may not be developed until people reach their mid-20s and stated that Ridge “was extremely young” on Jan. 6. The judge in the case, who stated that “teenage bravado” may have played a role in Ridge’s actions, sentenced Ridge to 14 days in jail, one year of probation, 100 hours of community service and a $1,000 fine.
Three months after the insurrection at the Capitol, a Florida judge ruled that Javarick Henderson Jr., a Black child accused of killing his grandmother at the age of 13, will be tried in an adult court. Henderson, who is housed in a juvenile jail, is charged with first-degree murder, which can carry a sentence of life in prison. Henderson is among an estimated 250,000 youths each year who are tried, sentenced or incarcerated as adults — with young people of color overrepresented in this group.
The cases of Ridge and Henderson demonstrate how other identities, such as race, class and gender, can shape perceptions of age. As a result, a young person’s actual age is sometimes in conflict with how adults, and the larger society, perceive and treat them. While Ridge, at 19, is legally an adult, the deeply entrenched connections between Whiteness, childhood and innocence allowed his attorney to garner sympathy from the judge. On the other hand, in its decision to proceed with an adult trial for Henderson, the Florida legal system drew on a long history of denying Black children the protections granted to White children, which, since the Progressive Era, has included access to the juvenile justice system.
While Western governments have long granted rights and assigned legal protections according to the supposedly objective criteria of chronological age, in practice, assessing age has been far more subjective — and the determination has always privileged some children while discriminating against others. Adult authorities often have used a functional age, filtered through categories of race, class, gender or ability, to make decisions about children and youths that are at odds with their chronological age — what scholars call a “double age.”
An example of how this played out was “age grading.” In the early 19th century, a child’s age took on new importance. In Northern cities, emerging public schools and orphanages began recording age as a measure of maturity or capacity; meanwhile, on Southern plantations and at slave markets, enslavers equated age with property value. Lacking information about children’s birth dates, adult authorities frequently assigned ages to children based on whether they looked or behaved according to a particular chronological age. Assigning an age to a child was important as Americans increasingly associated younger childhood with innocence and protection.
For example, in the late 19th century, the Women’s Christian Temperance Union led a national campaign to raise the age of consent, a history chronicled in a now-classic study. In 1885, most state laws had set the age of consent at a shockingly low 10 years old. (In Delaware, it was 7 years old.) By 1920, all but one state had raised it to 16. Age grading took shape across American society and became normative by the end of the 19th century.
In the early 20th century, psychiatrists invented the now-discredited notion of “mental age” to distinguish so-called “feebleminded” children from their “normal” peers. As a result, many children in schools and mental hospitals found themselves assigned a lower “mental age” than their chronological age. California’s institutions routinely assigned lower “mental ages” to ethnic Mexican children and adolescents on the basis of biased intelligence and psychological tests. This tactic allowed the state to exert greater power over individuals deemed younger than they actually were, often with tragic results — such as forced sterilization operations that disproportionately targeted women and girls of color. In California, for example, which carried out a third of all of the nation’s sterilizations between 1910 and 1960, eugenics leaders pioneered the use of sterilization in juvenile reform schools and mental hospitals, disproportionately targeting ethnic Mexican children and adolescents.
Criminal proceedings also understood the concept of “double age” through the lens of race. In some of the earliest criminal cases brought against Black children in 19th-century America, pseudoscientific claims that Black children matured faster than White children provided the basis for a legal strategy to charge adolescents with adult crimes and impose graver punishments.
The development of the child welfare and juvenile justice systems at the turn of the 20th century reinforced this pernicious form of double age. Progressive “child savers” invented the juvenile court, juvenile probation, supervised recreation and child guidance clinics to protect the working-class children of millions of immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe. But their vision of protected childhood did not include Black or ethnic Mexican children, shutting them out of programs intended to prevent delinquency, shelter children from abuse and neglect, and treat them for mental and emotional trauma. The result was greater and earlier exposure than their White peers to adult sanctions and adult consequences.
Treating Black children as adults while providing extended protections to White children helped reinforce the idea that Whiteness and childhood were linked. During the 1950s, the “teenager” emerged as an archetype for adolescent rebellion, exploration and age-specific culture, but the word, as used in popular media and by policymakers, almost always evoked White, middle-class young people in the new suburbs. Meanwhile, the nation’s juvenile and criminal justice systems imprisoned a growing number of Black and Latino young people, often for nonviolent offenses. In other words, by the 1960s and ’70s, the different treatment that age evoked based on a young person’s race was pervasive.
Since “double age” was so pervasive, advocates for young people sometimes tried to use these notions about age to push for changes. For example, as immigration enforcement ramped up along the U.S.-Mexico border in the 1980s, advocates sometimes infantilized young immigrants, emphasizing their innocence, in an attempt to secure for children of color the protections their White peers enjoyed. While the 1997 Flores settlement is fairly well known for deciding upon protections for detained migrant children, efforts from that era to mobilize around age to end immigration policing as a whole are less well known.
San Diego’s Committee on Chicano Rights denounced the detention of Mexican migrant “babies” at a federal adult prison as a way to mobilize the Mexican American community toward abolishing immigration policing. As a result, some young migrants in detention were moved to foster homes. However, officials excluded some teenage migrants from these foster homes, instead continuing to detain them in adult facilities. Additionally, despite the Flores settlement agreement being implemented years later, the United States continues to detain migrant children and separate them from their families.
Mobilizing around a vision of childhood innocence may seem logical; however, this strategy rarely transforms conditions for youths of color when a discriminatory form of “double age” shapes policy.
This history informs our understanding of the Ridge and Henderson cases. A 19-year-old White man like Ridge can be a legal adult but viewed as “extremely young” for the same reason that a Black child like the 13-year-old Henderson can be charged as an adult: age, and how it functions as a system of power like race and gender. If we want to see children as children, and make judgments about their needs and their agency, we must do so in a way that challenges, rather than reaffirms, the systems of power that have created an unequal concept of childhood throughout our history. | 2022-10-18T11:13:12Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Race, class and gender shape how we see age and childhood - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/made-by-history/2022/10/18/childhood-race-crime-age/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/made-by-history/2022/10/18/childhood-race-crime-age/ |
House Republicans’ agenda probably won’t play a role in the midterms
The ‘Commitment to America’ is based on a myth
Perspective by Robert Fleegler
Robert Fleegler is an associate professor of history at the University of Mississippi.
House Minority Whip Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) addresses Republican congressional candidates in1994 at a rally where they pledged a “Contract With America.” (John Duricka/AP)
In late September, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and his chamber’s Republicans unveiled their “Commitment to America,” an agenda that they hope will propel them to victory in November and then provide a blueprint for governing.
But a myth is driving this effort: that Newt Gingrich and his fellow Republicans captured the House in 1994 for the first time in four decades due to the popularity of their “Contract With America.” In reality, that historic midterm victory had little to do with the Contract — which has major implications for the 2022 midterm elections.
In the early 1990s, a strong anti-establishment mood swept the country. Frustration with persistent budget deficits, political gridlock and the 1990-91 recession contributed to a gloomy outlook regarding the nation’s future. Several highly publicized congressional scandals — including numerous members overdrawing their accounts at the House bank without penalty — exacerbated the cynicism toward the federal government that had prevailed since the Watergate scandal in the early 1970s. Approval of Congress as an institution fell significantly, although many still told pollsters they liked their own representatives.
Some incumbents who had traditionally enjoyed easy reelections suddenly found themselves in more challenging races. In the 1990 midterms, two of the front-runners for the 1992 Democratic presidential nomination suffered significant blows. Sen. Bill Bradley (D-N.J.) nearly lost to the little-known Christie Todd Whitman (who would be elected governor three years later). New York Gov. Mario Cuomo won a third term, but with a relatively weak showing over two uninspiring challengers.
In 1992, Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton ran as a Washington outsider on the mantra of “change” to oust President George H.W. Bush and become the first Democratic president in 12 years. In an even more dramatic illustration of the electorate’s disdain for the status quo, businessman Ross Perot ran one of the most successful third-party campaigns in American history, focusing on the issue of budget deficits. He won 19 percent of the vote despite mysteriously dropping out of the race before later reentering it.
Clinton stumbled early in his presidency, reneging on or failing to carry out some campaign promises, notably including his pledge to overhaul the health-care system. Even one of Clinton’s most significant early achievements — deficit reduction in the form of spending cuts and higher taxes on the wealthy — barely passed on party-line votes. Many Americans were also frustrated with the slow pace of the economic recovery during the first two years of his presidency.
This combination laid the groundwork for Republicans to follow the historical tradition of the party out of power making gains in the midterm elections.
Control of the Senate looked within reach for the GOP, but the 40-seat margin needed to take back the House seemed beyond Republicans’ grasp. Many even thought the House GOP was consigned to be a permanent minority.
Democrats’ dominance in the House depended on several factors: Even as the South increasingly voted Republican in presidential elections, politics were less nationalized than today, enabling Democratic representatives to remain in office by distancing themselves from the national party and using their seniority to bring money home to their districts. Secondly, the GOP leadership had adopted a go-along, get-along approach to relations with their colleagues in the majority, in an effort to have some influence.
But Gingrich had been working for over a decade to change that. He used incendiary language, brass-knuckled tactics and an emphasis on scandal to relentlessly tar Democrats as corrupt and out of touch. In 1989, he had joined the Republican leadership as Whip and engineered the downfall of Democratic House Speaker Jim Wright over a scandal involving book royalties. He wanted to destroy trust in the House, figuring that it would hurt the dominant ruling party and help the GOP wrest away control.
In the fall of 1994, with momentum on their side, Gingrich arranged for more than 300 Republican candidates to sign the “Contract With America” outside the Capitol. In an echo of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s first 100 days as president, the Contract called for the passage of 10 pieces of legislation within the first 100 days of the next Congress. Its proposals represented a conservative wish list, including a balanced-budget amendment, curtailing welfare and cutting taxes. To appeal to anti-Washington sentiment, the Contract also proposed cuts to committee staff and term limits for congressmen to “replace career politicians with citizen legislators.” The Contract’s poll-tested provisions represented a clear attempt to attract Perot voters. To prevent division within the GOP ranks, social issues like abortion were notably absent from the framework.
Gingrich explained that the Contract had two purposes: to ensure the GOP had a “game plan” and a “program” in case they won, which would allow the new freshman class to “be involved in changing the city, not learning how to be part of the city.” The Contract also intended to offer, “a positive set of things” that Americans wanted to serve as a “healthy antidote to the level of anger at Clinton and the level of negativism.”
Facing serious political jeopardy, the Democrats saw the Contract as their lifeline. “There is not a night that I don’t thank God for the Contract,” declared Paul Begala, one of Clinton’s advisers. The Democratic National Committee (DNC) ran ads attacking the promises in the document as a return to “Reaganomics,” claiming it could only be paid for by cuts in Medicare or Social Security.
Not all of the Republicans who signed the Contract campaigned heavily on it. Shortly before the election, David Rosenbaum wrote in the New York Times that, “few Republicans are using the Contract to buttress their campaigns.” One North Carolina candidate who signed it even admitted, “I can’t say that I agree with everything in that contract.”
On Election Day, the GOP victory proved more sweeping than most expected: The party won 54 House seats to retake the chamber. House Speaker Tom Foley (D-Wash.) became the first speaker to lose reelection since the Civil War era. The GOP also won the Senate, taking complete control of Congress for the first time since the 1950s.
A myth soon developed that the Contract had delivered the House to the GOP. But the reality was far more complicated. Turnout was high for a midterm election and the Republican base proved more energized than the Democratic base. The economy played a huge role, as those who hadn’t yet felt the benefits of the recovery went heavily for the GOP. Independents moved to the Republicans and Perot voters went two-to-one for GOP candidates. The nascent conservative talk radio industry provided enough benefits to the GOP that the new House freshman class made host Rush Limbaugh an honorary member.
But the Contract With America didn’t seem to be a major factor. Polls showed 71 percent of the country hadn’t even heard of it. Instead, the anti-establishment mood that predated Clinton’s presidency, and then brought him into office, helped Republicans that cycle.
The 1994 midterms were a seminal election — one that marked a key moment in the nation’s move to a more nationalized politics with homogenous political parties. The GOP made most of its gains in congressional districts that had been trending their way in presidential elections. This included gaining 19 seats in the South, most of which have remained in their column ever since. The days of split-ticket voters who voted one way in presidential elections and another in congressional elections, so common in the 1970s and 1980s, were waning. But that doesn’t mean the GOP’s Contract delivered the victory — far from it.
Yet the myth persists — to the point where McCarthy consulted Gingrich in designing the GOP’s 2022 Commitment to America. But the environment this year is somewhat different: While President Biden’s approval rating is roughly the same as Clinton’s was and the GOP base is fired up, there are far fewer competitive districts than there were in 1994, due to gerrymandering and political sorting. There are also signs that Democratic voters in 2022 are more energized than in 1994 because of the looming presence of former president Donald Trump and the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade.
Yet Republicans may well win the House because they need only a six-seat gain to do so.
If they are victorious this fall, it probably won’t be because of their new agenda, but because of broader structural forces working in their favor. | 2022-10-18T11:13:19Z | www.washingtonpost.com | House Republicans unveiled an agenda. Why it probably won't matter. - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/made-by-history/2022/10/18/contract-with-america-republicans-midterms/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/made-by-history/2022/10/18/contract-with-america-republicans-midterms/ |
In defense of extreme (Democratic) partisanship
Maryland gubernatorial candidate Wes Moore takes a photo with a supporter at a Democratic event in Greenbelt, Md., on Oct. 15. (Robb Hill for The Washington Post)
The Democratic Party’s voters (not necessarily its leaders) are what we want America to be. They are diverse on a number of dimensions, unified around laudable goals such as reducing economic and racial inequality, and actively trying to make the United States the best nation it can be.
The problem is there aren’t enough Democrats to guarantee the defeat of Trumpism.
Because the news media tries to cover both parties equally critically, the story of U.S. politics today is often depicted as an extreme Republican Party facing an almost-as-extreme Democratic Party dominated by over-educated elites who are hostile to the values of average Americans and leave them little choice but to vote Republican. But that’s an attempt to turn a one-sided problem into a two-sided one.
Being a consistent, stalwart Democratic voter today should not be dismissed as being overly partisan or unthinking. It’s common sense.
What unifies Democrats isn’t education or race but policy stances and values. Around 80 percent of Democrats support the Black Lives Matter movement, raising the federal minimum wage to at least $15 per hour, stricter gun laws, free public college, the right to an abortion, higher taxes on the wealthy to redistribute income, and say that increased attention on America’s history of slavery and racism in recent years is a positive development.
Those are not out-there views. The majority of Americans agree with Democrats on nearly all of those positions.
More important, these are the morally correct stands. We tend to think the issues of our day are more nuanced than the issues of past eras. But being deeply committed to ending slavery was a controversial position in the 1850s, as was being deeply committed to ending racial segregation 100 years later. Today, describing the United States as having racial practices and systems that end up maintaining disparities between White and Black people even if individual people are not being explicitly racist (this is what critical race theory essentially argues) is so controversial that it’s being banned from being taught in public schools in conservative areas. But 50 or 100 years from now, I suspect people studying this period of U.S. history will conclude fairly easily that critical race theory was correct and that the bans on teaching it were just an assertion of White power over Black people.
And it’s not just that Democratic voters are on the right side of a host of issues, in a way that is obvious now and will be even clearer in a few decades. It’s also that the Democratic Party is very representative of the broader nation. The Republican Party is way more White (the GOP is about 85 percent White) than the country is (59 percent). About 60 percent of people who voted for Joe Biden in 2020 are White. About 60 percent of Democrats are Christian, Jewish or part of another major religion tradition, compared with around 70 percent of Americans nationally. About half of Democrats have a four-year college degree, as do about 40 percent adults overall.
Democratic voters aren’t perfect. Many of them seem quite comfortable sending their children to schools that are very segregated by race and income. But Democratic activists fully appreciated the danger of Trump and his supporters and rightly started casting Trump-style politics as authoritarian and fascist much earlier than other groups of Americans (like the national news media) did. From the women’s marches at the start of Trump’s presidency to the protests after the killing of George Floyd to the massive turnout in the 2020 elections, Democratic voters have been aggressively acting both to stop radical Republicans from tearing apart what’s already good about America and to push the nation toward being fairer and more equal.
Democratic voters are extremely partisan right now — exactly as they should be, as Republican voters keep nominating Trump-style candidates who won’t even promise to concede defeat if they lose elections. “Maintaining and exacerbating polarization is essential [italics theirs] for a democratic party when it faces an authoritarian party,” political scientists Nathan Kalmoe and Lilliana Mason wrote in their book “Radical American Partisanship,” published earlier this year.
“Radical partisanship is a sign of serious political trouble — save for viewing Republican authoritarianism as a national threat, which is actually part of the solution,” they wrote.
It’s important to separate Democratic voters from Democratic Party leaders. Many of the party’s leaders have not risen to the moment of aggressively fighting Trumpism or of trying to create the more equal America that the millions who attended the Floyd protests throughout the country were demanding. These leaders are still too wedded to bipartisanship, their own wealth and power, the desires of their campaign donors, and their cautious approach to basically any issue that might be controversial. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) most exemplifies what I am criticizing, but President Biden has some of these flaws, too.
These leaders have done little to cultivate the great base that they have — or to really expand it. The Democratic Party leadership in the Trump years has emphasized mundane policies (infrastructure) over an inspiring vision for the United States in 2022. The party’s activists get little direction or engagement from Democratic leaders until election season, when they are barraged with constant emails and text messages imploring them to donate money to the often unexciting candidates the party bosses have settled on.
But there are a few people who are either Democrats or closer to the party than the GOP who are offering an inspired vision and moral leadership, such as the Rev. William J. Barber II, former NAACP Legal Defense Fund president Sherrilyn Ifill, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), and Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).
What those leaders and many Democratic voters seem to understand is that the United States today is in a deep conflict about what the nation should be and whose values it should defend that has echoes of the pre-Civil War and civil rights eras. There are good guys (Democratic voters) and bad guys (Republican politicians.)
But the good guys might not have the numbers to win. In the three elections since Trump took control of the Republican Party, the Democrats have won on average 51 percent of the popular vote, compared with 46 percent for Republicans. That’s not enough in a system with the Senate, the electoral college and other anti-majoritarian features that currently boost the Republicans.
Perhaps those Democratic Party values, laudable as they are, just aren’t shared by enough Americans. Or perhaps many voters don’t perceive the party as putting those values into policies often enough. Alternatively, voters might like some of the Democratic values but still prioritize either the purported values of the Republican Party (self-sufficiency, small government, respect for religion) or its actual ones (defense of the status quo, prioritizing the interests of White Christians.)
Either way, it is possible that Republicans win control of Congress in a few weeks — empowering a party that is increasingly radical and anti-democratic. It’s great that Democratic voters are on the right side of the issues. But at least this November, being right might not be enough. | 2022-10-18T11:13:31Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Democratic voters are what we want America to be. That isn’t enough. - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/10/18/democrats-represent-america-morally-correct-bacon/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/10/18/democrats-represent-america-morally-correct-bacon/ |
Montana Supreme Court Justice Ingrid Gustafson in Polson, Mont., on Sept. 15. (Tailyr Irvine for The Washington Post)
“I wonder how long we’re going to have these institutions at the rate we’re undermining them,” said a Supreme Court justice earlier this year. “And then I wonder when they’re gone or destabilized, what we will have as a country.”
That justice was Clarence Thomas, and what prompted his warning was the leak of a draft opinion overturning Roe v. Wade. The problem, he insisted, was the wrongheaded belief that a Supreme Court now dominated by conservatives is in any way infected by the toxic virus of politics.
But here’s the truth: America already has what are almost certainly the most politicized courts in the entire democratic world. And that politicization is rapidly worsening, especially at the state and local level, rendering them less likely to safeguard our democracy at a moment when it faces unprecedented threats.
Consider a vivid story from Montana, a state dominated by Republicans that has also had plenty of Democratic representation in the recent past; one of its two senators is a Democrat, as were the two governors before the current one. The conservatism that has prevailed there has long been more the leave-us-alone variety than the aggressive, culture war-inflected kind.
But this year, a race for a state supreme court seat has been turned into an almost purely partisan affair, at least from the Republican side. Although, like many judicial elections, the ones in Montana are supposedly nonpartisan, James Brown, who is challenging incumbent justice Ingrid Gustafson, is backed by the Republican governor and most of the state GOP and is promising to turn the court to the right on issues such as abortion and guns.
This year 18 states have state supreme court races on the ballot. In four — Illinois, Michigan, Ohio and North Carolina — the outcome will determine whether control of the state’s highest court flips.
Judicial elections aren’t new; what has changed is that almost everyone has stopped pretending that the courts are anything but political actors. Eight years ago, it was a minor scandal when an Ohio Supreme Court justice said “I am a Republican and you should vote for me” to “keep the Ohio Supreme Court conservative,” but today it would be nothing more than stating the obvious.
Here’s what ought to be obvious, but isn’t: The fact that we elect judges at all is utterly perverse.
Federal judges are appointed by the president, but we hold elections at the state, county and local level for people who will sit on the bench and decide what the law is. While some states hold only retention elections for high courts (in which judges are appointed but then later face an up-or-down vote to hold their seats), only seven states have no judicial elections at all.
There’s almost no other country where they do things this way, aside from a couple of minor exceptions (such as elections for canton-level judgeships in Switzerland). In nearly every other democracy on earth, people would find the idea of having judges run for their offices self-evidently idiotic.
Judges are chosen in a number of ways around the world — independent commissions, appointments by political leaders with certain restrictions and periodic review, and so on. But having judges raise money from people with interests before the court, pander for votes and generally debase themselves before a capricious and ill-informed electorate? Who could possibly think that’s a good idea?
Apparently, we do.
For many years, the system of electing judges did limited damage. Some states have restrictions on how judges campaign that are meant to depoliticize the process, and in general candidates themselves exercised restraint; it was considered bad form to talk too much about political disputes or make promises on how you would rule. Not anymore.
So what we see — as in many other areas — is the convergence of a flawed system, intensified polarization and actors willing to bust through preexisting norms for their own and their party’s advantage. The more polarized the electorate is, the more partisan judges will have to be to get on the bench and stay there.
For all the protestations of people like Thomas, much of the blame should rest with Republicans, from a Supreme Court majority on a mission to pull the country to the right, to Donald Trump’s appointment of partisan hacks to the bench, to the Senate Republicans who made it all happen. The disintegration of the Supreme Court’s legitimacy will almost inevitably filter down to affect how people view the rest of the court system.
But it’s also vital to remember that in 2020, judges at all levels — even some appointed by Trump himself — thwarted his scheme to overturn the election. They did what they were supposed to do, standing up for the rule of law against a partisan power grab.
We’ll face a similar crisis after next month’s election — and even more urgently in 2024. The judiciary will likely be the last bulwark protecting our democracy. What happens if the Republican presidential nominee loses and his supporters challenge the election results in every state he lost? Would state supreme courts resist if they’re controlled by Republicans whose reelection depends on showing loyalty to their party’s cause? Will they even want to? | 2022-10-18T11:13:49Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Judicial elections are a time bomb that could blow up our democracy - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/10/18/judicial-elections-time-bomb-democracy/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/10/18/judicial-elections-time-bomb-democracy/ |
The dread of ‘the teen years’ is misplaced — and holding parents back
Perspective by Kristen Mei Chase
As a mom of three teens and a tween, I’ve gotten my fair share of warnings about this stage in their lives. But no one had yet congratulated me on being a parent of soon-to-be adults until I read the new book “Congrats — You’re Having a Teen!: Strengthen Your Family and Raise a Good Person,” by Kenneth R. Ginsburg. Ginsburg is a pediatrician specializing in adolescent medicine at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
Ginsburg’s newest book underscores his mission to bust the myths parents have about teenagers. According to Ginsburg, changing the way we approach teens could change the world.
“Imagine if people gave parents this book when their kids turned 9 or 10, and told them ‘You’re going to get to see who the adult that you shaped is becoming!’ instead of rolling their eyes and giving them the ‘hang on tight’ lecture,” he told me.
So what are we getting wrong about teens? According to Ginsburg, a whole lot. Ginsburg is hoping we can begin to approach the teen part of our parenting journey with the same excitement and wonder that we do with our toddlers. Teenagers aren’t to be survived, he says. And when we can reframe the way to look at them, we might just be able to see a shift in our culture that could have a powerful impact on our world.
Chase: There was a time when my kids were approaching the teenage years where I wondered whether I really mattered. I know I’m not alone in feeling that way, especially when it feels like teens are pushing us away. So, do we matter in our teens’ lives?
Ginsburg: The answer undeniably is that parents matter as much, if not more than ever, but unfortunately, parents get a lot of information that suggests you don’t. There are two astoundingly rapid times of human development: 0 to 3 years old and the adolescent years. If adults are not involved in the adolescent years, they are missing an opportunity. What parents need are skill sets to help them understand adolescent development, so that they know how best to communicate, and how best to engage.
But it’s so hard when there are so many books out there about teens with “survival” in the title, with people warning you at every turn that you’re about to enter the “twilight zone.”
Ginsburg: I know that can be seen as funny, but I think it’s actually harmful, because it suggests that this is a time where you should be passive or get passive, instead of deeply engaged. As a doctor, I deal with problems for a living, and I understand that all people can have problems at all phases of life. But what I know is that if you label a period of development as a problem, you will have people disengage exactly when they need them to engage. How you handle your teens now will define your relationship when they grow up. If you didn’t allow them to grow — to be independent and to learn how to stand on their own — they could reject you forever.
A 14-year-old’s behavior makes a parent feel like giving up
One of the hardest parts about parenting teens, at least for me, is feeling like they don’t care what we think. That’s not really the case though, right?
Ginsburg: Here’s what I know: parents are the most important people in kids’ lives, and every piece of research says that adolescents care deeply about what their parents think. That’s the fact. Knowing that means we can engage and we can communicate and we can shape.
So why does it feel like they don’t care what we think?
Ginsburg: Adolescence is about becoming increasingly independent, and you've raised these kids in a fluffy nest where you brought them everything they needed, and suddenly they realize they need to become independent. And so what they need to do is begin to imagine the nest is prickly, and think about life without you. In other words, they love you so much that becoming independent from you is scary. So they have to go through a temporary period where they imagine not needing you, even hating you, so that they can learn to fly on their own. Now, how you play this is going to make all the difference. When your kid rejects you, if you say, ‘Well, you know what? I reject you back,’ you've lost.
It’s so hard because it feels so personal. What should parents do instead?
Ginsburg: Parents need to tell themselves that this is their teen’s developmental need, and that their teens are uncomfortable with how much they love their parents. But, as parents, you are never going to stop loving your teens because they know loving them is the most protective force in their life. You’re not taking that away. Instead, you will celebrate their increasing independence.
I admit that there have been times when I’ve asked myself ‘Who are these kids?’ because they seem so different from who they were when they were little. Why is that?
Ginsburg: Yes, there are moments when you may not recognize the child you thought you raised, but remember, adolescence is about answering the fundamental question “Who am I?” And it’s time to try on many hats to imagine who you might be. For that reason, sometimes we don't recognize the child in one particular hat. It’s not a permanent hat, but rather, an experimentation to imagine who they could be. So don't freak out as long as your child is within safe and moral territory.
The bottom line: You know exactly who your child is, and it is the knowledge of who your child is that is the most protective force in their universe. It’s the same child we raised when they were toddlers. Love is seeing someone as they deserve to be seen as they really are, not based on the behavior they might be displaying.
And why do we love? We love so our teens know they’re worthy of being loved. You’re choosing to love them, with knowledge of who your child really is, in all of their goodness and in all of their complexity. You may not like the hat they’re wearing, but you love the child who is wearing it. And when you do that, you give them the security to launch into adulthood. Because when a child knows they’re worthy of being loved, they can handle the universe. | 2022-10-18T11:14:01Z | www.washingtonpost.com | The dread of "the teen years" is misplaced — and holding parents back - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/parenting/2022/10/18/teen-years-dread-parenting/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/parenting/2022/10/18/teen-years-dread-parenting/ |
JAKARTA, Indonesia — The president of soccer’s world governing body met with Indonesia’s president on Tuesday and pledged to help improve stadium safety to prevent a repeat of a tragedy in which police fired tear gas at a match, causing a crush that killed 132 people as spectators attempted to flee. | 2022-10-18T11:14:38Z | www.washingtonpost.com | FIFA vows to improve Indonesian soccer safety after tragedy - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/fifa-vows-to-improve-indonesian-soccer-safety-after-tragedy/2022/10/18/142dfc12-4ed1-11ed-ada8-04e6e6bf8b19_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/fifa-vows-to-improve-indonesian-soccer-safety-after-tragedy/2022/10/18/142dfc12-4ed1-11ed-ada8-04e6e6bf8b19_story.html |
FILE - Miami Dolphins head coach Don Shula, center, is carried off the field after his team won the NFL football Super Bowl game over the Washington Redskins in Los Angeles, Jan. 14, 1973. It’s quite likely no other Miami team will ever live up to that perfect ‘72 Dolphins team. That team has almost taken a larger-than-life meaning in the hearts and minds of sports fans. What that team did 50 years ago was difficult enough, but in today’s NFL it’s a nearly unattainable feat. (AP Photo/File) (Uncredited/AP)
MIAMI — Fifty years ago, members of the 1972 Dolphins team lifted fiery coach Don Shula onto their shoulders for a victory lap out of Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, celebrating not just a Super Bowl victory over Washington, but an emphatic exclamation point on the NFL’s only perfect season. | 2022-10-18T11:14:50Z | www.washingtonpost.com | 50 years later, '72 Dolphins remain unmatched in perfection - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/nfl/50-years-later-72-dolphins-remain-unmatched-in-perfection/2022/10/18/c97330c0-4ecb-11ed-ada8-04e6e6bf8b19_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/nfl/50-years-later-72-dolphins-remain-unmatched-in-perfection/2022/10/18/c97330c0-4ecb-11ed-ada8-04e6e6bf8b19_story.html |
Tuesday briefing: Russia targets Ukraine’s power grid; a possible winter coronavirus surge; NBA season starts tonight; and more
Russia continued attacks on Ukraine’s power grid this morning.
The details: A power facility in Kyiv was hit three times, part of a new Russian strategy. Yesterday’s kamikaze drone strikes killed at least four people.
What else to know: A Russian fighter jet crashed into an apartment complex yesterday in a southern Russian town, killing at least 13 people and injuring 19.
Hundreds of U.S. veterans have taken lucrative jobs with foreign governments.
The details: Over 500 retired military personnel have been hired since 2015, mostly in countries known for human rights abuses, a Washington Post investigation found.
What they do: Most have played key roles in upgrading the militaries of Persian Gulf monarchies like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
How we know this: The Post sued the Army, Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps and the State Department to get this information, which has long been kept secret.
A swarm of coronavirus variants could fuel a surge this winter.
The details: New versions of omicron keep popping up around the world — each different and better at getting around our immune systems.
Why that’s worrying: The virus is changing so quickly it could outpace fall booster shots designed to target omicron variants, though they’re still the best tool we have.
Culture-war laws are changing schools.
What to know: 64 laws have been passed in 25 states over three academic years, The Post found. They’re restricting what students can learn, read and do at school.
Why this matters: Most of the laws bar what sports teams transgender students can join. Others limit teaching on race and LGBTQ issues and are causing teachers to self-censor.
Australia is facing another round of devastating floods.
What to know: Thousands of people have been displaced across Australia’s east. As many as 34,000 homes could be inundated or isolated by floods in the region around Melbourne.
This is unusual: October in Australia is typically hot and dry, but rain has fallen across the entire continent this month. Climate change is worsening the situation, researchers say.
A cold snap is hitting the eastern half of the U.S. this week.
The forecast: Snow is falling in parts of the Great Lakes. Temperatures will be 10 to 20 degrees below average, and 40 million people from Kansas to North Carolina are under freeze warnings.
In the West: A heat wave is breaking records in the Pacific Northwest.
The NBA season starts tonight with two big games.
The schedule: The Philadelphia 76ers play the Boston Celtics at 7:30 p.m. Eastern time; then LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers face Stephen Curry and Golden State Warriors at 10 p.m.
What to watch: How teams respond after a drama-filled offseason and whether the Warriors can defend their championship — or whether we’re in for another unpredictable ride.
And now … student loan forgiveness applications are officially open: Here are the key details. Plus, a fun read: A physicist is making Wikipedia bios for overlooked female scientists. | 2022-10-18T11:15:10Z | www.washingtonpost.com | The 7 things you need to know for Tuesday, October 18 - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/the-seven/2022/10/18/what-to-know-for-october-18/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/the-seven/2022/10/18/what-to-know-for-october-18/ |
Spirit Airlines shareholders expected to vote on JetBlue merger
The air carriers will need to persuade the Biden administration and lawmakers the deal is a win for consumers
A Spirit Airlines plane prepares to take off from Oakland International Airport. JetBlue Airways announced plans to purchase low-cost airline Spirit Airlines, a merger that would create the U.S.'s fifth-largest airline. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
Spirit Airlines shareholders are expected to vote Tuesday on whether to approve a merger with JetBlue Airways, a deal that would create the nation’s fifth-largest carrier, but one that would face intense scrutiny from federal regulators.
Analysts expect Spirit shareholders to vote to approve the merger. Executives at the two airlines said they hope to conclude the regulatory process and close the deal in the first half of 2024.
Winning shareholder approval could be the easy part for airline executives, who will need to persuade the Biden administration and some lawmakers the deal is a win for consumers. The Justice Department has taken an aggressive role in fighting deals it says will reduce competition and harm consumers, including an alliance playing out in a Boston courtroom that also involves JetBlue.
The merger agreement, announced in July, followed months of back-and-forth between the two carriers and Frontier Airlines, which announced its intention to merge with Spirit in February. That proposed deal between two carriers known for low fares seemed likely to win approval from Spirit shareholders until JetBlue made its surprise bid in April.
Frontier and Spirit end merger talks
Spirit initially resisted JetBlue’s overtures, arguing a merger with the New York-based carrier was unlikely to win regulatory approval. But ultimately, the ultra-low-cost carrier was unable to persuade enough of its shareholders to back a merger with Frontier.
Under the terms of the deal, JetBlue would pay Spirit shareholders $33.50 per share in cash. The deal also includes a prepayment of $2.50 once shareholders approve the transaction, plus a “ticking fee” of 10 cents per month starting in January 2023.
JetBlue agrees to buy Spirit Airlines
The proposed merger comes as there are fewer players in the airline industry than years ago, the result of mergers and bankruptcies. According to the Justice Department, the top four airlines had 55 percent of the domestic air travel market in 2000, with a dozen smaller carriers competing for the rest. By 2020, the top four accounted for 81 percent of the market, with the number of smaller competitors dwindling.
The carriers contend the partnership enables them to better compete with larger players, such as Delta Air Lines and United Airlines, which operate more flights in those markets. But the Justice Department argues the arrangement reduces competition and could lead to higher prices in one of nation’s busiest air corridors. The trial, which began late last month, is taking place in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts.
Biden administration challenges American Airlines', JetBlue Airways' Northeast Alliance
JetBlue executives have argued that a merger with Spirit would create an airline better equipped to compete with American, Delta, United and Southwest Airlines, which dominate the industry. Analysts say JetBlue’s aggressive pursuit of Spirit could help to accelerate its growth and potentially shield it from becoming a takeover target itself.
At a time when airlines are struggling to hire and train employees — particularly pilots — a merger would give JetBlue access to experienced aviators and also allow it to expand to key markets, including Chicago, Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston, where it does not have a strong presence. | 2022-10-18T11:15:12Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Spirit Airlines shareholders to vote on JetBlue merger - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/transportation/2022/10/18/spirit-jetblue-shareholder-vote/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/transportation/2022/10/18/spirit-jetblue-shareholder-vote/ |
It’s never too late to benefit from nutritious foods. Switching at even age 60 could add years to your life.
That’s the message from scientists who study how our food choices affect our life spans and our risk of developing diseases. They have found that people can gain sizable health benefits at any age by cutting back on highly processed foods loaded with salt, sugar and other additives and replacing them with more nutritious foods like fruits, vegetables, nuts, beans, lentils, seafood and whole grains.
A healthy food boost at any age
What are ultra-processed foods? What should I eat instead?
Just add nuts, grains, beans and peas
In another study published earlier this year in PLOS Medicine, scientists analyzed large amounts of data on the impact that different foods have on the risk of premature death. Then they used that data, along with other research on deaths and chronic disease rates, to estimate how changes in a person’s diet might influence their life expectancy at different ages.
Eat a handful of nuts every day | 2022-10-18T11:15:18Z | www.washingtonpost.com | At any age, a healthy diet can extend your life - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2022/10/18/healthy-eating-aging/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2022/10/18/healthy-eating-aging/ |
The photo provided by Hong Kong Government Information Services shows the suspected methamphetamine seized at Hong Kong International Airport and the electric transformers used to conceal the drugs in Hong Kong on Oct. 18, 2022. The Hong Kong customs department said Tuesday, Oct. 18, it had seized methamphetamine that could be worth about $5.9 million in the market after its officers uncovered the drug hidden in electric transformers. (Hong Kong Government Information Services via AP) (Uncredited/Hong Kong Government Information Services) | 2022-10-18T11:15:36Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Hong Kong seizes drugs hidden in electric transformers - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/hong-kong-seizes-drugs-hidden-in-electric-transformers/2022/10/18/3b610bbc-4ed1-11ed-ada8-04e6e6bf8b19_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/hong-kong-seizes-drugs-hidden-in-electric-transformers/2022/10/18/3b610bbc-4ed1-11ed-ada8-04e6e6bf8b19_story.html |
The Philadelphia Phillies' upset the Atlanta Braves in four games. Then they partied. (Matt Rourke/AP)
The 111-win Los Angeles Dodgers are out. The 87-win Philadelphia Phillies are in. The 101-win New York Mets and Atlanta Braves are out. The 89-win San Diego Padres are in. Baseball’s postseason isn’t broken. It’s beautiful.
This is the first season of Major League Baseball’s doubly expanded postseason — not just with two wild-card games but with four opening-round series. And with the league championship series almost upon us, there’s angst that the regular season produced four 100-win teams — and three of them are out?
The answer to that: Win games. Don’t lose. Stay alive. Find a way.
Sports are a meritocracy. So what if the baseball postseason is a compressed version? Results over a 162-game season don’t need to conform to results in five- or seven-game series. Often, they don’t. If they did, it would be boring. Because they don’t, it’s enthralling.
The Dodgers won those 111 games — more than any team in a regular season since 2001 — and they’re supposed to need extra advantages once the playoffs arrive? The extra advantages are baked in — their talent and experience. Failing to advance isn’t the fault of the format. Failing to advance is the fault of the team. Prefer to move on? Don’t blow a three-run, seventh-inning lead in Game 4.
The NBA playoffs are “fair,” right? All four rounds are seven games, and the No. 1 seed, which has proved its superiority over 82 games, has advantages in both home court and talent over the eighth-seeded also-rans. Since the playoffs expanded to 16 teams in 1983-84, just five top seeds have fallen in the first round — and some of those upsets arrived when the opening round was still best of five. More than that: Just five No. 7 seeds have beaten No. 2 seeds.
That’s fair? That’s dull. Why have so many teams in the playoffs if only half of them have a shot at winning? Money, obviously, because more games mean more product for TV, and that’s a force that’s undefeated. Still, only one No. 8 seed in the NBA has even reached the Finals, and none have won. They’re fodder.
The baseball playoffs are not just different. They’re better. The most recent, just-changed format began in 2012, when a second wild-card team was added to create Octobers that began with two one-game playoffs — two Game 7s to start everything off. In the nine seasons of that format (excluding the 2020 covid-shortened season, in which the playoffs were expanded further), wild-card winners went on to win the best-of-five division series nine times and lose nine times. Three have reached the World Series, and two — the 2014 San Francisco Giants and 2019 Washington Nationals — won the whole darn thing.
Is that tilted in favor of the wild cards? That seems tilted in the favor of competition that’s not predetermined. Everyone has a chance.
There’s an old saying so common that it's a bit cliche, but my feelings about cliches are that they’re overused for a reason: They’re often true. This one: It’s not who you play; it’s when you play them.
The Dodgers were 14-5 against the Padres in the regular season. It’s actually lovely that such dominance doesn’t automatically translate to the postseason. The Braves beat the Phillies five out of seven times in September, a big part of their come-from-behind surge to take the National League East from the Mets. Suddenly, there’s something unjust about them losing three of four to Philadelphia in the playoffs?
The reward for the regular season now is a bye in the opening round, and in an age when pitchers are fragile and injuries common, that off time — to reset the rotation and the bullpen, to rest bodies and minds — could be essential. Yes, baseball’s regular season is built on a relentless rhythm. Interrupting that could be disruptive? Maybe. But the Dodgers won Game 1 over the Padres, the New York Yankees won Game 1 over the Cleveland Guardians, and the Houston Astros — who followed their 106-win regular season with five days of rest — responded to that disruption by sweeping Seattle.
One solution to a problem that doesn’t need solving seems to be to make the division series best-of-seven. Baseball prides itself on avoiding evaluations based on small sample sizes. October inherently involves small sample sizes. Is best-of-seven a more fair determination of who’s better than best-of-five? Sure, I guess. But why aren’t we then wondering about best-of-nine?
“The division series has been five games for a long time, as far as I know,” Atlanta Manager Brian Snitker said. “You know what? I think the system’s fine.”
Indeed it is.
“Because this is a new format, at the end of all this, everyone is going to analyze it and probably, frankly, overanalyze it some,” Yankees Manager Aaron Boone said over the weekend, when his 99-win team was pushed to the brink by the 92-win Cleveland Guardians. “I think you have to do it for years to really get a real firm grasp on it. There’s nothing for us that’s been, you know, like we shouldn’t be able to be successful.”
Win. The. Games. It’s the only way to last in October.
Oh, did I say October? Sorry. I meant October and November. If the World Series goes seven games, more will be played in November than October. Game 7 would be Nov. 5. Yeah, some of that is because the season started late because of MLB’s labor dispute. (Remember that?)
Still, the 2023 regular season opens March 30 and concludes Oct. 1. The postseason schedule for next year isn’t out yet, but follow the regular format, and given the extra games in the opening round, Game 7 would almost certainly be scheduled for Nov. 1. You want to lengthen the first round and take the chance of regularly playing World Series games deeper into November in, say, Detroit or Boston? I mean, I know the planet’s getting warmer. Still.
If the Phillies win the whole thing, they would have the fewest regular season victories of any champion in the wild-card era. Indeed, had the playoffs been formatted as they were a year ago, the Phillies wouldn’t have qualified.
Would that make them an illegitimate World Series champion? Hardly. No one has taken away the trophy from the 2006 champion St. Louis Cardinals, who went 83-78 in the regular season — and won anyway. The 1987 Minnesota Twins are still heroes in the land of 10,000 lakes, even though they went 85-77 over the summer, then blitzed the favored Detroit Tigers in the American League Championship Series before taking the title.
Upsets are among the best things about sports. If this October has you disconsolate about a particular result, your ire should be directed at the teams who were supposed to avoid them, not the format in which they were staged — which everyone knew from the first day of spring training and has already provided a thrilling month. | 2022-10-18T11:55:43Z | www.washingtonpost.com | The MLB playoffs are beautiful, not broken - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/10/18/mlb-playoff-format-upsets/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/10/18/mlb-playoff-format-upsets/ |
Samanta Schweblin’s ‘Seven Empty Houses’ will keep readers guessing
Review by Cory Oldweiler
(Riverhead)
As Halloween hype intensifies throughout October, fiction fans are blessed with a cornucopia of spine-tingling titles, whether its Mary Shelley’s monster masterpiece, Stephen King’s boundless terrors, Daisy Johnson’s paranormal gems or countless eerie offerings from other authors. But sometimes the most uneasy feelings can be elicited by scenarios that don’t involve anything out of the ordinary. In three Man Booker International Prize-nominated works, including the novel “Little Eyes” and the short story collection “Mouthful of Birds,” the Argentinian author Samanta Schweblin has straddled a subtly supernatural line at times, but her newest collection may be her most unsettling, and there is nothing unnatural about it.
The spectacular and strange stories in “Seven Empty Houses,” translated by Schweblin’s longtime English translator Megan McDowell, pertain to nothing more mysterious than mistaken perceptions, debilitating grief and the often-torturous passage of time. Bizarre behavior abounds, like a woman burying a stolen sugar bowl in her backyard or another repeatedly throwing her dead son’s clothes over the neighbor’s fence, but the actions always derive from humanity that is simply fragile, flawed or lost.
Each story centers on a relationship where one of the parties is a woman at sea within her own mind, acting on convictions both founded and false. These characters are not intentionally malevolent, yet they cause — and carry — real pain. Schweblin is particularly focused on the anguish that arises from disruptions in the natural order of things, like when a child dies before their parents.
In “None of That,” a daughter resignedly accompanies her mother, who “is not well,” on their peculiar pastime: visiting other people’s houses so her mother can amend them, by moving a sprinkler, removing unsuitable flowers and the like. This time her mother crosses “a big line,” however, sneaking into a luxurious house while its owner is distracted by trying to help her. The daughter finally gets her mother to leave, but she doesn’t go empty-handed, claiming an unexceptional memento that is actually priceless.
In “My Parents and My Children,” police join the search for two kids who were last seen with their grandparents, which wouldn’t normally cause concern except that all four seem to have taken off their clothes. The children’s mother is despondent, but her ex-husband assures her that it is more innocent than lurid, that his aging parents may be “sick” but they’re harmless.
The precarious lives of children are even more starkly highlighted in “An Unlucky Man,” in which 3-year-old Abi drinks bleach on her sister’s eighth birthday. Speeding to the hospital, the birthday girl is made to remove her underwear so her father can wave them out the car window, a white flag as he wends through traffic. Alone in the waiting room, knees pressed “together tightly,” a man sits down and offers her ice cream. After initially balking because he’s a stranger, the birthday girl reveals her predicament, and he offers to help. The tension increases steadily before an exhilaratingly unexpected turn in a revelatory concluding sentence.
Schweblin’s ability to upend readers’ emotional stability with a single phrase is never better displayed than in the collection’s standout, “Breath From the Depths,” a wrenching depiction of grief and mental decline. Lola, married for 57 years, has never been able to move past the long-ago loss of her young son. “She wanted to die so badly, she’d wanted it for so many years, and yet her body just went on deteriorating, more than she would have thought possible. A deterioration that led nowhere.” When a single mom and her boy move in next door, Lola imagines herself increasingly under attack, both from the new neighbors and from her husband’s friendliness toward them. This inability to distinguish reality from paranoia accelerates after a robbery in the neighborhood, with devastating consequences.
Lola and several other characters throughout the collection believe that moving forward — whether toward contentment, acceptance or the next life — requires organizing their affairs. For Lola, this settling of accounts is quite literal, as she obsessively classifies and boxes up everything in the house, trying to get rid of the physical possessions that she sees as standing between herself and death.
Sometimes the barrier to actualization is as simple as a layer of clothing, as with a woman who leaves an argument with her husband wearing only her bathrobe and finds an “extraordinary state of alertness, [that] frees me from any kind of judgment.” Less is not more for everyone, however. One woman sells her wedding ring in a failed attempt to buy happiness, but then realizes people “were there to care for their things, and in exchange those things sustained them.”
The collection, which is a finalist for the National Book Award for translated literature, is made more disturbing by all the things Schweblin doesn’t clarify, by the common threads that are not tied-off with pretty bows, by the unanswered questions that allow readers to relate the fates of the book’s characters to those of their own parents, spouses, friends or neighbors. The most disquieting realization of all is perhaps the fact that any of these scenarios could arrive at any moment, not only during the spookiest time of the year.
Cory Oldweiler’s writing has appeared in the Star Tribune, the Los Angeles Review of Books and the Boston Globe.
By Samanta Schweblin; translated by Megan McDowell | 2022-10-18T12:21:50Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Seven Empty Houses by Samanta Schweblin book review - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/2022/10/18/samanta-schweblin-seven-empty-houses-review/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/2022/10/18/samanta-schweblin-seven-empty-houses-review/ |
Tulsi Gabbard, former Representative from Hawaii, speaks during the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Orlando, Florida, U.S., on Friday, Feb. 25, 2022. Launched in 1974, the Conservative Political Action Conference is the largest gathering of conservatives in the world. (Photographer: Bloomberg/Bloomberg)
The truth is that for some 30 years it has been hard to find examples of Republican politicians who were shunned by the party for being too irresponsible or too radical.(1)
Is Putin Crazy Enough to Want Nuclear Armageddon?: Tobin Harshaw
What Biden Should Make of Erdogan’s Bluster: Bobby Ghosh
(1) Hard, but not impossible. First-term GOP representative Madison Cawthorn was defeated in a primary this year after the party turned sharply against him, perhaps because he accused congressional Republicans of sexual perversion and drug use. Many Republicans also turned against Iowa Rep. Steve King after he made repeated bigoted statements. | 2022-10-18T12:43:37Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Reward Demagogues, Get More Demagogues - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/reward-demagogues-get-more-demagogues/2022/10/18/b477d77e-4ee0-11ed-ada8-04e6e6bf8b19_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/reward-demagogues-get-more-demagogues/2022/10/18/b477d77e-4ee0-11ed-ada8-04e6e6bf8b19_story.html |
(Tomas Anderson/Alamy Stock Photo)
Frequent use of chemical hair-straightening products could put women at a higher risk of developing uterine cancer than those who don’t use such products, a major study by the National Institutes of Health found.
Although the study did not find that the relationship between straightener and uterine cancer differed by race, it warned that the impacts may be greater for Black women because of a higher prevalence of use among that population.
The study tracked 33,497 women in the United States between the ages of 35 and 74 as they used hair dyes, straighteners, relaxers or pressing products for, on average, over a decade. About 60 percent of the participants self-identified as Black women in the study, which was published in the peer-reviewed Journal of the National Cancer Institute on Monday — with 378 uterine-cancer cases diagnosed over that time.
“We estimated that 1.64% of women who never used hair straighteners would go on to develop uterine cancer by the age of 70; but for frequent users, that risk goes up to 4.05%,” lead author Alexandra White, from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, said in a statement. “This doubling rate is concerning. However, it is important to put this information into context — uterine cancer is a relatively rare type of cancer.”
“Hair products may contain hazardous chemicals with endocrine-disrupting and carcinogenic properties,” the report said. “Previous studies have found hair product use to be associated with a higher risk of hormone-sensitive cancers including breast and ovarian cancer; however, to our knowledge, no previous study has investigated the relationship with uterine cancer.”
Che-Jung Chang, a study author and research fellow, noted that the findings are especially relevant for Black women because they “use hair straightening or relaxer products more frequently and tend to initiate use at earlier ages than other races and ethnicities.”
Despite a growing natural-hair movement, many Black people in the United States and elsewhere have faced discrimination at school and work for wearing their hair that way, with some saying they receive better treatment when they straighten. And damage caused by heat and chemical straightening has long been a concern for Black women.
Uterine cancer accounts for just over 3 percent of all new cancer cases in the United States, according to the U.S. National Cancer Institute, with recent studies showing incidence rates on the rise in the country, particularly among Black women.
Cancer of the uterus is the most common gynecologic cancer in the United States, according to the Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention. In 2019, the latest year for which data is available, 59,450 new cases of uterine cancer were reported among U.S. women, and 11,556 died of it.
The study did not identify specific brands or ingredients used by the participants but noted that several chemicals in straighteners may contribute to the increased risk, such as parabens, bisphenol A, metals and formaldehyde. It called for more research “to identify specific chemicals driving this observed association.”
“More research is needed to confirm these findings in different populations, to determine if hair products contribute to health disparities in uterine cancer, and to identify the specific chemicals that may be increasing the risk of cancers in women,” added White, the lead author. | 2022-10-18T12:43:39Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Chemical hair-straightening linked to uterine cancer, study warns Black women - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/10/18/chemical-hair-straightening-uterine-cancer-black-women-nih/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/10/18/chemical-hair-straightening-uterine-cancer-black-women-nih/ |
Henry Louis Gates Jr.: Why it’s essential to know more about our ancestors
Henry Louis Gates Jr. is a professor, historian and documentary filmmaker. (Tony Luong for The Washington Post Magazine)
Henry Louis Gates Jr., 72, is a professor, historian and documentary filmmaker. His PBS series “Finding Your Roots” returns for its ninth season in January, and his latest documentary series, “Making Black America: Through the Grapevine,” debuted on PBS this month.
How did you come up with the idea for “Finding Your Roots”?
I was just standing in the bathroom, and the idea, it was like a gift from God, it just came from nowhere. I knew it was such a good idea, I stood there with tears running down my face. I would get eight prominent African Americans, and I would trace their ancestry, until we hit the brick wall of slavery, which it does for every African American. And then when the paper trail was exhausted, I would do their DNA search and see what ethnic group they were from in Africa. That was the whole idea, and it was born in the year 2003, in the middle of the night in my bathroom.
How did the DNA discoveries impact you?
Well, after I started filming, they started analyzing my DNA, and it turned out that I am one of the relatively few African Americans who on his mother’s side is not descended from a Black woman but from a White woman who was Irish or English, probably was an indentured servant, back a couple hundred years ago. She had a baby with a Black enslaved man, probably in Maryland, which is where my family has been for time immemorial. And guess what? The same thing is true for my Y DNA. My Y DNA also descends from a European. But I am not alone. About 35 percent of all African American men also descend from a White man who impregnated a Black woman on their father’s side during slavery. Isn’t that fascinating?
Carter G. Woodson said: A people cannot know its future until it knows its past. And if that’s true of ethnic groups, it’s certainly true of us as individuals. And it doesn’t mean that you are confined by what your ancestors did. But often traumas, although people never talked about them, have trickled down through the branches of your family tree, almost by osmosis. The way that you celebrate Christmas or the foods that you cook, the foods that you eat, the way that you worship. Even the way that you use language, these things have been inherited, invisibly, from our ancestors. So the more you learn about those ancestors, the more you learn about yourself. And collectively the more we as Americans learn about our ancestry, the more we get an accurate picture of what it means to be American. And to be an American means, by definition, that you are multicultural and at the level of the genome — multiethnic. That’s just the way it is.
I have to admit, your show sparked an interest in my family, and we’ve been trying to track down our ancestry for years. We had my uncle do 23andMe, since he is the only one who carries my grandfather’s Y DNA, and I’m fascinated by how the technology continues to evolve. You go back a year later, and the website can tell you more and more.
Yes, it’s because the more people who are in the database, the more the ratios, the percentages change. My hope is that every African American will be tested because now they can tell you so much more about where your ancestors are from. And it’s a common mistake that people make to think that these DNA tests are telling them what race their ancestors were — they’re not. They never use races. What they do is talk about geographical locations, and where your ancestors were living two or three or four hundred years ago, through your DNA. They map it onto the names of countries now, so they will say they were living in Ireland. Or they were living in Scotland. Or they were living in eastern Nigeria or whatever. And what’s interesting about this, too, is that the DNA science has developed at the same time that our knowledge of the origins of the African people in the slave trade has expanded exponentially because of a reference tool called the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database. So for instance we now know, what ports our enslaved ancestors were shipped out of in Africa and where they arrived in the United States and when.
And so I started only doing African Americans, and I did Oprah, and Chris Tucker and Bishop T.D. Jakes and my Yale classmate Ben Carson, and, you know, it was a big hit. And then I got a letter from a woman saying: Dr. Gates, I’ve always admired your work in multiculturalism and cultural diversity, but after watching two seasons I’ve decided you’re a big fat racist because you only do Black people. Why don’t you do Jewish people like me? Why don’t you do Asian people?
So we talked about it at PBS, and we decided we were going to expand the brand, as it were. And that was like a smash hit. Everywhere I go people stop me. People can have ”Make America Great Again” hats on, and they stop me and they say, Well, I don’t agree with your politics, but I love your TV show. What started just to give African Americans knowledge about our ancestry in Africa has really become a vehicle for everybody to learn about their roots because I naively thought that only African Americans were ignorant of their roots, but everybody is. When I sit down with our guests. They know the names of their grandparents, maybe their great grandparents, that’s it. So our team goes to work, we find their ancestors, and we turn them into stories.
I think the popularity of “Finding Your Roots” has to do with the two motifs. The first lesson is that America is a nation of immigrants. Even our ancestors, yours and mine, they were immigrants; they were not willing immigrants, they were unwilling immigrants, of course — our Black ancestors. Because you, like me, have White ancestors as well. The DNA companies will tell you, almost never, if ever, have they tested an African American who is 100 percent sub-Saharan African. And I never have. All of our Black guests have some White ancestry. So the first lesson is that we were all immigrants. Even Native Americans came here 15,000 years ago across the Bering Strait.
The second lesson is that we are all hybrids. If you go back far enough, we are all mixed up in each other’s genomes. And third is at the level of the genome we are 99.99 percent the same as human beings despite our apparent physical differences. And those are the lessons of finding your roots. I think it’s a way, precisely at a time when the country is riven by political discord and xenophobia and ethnic scapegoating, it’s a healing mechanism; it is a way to remind Americans that we are all in this together. We are all human beings together.
In your new documentary series “Making Black America,” you’re focusing on Black culture, organizations and social networks.
For so many people, scholars and members of the general public, the African American experience is one primarily characterized by trauma, pain, anxiety, pathology, depravation. And, of course, the ways that our ancestors heroically fought back against slavery and against Jim Crow, segregation and white supremacy. But as you know, and as I know, Black people didn’t just sit around and talk about white racism. Life behind the veil, to use W.E.B. Du Bois’s metaphor, was full of joy and love and entertainment. Our people, within a segregated world, created one of the world’s truly great cultures. Truly great art forms like the spirituals, the blues, jazz, dance and Black forms of worship. So I ask the question: What did Black people do when the color curtain came crashing down? What did our ancestors do behind the veil? As best they could replicate the larger White world from which they had been excluded.
Our community was cemented through an invisible network broadly termed the grapevine. And we all know about Marvin Gaye and Gladys Knight, “I Heard It Through the Grapevine.” But guess what? John Adams discussed the grapevine in his diary in 1775. A few months after the battles of Lexington and Concord he said, Black people — and I’m quoting — have a beautiful “art of communicating intelligence among themselves. It will run several miles, in a week or fortnight.” And then in 1901 Booker T. Washington named it the “grapevine telegraph.” He said: “Though I was a mere child during the preparation for the Civil War and during the war itself, I now recall the many late-at-night whispered discussions that I heard my mother and the other slaves on the plantation indulge in. These discussions showed that they understood the situation and that they kept themselves informed of events by what was termed the ‘grapevine telegraph.’ ”
And so for ages I wanted to make a series about what Black people did when no White people were around. And the series opens with four people playing bid whist. Bid whist, for our generation, was the national Black pastime. Making Black America meant erecting churches, building schools and universities, and organizing a labor movement, even drag balls, beauty pageants, nightclubs and creating holidays. We touch on all Black organizations going back to 1775. We have Black golf associations, Black bridge associations, even a Black skiing association. And then we had our own vacations spots, including Highland Beach in Maryland, Sag Harbor on Long Island and most famously the Inkwell in Martha’s Vineyard.
So we start from the original grapevine in slavery formed by 1775 and go all the way to Black Twitter. Black Twitter is just the grapevine digitized, the grapevine on steroids. And I did it to show our culture, contrary to what many social scientists said, we are not a product of pathology. We created a vibrant, resonant culture as noble and as exemplary as any on the face of the earth. We created what Du Bois called, “a small nation of people.” Or what Martin Delany called “a nation within a nation.”
And is this an evolving story? You could make the argument that some of institutions and organizations are not as strong they once were. Many have said that integration weakened these institutions.
Yes. That is a key question. I was watching the “PBS NewsHour” the other day, and they did a feature focusing on the HBCUs. I think they said that applications to the HBCUs are up 30 percent. The HBCUs have never had a larger applicant pool. In fact, many leaders of the race thought that after Brown v. Board, the Black colleges and universities would fold because they had been created out of the necessity caused by segregation. But the HBCUs are still creating more Black doctors and lawyers and engineers than historically White schools. When I go to Martha’s Vineyard, never have there been more Black people who are owning homes on Martha’s Vineyard, though Martha’s Vineyard is integrated. Oak Bluffs and particularly the Inkwell, the traditional Black section on the beach, they have never been more populated by Black people. Many Black people, as soon they were they were able to, they moved out of the inner city to suburbs, but many continued to worship at Black churches. They would come to Harlem and go to Abyssinian Baptist Church. So now we have a choice. It’s the difference between enforced segregation and willing association, and our people are willingly associating because we love Black culture.
What’s the mission for why you make these documentaries?
Well, my mission is to show that African American history is American history. In my day job, I’m a teacher. I make these series to teach Americans about the complex history of race in America. I want to expose them to the culture and social institutions that people of color created behind the color line. And I want to show them how our people fought back against white supremacy in all of its hideous forms. I want to do all of that at one time. Because there is no American history without the story of the Black people, who helped to create it. So I am very much concerned with integrating the African American story into the American story, and the American story into the African American story.
Robin Rose Parker is a writer in Maryland. This interview has been edited and condensed. For a longer version, visit wapo.st/magazine.
Ex-Fed economist offers odds on avoiding a recession: ‘Less than 50-50’ | 2022-10-18T12:43:41Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Henry Louis Gates Jr.: Why it’s essential to know more about our ancestors - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/magazine/2022/10/18/henry-louis-gates-race-finding-your-roots/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/magazine/2022/10/18/henry-louis-gates-race-finding-your-roots/ |
Democrats promised ethics reforms. They have failed to deliver.
The Trump International Hotel in Washington on March 4, 2021. (Julio Cortez/AP)
It should come as no surprise that Donald Trump used his presidency as a personal piggy bank, routing events to his hotel properties and gouging the U.S. Secret Service for lodging. The Post reports on newly obtained records: “In 40 cases the Trump Organization billed the Secret Service far higher amounts than the approved government rate — in one case charging agents $1,185 a night to stay at the Trump International Hotel in D.C.”
What should be shocking, however, is Congress’s failure to address executive branch corruption over the last two years.
The House did manage to pass the Protecting Our Democracy Act (PODA), which contains many tough anticorruption provisions that would have prevented Trump or another greedy president from making money off of his office. But the Senate’s version of the reforms, whittled down to a couple of limited provisions regarding inspectors general powers in the intelligence community and an anti-impoundment measure, has gone nowhere.
For example, the profits that Trump made off his properties while in office, including from foreign officials staying at his hotels, clearly violated the Constitution’s Emoluments Clause. But he was never held accountable for this. Multiple lawsuits were brought against Trump for his business dealings, but Trump ran out the clock.
As the nonpartisan group Protect Democracy explained, PODA would have addressed this by codifying “constitutional prohibitions on foreign and domestic emoluments, by expressly prohibiting federal officers from receiving most foreign emoluments absent prior congressional consent, and prohibiting the president specifically from accepting domestic emoluments.” It also would have mandated disclosures of possible emoluments and authorized enforcement through the Office of Government Ethics, with “a right of action for the House and Senate to sue for violations of the statute and setting expedited procedures for such suits, including hearings before three-judge panels reviewable only by the Supreme Court.”
But it has never come to a vote in the Senate. As such, future presidents will be able to follow Trump’s example and exploit the absence of an enforcement mechanism for the Emoluments Clause. Senate Democrats haven’t even brought it to the floor to force Republicans to vote it down (which they almost certainly would have, for fear of upsetting Trump).
The failure of the Senate to take up PODA also means that the bill’s common sense and overwhelmingly popular requirement for the president and vice president to disclose 10 years of tax returns has gone nowhere. (This would serve as a major deterrent for Trump to run for a second term, given New York state’s civil suit against him and others in his business alleging financial fraud.)
Same goes for proposals to add teeth to the Hatch Act, which prohibits executive branch employees from using federal funds, property and employee time for political activities. Violations of the Hatch Act were routine during the Trump years, ranging from senior White House officials advocating for candidates on TV to Trump commandeering the White House for the Republican National Convention in 2020.
PODA could expressly apply the Hatch Act to the president, vice president and other top White House officials. It could empower a special counsel to investigate senior officials’ violations, set stiff monetary fines, require reporting to Congress and create a court enforcement mechanism. But again, it’s languishing in the Senate. There is nothing to dissuade future presidents from once more diverting federal property and personnel for explicitly partisan purposes.
If Democrats hold one or both houses of Congress, they might be able to revisit these positions in the next session. But a GOP-controlled Congress would prevent such a bill from ever coming to the floor.
Come to think of it, Democrats still need to take a vote on the bipartisan bill to crack down on stock trading among members of Congress and their families. While Congress has accomplished a raft of important legislation over the last two years — from the infrastructure package to investment in green energy to limits on prescription drug prices — it gets a stark “incomplete” or failing grade on ethics reform. | 2022-10-18T12:44:08Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Democrats promised ethics reforms. They have failed to deliver. - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/10/18/trump-secret-service-democrats-ethics-reform/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/10/18/trump-secret-service-democrats-ethics-reform/ |
Kevin McCarthy weighs future of special committee on climate change
Good morning and welcome to The Climate 202! Today we're wishing a happy 50th anniversary to the Clean Water Act, which Congress passed on this day in 1972. 🥳
In other news, we're thrilled that Tim Puko is joining The Washington Post as a climate correspondent. You'll probably read his work in this newsletter soon. But first:
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy weighs whether to keep Select Committee on the Climate Crisis
When House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) created a special committee to examine climate change in 2019, the panel's days seemed numbered.
If Republicans regained control of the House, many observers assumed, they would immediately scrap the Select Committee on the Climate Crisis, since the GOP has historically opposed ambitious measures to tackle global warming.
But House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), who hopes to become speaker if Republicans pick up enough seats in the midterms, has not yet decided whether to keep the committee, according to three people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the private discussions.
Some Republican lawmakers, including Rep. Garret Graves (La.), who would become chair of the committee, have privately urged McCarthy to keep the panel, according to one of the individuals.
If the panel does exist in the new Congress, it would likely look dramatically different and focus on policies scientists warn would exacerbate not ease the climate crisis. The committee would probably focus, in part, on boosting America's oil and gas production, despite the scientific consensus that the world needs to rapidly phase out fossil fuels to avert a climate catastrophe.
And the panel would probably have a different name, such as the Select Committee on Energy Security and Independence, that does not contain the word “climate,” the people familiar with the matter said.
The fact that McCarthy might be open to keeping the committee, even with less of a climate focus, signals that GOP leadership recognizes the value of carving out a Republican agenda on environmental issues, said George David Banks, who served as a White House climate adviser under former president Donald Trump.
“It's in the GOP's interest to maintain some form of the committee to help educate the American public on the advantages of the Republican approach on climate, energy and economic security policy,” Banks said.
Marty Hall, the former Republican staff director for the Select Committee on the Climate Crisis, noted that it's still early for GOP leadership to be deciding the committee's fate.
“It's a little premature because the speaker is the one who picks select committees,” Hall said. “You really don't want to have that conversation until after the election.”
A spokesperson for McCarthy declined to comment, while a spokesperson for Graves did not respond to a request for comment.
Touting fossil fuels
If Republicans keep the committee, they would probably pursue aspects of McCarthy's “Commitment to America” agenda, which details the party's priorities if it takes control of Congress after the midterms.
In June, as part of that agenda, McCarthy unveiled a climate and energy strategy that called for increasing domestic fossil fuel production and boosting exports of U.S. liquefied natural gas. Proponents argue that U.S. LNG is cleaner than gas produced in other countries, despite warnings from scientists about the need to quit fossil fuels altogether.
“In the 118th Congress, House Republicans will focus on our commitment to America, which could include realigning the committee's priorities to offer real and innovative solutions like unleashing American LNG and carbon capture,” Rep. Carol Miller (R-W.Va.), a member of the Select Committee on the Climate Crisis, said in a statement.
“Under Chairman Graves, I’m confident a select committee would be a platform for Republicans to highlight our energy agenda, engage industry stakeholders and experts, and offer the American people real results,” Miller added.
So far under the leadership of Chair Kathy Castor (D-Fla.), a Pelosi ally, the Select Committee on the Climate Crisis has held several hearings on the benefits of bold climate action. In 2020, the panel's Democratic staff also released a 547-page action plan with detailed policy recommendations for reducing emissions and bolstering clean energy.
Castor said in a statement that read in part: “We know there is more work ahead and will continue to urge our Republican colleagues to actually vote in favor of cost-saving and lifesaving climate solutions.”
‘That stinkin’ committee'
The select committee has a long and winding history. In 2007, when Pelosi created the panel, it was called the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming and chaired by then-Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.).
Republicans disbanded the committee when they took control of the House in 2010. Then in 2019, when Pelosi reestablished the committee, she faced questions about whether it would overlap with existing panels, including the Energy and Commerce Committee and the House Natural Resources Committee.
GOP leadership could face similar questions if they keep the panel in the new Congress. But Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.), who could become chair of the Energy and Commerce Committee if Republicans take the House, noted that the select committee lacks the authority to advance legislation to the House floor.
“The climate Select Committee did not have legislative authority, and I do believe it's important that the authorizing committee, the Energy and Commerce Committee, keeps the authority to legislate,” McMorris Rodgers said in an interview last week.
Meanwhile, a House Democratic aide expressed skepticism that GOP lawmakers would pursue serious climate solutions if they retain the panel.
“Half of what they say on that stinkin’ committee is that they don’t think climate change is that big of a problem,” the aide said.
Treasury takes next step to assess climate-related financial risk
The Treasury Department's Federal Insurance Office on Tuesday proposed collecting data from insurers to better assess climate-related financial risks across the country.
The move is meant to help the agency assess the potential for major disruptions of private insurance coverage in regions that are particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change.
In a news release, the office said it is seeking public comments on its proposed collection of data from property and casualty insurers on current and historical underwriting on homeowners insurance.
“Today’s action by the Federal Insurance Office is an important step in determining how Americans are being affected by the increasing costs of climate change,” Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen said in a statement. “The recent impacts in Florida from Hurricane Ian demonstrate the critical nature of this work and the need for an increased understanding of insurance market vulnerabilities in the United States.”
Truck makers fight climate rules while touting an electric future
Under pressure to phase out diesel-powered trucks, which account for nearly a quarter of all planet-warming emissions from vehicles in the United States, major truck manufacturers have pledged to go all-electric in the coming years. But privately, the non-passenger car industry is pushing to delay that clean future, The Washington Post’s Anna Phillips reports.
The Truck and Engine Manufacturers Association, which represents the nation’s largest truck makers, has worked behind the scenes to weaken proposed regulations from the Environmental Protection Agency that would strictly curb pollution from trucks, buses and delivery vans. The industry says that new tailpipe emission standards for nitrogen dioxide, which contributes to smog, would be too costly and that the market is not moving fast enough to accommodate the industry’s rapid electrification goals.
At the same time, the sector is fiercely opposing new rules from California that require more than half of all trucks sold in the state to be zero-emission by 2035. The Truck and Engine Manufacturers Association has challenged the state’s request for a waiver under the Clean Air Act, which has historically allowed California to set stricter tailpipe rules than the federal government, arguing that the rules don’t give manufacturers enough lead time.
Environmentalists warn that if the truck manufacturers successfully stall green deadlines, they will be able to sell the gas-guzzling trucks for longer, postponing the nation's transition to clean vehicles and locking in emissions for decades to come.
White House plans another oil reserve release this week
The Biden administration plans to release another 10 million to 15 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve this week in an effort to prevent gasoline prices from rising further, according to people familiar with the matter, Jennifer Jacobs, Ari Natter and Jennifer A Dlouhy report for Bloomberg News.
The release would be the latest step in a 180-million-barrel program that began this spring. Separately, the administration is still considering whether to limit gas and diesel exports, according to two of the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly on internal deliberations.
The idea of limiting exports has caused divisions within the administration, with top Biden energy adviser Amos Hochstein arguing in favor of the proposal while Deputy Energy Secretary David Turk voices concerns, the individuals said.
Meanwhile, Energy Department and White House officials have met this week with oil companies, including ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips, to notify them of the plans and encourage them to increase fuel production.
Russia targets Ukraine’s energy grid ahead of winter
Russian forces targeted critical energy facilities in central and northern Ukraine on Monday with what appeared to be Iranian-made “kamikaze” drones, cutting off hundreds of areas from the electricity grid, Isabelle Khurshudyan, Rachel Pannett, Nick Parker, Leo Sands and Sammy Westfall report for The Post.
The attacks prompted the state’s power operator to urge citizens to limit electricity use in an effort to avoid emergency shutdowns. Russia's Defense Ministry said it targeted Ukraine’s “energy system facilities” as part of a concerted attempt to weaken the country's power infrastructure as winter approaches.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday evening characterized the electricity conservation as a way to reduce the human costs of Russia’s attacks.
Historic October heat shatters records in the Pacific Northwest — Amudalat Ajasa and Jason Samenow for The Post
First came the fires. Now Australia is facing devastating floods — Rachel Pannett and Frances Vinall for The Post.
What to know about the Nakia Creek Fire forcing thousands to evacuate — Marisa Iati for The Post
5 state-level races that could alter the energy transition — Jason Plautz and Mike Lee for E & News
Congress investigates how Mississippi spent federal funds amid Jackson water crisis — Bracey Harris for NBC News
Spooky season but make it sustainable: 😂
this halloween remember climate change is real. don’t buy plastic skeletons. use real ones instead. save the planet.
— bella (@t1ny_bellla) October 14, 2022 | 2022-10-18T12:44:20Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Kevin McCarthy weighs future of special committee on climate change - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/10/18/kevin-mccarthy-weighs-future-special-committee-climate-change/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/10/18/kevin-mccarthy-weighs-future-special-committee-climate-change/ |
Girl found dead in box in Paris sparks shock, right-wing rallying cry
Flowers laid outside Georges Brassens middle school in Paris on Monday following the killing of 12-year-old student Lola. (Geoffroy Van Der Hasselt/AFP/Getty Images)
The CCTV footage showed a 12-year-old schoolgirl entering her apartment building in the northeast of Paris at about 3:15 p.m. on Friday.
It was the last time Lola was seen alive.
Just hours later, her body would be discovered abandoned in a plastic box at the foot of the building. The slaying has shocked France and unleashed a torrent of far-right comments slamming immigration policy after a foreign national who had already been ordered to leave the country was arrested and charged.
Lola’s mother, Delphine Daviet, reported her daughter’s disappearance to police on Friday afternoon and appealed for help to find her, after Lola failed to return to the family’s apartment from school.
The full horror of Lola’s final hours remains unclear. An autopsy revealed that the child died of asphyxiation, while the numbers zero and one were found written in red on the victim’s feet. No clear motive has been established for the killing.
Lola’s father — who works as a caretaker in the building where the family lives — reviewed the security footage and saw his daughter enter the hall, accompanied by a young woman unknown to the family.
Some two hours later, the woman — identified in French media as a 24-year-old Algerian national, though officials have not yet named her or shared her nationality — left the building, this time alone and carrying two seemingly heavy bags.
The suspect was arrested the following day and appeared before a judge Monday, accused of murdering a child under the age of 15, rape, acts of torture and of concealing a body.
The suspect made contradictory statements to police, first admitting and then denying certain accusations.
At one point, the woman said she had led Lola to her sister’s flat, located in the same building, and made the victim shower before sexually abusing her, according to a statement from the public prosecutor.
The suspect did not mention organ trafficking when speaking to police, although this was mentioned as a possible motive by one witness early in the investigation, prosecutors said.
A second suspect, a 43-year-old man, admitted driving the suspect, along with two suitcases and the plastic box, to his home. She allegedly stayed for two hours, before leaving with all the luggage and heading back to Lola’s apartment building.
The case has added to the somber mood in France around the second anniversary of the murder of French schoolteacher Samuel Paty, who was beheaded after showing his students caricatures of the prophet Muhammad.
The far right quickly seized upon Lola’s killing as an example of the failure of French immigration policy, after news broke that the suspect had been ordered in August to leave France within 30 days. The foreign minister said the suspect came legally as a student but confirmed the expulsion order — known as the obligation to leave French territory (OQTF) — and added that the woman was not previously known to the police.
The acting president of France’s far-right National Rally (RN) — the party of former presidential candidate Marine Le Pen — said on Twitter late Monday that the suspect “did not belong in France, yet nothing was done. We have before our eyes the complete bankruptcy of a government.” Éric Zemmour, another far-right politician, wrote on Twitter: “#Lola’s killer should never have crossed her path.”
France’s interior minister condemned the “indecency” of politicians he said were using the case to score political points, as some suggested that such rhetoric was dangerous to both immigrants and those with North African heritage.
“Politicians need to think about the consequences of their words,” Gérald Darmanin told French radio network RTL Tuesday. | 2022-10-18T12:45:22Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Death of Lola, 12, found in box in Paris sparks shock in France - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/10/18/paris-murder-girl-box-france/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/10/18/paris-murder-girl-box-france/ |
‘Decision to Leave’: Murder, romance and a plot that’s hard to follow
Park Chan-wook’s noirish, at times inscrutable story centers on an affair between a homicide detective and his prime suspect
Park Hae-il, left, and Tang Wei in “Decision to Leave.” (Mubi)
South Korea’s Oscar submission in the international feature category, the twisty, heavily hyped romance “Decision to Leave,” has already garnered a best-director prize at Cannes for Park Chan-wook, the director of “Oldboy,” “Stoker” and “The Handmaiden” — works of undeniably arresting visual power that are, nevertheless, something of an acquired taste. If you have developed an appreciation for them, then the news of the new film’s accolades and generally positive reviews will make you think that it’s about time for the world to acknowledge the greatness of this distinctive storyteller. If, however, despite numerous attempts, you still just don’t get it (guilty as charged), “Decision” will simply confirm what you’ve come to expect from the auteur: another movie in which style overwhelms substance.
The film opens with the investigation of a man’s suspicious death at the base of a steep cliff outside Busan. Did he jump, or was he pushed? We’ll get to that, but first let us show you some close-ups of ants crawling across the corpse’s still-open eyes. Nice, in a not-so-nice kind of way. Gradually, this murder mystery widens to accommodate a tale of ill-advised romance, bordering on obsession, between the case’s homicide detective, Hae-joon (Park Hae-il), and the main suspect, who also happens to be the victim’s wife: Seo-rae (Tang Wei), who doesn’t seem especially upset by her husband’s untimely death.
As Hae-joon notes, his own wife probably wouldn’t be either. But in his case, the apathy and estrangement are due to his chronic insomnia. Despite an early sex scene, Hae-joon’s wife lives in another city, making his never-consummated affair with Seo-rae — a Chinese-speaking caregiver for the elderly who possesses the ability to lull Hae-joon to sleep — easier to carry on. From time to time, Seo-rae deals with her communication issues by speaking Chinese into her cellphone and allowing an app to translate it into Korean. Digital technology — texts, GPS, etc. — is integral to the film (which was co-written by Park and Chung Seo-kyung). That’s true of both the romance and the police investigation, which, over nearly 2½ hours, eventually incorporates a second suspicious death, also involving Seo-rae and, yes, a second husband.
If the setup sounds noirish, it should. But Park doubles down on both the best and the worst attributes of the genre it hopes to evoke. Doomed, impossible love? Check. Scenes of moody, nocturnal activity such as police surveillance — filmed with an aesthetic that’s more “The Big Sleep” than “Law & Order”? Check. Moral ambiguity? Check.
But “Decision to Leave” is also needlessly complicated and at times almost impossible to follow, its narrative inscrutability often coming across less as the result of nonlinear storytelling than as simply a cinematic affectation. One key plot development, involving a cellphone’s incriminating location-service feature, is played like some kind of 21st-century version of the telltale fingerprint, left behind by a careless criminal. But one question is never answered, let alone asked: Why would a killer who goes to such great lengths to cover their tracks need to bring phone to a murder in the first place?
Sure, I’ll buy that. And so will a lot of people. (A lot of them already have.) But whether that experience is pleasurable or painful will depend on where you land on one critical question: Is the movie dense, or am I?
Unrated. At Landmark’s E Street Cinema and the Angelika Film Center Mosaic. Contains some sex and violence. In Korean and Chinese with subtitles. 138 minutes. | 2022-10-18T13:09:44Z | www.washingtonpost.com | ‘Decision to Leave’: Murder, romance and a plot that’s hard to follow - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/movies/2022/10/18/decision-to-leave-movie-review/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/movies/2022/10/18/decision-to-leave-movie-review/ |
GOP to use debt limit to force spending cuts, with Medicare, Social Security in mix, McCarthy says
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) (Barry Reeger/AP)
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said that if Republicans win control of the House that the GOP will use raising the debt limit as leverage to force spending cuts — which could include cuts to Medicare and Social Security — and limit additional funding to Ukraine.
“You can’t just continue down the path to keep spending and adding to the debt,” the California Republican told Punchbowl News in a recent interview. “And if people want to make a debt ceiling [for a longer period of time], just like anything else, there comes a point in time where, okay, we’ll provide you more money, but you got to change your current behavior.”
“We’re not just going to keep lifting your credit card limit, right,” he added. “And we should seriously sit together and [figure out] where can we eliminate some waste? Where can we make the economy grow stronger?”
Pressed on whether changes to the entitlement programs such as Medicare and Social Security were part of the debt ceiling discussions, McCarthy said he would not “predetermine” anything.
The debt limit — the country’s borrowing cap — will need to be lifted next year to protect the country’s credit score and to prevent the United States from defaulting on its debt. But McCarthy suggested that his party would be willing to hold the debt limit up for policy changes.
Those who work in the United States pay Social Security and Medicare taxes that go into federal trust funds. Upon retirement, based on a person’s lifetime earnings and other factors, a retiree is eligible to receive monthly Social Security payments. Similarly, Medicare is the federal health insurance program that kicks in for people 65 and older, or for others who have disabilities.
In an interview in August, Johnson, who is seeking a third term in the Senate, lamented that the Social Security and Medicare programs automatically grant benefits to those who meet the qualifications — that is, to those who had been paying into the system over their working life.
“If you qualify for the entitlement, you just get it no matter what the cost,” Johnson said. “And our problem in this country is that more than 70 percent of our federal budget, of our federal spending, is all mandatory spending. It’s on automatic pilot. It never — you just don’t do proper oversight. You don’t get in there and fix the programs going bankrupt. It’s just on automatic pilot.”
Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) has proposed to “sunset” all federal programs after five years, meaning they would expire unless renewed. “If a law is worth keeping, Congress can pass it again,” Scott says in his proposal.
“There’s the things [the Biden administration] is not doing domestically,” McCarthy said. “Not doing the border and people begin to weigh that. Ukraine is important, but at the same time it can’t be the only thing they do, and it can’t be a blank check.”
Amy B Wang contributed to this report. | 2022-10-18T14:10:59Z | www.washingtonpost.com | GOP to use debt limit to force spending cuts; Medicare, Social Security in mix, McCarthy says - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/10/18/mccarthy-gop-medicare-social-security/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/10/18/mccarthy-gop-medicare-social-security/ |
What do Joe Biden and Harry S. Truman have in common?
Both presidents ran the US when American stockpiles of distillate fuel were exceptionally low. Currently, the US has just 106 million barrels of diesel and heating oil in commercial stocks; the last time inventories were that low in mid-October was in 1951, when Truman was in the White House. Typically, inventories should be 30% higher this time of the year.
Such low levels are alarming because diesel is the workhorse of the global economy. It powers trucks and vans, excavators, freight trains and ships. A shortage would mean higher costs for everything from trucking to farming to construction.
The diesel crisis leaves the Biden administration facing very difficult choices. If he leaves the market alone, prices are likely to rise further before they drop; if he intervenes, either setting up minimum inventory levels or restricting exports, price increases will likely be felt elsewhere into the world. Either route will have big implications for inflation at home and for energy security in Latin America and Europe.
Wholesale diesel prices in the spot market of New York harbor, a key pricing point, have surged this week to more than $200 per barrel. Excluding a three-week period from late April into mid-May, that would be a record high. As a result, American refiners are enjoying the best-ever diesel margins, with the profit of turning a barrel of crude into one of diesel hitting a record high of $86.5 per barrel, up roughly 450% from the 2000-2020 average of $15.7 per barrel.
That’s great for refiners, but bad for everyone else depending on the fuel. Retail prices have increased nearly half-a-dollar in just two weeks.
This isn’t all that surprising. The American diesel market has been in crisis mode for most of 2022, and the warning lights have been flashing for months.
The reasons for the collapse in inventories and the price surge are four-fold. First, local diesel demand has recovered quicker than gasoline and jet-fuel from the impact of the pandemic, draining stocks. Second, foreign demand is also strong, with American diesel exports running at unusually high level. Third, the US also has lower refining capacity than before, reducing its capacity to make fuels.
And then there’s Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The US was importing a significant amount of Russian fuel oil before the war, which its Gulf of Mexico-based refiners turned into diesel. The trade ended after the White House sanctioned Russian petroleum exports.
Last spring, wholesale diesel prices surged to all-time high as inventories plunged in April and May, pushing retail prices to a record high. Now, a new crisis is in the making. America typically uses the low-demand seasons of spring and summer to rebuild its stocks of distillate fuels ahead of the winter. But it failed to do so this year, and stocks are now nearly as low as they were in April, at the end of the last heating season.
If inventories decline between October and April by their 20-year average of about 25 million barrels, the US will emerge from winter with a little more than 80 million barrels in stock. That’s an unlikely scenario, however: The oil market would try to keep inventories from falling that much, with prices rising high enough to slow the economy, curtailing demand. Over the last 40 years, American diesel inventories have never dropped below 85 million barrels, even at the end of the heating season.
Biden is now facing some unpalatable choices.
The White House can let the market continue doing its job, with surging prices likely denting consumption and boosting supply. With refineries enjoying sky-high margins, more diesel should be coming. But the cost of the laissez-faire approach is higher inflation. Because diesel increases trucking costs, it’s a particularly pernicious sort of inflation as it quickly embeds into everything that needs to be transported, lifting core inflation measures.
If the White House opts to intervene, the less harmful measure would be to release a small reserve of diesel that the government keeps for emergencies. The Northeast Home Heating Oil Reserve only has one million barrels, so it would be, at best, a Band-Aid. But it’s better than nothing, and Biden should order its release. Releasing more crude from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve would do little to resolve the problem, since the bottleneck is refining.
Another option is forcing oil companies to build up stocks quickly ahead of the winter by setting a minimum inventory level, similar to what the European Union did for natural gas stockpiles. US officials are particularly worried about the northern part of the US East Coast, where inventories are low both seasonally and in absolute terms. The region, known in the industry’s jargon as PADD1A, is where the greatest demand is: Of the roughly 5.3 million households that use heating oil in America, more than 80% are in the Northeast.
The problem with a mandatory minimum stock level is that it would force American refiners to import more or reduce their exports — or both. The impact in Latin America would be noticeable. Prices in the US may decline, but they will soar elsewhere.
The timing of today’s diesel crisis couldn’t be worse. The EU, which relies still on Russian diesel exports, will ban imports from February onward. Europe will be short of diesel then, and Biden needs to consider that too. Ultimately, the fast-arriving recession will rebalance the market, reducing demand, particularly as the housing market cools and construction slows down, and consumer demand for goods declines, reducing trucking needs. But that’s a heavy price to pay to resolve the problem. | 2022-10-18T14:15:01Z | www.washingtonpost.com | $200 Diesel Puts Biden In an Ugly Corner - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/energy/200-diesel-puts-biden-in-an-ugly-corner/2022/10/18/16df4926-4ee9-11ed-ada8-04e6e6bf8b19_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/energy/200-diesel-puts-biden-in-an-ugly-corner/2022/10/18/16df4926-4ee9-11ed-ada8-04e6e6bf8b19_story.html |
Prince George’s might have a state contender in soccer; a cross-county record falls
Eleanor Roosevelt midfielder Alena Beckmann, right, battles with Bowie's Geena Williams during a game Oct. 12 in Greenbelt. (Craig Hudson for The Washington Post)
Fewer than two minutes into Eleanor Roosevelt’s game Wednesday, midfielder Julia Beckmann stole a pass and slotted the ball past Bowie’s goalkeeper.
Last October, Roosevelt had also gained an early lead against rival Bowie, but the Bulldogs stormed back in the second half to hand the Raiders their second Prince George’s County loss in nine years.
Before Wednesday’s game, goalkeeper Gabriella Martinez helped ensure the disappointing result wouldn’t repeat.
“We have to go into this game with confidence,” Martinez told her teammates. “In our heads, we already need to think that we have won.”
This season, Roosevelt didn’t abate. Raiders midfielder Sarai DeSouza scored about five minutes after Beckmann’s goal in Roosevelt’s eventual 3-0 win in Greenbelt.
Coach Patrick Gleason, who graduated from Roosevelt in 2008, has attempted to raise his players’ morale entering the Maryland 4A playoffs on Oct. 26. In hopes of improving interest and skill across the county this past summer, Gleason and local coaches organized a free seven-on-seven league.
Roosevelt (7-2) won the county’s last girls’ state championship in 2003.
“It is a constant battle convincing them, ‘Hey, we can compete with these teams,’” Gleason said. “I know they have the skills to do it, but if they don’t have the confidence, it doesn’t really matter. Like, ‘If the people that are here aren’t trusting and believing in [the county], why should anyone else?’ ”
Good Counsel senior Leah Stephens has had a lot of great weeks over the past year. Her most recent one might have been the best.
On Oct. 10, a Monday, Stephens committed to SEC power Florida State University. Five days later, she won the MileStat.com Invitational, a 5-kilometer meet in Atlee that has historically produced runner-friendly times. But the course had never seen a time like hers.
Since at least 2000, neither had her state. Her 16:54 mark was the fastest 5K by a Maryland girls’ cross-country runner since MileSplit began tracking times in 2000.
“I was feeling pretty good going into it, but I wasn’t really expecting to break 17 minutes,” Stephens said. “That last mile, [McLean senior Thais Rolly] and I were just pushing it. It just all kind of came together.”
After comfortably winning her first two meets of the season, Stephens approached Saturday morning with a similar mind-set. She wanted to build an early lead. Though Coach Rich Hiegel cautioned against the strategy when she was an underclassmen, the pair recently agreed that it would tap into her greatest strength: her mentality.
“She’s just such a fierce competitor,” Hiegel said. “I mean if you know her, she’s very quiet, very humble; you’d never imagine she’s the same girl when she steps on the track, steps on the course. … Everybody that comes out to our practice now are trying to emulate the way she does her work.”
But this race was different, as she and Rolly (16:56) jockeyed for pole position before Stephens outkicked her opponent in the final stretch.
Potomac School senior Charlie Ortmans (14:40) got his third meet victory of the season, besting St. Albans senior Pierre Attiogbe (14:45) with Virginia’s fastest 5K race since 2015. St. Albans placed fifth, the best finish of local boys’ teams that competed. St. John’s earned top billing among local girls’ teams and earned bronze.
Through 12 games, 10 of which were victories, the Broadneck Bruins have scored 33 goals. If you were to offer any high school soccer coach a guaranteed average just below three goals per game, they would happily accept.
But for the Bruins, an Anne Arundel County power, that number is modest and represents a shift in mind-set and embrace of a new formula. Last year, they scored 52 total goals through 12 games against many of the same opponents. Coach Sean Tettemer knew that level of firepower was rare and that the team might have to adjust after losing a dozen seniors to graduation.
“I knew we might lack some of the offensive ability to score goals that we’ve had in the past,” Tettemer said. “I was uncertain if we’d find that over time. But what’s turned out is that we’ve become a really, really strong defensive team that is able to take advantage of opportunities on the other end.”
The longtime Bruins coach said coming to that realization was a process, one he didn’t complete until recently.
“It took me until about two weeks ago that we weren’t going to get a whole lot better in our tactics, so it was up to me to realize what our strengths were and what our weaknesses were and really emphasize our strengths,” Tettemer said. “For us, that’s defending and organization and working as a group. … We don’t want the group to have any restrictions on what we can or can’t do, but we want to understand what our strengths are.”
Some of the team’s biggest Anne Arundel County wins this year are a testament to those strengths, including a 2-1 victory over Severna Park and a 2-0 result against Crofton.
Secure in their identity, the Bruins have just two regular season games remaining before entering postseason play.
After losing to Riverside by eight strokes at districts and later beating it by 18 strokes at regionals this month, Independence Coach David Larson knew coming into last week’s Virginia Class 5 state tournament the Rams would provide the toughest competition. He didn’t expect the difference to be just one stroke.
The Tigers had a healthy lead over the Rams, but it tightened when Riverside’s fifth and sixth golfers finished with good scores. Still, Independence held on and prevailed by shooting a 7-over-par 287 at Heritage Oaks Golf Course in Harrisonburg to repeat as Virginia Class 5 champions, edging out their Northern Virginia rival Riverside by one stroke.
Sophomore Josh Haggerty of Cox (Virginia Beach) birdied four holes to shoot a 2-under 68 and win the individual medal. He edged Briar Woods’ Ben Baker, Independence’s Neil Kulkarni and Riverside’s Vaughn McMeans by just one stroke, creating a three-way tie for second place.
Kulkarni was consistent for the Tigers all year. The sophomore shot over par just once all season and was the individual medalist at the district tournament.
Since opening its doors in 2019, Independence has appeared in the state championship all four years and has won the title three times. This year, the state team is made up of mostly underclassmen; the four scores that counted in the state tournament came from Kulkarni (69), sophomore Keya Neik (71), sophomore Sujaan Singh (74) and freshman Kapil Ramachandran (73).
When Reese Otwell was walking through a Dick’s Sporting Goods store with her father on her birthday in fourth grade, the field hockey equipment caught her eye. She decided to take up the sport and reached the club level the following year.
Now a senior at South Lakes, she’s part of a group enjoying unprecedented success at the school in Reston. The center midfielder has 11 goals and 10 assists to lead the Seahawks (16-0) in points, as the team heads into its district quarterfinals on Tuesday as the No. 1 seed.
South Lakes has never been this strong. When Coach Lisi Mueller played there early last decade, she said she felt the Seahawks were trying to avoid getting crushed more than they were trying to win. Before last year, South Lakes had not won a district championship since 1996.
Otwell recognizes there’s still a long way to go. While the team is unbeaten and many of the junior varsity players have never lost a game now, she remembers being bounced by Yorktown in the region tournament last year.
She also remembers when they — and other teams in the district — feared Madison. On Friday, the Seahawks sat down and talked about how as much as they just want to keep rolling, the Madisons and Oaktons of the world are now looking to bring down South Lakes. They left the meeting with a renewed sense of determination at their practices as they look to continue trailblazing South Lakes as a field hockey power.
When Elizabeth Seton competed for the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference title last year, the Roadrunners were upset by St. John’s by one point in the finals. This year, Seton is the underdog, looking to implement smart changes that could lead to a title.
Sophomore Camille Hall has been a major contributor to Seton’s success, going undefeated at first singles with two matches remaining before the conference tournament. As team captain, Hall has developed a leadership style that balances high expectations with a levelheaded approach.
“I don’t want to be overbearing, so I think I do have a very calm approach to leading the team, even though I’m one of the younger players,” Hall said. “But I did tell them this year: ’In the tournament, don’t think about winning, don’t think about losing, only stay in the now. Don’t worry about what’s happening on the other courts.’ ”
Seton’s only this season came against St. John’s last month, and ahead of an expected WCAC finals rematch, Hall said the team has taken time to identify its weaknesses. It also tweaked its lineup.
“I feel like [losing] kind of helped in a way because my coach and I were able to see where we need more improvement and we were able to scope out how each player plays at each position,” Hall said. | 2022-10-18T14:16:28Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Prince George’s might have a state contender in soccer; a cross-county record falls - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/10/18/prince-georges-might-have-state-contender-soccer-cross-county-record-falls/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/10/18/prince-georges-might-have-state-contender-soccer-cross-county-record-falls/ |
U.K. military warns ex-pilots not to train Chinese air force
In this undated file photo released by the Taiwan Ministry of Defense, a Chinese PLA J-16 fighter jet flies in an undisclosed location. (AP)
LONDON — Britain has issued a threat alert warning its former military personnel not to be lured to China by lucrative contracts to train their armed forces, citing concerns that it could give Beijing access to the United Kingdom’s national-security secrets and capabilities.
“China is a competitor that is threatening the U.K. interest in many places around the world,” Britain’s Armed Forces Minister James Heappey told Sky News in an interview on Tuesday. “There’s been a concern within the MOD for a number of years,” he added, referring to the country’s Ministry of Defense.
Up to 30 former Royal Air Force pilots may have gone to Beijing to train the People’s Liberation Army of China. The BBC reported some earned financial packages up to $270,000.
It has prompted the U.K. to consider changing its laws to criminalize former personnel taking up contracts which train certain foreign militaries.
“We have approached the people that are involved and been clear with them that it’s our expectation they would not continue to be part of that organization and we are going to put into law, that once people have been given that warning, it will become an offense to then go forward and continue with that training,” Heappey added.
He underscored that Beijing was an “important” partner for the United Kingdom, but said China had made “no secret in their attempt to gain access to our secrets, and their recruitment of our pilots in order to understand the capabilities of our air force is clearly a concern to us.”
One British lawmaker, Tobias Ellwood, went further.
“RAF vets who help train the Chinese should LOSE British citizenship,” Ellwood, a military veteran and Conservative politician, tweeted Tuesday. “We should not be surprised by China’s audacity in luring UK pilots to learn about our tactics.” Despite the rhetoric, it remains difficult in practice in Britain to strip citizenship over national security concerns.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told a daily press briefing Tuesday that he was unaware of any such recruitment efforts.
In a statement to The Washington Post a spokesperson for Britain’s Ministry of Defense called such recruitment drives a “contemporary” security challenge, noting that “all serving and former personnel are already subject to the Official Secrets Act, and we are reviewing the use of confidentiality contracts and non-disclosure agreements across Defence.”
The U.K.’s Official Secrets Act sets out offenses related to espionage, sabotage and the unlawful disclosure of official information by some government employees.
“We are taking decisive steps to stop Chinese recruitment schemes attempting to headhunt serving and former UK Armed Forces pilots to train People’s Liberation Army personnel,” the MOD statement added.
Relations between Beijing and London have soured in recent years over trade, concerns about civil liberties in Hong Kong, a former British colony, and the treatment of Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang. Prime Minister Liz Truss has previously said China presented a threat to the rules-based international order and accused Beijing of “rapidly building a military capable of projecting power deep into areas of European strategic interest.”
Last week, one of Britain’s most senior spy chiefs made a rare public speech, warning about China’s bid to extend its sphere of influence using science and technology.
Calling it a “sliding doors moment in history,” Jeremy Fleming, head of GCHQ — Britain’s intelligence, cyber and security agency — accused China’s Communist Party of seeking to create “client economies and governments.” He also warned of the “hidden costs” of overreliance on Chinese tech.
It’s not only the U.K. that is concerned.
Last week, the White House said in a national security strategy that China remains the most consequential geopolitical challenge to the United States, despite Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine. Beijing in response accused Washington of “Cold War thinking” and called for better efforts to repair strained relations.
The issue also extends beyond China. More than 500 retired U.S. military personnel — including scores of generals and admirals — taking lucrative jobs since 2015 working for foreign governments, mostly in countries known for human rights abuses and political repression, according to a Washington Post investigation.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has continued to make “military modernization a priority,” undertaking ambitious reforms, according to a congressional research paper published last year, in a bid to form a “world-class” military by 2049 — the centenary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China. Xi is set to strengthen his grip on power by securing a precedent-breaking third term in office during this week’s party congress.
On Monday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken accused China of speeding up plans to seize Taiwan, claiming “Beijing was determined to pursue reunification on a much faster timeline.” He did not provide details but said China could be willing to use coercive or forceful means, which was “creating tremendous tensions.” | 2022-10-18T14:17:00Z | www.washingtonpost.com | U.K. military warns ex-pilots not to train Chinese air force - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/10/18/uk-military-china-pilots-raf-training/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/10/18/uk-military-china-pilots-raf-training/ |
Ukraine live briefing: Russia targets power facilities; Ukrainians want to ...
People in Kyiv inspect portraits of about 180 soldiers of Ukraine’s Azov regiment who died in the spring defense of the Azovstal steel plant. (Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP/Getty Images)
Seventy percent of Ukrainians are determined to keep fighting until their country wins the war against Russia, according to a Gallup poll conducted in early September, amid counteroffensives that retook swaths of land in the country’s south and east.
Nearly all who supported continuing the fight defined victory as retaking all territories seized by Russia since 2014, including Crimea, Gallup said.
The survey, published Tuesday, was conducted by telephone last month and precedes last week’s barrages against Kyiv and energy facilities across Ukraine, as well as deadly drone strikes this week in the capital.
Ukrainian officials are greeting the news as a sign that the country has the appetite — and stamina — to continue the fight into the colder winter months.
“It’s a choice between either a fight or a genocide,” Ukrainian lawmaker Maryan Zablotskyy, a member of President Volodymyr Zelensky’s party, told The Washington Post.
Support for the war effort is so high, he argues, because Ukrainians know what the alternative is — the horrors inflicted by Russian troops in the cities they have captured.
“We have seen what Russia does in places where there is no fighting. Any sort of resistance is better than the fate of the people who have been conquered by Russia,” he said in a telephone interview. “This is existential.”
Overall support for Ukraine’s military registered at near universally high levels, with 94 percent reporting they had confidence in their armed forces. Despite fears of worsening economic conditions and the degrading quality of wartime living, Gallup’s poll showed public confidence in the national government, headed by Zelensky, to be at the highest level recorded in 17 years of Gallup polls.
Rather than exacerbating the divisions that for years have conflicted Ukrainians over the country’s position between Russia and the West, the poll’s findings highlight the unintended consequences of President Vladimir Putin’s attempt at a full-scale land invasion: uniting the country around a common sense of purpose perhaps never before enjoyed in its history, and boosting hopes of closer ties with Western allies in the future.
A majority of Ukrainians think that within 10 years their country will be a member of the European Union (73 percent) and NATO (64 percent), according to Gallup, reflective of a broader optimism growing among the country’s population for Ukraine’s future.
Even so, the study reveals potential cracks in the high levels of popular support for Ukraine’s fight to victory. One of the biggest divisions ran along gender lines, with 76 percent of Ukrainian men in favor of continuing the war effort compared with 64 percent of women saying the same.
The most pronounced differences were regional — with support for fighting until victory strongest in the capital, Kyiv (83 percent) and western Ukraine (82 percent) and significantly lower in the east (56 percent) and in the south (58 percent), closer to the grinding ground battle taking place along the front lines.
Zablotskyy acknowledged that support for the war may differ between the regions but also highlighted the higher proportion of Russians living in these parts of the country. “Nineteen percent of Ukrainian citizens consider themselves Russian,” he said, referring to recent demographic polling, and they primarily reside closer to the border in the country’s east, he said, and suggested they may be more susceptible to pro-Russian messaging.
Across the country as a whole, 26 percent of Ukrainians say the government should negotiate an end to fighting as quickly as possible.
It is difficult to compare popular support for the war effort with equivalent levels in Russia, where freedom of speech is heavily restricted and reliable surveying is difficult, but some polling appears to show Russians are less likely to support fighting to victory. | 2022-10-18T14:17:07Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Most Ukrainians want to keep fighting until Russia is driven out, poll finds - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/10/18/ukraine-victory-poll-gallup/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/10/18/ukraine-victory-poll-gallup/ |
Manny Machado and the San Diego Padres will face the Philadelphia Phillies in the National League Championship Series. (Gregory Bull/AP Photo)
A year ago, had the Philadelphia Phillies won 87 games, they would have narrowly missed the postseason and already started a months-long sulk toward spring training. The San Diego Padres, winners of 89 contests, would have earned the second of two wild-card spots, needing to take a one-game playoff to advance and face the best team in the National League. Their paths to the World Series would have been precarious or nonexistent, which can sometimes feel like the same thing.
Now, though, in the first year of Major League Baseball’s expanded playoff field, the Phillies and Padres will square off in the National League Championship Series. Each team is four wins from the World Series. The Phillies, the sixth of six seeds in the NL, beat the 93-win St. Louis Cardinals in a three-game set before upending the 101-win Atlanta Braves in a five-game series. The Padres, the fifth seed, edged the 101-win New York Mets before stunning the 111-win Los Angeles Dodgers.
Again, October baseball is showing no team can hide from parity that’s exhilarating for some and downright heartbreaking for others. Dominant regular seasons do not guarantee playoff success (hello, Dodgers). Neither does finishing 78-34 to edge the Mets in the NL East and grab a first-round bye (hello, Braves). And neither does anything but winning games when it matters most. The Phillies and Padres have done that.
Here is what to know about their NLCS matchup:
Manny Machado and Bryce Harper are living up to their megadeals (and then some). Remember the painfully slow-moving winter of 2018-19, when Machado and Harper were the two biggest names of a free agent class left in the cold? Machado eventually signed a 10-year, $300 million contract with the Padres in mid-February. At the end of that month, with spring training in full swing, Harper landed with the Phillies for 13 years and $330 million. Now they are the top-performing hitters on their respective underdogs, showing two cities what stars are worth. This is what clubs envision when they commit to cornerstone players long-term.
So far this postseason, Machado, a National League MVP candidate, has eight hits, two doubles, two homers and four walks. Harper, the reigning NL MVP, has 10 hits, three doubles, three homers and two walks. That’s exceptional production in seven games for Machado and six for Harper. And with the NLCS featuring a handful of frontline starters — Aaron Nola and Zack Wheeler for Philadelphia; Yu Darvish, Blake Snell and Joe Musgrove for San Diego — one or two big hits could go a long way.
Harper’s numbers against the Padres in 2022 (including being hit in the thumb by Snell in late June, a pitch that led to two months on the injured list): 1-for-9 in 10 plate appearances with three strikeouts.
Machado against the Phillies: 4-for-13 with no walks or extra-base hits.
Speaking of Machado and Harper, it’s been quite the stretch for players picked atop the 2010 draft. The Washington Nationals selected Bryce Harper first. The Baltimore Orioles selected Machado third. Jameson Taillon, selected second by the Pittsburgh Pirates, was supposed to start Game 5 for the New York Yankees before it was postponed to Tuesday. The fourth pick? Shortstop Christian Colón, taken by the Kansas City Royals and not in the playoffs. Neither are the other six future all-stars who went in that first round: Drew Pomeranz, Matt Harvey, Yasmani Grandal, Chris Sale, Mike Foltynewicz and Christian Yelich.
And speaking of the Nationals, this week will be a pseudo reunion for a handful of former players and coaches. The Phillies have Harper, outfielder Kyle Schwarber, reliever Brad Hand and hitting coach Kevin Long, who was part of Washington’s World Series-winning staff in 2019. The Padres have Juan Soto and Josh Bell — having acquired them in a blockbuster trade in early August — plus reliever Craig Stammen and third base coach Matt Williams, who was the Nationals’ manager in 2014 and 2015.
Janes: The Dodgers are proof that, in the postseason, nothing is guaranteed
The Padres were very good at catching and throwing the ball during the regular season. The Phillies were very much not. Sure, it makes sense, whenever Alec Bohm sprawls for a grounder or Nick Castellanos defies every defensive metric, for Philly fans to remind Keith Hernandez for saying he didn’t want to call Mets-Phillies games because “as far as fundamentally and defensively, the Phillies have always been just not up to it.” The Phillies are alive. The Mets, after a first-round exit, are watching the playoffs from the coziness of their homes. October is for many things, among them exposing old takes.
But the Phillies are in a far different defensive category than the Padres, who ranked among the best in various advance fielding stats heading into the postseason. Adding center fielder Brandon Marsh and infielder Edmundo Sosa — and starting rookie shortstop Bryson Stott after releasing Didi Gregorius — has improved Philadelphia’s defense up the middle, where it is no doubt most important. J.T. Realmuto, one of the sport’s best defensive catchers, helps, too. But if there’s a noticeable edge in this series, it might be right here, with the Phillies more likely to make a critical mistake behind the pitcher’s mound. | 2022-10-18T14:58:31Z | www.washingtonpost.com | What to know about the NLCS Padres-Phillies matchup, schedule - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/10/18/nlcs-phillies-padres-mlb-playoffs/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/10/18/nlcs-phillies-padres-mlb-playoffs/ |
Can the World Learn to Live on Less Water?
Sarah Green Carmichael: The 2022 drought continues to affect worldwide shipping, food production, hydropower and nuclear generation. Dwindling snowpacks mean water scarcity is likely to continue as global warming increases. You’re the Charles Dyer Norton Professor of Regional Planning and Urbanism at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design, and previously head of the International Development Group in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at MIT. Some of your earlier work looked at urban transport, violence, political leadership, and housing. How did you become interested in water?
Diane Davis, professor of regional planning and urbanism, Harvard Graduate School of Design: Almost every major city is on a body of water, whether it’s a river, a lake, or the ocean. And it’s a global problem: there’s either too much water, or not enough water; there’s water in places it’s not supposed to be, and water not in places it’s supposed to be. This is one of the most important issues on the planet.
SGC: There’s currently a traffic jam on the Mississippi River created by low water levels, something we’ve also seen recently on the Danube and the Rhine. What can be done to keep those rivers navigable?
DD: The thing about rivers is that you can’t solve the problem at the site; you have to solve the problem along the entire length of that waterway. And that usually means — especially in the European context — that you have not only different provinces or states, but also different countries. How does one create a regional decision-making body that’s cross-national but smaller than the EU? This is the question for planners and policymakers.
One of the things we need to be thinking about is whether we need new political jurisdictions to govern water. Water doesn’t follow those political boundaries. Look at the Colorado River Valley. Each one of those different states has different policies about who controls water, who gets to decide whether water is for agricultural or for urban uses, and then those are fought over in their legislatures. And of course, the private sector is intervening in there too. I see water as a problem of governance and not just climate change.
SGC: There’s also a lot more at stake than shipping. Farmers rely on this water to grow food; for example, there are millions of people in the Horn of Africa facing hunger as a result of drought. Many countries rely on dams for hydropower. And in France, cooling river water is needed for nuclear plants.
DD: We need a larger mission of protecting the natural resources that have been important for urbanization and modernization and economic growth. We also need to integrate our thinking about where energy comes from [with other priorities]. Should we be using rivers for energy, or should we be using something else for energy because we need the rivers for other things — for transport, for food? Urbanization has grown national economies for so long, but we’re not thinking enough about coming back to a more sustainable way of building cities.
SGC: You mentioned earlier that part of the problem is too much water in some areas and not enough in others. This might be a naïve question, but is there a realistic way to move the water from the areas that have too much to the areas with too little? I’m sort of imagining something like a Roman viaduct.
DD: Expensive, massive infrastructure would be required, which could include canals or an extensive drainage or underground piping system. Viaducts work too, as in your mention of the Roman period. There is a lot of engineering ingenuity out there, but to bring water from one location to another involves sovereignty questions of who owns the water in the first place. In some countries — in Mexico, for example — underground water is owned by the nation, but states have jurisdiction over rivers. Moreover, in a federal system like the US it would be a challenge to build a new water infrastructure that channeled water from one state to another, unless there were regional coordination or a national mandate.
There are some interesting examples of transboundary water agreements — many in the Middle East, including between Turkey and Syria a few decades ago and between Israel and Jordan more recently — that facilitated the building of infrastructure that piped water from elsewhere, including from countries with access to ocean waters that could be purified and transported inland. I would hope for more innovation on this front. But the political challenges are as tricky as the engineering challenges.
SGC: What about our own responsibilities as individuals? Every summer in Massachusetts, where we live, municipalities will ban the use of town water on lawns — yet every summer, I drive by big houses with lush lawns with signs saying, “Well water in use.” And I’m like, “But wait, doesn’t that come from the same aquifer?” Do we need more public awareness campaigns to help us save water?
DD: There have been some. Back in the ’80s, in California I remember that they told us, like, we shouldn’t flush our toilets [as often]. So historically, campaigns have been used on the state level. But now in Massachusetts, we keep on hearing on the news about this record drought, but I haven’t seen any public messaging campaigns. In the United States, this has to start locally, because nobody’s going to want the federal government to tell them what to do.
SGC: What about other ways of pushing people to conserve water?
DD: Water costs money, so there’s always the market way of dealing with it. But does that mean that people who can afford it are going to put water on their flowers, while low-income people can’t afford to pay the rate? There are a huge number of equity questions about trying to conserve water — not just rich and poor, but urban and rural.
There are developers buying land in Southern California just for the water rights. They’re not even planning to grow things on the land. They’re just getting access to the water. This may have a distorting effect on property markets. We’re going to have to think more about the metrics you use to value a property depending on if it does or doesn’t have water. In Mexico, for example, you can’t get a permit to build housing unless you show you have access to water.
How do we incentivize sustainable actions without stepping on the dynamics of the market in ways that are going to create a political pushback? That’s the huge question.
SGC: Are there other places you’ve seen competition over water between different groups?
DD: I worked on a project with a team of landscape architects and lawyers to deal with a problem of aquifer depletion outside Mexico City. We looked at struggles between the Corona brewery, which is owned by InBev, and local farmers. These farmers are growing barley for the brewery, but they need water to grow the barley; the industrialists need the water to process the beer.
My part on that team was to think about offering an alternative regional coordination mechanism built around this set of connected aquifers. In Mexico and many places, decisions about water permits are given by the municipality. But the municipality is smaller than the aquifer. And in fact, in this area, there were five different municipalities around the aquifer. So the challenge is working with 19th century political institutions — municipal, state, federal territories — in the 21st century.
SGC: And on the governance piece, are there governance solutions that you have seen work or would like to see more of?
DD: I’d like to see experimentation. Are there informal kind of models or pilot projects that bring communities that share an aquifer together to test the waters — sorry for the metaphor — for making decisions about basic resources like water?
The other thing is, [water scarcity] could speed up or slow down depending on what happens with climate change. Maybe we’ll have lots of rain and then a couple of years of drought. So we need governance mechanisms that aren’t frozen in time.
SGC: What about technological solutions?
DD: There are technologies for processing and purifying water [more efficiently]. There are nature-based solutions, like replanting different things in those areas that allow more conservation of water. We can also look at indigenous communities and [traditional] farmers and reincorporate some of their traditions in thinking about conservation. And there’s also innovations in the architectural world about capturing water, rainwater harvesting.
These are micro solutions to the larger problem. They could be part of the solution in combination with innovation, rethinking buildings, and public policy — from local campaigns to bigger public policy changes. We’ve got to just start moving forward in whatever way we can.
• Italy’s Winemakers, and Grapes, Are Adapting to Climate Change: Frank Wilkinson
• The Global Energy Order Is Unravelling Fast: Liam Denning | 2022-10-18T15:46:31Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Can the World Learn to Live on Less Water? - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/energy/can-the-world-learn-to-live-on-less-water/2022/10/18/5bc711f6-4ef6-11ed-ada8-04e6e6bf8b19_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/energy/can-the-world-learn-to-live-on-less-water/2022/10/18/5bc711f6-4ef6-11ed-ada8-04e6e6bf8b19_story.html |
Going forward, government entities (like state universities) would, in practice, be constitutionally barred from seeking race or sex diversity in their admissions. The Constitution only governs state action, not private actors. But the meaning of equal protection under the Constitution casts a long shadow over the meaning of anti-discrimination laws that do govern private-sector conduct. The Supreme Court will almost certainly decide in the Harvard case that Title XI prohibits affirmative action. Thus, after the decision, private universities, like public ones, will not be allowed to consider the goal of achieving racial diversity as a factor in admissions.
(Corrects the number of the anti-discrimination statute that covers private universitiesin the 14th paragraphof article published Oct. 16.) | 2022-10-18T15:46:56Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Supreme Court Will End the Era of College Diversity - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/supreme-court-will-end-the-era-of-college-diversity/2022/10/18/037c67ec-4eee-11ed-ada8-04e6e6bf8b19_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/supreme-court-will-end-the-era-of-college-diversity/2022/10/18/037c67ec-4eee-11ed-ada8-04e6e6bf8b19_story.html |
Winter chill engulfs eastern U.S. as summer warmth swells in West
Opposite extremes are dividing the nation, with big changes ahead
Temperature differences from normal predicted Tuesday afternoon, from the European model. (WeatherBell)
The nation is divided, atmospherically speaking, with clashing air masses battling it out over the Lower 48. Temperatures over the eastern U.S. are plummeting to values more typically seen in December, with readings 15 to 20 degrees below average. The opposite is true in California and the Pacific Northwest, where summerlike warmth has swelled north and set records.
Over 100 million Americans in the Midwest, Mid-South and Mid-Atlantic are under frost and freeze alerts signifying an early-season cold air outbreak that will spell an end to the growing season. Freeze warnings, which include the entirety of Arkansas and Tennessee, have been expanded all the way to the Gulf Coasts of Mississippi and Alabama to account for lows in the 30s on Tuesday night.
Dozens of record lows were set from Minnesota to Texas on Tuesday morning, with temperatures dipping into the teens and 20s. Des Moines, Omaha and Kansas City were among locations that set record lows.
Over the Great Lakes, meanwhile, lake-effect snows have been delivering an early dose of winter’s worst. A full-fledged snowstorm is burying parts of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan with additional snows emanating from Lakes Erie and Ontario.
Nearly 30,000 power outages have been reported in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan as double digit snowfall totals and strong winds have snapped tree limbs and power lines.
@weatherchannel 5am Monday morning 10/17/22 in Ironwood MI. Expecting 4-8 more inches today!❄️🥶🎃 pic.twitter.com/YO9CGIMGzj
— Tony Greene (@GreenBayGobbler) October 17, 2022
Snowflakes also were spotted in Chicago on Monday while Madison, Wis., posted its earliest measurable snow in 32 years with a light dusting.
On the West Coast, in contrast, the start of the workweek featured highs in the 80s and 90s. A spattering of wildfires erupted amid the brief warm-up, with air quality issues becoming a problem as smoke wafts over Oregon and Washington state.
Thing are about to change in big ways, however — the atmosphere will pull a 180-degree switcheroo. A damp, chilly autumn pattern will set its sights on the northwestern U.S. by the end of this week while the core of unseasonable warmth builds east. It’s a classic example of the atmosphere’s caprice, with roller coaster-like changes in store.
Instigating the dynamic contrast is a highly amplified, or wavy, jet stream. It’s surging north over the western U.S., allowing ridging, or the establishment of high pressure. That deflects inclement weather up into Canada.
In the East, there’s a different story. A bowling ball upper-level low, or pocket of high altitude cold air, low pressure and spin nestled within a dip in the jet stream, is parked over the Great Lakes. It’s slowly inching into Ontario. Frigid air is spilling south within that jet stream dip, with freezing temperatures all the way down to the Gulf Coast.
On the backside of the low, northerly winds passing over the warm waters of the Great Lakes are inducing lake-effect snowfall along with giant waves predicted to reach up to 25 feet on Lake Superior on Tuesday.
Tuesday morning brought record cold temperatures from the Upper Midwest to the mid-South. Des Moines dipped to 21 degrees Tuesday morning, setting a record for the day and representing the chilliest temperature this early in the season since 1987. Kansas City, Mo., also broke a record morning low at 25 degrees, Omaha snagged a record low at 16 degrees, the coldest on record this early in the season. Kansas City’s morning temperature would have been an average low for Dec. 12.
Wind chills in Minnesota dipped below zero Tuesday morning.
The core of the cold is on the move eastward.
In the East, high temperatures in the 40s and 50s will be common on Tuesday and Wednesday. Chicago’s projected high is around 43 degrees Tuesday and 48 on Wednesday, compared to an average mid-October high of about 62 degrees. Highs in Detroit are predicted to hover in the mid-40s through Wednesday with rain showers; their average is also in the lower to mid-60s.
Columbus, Ohio, should be around 65 degrees; both Tuesday and Wednesday will be close to 45 degrees. And in Nashville, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia and New York City, it’s the same thing — highs in the 50s through Wednesday.
Lows on Wednesday and Thursday morning will be in the 20s and 30s across most of the eastern half of the nation.
On the West Coast, temperatures have been spiking. Calgary, British Columbia, jumped to 77.4 degrees on Monday, beating out the previous record of 75.9 degrees. According to Kyle Britain, a meteorologist at The Weather Network, that’s a degree or two warmer than the average high temperature on July 16.
Seattle experienced a similarly extreme anomaly. The city hit 88 degrees on Sunday, which is the second warmest October day on record in nearly 130 years of observation and the warmest day this late in the season on record. Monday was 21 degrees cooler, peaking at 67 degrees, but it still warmer than normal — it proved the fifth warmest Oct. 17 in the past 78 years.
The hot, dry weather allowed a number of wildfires to erupt, pouring smoke into the skies over the Pacific Northwest. Now Seattle, Tacoma, Olympia and Portland, Ore., are under air quality alerts.
“Everyone, especially sensitive groups, should limit time spent outdoors, avoid strenuous activities outdoors, and choose light indoor activities,” wrote the National Weather Service. The smoky conditions are forecast to ease by Friday.
Like a seesaw, warmth and cold will swap places in the contiguous United States. The jet stream will completely reverse its positioning, swinging a strong cold front through the northwestern U.S. on Friday as warm high pressure builds in the East.
“Mountainous regions will experience the first snowflakes of the season,” wrote the National Weather Service in Portland. “Snow levels will drop between 3000-4000 feet Saturday night into Sunday morning.”
Over the eastern half of the country, highs in the 70s will return, including in some places that recently saw snow. It appears that mildness will linger thorough much of next week. | 2022-10-18T15:47:09Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Cold blast engulfs Eastern U.S. as summer warmth swells in West - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/10/18/record-cold-east-warm-west/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/10/18/record-cold-east-warm-west/ |
‘The Good Nurse’: Tawdry true-crime tale boasts A-list talent
The fact-based film tells the story of killer nurse Charlie Cullen, who may have slain as many as 400 patients
Eddie Redmayne, left, and Jessica Chastain in “The Good Nurse.” (JoJo Whilden/Netflix)
Directed by the Danish filmmaker Tobias Lindholm, screenwriter of the Oscar-nominated 2013 film “The Hunt” and the 2020 Oscar winner “Another Round,” “The Good Nurse” stars Jessica Chastain and Eddie Redmayne, prestige performers who between them have been nominated for five Oscars. (Chastain won last year for “The Eyes of Tammy Faye,” as did Redmayne in 2015 for “The Theory of Everything” — both times, it should be noted, for portraying real people, as they do here.) Based on Charles Graeber’s 2013 nonfiction book by the same name about serial killer Charlie Cullen, a hospital nurse who in 2004 admitted to murdering multiple patients while on duty, “The Good Nurse” was adapted for the screen by Krysty Wilson-Cairns, herself an Oscar nominee, with Sam Mendes, for the World War I drama “1917.”
That’s a boatload of pedigree for what turns out to be not much more than the kind of dime-a-dozen true-crime tale that typically goes straight to streaming, where an eager audience is waiting. Though this one arrives on Netflix before the end of the month, it’s opening in theaters now, in what seems like a naked attempt to cash in on awards season. Playing Cullen — who never fully explained why he killed what may be as many as 400 people, and who is serving several consecutive life sentences in New Jersey — Redmayne delivers a creepily smarmy performance that outclasses the tawdry material. So does Chastain’s earnest everyday heroism, as Charlie’s real-life co-worker and friend Amy Loughren, who gradually came to suspect Charlie, eventually helping two detectives (played by Noah Emmerich and Nnamdi Asomugha) get a confession.
It’s all entertaining enough, if that’s the right word for the undeniable appeal of this lurid sort of thing. But there’s a shadow of unknowability that shrouds and diminishes “The Good Nurse,” a title that refers to Amy, by the way, not Charlie — not even ironically, though he does seem to be good at his job. Redmayne ultimately fails to crack the secret of what made this man — er, this monster — tick.
But that’s not really the biggest mystery that hangs over “Nurse.” Rather, it is the question of why all these power players thought something this slight, this weightless, this forgettable was ever worth their time.
R. At the Cinema Arts Theatre; available Oct. 26 on Netflix. Contains crude language. 123 minutes. | 2022-10-18T15:47:22Z | www.washingtonpost.com | ‘The Good Nurse’: Tawdry true-crime tale boasts A-list talent - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/movies/2022/10/18/the-good-nurse-movie-review/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/movies/2022/10/18/the-good-nurse-movie-review/ |
D.C. has a chance to make a much-needed criminal justice revamp
By Nazgol Ghandnoosh
A view of the D.C. Superior Court building in downtown Washington. (Keith L. Alexander/The Washington Post)
Nazgol Ghandnoosh is a senior research analyst at the Sentencing Project.
D.C. officials are staring down a stark reality: Our criminal justice system is a mass incarceration mess. Seven in 10 imprisoned Washingtonians are serving sentences of a decade or longer. These lengthy punishments do little to help public safety — and can even exacerbate crime.
We need a new approach, one that doesn’t rely on ineffective strategies such as throwing people behind bars for decades. Fortunately, lawmakers are considering a bill that would modernize our criminal code and boost public safety. A research-based upgrade that is long overdue, the Revised Criminal Code Act would also scale back excessive sentences.
The data reveal how extreme D.C.’s criminal justice system is. More than 1 ion 4 imprisoned people from D.C. have already served at least 15 years.
The racial statistics are even more alarming. Though slightly fewer than half of D.C. residents are Black, a whopping 96 percent of people serving sentences beyond 15 years are Black men.
Make no mistake: Extreme sentences don’t just affect the people in prison; their impact cascades across the entire community. When fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, caretakers, friends and children go to prison for so long, it can tear communities apart and leave people without the support they need to thrive — or even survive.
Importantly, it’s been shown time and time again that extreme sentences do little to improve public safety. They don’t discourage people from committing crimes — because people do not expect to be caught and often commit crime with their judgment compromised by drugs or alcohol. People also generally age out of crime, with recidivism rates falling measurably after about a decade of imprisonment. Indeed, research shows that people who committed even the most serious crimes are unlikely to commit new crimes after serving a long sentence.
That’s because people change over time. Incarcerated people, particularly those who were convicted at young ages, often experience immense growth in prison, despite the limited support they receive while incarcerated. People in prison frequently educate themselves, become more mature and take responsibility for the mistakes they have made. And when they are released, they can serve as the most powerful mentors for stopping others from going down the same path. Many of D.C.’s violence interrupters, for example, were formerly incarcerated.
In many cases, people who have served lengthy prison terms are virtually unrecognizable from who they were when they entered prison. Consider the experience of Gene Downing. In 2000, at age 19, he and a group of friends committed an armed robbery that led to the victim’s murder. Downing was sentenced to 82 years to life.
In prison, Downing changed. He focused on his education. He received and provided mentorship. He was determined to earn his freedom and to become a positive role model for his daughter.
Downing was released last November thanks to D.C.’s Second Look law. The reform allows judges to re-sentence people after they have served 15 years for a crime committed under age 25. Downing is now a vital part of the youth and community initiatives organized by Free Minds Book Club & Writing Workshop. A leader in the criminal justice reform community and spoken-word performer, he is a devoted father who is finally able to parent his daughter at home.
The judge who re-sentenced Downing considered him to be a rare success. But Downing says that, during his 21 years in prison, he encountered many others who seized opportunities for growth and have become outstanding candidates for release, regardless of their age at the time of the crime. “People like me are not a majority, but there are more like me there. I’m not one of a kind.”
Our criminal justice system needs a revamp that is based on science, not decades-old, flawed tactics. The Revised Criminal Code Act, originally developed by the Criminal Code Reform Commission, an independent D.C. government agency, is a big step in the right direction.
For one, the bill would eliminate nearly all mandatory minimum sentences, which have contributed heavily to D.C.’s sky-high incarceration rate. In fact, the American Bar Association recommends nixing mandatory sentencing for all cases so that judges could consider the individual circumstances of each case and tailor punishments accordingly. Even for the most serious crimes, sentences should reflect the unique facts of each case.
D.C.’s modernization bill would also set maximum sentences at 45 years and enable people who committed their crime at age 25 and up to have their sentence reviewed by a judge after serving 20 years — an important step toward curbing our reliance on extreme punishments. Crucially, this does not mean that every person would get a shortened sentence. But people who can prove that they have changed and would be upstanding citizens would have a second chance at freedom.
We have a prime opportunity to reduce mass incarceration and make better investments in public safety. Let’s get it done.
Opinion|D.C. has a chance to make a much-needed criminal justice revamp | 2022-10-18T15:47:47Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | D.C.'s criminal justice reform is much needed - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/10/18/district-criminal-justice-much-needed-reform/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/10/18/district-criminal-justice-much-needed-reform/ |
Democrats failing to make 2022 about the threat to democracy
Self-described democracy activist Bill Christeson holds up a sign while waiting for Stephen K. Bannon to arrive at the E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Courthouse in Washington, D.C., where jury selection began for Stephen K. Bannon’s trial on charges of contempt of congress on July 18. (Amanda Andrade-Rhoades for The Washington Post)
Utah voters who tuned into Monday night’s Senate debate were treated to something relatively rare in the 2022 election: a candidate putting Jan. 6 front and center in his closing argument. Independent Evan McMullin seized upon texts Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) sent to the White House indicating a willingness to help Donald Trump contest the 2020 election results, saying Lee “betrayed your oath to the Constitution.”
Despite the well-publicized Jan. 6 hearings, with what is probably the final one held last week, the insurrection has not been an overarching focus of Democrats’ 2022 campaign messaging. Politico reported last week that Jan. 6 has featured in just 2 percent of ads run for House Democrats.
This lacuna in their messaging comes even as most House Republicans supported Trump’s baseless last-ditch election challenges which led to the attack on the Capitol, and even as a majority of the GOP’s most prominent candidates have either denied or questioned the 2020 election results.
Some of this is partisanship — along with Republicans’ successful attempts to play up the issue of voter fraud, despite the utter lack of evidence that it’s a major problem in American elections. Polls have long shown Republicans and Democrats view the other side as a threat to democracy, but for very different reasons.
And independents are significantly more likely to view Democrats as a major threat than Republicans. While more than 6 in 10 view each party as at least a minor threat, just 23 percent view the GOP as a major threat, while 31 percent say the same of Democrats. Independents are actually more likely to view voting by mail as a major threat to democracy (31 percent) than the GOP.
The findings aren’t wholly surprising, given that polling late last year showed Americans generally were split on which party was a bigger threat to democracy. But given all what we’ve learned since then from the Jan. 6 hearings, along with all the evidence that the GOP has come to be defined by election denial, it’s striking that this appears to be more of a muted issue for Democratic voters — at least when it comes to the choice before them on Nov. 8.
As Dan Balz wrote last week after the Jan. 6 hearing:
The connection between the attack and the midterm elections couldn’t be clearer. The committee’s hearings have established that former president Donald Trump was prepared before the 2020 election to call foul if he lost — that he willfully ignored aides who told him after the voting that he had lost, then brazenly brushed aside those who told him his conspiracies about widespread fraud were unfounded and sometimes ludicrous. Trump continues to traffic in these same false claims today.
Part of the difficulty for Democrats is that these issues are difficult to prosecute and pin down. While many Republicans played into Trump’s election lies and supported his efforts to challenge the election to the Supreme Court and on Jan. 6, they often offered a more watered-down version of the case Trump made. Some have backed off the “stolen” election talk, to some degree. And most of the candidates who went all-in on the stolen election talk are running for safely Republican seats, with a few notable exceptions (see: Doug Mastriano in Pennsylvania; Kari Lake, Blake Masters and Mark Finchem in Arizona; Jim Marchant in Nevada).
This issue might loom for Trump in a 2024 campaign, given that independents are significantly more likely to view Trump as a major threat to democracy (47 percent) than anybody else.
But the integrity of the democratic process is something Democrats and the Jan. 6 committee have pitched as being of the utmost importance — going to the core of who we are as a country. Yet at this point, with just half of Biden voters and one-quarter of independents saying the GOP is a major threat to democracy, it’s clearly not something they’ve convinced voters is truly at stake in 2022. | 2022-10-18T15:47:59Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Democrats failing to make 2022 about the threat to democracy - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/10/18/democrats-2022-threat-democracy-poll/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/10/18/democrats-2022-threat-democracy-poll/ |
In this handout photo released by Kooperativ Telegram Channel, flames and smoke rise from the scene after a warplane crashed into a residential area in Yeysk, Russia, Monday, Oct. 17, 2022. The Russian military says one of its warplanes has crashed near an apartment building in Yeysk, a port city on the Sea of Azov, after experiencing engine failure on takeoff. The crash ignited a huge fire, killing at least four people, leaving six missing and injuring 21 others, eight of whom were in grave condition. One of the pilots, right, descends on a parachute. (Kooperativ Telegram Channel via AP) (Uncredited/Kooperativ Telegram Channel,) | 2022-10-18T15:48:05Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Death toll from Russian warplane crash into city rises to 15 - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/death-toll-from-russian-warplane-crash-into-city-rises-to-15/2022/10/18/4974bd58-4ef8-11ed-ada8-04e6e6bf8b19_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/death-toll-from-russian-warplane-crash-into-city-rises-to-15/2022/10/18/4974bd58-4ef8-11ed-ada8-04e6e6bf8b19_story.html |
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