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Can You Make a Living in the Creator Economy?
Analysis by Erin Lowry | Bloomberg
A necklace is displayed on a mannequin at the Etymology Jewelry studio in the Brooklyn borough of New York, U.S., on Monday, April 2, 2018. About six months ago, merchants noticed changes to the Etsy Wholesale service. The company hasn’t formally shut down the service, but its seeming abandonment fits in with Chief Executive Officer Josh Silverman’s efforts to refocus the handmade marketplace on areas that generate the most growth on the core e-commerce site. (Photographer: Bloomberg/Bloomberg)
The creator economy has undergone a serious evolution. Social media and the rise of sites to paywall or sell work has enabled anyone to become a creator. It’s difficult to truly understand how much the sector is worth, but some estimate it to be around $20 billion, and growing rapidly.
Yet given the amount of work it takes to build and monetize a community online, it’s worth asking: Is it possible to make a sustainable living in the creator economy?
Before we go further, it’s important to differentiate between the creator and the influencer. Of course, there’s overlap between the two — both post content on YouTube, TikTok, Instagram and other platforms. But creators are typically more aligned with artistic interests. They’re primarily making a good, a service or content for their audience. An influencer meanwhile aims to influence their audience through content, as they often earn money through brand partnerships or by referring followers to certain products.
In the last decade, it’s become far easier for creators — visual artists, writers, musicians, comedians, crafters — to connect directly with consumers who want to support their work. (Full disclosure, I’ve been a combination of influencer and online creator for nearly a decade. It started as a blog, which led to four book deals, speaking engagements, courses and a newsletter.)
The creation of Etsy feels like an early change in the tide where suddenly anyone crafty could sell a product directly to consumers. You weren’t confined to a geographic location or a flea market or gallery. You could set your own prices. Sure, Etsy took a cut, but it unleashed a feeling of being entrepreneurial in a scalable way.
Today, there are ample options for monetizing one’s skill set without needing the backing of a big company. Newsletters can go behind paywalls through platforms such as Substack, Ghost or even ConvertKit. Podcasters, musicians, comedians, YouTubers and anyone else can create a Patreon or Buy Me a Coffee account to encourage their community to financially support their work.
But actually eking out a living through these platforms is the conundrum for most creators.
Substack, for instance, states that it typically expects to see 5% to 10% of free subscribers convert into paid subscribers. Creators have control over pricing, but charging $5 to $7 a month for a regular newsletter seems to be the norm. Keep in mind that $5 from a paid subscriber dilutes to $4.05 after Substack’s cut of 10% and the payment processor’s 2.9% + $0.30.
On the surface, that sounds like it could be lucrative. You get 500 people to become paid subscribers and you could see $2,025 a month after fees but before taxes. Depending on how much output a creator is generating, that could be a tidy sum for a minimal amount of work.
Personally, though, that hasn’t been my experience. Despite average open rates above 50% for my free newsletter and a low unsubscribe rate, the conversion from free to paid subscriber is nowhere near 5%. Granted, it’s not even two months old, but so far I’m committing a lot of labor (two newsletters a week) for little monetary pay off. And I’m not the only one suspicious of the 10% conversion to paid subscribers claim. It’s also true that there are Substack superstars who can rake in thousands of dollars a month from paid subscribers.
Most creators know it’s going to take more than one stream of income to create a sustainable living. This could mean multiple streams of income within the creator economy or having a more stable day job to subsidize other projects.
Patreon released a 2022 “Creator Census” with responses from 13,000 of its creators. Respondents said on average they earned 41% of their income on Patreon. The remaining 59% was sliced and diced between teaching/coaching, touring, brand partnerships, book sales, merchandise, ad revenue, subscriptions from other platforms, digital downloads, commissions and “a job related to my creative pursuits.” My personal pie chart of income streams would include most of those slices.
Creators have to understand that an immense amount of labor on a creative project may not yield your entire income, let alone make you rich. Having a quality product, being consistent, being an early adopter and getting some luck seems to be what helps most in earning enough to climb to the top. All those hours of creating may result in other opportunities. But in today’s creator economy, one has to be prepared for what happens if they don’t.
• Crushed by Crypto Losses? Here Are Some Tax Tips: Alexis Leondis
Erin Lowry is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering personal finance. She is author of “Broke Millennial.” | 2022-06-02T14:55:03Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Can You Make a Living in the Creator Economy? - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/can-you-make-a-living-in-the-creator-economy/2022/06/02/4c8037c2-e281-11ec-ae64-6b23e5155b62_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/can-you-make-a-living-in-the-creator-economy/2022/06/02/4c8037c2-e281-11ec-ae64-6b23e5155b62_story.html |
Vegetables grown in a garden run by the Frente de Organizaciones en Lucha, FOL, social organization, are delivered to their soup kitchen in the “El Peligro” neighborhood, south of Buenos Aires, Argentina, Friday, May 20, 2022. The social organization runs a soup kitchen along with a daycare center, vegetable garden, library and a study center for high school students in the impoverished neighborhood. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — Holding an empty tote bag, Bahiano Arévalo waits impatiently for his turn at the Little Lions soup kitchen outside Argentina’s capital. A few moments later, the 7-year-old receives some milk and cake. | 2022-06-02T14:55:21Z | www.washingtonpost.com | In Argentina, groups keep lid on simmering social conflict - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/in-argentina-groups-keep-lid-on-simmering-social-conflict/2022/06/02/d57baae2-e282-11ec-ae64-6b23e5155b62_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/in-argentina-groups-keep-lid-on-simmering-social-conflict/2022/06/02/d57baae2-e282-11ec-ae64-6b23e5155b62_story.html |
Two people hug outside at Memorial High School where people were evacuated from the scene of a shooting at the Natalie Medical Building on Wednesday in Tulsa. (Ian Maule/AP)
The assailant entered an orthopedic clinic on the second floor of St. Francis Hospital’s Natalie building armed with a handgun and a rifle shortly before 5 p.m., Tulsa Police Capt. Richard Meulenberg told The Washington Post. Officers descended on the scene within minutes, he said, and the gunfire suddenly stopped. Police then found the attacker dead, apparently having killed himself moments earlier.
“This particular person had purpose,” Meulenberg said. “He went in there with intent, and we’re really developing out what the intent was.”
The shooting came on the 101st anniversary of another horrible event in Tulsa, when a White mob pillaged a Black neighborhood, killing hundreds in one of the worst episodes of racial violence in the nation’s history. Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt (R) described Wednesday’s hospital attack as “a senseless act of violence and hatred.”
“It will be a very bumpy road ahead of us,” he said at a news conference Wednesday night. “There are over 10,000 of us who are part of the St. Francis Health System that every day commit their lives to taking care of people in need. This horrible, incomprehensible act is not going to change that.”
Wednesday’s attack came as the nation is still reeling from several recent mass shootings that have sparked renewed calls for tightening gun control laws. As the hospital shooting unfolded, funerals were commencing in Uvalde after a gunman killed 19 students and two teachers at Robb Elementary School. And in New York, a White man accused of killing 10 people at a Buffalo grocery store on May 14 was indicted on 25 counts, including domestic terrorism and murder as a hate crime, authorities said. Payton Gendron, 18, burst into a Tops Friendly Markets store and shot 13 people — 11 of them Black, investigators said.
The House Judiciary Committee is poised on Thursday to advance legislation billed as an emergency response to recent mass shootings. The Protecting Our Kids Act, among other things, would raise the purchase age of an assault weapon from 18 to 21 and attempt to crack down on large-capacity magazines and “ghost guns.” It does not include an assault weapons ban.
The full Democratic-led House could vote on the package as early as next week, but it stands little chance in the evenly divided Senate to get 60 votes needed to advance the legislation. Democrats are hoping passage of a sweeping House bill will pressure Republicans in the Senate to join them in taking some action, even if it’s more modest.
Police were called the Tulsa hospital Wednesday after receiving a call about a “man with a rifle,” Meulenberg said. Police activated an “active shooter response” and a few officers charged “towards the gunfire” as they entered the building, he added. The gunfire stopped suddenly as they were making their way into the building, and they came across the victims. The building’s lockdown lasted about an hour.
Emergency services received another 911 call after the shooting that contributed to authorities’ belief that the gunman had “intent” in the shooting, but Meulenberg declined to elaborate further. He said the assailant was a Black man between the ages of 35 to 40 but did not release his name, nor those of the victims.
Tulsa Mayor G.T. Bynum (R) echoed Robertson and called on the community to support the hospital workers and think about what residents “can do to show your support for them in the midst of this tragedy.” When asked by reporters about the spate of mass shootings in the country, Bynum said he was just focused on Tulsa.
“Right now, my thoughts are with the victims here, many of whose families don’t even know about this yet,” Bynum said on Wednesday night. “If we want to have a policy discussion, that is something to be had in the future, but not tonight. Not tonight.”
But other lawmakers and Tulsa residents at the hospital for appointments or working nearby kept the recent mass shootings in mind while one played out in their own city. Tulsa City Councilor Jayme Fowler said it was “just too surreal to really understand why this happened.”
“It just hurts,” Fowler said.
Debra Proctor, 65, was almost done with her doctor’s appointment at St. Francis on Wednesday afternoon when she began hearing sirens — lots of sirens — outside. “I thought this was way too many sirens for a car accident,” she said in a phone interview.
As a nurse of 46 years, Proctor has treated patients with gunshot wounds. (She doesn’t work at St. Francis.) She’s also a gun owner who bought firearms for self-defense about six years ago. “I don’t use them, but I own two. I’m not against gun ownership.”
But Proctor says voters must elect officials who will legislate common-sense gun laws. “What’s wrong with background checks? What’s wrong with stopping the sale of AR-15s?” she said. “We have blood on our hands if we keep … electing those who don’t care.”
Wednesday’s attack is yet another reminder of the increasing frequency in which multiple people are shot or killed in shootings in the U.S. The mass shooting was the country’s 20th since the Uvalde, Tex., massacre last week, according to the nonprofit anti-gun group the Gun Violence Archive, and the 233rd of the year.
There were several other shootings transpiring across the nation as the Tulsa shooting occurred — from Los Angeles to Pittston, Pa., local authorities said — in incidents that didn’t meet the threshold for a mass shooting. They nonetheless showed the omnipresence of shootings that has made the United States an outlier among developed, wealthy nations. A mass shooting is defined as four or more people who are shot or killed, according to the Gun Violence Archive.
Naomi Andrews, 39, who takes her children to an orthopedic practice on the St. Francis medical campus, was shaken by the shooting, saying it reminded her of other recent violence. She did not want her kids going to school the day after the Uvalde shooting. Her children went anyway — and their campus promptly went into lockdown because of a shooting threat, she said.
Her daughter is supposed to go back to the doctor’s office soon, but after Wednesday’s mass shooting and the spate of attacks, she said it’s not a “safe place anymore.”
“It feels like the walls are closing in,” she said.
Hannah Knowles, Andrew Jeong, Clarence Williams, Tyler Pager, John Wagner and Eugene Scott contributed to this report. | 2022-06-02T14:55:45Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Tulsa shooting: Gunman's motive, 'intent' in killing 4 at hospital under investigation as city mourns - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/06/02/tulsa-shooting-news-medical-center/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/06/02/tulsa-shooting-news-medical-center/ |
Yvonne Wingett Sanchez joins The Post as democracy reporter for Arizona
Yvonne Wingett Sanchez (Yvonne Wingett Sanchez)
Announcement from National Editor Matea Gold, Deputy National Editor Philip Rucker, Senior National Investigations Editor Peter Wallsten and Democracy Editor Griff Witte:
We are excited to announce that Yvonne Wingett Sanchez will join The Washington Post in the newly created position of democracy reporter for Arizona.
Yvonne will focus on how state and local officials navigate pressures on the administration of elections, while tracking legislative and legal battles over voting rules and access to the polls. She will also be responsible for telling the stories of people and communities who have lost faith in the ability of the government to hold free and fair elections. Her reporting will center on Arizona and the West.
Yvonne comes to The Post from the Arizona Republic, where she has broken news again and again during her 21 years there, most recently as a national politics reporter.
Since 2018, she has covered the state’s U.S senators and the changing dynamics that have made Arizona a battleground state. She was lead reporter on the Republic’s five-part series, “Democracy in Doubt,” which exposed a plan central to former president Donald Trump's attempts to overturn the 2020 election. In addition, Yvonne is co-host of “The Gaggle,” a weekly politics podcast, and has moderated televised Senate debates.
Before turning to national politics, she covered two governors, as well as Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s battles with Maricopa County supervisors and Arizona’s Latino communities.
Yvonne’s investigative reporting helped lead to a 2018 referendum on a school-choice law as well as federal investigations into numerous public officials and earned her an honorable mention for the 2018 Toner Prize for Excellence in Political Reporting.
In 2020, she was part of the team that won a Goldsmith Award for a two-year project that exposed how special interest groups and lawmakers secretly work to advance copycat legislation in statehouses across the nation.
Born in Mexico and raised in Idaho, Yvonne graduated from the University of Idaho in 2001 with a B.S. in journalism. She was a 2016 recipient of the University of Idaho Alumni Association’s Gold & Silver Award. She is a founding member of the university’s chapter of Gamma Alpha Omega, a Latina-founded sorority that empowers college students on campus and throughout the United States.
Yvonne’s first day is June 20. | 2022-06-02T14:56:59Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Yvonne Wingett Sanchez joins The Post as democracy reporter for Arizona - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/pr/2022/06/02/yvonne-wingett-sanchez-joins-post-democracy-reporter-arizona/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/pr/2022/06/02/yvonne-wingett-sanchez-joins-post-democracy-reporter-arizona/ |
A message in honor of the victims of the mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas is displayed before the game between the Chicago Cubs and the Cincinnati Reds. (Dylan Buell/Getty Images)
On the evening of May 26 — two days after the school shooting that claimed 21 lives in Uvalde, Tex., and two days before the first pitch of a series between the Chicago Cubs and Chicago White Sox — executives of the teams got on the phone to discuss how to acknowledge the tragedy.
The executives, White Sox vice president of communications Scott Reifert and Cubs senior vice president of communications and community affairs Julian Green, quickly agreed this was a moment that demanded a more ambitious plan.
About 36 hours later, Chicago’s five professional teams in the NFL, NHL, NBA and NFL — the Bears, Blackhawks, Bulls, Cubs and White Sox — released a statement under their shared community-outreach umbrella, the Chicago Sports Alliance, announcing a $250,000 donation, split between the Robb School Memorial Fund, which benefits the Uvalde victims’ families, and Sandy Hook Promise, a nonprofit working to end school shootings.
“It is our responsibility to those innocent lives lost to do more,” the statement read. “We are committed to making a difference through the resources in our power to solving this gun violence epidemic. Lives depend on it. This is not a game.”
It was one among the thousands of gestures, statements and social media posts that emerged from the sports world, as they did from all segments of American life, in the aftermath of the Uvalde massacre. And it was far from the most visible — a distinction that could be reserved for Golden State Warriors Coach Steve Kerr’s emotional pregame comments or San Francisco Giants Manager Gabe Kapler’s decision to skip the national anthem, LeBron James’s all-caps pleadings on Twitter or the WNBA’s media blackout.
The Mystics decided to have a media blackout tonight and focus on the Texas shooting. Natasha Cloud represented the team with a few words. #wnba pic.twitter.com/NMxVLV74B1
— Kareem Copeland (@kareemcopeland) May 25, 2022
But as an example of how athletes, teams and leagues have evolved in their approach to social issues, particularly in the realm of gun violence, the joint effort by the Chicago teams — with its shift from words to action and its advocacy for gun control — may be the most instructive. Formed in 2017 to confront its own city’s issues with gun violence, the Chicago Sports Alliance had not expanded its reach to a national scale until last week.
“It’s unheard of to get five organizations onboard that quickly,” Reifert said of the hectic 36 hours last week. Gaining the approval of White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf (who also owns the Bulls) on the statement and donation, he added, “took 15 seconds.”
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen this type of momentum on an issue — certainly on this issue,” said Green, a former press secretary to then-Illinois Sen. Barack Obama (D) who has worked for the Cubs for 11 years. “For us to mobilize in the way we did … is indicative of how passionate this group is to try to effect change, which we will continue to do. I hope this [momentum] continues across the sports world.”
The momentum emerging from the sports world, stronger and more organized than after previous school shootings, has been embraced at the forefront of the movement to reform gun laws.
“We see this as a major tipping point,” said Angela Ferrell-Zabala, senior vice president of movement building at Everytown for Gun Safety, a nonprofit that advocates for gun control. “These athletes and teams, they’re meeting the moment.”
The effort to sustain the momentum will face a crucial test this week. As it happens, the start of the NBA Finals, which give the league its biggest platform of the year, coincides with Everytown’s annual Wear Orange Weekend. Some MLB teams and the entire WNBA have pledged to wear orange T-shirts during pregame warm-ups.
“Our members are organized and looking to amplify Everytown’s message on gun control,” said Terri Jackson, executive director of the Women’s National Basketball Players Association. “I knew they were going to have a very emotional response about Texas, and you’re going to see it [manifest] in different ways.”
Tamika Tremaglio, executive director of the National Basketball Players Association, said she has been involved in discussions with NBA Commissioner Adam Silver over how to acknowledge Uvalde during the Finals. Regardless of what organized gesture is presented, NBA players will remain out front on social matters, including gun-control issues.
“I can tell you that what our players feel now more than ever is they have tremendous power in their platforms and that they can directly advocate for changes in their communities and in our country,” Tremaglio said. “They want to see actual change happening.”
The recent-years shift on guns that has taken place in the sports world is easy to see, and there are ugly mileposts by which to measure it: the 1999 school shooting in Columbine, Colo., in which 13 were killed, and the 2018 school shooting in Parkland, Fla., in which 17 were killed.
“If you remember, we were at the very youngest stages of the blowup of the Internet,” said Seattle Mariners General Manager Jerry Dipoto, who was a relief pitcher for the Colorado Rockies at the time of the Columbine shooting. “Social media really wasn’t a thing yet. We were very early in the mass use of cellphones. Texting still wasn’t really a thing. We met in the effort to try to raise awareness for how we could stop this from happening again. Nobody really knew how to message that.
“ … AT the time, it was such a shock to the country. The thing that is most discouraging is that [those incidents are] more prevalent today. Unfortunately, it’s not as shocking.”
Even the shooting at Stoneman Douglas High in Parkland, though it was only four years ago, might as well have occurred in a different era. While somber statements and social media posts flooded in from all over, fewer prominent athletes, let alone teams or leagues, were willing to advocate for gun control, which was then and remains a political flash point.
In a notable example, then-Cubs first baseman Anthony Rizzo, a graduate of Stoneman Douglas who knew some of the victims, shied away from commenting on gun issues when he spoke in the immediate aftermath. Rizzo eventually added his voice to calls for “common-sense” gun laws, but that transition took weeks.
The contrast between 2018 and 2022 is startling. This time, countless athletes raised their voices — not only to decry the violence or lament the loss of life but to advocate directly for gun control.
“We’re living in an insane country when it comes to gun control and gun laws. It actually struck me when we went to do a moment of silence today because we just did one three f---ing days ago for a different mass shooting in a different city,” said OL Reign’s Megan Rapinoe, referring to the racially motivated shooting in Buffalo in which 10 were killed. Gun control, she said, is “something that the vast majority of the country wants. I urge people to use their voice and vote, or to call their representative or to badger their representatives, or to vote them out if they don’t change this, because we’re just quite literally being held hostage in this country for no reason whatsoever.”
Teams shifted into the realm of advocacy, too. An announcement made to the crowd after a moment of silence and before tip-off of Game 5 of the Miami Heat-Boston Celtics matchup in the NBA’s Eastern Conference finals would have been unheard of in 2018: “The Heat urges you to contact your state senators … to leave a message demanding their support for common-sense gun laws. You can also make change at the ballot box.”
Several factors appear to be behind the shift. For starters, advocates said, the accumulated toll of the many mass shootings has led to a rising sense of frustration — among many Americans, including athletes — that more frequently boils over.
“This is a cumulative effect,” Ferrell-Zabala said. “We lose 110 people daily to gun violence.”
But 2022 also finds athletes, and teams, with a maturing sense of the powers of their voice, both through social and traditional media, and a willingness to wield that voice for social change — a power that has been honed through the cultural upheaval of the past several years, particularly in the wake of the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police in 2020.
“The old idea that sports and politics aren’t supposed to mix has always made it hard to do any kind of advocacy, let alone protest. But that has started to erode,” said Douglas Hartmann, a professor of sociology at the University of Minnesota and the author of two books on athletes and social justice issues.
The charged political atmosphere of the Trump administration, Hartmann added, also fueled a sense of urgency and confrontation on the part of athletes.
“The way that Trump and the ‘Make America Great Again’ movement … were overtly politicizing sports in ways that political figures and presidents have never done before — I think among athletes there has been a backlash to that: ‘We have to stand up to that,’ ” Hartmann said. “There was a kind of opposition from Trump and others, and then a re-opposition to that and a doubling-down from athletes — ‘Screw the old politics-and-sports-are-separate mentality’ — and a feeling that sports should be a progressive platform to call attention to social issues.”
Not long ago, teams might punish — or at least admonish behind the scenes — players who got too political on social media, for fear of alienating significant parts of their fan bases. And while there might still be tension between employees and employers over how far they should go, it is perhaps as common now for athletes and teams to be of the same mind.
“We’ve urged all of our players to speak what’s in their heart,” Dipoto said. “They have a unique platform. Believe me, I’ve been doing this long enough to know that [critics] will say: ‘These are baseball players. These are baseball executives. Mind your own business.’ But, really, this is our business. We’re all just human beings trying to do the right thing.” | 2022-06-02T14:57:05Z | www.washingtonpost.com | After Uvalde, athletes, teams call for tighter gun laws - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/02/uvalde-athletes-gun-reform/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/02/uvalde-athletes-gun-reform/ |
Can you guess how different women’s lives were before Roe v. Wade?
By Youjin Shin
Rachel Siegel
Ted Mellnik
It’s been 49 years since the Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Roe v. Wade allowed the right to an abortion. Since then, women have transformed their lives. They have seen their roles in the U.S. workforce vastly expand and their economic power grow.
Many women have far more input at home and in the workforce. Some see those changes at risk after a leaked draft of a Supreme Court suggested the right to an abortion could be overturned, limiting their decision on when or whether to have children.
Do you know how much women’s lives have changed since before the Roe ruling in 1973?
In 2020, 43 percent of women between 25 and 34 years old were married. How many were married in 1970?
More than 8 in 10 women ages 25 to 34 were married in 1970.
Cultural norms have changed drastically over the past five decades, especially for young women. More women delay marriage these days, and they often build their careers or pursue other opportunities before deciding to marry.
In 2020, 52 percent of women between 25 and 34 years old were child free. How many had no children in 1970?
A little over 20 percent of women between 25 and 34 years old in 1970 didn't have children.
Women's decisions around when and how to have a family have changed, with far more women having children later in life compared with their mothers' generation. That's in part due to changing cultural norms and women joining and staying in the workforce longer. Delaying childbirth also became more of an option with technological advancements in medical care, including egg freezing, surrogacy and in vitro fertilization.
In 2020, 41 percent of women ages 25 to 44 had a college degree. What was the rate in 1970?
Eleven percent of women ages 25 to 44 had a college degree in 1970.
As women rose throughout the ranks of the workforce, they brought college degrees with them. At the end of the 2020-2021 academic year, women made up 59.5 percent of college students, an all-time high, according to data from the National Student Clearinghouse. However, more people generally get college degrees these days. The rate for men over 25 that have attained college degrees also grew, from 19 percent in 1970 to 33 percent in 2020.
In 2020, 27 percent of women childbearing age (15 to 44) didn't a paid job and weren’t looking for one. What share of women weren’t in the labor force in 1970?
Fifty-five percent of women of child-bearing age (from 15 to 44) did not have a paid job in 1970.
Over time, more women have joined the workforce and expanded their careers, sometimes delaying having families or getting married. By late 2019, women outnumbered men in the workforce for only the second time in modern history.
In 2020, 45 percent of all jobs in management for people ages 16 to 44 were held by women. What was their share in 1970?
Seventeen percent of management roles were held by a woman in 1970.
Women's expanded roles in the workforce have also led to more opportunities to be elevated to positions of power, especially in industries that were historically dominated by men. Over the past five decades, a spate of legal rulings have barred sex discrimination at work. For example, in the 1973 case Pittsburgh Press Co. v. Pittsburgh Commission on Human Relations, the Supreme Court ruled that a local ordinance forbiding newspapers from advertising gender-specific job openings did not violate First Amendment rights.
In households where both spouses had a paid job, 27 percent of women of childbearing age earned more than their husbands in 2020. How many women were breadwinners in 1970?
Just 8 percent of women of childbearing age made more then their husbands in 1970.
Over the years, women have made great strides in terms of sheer numbers joining the workforce, but many are still not getting paid much as their male peers. In 2020, women earned 84 percent of what men earned, according to data from the Pew Research Center. That means it takes a woman an extra 42 days of work to earn what a man does, according to 2020 data.
Data is from IPUMS at University of Minnesota.
Youjin Shin works as graphics reporter at The Washington Post. Before joining The Post, she worked as multimedia editor at the Wall Street Journal and a research fellow at the MIT SENSEable city lab. Twitter Twitter
Rachel Siegel is an economics reporter covering the Federal Reserve. She previously covered breaking news for the Post's financial section and local politics for the Post's Metro desk. Before joining the Post in June 2017, Rachel contributed to The Marshall Project and The Dallas Morning News. Twitter Twitter
By Ted Mellnik
Ted Mellnik explores and analyzes data and maps for graphics, stories and interactives. Twitter Twitter | 2022-06-02T15:07:46Z | www.washingtonpost.com | How women's lives were different before Roe v. Wade - Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/interactive/2022/women-before-roe-v-wade/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/interactive/2022/women-before-roe-v-wade/ |
Josh Donaldson upset by Yankees teammates’ criticism of ‘Jackie’ remark
Yankees Manager Aaron Boone had said of Josh Donaldson's comment: “This is just my opinion — [that’s] somewhere he should not be going.” (Nam Y. Huh/Associated Press)
Josh Donaldson has felt the effects of calling Tim Anderson “Jackie,” a reference to Jackie Robinson that Chicago White Sox Manager Tony La Russa called “racist,” from his own New York Yankees teammates.
Donaldson was suspended for one game and fined an undisclosed amount by Major League Baseball for the May 21 incident. Since then, he has appealed the punishment, was briefly on the Yankees’ covid list and has been on the injured list with right shoulder inflammation. He is expected to be activated Sunday and will be eligible to play until the appeal process is completed.
Although Manager Aaron Boone said he did not believe Donaldson had “malicious intent,” he added at the time, “This is just my opinion — [that’s] somewhere he should not be going.” Aaron Judge, the Yankees’ star outfielder, had added, “I just don’t think it’s the right thing to do there.”
Donaldson told reporters Wednesday during batting practice, “that was tough to hear, for sure, just for the simple fact that I pride myself on being a good teammate, and everywhere I’ve went, every organization that I’ve been a part of, minus Oakland, has offered me extensions, has wanted me to stay back.
“They’ve showed that they wanted me a part of their team. Obviously it didn’t work out that way and that’s just the business end of it. And also everywhere I went, I’ve won. I think part of winning is having good team chemistry, and I’ve taken pride everywhere I’ve went I’ve always tried to help people try to get better.”
Acquired by the Yankees this year, Donaldson, who has played for six MLB teams, is hitting .238 with five homers and 15 RBIs in 37 games. Tempers flared during the Yankees’ 7-5 victory May 21 at Yankee Stadium and Donaldson, who is white, admitted that in the first inning he called Anderson, who is among baseball’s leading Black voices, “Jackie,” a reference to Robinson, who in 1947 broke Major League Baseball’s color barrier in 1947.
From August: Tim Anderson did not read the rules
The situation escalated in the fifth when White Sox catcher Yasmani Grandal confronted Donaldson as he stepped into the batter’s box. Grandal, pointed toward Anderson at shortstop and the benches cleared. Anderson jogged in and was restrained by teammates. No punches were thrown.
“Basically, he was trying to call me Jackie Robinson,” Anderson said that day. “He was like, ‘Hey, what’s up Jackie?’ I don’t play like that. I don’t really play at all. I wasn’t really going to bother nobody today, but he made the comment, and you know, it was disrespectful and I don’t think it was called for. It was unnecessary.”
Donaldson said he had called Anderson “Jackie” previously and said it was meant as a flippant reference to a 2019 Sports Illustrated article in which Anderson said he felt a little “like today’s Jackie Robinson … I feel like I’m getting to a point to where I need to change the game.”
Donaldson has apologized to the Robinson family and said he hasn’t “had a chance to talk” to Anderson.
“I think everybody wanted to have a say, but they don’t know my heart,” Donaldson said. “I do feel bad that the Robinson family — I never wanted them to feel their name should ever be regarded in a bad light. That was why I issued the apology [to them].”
Liam Hendriks, a White Sox reliever and former teammate of Donaldson’s, said he is “not a fan” of the three-time all-star, who was the 2015 American League MVP with Toronto.
The Yankees and White Sox have had past flare-ups, as Donaldson noted. | 2022-06-02T15:12:07Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Josh Donaldson upset by Yankees' criticism of ‘Jackie’ remark - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/02/josh-donaldson-yankees-criticism/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/02/josh-donaldson-yankees-criticism/ |
How humid air, intensified by climate change, is melting Greenland ice
A new study highlights how warm, moist air invaded Greenland in 2021 to cause widespread melting, an increasingly common occurrence over the past decade.
An atmospheric river brings stormy skies above Greenland on Aug. 20, 2021. (Jason Box)
Jason Box waited for the skies to clear. The climatologist’s team was already in southern Greenland to begin their research project, but he was stuck in Nuuk, the country’s capital, because weather delayed his travels. Dark clouds loomed overhead, while the patter of rain echoed loudly as it fell onto the ocean.
Unbeknown to him, this same weather system was causing a historic melt event 660 miles away at the summit of Greenland. On Aug. 14, 2021, the system drew exceptionally warm and moist air from southern latitudes northward, increasing temperatures around 32 degrees (18 Celsius) higher than normal. Rain, not snow, fell on Greenland’s summit for the first time on record. Melting persisted over the next two weeks, covering 46 percent of the ice sheet. This was the largest melt event to occur so late in the year.
The science tech up at Summit did make direct observations of rain on August 14. I can give you more details! 📷: Alicia Bradley, NSF. 6am, rain observed. pic.twitter.com/hGnFvRm0yT
— Zoe Courville (@ZoeCourville) August 19, 2021
“The weather was atrocious,” said Box, a professor at the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland. “I didn’t know that it was as big as it was.”
The “atrocious” weather was caused by a warm, narrow band of water vapor in the sky, known as an atmospheric river. The term “atmospheric river” has recently become popularized in media due to its role in extreme weather. As the plume of water vapor makes landfall, it precipitates as rain or snow. In the fall and winter, they bring much of California’s annual precipitation but can also unleash intense flooding. In July 2021, an atmospheric river brought flooding to Germany, which killed more than 200 people.
In Greenland, these warm rivers in the sky also play a role in melting the ice sheet. In a study released Thursday, Box and his colleagues illuminate how an atmospheric river caused the August 2021 melt event and brought rain to the summit. The explanation foretells a future that could be increasingly common as global temperatures rise due to human-caused climate change.
“What we realize is that the atmospheric river is much more about the heat. And the heat did a tremendous amount of melting,” Box said. “What I would argue unnatural is there’s more heat in the system and you’re getting greater extremes.”
The Arctic could get more rain and less snow sooner than projected. Here’s why that matters.
Atmospheric rivers tend to originate from southern latitudes far removed from Greenland, where warm air causes ocean water to evaporate into the atmosphere. Atmospheric steering winds help transport the vapor great distances. Box described the rivers as a natural process to transfer energy from the tropics to the pole. “There’s a tremendous amount of heat in these circulation systems,” he said.
As an atmospheric river landed over Greenland in August, the study found the majority of melt resulted from elevated air temperatures, which darkened the ice sheet surface and increased the absorption of sunlight. Satellite data showed melting snow crept up to higher elevations and exposed relatively dark bare ice. Where snow remained, surface melting deformed the snow crystals and made them darker, which led to additional melting under sunny skies in the following days.
“The surface is in a darkened state and stays like that for more than a week. And so that effectively doubles the melting,” Box said.
Box and his colleagues determined that the darkened snow increased melt by 28 percent in one location at an altitude of 6,036 feet (1,840 meters). At a location 4,167 feet (1,270 meters) high, they determined that melting would have been cut in half if the bare ice were not exposed. Discharge from the Watson River, in the Kangerlussuaq region in central-western Greenland, was also the highest for this period in August in 16 years of records.
“One of the major things they point out … was how you get these sequence of these events where warm air comes in and gets rain on snow,” said Bill Neff, a research scientist at the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder and not involved in the study. “The warm air and the radiation from warm clouds can melt the snow and it changes the properties of the snow so that when the sky is clear and the sun is shining, it keeps melting.”
Neff said the August melting was similar to other recent major melt events. In the past decade, Greenland experienced three major melt years, 2012, 2019 and 2021, which were all tied to atmospheric rivers. Before 2012, he said the last major melt event connected to an atmospheric river was more than 100 years ago.
The number of atmospheric rivers over Greenland “hasn’t really changed that much. They go up and down a lot over the last hundred years, but what they’re doing is tapping into hotter regions of the Earth,” he said. “You can have the same number of atmospheric rivers bringing warmer air from all over the place. If there are more places getting hotter, then there’s more chance to be more melting.”
Record heat wave in Antarctica brought exceptional snow, rain and melting
Neff’s research looks at how heat waves have played a part in Greenland melt events. He previously found that Greenland’s 2012 melt season, which is still the largest melt season ever observed, was partly spawned from warm air originating from a record heat wave in North America. A heat wave developed suddenly in the Midwest, which created a pulse of hot air that was transported to Greenland via an atmospheric river.
In July 2019, warm air from a heat wave in Europe headed to Greenland and helped trigger one of the biggest surface melt days on record.
Neff said the August 2021 melt event was associated with warm air masses moving across North America that probably combined with moisture from the south Atlantic, before moving to the southwest coast of Greenland.
Climate change is intensifying these events by increasing the amount of water vapor an atmospheric river can hold, said Kyle Mattingly, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. A warmer atmosphere increases the rate of evaporation and allows for more water to enter the vapor phase. His research found the amount of moisture transported over the summer melt season in Greenland has been increasing in recent decades.
“If you sum up the amount of moisture that atmospheric rivers transport during each melt season, that is showing an increasing trend,” said Mattingly, who was not involved in the study released today. “I feel pretty certain that there is a link there between increasing atmospheric river moisture transport and increases in Greenland melt.”
Record ‘bomb cyclone’ brings exceptional warmth to North Pole
As this year’s melt season begins in Greenland, researchers are unsure what to expect as predicting events more than a week or so in advance is challenging. Melt activity has been close to normal so far, aside from slight melting in late May on the ice sheet’s periphery.
“There’s nothing so far to indicate that we’re going to have a particularly really large melt season,” said Mattingly.
But then again, Mattingly said the record 2012 melt season also started out slow before accelerating in the middle of the summer.
“You never quite know until it happens,” Mattingly said. | 2022-06-02T16:21:46Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Greenland's melt events traced to atmospheric rivers, climate change - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2022/06/02/greenland-melt-warm-climate-change/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2022/06/02/greenland-melt-warm-climate-change/ |
Heard lawyer: Actress will appeal, thinks social media influenced jury
Amber Heard's attorney Elaine Bredehoft, right, talks to Savannah Guthrie on “Today.” (NBC)
A day after a jury found that Amber Heard defamed her ex-husband Johnny Depp and awarded him $15 million in damages, Heard’s lawyer Elaine Bredehoft told multiple morning shows that the actress intends to appeal the verdict.
“Oh, absolutely,” Bredehoft responded on Thursday when NBC’s “Today” anchor Savannah Guthrie asked if Heard wanted to appeal. “And she has some excellent grounds for it.”
On Wednesday, a seven-person jury in Fairfax County ruled largely in Depp’s favor, agreeing with the actor that Heard harmed his reputation when she wrote a 2018 Washington Post op-ed (which did not name Depp) that said she became a public figure representing domestic abuse, two years after she had filed for divorce and a restraining order. In addition, the jury found that Depp, through his lawyer Adam Waldman, defamed Heard in one of three statements that called her accusations a hoax and awarded her $2 million.
Bredehoft said that Heard was “heartbroken” after the verdict. “One of the first things she said is, ‘I am so sorry to all those women out there,’ ” the lawyer said, adding that the verdict sends “a horrible message.”
“It's a setback, a significant setback … unless you pull out your phone and you video your spouse or your significant other beating you, effectively, you won’t be believed,” she said.
Guthrie pointed out that Heard’s legal team was able to show the jury evidence they say demonstrated abuse, from the actress’s testimony to pictures and documents. “The jury rejected it,” Guthrie said.
Bredehoft responded that Depp’s team “demonized” Heard and suppressed evidence. She said Heard’s lawyers were not allowed to tell the jury that Depp lost a libel case in the United Kingdom in 2020 against the British tabloid the Sun, which the actor sued after a headline called him a “wife beater” and a judge found enough evidence to support Heard’s claims about 12 instances of domestic abuse.
“They were able to suppress the medical records, which were very, very significant, because they showed a pattern going all the way back to 2012 of Amber reporting this to her therapist, for example. We had significant amount of texts, including from Mr. Depp’s assistant, saying ‘When I told him he kicked you, he cried, he is so sorry.’ That didn’t come in,” Bredehoft said. “A number of things were allowed in this court that should not have been allowed and it caused the jury to be confused.”
On “CBS Mornings,” Bredehoft talked to Gayle King, Tony Dokoupil and Nate Burleson; King noted that they reached out to Depp’s legal team, who declined to be interviewed. Dokoupil brought up that legal analysts were surprised by the verdict. (It’s generally considered easier to prove libel in the U.K. than in the United States.)
“In this case the jury not only didn’t believe Amber Heard, but in ruling that she acted with actual malice, I mean, had the intent to cause harm, right?” he said. “That’s a pretty high standard to have proven.”
Bredehoft responded that one issue was the cameras in the courtroom, something Depp’s team had requested and Heard’s lawyers were against. “So not only did we have a group of Depp fans that were there every day — 100 were allowed in, they lined up at 1 o’clock in the morning for their wristbands to be in that courtroom — but we had everything on camera, and we had tremendous social media that was very, very, very much against Amber.”
Although the jury was told repeatedly not to read anything about the case, Bredehoft said, “they have weekends, they have families, they have social media.” Bredehoft also mentioned the 10-day break in the trial because the judge had to attend a conference. “How could they not have been influenced?”
Burleson told Bredehoft that he’s a former NFL player, and “After a hard loss, it’s easy to wake up and point to the other side. Oftentimes, I realized the better thing to do was to look in the mirror,” he said. “Do you feel like you guys made any mistakes along the way? Do you feel like Amber made a mistake while she was on the stand?”
“You know, Amber even said on the stand, ‘I am not perfect, I am a human being.’ These people were giving her death threats. They threatened to microwave her baby. This is the kind of social media she was getting,” Bredehoft said. “So are any of us perfect? No. Is there something else we feel we should have done? Yes. Absolutely. I always redo my closings 100 times afterwards, whether I win or lose. That’s part of being a good lawyer, a good trial lawyer — there’s always something.”
However, she added, “I think that there were a lot of influences here that were beyond our control.” | 2022-06-02T16:26:08Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Amber Heard will appeal verdict in Johnny Depp case, lawyer says - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2022/06/02/amber-heard-appeal-johnny-depp-trial/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2022/06/02/amber-heard-appeal-johnny-depp-trial/ |
Under the Biden administration’s proposed rule, energy infrastructure will get more scrutiny from local regulators
The state of Washington used the authority under the Clean Water Act to block the construction of a proposed coal terminal in Longview, Wash., that would have shipped coal to Asia. (Orjan F. Ellingvag/Corbis/Getty Images)
The Environmental Protection Agency announced on Thursday it would seek to return authority to states to oppose gas pipelines, coal terminals and other projects that pose a threat to lakes, rivers and streams — reversing a major Trump administration rule.
Now, the EPA is seeking to restore states’ authority, potentially giving local officials, including Native American tribes, more ability to scrutinize proposals to build many highways, hydroelectric dams, shopping malls, housing developments and even wineries and breweries.
“For 50 years, the Clean Water Act has protected water resources that are essential to thriving communities, vibrant ecosystems, and sustainable economic growth,” EPA Administrator Michael Regan said in a statement. “EPA’s proposed rule builds on this foundation.”
Although the rule does not explicitly target fossil-fuel infrastructure, Democrats may seek to invoke it to reduce emissions contributing to global warming. New York, for instance, once used its power under the Clean Water Act to nix a gas pipeline that it said was “inconsistent” with the state’s clean energy goals.
Tracking Biden’s environmental actions
But the proposed rule, on which the agency has been working for more than a year, may meet resistance from real estate developers, oil and gas operators and other business interests who have long lamented the bureaucratic hoops through which they need to jump. In the past, red tape added to the cost and risk associated with construction, leading some developers to abandon projects entirely.
The state of Washington, for instance, canceled an export terminal that would have shipped coal to Asia but lead to “irreparable and unavoidable harm” to the Columbia River, according to state regulators.
“It made it much, much harder for states to exercise their authority, which is interesting because the Trump administration was all about states’ rights — until it wasn’t,” said Mark Ryan, a lawyer who worked at the EPA on water issues for a quarter-century before entering private practice.
In response, the Biden administration plans to keep the one-year deadline in place but will give states more flexibility in determining when the clock starts. It also plans to allow local regulators to “holistically” evaluate “any impact” projects have on water quality.
Jon Devine, director of federal water policy at Natural Resources Defense Council, said the Supreme Court has recognized the Clean Water Act gives states the right “to look at the entire project.”
“That’s a critical part of what’s needed in the new rule.” | 2022-06-02T16:26:32Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Undoing Trump, EPA to empower states and tribes to oppose pipelines - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/06/02/undoing-trump-epa-empower-states-tribes-oppose-pipelines/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/06/02/undoing-trump-epa-empower-states-tribes-oppose-pipelines/ |
From left to right: Camilla (Duchess of Cornwall), Prince Charles, Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Louis, Kate (Duchess of Cambridge), Princess Charlotte, Prince George and Prince William at the Buckingham Palace on June 2. (Paul Grover/AP)
Yet, the ultimate source of affinity between Americans and their British cousins is historical. It is impossible to tell the American story without understanding the English Reformation.
This history (at least for the geeks among us) is wildly entertaining. There is no drama like Tudor drama. The enormous appetites of Henry VIII. The relentless, modernizing efficiency of Thomas Cromwell. The otherworldly innocence of Cranmer. The silent intransigence of Thomas More. The consuming ambition and dignified end of Anne Boleyn. The heretic hunting of Bloody Mary — which filled “Foxe’s Book of Martyrs” and solidified a sense of Protestant identity. And the difficult religious balancing act of Elizabeth I.
The Pilgrims who initially arrived in Plymouth practiced an extreme form of Puritanism that broke with the Church of England. But most Puritans who came to British colonies in North America remained members of the Anglican Church, hoping their “errand into the wilderness” would provide a model for the reform of church and state back home.
The strategy didn’t work. But Puritan New England soon became the intellectual center of the colonies and the main carrier of American identity — which included a conviction of divine calling and a ferocious (though sometimes annoying) sense of righteous purpose. | 2022-06-02T16:27:27Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Why should Americans care about the Queen? The English made us. - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/02/queen-elizabeth-jubilee-american-british-historical-connection/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/02/queen-elizabeth-jubilee-american-british-historical-connection/ |
The GOP’s immigration paranoia is harming national security
Hong Kong activist Nathan Law takes part in a protest during a meeting of Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi with Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio in Rome in August 2020. (Andrew Medichini/AP)
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Congress unanimously passed the Soviet Scientists Immigration Act of 1992, which eased the path for highly skilled scientists and engineers from some former Soviet bloc countries to come to the United States. The message was clear: The world’s best and brightest want to live in open societies, not under dictatorship. The Cold War taught us that exploiting brain drain is a smart and righteous strategy. But now, some in the GOP have forgotten that lesson.
Thirty years later, as the West confronts the aggressive dictatorships headquartered in Moscow and Beijing, the United States risks blowing its greatest opportunity since the Cold War to bolster our competitiveness at the expense of our adversaries. Why? Because some in the Republican Party are more dedicated to thwarting any action on immigration than they are committed to competing with Russia and China.
Regarding Russia, Congress dropped the ball last month when passing the $40 billion supplemental funding bill to help Ukraine resist Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion. As tens of thousands of young, middle-class workers fled Russia out of disgust or necessity, the Biden administration proposed easing visa restrictions on Russians with advanced degrees in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). But Republican leaders refused to allow that proposal to be included in the legislation, several lawmakers and congressional staffers told me.
Now, Congress might be about to drop the ball regarding China as well. House and Senate negotiators are working behind the scenes to merge the two chambers’ versions of landmark legislation designed to prepare the United States for strategic and economic competition with China. The House version includes provisions that would give special status for refugees fleeing the Chinese government’s crackdown on freedom and democracy in Hong Kong and would authorize the Department of Homeland Security to expedite entry for up to 5,000 highly skilled Hong Kongers. It would also expand visas for applicants with advanced STEM degrees from any country. The Senate version has none of these provisions.
Inside the negotiations, intense discussions are continuing between Democrats and Republicans over these provisions, lawmakers and staffers said. But last month Charles E. Grassley (Iowa), the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he was opposed to anything related to immigration being included in the bill, calling these provisions “partisan” and “completely unrelated to countering China.”
Yet the push for helping skilled Hong Kongers relocate to the United States has been bipartisan in the past. The House bill’s language is taken from the Hong Kong People’s Freedom and Choice Act, sponsored by Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-N.J.) and Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), which passed the House unanimously in 2020. It died in the Senate after Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) blocked it. A different bipartisan bill in the Senate to ease immigration requirements for Hong Kongers fleeing Beijing’s crackdown is also stalled.
“I urge my Senate colleagues to keep our bill in the final China competition package,” Kinzinger told me. “We’re putting the Chinese Communist Party on notice that their continued attacks on freedom could mean losing the very people who have built Hong Kong’s economic success.”
When opposing the Malinowski-Kinzinger bill, Cruz claimed that accepting Hong Kongers was the first step to opening our borders and that the Chinese Communist Party could exploit the program to send spies to the United States. This ignores the fact that China has much easier ways to get spies into our country and that the CCP is trying to stop Hong Kongers from leaving because Beijing knows the brain-drain risk for China is real.
“It’s a debate between those who think our openness as a democratic society is an advantage in the struggle with autocracies or a disadvantage,” Malinowski told me. “One of the central lessons of the Cold War was that it is an advantage. I just hope we choose the same strategy that won the Cold War.”
One thing that has changed since the Cold War is that now these skilled workers who are fleeing Russia and Hong Kong have more options. Some reports say 50,000 to 70,000 Russian tech workers fled to places such as Turkey, Georgia or the Baltic countries in the first weeks of the war in Ukraine. Hong Kong business leaders are decamping for Singapore. Canada has already expanded immigration for Hong Kongers with advanced degrees, and thousands are taking advantage.
The whole world is competing for the talents of those who are fleeing from Hong Kong and Putin’s Russia. Republicans’ excessive fear of immigration should not waste a strategic opportunity for the United States to strengthen itself and weaken its rivals at the same time. Congress should work to ensure that China’s and Russia’s losses are America’s gains. | 2022-06-02T16:27:33Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | The GOP’s immigration paranoia is harming national security - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/02/republican-immigration-preventing-hong-kong-visas-brain-drain/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/02/republican-immigration-preventing-hong-kong-visas-brain-drain/ |
Yellen wisely admitted error on inflation. The White House should follow her example.
Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen testifies before the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee hearing on May 10. (Tom Williams/AP)
Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen did a remarkable thing on Tuesday: She admitted to making a mistake.
“I think I was wrong then about the path that inflation would take,” she said in a CNN interview. “As I mentioned, there have been unanticipated and large shocks to the economy that have boosted energy and food prices and supply bottlenecks that have affected our economy badly that I didn’t — at the time — didn’t fully understand, but we recognize that now.”
Yellen’s mistaken views, of course, reflected a consensus view at the time among economists, as Post contributing columnist and former treasury secretary Larry Summers — one of the few people who correctly predicted the full extent of the inflation threat — acknowledged.
Still, few people at the White House are ready to concede that they “got it wrong." While Republicans certainly would make a to-do about such an admission, it would not be the end of the world — and might add to President Biden’s credibility — if the White House simply reiterated the facts.
Whether it is the withdrawal from Afghanistan or the baby formula shortage or the invasion of Ukraine, critics will always allege that a president “should have known” or “should have acted sooner" in times of crisis. But it is often unknowable whether quicker action would have made any difference. (Arguably, the administration was not “slow” to help Ukraine but instead modified military aid to the country as events played out.) And it is usually the case that critics would not have done better under the same circumstances.
It’s not hard to figure out why politicians (like most of us) don’t like to admit error. It empowers their opponents and can demoralize supporters. But President Ronald Reagan admitted selling arms to the contras was a mistake. President Barack Obama made quick admission of error in pushing for former senator Tom Daschle to be health and human services secretary. President John F. Kennedy took responsibility for the Bay of Pigs blunder. None of these admissions doomed their presidencies. | 2022-06-02T16:27:39Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Yellen wisely admitted error on inflation. The White House should follow her example. - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/02/yellen-wisely-admitted-error-inflation-white-house-should-follow-her-example/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/02/yellen-wisely-admitted-error-inflation-white-house-should-follow-her-example/ |
Students from George Washington University wear their graduation gowns outside the White House on May 18. (Stefani Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images)
“Too often, unpaid federal internships have been a barrier to hard-working and talented students and professionals, preventing them from contributing their talents and skills to the country and holding them back from federal career advancement opportunities,” the White House said in a statement.
“This significant milestone of paying White House interns will help remove barriers to equal opportunity for low-income students and first-generation professionals at the beginnings of their careers,” the White House said, “and help to ensure that those who receive internships at the White House — and who will be a significant part of the leadership pipeline across the entire federal government — reflect the diversity of America.”
Paying congressional interns used to be common practice — Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) had a paid internship on Capitol Hill in 1969 — but it turned into an office-by-office decision when funds were cut for deficit reduction. A 2017 survey by the nonprofit Pay Our Interns showed that more than 90 percent of House offices did not pay interns, while in the Senate, 51 percent of GOP offices and 31 percent of Democratic ones paid their interns.
The latest: GOP Rep. Steube, appearing remotely, displays three guns at Judiciary hearing | 2022-06-02T16:27:45Z | www.washingtonpost.com | White House to pay its interns for the first time in history - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/02/biden-white-house-paid-internship/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/02/biden-white-house-paid-internship/ |
Five questions about U.S. help for Ukraine
Welcome to The Daily 202! Tell your friends to sign up here. On this day in 1961, playwright, director, and caustic wit George S. Kaufman, 71, died in New York. So many great lines to choose from. Here’s one of my favorite Kaufman stories. Watching a particularly grating leading-man performance, Kaufman sent the actor a telegram: “Watching your performance from the rear of the theater. Wish you were here.”
President Biden has made it official: Ukraine will be getting a new $700 million wave of military aid, including the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) that will expand its ability to strike Russian positions more accurately and from much farther away.
To limit the risk of escalation — well, ok, further escalation, since Russia is hopping mad about the HIMARS — the United States has secured promises from Ukraine not to use the system to strike targets on Russian soil.
Tucked away in a White House telephone briefing held Tuesday night “on background” (one in which the officials’ names are known to the reporters but the information can only be attributed anonymously) was a very interesting question. One which — spoiler — didn’t get an answer.
I’m using it as my first of five new questions about U.S. assistance for Ukraine.
ONE: Is this the first/only time Washington has imposed a restriction on how Kyiv’s forces may use a weapons system provided by the United States or its allies?
Take it away, “Senior Administration Official.”
“Beyond what I just described in terms of assurances that we got from Ukrainians, I’m not going to get into any further operational discussions that we’ve had with them about how they will or won’t use the systems they’re being provided.”
The reporter tried again.
“I’m not going to get into any other restrictions, assurances, or anything else that may or may not have been provided by the Ukrainians,” the official said.
That’s a really interesting question, one made even more interesting by this report from Mike Stone of Reuters on Wednesday: “The Biden administration plans to sell Ukraine four MQ-1C Gray Eagle drones that can be armed with Hellfire missiles for battlefield use against Russia, three people familiar with the situation said.”
Mike, who cautioned the plan could still fall through, noted the Gray Eagle can fly longer and farther than unmanned aerial vehicles Ukraine has received and used in the conflict to date, and can carry eight Hellfires.
“The sale is significant because it puts an advanced reusable U.S. system capable of multiple deep strikes on the battlefield against Russia for the first time,” Mike wrote.
Would Biden obtain assurances for HIMARS, but not for a long-range, missile-equipped drone?
TWO: When is a U.S. cyberattack not a violation of Biden’s policy of avoiding direct conflict with Russia?
This came up because of a report from Alexander Martin of Sky News, who quoted Army Gen. Paul M. Nakasone, the head of the U.S. Cyber Command and director of the National Security Agency, as saying the U.S. has conducted offensive cyber operations against Russia in support of Ukraine.
“He told Sky News: ‘We’ve conducted a series of operations across the full spectrum; offensive, defensive, [and] information operations.’”
There’s obviously a difference between a cyberattack that collapses a power grid or shuts down a hospital and a “hunt forward” effort to identify and neutralize enemy cyberweapons. Still, Biden has repeatedly promised no “direct” conflict between the United States and Russia. Isn’t there a contradiction there?
“We just don’t see it as such,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters at her briefing. She did not elaborate.
A National Security Council official said Jean-Pierre was reiterating “the longstanding U.S. position to work to disrupt malicious cyber activity and disinformation, and defend the U.S. and our allies and partners around the world from a range of threats.”
THREE: How bad are Ukraine’s losses in its eastern Donbas region?
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told Newsmax in an interview that aired Tuesday “we are losing 60-100 soldiers per day, as killed in action, and something around like 500 people as wounded in action.”
Around the time Russian President Vladimir Putin expanded the war, on Feb. 24, Ukraine was estimated to have a standing military of about 200,000.
FOUR: What can the United States and its allies do about Russia’s Black Sea blockade of Ukrainian ports, which has stranded the country’s wheat, barley, and sunflower oil exports, threatening dozens of countries with prospects of a food crisis?
My colleague Mary Ilyushina reported Wednesday how Russia keeps blaming the sanctions it’s under for what may be shaping up to be “quite a profound food crisis,” in the words of Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
“The war and Russia’s blockade of Ukraine’s Black Sea ports have halted much of these exports. The Ukrainian transport hubs are also heavily mined. Moscow linked the resumption of food supplies to clearing the ports of mines, but the Ukrainians fear this could lead to a renewed Russian attempt to seize key locations on the coastline with amphibious assaults,” Mary noted.
The United States has rejected calls to ease sanctions. There have been efforts to get the food exports out by train, but the process is much slower than by ship. An American general recently hinted the U.S. military might have to get involved, even as world leaders seek a diplomatic breakthrough.
FIVE: What arms will Ukraine ask for next?
It’s been a pretty good barometer of how they think they’re doing against Russia.
WSJ poll: Most Americans support upholding Roe v. Wade
“More than two-thirds of Americans want to uphold Roe v. Wade, and most favor women having access to legal abortion for any reason, according to a new Wall Street Journal poll that shows a four-decade evolution in the country’s viewpoints regarding the procedure,” the WSJ's Catherine Lucey reports.
“Authorities are investigating the motive behind a shooting at a Tulsa hospital on Wednesday in which a man killed at least four people before turning a gun on himself, police said, in the latest mass shooting to beset the nation…Investigators declined to identify the gunman Wednesday, citing the preliminary nature of the investigation, but said the attack was not random,” Timothy Bella and Bryan Pietsch report.
House Judiciary Committee poised to advance emergency gun measures
“Today, the House Judiciary Committee is poised to advance legislation billed as an emergency response to recent mass shootings, including the school massacre in Uvalde, Tex. The Protecting Our Kids Act, among other things, would raise the purchase age of an assault weapon from 18 to 21 and attempt to crack down on large-capacity magazines and 'ghost guns.' It does not include an assault weapons ban,” John Wagner and Eugene Scott report for Post Politics Now.
Zelensky says Russia holds 20% of nation
“Ukraine is suffering significant setbacks in parts of the country’s east, amid grueling street-by-street battles in the key city of Severodonetsk, with the British Defense Ministry saying that most of the city is now in Russian hands. After nearly 100 days of fighting, Russian forces now control 20 percent of the country, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky,” Rachel Pannett, Amy Cheng, Victoria Bisset and Ellen Francis report.
Ukraine’s first lady urges Americans: ‘Don’t get used to our pain’
Russian missile strikes in Lviv region damage infrastructure
“An independent watchdog this week opened a broad investigation into Social Security Inspector General Gail Ennis and her office following a Washington Post report that revealed how an anti-fraud program has imposed massive penalties on disabled and elderly people,” Lisa Rein reports.
“Scribbled on the whiteboard affixed to a rectory wall inside Sacred Heart Catholic Church was a somber list: funeral after funeral, sometimes two in one day, that will all take place here for students and teachers killed last week at Robb Elementary School,” Teo Armus reports.
Five years. Five shootings. 87 dead in Texas. What gun laws could’ve applied in each case?
“The Dallas Morning News looked into the preventive measures, criminal penalties or enforcement mechanisms raised after each of these five mass shooting events and reviewed which would have applied in each case. Then, we asked state leaders whether they support any of these proposals,” the DMN’s Lauren McGaughy reports.
“President Joe Biden is leaning towards making a visit to Saudi Arabia — a trip that would likely bring him face-to-face with the Saudi crown prince he once shunned as a killer,” the Associated Press's Aamer Madhani and Ellen Knickmeyer report.
“In the Education Department’s largest group cancellation of federal student loans, the Biden administration will forgive $5.8 billion in debt held by 560,000 former students of the defunct for-profit chain Corinthian Colleges, the department said Wednesday,” Danielle Douglas-Gabriel reports.
“President Biden said Wednesday that he did not become aware of the baby formula shortage until about two months after industry leaders knew they faced a major crisis, raising new questions about the administration’s monitoring and handling of the problem,” Tyler Pager reports.
Trade dialogue between U.S. and Taiwan begins
“The Biden administration said on Wednesday that it would pursue negotiations to strengthen trade and technology ties with Taiwan, a move that is aimed at countering China’s influence in the Asia-Pacific region and one that is likely to rankle Beijing,” the New York Times's Ana Swanson reports.
“A passenger line extension in central Florida, removal of at-grade crossings in Texas and a new engineering program at a historically Black university in Baltimore are all beneficiaries of more than $368 million in railroad infrastructure grants being announced Thursday by the Biden administration,” Roll Call's Niels Lesniewski reports.
Biden administration to cut costs for wind and solar energy projects
“The Biden administration said on Wednesday it would cut in half the amount it charges companies to build wind and solar projects on federal lands, a move designed to encourage development of renewable energy,” the NYT's Lisa Friedman reports.
Buffalo's food desert, visualized
"An 18-year-old gunman opened fire on Tops Friendly Market grocery store on Jefferson Avenue on May 14, killing 10 shoppers and employees — all of whom were Black — and injuring three more," Jacob Bogage reports.
“In a 500-page report released Wednesday, a legislatively-mandated task force argues that the present-day wealth gap between Black and White Americans in California and the rest of the country is the direct result of slavery, Jim Crow laws, redlining and other government policies that locked Black Americans into failing schools and over-policed communities,” Emmanuel Felton reports.
“The strategy calls for streamlining the permitting process for large infrastructure projects, increasing domestic fossil fuel production and boosting exports of U.S. liquefied natural gas, which proponents say is cleaner than gas produced in other countries, according to the individuals, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe details that are not yet public,” Maxine Joselow and Jeff Stein reports.
Biden will depart the White House for Rehoboth Beach, Del., at 5:30 p.m., where he is scheduled to arrive at 6:30.
Time for a Turkey rebrand? Introducing: Türkiye
“Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu has sent a letter to the United Nations formally requesting that his country be referred to as ‘Türkiye,’ the state-run news agency reported. The move is seen as part of a push by Ankara to rebrand the country and dissociate its name from the bird, turkey, and some negative connotations that are associated with it,” the AP reports. | 2022-06-02T16:27:51Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Five questions about U.S. help for Ukraine - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/02/five-questions-about-us-help-ukraine/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/02/five-questions-about-us-help-ukraine/ |
Patrick Marley joins The Post as democracy reporter for the Upper Midwest
Patrick Marley (Patrick Marley)
Announcement from National Editor Matea Gold, Deputy National Editor Philip Rucker, Senior National Investigations Editor Peter Wallsten, Democracy Editor Griff Witte and Deputy Democracy Editor Jenna Johnson:
We are excited to announce that Patrick Marley will join The Washington Post in the newly created position of democracy reporter for the Upper Midwest.
Patrick will focus on how state and local officials navigate pressures on the administration of elections, while tracking legislative and legal battles over voting rules and access to the polls. He will also be responsible for telling the stories of people and communities who have lost faith in the ability of their government to hold free and fair elections. His reporting will center on Wisconsin, Michigan and other parts of the Upper Midwest.
Patrick comes to The Post from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, where he has reported with distinction on political tumult in Wisconsin for the past 18 years. Recently, he has closely covered fights over voter ID, redistricting, ballot drop boxes and fake presidential electors. He has repeatedly broken news on the review of the 2020 election launched by Republican lawmakers, including that its leader consulted with conspiracy theorists, sought to jail election officials who haven’t met with him and billed taxpayers for a trip to a Republican Party event.
Starting in 2015, Patrick wrote a series of stories about abuses and errors at Wisconsin’s juvenile prison. Amid massive protests at the state Capitol in 2011, Patrick documented then-Gov. Scott Walker’s efforts to all but eliminate collective bargaining for public workers. Patrick and a colleague, Jason Stein, chronicled those events in a 2013 book, “More Than They Bargained For: Scott Walker, Unions and the Fight for Wisconsin.”
Patrick’s work has been recognized by the National Headliner Awards, Investigative Reporters and Editors and the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council.
He has a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Iowa and a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Patrick’s first day is June 27. | 2022-06-02T16:28:09Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Patrick Marley joins The Post as democracy reporter for the Upper Midwest - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/pr/2022/06/02/patrick-marley-joins-post-democracy-reporter-upper-midwest/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/pr/2022/06/02/patrick-marley-joins-post-democracy-reporter-upper-midwest/ |
Pandemic disrupted learning for U.S. teens, but not evenly, poll shows
A Pew Research Center study looks at how teens and their parents have handled virtual learning and going back to class
A teenager uses her laptop at home to study. (iStock)
In many ways, the switch to virtual learning was an unexpected, unplanned experiment that was conducted on millions of school-age children. When the coronavirus pandemic struck the United States in early 2020, schools across the country closed their classrooms, handed out laptops and tablets, and gave educators a crash course in holding squirming kids’ attention over apps like Zoom.
More than two years later, there’s new information about the impact that switch has had on teens between 13 and 17 years old and their parents. In a survey released Thursday by the Pew Research Center, there are signs that some things are returning to the way they were before the pandemic, but some teenagers feel left behind. The survey found that most kids have kept close relationships with friends and families over the pandemic and that they prefer going to school in person more than remotely. However, there are notable differences in how the pandemic, specifically remote learning, has affected Black and Hispanic teenagers and lower-income families.
Virtual learning set poor children even further behind, study shows
“One thing that stands out is we tend to see a difference in teens’ experiences by their household income,” said Colleen McClain, a Pew research associate who focuses on Internet and technology research.
Some of the starkest differences are around completing homework, known as the “homework gap.” Some teens are falling behind in school work, often due to a lack of adequate technology to complete assignments at home. Twenty-two percent of teenagers said they have had to finish homework on their phones, and 12 percent said they sometimes can’t complete their homework because they don’t have the technology to do it. A lack of computers, smartphones and reliable home Internet are all contributing factors. Twenty percent of low-income students who live in a household with an annual income of $30,000 or less said they don’t have a computer at home.
Childhood experts had worried about the impact of isolation on teen relationships during the early part of the pandemic. About half of teens reported feeling as close or closer to their parents than before the coronavirus crisis, and 49 percent said they had managed to maintain their close relationships with friends. However, a third of teenagers said they were less connected with people outside that inner circle, such as classmates. These relationships were another area where Hispanic and Black teens reported some less-positive experiences. They were more likely than White teenagers to feel less close to their friends.
Even the teens who managed well while learning remotely prefer being back in classrooms full time, the survey found. A majority of all teenagers said they prefer to attend school entirely in person, while 9 percent said they prefer to be fully remote.
While there’s a stronger preference for in-person learning, there are some notable differences between groups. Black teens are less likely to say they want to only go to school in person since the pandemic, while Hispanic teens are more likely to want a hybrid setup. Teens living in lower-income households are less likely to want to go back to school entirely in person, with 15 percent saying they would prefer to attend school completely online.
The study comes just as most students are wrapping up the school year and are primarily back to in-person learning. Eighty percent of students said they had attended school completely in person in the past month, while only 8 percent said they had been entirely online.
While many of the changes required early in the pandemic were temporary, some of the technology requirements have stuck around — and not without consequences. A recent study by Human Rights Watch found that of 164 educational apps it examined, nearly 90 percent were designed to collect and share data about students with advertising technology companies. The increase in smartphone usage among students, particularly teens, has led some educators to try to incorporate those devices into their lesson plans. That can leave students without access to pricey smartphones behind, too.
Educators across the board have worried about whether remote learning would leave some kids behind. The parents of teenagers have mixed reviews of their various schools’ approaches to virtual schooling, and they tended to be more satisfied with it than the children themselves. Among parents, 39 percent say they’re satisfied with how schools handled remote learning, while only 28 percent of teens said the same.
The majority of teenagers also aren’t worried that they’ve fallen behind during the pandemic, while 28 percent of parents say they’re very or extremely worried about their kids falling behind because of the coronavirus crisis.
“There’s not a one-size-fits-all experience for teens when it comes to experiencing school during the pandemic,” said Monica Anderson, associate director of research at Pew.
The new report is based on a survey of 1,316 pairs of U.S. teens and their parents conducted April 14 to May 4, 2022, Pew said.
Elon Musk has big ideas for Twitter. Users should buckle up. | 2022-06-02T16:28:34Z | www.washingtonpost.com | How the pandemic and remote learning have impacted teens - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/06/02/pandemic-remote-teens-learning/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/06/02/pandemic-remote-teens-learning/ |
Biden’s revised Cuba policy creates more options for U.S. travelers
The United States just approved flights to airports beyond Havana and will restore the group tours banned under Trump
Americans who want to travel legally to Cuba will have more options after the Biden administration announced it was undoing some of the restrictions President Trump imposed before the pandemic.
Under an order issued Wednesday by the U.S. Department of Transportation, airlines will again be allowed to fly to Cuban destinations beyond Havana, an avenue that was cut off in late 2019. Public charter flights will also be permitted to go to airports outside Havana after being suspended in early 2020.
The Transportation Department issued the order rescinding the Trump-era restrictions after a request this week from Secretary of State Antony Blinken. He wrote that scheduled and charter air services could resume “effective immediately” once the department took action.
That formal request followed a May 16 announcement that the Biden administration was taking measures, including allowing the additional flights, to “increase support for the Cuban people in line with our national security interests.”
Peggy Goldman, president and co-owner of two travel companies that bring visitors to Cuba — Friendly Planet and Insight Cuba — called the permission to add flights “wonderful news.”
“It makes it possible to enjoy much more of the island, and having these additional flights is a hallelujah moment for us,” she said. She added that her companies have been “badgering” airlines on a daily basis about increasing service.
U.S. carriers that offer scheduled flights to Havana, including American Airlines, JetBlue and Southwest, told The Washington Post this week — before the DOT’s order — that they did not have any additional services to announce. American Airlines flew to five destinations in addition to Havana until December 2019, and JetBlue once flew to three cities beyond the capital city.
“While we do not have any news to share at this time regarding changes to our operations in Cuba, we regularly evaluate new opportunities throughout our network,” JetBlue said in a statement.
Cuba reopened to visitors in November after closing its borders earlier in the pandemic.
Can Americans travel to Cuba? Yes, but it's complicated.
U.S. officials have said that a popular authorized way for groups of travelers to visit Cuba — called “people-to-people” trips — will be back at some point. The Trump administration eliminated the option in mid-2019. The State Department said it would reinstate the option, along with other categories of group educational travel and some additional travel connected to professional meetings and research.
“We’ll certainly ensure travel is purposeful and in accordance with U.S. law. And we’ll note something that President Biden had said often, which is his belief that Americans are the best ambassadors for democratic values,” a senior administration official said during a press call last month. “And facilitating group people-to-people travel will allow for greater engagement between the American people and the promotion of their democratic values.”
The State Department did not release a timeline for reopening that category of travel, but it said in a statement that the administration is “working expeditiously to implement these changes, via regulatory amendments and other steps on an expedited basis.”
Americans have been allowed to visit the island under categories that remain legal, including family visits, religious activities, competitions, educational activities, and professional research and meetings. After the Trump administration eliminated the “people to people” option, first for individuals and then for groups, most travelers opted to visit under the “support for the Cuban people” category.
Under that option, travelers need to have a full-time schedule of activities that enhance contact with locals, support civil society in Cuba, result in meaningful interaction with residents or promote independence from Cuban authorities, as The Washington Post reported in 2019.
The two categories were similar, but supporting the Cuban people required more direct aid to locals on the ground. Some tour operators told The Post when the changes were first announced that they were skipping attractions such as Ernest Hemingway’s house and famous cemeteries. To keep their programming in compliance, they said, they would meet with craftspeople who make humidors instead of going to cigar factories, and they would visit artists in a studio cooperative instead of going to a museum. | 2022-06-02T16:28:40Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Biden’s new Cuba policy creates more options for U.S. travel - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/2022/06/02/new-cuba-policy-travel-americans/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/2022/06/02/new-cuba-policy-travel-americans/ |
Why some travelers are choosing old favorites over new horizons
The medina of Fez in Morocco, seen in May 2019, is among the author's favorite places. (Terry Ward for The Washington Post)
I’ve never tallied the number of countries I’ve visited since I first traveled outside the United States with my parents as a kid in the 1980s — a 10-year-old girl glued to the window of the inaugural Pan Am flight from Dulles International Airport to Frankfurt, Germany, where a new world of cola-shaped gummy bears and castles that weren’t inside theme parks awaited.
But as a travel writer with the convenient excuse that travel is work — and a nagging let’s-see-if-the-grass-is-greener-in-that-country inner voice — clocking far-flung countries and new destinations when I got the chance was how I operated before the pandemic.
Physically, I was safe and healthy in that Victorian house on the Rappahannock River, surrounded by people I love, keeping each other safe from marauding respiratory droplets and germs on groceries. But when I missed the outside world a little too much, I’d go back in my mind to the lands I loved and the people I missed.
I didn’t have to close my eyes to be able to picture the mazelike streets of the medina in Morocco, where I studied Arabic in my 20s and have returned many times since to spend time with the wonderful Muslim family who hosted me in their home. Wondering whether my senses were heightened by the pandemic monotony, I could smell the bundles of mint piled atop passing donkeys and the pungent odor of animal hides drying in the sun just by thinking of Fes.
Intellectually, of course, I knew that Morocco — not to mention the entire world — was not at all how I remembered it. My friends in Fes told me how they’d shuttered their souvenir shop and that the streets outside their home, which were always packed with people, donkeys and tourists, had been left to the cats.
I could picture the golden glow of crispbread baking in a Norwegian friend’s kitchen, overlooking a harbor in a cod-fishing village in Lofoten. I still knew how it felt to banter in that very Gallic way on a French market day, exchanging flirtatious pleasantries with a vendor while unhurriedly filling a paper bag with fruit. I remembered the feeling of wearing a different kind of mask, too, and my eyes widening underwater at a favorite scuba-diving site off a remote atoll in French Polynesia. It felt reassuring to know the sharks, humphead wrasse and manta rays were all still there, doing what they’d always done.
When the world started opening up again, France, Portugal and French Polynesia were among the places I happily hurried back to. They were as good as I remembered them, maybe even better. I expected as much, but it came as a great relief to know it to be true. And most of the future trips I’m planning now are to places I’ve visited before, loved a whole lot and sometimes moved on from, when I got distracted by someplace shinier and newer, but eventually longed for again.
If you can relate to nostalgia inspiring your trip-planning, there’s a good reason for it, said Krystine Batcho, a professor of psychology at Le Moyne College in Syracuse, N.Y. “Familiar places offer opportunities to be comforted by their familiarity and by the positive feelings associated with them in the past,” she said.
Returning to a favorite campsite or beach can revive the feelings of calm and/or excitement you experienced in the past there and help to return some degree of normalcy from your pre-pandemic life, she said. Even if travel offers only a temporary escape from the stress of the pandemic, Batcho said, “a change in location is a concrete way of marking the return to better times in the past, before the pandemic.”
Travel serves as an emotional outlet for some people, said Akua K. Boateng, a licensed psychotherapist in Philadelphia, and it’s one from which most of us have been cut off during the pandemic. “People were faced with finding new outlets that felt safe and comfortable as a way of handling some of the psychological impacts of life,” she said. (See: making sourdough and camping in the backyard with the kids.)
Now that travel beyond our backyards is back, establishing it again as something we feel safe doing, both physically and emotionally, might take some time. “Typically, when we are adjusting to new changes, we seek to have some aspect of control when there’s uncertainty or a foreign nature to something,” Boateng said. “I believe that people have an adjustment period that’s required to reestablish travel as a safe and manageable emotional outlet.”
Paul Weiner, 28, a visual artist from Denver who traveled to places such as Vietnam, Turkey and Senegal before the pandemic, said the past two years have changed the way he thinks about freedom. “It used to feel like a long trip to somewhere I had never seen before would give me an escape from my life,” he said. And although he’s in Germany for an artist residency, Weiner said he’s longing to travel back to the places closer to home in Colorado that he routinely visited during the pandemic.
“Now I feel extremely free in familiar places where I know how to get everything that I need, stay in touch with loved ones and build lasting friendships,” he said. “It’s very satisfying to visit a place repeatedly and become a regular in the community instead of just a passerby.”
“Aspen [in Colorado] will definitely be my next trip,” Weiner said.
Nostalgia is a psychological recourse that has the capacity to restore self-continuity — a sense of connection between one’s past and one’s present — said Wing Yee “VerBon” Cheung, a senior lecturer in psychology at the University of Winchester in England.
“The reason nostalgia can heighten the level of self-continuity is that it brings back the feelings and memories of being close to other people (a sense of belongingness and acceptance),” she wrote in an email.
And although a common refrain is that it’s better to move forward in life than to dwell in the past, Cheung said research shows that nostalgia-induced self-continuity can enhance “eudaimonic well-being” — a sense of achievement of meaning and purpose defined by a feeling of aliveness and energy.
Siobhan Maher, 36, a jewelry copywriter in West Midlands, England, said that, before the pandemic, the lure of traveling to destinations that were new to her, such as India and Iran, won out over revisiting places she had already been. But during the days of lockdown, she said that she found herself living vicariously through her travel photos and feeling nostalgic for old trips.
“The longing to return to old haunts was real,” she said. And paired with world politics, the coronavirus and the climate crisis, she said, those earlier travel days took on an “air of blissful happiness.”
This summer, Maher plans to spend a month traveling by train to some of her favorite places in Europe with her husband and their daughter, who is almost 5. “My daughter’s also just the age I can start to share my love of travel with her, too, which I think plays into it,” she said. “I want to see my special places through her eyes.”
For parents who can relate, it’s not surprising. “The pandemic heightened anxiety about our mortality and contributed to making the desire for legacy more salient and important,” Batcho said. “We hope that [our kids] will carry on a bit of ourselves as they are affected by the places that influenced us.”
And nostalgia, she said, is “enjoyed best when it strengthens our bonds with people we love.”
The return to tried-and-true travel destinations appears to be a trend, according to some travel agents. Tania Swasbrook, vice president at Travelworld International Group in Coronado, Calif., said her agency has seen a huge return to Western European destinations such as Greece and Italy. She likens it to “the Starbucks effect.”
“You know what you are going to get when you get there,” she said. “People are interested in places they know. It makes them feel a little bit more comfortable.”
Jack Ezon, founder of the Embark Beyond travel agency, said 72.5 percent of the trips his firm is booking outside of the United States this summer are for clients returning to places they’ve already been. (Pre-pandemic, that number was roughly 45 percent, he said.)
Bookings to Western Europe are dominating over interest in more recently reopened destinations in Asia, Australia and New Zealand, Ezon said. “People want to go back to something that’s amazing where they have great memories and can just relive them,” he said. “We’re seeing less of the bucket list. It’s not, ‘Let’s go check off the Eiffel Tower,’ ” he said.
“There are different drivers. People are traveling based on aspiration.”
And if you’re one of those people, then you might already know where you’ll be returning to next.
Ward is a writer based in Tampa. Her website is terry-ward.com. Find her on Twitter and Instagram: @TerryWardWriter. | 2022-06-02T16:28:46Z | www.washingtonpost.com | In uncertain times, revisiting familiar places provides a special kind of comfort - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/2022/06/02/travel-vacation-revisiting-return-visits/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/2022/06/02/travel-vacation-revisiting-return-visits/ |
Potential Tropical Storm Alex to bring flooding rains to Florida
Up to 6 to 10 inches of rain could fall in some areas of South Florida, mostly Friday and Saturday.
The National Weather Service's forecast for heavy rainfall. (WeatherBell) (WeatherBell)
Forecasts are coming into clearer focus ahead of a disturbance that is set to organize in the Gulf of Mexico and head toward South Florida on Friday and Saturday. The National Hurricane Center says there is an 80 percent chance that the system will strengthen into a tropical depression and potentially become the first named storm of the 2022 Atlantic hurricane season: Alex.
With a projected track directly over South Florida, confidence is growing about probable effects. Widespread heavy rain and areas of flooding are anticipated, along with gusty winds, a minor ocean surge and a couple tornadoes.
The Hurricane Center may issue tropical storm watches for South Florida and the Keys as soon as late Thursday.
June tropical storms and hurricanes are not uncommon in Florida, according to Michael Lowry, a hurricane specialist for Miami television affiliate WPLG. In an online discussion, he said that of all the Atlantic tropical storms and hurricanes that have affected land in June, “more than a third have been in the state of Florida.” He added that these storms typically aren’t terribly strong, but are “often prolific rainmakers.”
This disturbance marks the first tropical threat of 2022 in the Lower 48 states, and the start of what forecasters fear will be the seventh straight above-average Atlantic hurricane season.
Researchers at Colorado State University updated their seasonal outlook Thursday morning, increasing their projections for its severity.
They’re now anticipating 20 named storms — compared to an average of 14.4 — among which should be 10 hurricanes and five major hurricanes, Category 3 or higher. They say the season should be about 35 percent more active than a typical season, and there’s a 76 percent chance that a major hurricane strikes the U.S. mainland.
Tropical Atlantic and eastern subtropical and mid-latitude Atlantic are warmer than normal. When these regions are warmer than normal in June, Atlantic #hurricane seasons are typically more active. pic.twitter.com/DsnNEhCcUl
The latest on potential Tropical Storm Alex
The National Hurricane Center has designated the area of disturbed weather east of the Yucatán Peninsula an “invest,” meaning it bears watching and could intensify into a depression or storm.
Thus far the system — which includes the thunderstorm remnants of deadly Hurricane Agatha — has been struggling against strong high-altitude winds that have proven hostile to its development. But a recent flare-up of thunderstorm activity over the open waters east of the system’s center is an indicator that gradual development is probable anyway.
Data from a scatterometer, or satellite-based sensor, suggests that winds within the system generally range between 25 and 30 mph, but the satellite was not in a position to ascertain if a cohesive vortex, or center of circulation, was present. That’s a requirement for the disturbance to become a tropical depression.
That could happen this evening or early Friday as the system churns northeast, its center drifting toward the area between Cancún and the western tip of Florida. Despite pernicious wind shear, or a change of wind speed and/or direction with height, the disturbance could reach tropical storm strength and earn the name Alex before arriving in South Florida.
Florida impacts
Areas affected: The greatest impacts in Florida will be relegated to the Keys, the Florida Straits and southern parts of the Florida Peninsula. That’s because the center of low pressure may pass just to the north of Lake Okeechobee as it slips across south central Florida on Friday evening. The heaviest rain is projected south of the center.
Timeline: Light rain will break out in the early hours Friday morning, becoming moderate to heavy from southwest to northeast during the afternoon and evening. The core of the storm — with the most gusty winds and heaviest rain squalls — will traverse the Keys in the predawn hours Saturday, and cross through south Florida, including the Miami metro area, during the late morning into the evening hours.
Rainfall totals: Most of the moderate to heavy rain will remain south of Tampa to the Port Canaveral line. Fort Myers and Naples might see 2 to 4 inches, but closer to the Everglades and Miami, as well as the Keys, a general 6 to 8 inches appears favored. A few double-digit totals can be expected.
Scattered instances of flooding are probable, especially in urban areas, given the high rainfall rates.
“If forecast trends continue, a flood watch may be considered over the next day or two for portions of the region,” wrote the National Weather Service in Miami.
Winds: In most places, winds will probably peak only in the blustery range, with gusts between 20 and 35 mph. A small region near the coastline might see sustained winds approach or meet the 39 mph tropical storm threshold if the system is named Alex. There is an outside chance of a stronger tropical storm that could produce winds over 50 mph, which would pose a risk of power outages.
Surge: The surge, or storm-driven rise in water above normally dry land along the coast, is predicated on wind, and ultimately will depend on the strength of the system. It’s unlikely that the surge exceeds a foot or two, or results in more than minor coastal flooding close to high tide. The surge risk is highest in coastal southwest Florida.
Tornadoes: The National Weather Service Storm Prediction Center has placed the Keys and extreme southwest Florida under a level 1 out of 5 “marginal risk” for severe weather for Friday and Saturday to accommodate the potential for quick-hitting tropical tornadoes. That’s due to the wind shear associated with landfalling tropical systems, primarily to the right of the center, which can impart a twisting force on individual cells within the spiral rain bands.
The storm will probably move offshore of Florida and brush the northwestern Bahamas late Saturday before passing over the open northwest Atlantic near the Gulf Stream. There’s a chance it could strengthen some along the way, but shouldn’t affect land. Most model simulations indicate that it will pass safely north of Bermuda, but residents there should monitor forecasts. | 2022-06-02T16:28:52Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Developing Tropical Storm Alex to bring flooding rains to Florida - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2022/06/02/depression-tropical-storm-alex-florida/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2022/06/02/depression-tropical-storm-alex-florida/ |
Turkey today, Türkiye tomorrow: U.N. accepts request to change country’s name
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara on June 1. (Adem Altan/AFP/Getty Images)
In a move destined to fuel a surge in pronunciation tutorials, the United Nations confirmed on Thursday that it had accepted aa request on the part of Turkey to change its official name.
Now, it is Türkiye.
Turkish foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu announced this week that his country would be sending a letter to the United Nations and other international organizations requesting the use of “Türkiye” in the international arena.
Stephane Dujarric, a spokesman for the U.N. Secretary General, said Thursday that the change was in effect. “It is not uncommon for us to receive such requests,” she told The Washington Post.
Analysis: Turkey’s awkward role in the Russia-Ukraine war
The move aligns the country’s English-language name with its Turkish-language name. The two words are pronounced similarly, but Türkiye has an extra syllable at the end — pronounced “yay.”
The country had adopted its official name, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, or the Republic of Turkey, after its founding in 1923. The name refers to the Turkish people, a name used to refer to those living in the region since at least the Middle Age. The founding president of the new republic, Mustafa Kemal, was later given the honorific surname Atatürk, which describes him as a “father of the Turks.”
Though the country had been known as Turkey in the English language for at least a century, and that name has seen some use within the country as well, there has been a growing push for Türkiye. In January 2020, a Turkish exporter group said that it would use “Made in Turkiye” on all its labels in a bid to standardize branding.
The move was made official in a 2021 decree from President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. “The word Türkiye represents and expresses the culture, civilization and values of the Turkish nation in the best way,” Erdoğan’s decree said.
The new name would take the place not only of Turkey, but other names used internationally, such as “Turkei” and “Turquie.”
Erdoğan’s government has portrayed the move as an economic branding exercise, designed to strengthen the country’s trade position on the world stage.
The Turkish economy has been in crisis for months due to a rapid rise in inflation, amid the president’s push to cut interest rates. The low value of the Turkish lira makes exports from the country relatively cheap, though economists say that the country’s trade deficit is likely to continue due to the high cost of intermediate goods.
Another motivation for changing the name may be pride. One recent article from state broadcaster TRT World noted that the word “turkey,” beyond its use as a proper noun, has some unflattering definitions.
“Type ‘Turkey’ into Google, and you will get a muddled set of images, articles, and dictionary definitions that conflate the country with Meleagris — otherwise known as the turkey, a large bird native to North America — which is famous for being served on Christmas menus or Thanksgiving dinners,” the article, published in December, points out. “Flip through the Cambridge Dictionary and ‘turkey’ is defined as “something that fails badly” or “a stupid or silly person.”
Historians say the bird was actually named after the place — either because the traders who first brought it back from North America were from the Ottoman Empire, then colloquially known as Turkey in English, or because they thought it was similar to another bird already imported by Ottoman traders.
Countries have changed their names throughout history for various reasons. In just the last few years, the Netherlands ditched the name Holland to more accurately represent its geography, Swaziland became Eswatini to celebrate the 50th anniversary of independence and Macedonia appended “North” to its name to appease its neighbor Greece.
The Czech Republic got a new name, but few people seem to have noticed yet
The moves can sometimes cause confusion. In 2016, politicians in Prague requested that their country be known by “Czechia” rather than the Czech Republic, though the latter would remain a conventional long-form name.
“We need to be realistic,” Petr Pavlínek, a representative of the Czechia Initiative, a group that campaigns for wider adoption of the name, told The Washington Post in 2017, adding that we “cannot expect that the world and the Czechs will switch to Czechia overnight.” | 2022-06-02T16:28:58Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Turkey today, Türkiye tomorrow: U.N. accepts request to change country name - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/02/turkey-turkiye-erdogan-united-nations-un/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/02/turkey-turkiye-erdogan-united-nations-un/ |
World Athletics reaffirms Russia ban for track and field championships
Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore. will be the first U.S. venue to host the track and field world championships in July. (Thomas Boyd/ AP)
When the United States hosts the track and field world championships next month for the first time, the event will be without athletes from Russia and Belarus. World Athletics reaffirmed its March decision to ban athletes representing both countries to the Associated Press, which will keep them from participating in the largest international sports event since the end of the Winter Olympics and Paralympics.
The 2022 world championships, to be held July 12-25 in Eugene, Ore., were originally scheduled for last August before being postponed after the pandemic pushed last year’s Tokyo Olympics into that time frame.
World Athletics imposed the ban following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which was supported by Belarus, saying, “all athletes, support personnel and officials from Russia and Belarus will be excluded from all World Athletics Series events for the foreseeable future, with immediate effect.” That ban will remain in place barring an unexpected end to the war in Ukraine, according to the AP.
Since the February invasion, Russia’s teams and athletes have been banned from major sports and competitions across the world, while others have been allowed to compete under certain specific conditions, such as signing a document forbidding public support of the invasion. Russian federations and athletes have filed appeals to oppose their bans in sports including soccer, gymnastics, rugby and biathlon. In April, a Russian ban in luge was overturned although no reasoning for the reversal was offered.
World Athletics last November voted to extend its suspension of Russia from track and field into a seventh year, following the country’s doping scandal. Despite that penalty, Russian athletes who proved they were clean were allowed to compete as “neutral” athletes. But as a result of the March ruling, even those athletes are barred from competing in Eugene. | 2022-06-02T17:05:18Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Russian athletes to remain banned from track and field world championships - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/olympics/2022/06/02/russia-ban-track-and-field/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/olympics/2022/06/02/russia-ban-track-and-field/ |
Depp-Heard verdict will have chilling impact on #MeToo, advocates say
By Ashley Fetters Maloy
Karen Heller
(Washington Post illustration; Jim Watson/AFP/Getty; Evelyn Hockstein/AP; iStock)
Drew Dixon is one of several women who came forward with rape allegations against hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons in December 2017. For more than 20 years, she had kept silent. The secret, Dixon said, felt like a dark cloud looming over her. But in late 2017, she sensed a shift in the atmosphere.
“I said ‘me too’ after 20 years because I felt like this was the moment where I would be heard, and there would be a baseline extension of compassion,” said Dixon, a writer, producer, activist and former executive at Simmons’s label, Def Jam Recordings. (Simmons has denied her allegations.)
Over the past several weeks, though, watching the Johnny Depp-Amber Heard trial, Dixon felt as though the clouds were closing in again.
Dixon was alarmed by the “giddy derision” that seemed to follow Heard in particular. She had hoped to avoid the trial altogether, but when her 17-year-old daughter showed her a pro-Depp meme despite not knowing much about him prior to the trial, Dixon realized how much it had permeated popular culture. The live-streamed trial was widely followed by observers online, and social media was overwhelmed by Depp fans who felt he could do no wrong.
Even before the verdict, Dixon said, it seemed as though “the floodgates were opened in terms of the cruelty with which survivors would be received.” After a jury decided Wednesday that the former spouses had defamed each other, awarding Depp $15 million in damages and Heard $2 million, she worried the damage had been compounded. “It felt like there was a really crushing rebuke of her, in a very complete way.”
In October 2017, the #MeToo movement gained momentum after several women accused film producer Harvey Weinstein of sexual misconduct in the New York Times. While the hashtag was, at first, largely about women at work and the acts of their male bosses and colleagues, it has put the wind at the backs of those coming forward about many different kinds of abuse and harassment; a 2019 study by the Tobin Center for Economic Policy indicated that across 31 countries, reports of sex crimes increased by 10 percent in the six months after the Weinstein allegations were published.
While “believe women” never became the rallying cry some wanted it to be, more women began to believe they would be believed. Many experts in the fields of gender discrimination and domestic violence, however, fear the Depp v. Heard verdict — and the online harassment of Heard in the trial leading up to it — could shake the confidence of women who might have otherwise come forward with allegations of abuse, and slow or reverse the momentum created by #MeToo.
Depp sued Heard for $50 million over an op-ed she wrote in 2018 for The Washington Post in which she described herself as a public figure representing domestic abuse without ever naming him specifically. He also accused his ex-wife of abuse. After Depp’s lawyer Adam Waldman called Heard’s accusations a hoax, Heard countersued Depp for $100 million. Because The Post’s presses and servers are located in Virginia, the trial was held at the Fairfax County Courthouse. (The Post was not a defendant in the suit.)
A lot went wrong for women in this trial, and there will be women who don't come forward, whose speech is chilled, and who are injured or even die as a result. Please, if you need help call the National Domestic Violence hotline at 800-799-7233#IStandWithAmberHeard still.
The official website for the #MeToo movement issued a statement on Saturday condemning the “the way in which #MeToo has been co-opted and manipulated during the Johnny Depp vs. Amber Heard trial.”
“Over the last six weeks, we have been confronted with the mockery of assault, shame and blame. Countless headlines proclaiming the death of #MeToo. News stories full of clickbait, having nothing to do with the actual work happening to interrupt sexual violence, have come across our screens with haste,” the 350-word statement read. “No mention of the fact that, not only was this trial not about sexual violence at its core, but there has also been no headline asking the question that really matters — ‘What do we need to do to prevent anyone else from having to say #MeToo?’”
Tarana Burke coined the phrase “me too” in 2006 as a sort of shibboleth for women who had survived abuse, before it became a viral hashtag more than a decade later. On Thursday morning, Burke tweeted in response to dire observations about the verdict, “the 'me too’ movement isn’t dead, this system is dead.” She noted “This movement is very much ALIVE” and “You can’t kill us. We are beyond the hashtag.”
Still, many observers worry about what lessons survivors will take away from the trial’s verdict. Leigh Gilmore, author of “Tainted Witness: Why We Doubt What Women Say About Their Lives” as well as a book slated for 2023 about the #MeToo movement, told The Post in an email that the verdict drove home just how vulnerable survivors can be to smear campaigns when they come forward with allegations.
“One of the most notable gains of the #MeToo movement is that it collectivized credibility. #MeToo offsets the doubt that hounds women in court and the court of public opinion,” she wrote. “The spectacle of this trial and the catastrophe of the verdict are a return to the bad old days of he said/she said, where men get away with abuse and women are destroyed for the temerity of saying ‘enough.’”
Leslie Silva, an attorney at Tully Rinckey in Albany, N.Y., who has practiced family and matrimonial law for 14 years, hopes ordinary civilians thinking about coming forward with allegations won’t feel spooked by how the public reacted to the celebrity dispute. Her usual clients are “not millionaires battling it out in two different countries over a one-year marriage,” she said, “so I would hope that most people would see this as a really unique set of facts and circumstances that might not really apply to them.” Still, she added, “I could certainly understand how the spectacle that this trial became could be overwhelming.”
I’m sobbing in a parking lot b/c that’s all I have the capacity for. But as a survivor in the middle of a federal criminal case and 2 civil lawsuits, this is devastating. As a survivor who loves survivors this is devastating. My heart goes out to Amber. https://t.co/z6aa22oKex
— Alison Turkos (@alisonturkos) June 1, 2022
Advocates for domestic-abuse survivors, too, worry that the people they devote their daily lives to helping will feel disempowered by what they’ve seen on their TV screens.
“There’s often a fear when you come forward that you will not be believed, that you will be judged. And I think this case has shown that survivors are not believed [but] are judged, and sadly, the way it’s been portrayed in the media, ridiculed and mocked at times,” said Maureen Curtis, vice president of criminal justice programs at the New York victim-services nonprofit Safe Horizon. “I think this is going to be a real setback for survivors.”
Ruth M. Glenn, CEO and President of the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence and author of the upcoming memoir “Everything I Never Dreamed,” is also unhappy with what she’s seen. “It’s a huge disappointment,” Glenn said. “The feeling as a survivor today is ‘Here we are, once again.' Someone we felt, as an organization — and I felt, as a survivor — made a case, and, once again, survivors are not heard.”
Glenn said that survivors already face many life complications — they’re not only trying to be heard but trying to find safety. The message that the public response to the trial sends is that, in addition, “'You’ll be mocked. You’ll be maligned. You’ll be humiliated,'” she added. “Of course, it’s going to give you pause. It’s really disturbing. We won’t be able to know what effect this has on domestic-abuse victims.”
“Many survivors may also fear that coming forward with any claim of abuse — which is already an underreported crime — could result in a defamation suit,” wrote Linley Beckbridge, director of communications and advocacy for Doorways — an Arlington, Va., nonprofit that provides housing and other supportive services for survivors of domestic and sexual violence — in an email to The Post. “Although the support shown to Johnny Depp could signal a positive shift towards believing male survivors of intimate partner violence, the net result will probably be increased silencing and isolation of survivors, especially women.”
Dixon, similarly, thinks the trial will have a chilling effect.
Many victims already feel guilty or blame themselves for their abuse, she explained. Many of their cases fall into the “gray area” where the only witnesses to the abuse are the two parties, who have an existing relationship. It is not unusual for abuse to accumulate before the victim is able to name it, and it can take time for a victim to extricate themselves from the relationship, said Dixon. Along the way, they may feel ashamed, unworthy or guilty, or even try to appease their harm-doer.
“People underestimate the depth of will and courage and resolve it takes to publicly talk about one of the most humiliating things to have ever happened to you,” she said. “It’s an enormous mountain that every victim quietly climbs before they ever say, ‘me too.’”
It wasn’t as though that mountain disappeared in the years following the #MeToo movement, said Dixon, but “you could see the top.” After witnessing the delight with which Heard was vilified, on top of the verdict that requires her to pay damages to the man she says abused her, Dixon thinks many survivors will decide that climb is simply too daunting. “I just think that mountain became exponentially taller.” | 2022-06-02T17:05:24Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Depp-Heard verdict will impact Me Too movement, advocates say - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2022/06/02/me-too-amber-heard-johnny-depp/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2022/06/02/me-too-amber-heard-johnny-depp/ |
The world's oldest “floral clock,” in Edinburgh, Scotland, during the Platinum Jubilee celebrations on June 2. (Jane Barlow/PA/AP)
In Scotland, not everyone is joining in the fanfare around Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee, celebrating her 70th year on the throne. Members of the Scottish Greens walked out of a tribute in Scotland’s parliament Wednesday, sparking a backlash from Conservatives.
Members of the Scottish Parliament at Holyrood moved to congratulate the nonagenarian monarch on Wednesday, when all MSPs present from the Green Party left the chamber, according to the Scottish Daily Express.
“The Scottish Green Party believes that a head of state should be elected by, and accountable to, the people,” the party said in a statement Wednesday. “We respect others hold different beliefs and have no wish to deprive them of their celebration. Our MSPs decided to absent themselves from today’s short debate and vote on the Royal celebration and instead spend their time serving their constituents.”
The move drew ire from Tory members of the Scottish Parliament. Annie Wells called it a “very crass stunt.” Sharon Dowey , who represents South Scotland, tweeted: “Disappointing to see the Greens leave the Chamber for the debate in honour of HM the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. She’s a remarkable woman regardless of how you feel about the monarchy.”
The walkout was a rare instance of political dissent in the United Kingdom over the jubilee commemorations, which have seen an outpouring of support for the monarch and extensive, and largely laudatory, media coverage. Even in Scotland, which for years has flirted with breaking away from Britain, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon led celebrations of the queen this week in Parliament.
“The occasion of the Platinum Jubilee is not just about an institution. It is, above all, about the life and service of an extraordinary woman,” Sturgeon said, according to a news release. “We should all pay tribute to that. So it is absolutely right that we celebrate the Platinum Jubilee of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth. Let us congratulate her warmly on a reign of unprecedented length, and let us acknowledge with deep gratitude and respect, her dedication to duty.”
Jubilee beacons were set to be lit across Scotland on Thursday, with a national service to be held at Glasgow Cathedral on Sunday to give thanks to the monarch. The Scottish government is also presenting the queen with a limited-edition Johnnie Walker whisky and a tartan throw, and plans to plant 70 trees in Holyrood Park — one for each of the queen’s years on the throne.
But for the Greens and other republicans in the United Kingdom, who oppose the continued role of the monarch as head of state, and of the Commonwealth of Nations, the occasion was another reminder that they have an unelected queen who gained the position by birthright.
Graham Smith, chief executive of the anti-monarchy organization Republic, praised the Greens’ protest as the United Kingdom grapples with record inflation.
“There’s a lot of people that are struggling to put food on the table and politicians are trying to resolve these problems,” he told The Washington Post. “The Greens, along with other politicians in the Scottish Parliament, were asked to spend time at work praising the queen, and I think they felt this was too much.”
He added: “The coverage of the jubilee is hugely disproportionate to the interest in the jubilee. People who want to oppose the monarchy need to do what they can to get heard at the moment.”
Ahead of the holiday weekend, Smith’s group, which advocates for an elected head of state, put up billboard advertising around the country reading, “Make Elizabeth the Last. #AbolishTheMonarchy.” Many Britons associate the monarchy strongly with the queen, so republican activists see the jubilee as the “last hurrah,” Smith said.
Some local authorities called the ad campaign “disgraceful,” the BBC reported.
Opinion polls show a public divided on the longevity of the monarchy. A YouGov poll last month found that 33 percent of Britons ages 18 to 24 think the United Kingdom should continue to have a monarchy, while 31 percent would opt for an elected head of state instead. 62 percent of respondents overall favored the monarchy, with the institution receiving the most backing from Conservatives and people over age 65.
Support for the monarchy appears to be lower in Scotland, where a poll by the British Future think tank last month found that 45 percent of respondents wanted to keep it. The Scottish National Party has committed to retaining the queen as the head of state if Scotland were to gain independence, though individual members have called for a vote on the issue.
Among other longtime detractors: the Sex Pistols. The punk band released a new music video this week of their hit “God Save the Queen,” which the BBC banned from the airwaves shortly after its original release in 1977 for the Queen’s silver jubilee.
The song appears to liken the monarchy to a “fascist regime” and suggest that it has no future in Britain — though decades after it was written, former band members said they didn’t mind the jubilee celebrations, the Associated Press reported.
Smith hopes that all the pageantry around the jubilee will galvanize support for the republican cause among those who see the celebrations and the wall-to-wall media coverage in Britain as another sign of the institution’s excesses.
His organization plans to hold an anti-monarchy conference over the weekend that will draw republican activists from the world’s remaining monarchies, including in Europe and Thailand.
“A monarchy-free world is something which we can look forward to,” Smith said. | 2022-06-02T17:18:21Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Jubilee: Scottish Greens walk out of jubilee tribute as anti-monarchy activists see opportunity - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/02/queen-platinum-jubilee-scottish-greens-protest-republicans/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/02/queen-platinum-jubilee-scottish-greens-protest-republicans/ |
Trooping the collar: Seamus the dog stands out in Queen’s parade
An Irish wolfhound leads the Guards before the Trooping the Color ceremony in London on Thursday, on the first of four days of celebrations to mark the Platinum Jubilee. (Andrew Matthews/AP)
A standout performer at the Queen’s Birthday Parade — the Trooping — was the wolfhound nicknamed Seamus, the official regimental mascot of the Irish Guards.
The dog, whose full name is Turlough Mor, marched — well, sauntered — alongside his handler, the drummer Adam Walsh.
Seamus was chill — seemed to enjoy the show. No big.
In an earlier interview with the British Press Association, Walsh said, “A lot of the lads have bigger parts to play than me and Seamus, but me and him still need to get it all correct.”
Walsh said he has “never met a dog like Seamus.”
“He’s not nervous. I’m the one who’s nervous, so he’s going to be the one who keeps me on track,” his escort said.
The queen is not the only one celebrating a milestone: Seamus celebrated his second birthday last week. | 2022-06-02T17:18:27Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Seamus the dog stands out in Queen’s Birthday Parade - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/02/seamus-dog-queen-jubilee-parade-trooping/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/02/seamus-dog-queen-jubilee-parade-trooping/ |
A memorial dedicated on June 1 to the 19 children and two adults killed at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Tex. (Brandon Bell/Getty)
What if Americans are arguing about the wrong constitutional amendment? The spirit of the Second Amendment, from 1791, is a focal point of debates about young men and guns in the wake of the ghastly mass shootings at a Buffalo grocery store and a Uvalde, Tex., elementary school. But the spirit of the 26th Amendment, from 1971, lurks in the background.
On paper, the 26th Amendment is straightforward enough: It sets the voting age in state and federal elections at 18, instead of 21. But the rise of mass shootings illustrates how this diminished age of adulthood is an increasingly uneasy fit with modern American life.
For hundreds of years, the “age of majority” in the Anglo-American legal tradition was 21. The 26th Amendment led to the overturning of that tradition in U.S. law over the course of the 1970s and 1980s. In matters such as child custody, contracts and medical autonomy (though not alcohol consumption) states followed the amendment’s logic and lowered their thresholds for adulthood. Today, it’s 18 years at the federal level and in almost all states.
Yet restricting access to firearms among people who are older than 18 but younger than 21 is now a centerpiece of gun-control deliberations both in Congress and in state legislatures. The rationale is clear: The perpetrators in Buffalo and Uvalde were both 18 years old, and a 2018 data analysis found that young men who are legally adults but not yet 21 account for one-third of school-shooting injuries and deaths.
In upholding the federal government’s ban on most handgun sales to Americans younger than 21, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit in 2012 cited the fact that “the line between childhood and adulthood was historically 21, not 18.” Congress passed the handgun law in question in 1968, and legislative materials from that time distinguished between “juveniles” (under 18) and “minors” (under 21).
But the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit last month took a different approach in invalidating a 2018 California state law that barred the sale of semiautomatic rifles to anyone under 21. The judges pointedly referred to the teens affected by the ban as “young adults” and cited the history of militia service by minors as young as 16.
Whatever age restrictions allowed by the courts (and Supreme Court guidance at some point seems inevitable), the fact that 18 has been embedded for a half-century as the principal American age of majority has likely strengthened political resistance to gun regulations aimed specifically at young people.
But what if the 26th Amendment — or at least the downstream legal changes it accelerated — was a mistake, and age 21 remains the better baseline? Vivian Hamilton, a professor at William and Mary Law School, argued in 2016 that the mid-to-late 20th-century downgrade in the age of majority was driven not just by young peoples’ service in the Vietnam War but by what she calls a “historical aberration — the rapid transition to adulthood that occurred during a postwar industrial economy.”
An unusual set of circumstances made an 18-year-old age of majority seem natural in the 1960s and 1970s. Young adults were numerous (and politically powerful) because of the baby boom. Rights expansions for women and racial and ethnic minorities made young adults seem like the next frontier. And favorable mid-century labor market conditions made secure employment and marriage more attainable at a younger age.
But that “legal construction of adult status is starkly at odds with the modern social meaning and experiences of adulthood,” Hamilton continued. The delay in millennial economic independence and marriage has been amply documented. More recently, so has the increase in mental health disorders and suicides among young people. These trends probably manifest in their most extreme form in violence among alienated young men.
The 26th Amendment is as secure as the Second Amendment — that is to say, it isn’t going anywhere. But the acute dilemma posed by the United States’ violent young men and guns could be an opportunity to begin pushing the age of majority back upward for certain purposes. That ought to make gun regulation for Americans under 21 more politically salable.
There could be other benefits. If young peoples’ parents or guardians had to co-sign their student loans, perhaps the volume of student debt, and wasted degrees, would be lower. If child-support payments had to continue beyond age 18, perhaps divorce would not have accelerated as quickly in the late 20th century. There are strong arguments for raising the legal age to 21 from 18 for appearing in pornography. In criminal law, the age of eligibility for the death penalty could also be increased. and “youth offender” programs expanded.
Mass shootings, and the political efforts to address them, are a glimpse into the nation’s wider challenges in regulating life at the threshold of adulthood. The ideologically polarizing debate about the Second Amendment will continue, but Americans may be more likely to find common ground on the questions associated with the 26th. | 2022-06-02T17:48:49Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Raise the age of majority — and not just for buying guns - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/02/gun-control-age-limits/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/02/gun-control-age-limits/ |
(Eleanor Shakespeare for The Washington Post; photos by Pete Muller for The Washington Post and Getty Images)
Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) has never been known for being angry, or animated, or really any adjective more charged than “concerned.” Once or twice, she has gone so far as to declare herself “disappointed.”
You might imagine, nonetheless, that the leaked draft of a Supreme Court opinion overturning Roe v. Wade would have been enough to expand her measured vocabulary. You’d be wrong.
“If this … is the final decision and this reporting is accurate, it would be completely inconsistent with what Justice Gorsuch and Justice Kavanaugh said in their hearings and in our meetings in my office,” said the statement the senator released after the story broke. “Obviously, we won’t know each Justice’s decision and reasoning until the Supreme Court officially announces its opinion in this case.”
This is about as fiery as it gets for a fifth-term moderate dedicated, above all else, to dealmaking and decorum. By comparison, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), hardly hot-tempered, said the opinion “rocks my confidence in the court right now.”
All the same, you have to wonder whether Collins is less serene under the surface.
She made a spectacular bet on Brett M. Kavanaugh during his nomination hearings in 2018: saying that she believed him when he said that Roe was settled law — much like the bet she made on Neil M. Gorsuch in 2017 when he said precedent was “the anchor of the law.”
These justices, of course, might yet come through for Collins by the time the court finally rules — even if only to preserve some portion of the precedent that has enshrined the right to abortion for almost half a century. But the February draft that has much of the nation on fire boasted five conservative votes to bulldoze the rulings that have defined the status quo for decades.
This means that after a career in the U.S. Senate of 25 years, full of big bills passed, coalitions forged and bridges physical and metaphorical built across rivers and party lines, Collins confronts a moment of truth: Was she duped into securing a sturdy majority on the court for an increasingly radical Republican Party? Or did she manage, as she has always tried to do, to find a compromise that serves her ideals, her self-interest and her institution alike?
Susan Collins is as neat as her tailored skirt sets and monogrammed suitcase. She shows up early, shakes every hand, knows every name. She studies, and studies, and studies some more. She might not need to work this hard, and yet she does anyway. In politics, seasons and tastes change — but a fourth-generation Maine politician might be one of the few people in either party who doesn’t have to worry about them changing very much.
“Twelve years is long enough to be in public service,” Collins said — 25 years ago. Obviously, she changed her mind. And her voters are mostly happy with the choice.
Those beyond Maine’s borders treasure the state as a pristine natural sanctuary, but those within its borders idealize it as something else entirely: rugged, occasionally ruthless and independent by necessity. They look for the same traits in their legislators. Aroostook County — whence Collins hails — embodies the attitude.
Aroostook nestles up against Canada. It’s rural, remote and vast — larger than several states. It’s conservative and becoming more so: It voted blue in six presidential races from 1992 to 2012, and then red in 2016 and 2020. It’s also not what it used to be; gone is the era of a booming lumber industry that propped up mills, factories and all the opportunity that came with them. “There was a lot of activity in that area,” says longtime Collins chief of staff and all-around Svengali Steve Abbott. “And now there’s not.”
Ask any in-the-know constituent about Collins, and you’ll hear that she’s all about Aroostook — as if this explains everything. Every fall, the high school in her hometown of Caribou recess for two weeks to allow the students to help the farmers get in their potato crop before the freeze arrives to doom the ground-bound spuds. These students, more than half a century ago, included a preteen Collins, because, as she told me last year, “It didn’t matter what your family’s income was, it didn’t matter what your parents did for a living, everybody joined together.”
Those last three words might be her political motto.
The family seemed almost hard-wired for politics. Her father was in the state legislature. Her grandfather was in the state legislature. And, no kidding, her great-grandfather was in the state legislature. Her mother, Patricia, was mayor of Caribou (and so was her father, before serving in the legislature). Susan was president of her high school student council when her mother was on the school board. Maybe Collins wasn’t always going to be who she is today (she herself says with some awe, “I never envisioned that I would be a United States Senator,” and you can hear the capital letter before each word). But she was always going to be somebody.
And that’s what Collins has done all these years: be somebody — starting in her days as a Lyndon B. Johnson intern for then-Rep. Bill Cohen (R) in the Watergate era, when she took the bus from Catholic University to Capitol Hill every day for 10 weeks with the same lunch, a Swiss cheese sandwich on whole wheat bread, in hand.
“We had two interns,” remembers Tom Daffron, her boss then and her husband now. “One was supposed to set up the Farm Advisory Committee, and one was supposed to set up the Veterans Advisory Committee. She did the Farm Advisory Committee in one afternoon. The other guy, he may still be working on it.”
She eventually took Cohen’s place in the Senate, arriving in 1997 to a chamber no longer the civilized seat of clubby, across-the-aisle, accord that it once was. The polarization that defines today’s politics was already present enough that she could stand out simply by breaking from her party here and there.
She began by joining with fellow Maine Republican Olympia Snowe to acquit President Bill Clinton after his impeachment by the House of Representatives. She quickly cemented her reputation as an overachiever: She had, as a 1997 New York Times profile points out, “so little seniority that she ranked 99th out of 100 senators when it came to being allotted offices.” Yet she was the top of the list when it came to being sought out for bill co-sponsorship. “I have a lot of power — I like that,” she said at the time.
What kind of newcomer wouldn’t like John McCain (R) and Russell Feingold (D) knocking at her door to secure her support for their campaign finance reform bill?
Who wouldn’t appreciate the chance to overhaul the entire national intelligence community with Sen. Joe Lieberman (D) after the 9/11 attacks?
And who wouldn’t take pride in hanging on so hard to the Affordable Care Act against her party’s yanking — eventually managing, with the help of McCain and Murkowski, to save it?
Underlying her record has been something deeper — a sense that is, as longtime ally Bob Tyrer puts it, “less an ideology than a theology,” grounded in the idea that government ought to work.
That means deeply researching every issue; it means following the textbook “regular order” of congressional business; it means pulling policy proposals away from the extremes so that members of both parties can summon the gumption to vote for them.
So, if you wanted to get things done and do it with a minimum of carping and backbiting, she has always been the reliable partner. Susan Collins, in other words, has stood for a version of the Senate of which people like Susan Collins are the most important members.
Certainly, Collins was the most important senator in 2018 when President Donald Trump nominated Brett M. Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court.
The question then was twofold: whether Collins, a pro-choice Republican, would vote for a pro-life Republican nominee. And: Did Collins buy whatever assurances Kavanaugh made to her in private that his respect for precedent ran so deep that he wouldn’t double back and overturn Roe v. Wade — or did she vote for him in order to stay on the right side of her party ahead of 2020?
Chief of Staff Abbott’s explanation — “Susan Collins confirms Supreme Court justices” — goes only so far. Yes, she puts on the bench nominees from presidents of both parties, pro-choice and pro-life alike, from Samuel A. Alito Jr. to Sonia Sotomayor to, most recently, Ketanji Brown Jackson. But she has made exceptions to preserve institutional norms, never to flout them.
Take Amy Coney Barrett, for instance: Collins opposed jamming her through mere days before an election, after then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) had justified refusing even to give Merrick Garland a hearing because his nomination occurred within a year of an election.
Neil M. Gorsuch, on the other hand, presented lower stakes than either Barrett or Kavanaugh: Antonin Scalia’s death meant the opening of a conservative seat, and Gorsuch, a conservative, was named to fill it. Voting for him didn’t require upsetting the balance on the court on abortion. Voting for Kavanaugh after Anthony M. Kennedy’s retirement did.
All of which is to say, when Kavanaugh arrived on Capitol Hill, Collins had to choose what mattered most.
She certainly put in the time. She had a two-hour session with Kavanaugh that she called “excellent,” owing in part to his agreement with Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. that Roe v. Wade, as she put it, was “settled as a precedent of the court.” This came after she and a working group of two staffers and three former staffers took six briefings from Congressional Research Service attorneys over 10 hours to formulate her queries. (Naturally, she had them over to dinner afterward to thank them.)
This exercise, if you ask her allies, was an example of her obsessive thoroughness: an honest effort to judge the judge. “There’s just no way … that she would spend 10 hours and six meetings listening to this rather arcane question of where he stood on severability … if she had been driven by political matters,” says working group member Steve Diamond. “I really regret it wasn’t taped.”
Her critics charge that it was a more calculated effort to make a rubber stamp look like a carefully considered hard call. “She appears more than willing to take Kavanaugh at his word,” wrote Bill Nemitz, the political columnist at the Portland Press Herald, at the time, “and steer clear of what may lie hidden among the weeds.”
The real answer likely sits somewhere in the middle. Collins wasn’t looking in those meetings for something to persuade her to vote for Kavanaugh. Collins was looking for nothing to dissuade her.
Surely this involved balancing principle and politics, but it also involved balancing principle and principle: Her dedication to the sacred Senate ritual of advice and consent clashed with her dedication to protecting a woman’s right to choose. Which likely meant she couldn’t vote to confirm Kavanaugh — unless there was enough space to argue that the right to abortion would survive if she did.
Collins had said she wouldn’t vote for someone who “demonstrated hostility” to Roe. But what did hostility look like?
As an appeals court judge, Kavanaugh had ruled in a single abortion case, Garza v. Hargan, involving a 17-year-old migrant trying to terminate her pregnancy while in detention. She was 15 weeks pregnant, and at 20 weeks her abortion would become illegal in Texas. He acknowledged in a dissent that Roe v. Wade applied as precedent, but he argued that young women didn’t have a right to “an immediate abortion on demand.” He wrote, “The Supreme Court has repeatedly said that the Government has permissible interests in favoring fetal life.”
More revealing was a speech he made at the American Enterprise Institute the year before his nomination, in which he lauded William H. Rehnquist for crying foul on Roe way back in 1973.
“Justice Rehnquist was not successful in convincing a majority of justices in the context of abortion,” he said. “But he was successful in stemming the general tide of freewheeling judicial creation of unenumerated rights that were not rooted in the nation’s history and tradition.”
These prior expressions of pro-life sentiment tempered by respect for stare decisis were squishy enough that Collins, if she wanted, could have molded them into reason not to worry — at least with enough assurances both public and private. All Kavanaugh would have had to do was not shout his pro-life sympathies from the rooftops — and instead soberly intone that precedent, all of it, deserved exactly the measure of deference a certain key senator insisted it was due. Planned Parenthood v. Casey, he said, was “precedent on precedent.”
Christine Blasey Ford’s allegations of sexual assault against Kavanaugh turned a set of hearings that were already a trapeze act into a full-on circus. Yet Collins’s speech announcing her support of Kavanaugh, read as if the meat of it had been written before all that. Amid accusations of smears, conspiracies and moral corruption flying across the aisle in both directions, she delivered a nearly hour-long speech stuffed with legal arcana — and focused most of all on the question of precedent (a word she used, by the way, 16 times).
She explained that the judge — in their two-hour face-to-face session followed by a one-hour telephone conversation — had assured her of his belief “that precedent provides stability, predictability, reliance and fairness.” The Supreme Court would overturn a precedent only in “rare and extraordinary times” — including, and here she borrowed Kavanaugh’s language, when a decision is “grievously wrong.”
Admittedly, Kavanaugh said plenty in his public hearings about the limits of precedent, and plenty more in his past that set off alarms for pro-choice activists. For Collins, these bells never tolled. The nominee’s “views on honoring precedent,” she proclaimed, “would preclude attempts to do by stealth that which one has committed not to do overtly.”
Four years later, with a decision on the Mississippi law that many expect the Supreme Court to use as an excuse to overturn Roe v. Wade just weeks away, the question remains: How did so meticulous a lawmaker put herself in this position?
You could argue that Kavanaugh misled her, and that Collins believed his promises. He didn’t have to swear to whatever testimony he gave behind the closed doors of her office, after all. You could argue that she was blinded by nostalgia for a politics of a kinder, gentler character — even though that evaporated years ago. Or perhaps she fooled herself into somehow thinking so pivotal a nomination was not forcing her, finally, to pick between the two commitments she’d made to her constituents: both to confirm qualified Supreme Court nominees and to protect abortion rights.
Some even argue that Collins didn’t believe Kavanaugh at all — that she only pretended she did to remain in her party’s good graces two years ahead of a race for her fifth term. Perhaps she wanted to avoid Donald Trump’s ire, or a primary challenge from the right; or perhaps she wanted to attract the conservative dollars, which, as it turns out, her campaign needed.
Perhaps, also, she was just mad. “We have come to the conclusion of a confirmation process that has become so dysfunctional, it looks more like a caricature of a gutter-level political campaign than a solemn occasion,” Collins said in her speech.
Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) delivered a 45-minute long speech on the Senate floor before confirming her support of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. (Video: Joyce Koh/U.S. Senate)
She decried “dark money” flowing from “special interest groups” who “whip their followers into a frenzy by spreading misrepresentations and outright falsehoods.” Earlier, she had described a crowdfunding campaign designed to fund a bid to oust her if she voted for Kavanaugh as “an attempt to bribe me.”
This was feisty rhetoric from the paragon of “concern” and “disappointment.” Yet she was giving as good as she got. She’d read nasty letters and listened to nasty phone calls; she’d been shouted at in airports; she’d been startled outside her D.C. townhouse late at night in the rain by a strange man demanding answers; she’d received a faxed threat to slit her throat and sever her limbs.
You might say all this is standard politics today, and you would be right. But it’s also precisely the kind of politics she had managed for most of her career to avoid and the kind that a moderate with civility as a credo deplores.
Even today, Collins hasn’t forgotten — or forgiven — the way her Democratic colleagues, especially their leader Chuck Schumer, brought everything to bear to pressure her to reject Kavanaugh’s nomination. And when she didn’t, they brought everything to bear to defeat her in 2020.
What the progressives achieved, in the end, was more or less the opposite of what they’d hoped. Daffron and Abbott both said as much. Collins and her tightest circle were discussing the matter at the dinner table right after Thanksgiving that fall, and she said it outright. She would rather lose than have these people think they made her quit.
If you’re wondering whether Collins can survive the end of a constitutional right to abortion, you’d be wise to ask the question: Survive where?
Not a single public poll in 2020 predicted she’d weather her reelection — and then her constituents catapulted her back to Capitol Hill with a stunning nine-point victory.
Her votes to confirm Kavanaugh in 2018 and then acquit Trump in his first impeachment trial in 2020 might have ingratiated her with the president’s devotees, but the votes infuriated his critics no matter to which party they belonged. Her October vote against Amy Coney Barrett in 2020 might have given some of her former fans permission to re-embrace a familiar face, but more had left for good. “We bled Republicans,” says Abbott. “We had people unenroll from Republican to independent, we had people unenroll from Republican to Democrat.”
So, how did she win reelection?
What the rest of the country missed, Collins tells me between bites of fried clams at Anglers Restaurant in Searsport, is Maine. Her pollster, she notes, “eviscerates” her opponents’ pollsters for their rookie mistakes modeling Maine’s ornery voters. The people the candidates needed to reach — those in the good old middle — don’t take surveys on the Internet. They don’t care about who’s saying what down in Washington, or whether Chuck Schumer or Mitch McConnell will rule the U.S. Senate.
They care, mostly, about Maine.
And besides, everyone up there knows Collins. Those who don’t, she says, feel like they do: “People call me Susan, which I like. I always introduce myself that way. … And that’s how they think of me.” She marches in all their parades; she takes bus tours to every county; she convinces her colleagues to fork over the funds to build breakwaters and repave thoroughfares.
They didn’t know Sara Gideon, her opponent and the speaker of the state’s House of Representatives, nearly so well. You’re either “from here” or “from away” in Maine. Gideon lives in Freeport, home to L.L. Bean. Yet in an early campaign ad, she wore a Patagonia jacket. She had, in short, a bit too much “away” about her. She also didn’t bring any sense of “here” to the campaign trail. “That campaign could have been run in any of the 50 states. Take it, plop it down,” explains Abbott.
Some in the state think a single man changed the race: a mustached newscaster named Bill Green, who clocked 45-plus years of evangelizing for the state in his outdoors-oriented feature program on public television. He’s the here-est from-here Mainer you can find, pointedly authentic and authoritative on what makes Maine Maine — not least, its vaunted independence.
“The national Democratic Party saw this as a chance to get her, and that’s when they decided to dump whatever $100 million they dumped in here,” Green grouses to me as he steers a motorboat around Boothbay Harbor. “That crowd came in and you started seeing ‘Bye Bye, Susan’ bumper stickers, which really irked me.” So, Green volunteered to help.
The resulting ad: Green walking through the woods looking right at the camera just like most Mainers saw the former newsman do every weeknight back when they were schoolkids. “Did you know that Susan Collins hates dogs?” he challenged his audience. “That’s kind of what I’m expecting to hear next from a ridiculous smear campaign.”
“Susan & Pepper,” read the text of the closing cut of the candidate on a couch petting her happy, panting black Labrador. The ad, Green says, “talks Maine.” And Maine listened.
The thing is, Collins comes from a land before time — from a place where many voters still care far less about the drama of Washington than about whether a snowplow can get through in the winter or whether a port’s deep enough for ships to put in. They cherish their independence from the nonsense farther south, and they treasure the independence of their representatives to rise above our downward-spiraling politics.
This attitude has allowed Collins to do what she’s been doing for 25 years, even as the country and her party transform around her — and even as moderates elsewhere have withered away. It’s just not as easy as it used to be.
Collins cruised to victory and went back to work. Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) called her at 7:45 a.m. the day after her reelection to say, basically, let’s get moving. Several other colleagues called, too, claiming they wanted erase the ugly scribbles on the Trump-era slate and start over. Did they mean it? Most likely, in the words of Daffron, “some of them did, some of them didn’t.”
Regardless, Collins was all in: “She wants to be in the middle of it, and she can’t help herself,” Daffron explains. “She says, ‘Well, I’m just not going to be in any more of these gangs,’ and I say, ‘Sure you are.’ ”
Certainly, she was in the middle of it when Sens. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) and Rob Portman (R-Ohio) decided to pull together an infrastructure package in early 2021. The gang, which met 50-odd times, divvied up the work; Collins got highways and bridges, of which her state has loads, and broadband Internet, of which her state has relatively little.
These were, respectively, the largest single area of spending and the least charted. Broadband in particular she learned almost from scratch, laboring with Democrat Jeanne Shaheen from next-door New Hampshire. Both senators remember sitting in Collins’s office late into the night, calling Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo intermittently to check on the administration’s positions. Finally, one night at 10 o’clock, they figured they were done — until Shaheen suggested they go back through it all another time to ensure there were no missing pieces or misunderstandings.
They found two knotty areas, so they stayed and they fixed them. When they took their work back to the broader group, the other members accepted the product virtually wholesale because they trusted the producers. This, Collins tells me with some nostalgia, was like the old days.
But in so many other areas, the old days — the cooperation, the civility, the celebration of those things as virtues — are long over. Even for Collins.
These days, she’s favoring the half-step. She voted to impeach Trump the second time around, and she voted with Democrats for a commission to investigate the Jan. 6 insurrection. But she torched the select committee that eventually emerged as “partisan” when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi rejected the appointment of two GOP purveyors of election falsehoods.
She refused to support Democrats in raising the debt ceiling, too — though it is one of those institutional norms to which usually she is so friendly. The solution she suggested, whereby some in the GOP would lend a hand on the debt ceiling should Democrats abandon the larger Build Back Better bill, went nowhere.
Lately, Collins has been working, in concert with Manchin, to forge her favorite thing — a compromise — reforming the Electoral Count Act, which sets out procedures for Congress and the states to follow as they tally electoral votes following a presidential contest. Early efforts yielded lots of meetings but nothing in the way of a bill, thanks in part to friction over whether to include or ignore the eroding Voting Rights Act. There are signs that a breakthrough could be imminent: The group has already agreed to make clear the narrow ministerial role of the vice president, for example, and to increase the number of members necessary to trigger a challenge to a state’s electoral college votes. There’s another meeting next week where the senators will try to resolve what remains. Some Democrats are likely to bristle at the proposal’s focus only on the certifying of votes; some Republicans are likely to resist any attempt to guard against another Jan. 6.
The reactions to her efforts can frustrate her. She’s punished, she might say, for being so reliably bipartisan in the past that Democrats often seem to forget she’s a Republican. Every time she doesn’t support the opposition, she gets slammed — partly because she has gone blue plenty of times before. And every time she does give progressives her vote, any move toward the middle is written off as meaningless or expedient.
The Supreme Court has been an especially good example. “It’s significant that I‘ve voted on seven of the nine Supreme Court justices now, and no one’s ever asked me, gee, are you disappointed in Elena Kagan’s vote?” Collins notes. Daffron puts a finer point on it: “There’s nothing she could do that would satisfy the lunatic left.”
It doesn’t help that across-the-aisle squabbling has now reached up the East coast. “I remember John Chafee, who was as fine a senator as we’ve ever had and a real gentleman … telling me never to campaign against a colleague in a colleague’s state,” she says. And she hasn’t. “But now that’s not the norm.” At least one of her colleagues, she recalls, went to her state and was “very personal in her attacks against me.”
She will still work with the other guys. Of course she will. Collins told me that neither side is more responsible than the other for today’s extremism — that there’s plenty of blame to go around. “But the days that Bill Clinton was trying to find the third way right in the middle,” she says, “unfortunately for now are gone.”
If anything, that’s optimistic. Those days feel gone forever. Straddling the gap between left and right has become a gymnastic feat. In early May, as the Democrats prepared to vote on a proposal to codify Roe v. Wade, Collins announced she wouldn’t support the effort. She and Murkowski presented an alternate bill that they insist would preserve Roe and Planned Parenthood v. Casey while also protecting the competing right of conscientious objectors in the medical profession not to provide abortions. “I want the law today to be the law tomorrow,” Collins said this week.
She’s also working with both Murkowski and Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) to codify not only Roe and Casey but also Griswold v. Connecticut to “enshrine contraception access.” What she won’t do, she explains, is toss out current law, such as the religious protections in the Affordable Care Act and the Hyde Amendment, as desired by Democrats seeking to shore up women’s imperiled ability to choose.
To the extent this sort of difference-splitting used to fly in politics, it now struggles to get off the ground. The stakes — when it comes to the right to an abortion, or the right to vote, or the right to protest, and on and on — are too high. The two sides are too far apart.
The case Collins wants to make is for more “fanatical moderates,” she says. She holds fast to the dream that the civil can legislate as the uncivil cannot, by relying on the type of mutual faith that only common courtesy can foster. “The voices that are the loudest are on the extremes,” she notes. “The irony is that I believe that most people in this country are still in the middle.”
But, in a nation with little appetite for compromise, anyone can see that she is looking for wiggle room where there isn’t much room to wiggle. There is good reason, based on the Alito draft and the accompanying reporting, to believe Kavanaugh will vote to overrule Roe. But imagine, even now, that Kavanaugh finds a way to preserve the case, at least nominally, eroding but not demolishing the right to abortion. Could Collins claim, then, that she was right in the end? Would anyone care, since compromises of that kind don’t have many fans in an all-or-nothing world?
The year after Kavanaugh ascended to the high court, he dissented in a case setting aside a law that required abortion providers in Louisiana to obtain admitting privileges at a local hospital. This was ominous. The chief justice gave the liberals his vote — and a majority — because the law in question was almost identical to another struck down in Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt.
Roberts had objected to that outcome, but precedent was precedent. Not so for Kavanaugh. How did Collins respond? “He said under oath many times, as well as to me personally many times, that he considers Roe to be ‘precedent upon precedent,’ because it had been reaffirmed in the Casey v. Planned Parenthood case.” She added, “To say that this case … tells you that he’s going to repeal Roe v. Wade, I think, is absurd.”
She believed him, because trusting in each other is how government always used to get things done. Susan Collins might soon have a different worry: After this, who’s going to trust her? | 2022-06-02T17:48:55Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Susan Collins faces a moment of truth after the leaked Supreme Court draft - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/02/susan-collins-supreme-court-kavanaugh-truth/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/02/susan-collins-supreme-court-kavanaugh-truth/ |
What’s the far right trying to build power for?
Counter protesters wearing the yellow and black colors and insignia of the Proud Boys gather outside the National Rifle Association (NRA) Annual Meeting in Houston on May 28, 2022. (Patrick T. Fallon/AFP/Getty Images)
There was a time when Enrique Tarrio, the currently imprisoned head of the right-wing extremist group the Proud Boys, wanted to be an elected official. In 2019, he briefly entertained a bid for Congress from South Florida. He completed a questionnaire offered by Ballotpedia in which he explained his candidacy and his political role models — Reps. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) and Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) among them.
For those familiar with Tarrio solely through his recent political activity — leading a fringe movement that embraces violence and was central to the Capitol riot — this may seem incongruous. But Tarrio has for some time been intertwined with prominent political actors in Florida. He’s known Donald Trump’s longtime adviser Roger Stone for years and ran a group called Latinos for Trump. His flirtation with running for office was a flirtation with gaining power via one route. He ended up choosing another.
Others in his organization, though, aren’t forcing that same choice. The New York Times on Thursday explored the extent to which the Republican Party in Miami-Dade County had been infiltrated by active members of the Proud Boys.
“[A]t least a half-dozen current and former Proud Boys … have secured seats on the Miami-Dade Republican Executive Committee, seeking to influence local politics from the inside,” Patricia Mazzei and Alan Feuer report. “Their ranks include adherents who face criminal charges for participating in the Capitol attack.”
The report describes a pattern that should by now be familiar: traditional Republican figures (here meaning people like former governor Jeb Bush) build institutional power and outsider elements then appropriate that power. It’s the story of the GOP nationally in the era of Donald Trump. Trump is an important example, though, because it’s also a reminder of what one can expect to happen next: the fringe becomes the establishment.
What’s happening in Miami is a specific example of the phenomenon, but it’s happening elsewhere, too. In northern California, right-wing politicians now hold a majority on a county board of supervisors following a successful recall effort. There has been a push since the 2020 election for far-right candidates to seek election to lower-ballot races, as well, particularly school boards.
Then, of course, there’s the push to influence elections themselves. The right’s push to have a more active supervisory and management role in voting and vote-counting has been well-documented, but recent reports, including from Politico, make clear that there remains real energy aimed at influencing election outcomes. Much of this is motivated by sincere (if misguided) concern about the security of American elections. Some of it is simply about securing or preserving power for the right, by any means necessary.
It’s not clear what to make of this moment. Is this simply a side effect of the Trump era and, particularly, its ignominious fate in 2020? Or is it a real shift in right-wing engagement? We may not be able to answer that question for another year or two as the sheer drudgery of holding governmental positions takes its toll. You can ask Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.) about the difference between running for and winning office and then holding office. The latter is generally less interesting.
This raises a bigger question: why do far-right elements want this power? Why do Proud Boys want to have a say in the direction of the Miami-Dade Republican Party? What do they plan to do?
This is what brought me to Tarrio’s endorsement questionnaire. What did the head of the Proud Boys pledge to deliver for his constituents?
Asked what areas of public policy drove him, Tarrio offered a handful, including criminal justice reform, “rooting out violations of our 2nd amendment,” “free speech across ALL digital platforms” and an “America first foreign policy.” He also included “[c]ountering the very real threat of domestic terrorism” — clearly a reference not to groups like the Proud Boys but, instead, to left-wing activists like those associated with antifa.
These are fairly vague, of course, but refreshingly specific compared to what the Republican Party itself offered in 2020 after Trump had become the party’s official leader. You’ll recall that the GOP offered literally no platform save that it “has and will continue to enthusiastically support the President’s America-first agenda.” In other words, whatever Trump’s agenda was at the moment, that was the party’s agenda as well.
Trump’s agenda (and Tarrio’s, reading only barely between the lines) was mostly culture war stuff. Trump rose to power as a representative of the conservative media caucus and earned support from Republican voters thanks largely to his willingness to echo whatever was airing in the prime time hours of Fox News. He saw political power as a tool to punish his opponents and understood that meeting the needs of his constituents meant winning the sorts of fights that Breitbart and Rush Limbaugh were engaged in.
A new generation of elected officials has followed that path. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) expends an enormous amount of energy weighing in on culture-war fights, obviously in part because he has an eye on the national Republican constituency for 2024. The Republican nominee for governor in Pennsylvania celebrated his victory in the party’s primary last month by pledging to the audience that he would similarly prioritize the sorts of things that get heavy coverage from people like Sean Hannity. He didn’t say this explicitly, of course, but he didn’t need to.
That candidate is Doug Mastriano, a right-wing Trump supporter who was present at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 when violence first erupted. (No evidence has emerged that he participated in the violence.)
This is a useful caveat to the idea that people will get bored with holding government positions, of course. The job is what you make it. Cawthorn, for example, clearly liked continuing to stir the pot from his elevated position of elected leadership. If you want to hold office less because you want to effect change within the system than that you want to use it as a platform, maybe it will be worth sticking around.
It seems very safe to assume that the Proud Boys and other extremists want power for a primary reason that Trump did: to hold power in lieu of the left doing so. There’s an inescapable racial aspect to this that emerges explicitly in the Proud Boys’ embrace of “Western chauvinism,” a sense among many on the right that they — often meaning Christian Whites — are embattled. Retaining power offers a form of protection.
A lot of the right-wing energy around political engagement was sparked not by Trump’s false claims of election fraud but by coronavirus restrictions that were seen as oppressive. It was a rejection less of Democratic politics than of the idea that the government should encourage collective action — an idea that was once anodyne but has increasingly been placed at the left end of the partisan spectrum. That’s in part because it is framed as oppositional to individual freedom, a term that often simply means that people should not face any restrictions (including on social-media, as candidate Enrique Tarrio clearly felt).
Shortly after Trump took office, the World Values Survey was conducted. Among its questions was one asking how Americans felt about replacing our existing form of government with one where a strong leader could simply act without being held in check by any legislative body. A large majority of Americans said that was a bad idea, but 44 percent of people who vote Republican said it was at least fairly good. A majority of Republican voters under the age of 50 said it was at least a fairly good idea. The most recent iteration of the right’s flagship political gathering, Conservative Political Action Conference, was held in Hungary where attendees heard effusive praise for that country’s autocratic leader.
Autocracy is power for the sake of power, power aimed at doing what one wants in the face of opposition. No compromise would be needed with a group that most Republicans said in the same time frame that they saw not as political opponents but as enemies. The Proud Boys don’t want power so they can introduce legislation and debate it in committee hearings. Many on the right don’t want to monitor elections simply to verify that they lost fairly.
In his Ballotpedia questionnaire, Tarrio was asked what legacy he sought to leave from holding elected office.
“I want to make America less divded,” his answer began, typo included. This can be seen as ironic — or as prescient. His followers do want to unite America, in the same way that Trump did: Against pluralism. Behind the right.
The latest: Swallwell hopes changes prevent more kids from being buried in Superman caskets | 2022-06-02T17:53:10Z | www.washingtonpost.com | What’s the far right trying to build power for? - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/02/whats-far-right-trying-build-power/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/02/whats-far-right-trying-build-power/ |
Md. comptroller’s spoof raises questions about use of public funds
Peter Franchot’s annual attention-getting advertisement for unclaimed property always riffs off a popular ad campaign. But this year’s theme struck some as promoting himself at the taxpayer’s expense.
Maryland Comptroller Peter Franchot (D). (Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post)
A previous version of this article incorrectly referred to Maryland comptroller spokeswoman Susan O’Brien as Comptroller Peter Franchot's campaign spokeswoman, as well. She is not the campaign's spokeswoman. The article has been corrected.
A thick newspaper insert with a smiling, polo-shirted Comptroller Peter Franchot on the cover landed at more 150,000 Maryland homes this weekend, advertising unclaimed property and raising questions among some observers about whether the comptroller’s attention-getting marketing was designed to promote his bid for governor as the primary draws near.
Although the practice has ruffled some of Franchot’s competitors in a crowded field for governor, the mailing is “completely legal,” according to Jared DeMarinis, campaign finance director for the Maryland State Board of Elections.
The unclaimed-property circular never mentions the election, voting or that Franchot (D) is seeking election. Publishing it is also an annual requirement under Maryland law since the mid-1970s.
Franchot has put his face on the cover of the insert for the past decade, riffing off pop culture to draw attention to what’s currently more than $83 million in unclaimed property in the state’s possession.
He has posed with deerstalker hat and pipe as “Sherlock Franchot," in duplicate as the “Unclaimed Property Brothers,” and tuxedoed with a single rose as the “Matchelor,” matching residents with unclaimed property.
But just weeks before Franchot’s name is on the ballot in the competitive July 19 Democratic primary race, this year’s spoof on the Jake from State Farm commercials — “Like a good neighbor, Franchot is there” — struck some residents and Franchot’s competitors as skirting an ethical line.
“The top two-thirds of the page were indistinguishable from a campaign ad," said Charles Kenny, a writer and economist from Montgomery County who posted about the insert on social media.
“I thought, ‘Wow, that’s a big ad in the Sunday Post.’ And then I realized what it was,” said Dan Goldberg, a project manager from Montgomery who also posted about the ad on Twitter. “And is that crossing the line?”
As the smaller print at the bottom explains, the nearly 180-page tome lists the more than 83,000 people with unclaimed property in Maryland. It also puts Franchot squarely in front of voters at critical time during a crowded race — at taxpayer expense.
@peterfranchot should I be complaining here about the 180 page tax payer funded campaign insert in my WaPo or to your campaign? Can’t tell the difference (& that’s illegal). pic.twitter.com/65AtweYqL5
— tzuk (@tzuk) May 29, 2022
Franchot said in a statement that he doesn’t believe the insert crosses any ethical lines and that he advocated to stop “the antiquated printed effort,” though newspapers pushed back.
“We are unapologetic about the fact that we, more than any other state, seek to reunite people with their unclaimed property,” he said.
But the timing and tenor of this ad sparked concerns that spread on social media, including a private Facebook page where residents of Franchot’s hometown of Takoma Park suggested it appeared unethical, and on Twitter, where Kenny initially posted.
“The large vanity shot on the cover, alongside the fact that Franchot used his name in place of State Farm in advertising copy across the top, suggests pretty clearly this was about selling Franchot more than helping Marylanders,” said Kenny, a Democrat who has not picked a candidate in the race.
The printed ads will go to another 200,000 homes by the end of next week, reaching a total of 360,000 households statewide. (There’s also a YouTube video and an interactive website for searching lost property records.)
One of Franchot’s opponents, former Prince George’s county executive Rushern L Baker III, called the insert “a breach of ethics” in a Facebook post and said Franchot’s campaign should reimburse taxpayers for it.
Another opponent, former U.S. labor secretary Tom Perez, said: “This simply doesn’t pass the smell test. ‘Good neighbors’ don’t misuse taxpayer dollars to fund shameless self promotion.”
And a third, author and former nonprofit chief Wes Moore, labeled it “nothing more than corruption,” adding Franchot “needs to pay back the citizens he claims to serve.”
“This ad is 75 percent Peter Franchot’s name and face and maybe 25 percent information about unclaimed property,” Moore spokesperson Brian Jones said. “The largest font on the page is Peter Franchot’s name because it’s always all about him.”
The comptroller’s staff brushed off the accusations as election-year antics and a distortion of his responsibilities, adding “Comptroller Franchot makes no apologies" for successfully marketing an otherwise tedious list of names.
“This year’s unclaimed property theme is no different than any other year when we borrow from pop culture to bring attention to Maryland’s Unclaimed Property Fund," Susan O’Brien, Franchot’s communications director, said in an email.
“It’s funny, it’s self-deprecating and, most importantly, it achieves its intended purpose: draw Marylanders’ attention to the existence of this $2 billion fund,” she said. “Anyone claiming that this is a departure from the past decade of eye-catching unclaimed property themes is either deliberately misrepresenting the facts or is willfully ignorant of the statutory responsibilities of this agency," she said.
DeMarinis, the state campaign finance expert, said the law treats this similarly to the mail lawmakers sends to constituents heralding their accomplishments during the legislative session.
Once before, Maryland Democrats drew a clear line about when official publications cannot also serve as marketing for candidates. Ahead of the 2006 election, Democrats in the General Assembly amended the budget to forbid then-Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich (R) from using any state cash for public service announcements that featured his face.
The prohibition was not included in any subsequent budgets and effectively lasted only one year, according to Del. Maggie McIntosh (D-Baltimore City), the retiring chair of the House Appropriations Committee.
One of Franchot’s predecessors tried to end the unclaimed-property ads in 2002, arguing it was an unnecessary expense to publish newspaper advertisements statewide. The legislation failed amid opposition from Maryland’s newspapers.
The Washington Post is the biggest financial beneficiary of the unclaimed property ads this year, according to figures from the comptroller’s office. Of the $275,000 to print and distribute the ads, more than $220,000 of it was paid to The Post’s circulation department, which is operated separately from the newsroom.
The ads have also been successful at reuniting people with property, the comptroller’s office said. In fiscal 2021, the comptroller’s office processed 33,746 claims totaling more than $61 million. The comptroller’s office said calls always spike after the newspaper inserts, and as of Thursday they said they fielded no citizen complaints about the “Like a good neighbor” theme.
Alisa Tang contributed to this report. | 2022-06-02T17:53:16Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Maryland Comptroller Peter Franchot's spoof on unclaimed property raises questions - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/02/franchot-ad-maryland-governor-race/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/02/franchot-ad-maryland-governor-race/ |
Elon Musk’s Twitter Deal Is Different Than Most LBOs, Here’s How
Analysis by Paula Seligson | Bloomberg
What’s the easiest way to buy something? With other people’s money. That’s the key to almost all of the LBOs, or leveraged buyouts, that have dominated mergers and acquisitions for a generation. But while Elon Musk’s $44 billion planned takeover of Twitter is an LBO, it differs from most in several important respects. When you’re the world’s richest man and one who professes to not care about the economics of the deal, buying can be easier -- and certainly faster -- if you’re willing to put up what to virtually anyone else would be an awful lot of money. Here’s a look at the complicated transaction pulled together by the Tesla Inc. chief executive, and how it differs from normal LBOs.
1. What’s a leveraged buyout?
LBOs are acquisitions where debt plays a crucial role. The basic idea is to buy a company through a combination of equity and new debt. But the key is that the acquirer, most commonly a private equity firm, doesn’t borrow the money -- the target company does. LBOs limit the downside for the buyer, because it is only wagering its equity investment: If things go wrong, the company goes bankrupt, not the buyer. LBOs also increase the buyer’s upside because they can acquire bigger companies than they otherwise would have been able to afford.
2. How much leverage is there in most LBOs?
Private equity firms typically try to put in as little equity as possible, to increase their potential return. But the limiting factor is usually how much debt the target company can service without debt payments dragging it down -- as has happened in quite a few high-profile LBO flameouts. The ratio of equity is typically around 45% to 50% of the deal, but can be higher or lower depending on the situation. The word “leveraged” refers to a special metric that compares the amount of debt to a company’s earnings, and that ratio is typically high in these transactions. The upper bound is roughly 6 times, but that can go higher depending on the deal.
3. How is what Musk doing different?
Musk is playing the role of the private equity firm in Twitter’s leveraged buyout. But he’s one of the few people with so much money that he can commit to funding much of the transaction himself. Musk originally promised to provide roughly 72% of the financing package through a combination of money he said would come directly from him or in the form of cash he’s borrowing by pledging Tesla shares. He later found a group of 19 investors to join him in the equity financing portion of the deal for about $7.1 billion total, according to a filing on May 5. If Musk’s current stake in Twitter is excluded, his proposed purchase would be the fourth-largest deal in which a public company was bought and taken private.
4. What is the deal?
Musk has arranged $46.5 billion of committed financing to clinch the deal, meaning a group of banks, Musk himself, and the 19 other investors are now on the hook for providing the cash to Twitter shareholders (or to roll over existing shares) if the transaction goes through. The current package consists of:
• $13 billion of commitments from banks for loans to Twitter to support the deal
• $33.5 billion of equity commitments
• An increase in the equity component replaced former plans to use $12.5 billion in loan commitments backed by Tesla stock pledged by Musk in what’s known as a margin loan
5. How much debt would that add to Twitter’s balance sheet?
Only the first element in that breakdown would be new corporate debt, roughly $13 billion. Twitter’s credit rating is already below investment grade, so this new debt would come in the form of junk bonds or leveraged loans. It would be structured as a series of temporary loans from a group of seven banks. As is normal in LBOs, the intention is for the banks to then sell that risk in the form of longer-term debt to outside investors, but the banks are on the hook and would have to cough up the money if anything goes wrong. Based on the structure laid out in public filings, the commitments would likely be replaced by $6.5 billion of leveraged loans, $3 billion of secured junk bonds and $3 billion of unsecured junk bonds. The banks also provided $500 million of a special type of loan called a revolving credit facility that Twitter will be able to borrow from and pay back over the life of the loan.
6. What debt does Twitter have now?
Twitter has already tapped the junk bond market and has two outstanding bonds for about $1.7 billion total, plus some convertible notes. While the specifics are unclear at this stage, Twitter is likely to pay off existing debt as part of the transaction. If the LBO happens, Twitter will have billions more of debt on its balance sheet. Calculating leverage can be fuzzy because it depends on how to define and project earnings, as well as how to view different types of debt. But one thing is for sure: Twitter’s leverage will increase drastically. CreditSights, a credit research firm, sees total leverage increasing to a ratio of 9 times a measure of earnings, up from 3.7 times previously, according to a report published on April 25.
7. What happened to the margin loan?
Originally, Musk had planned on using a $12.5 billion margin loan backed by Tesla stock - essentially a way to get cash from his Tesla shares without selling them - and had pledged only $21 billion in equity commitments. But he whittled that away in two stages. First, he added the 19 new equity investors, which allowed Musk to reduce the margin loan by $6.25 billion and increase the equity commitments by the same amount. Then he later dropped the remaining margin loan entirely and increased the equity commitment by the same amount to $33.5 billion, according to a May 25 filing.
8. Where are the equity commitments coming from?
The equity commitments are where Musk has essentially promised to come up with cash -- $33.5 billion worth. About $5.2 billion of that is now coming from 18 equity partners who joined the deal, plus Saudi Arabia Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Al Saud, who is rolling over a stake valued at roughly $1.9 billion, according to a filing on May 5. Musk already owns more than 73 million shares, which are worth about $4 billion at the $54.20 purchase price. When he dropped the remaining margin loan, Musk didn’t say what was replacing that cash, but it could come from selling preferred equity, of which Musk had been trying to raise as much as $6 billion worth. Preferred equity is a special type of stock that essentially gives the holders additional benefits, such as hefty annual dividends, and firms including Apollo Global Management Inc. and Sixth Street have expressed interest in participating. The billionaire will still need to come up with the remaining difference, or find more equity partners. He’s worth more than $219 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, but most of that is not liquid. He could potentially sell assets, including Tesla shares, to raise cash.
9. What does this deal mean for Twitter’s finances?
The increased debt load means it will have little margin for error going forward. Private equity firms typically load up a company with debt, slash costs and try to boost revenues. Earnings have to grow rapidly so the company can afford its high interest payments and eventually pay back debt. Some analysts are projecting that the deal will leave Twitter highly indebted compared to its projected earnings, which could mean pain if the company can’t grow fast enough.
10. Will investors buy into this plan?
Musk has convinced Twitter’s board of directors to accept his offer to buy the company at $54.20 a share, and next has to get shareholders to say yes. He’s also convinced 19 outside investors to join in the deal. But unless he wants to foot the rest himself, he’ll have to convince private equity firms or other investors that he has a plan that will increase Twitter’s earnings enough to make it a profitable deal. The banks funding the $13 billion debt portion will eventually need to convince investors in credit markets that Twitter will be able to pay its new loans and bonds back. Both those tasks could be complicated by remarks Musk has made about caring more about Twitter as a free speech platform over profits. In an interview on April 14, he said his offer to buy Twitter was intended to create “an inclusive arena for free speech,” not as a way to make money. How persuasive he is could determine just how much of this purchase comes out of his own pocket.
(Updates throughout to reflect Musk dropping the margin loan.) | 2022-06-02T17:57:31Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Elon Musk’s Twitter Deal Is Different Than Most LBOs, Here’s How - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/elon-musks-twitter-deal-is-different-than-most-lbos-heres-how/2022/06/02/6a2a2a8c-e293-11ec-ae64-6b23e5155b62_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/elon-musks-twitter-deal-is-different-than-most-lbos-heres-how/2022/06/02/6a2a2a8c-e293-11ec-ae64-6b23e5155b62_story.html |
Sheryl Sandberg, chief operating officer of Facebook Inc., speaks during a Bloomberg Television interview at the company’s headquarters in Menlo Park, California, U.S., on Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2019. Facebook Inc. reported revenue that beat Wall Street estimates on Wednesday, showing the largest social-media company’s advertising business is weathering scrutiny over a series of privacy scandals. (Photographer: Bloomberg/Bloomberg)
As Sandberg prepares to step down, it feels like those fires are flickering. Sexual harassment still happens in companies, yet we are told the MeToo movement overreached. It feels trivial to talk about pregnancy parking when women in many states may soon lose the ability to decide whether they want to be pregnant at all. And Sandberg’s reputation has taken a beating along with Meta’s in the wake of scandals from Cambridge Analytica to the Rohingya massacre to studies that show Instagram hurts young girls’ mental health. I’ll be very interested to see where she directs her energies and philanthropy next. It’s clear that women and girls are still issues that are close to her heart. They could use her unfettered and unfiltered voice now.
Sandberg Is Leaving Facebook at a Perilous Moment: Parmy Olson
There Is Good Reason for Tech Workers to Embrace the Office: Cathy O’Neil | 2022-06-02T17:57:43Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Sheryl Sandberg’s ‘Lean In’ Legacy Is Underrated - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/sheryl-sandbergs-lean-inlegacy-is-underrated/2022/06/02/0a1e7430-e299-11ec-ae64-6b23e5155b62_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/sheryl-sandbergs-lean-inlegacy-is-underrated/2022/06/02/0a1e7430-e299-11ec-ae64-6b23e5155b62_story.html |
View from the top of the chardonnay vineyard overlooking vines wrapped in fog at Hirsch Vineyards in Cazadero, Calif. (Hirsch Vineyards)
Mention wine country and we tend to think of valleys. Northern California has Napa Valley, Sonoma Valley, Alexander and Anderson valleys, the Russian River Valley and the Green Valley of the Russian River Valley, just to name a few. Oregonians go Rogue when they need a change of pace from the more famous Willamette Valley, and Washingtonians can gorge themselves on wine from the Columbia Valley.
California’s ‘class of 1972’ wineries continue to raise the bar
This year, wine country has gone coastal. The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, or TTB, the federal agency that regulates wine commerce and labeling, bestowed official status last month on the West Sonoma Coast as the newest American Viticultural Area. In March, the TTB christened the San Luis Obispo Coast, or SLO Coast, in central California as an AVA. Both regions specialize in pinot noir and chardonnay, varieties that benefit from the Pacific’s cool maritime climate.
AVAs were modeled after European appellations, the regional designations we see on a wine label. The first AVA was approved in Missouri in 1980. Today, the federal government recognizes 261 AVAs, including 144 in California. (Maryland has the Catoctin and Linganore AVAs and shares the Cumberland Valley AVA with Pennsylvania. Virginia has seven of its own, the most recent being the Virginia Peninsula AVA established last August. It shares the Shenandoah Valley AVA with West Virginia and the Appalachian High Country AVA with North Carolina and Tennessee.)
AVAs “allow vintners and consumers to attribute a given quality, reputation, or other characteristic of a wine made from grapes grown in an area to the wine’s geographic origin,” the TTB said in its announcement of the West Sonoma Coast designation. “The establishment of AVAs allows vintners to describe more accurately the origin of their wines to consumers and helps consumers to identify wines they may purchase.”
West Sonoma Coast may sound odd, because Sonoma County doesn’t have an east coast. But it makes sense as a carve-out from the Sonoma Coast designation familiar to California wine fans. The Sonoma Coast AVA was established in 1987 to cover most of the county, including parts nowhere near the Pacific. The new West Sonoma Coast AVA stretches from the Mendocino line south to the areas of Freestone and Occidental. It’s bordered by the ocean on the west, the Russian River Valley region to the east and the Petaluma Gap AVA to the south. It includes the previously established Fort Ross-Seaview AVA, a high-elevation area that lies completely above the fog line. The region has “steep mountainous terrain, sedimentary soil, and a maritime-influenced climate that is generally cooler during the day and warmer during the night than the more inland regions of Sonoma County,” the TTB noted.
Threatened by climate change, a California winemaker switches to carbon farming and hopes more vineyards join
This is logging country, hours away from Santa Rosa or Healdsburg, up hairpin roads that hug the coastline, a drive you don’t want to make when the fog is coming in.
That rugged terrain and marine influence lend chardonnay “vibrancy and energy, good citrusy acidity without the heavier, tropical notes you get with a warmer climate,” says Andy Peay, of Peay Vineyards in Annapolis, Calif. He describes pinot noir from the region as “floral and earthy” rather than the “fleshy and sweet” flavors of the Russian River Valley. He said Peay will probably use the West Sonoma Coast designation on its 2021 wines when they are bottled in August.
Further south, the perfectly named SLO Coast evokes an easy-going surfer dude vibe centered on San Luis Obispo and Avila Beach. It stretches from San Simeon in the north to Nipomo on its southern edge and is no more than 15 miles wide — from the Pacific on the west to the Santa Lucia Mountains on the east. It includes the Edna Valley and Arroyo Grande Valley AVAs. Fog is less of a factor in this region, but the ocean’s cooling influence is ideal for pinot noir and chardonnay. Albariño, grüner veltliner and riesling also do well among white varieties, while grenache, syrah, tempranillo and zinfandel also grow here.
Rachel Martin, proprietor of Oceano wines, is looking forward to putting the new AVA on her outstanding chardonnay and pinot noir, which until now have carried the San Luis Obispo County designation. The county includes warmer regions such as Paso Robles, farther north and inland. Oceano wines originate at Spanish Springs Vineyard just north of Pismo Beach, less than three miles from the ocean. The cool temperatures help produce “balanced wines with bright red or citrus fruit flavors, refreshing acidity and a resonating vibrancy,” Martin says. “You know, the style of wine that gets me out of bed in the morning.”
Fog-shrouded forests or sun and surf — take your pick. Along either stretch of California’s coast, you’ll find distinctive wines worthy of your glass. | 2022-06-02T17:57:50Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Two coastal California wine regions finally get their official due - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/food/2022/06/02/coastal-california-wine-regions-ava/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/food/2022/06/02/coastal-california-wine-regions-ava/ |
By Júlia Ledur
Kate Rabinowitz
Before a man killed at least four people Wednesday at a hospital in Tulsa, there had already been 231 mass shootings this year in the United States, according to the Gun Violence Archive. It is the twentieth since last week’s shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Tex., left 19 children and two teachers dead.
34 mass shootings
13 days with NONE
8 days with NONE
Mass shootings have been on the rise in recent years. In 2021, almost 700 such incidents occurred, a jump from the 611 in 2020 and 417 in 2019. Before that, incidents had not topped 400 annually since the Gun Violence Archive started tracking in 2014.
This year is on pace with last year’s high when comparing the same time period.
Mass shootings in the first five months
Mass shootings in the first five months of the year
The toll is immense. Mass shootings have killed 256 people and injured 1,010 more through the end of May.
Andrew Jeong contributed to this report. Data is from the Gun Violence Archive. | 2022-06-02T17:58:02Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Mass shootings in 2022: U.S. sees more than 200 so far - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/06/02/mass-shootings-in-2022/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/06/02/mass-shootings-in-2022/ |
The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection at the Capitol is going prime time with public hearings in June. Join Washington Post Live on Monday, June 6 at 11:00 a.m. ET to hear from a key committee member, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), about what questions the committee still has and what they know and don’t know about what Donald Trump was doing that day. | 2022-06-02T18:00:04Z | www.washingtonpost.com | 117th Congress: Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/washington-post-live/2022/06/06/117th-congress-rep-jamie-raskin-d-md/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/washington-post-live/2022/06/06/117th-congress-rep-jamie-raskin-d-md/ |
VPN provider pulls out of India over push to ‘limit internet freedom’
A rail commuter uses a mobile phone in Mumbai in February 2020. (Dhiraj Singh/Bloomberg)
NEW DELHI — An order by Indian regulators requiring Internet companies to store their users’ real names and track their usage history has alarmed digital privacy advocates and virtual private network (VPN) providers, which have begun to pull out of the country in protest.
ExpressVPN, a leading VPN company based in the British Virgin Islands, said Thursday it would shut down its servers in India. The company wrote in a blog post that it “refuses to participate in the Indian government’s attempts to limit internet freedom” and warned that the order requiring VPN companies to store their users’ data for up to five years could be abused by authorities.
VPN services allow users to browse the Web anonymously and mask their IP, or Internet protocol, addresses, and to bypass government censorship in countries including China, Russia and Turkey.
Indian authorities have argued that the new rules, which come take effect June 27, are necessary for law enforcement to track down perpetrators of cybercrimes such as fraud, which is prevalent in a country with some 600 million Internet users.
But digital-privacy advocates say the rules go beyond what most Western governments demand of Internet companies and align more closely with outliers such as China, which is known for draconian Internet regulation.
India’s new rules also would tighten tracking and data retention requirements for large cloud companies, such as Amazon, that provide the infrastructure for vast portions of the commercial Internet. Cloud-service providers will be required to store user data for up to six months.
“The VPN is one way a citizen has to maintain some semblance of privacy, which is one reason the Indian government wants to create an environment in which they can’t operate in the country,” said Nikhil Pahwa, an activist for digital rights and the founder of the Indian online publication MediaNama. “When it comes to the Internet, the Indian government has China envy.”
India has been engaged in an intense debate over the government’s alleged use of spyware against domestic dissidents and opposition politicians — an accusation that Indian officials have neither confirmed nor denied.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government, meanwhile, has rolled out new laws — and is drafting additional legislation — that would give authorities greater control over Internet users’ data and the content they publish on social media.
Last year, the information technology ministry issued rules requiring social media companies such as Facebook and Twitter to respond quickly to government requests for user data, and to rapidly remove objectionable and illegal posts or face criminal liability and even prison time for company executives. The Indian government clashed with Twitter in 2020 when the company refused to take down posts from farmers critical of Modi.
Officials argue that the new rules are part of a broad push to protect Indian citizens against disinformation, scammers and hacking.
Despite the criticism from VPN providers and digital-privacy advocates, Indian officials have held firm. The junior technology minister, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, has warned companies either to comply or leave the country.
“The ability of all platforms to produce logs and details related to cybersecurity incidents, when required in investigations, is ESSENTIAL,” he reiterated Thursday in a text message, responding to ExpressVPN’s departure from India.
Other large VPN firms, including Nord Security, have said they also are considering pulling out of India. In 2019, Nord Security shut down its service in Russia instead of complying with a government order to block access to websites banned by Russian authorities.
With its servers in India shut down, ExpressVPN will route overseas users who are visiting Indian websites through servers in Britain and Singapore. These users should experience “minimal difference,” the company said, while vowing that it will not track or log the browsing activity of its users inside India.
Although there are no unified industry-wide statistics, several VPN providers have reported that in absolute numbers, Indians download VPNs more than the people of any other country and that the use of VPNs in India has exploded in the past decade.
Prateek Waghre, a policy director at the New Delhi-based Internet Freedom Foundation, said there has been a broad push by governments to expand their ability to track online activity. In other democratic jurisdictions, such as Europe, the issue of authorities’ requiring telecom and Internet providers to store user data has been hotly debated. But the policy has been pushed through in India without public consultation, Waghre said.
Requiring VPN and other Internet service providers to track their users would make them complicit in an entrapment scheme, he argued.
“You’re creating a honey pot,” he said. | 2022-06-02T18:00:11Z | www.washingtonpost.com | ExpressVPN pulls servers out of India - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/02/india-express-vpn-user-records/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/02/india-express-vpn-user-records/ |
The Trump census sabotage campaign might have backfired
Forms for the Census Bureau's 2020 accounting of the U.S. population. (John Roark/AP)
In 2020, President Donald Trump tried to sabotage the census, the once-a-decade constitutionally mandated tallying of the U.S. population that determines how much political representation, federal money and other benefits communities receive. He failed to realize his most extreme plans to manipulate the count, through which he hoped to increase Republican representation and minimize Democrats’. But new numbers the Census Bureau released last month suggest that he still managed to do substantial damage both to the integrity of the process and to the confidence the public places in it.
The bureau reported that it significantly undercounted the population in six states — Arkansas, Florida, Illinois, Mississippi, Tennessee and Texas — and overcounted the population in eight — Delaware, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Rhode Island and Utah. Arkansas’s undercount rate topped 5 percent, while Hawaii’s overcount rate was nearly 7 percent. Nevertheless, the law requires that these numbers determine the distribution of congressional seats among states.
The bureau’s data did not reveal which communities in each state were miscounted. But numbers released in March showed that Blacks, Hispanics and Native Americans living on reservations were undercounted nationally, while Whites and Asian Americans were overcounted. The breakdown of affected states appears to reflect these broad trends.
The undercounts might have deprived Florida and Texas — both red states with large minority populations — of congressional seats. On the flip side, Minnesota and Rhode Island, which are Whiter and run by Democrats, possibly retained congressional seats their population sizes did not warrant.
For its part, the Census Bureau argues that the 2020 count was not so different from past censuses. Yet in 2010, the bureau managed to do substantially better, reporting no such miscounting. Do not blame the Census Bureau’s professional staff. They had to conduct a massive, in-person count of millions of people during a global pandemic and amid concerted Trump administration efforts to undermine their work.
That their plan to corrupt the census appears to have backfired does not absolve the former president and those in his administration for attempting to politicize the decennial exercise.
From here, the bureau, the Biden administration more broadly and Congress should ensure that the most accurate population estimates are used to distribute federal money. And Congress must examine ways to insulate the Census Bureau from future presidents seeking to corrupt basic government functions for their own political benefit.
How the federal government’s decennial tally shakes out can make a huge difference in who holds power in Washington, and on behalf of whom. It can never again be vulnerable to the kind of nakedly political assault that Mr. Trump conducted in 2020. | 2022-06-02T18:28:00Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Trump's efforts to sabotage census may have backfired - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/02/census-undercount-trump-sabotage/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/02/census-undercount-trump-sabotage/ |
Everything you need to know about the NCAA baseball tournament
Pitcher Cooper Hjerpe, who's expected to be a first-round pick in this year's MLB amateur draft, and Oregon State are among the top national seeds in this year's NCAA baseball tournament. (Rick Scuteri/AP)
The NCAA baseball tournament begins Friday with regional games at 16 sites and continues throughout the month of June. Here’s what you need to know about the road to the College World Series.
What is the format of the NCAA baseball tournament?
How are the NCAA baseball tournament teams selected?
Were there any controversies this year?
Who are the favorites to win the NCAA baseball title?
Who are the 16 top-seeded national teams this year?
What is this year’s NCAA baseball tournament bracket? | 2022-06-02T18:54:07Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Everything you need to know about the NCAA baseball tournament - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/02/college-world-series/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/02/college-world-series/ |
Timothy Taylor is innocent. The FBI owes him an apology.
Dawn Drexel at a 2016 news conference, seven years after her 17-year-old daughter disappeared. (Janet Blackmon Morgan/AP)
On April 25, 2009, a 17-year-old girl from Upstate New York disappeared while on spring break in Myrtle Beach, S.C. It was a high-profile case, and it seemed as though investigators had no good leads. But seven years after Brittanee Drexel went missing, authorities said they believed they knew what had happened to her: She had been abducted, gang-raped, shot to death and thrown into an alligator-infested pit. The FBI named Timothy Taylor, a young Black man, as a person of interest.
It is now clear that Mr. Taylor had nothing to do with the disappearance, as he has consistently insisted. Last month, authorities found Ms. Drexel’s body after they said Raymond Moody, a 62-year-old White man and registered sex offender, confessed to raping and killing her and revealed where her remains were. ”We are much closer to the closure and the peace that we have been desperately hoping for,” the girl’s mother said.
No closure or peace exists for the Taylor family. “We’re not relieved. We’re enraged that it took this long,” Mr. Taylor’s mother, Joan, said at a news conference, describing how the unfounded allegations — which also falsely implicated her husband, Mr. Taylor’s father — had damaged the family emotionally and financially. “We were called monsters, we lost jobs, we got death threats,” Ms. Taylor said.
Mr. Taylor was never charged in the disappearance, but the FBI certainly tried. Federal investigators made Mr. Taylor their prime suspect based solely on the account of a jailhouse informant, who claimed to have been present when the girl was killed. There was no evidence the informant, who had recently been sentenced to 20 years in prison, knew the Taylors. Jailhouse informants have an incentive to lie to get lighter sentences or better jail conditions. Nonetheless, federal authorities leaned on Mr. Taylor. They took the unusual step of charging Mr. Taylor federally for an armed robbery charge for which he had already served a state sentence. His attorney characterized the move as “putting the screws to him” in hopes of getting him to confess and implicate his father.
But Mr. Taylor steadfastly maintained his innocence, explaining that he was 16 and in class the day the girl disappeared. Think what might have happened if he had not been able to withstand the pressure: a false confession, innocent people wrongly jailed, and no apparent hope of finding the person who actually committed the crime. As it is, this family lived for six years under the accusation they committed a sadistic murder; such damage doesn’t go away overnight. Compounding the injury, they learned about Mr. Moody’s arrest through the media and have yet to receive an apology.
A spokesman for the FBI “respectfully declined” to comment on the case. Having chosen to make the accusation against Mr. Taylor public, authorities need to answer questions — about what went wrong and what steps they will take to prevent future character assassinations. Meanwhile, the reporters and media organizations who furthered the fiction must do some soul-searching, too. | 2022-06-02T19:02:49Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Timothy Taylor is innocent. The FBI owes him an apology. - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/02/timothy-taylor-is-innocent-fbi-owes-him-an-apology/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/02/timothy-taylor-is-innocent-fbi-owes-him-an-apology/ |
Spelling Bee 2022 nears final round with nerves, cramming, lucky octopus
Charlotte Walsh, of Arlington, Va., prepares to spell the word “palapala” on Tuesday in the quarterfinals of the National Spelling Bee. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)
Above all, Charlotte Walsh did not want to get nervous.
“Often I think it’s nerves that get a speller,” the 13-year-old from Arlington said.
Since 9 a.m. Tuesday, she and other young spellers had been stepping onto a stage at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center at National Harbor to compete in the 94th annual Scripps National Spelling Bee. The three-day competition draws students from around the country and a few from abroad. Most are middle-school age — the cutoff is 8th grade — but this week two were 7. Many were first-time qualifiers, after winning local and regional bees; others were veterans.
Contestants are allotted two minutes to spell their word and may ask for the meaning, the etymology, and alternate pronunciations. In the quarterfinals and semifinals, held Wednesday, they needed to spell just one word. The finals will be broadcast live Thursday at 8 p.m. on the ION network and on the competition’s website.
The competition is being held fully in-person for the first time since 2019, after disruptions caused by the coronavirus pandemic. The bee was not held in 2020, and the only in-person contestants last year were the 11 finalists.
Zaila Avant-garde wins 2021 Scripps National Spelling Bee, becoming bee’s first African American champion
This time, families, coaches and others sat in the National Harbor audience while around the country, friends, relatives, teachers and classmates watched the live broadcast. Two hundred twenty-nine contestants took the stage in Tuesday’s preliminaries to spell a word from a provided list, answer a multiple-choice vocabulary question about a word on the list and then spell a word that could appear anywhere in the Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary.
Some contestants answered quickly. Some drew it out, asking question after question until the screen behind them turned red, warning that only a few seconds remained. Their fingers fluttered to scribble invisible words such as ikebana, meunière, wiliwili, and obvertend into their palms.
“Does this word contain the Greek prefix mono, meaning ‘one’?” asked Florida’s Juan Rondeau, 13, about mononucleosis. (It did.)
“Does it come from the Latin ic, meaning ‘related to’?” asked Indiana’s Ishan Ramrakhiani, 14, about ineradicable. (Yes.)
“Can I have the spelling?” quipped California’s Vikrant Chintanaboina, 13, of suffrutescent. (Ha ha, no.)
In the vast hotel atrium, Charlotte tried to relax with her father and younger brothers. A poised Tae Kwan Do brown belt who is home-schooled, she had been a competitive speller since age 6, and at 10 she had come to the bee and tied for 51st place. This time, Charlotte was number 202, so she wouldn’t be up until the evening. It was just after lunch now, and she was spending her free time studying words. She also carried a secret weapon: a lucky stuffed octopus with rainbow-colored tentacles named Gregory.
“I don’t think they’ll let me take him onstage,” she said. Like other family members, Gregory would watch from the audience.
“Ready?” his father said. “Pallid.”
“P-A-L-L-I-D.”
Reflexology. Tremulous. Malfeasance. Dopamine. Flabbergast. Sometimes Harsha immediately knew the word. Sometimes he paused.
“Emancipatory.”
“For bigger words, take a step back,” his father said. “Wait. Read it in your mind. Do not rush.” He reminded Harsha of Braydon Syx, an Alabama contestant from that morning who had slowly, excruciatingly, repeated question after question as the seconds ticked away. “He did not rush,” Chandrasekhar said. “And he got it right.”
Chandrasekhar admitted he was no Jacques Bailly, the University of Vermont classics professor who has been the competition’s official pronouncer since 2003 and enunciates each word with a vaguely Midwestern intonation.
“My accent is not that great. I have a thick Indian accent,” Chandrasekhar said. “I’m not schooled here, so no matter how hard I try, even after 23 years, it’s going to be hard for me to pronounce it the same way as people here do.”
Harsha’s favorite words are those rooted in English. The worst is French, he said. “French freaks me out.”
“I’m really sad about it, because they worked really hard,” she said. “You could know every other word in the dictionary, and if they give you the word you don’t know, that’s it and it’s done.”
From 2020 | The Scripps spelling bee was canceled. So we decided to do our own.
“I don’t want to jinx anything,” Charlotte said, “so I don’t want to say a specific one, because maybe I’ll go out on that one.”
On Wednesday morning, spellers and their families posed for photos in front of a Spelling Bee mural in a lobby area and played with Legos set up beside a large screen simulcasting the competition. On a piece of poster paper, contestants wrote notes of encouragement to each other: “You are all champions!” “Give it your all! And be calm!”
Eighty-eight spellers remained for the quarterfinals, but Harsha was not one of them: He had met his Waterloo the night before with the French de rigueur, leaving out the first u. Charlotte had advanced, correctly spelling kathakali and beefeater and defining gubernatorial.
At a table near the Legos, three contestants in brightly patterned skirts were drawing pictures with colored pencils. Petra Sarpong, 12, N’Adom Darko-Asare, 11, and Annie-Lois Acheampong, 13, had flown in last weekend from Ghana, which has been sending spellers to the competition for 15 years, sponsored by the Young Educators Foundation, a nonprofit in Accra.
In past years, Ghana had sent only one participant. This time, three had qualified, after spending nine months meeting virtually and in person to work on spelling. “Weekends, holidays, mornings, evenings,” said Eugenia Tachie-Menson, YEF’s country director, adding that the work had benefits beyond the bee. “It helps your speaking, your literacy, your writing.”
All three are native English speakers but also know official spelling bee words with African roots, such as kente, a woven cloth, or kwashiorkor, a protein deficiency.
N’Adom and Annie-Lois had been eliminated Tuesday, and Petra on Wednesday morning. Now, the group would have six days to relax and visit the Washington Monument, the National Museum of African American History and Culture and the White House.
“The whole point of their trip,” Tachie-Menson deadpanned.
“It just has some kind of appeal, I don’t know why,” said Annie-Lois, who attends a boarding school that presumably does not do mango dragonfruit refreshers.
A wave of applause rose from the TV monitor, and the girls perked up: Charlotte had correctly spelled palapala, a Hawaiian word for writing, becoming one of 48 contestants to advance to the semifinals. “We made friends with Charlotte!” N’Adom said.
During a break, Bailey stopped by their table, and the girls jumped up to shake the pronouncer’s hand and take photos with him. They chatted with him about one lege, alternatively spelled one legge, which Tachie-Menson described as an African dance whose name is derived from pidgin English.
“It’s trending on Tik-Tok,” she said.
Three students from Ghana competing in the Scripps National Spelling Bee took a break and performed One Lege, a dance from their homeland on June 1. (Video: Tara Bahrampour/The Washington Post) | 2022-06-02T19:20:14Z | www.washingtonpost.com | National Spelling Bee 2022: Finals near at National Harbor - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/02/national-spelling-bee-2022-finals-words/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/02/national-spelling-bee-2022-finals-words/ |
Harvey Weinstein’s rape conviction and jail sentence upheld in New York
Harvey Weinstein exits a Manhattan courthouse in February 2020. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
A New York court of appeals upheld former movie producer Harvey Weinstein’s rape conviction and 23-year prison sentence Thursday, confirming the landmark decision that represented one of the most significant verdicts of the #MeToo movement.
In February 2020, Weinstein was convicted of sexually assaulting two women in New York. In that case, the jury found Weinstein, then 67, guilty of a criminal sex act in a 2006 incident and rape in a separate 2013 incident. Weeks later, the once powerful former head of the Weinstein Co. was sentenced to prison.
A year into that sentence, Weinstein’s legal team appealed his conviction, requesting a new trial based on several grounds. According to Weinstein’s attorneys, the judge in the case should not have allowed additional witnesses who had accused Weinstein of sexual assault, but whose allegations were not a part of the charges, to testify in court. Weinstein’s legal team also took issue with a particular juror who wrote a novel that involved predatory older men.
On Thursday, the five-judge panel deciding on the appeal ruled unanimously in favor of Weinstein’s original verdict. Judge Angela M. Mazzarelli wrote in the appellate opinion that “we reject defendant’s arguments, and affirm the conviction in all respects.”
“We are disappointed and sad for Mr. Weinstein. Obviously,” Weinstein publicist Juda Engelmayer said in a statement to The Washington Post. “We will be pursuing this in the Court of Appeals, and beyond and will study every option available. What this certainly does is destroy any real opportunity for an objective jury and a fair trial in Los Angeles.”
Weinstein, 70, is currently jailed in California, where he was extradited to in July 2021 to face additional sexual assault charges that involve allegations from five women over the course of a decade. He has pleaded not guilty. A trial date has not yet been set. | 2022-06-02T19:28:56Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Harvey Weinstein’s rape conviction and jail sentence upheld in New York - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2022/06/02/harvey-weinstein-conviction-upheld/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2022/06/02/harvey-weinstein-conviction-upheld/ |
Once eager to drill, oil companies exit leases in Arctic refuge
Two Alaska investors remain, but analysts say they lack the expertise or financial power to develop on their own
Joshua Partlow
Peaks in the Brooks Range are reflected in Schrader Lake in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. (Universal Images Group/Getty Images)
Three major oil companies have given up opportunities to explore for oil in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, after the industry and Republican politicians have spent decades working to gain access to the sensitive region.
Regenerate Alaska, a division of an Australian firm and the only oil company to directly acquire a tract on the refuge’s nearly 1.6 million-acre coastal plain, canceled its lease last month, after Chevron and Hilcorp, two other major oil companies, had also jettisoned their claims.
The exits make it far less likely that drilling will take place soon in a vast, unspoiled landscape that has achieved iconic status among environmentalists and has been fought over for half a century. An Anchorage real estate investor and the state-owned Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority still hold leases there, but industry analysts say they lack the financial power and expertise to develop the remote area on their own.
The Anchorage Daily News first reported the three firms’ decision to pull out of the refuge.
While Republicans enacted legislation in 2017 mandating two major lease sales in the refuge by the end of 2024, a coalition of Indigenous rights and environmental groups have launched a campaign to pressure corporations against investing in any developments there. The 20 million-acre preserve hosts hundreds of thousands of migrating caribou and waterfowl each year and provides critical habitat for the Southern Beaufort Sea’s remaining polar bears.
“This is positive news for the climate and the human rights of Indigenous people whose survival depends on a healthy, thriving calving ground for the Porcupine Caribou Herd, and further proves that the oil industry recognizes drilling on sacred lands is bad business,” the Wilderness Society’s Alaska state director, Karlin Itchoak, said in a statement.
Five major U.S. banks — Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo — and a growing list of insurance companies have stopped giving financing for the Arctic oil business.
“It seems all the oil companies with leases there have concluded that drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is unwise after all,” said Erik Grafe, deputy managing attorney in Earthjustice’s Alaska regional office. Grafe, who for years has been involved in litigation to block oil and gas development in the refuge, said, “We are glad that these companies may finally have seen the light, concluding that investing in Arctic oil is a bad deal on a planet that urgently needs to shift away from fossil fuels.”
A year ago the Biden administration suspended the leases that the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management awarded two weeks before President Donald Trump left office, saying the agency did an “insufficient analysis” of the impact of drilling in the environmentally sensitive region.
Facing catastrophic climate change, this Alaska village can't quit Big Oil
However the state development agency, which bought seven leases covering 366,000 acres just before Trump left office, is still trying to get permits to do seismic studies and preparatory work for drilling in the refuge.
Alan Weitzner, the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority’s executive director, said in an interview Thursday that he is not surprised the oil companies decided to leave the refuge in the face of repeated obstacles from the federal government, which “creates a time sink for corporations within that area.”
"In my mind it’s very unfortunate that these major investors in the state of Alaska are not being allowed to continue to pursue development, and are being really pushed to look elsewhere, in large part outside of the U.S.,” he added. “There are delays and just outright denials of requests for permitting to ultimately pursue the activities that you need to do.”
There are many obstacles to drilling in the Arctic refuge. There are no roads or facilities, so building the infrastructure to support oil exploration would be costly. There has long been strong opposition to drilling in the refuge, which has only intensified as climate change worsens, driven by burning of fossil fuels. The Alaskan Arctic has warmed at least three times more than other parts of the country, posing new risks to oil infrastructure on the North Slope as permafrost melts.
“If you look at project proposals in other parts of the Arctic, they’re using things like chillers to freeze the permafrost so they can drill more,” said Jenny Rowland-Shea, deputy director for public lands at the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank. “It’s not getting any colder in the Arctic. It’s only getting harder to do things like drill, and it’s a vicious cycle.”
Alaska Native groups with ancestral ties to the refuge celebrated the oil companies’ withdrawal from what they consider sacred territory.
“These exits clearly demonstrate that international companies recognize what we have known all along: drilling in the Arctic Refuge is not worth the economic risk and liability that results from development on sacred lands without the consent of Indigenous Peoples,” the Gwich’in Steering Committee said in a statement. “The Gwich’in are united against any development of the Coastal Plain of the Arctic Refuge.”
Some oil industry analysts see the departure from Alaska as a sign of increased fiscal discipline by oil companies as renewable energy becomes a more prominent focus for them.
The investment advisory firm Raymond James did a survey of 50 large oil and gas companies and found that global capital spending remains 5 percent below pre-pandemic levels. It also found that considerations of ESG — environment, sustainability and governance — is driving these companies toward low-carbon energy such as wind and solar, said the firm’s senior energy analyst Pavel Molchanov.
“Insofar as these companies are still drilling, the focus is on the best-established, lowest-risk opportunities: West Texas, North Dakota, Brazil, Norway,” he said. “There is practically no appetite for high-risk exploration in places such as Alaska.”
Regenerate Alaska, which had purchased a 23,000-acre lease during the Trump administration’s sale, requested a refund of its fees and rental payments. Last month BLM complied with this request, according to an Interior spokesman.
In addition to the state agency, a company called Knik Arm Services, a real estate investing firm formed in 2020 by investor Mark Graber holds a lease on the coastal plain.
Many Alaskans remain hopeful that exploration will continue.
“Alaskans haven’t given up on ANWR and the State is still involved,” former lieutenant governor Mead Treadwell said in an email. “ANWR has been a long fight, but if government that leases land doesn’t support exploration and development afterwards, it discourages investors. That’s why the state has taken the fight on as its own.”
Development will also continue in other parts of the state, noted Treadwell, a business investor and Republican who has also served as chair of the United States Arctic Research Commission.
Interior officials are currently reviewing a proposal by ConocoPhillips to build the Willow project, a network of drill sites and a production facility in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, to the west of the Arctic refuge.
Environmental groups said they remained committed to scaling back such development.
“While Chevron and others may have changed their minds where it comes to the Arctic Refuge, others remain bent on expanding oil development in the Arctic,” Grafe said. | 2022-06-02T19:29:20Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Three oil firms exit Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, after seeking access - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/06/02/arctic-national-wildlife-refuge-drilling/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/06/02/arctic-national-wildlife-refuge-drilling/ |
Harvard has remains of 7,000 Native Americans and enslaved people, leaked report says
By Gillian Brockell
A view of a gate to Harvard Yard on the campus of Harvard University in July 2020. (Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)
Harvard University holds the human remains of thousands of Native American people, despite a 1990 federal law requiring their return, according to a draft report leaked to the student newspaper, the Harvard Crimson. The school also holds the remains of 19 people of African descent who were probably enslaved at the time they died, according to the leaked report.
The draft report urged the school to speed up its return of the Indigenous remains and to find appropriate descendants or affinity groups to whom it could return the African remains. It also recommended memorialization that would “restor[e] individuality as far as possible.”
“Our collection of these particular human remains is a striking representation of structural and institutional racism and its long half-life,” the draft report stated, according to the Crimson. The report was commissioned by the school last year when it formed the Steering Committee on Human Remains in Harvard Museum Collections.
The committee comprises museum curators and college faculty and staff, including noted African American scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. A representative for Gates said he was not available for comment. The committee chair, Evelynn M. Hammonds, released a statement to the Crimson saying “it is deeply frustrating that the Harvard Crimson chose to release an initial and incomplete draft report of the Committee on Human Remains.”
The Crimson journalist who wrote the story declined to respond to questions about how the Crimson obtained the report or why it may have been leaked.
The museum has had a committee responsible for the return of Indigenous human remains since the repatriation law, called NAGPRA, was enacted. In the past 32 years, it has repatriated the remains of 3,000 of 10,000 individuals it once held, according the museum’s website. Peabody director Jane Pickering formally apologized in January 2021 for the slow pace and “for not confronting our historic collecting practices and stewardship of all of these human remains and for our failure as an institution to face the ethical and moral issues that undergirded the practices that brought them to our museum.”
Pickering is on the steering committee that wrote the draft report.
The Peabody collection is also the subject of an ongoing lawsuit against Harvard, because it includes daguerreotypes of an enslaved man named Renty and his daughter Delia, who were forced to pose nude for a racist scientist in 1850. Tamara Lanier, who has evidence that she is Renty’s descendant, is suing Harvard to obtain the images. More than three dozen descendants of the scientist, Louis Agassiz, have also asked that the images be turned over to Lanier.
In 1850, a racist Harvard scientist took photos of enslaved people. A purported descendant is suing.
In general, rights to photos belong to the photographer, but there are exceptions — for example, nude photos of a kidnapping victim, as a justice on the Massachusetts State Judicial Court noted in November when it heard arguments in the case. The court’s ruling in the Harvard case is pending.
In April, Harvard released a report about its involvement with slavery and committed $100 million to redress the legacy of these injustices. Other universities in recent years have also worked to confront their ties to slavery, including Georgetown University, the University of Virginia and William and Mary.
Harvard has an endowment valued in 2021 at $53.2 billion. | 2022-06-02T19:29:26Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Harvard has 7,000 Native American and enslaved remains, per leaked report - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2022/06/02/harvard-human-remains-indigenous-enslaved/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2022/06/02/harvard-human-remains-indigenous-enslaved/ |
John Dean, Watergate’s golden boy, is back in the spotlight 50 years later
Dean stars in a new CNN series on the Watergate break-in and aftermath
John Dean speaks before an in-audience at the National Archives' McGowan Theater on June 1. To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Watergate break-in, the Archives hosted the premiere episode of the new CNN series “Watergate: Blueprint for a Scandal.” (Susana Raab/National Archives)
John Dean is having a moment.
Fifty years after the Watergate break-in, Dean is the star of “Watergate: Blueprint for a Scandal,” a new CNN special on the conspiracy and corruption that took down Richard M. Nixon’s presidency. For Dean, the timing is fortuitous: The four-part series comes as the House prepares to begin public hearings on the Jan. 6 insurrection, which he plans to watch closely. The lesson is unmistakable: Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it.
“Watergate taught us that rule-breakers are accountable,” Dean said. “Today, rule-breakers are not being held accountable.”
Dean may not be the hero America deserves but the one it needs. In the past few years, he has become a touchstone for political morality, an imperfect figure in uncertain times. At a screening Wednesday night at the National Archives, the 83-year-old reflected on his ambition, his mistakes and his concerns for democracy in a brief discussion with CNN’s Jim Acosta. Audience members — some old enough to have lived through Watergate, some much younger — gave him an enthusiastic welcome, then clamored for selfies. “One thing about John,” observed one man as the crowd dispersed. “He never pretended to be perfect.”
Dean fell down the Watergate rabbit hole and has been stuck there for five decades, which — for better and worse — has brought him fame, heartache, fortune, redemption and now the unofficial title of éminence grise of political scandals.
It all started with an offer he couldn’t refuse: the job of White House counsel. The Georgetown Law graduate was just 31 years old, with a short résumé but great ambition, when Nixon asked the boyish conservative to join his White House team.
His predecessor, Nixon domestic adviser John Ehrlichman, still held all the power and made all the important decisions. But Dean couldn’t resist. “I knew what I was getting at 31: a great title,” Dean said in an interview with The Washington Post. “How can I turn down this offer at this stage of my career?”
It was a dream job and yet another example of the adage: Be careful what you wish for, because you just might get it. He started in the summer of 1970, surrounded by older Nixon insiders who were loyal to the president and his reelection — and prepared to do anything to make that happen. Dean, always a quick study, realized these men were ready and willing to break laws they were sworn to uphold.
Dean says he knew it was wrong but wondered if he was naive. “I said, ‘You just don’t understand how it’s played in the big leagues’ ― and, apparently, this was it. Because I was dumbfounded by many of the things that went on and didn’t do a lot of the things they asked me to do.” But, yes, he did enough.
In hindsight, he was clearly in over his head. He famously warned Nixon there was a “cancer” on his presidency but was fired in April 1973. Afraid he would be made a scapegoat for the scandal, Dean cooperated with Senate investigators and became a sensation when he testified at the televised hearings — he was the first administration official to say Nixon was directly involved in the coverup. Later that year, Dean pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice, served four months and was disbarred.
And then Dean tried to restart his life. It didn’t go as planned.
“I've got to tell you, I have been trapped in this bubble for 50 years, no question,” he said. “I tried to stay out of it. I didn't lecture. I didn't talk about it. I didn't write about it.”
He went into business, and studied accounting for five years to better understand business plans and balance sheets. That phase of his life lasted until the early 1991, when “Silent Coup” was published, a book of revisionist history that claimed Dean and his wife, Maureen, were the chief architects of the Watergate coverup. Dean sued the publisher for $150 million and settled for an undisclosed amount six years later.
Related lawsuits consumed 10 years of his life and made him an expert on all things Watergate — researching, lecturing, writing books, serving as a commentator. CNN approached him about the 50th anniversary of the Watergate break-in, and the documentary — which begins Sunday — unfolds through memories of Dean, Bob Woodard, Carl Bernstein and others who lived through the scandal.
(Since you asked: No, he hasn’t seen the new miniseries “Gaslit,” where Dean is played by Dan Stevens as a relatable, complicated, even sexy guy. His wife of 49 years has seen excerpts and told him the show took a lot of dramatic license.)
Dean said there are a few enduring lessons learned from Watergate: For about a decade, there was something called post-Watergate morality that scrutinized even the appearance of impropriety. Pre-Watergate, presidents were given the benefit of the doubt; post-Watergate, they had to prove their innocence. The media became much more aggressive when covering politicians. And, after realizing how many lawyers were involved in Watergate, the American Bar Association tightened its entire code of ethics.
But Dean also warns of the lessons ignored and the mistakes being repeated. The Department of Justice should be an independent branch, he said, not subject to the whims of the White House — something Donald Trump didn’t know or chose to ignore. Another concern: Congress hasn’t used its inherent power to enforce subpoenas, a power it used 50 years ago to reveal the depth and extent of the Watergate coverup.
John Dean experienced Watergate from inside. He’s watching Donald Trump closely.
Dean went on high alert when Trump was elected president and said his fears were confirmed. The difference between Nixon and Trump? “Nixon actually had a conscience. He could experience shame. Donald Trump can’t. I don’t think it’s in his character and his makeup.”
So he’ll be watching the Jan. 6 hearings closely — hoping the lessons of Watergate will inform the process, afraid they won’t.
“During Watergate, there was never a moment when I really thought there was a constitutional crisis,” he said Wednesday night. His biggest fear was that Nixon wouldn’t turn over the White House tapes, but he did. Now he’s worried the current Republican Party has adopted Trump’s authoritarian tendencies instead of heeding the not-so-distant past.
“If we don’t learn the lessons,” Dean warned, “democracy’s in trouble.” | 2022-06-02T19:29:32Z | www.washingtonpost.com | John Dean, Watergate’s golden boy, is back in the spotlight 50 years later - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2022/06/02/john-dean-watergate/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2022/06/02/john-dean-watergate/ |
Michael Avenatti makes a statement to the media as he leaves federal court in New York on July 23, 2019. (Richard Drew/AP)
Attorney Michael Avenatti was sentenced Thursday to four years in prison on charges related to taking $300,000 from his former client Stormy Daniels, the adult film actress who accused Donald Trump of pressuring her into silence about an alleged 2008 sexual encounter.
The Daniels trial, which took place in New York, was Avenatti’s third federal criminal case in two years. He was previously convicted in New York of trying to extort Nike Inc., and charges are pending in California in a case in which he’s accused of stealing funds from his law firm.
Avenatti is serving a 30-month prison sentence in the Nike case. His attorneys said Thursday that 30 months of the sentence in the Daniels case will run consecutively to that punishment, meaning that Avenatti’s total sentence in both cases is 60 months, or five years.
Avenatti ascended to national prominence representing Daniels, whose legal name is Stephanie Clifford, in her battle against Trump. A ubiquitous presence on cable news and social media, Avenatti frequently denounced the former president’s behavior and briefly explored a 2020 presidential bid of his own before ultimately deciding against it. His arrest and indictment by federal prosecutors in March 2019 set into motion a rapid and stunning fall from grace.
In 2018, Avenatti filed two lawsuits against Trump on Daniels’s behalf. One was a defamation suit that Daniels says Avenatti filed against her wishes. The lawsuit was dismissed by a federal judge; Daniels also lost her appeal in that case.
The other suit was an attempt to invalidate the nondisclosure agreement Daniels signed when she accepted $130,000 in hush money from Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer, in exchange for her silence about an alleged sexual encounter with Trump years earlier. Trump has denied the affair. The hush money was paid by Cohen during the 2016 presidential campaign, and Cohen later pleaded guilty to campaign finance fraud in connection to it.
That lawsuit was dismissed as well, with a federal judge citing a decision by Trump and Cohen not to enforce the agreement.
Daniels went on to write a memoir, “Full Disclosure,” for which she was to receive an $800,000 advance. But according to federal prosecutors, Avenatti stole $300,000 of that amount by faking Daniels’s signature on a form that rerouted the wire transfers to an account he controlled.
Avenatti then spent months brushing off Daniels’s questions about the missing installments — leading her to believe that the publishing company was failing to pay her, when Avenatti was in fact siphoning payments of her book-deal advance.
Avenatti was found guilty on counts of wire fraud and aggravated identity theft in U.S. District Court in Manhattan after about two days of deliberations. | 2022-06-02T19:29:45Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Michael Avenatti sentenced to 4 years for defrauding Stormy Daniels - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/06/02/avenatti-sentenced-stormy-daniels-prison/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/06/02/avenatti-sentenced-stormy-daniels-prison/ |
Barr’s extraordinary defense of the John Durham probe
President Donald Trump and Attorney General William P. Barr in 2019. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)
From the start, former attorney general William P. Barr’s decision to appoint special counsel John Durham to investigate the origins of the Russia investigation was controversial. And more than three years later, the inquiry has largely come up empty. It has secured one guilty plea that led to a sentence of probation, and it has now come up short in the much-watched trial of Michael Sussmann, who was acquitted Tuesday.
It’s a marked contrast to the probe Durham was tasked with investigating, in which Robert S. Mueller III secured more than half a dozen guilty pleas or verdicts. Those included several high-profile aides and associates of former president Donald Trump. And that’s to say nothing of the extensive evidence Mueller laid out suggesting Trump might have committed obstruction of justice. A later bipartisan Senate report also suggested there was more to the collusion portion of the investigation than even Mueller was able to unearth.
To the extent people on the right have believed the Russia investigation was a “hoax” and the real crime was the Mueller probe itself, the evidence thus far paints quite a different picture.
Which leaves everyone involved to account for that. And on Wednesday, Barr himself attempted to do so — in a rather novel way for a lawman. Indeed, his defense reinforced Barr’s dual role as the nation’s chief law enforcement officer and a political actor often preoccupied with taking extraordinary steps to right the supposed wrongs committed against Trump.
Fox News had hyped the significance of the Sussmann verdict beforehand and then just as quickly downplayed the acquittal afterward, suggesting the jury was unfriendly. But when Barr appeared for an interview, one of its hosts tried to press him on the probe’s lack of deliverables.
“Do you feel in any way responsible for how this Durham situation’s unfolding?” Jesse Watters asked. “And are you disappointed in John Durham?”
Barr assured he wasn’t disappointed. He noted that it’s difficult to obtain guilty verdicts and suggested repeatedly that the jury was slanted.
But he also pointed to a way in which Durham’s probe was supposedly successful: telling a story.
To wit (emphasis added):
“I think he accomplished something far more important, which is he brought out the truth in two important areas. First, I think he crystallized the central role played by the Hillary campaign in launching as a dirty trick — the whole Russiagate collusion narrative and fanning the flames of it. And second, I think he exposed really dreadful behavior by the supervisors in the FBI, the senior ranks of the FBI, who knowingly use this information to start an investigation of Trump …”
“The other aspect of this is to get the story out.”
“Complicated cases like this take a long time to build; they occur step-by-step and in secret. People don’t like that. If they want people punished, that’s what it takes. If they want the facts of what happened, you can get it that much more quickly.”
To summarize: Even without convictions, this is good, because it has exposed something. And that something apparently need not be proven crimes or anything amounting to the supposed conspiracy that has been alleged.
That is decidedly not how this is supposed to work. There is a reason the Justice Department doesn’t generally disclose its investigations when it can avoid doing so: because it wants to avoid impugning those who didn’t commit crimes. The role of the Justice Department is to enforce the law — not to expose “dirty tricks” that haven’t been shown to be crimes. Yet Barr is basically suggesting the value of this investigation was largely in getting information out there, regardless of whether that information is ultimately tied to a proven crime.
(Here, we are leaving aside the actual substance of the information Durham has put out there, which has been misleading in its most high-profile instances.)
This is a remarkable view of the special counsel investigation Barr launched, to be sure, but it’s also in keeping with Barr’s general posture. While decrying the politicization of law enforcement, he took an extraordinary interest in the affairs of Trump and Trump allies who found themselves afoul of the law. Some prosecutors resigned in response. In what was arguably an audition for his job in the first place, Barr wrote a remarkable 2018 memo, while he was still a private citizen, assailing Mueller’s investigation. At one point, he even suggested that Mueller’s probe was less substantiated than a debunked conspiracy theory involving the Clintons and Uranium One.
And during a media tour in 2019, Barr acknowledged that a big reason that he took the job was because he perceived the presidency as under attack.
“I felt the rules were being changed to hurt Trump, and I thought it was damaging for the presidency over the long haul,” Barr said.
Barr made a point to emphasize this was about the office and not necessarily Trump personally. But right there is a political agenda in the truest sense of the term. Barr wanted to guide the Justice Department in a very different direction than he viewed it as going. And that new direction overlapped extremely neatly with Trump’s political agenda.
By 2020, after the launch of Durham’s probe, Barr again stepped well outside the usual DOJ protocols in prejudging its outcome.
“What happened to [Trump] was one of the greatest travesties in American history,” Barr said. “Without any basis, they started this investigation of his campaign, and even more concerning actually is what happened after the campaign — a whole pattern of events while he was president … to sabotage the presidency — or at least have the effect of sabotaging the presidency.”
At that point, no crimes had been charged. And more than two years later, we still have only one proven offense: a former FBI lawyer who pleaded guilty to doctoring an email used to surveil a Trump campaign adviser, and got 12 months of probation — a case essentially handed to them by the Justice Department’s inspector general.
Against that backdrop, saying that your decision to launch a special counsel investigation is validated by the information it has put out, rather than the laws enforced, isn’t terribly surprising. But it’s still a remarkable admission.
Of course, without the convictions to validate your claims to the “one of the greatest travesties in American history,” you’ve got to justify the decision to yourself — and others — somehow. We’ll have to wait to see whether Durham ever produces anything that could reasonably back up Barr’s hype. But Barr’s own comments suggest he isn’t terribly optimistic. | 2022-06-02T19:30:17Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Barr’s extraordinary defense of the John Durham probe - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/02/barrs-extraordinary-defense-john-durham-probe/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/02/barrs-extraordinary-defense-john-durham-probe/ |
What it’s like to rent an electric car for the first time
As gas prices continue to rise, I tested an EV for a 600-mile road trip
My experience with electric vehicles is the same as most Americans: I know they’re out there, but I’ve never owned or even driven one.
They are an anomaly on the road here, making up less than 1 percent of the country’s 250 million cars, SUVs, vans and pickup trucks as of 2021, according to Reuters. And last year, EVs only accounted for about 3 percent of all the cars and trucks sold in the United States.
And yet, interest in renting them is increasing — especially as gas prices continue to skyrocket — and rental companies are responding accordingly. In October, Hertz announced it was purchasing 100,000 Teslas. There has been a steady increase of EVs on peer-to-peer rental platform Turo, too; Albert James Mangahas, chief data officer for Turo, says they went from hundreds in 2014 to more than 25,000 in 2021.
With Hertz, road-trippers can get a charge out of Tesla rentals
With a road trip on my agenda last weekend, I decided to rent an EV to Westchester, N.Y. — about 600 miles round trip. Going into it, I didn’t know what to expect on the cost or availability of rentals, how I would find places to charge — it’s called “range anxiety” — or if I could figure out Tesla software. This is what I learned.
First lesson: It’s not always easy to find an EV
Back in March, I tried and failed to find an EV rental with the option to pick up in one city and drop off in another. I even enlisted the help of a travel adviser and still struck out. None of the four companies she called had any available, and even if they did, they didn’t allow one-way rentals.
The problem: “It’s still not common yet,” says Aaron Gessner, Detroit bureau chief at Cars.com. Even though EV manufacturers want to sell to rental companies, there is a shortage of cars because of high demand from buyers and supply-chain issues.
That should get better over time. Ed Peper, U.S. vice president for General Motors Fleet, says EV manufacturers have a good reason to get their cars to renters: exposure. “We’re confident that once consumers get to experience an EV for commercial or personal use, they are more likely to consider one,” Peper said in an email.
The booking process
I fared better over Memorial Day weekend with Hertz. It currently has the Tesla Model 3 sedan and Model Y midsize SUVs and will soon have Polestar 2 hatchbacks. Once Hertz had availability for my dates, I jumped on a reservation without much shopping around; I felt burned from when I tried to reserve one in March. You could also try searching on Turo, or Enterprise, which offers options including the Tesla Model 3, Nissan Leaf and Polestar 2. Avis advertises Teslas and the Kia Niro EV.
I chose the Model 3, which seats five adults and has a driving range of up to 260 miles, depending on how fast you’re going; higher speeds impact mileage. My three-day rental with insurance came to about $523. It wasn’t a big difference from a fuel-powered sedan — $420 with the same insurance — considering gas for the trip would have cost nearly $100. The only drawback was that I could only get it from Dulles International Airport in Virginia, which is about an hour from my D.C. apartment.
Picking up the rental
I had gone over some of Hertz’s Tesla FAQs about what you need to know before driving a Tesla, like how to turn the car on and off and how to use the charge port. But I was not well-versed in the technology when I got the keys (I’m more of a baptism-by-fire kind of person; manuals are for emergencies).
“There will be a learning curve when you first get in,” Gessner had told me. “Eventually, people figure it out.”
The learning curve hit fast after I got the keys — or rather, key card — to my blue Model 3. I couldn’t open the door. I hovered the key card over parts of the car like I had seen online, but I had no success. I felt a lot like a chimp trying to get into a computer. As I started Googling “how to unlock a Tesla,” a Hertz employee appeared and showed me to tap the key card on the passenger-door frame, below a camera I hadn’t noticed. And then I was on my own. The touch screen directed me to tap my key card on the console behind or in the cup holders and put the car into drive.
If you want to feel more confident before jumping into your EV rental, Gessner recommends watching tutorials from rental car companies or manufacturers. “And if you have questions, ask the rental-car people,” he says.
Five myths about electric vehicles
Adjusting to the technology
Where you would find a radio or small screen on most cars, you will find a giant touch-screen tablet in a Tesla. It is the center of the car’s universe, where you can look up charging stations, sync your smartphone, log into mobile apps such as Spotify, control the temperature, see your battery level and check how far you can drive, among other functions.
Some of that was confusing to navigate, but the car has a helpful voice-control function that operates like Siri or Alexa. You hold down a button on the steering wheel and make your request. When rain started pouring, I asked the car to turn on windshield wipers, and it obliged.
It was comforting to have my phone handy to look up other challenges I ran into along the way, like how to lock the car or find the hazard lights.
Testing out The Jet, a fancy bus that promises a private plane experience
There are different methods for charging EVs that range from very slow to very fast. You’ll want to look up the specifics based on your EV.
There are several ways to find a charging station. For example, AAA’s TripTik has a search function for finding charging stations. Hotels.com has an amenity filter that allows users to find properties with on-site EV charging points. Anyone can search online for Tesla’s 4,500-plus Destination Charging sites — such as restaurants, hotels or resorts — where charging is usually free if you’re a customer.
Tesla has a network of more than 30,000 Supercharger stations globally. The easiest way to find them is through the car’s Trip Planner, which calculates your route with Superchargers along the way. The tool shows stall availability at each station; you can’t reserve a charging station in advance.
The Tesla Supercharger can bring your battery up to 200 miles in about 15 minutes. Most stations charge a fee, which can depend on your electricity usage and plug-in time (some have on-peak and off-peak rates). If you charge your rental at a third-party station, you pay on the spot. With a Tesla station, Hertz charges the credit card associated with your rental.
I paid about $30 in charging fees over four charges. If you want to know how much your trip will cost, you can calculate estimates here.
Before I started my drive, I plugged my destination into the car’s GPS, and it automatically pulled up stations along my route. Figuring the car knew best, I accepted its first suggestion to drive to a charging station in Baltimore.
In hindsight, I regretted the early detour. I had just started my drive, and the car wasn’t at risk of running out of battery. There would be plenty of other stations that were more convenient than this one in a city.
Overall, I made two charge breaks each way from D.C. to New York — about 15 to 20 minutes per Supercharge.
Even though I knew I could stop easily along the route, “range anxiety” did nag me.
The Tesla rental experience was largely straightforward. The car was intuitive enough to figure out, with the help of the Internet, and the charging infrastructure made it easy to find stations.
My best move was to talk to other Tesla owners ahead of my trip. My brother-in-law warned me about the car’s ability to accelerate intensely, quickly. A friend’s parents just traveled across the country in their Tesla and had no problems with charging. This advice gave me confidence for my first drive. | 2022-06-02T19:31:30Z | www.washingtonpost.com | How to rent an electric car - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/tips/ev-rent-tesla-hertz/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/tips/ev-rent-tesla-hertz/ |
Wider sidewalks, higher railings, new lightning planned in Roosevelt Bridge rehab
Major structural repairs are planned to begin as early as 2024 to increase the life of the bridge by 25 years
Repairs are underway on the Roosevelt Bridge in Washington earlier this year. (Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post)
A plan for a multimillion dollar overhaul of the Theodore Roosevelt Bridge calls for major structural repairs and upgrades to pedestrian and bike accommodations along the busy route connecting Washington and Northern Virginia.
The rehabilitation of the 58-year-old bridge would add wider sidewalks and higher railings, which would “greatly improve pedestrian and bicycle mobility” the National Capital Planning Commission said in a report this week. It would be the first full rehabilitation since the bridge opened in 1964.
The commission on Thursday approved preliminary site plans for the project, offering an initial glimpse at the proposal and giving the District Department of Transportation an early green light to extend the bridge’s life by at least 25 years. The structure is past its 50-year life span and was rated in “poor” condition in 2018 — a designation that doesn’t necessarily mean it is unsafe to use.
Construction isn’t expected to begin until 2024, at the earliest, and would cost about $150 million, according to DDOT. The bridge, which carries Interstate 66 over the Potomac River, is an important commuter route that supported a daily average of about 150,000 vehicles before the pandemic.
The Roosevelt Bridge’s condition has declined in recent years, prompting emergency repairs and the closure of three travel lanes since February after an inspection found steel support beams had deteriorated. Traffic is restricted on part of the bridge to two lanes in each direction while vehicles weighing more than 10 tons are restricted, forcing buses and heavy commercial vehicles to different Potomac crossings.
D.C. transportation officials said the emergency work, which is expected to be completed by the end of summer, will enable the bridge to support normal operations at least until the full rehabilitation is complete. DDOT director Everett Lott said Thursday that crews are continuing to install temporary beams and are on track for completion by the end of August. In April, DDOT officials had said much of the bridge could reopen as early as this month.
Lane closure kicks off major work on Beltway widening in Virginia
The 3,200-foot-long bridge was constructed in two units: one that spans between the District and Theodore Roosevelt Island over the Potomac, and the second that spans between Theodore Roosevelt Island and Arlington County over the Little River.
The most recent Federal Highway Administration records, from a 2020 inspection, indicate several of the bridge’s features, including its railings, do not meet current standards. They note the deck condition is rated “poor.”
DDOT’s plans, released this week and approved Thursday, call for significant structural upgrades, including deck replacement, concrete and stone repairs, and retrofitting of the bridge’s pin and hanger assembly.
The road’s signage and lighting will be replaced. And the bridge will be painted to its original white “to create a cohesive aesthetic between the bridge and nearby monuments and the Arlington Memorial Bridge,” according to DDOT.
The road’s configuration will change to create 10-foot sidewalks, although details of those changes will be developed in future plans. Existing sidewalks on both sides of the bridge vary in width between 4 and 6 feet, and according to DDOT, do not meet current safety standards.
Officials say a wider sidewalk will improve the experience of pedestrians and cyclists in the shared path. Replacing the 36-inch railings with 42-inch railings and existing traffic barriers that DDOT says “provide minimal protection” will make the pathway safer, officials said.
The improvements will also create better connections to trails and other nearby destinations. The north sidewalk connects to the Mount Vernon Trail in Virginia and the Kennedy Center in the District. The south sidewalk does not connect to trails, but a National Park Service plan envisions better connections from the south sidewalk between D.C. and Arlington.
The National Capital Planning Commission urged DDOT to explore adding lighting to the pedestrian path, noting that DDOT’s current plan doesn’t include the option. The commission said lighting should be selected to “improve pedestrian (and bicyclist) comfort and continuity with adjacent streetscape character, protect the night sky and surrounding natural resources, and elevate the quality of this important gateway.”
Arlington transportation director Dennis Leach said the county welcomes progress on the plan after about a decade of talks on the need for a full bridge upgrade. He said the county supports the pedestrian and bike improvements, saying the crossing is “by far the worst experience” compared to other Potomac crossings.
“With these improvements, it will get a whole lot more use,” he said.
The Roosevelt Bridge project would be similar to the recent two-year, $227 million rehabilitation of the Arlington Memorial Bridge, which involved months of closed and shifted lanes, as well as traffic disruptions.
According to DDOT, the bridge will stay open to traffic during construction, but the work will require a closure of two travel lanes for an extended period, accompanied by reduced lane widths and lower speed limits.
Leach said the county will work with the District to ensure the disruptions are minimal. He said past experiences have proved that such traffic challenges are manageable.
“We lived through the reconstruction of Memorial Bridge. It was totally rebuilt and we managed. And that was done before the pandemic,” Leach said. “People in the region will adjust and hopefully some of them will choose rail.”
Leach said Metro should have normal rail service with the return of its 7000-series cars by the time construction begins. The rail cars, which make up 60 percent of Metro’s fleet, were suspended in October after a federal safety investigation revealed a wheel defect on a small number of cars. Metro expects to restore 64 rail cars to service this summer, with the rest of the fleet to follow.
The transit agency also will be operating the second phase of the Silver Line to Dulles International Airport and Loudoun County, which would be another option for commuters in the I-66 corridor.
District officials said the Roosevelt Bridge is a high priority and the city is coming up with a funding plan, including the use local and federal infrastructure money.
D.C. to prioritize equity in preparations for $3 billion in federal infrastructure funds
Lott said the city is ready to move the rehabilitation project forward, describing the state of the bridge as “functional obsolete.” He said earlier this year the city will work on the project design and expects to launch a competitive bidding process next year.
The planning commission, which has zoning oversight of the project, is expected to review the final site development plans next year. Stephen Staudigl, a commission spokesman, said those plans are likely to come before the board next spring. | 2022-06-02T19:59:35Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Roosevelt Bridge: Plans call for wider sidewalks, higher railings, new lightning - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/transportation/2022/06/02/roosevelt-bridge-updates/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/transportation/2022/06/02/roosevelt-bridge-updates/ |
The Italian conductor will stay on with the National Symphony Orchestra through the 2026-2027 season
Conductor Giandrea Noseda leads the National Symphony Orchestra. (Photo by Scott Suchman/Washingtonian Magazine)
The National Symphony Orchestra announced Thursday it would extend the contract of Gianandrea Noseda by two years, through the 2026-2027 season. The announcement comes as Noseda concludes the current NSO season with concerts through the weekend at the Kennedy Center.
“Despite the pandemic interruption, Gianandrea and the NSO have made extraordinary artistic strides,” National Symphony Orchestra executive director Gary Ginstling said in a statement. “We look forward with tremendous anticipation and excitement to what the next five years will bring.”
Noseda, now in his fifth season as music director, arrived in 2016 as the NSO’s seventh music director after stints as principal guest conductor at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg and the Israel Philharmonic, and as music director for the BBC Philharmonic in Manchester, England, and the Teatro Regio in Turin, Italy. Since September 2021 he has also served as general music director of the Zurich Opera House.
The extension of his contract will make Noseda’s the longest tenure for a music director at the NSO since Leonard Slatkin, who left in 2008 after 14 years at the helm.
National Symphony Orchestra names rising star Gianandrea Noseda as music director
In an interview Thursday, Noseda, 58, greeted the extension as an opportunity to make up for two seasons that, despite a boost in digital programming, were mostly lost to the pandemic. But the extension also represents insurance for Noseda’s primary goals with the NSO: to raise the orchestra to the level of a national ambassador, and to test that mettle through a resumption of recording and touring activities.
(An extensive Asian tour planned for the spring of 2020 was dashed entirely by the pandemic, and full-cycle recordings of Beethoven symphonies as well as the sinfonias of American composer George Walker are already underway.)
“You know, six or seven years is not enough,” Noseda said. “After five or six years of strong work, you can really enjoy the results, you can even go deeper inside, refine our playing to be even more respectful of the different repertoire, increase the variety and quality of sound we can produce as an orchestra. We can continue our journey together.”
Noseda said the additional time with the NSO will allow further pursuit of works that combine orchestra and voices. (He’s already led acclaimed performances of Verdi’s and Britten’s respective requiems.) And while there are no official plans, he also expressed interest in recording the works of Kennedy Center composer-in-residence Carlos Simon.
22 for ’22: Composers and performers to watch this year
In his five seasons with the NSO, Noseda has hired a considerable number of musicians to the orchestra — 20 of its 98.
Aaron Goldman, principal flute, voiced excitement at the news, and suspected his enthusiasm was shared across the orchestra, which he says has transformed under Noseda’s baton.
“However long we can keep him,” he said, “we want to.”
Goldman, who was among the players on the search committee in 2015, had his first experience with Noseda when the conductor led Rachmaninoff’s second symphony as a guest. He recalls thinking, “This is the guy, this is what the orchestra needs.” (Washington Post classical critic Anne Midgette appeared similarly struck, noting that Noseda “got the orchestra to sound pretty darn good.”)
“Having watched the last couple of years and the trajectory of the orchestra,” Goldman continued, “I feel like he was absolutely the right choice and has done all the things that we could have hoped for and more. I can’t wait to see where we go from here.”
Goldman cited Noseda’s openness to performing new repertoire — from Mahler’s symphonies to the work of contemporary composers. (If the maestro is taking requests, Goldman mentioned he wouldn’t mind some Bruckner.) And he pointed to Noseda’s leadership style, an all-hands-on-deck attentiveness that makes the entire orchestra feel equally invested.
“The thing about Noseda that’s amazing is that he embraces everyone in the orchestra,” said Goldman. “I think that’s really why he’s able to get us to sound the way he does. His personality and that chemistry reaches everywhere throughout the orchestra.”
Noseda and the NSO bring new energy to Haydn and overdue attention to Farrenc
The Noseda effect goes beyond the orchestra pit. The NSO cites a 20 percent increase in ticket sales and a 15 percent jump in subscriptions pre-pandemic, as well as a concurrent 23 percent jump in overall fundraising. An extension of his contract signals not just faith in his skills at the podium, but also his impact as the face of the organization.
For his part, and on the morning of his final string of concerts for the season (a program of Alexander Borodin and Nino Rota), Noseda sounds far more caught up in the simple thrills of the work at hand, and hungry for the opportunity to continue doing it.
“Sometimes it happens that I start the concert more tired than when I finish,” he says. “That means that the energy revitalized me. It’s a fantastic feeling when that happens.” | 2022-06-02T20:03:44Z | www.washingtonpost.com | NSO extends music director Gianandrea Noseda’s tenure - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/music/2022/06/02/nso-extends-noseda-tenure/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/music/2022/06/02/nso-extends-noseda-tenure/ |
Russian activist Vladimir Kara-Murza at a Senate hearing on Capitol Hill in March 2017. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images)
Twice seriously poisoned in Russia, Vladimir Kara-Murza, the opposition leader and Post contributor, had good reason to believe a crime was committed against him. A subsequent probe by Bellingcat, the open-source investigative outfit and two news organization partners, showed that Mr. Kara-Murza was tailed frequently by officers from the Russian Federal Security Service, or FSB, before the poisonings in 2015 and 2017. Mr. Kara-Murza demanded that Russian authorities investigate. What he got was a runaround, and worse.
On Feb. 18, 2021, Mr. Kara-Murza laid out the case that he was targeted for assassination in a “statement of crime” sent to Alexander Bastrykin, then chairman of the Investigative Committee, a sort of super-prosecutor for the Russian Federation. Mr. Kara-Murza described the harrowing circumstances of the poisonings, which nearly killed him. The precise nature of the toxic substance used in the poisoning hasn’t been determined. Still, Mr. Kara-Murza insisted that justice be done. “I believe that the attempt to murder me by poisoning was caused by my political, ideological and social activities and was aimed at its suppression,” he said. The first poisoning came less than three months after his colleague in the opposition Boris Nemtsov was gunned down on a bridge outside the Kremlin walls. Like Mr. Kara-Murza, Mr. Nemtsov had also been tailed by the FSB for months. The person who ordered his murder has never been identified or apprehended.
Mr. Kara-Murza’s demand for an investigation was met with silence. As far as he could tell, Mr. Bastrykin took no action. On March 18, Mr. Kara-Murza took another step. He filed a complaint in the Basmanny district court in Moscow asking that it force Mr. Bastrykin to supply a copy of whatever decision he made in response to Mr. Kara-Murza’s statement of crime, and to deem it unlawful to sit there and do nothing.
The complaint followed by just weeks the invasion of Ukraine and the imposition of a draconian new law criminalizing any criticism of the Russian military. Mr. Kara-Murza refused to be silenced and spoke out against President Vladimir Putin, the war and the murder of Mr. Nemtsov, telling CNN that the Putin regime is “not just corrupt, it’s not just kleptocratic, it’s not just authoritarian, it is a regime of murderers.” He was soon arrested on spurious charges and remains unjustly imprisoned today.
On Wednesday, Judge Yevgenia Nikolaeva of the Basmanny district court in Moscow threw out Mr. Kara-Murza’s complaint, saying in a written decision that Mr. Bastrykin had sent the original statement to a lower-level office for review, and that office had not made any decision. Mr. Kara-Murza had “no basis” to complain his rights were violated, she wrote.
Mr. Kara-Murza ran into the brick wall of Mr. Putin’s regime. But Judge Nikolaeva did offer a revealing hint in a courtroom remark. “You should also ask Putin,” she said of his legal demands. True, Mr. Kara-Murza is Mr. Putin’s political prisoner, and in this dictatorship, all decisions flow from the top. Judge Nikolaeva certainly knows that much. | 2022-06-02T20:34:12Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | After being poisoned, Vladimir Kara-Murza deserves answers - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/02/after-being-poisoned-vladimir-kara-murza-deserves-answers/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/02/after-being-poisoned-vladimir-kara-murza-deserves-answers/ |
If politicians think gun carnage is acceptable, they should just admit it
Flowers, toys and other items seen June 1 at the town square in Uvalde, Tex., in memory of the victims of the shooting May 24 at Robb Elementary School. (Joshua Lott/The Washington Post)
It has been more than a week since a young man too young to buy a beer used an AR-15-style rifle to kill 19 students and two teachers in Uvalde, Tex. Those days may be an eternity in our frenzied news cycle. But I am not ready to change the subject.
Not when the Uvalde massacre came just 10 days after an 18-year-old white supremacist was arrested on suspicion of using a similar weapon to kill 10 innocent victims in a Buffalo supermarket. Not when chaotic gunfire erupted at a Charleston, S.C., block party on Memorial Day, leaving 10 people wounded and the shooter or shooters still at large. Not when a middle-age man armed with a rifle and a handgun stormed into a Tulsa hospital Wednesday and shot four people to death before killing himself. Not when there have been 233 “mass shootings” involving four or more victims so far this year, according to the nonprofit Gun Violence Archive.
If you think such carnage is acceptable, then come out and say so. If you claim you want to end or even just mitigate this orgy of death, you have to deal with the fact that the one common thread in mass shootings — the common factor in all shootings, by definition — is guns.
It’s not mental health or school security, which are the two subjects Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said he is willing to discuss. It’s certainly not marijuana use, which Fox News host Laura Ingraham has bizarrely ranted about in her “coverage” of Uvalde. And the solution is not arming teachers, as Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton wants to do, or mandating that schools have only one entrance door, as Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.), who clearly has never met a fire marshal, unhelpfully suggests.
There is already broad consensus on the steps we need to take. An April 2021 poll by the Pew Research Center found that 81 percent of U.S. adults favored universal background checks for purchasing guns, including in private sales and at gun shows; 66 percent favored creating a federal database to track all gun purchases; 64 percent favored banning high-capacity magazines holding more than 10 rounds of ammunition; and 63 percent favored banning “assault-style weapons.”
None of these popular, lifesaving measures is ruled out by the Constitution. “Like most rights, the Second Amendment right is not unlimited. It is not a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose,” Justice Antonin Scalia wrote in the Supreme Court’s landmark District of Columbia v. Heller ruling, which established that the right to possess firearms belongs to us individually rather than collectively.
Yet it appears that the bipartisan talks being held by a group of nine senators are — let’s be frank — nibbling around the edges of the problem. They have reportedly been talking about mental health and “red-flag” laws that could take firearms out of the hands of people who show signs of potentially committing acts of violence. Preventing even one mass shooting would be worthwhile. But not nearly enough.
The negotiations are being led by Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), the chamber’s most passionate advocate for gun control, and Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.). “I’m not going to let the perfect be the enemy of the good,” Murphy told me on Thursday. “Maybe back in 2013, I wouldn’t have settled for anything less than comprehensive background checks, but now I think it’s important to show Republicans that there is political reward for voting with 90 percent of your constituents, that the political sky doesn’t fall.”
I hope Murphy’s optimism is justified. I really do. But I have to wonder whether 10 Republican votes in the Senate — the number needed to break a filibuster — can be found for any bill that has any tangible impact on gun violence.
Wednesday night, conservative radio host Joe Pagliarulo fretted about rumors that Cornyn is “open to making gun laws more restrictive” but said, “Until I hear him say he wants to restrict my 2nd rights, I’ll refrain from judging.” Cornyn quickly replied: “Not gonna happen.”
If the senators come up with something that Republicans consider sufficiently toothless and symbolic, will that at least be progress, however incremental and inadequate? At this point, I’m inclined to support Murphy’s “do something, anything” approach. We know from long and tragic experience what happens when Congress does nothing at all on gun violence. If Congress does something hugely ineffectual, I don’t see how we’ll be any worse off.
“How are we okay with this as a nation?” Rep. Lucy McBath (D-Ga.) asked in exasperation Thursday. McBath lost her 17-year-old son to gun violence in 2012. She decided to run for Congress after the 2018 Parkland, Fla., school massacre in which 17 students and employees died.
It’s the right question. As voters, as citizens and as human beings, we demand an answer. | 2022-06-02T20:34:25Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Lucy McBath wants to know if the nation is okay with gun violence. Politicians owe her an answer. - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/02/if-politicians-are-okay-with-gun-violence-they-should-just-admit-it/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/02/if-politicians-are-okay-with-gun-violence-they-should-just-admit-it/ |
A mother feeds her baby. (iStock)
The Biden administration is getting hammered for the baby formula shortage — and deservedly so. A whistleblower notified the Food and Drug Administration in October of unsanitary conditions at a baby formula factory, but the FDA did not shutter the plant until February, and the president took no steps to address the crisis — such as easing import rules — until May. That is inexcusable.
Not so with baby formula. Just two manufacturers — Abbott and Reckitt, the makers of Similac and Enfamil, respectively — are responsible for almost 80 percent of baby formula production in the United States; they have shared a virtual duopoly since the 1950s. Why? Because, as the Wall Street Journal reports, baby formula is so tightly regulated that it is nearly impossible for new entrants to break into the market.
The FDA treats baby formula like a pharmaceutical product instead of food for infants. Clinical studies and other requirements cost millions of dollars before a company can bring a product online, and the FDA subjects producers to pharmaceutical-grade regulation and inspection. Case in point: ByHeart is the first new formula manufacturer approved by the FDA in more than 15 years. To win approval, it had to raise $190 million to cover the cost of research and development, clinical growth studies, and a host of other FDA requirements. It took the company more than five years jumping over government hurdles to open its first manufacturing plant, which finally began production this year.
No other food is regulated that way — including baby food. As every parent knows, at six months of age, babies start transitioning from formula to pureed fruits, vegetables, oatmeal and meat. Unlike baby formula, baby food is produced by many companies — from Beech-Nut to Earth’s Best, Gerber, Yumi, Heinz, Natue’s One, Happy Family and Plum Organics. So why is it okay to give 6-month-old infants food that is subject only to basic health and safety guidelines, but the food we give them in the first six months of their lives is regulated like a vaccine?
If a single baby food plant shut down, we wouldn’t see parents struggling to feed their children; other companies would happily step in and make up for lost production. But thanks to the federal government, the shutdown of a single Abbott plant, responsible for one-fifth of all U.S. baby formula production, has left us with bare shelves and with almost no competitors ready to step in to fill the gap.
It gets worse. Government also distorts the baby formula market through the Women, Infants, and Children supplemental nutrition program. According to the Wall Street Journal, WIC “has deepened the hold that major manufacturers such as Abbott have over formula sales” resulting in “a marketplace with little competition and little flexibility.” Under WIC, each state grants exclusive contracts to a single manufacturer in exchange for discounts. Only the winning manufacturer’s product can be bought with the government vouchers issued to lower-income parents. This also increases sales to non-WIC consumers, because stores in each state tend to primarily stock the WIC-approved brand — giving the government-chosen company a near-monopoly in that state.
This is a toxic marriage of big government and big business to crowd out competition. First government raises prices through overregulation and a lack of free-market competition, and then it justifies mass government purchases from single manufacturers by arguing these are necessary to negotiate discounts. The discounts would not be necessary if there were more producers of baby formula competing for the business of American parents. Then store shelves would be filled with as much cheap baby formula as there is banana puree.
What is the solution? Stop treating formula like a pharmaceutical product, except in specialty cases. Eliminate the barriers to entry that allow 80 percent of the market to be dominated by two manufacturers. Treat baby formula like baby food, with common-sense measures to make sure that factories are clean and products are safe. If we did that, then American parents would not have to worry about the Biden administration’s incompetent response to this crisis — because it would have never have happened in the first place. | 2022-06-02T20:34:37Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | To solve the baby formula crisis, regulate it as food, not pharmaceuticals - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/02/solve-baby-formula-crisis-regulate-as-food-not-pharmaceuticals/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/02/solve-baby-formula-crisis-regulate-as-food-not-pharmaceuticals/ |
Hookahs in a souvenir shop in Dubai. (Shutterstock)
If the thought of haggling over that exquisite silk pashmina you found in a Delhi bazaar makes you a bit queasy, you aren’t alone. Although most consumers won’t hesitate to comparison shop among retailers for the lowest price, many travelers, myself included, aren’t comfortable playing the face-to-face bargaining game.
Beauty products? Specialty foods? What we bring home from every trip.
But if you love to shop and want to take home a treasured souvenir, you may need to learn how. In many Latin American and Middle Eastern countries, bargaining is expected; in some cultures, such as in Indonesia, Thailand, Cambodia and India, it is downright disrespectful not to negotiate, says Nikki Webster, owner of the website Brit on the Move.
To do it right takes planning, practice and patience. You want to avoid a faux pas such as haggling in a Parisian boutique, which will probably get you shown the door tout de suite. Here are some tips for bargaining like a pro.
Know where bargaining is appropriate. In Laos and Mexico, it is. In Japan and Sweden, it is not. In the Middle East, it’s so much a part of the culture to haggle that it can be exhausting. It’s easy to quickly research whether haggling is a do or don’t in a specific country. Even in countries where haggling is the norm, however, don’t expect to do so in supermarkets, shopping malls or branded boutiques with fixed prices. “You don’t bargain for steak or eggs at the checkout line in Morocco,” says Salvador Ordorica, chief executive of the Spanish Group, an online document-translation service. Do expect to bargain in marketplaces, bazaars and independent artisan shops.
Educate yourself. If you have a purchase in mind, get an idea of what people are paying for that item before leaving home. That gives you a frame of reference, says Jeff Moriarty, who has traveled to more than 35 countries in the past 10 years as marketing manager for Moriarty’s Gem Art. Review Tripadvisor comments, do an online search for “product + country” or, for example, type into a search bar, “What should I pay for a real leather bag in Bali?” You can also check out private online travel groups and forums.
Research a city’s main markets. Find out what each specializes in. Once you do, note any “special” or “main” days, such as the first of the month or Sundays. Those days are typically when you’ll find the best deals, Moriarty says.
Set a budget. You might establish a gambling budget for a Las Vegas getaway; do the same for shopping internationally, says Miami-based Maria Dominguez, a shopaholic who retired from British Airways after 43 years. Haggling can be somewhat addictive.
Learn how to negotiate. Webster says the key to successfully haggling is to understand the process. The line is, “Tell me your best price”; then you begin, she says. “And you have to be brave enough to counter a silly inflated offer of $60 for an item worth $20 with a $10 offer. In other words, your first counteroffer has to be lower than what it’s worth or what you are willing to pay, so that there is room to haggle up to the price you will pay.”
The best travel memento smells like vacation
Don’t buy on Day 1 or 2. Instead, walk the markets and stalls to get a baseline by casually inquiring about items and prices. Or, if a marketplace has a mix of shops, first check one with fixed prices. This gives you an idea of what the items are worth before you start bargaining. “In Bali, I was looking for a traditional silver harmony ball necklace,” Webster says. “Initially, I went from place to place asking the price and walking away without engaging. The range was from $10 to $30 U.S. Then, I found someone who started at $15. I countered with $4. We both agreed that the other was ridiculous, so we started again. He offered $9. I ended up paying $7.”
A little cultural sensitivity goes a long way. Learn a few words or phrases — hello, please, thank you — in the local language. “Always greet the salesperson in their own language,” Ordorica says. Even if your pronunciation isn’t perfect, they’ll recognize the effort. Show some interest and curiosity about their culture, too.
Cash is king. Exchange dollars for local currency, and always use cash in a marketplace. Carry small bills. This helps you avoid the ruse that the seller has no change. Look up the current conversion rate (use the XE Currency or My Currency Converter apps), so you know what an item costs in U.S. dollars. Credit cards are a no-no unless it’s for a high-ticket item in a well-established shop. If you do feel comfortable using your credit card, you will probably be asked whether you want to pay in dollars or the local currency. Ordorica says to choose the latter. “By paying in the local currency, your bank sets the conversion rate and not the merchant, which is almost always the better rate.”
Dress down. “Leave the bling behind. The minute you ask how much, the merchant is going to look you over and then set a price,” says Sharon Geltner, chief executive of Froogle PR in Palm Beach, Fla., who shops extensively in the Caribbean, Middle East and Mexico.
Show respect. Yes, haggling is a game, but this isn’t poker. You don’t bluff, and it’s poor form to say you’ll accept a price, then walk away. “Ultimately, it’s your choice, but as a courtesy, if they accept your final price, then you should buy it,” Dominguez says. And be reasonable. Don’t be afraid to bargain when appropriate, but don’t bargain for a $3 scarf. If something is inexpensive, don’t grind the seller for a few cents.
Be mindful of body language. “You can tell if a person is not receptive to bargaining if they cross their arms, turn away or raise their eyebrows. Either change your approach or consider it a loss and walk away,” Ordorica says.
Curb your enthusiasm. You cannot show any emotional connection to the item you want. “If they sense you have fallen in love with a specific piece, they will quickly shift to why that one is the most expensive,” Webster says.
Use multiples as a negotiating tool. You may get a greater discount if you buy two or three items from the same seller. Webster used this technique for buying several hookahs in Dubai. “I visited a traditional grocery store and saw I could buy them for $20 each,” she says. “Then, I went to the marketplace, and when I found some that caught my eye, I haggled with a vendor and walked away three times. Eventually, I paid $15 each for three.”
Just walk away. This may be the toughest tactic, but it’s the most important, bargaining experts agree. Geltner advises using it if you are trying to find out whether the shopkeeper has reached their rock-bottom price or to end negotiations. “Politely say, ‘Thank you,’ and exit the shop. This is crucial. No matter how much you want a given object, always be prepared to leave. If the proprietor signals for you to come back, turn around doubtfully and slowly walk back a few steps to see if she is serious. If she is still not ready to make a deal, exit once again. If she follows you and says, ‘I accept,’ that means the bargain has been struck. Success!”
Daily is a writer based in Denver. Her website is dailywriter.net. | 2022-06-02T20:35:01Z | www.washingtonpost.com | How to bargain while traveling - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/2022/06/02/travel-bargain-tips/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/2022/06/02/travel-bargain-tips/ |
Ruger shareholders push for study of gunmaker’s human rights impact
The non-binding proposal would require one of America’s few publicly traded gunmakers to open itself to outside scrutiny
Hamza Shaban
Rifles are seen at the Sturm, Ruger & Co., Inc. gun factory in Newport, N, H. in this 2012 image. Shareholders are pressing the company to authorize an outside study of the human rights impacts of its business and products. (Eric Thayer/Reuters)
Sturm, Ruger & Co. shareholders are pressing the gunmaker to hire an outside firm to assess the human rights impacts of its policies, practices and products, given the “inherent lethality” of its business.
The resolution approved Wednesday during Ruger’s annual meeting was advanced by activist investors with the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility is nonbinding. But it’s meant to add public pressure on one of the few publicly traded gunmakers as the country contends another cycle of mass shootings: There have been 20 such tragedies since last Tuesday, when an 18-year-old gunned down 19 children and two teachers with a semiautomatic rifle (which was not made by Ruger) in Uvalde, Tex. — including one that left five people dead in Oklahoma, including the gunman, just hours after the meeting.
The resolution’s backers, led by the nonprofit hospital chain CommonSprit Health, contend the company has “a responsibility to conduct enhanced human rights due diligence,” according to regulatory filings. An outside Human Rights Impact Assessment (HRIA), they said, is critical to uncovering risks “which, if left unaddressed, could prove devastating to Ruger’s customers, suppliers, employees, shareholders, and society.”
Connecticut-based Ruger did not immediately respond to questions about whether it would follow through with the proposal. But in its opposition statement, it argued that such a study could not be undertaken without destroying the company, Securities and Exchange Commission filings show.
Backers said the idea “that an assessment of any company’s potential human rights harms would be fundamentally at odds with its survival is an indefensible position regardless of its business.”
Corporations are being confronted with a rising tide of investor activism, as questions of social responsibility — whether it be the climate crisis, the pandemic or gun violence — are being taken seriously as threats both to the public and to companies’ reputations and profits.
Activist investors buy shares and seek to control board seats as a means of having sway in how a company is run. Such entities filed more than 529 resolutions on environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues in the 2022 proxy season, up more than 20 percent from last year according to Proxy Preview. The heightened activity comes in the wake of a SEC rule change in 2020, which made it more difficult to file and resubmit shareholder resolutions.
But most shareholders proposals face “long odds,” said Steve Sosnick, chief strategist at Interactive Brokers. “The prospects for the gun manufacturers depend very heavily upon what goes on in the legislative bodies around the country and in court. I can’t think of an industry whose source of revenues is so dependent upon a regulatory and legislative climate.”
A main challenge to such initiatives is that most gunmakers are not publicly traded and don’t have to answer to shareholders, said Jonathan Metzl, the director of the Department of Medicine, Health and Society at Vanderbilt University, who researches gun policy. What’s more, federal law shields gun companies from the kinds of lawsuits that have targeted many other consumer product manufacturers.
“This would be a totally different conversation if there was talk of liability — as in the case of cigarettes and cars — shareholder actions would have a much greater impact if the company itself had to account for liability, which isn’t the case.”
But Sister Judy Byron of the Northwest Coalition for Responsible Investment, who is a co-filer on the proposal at Ruger and is leading a similar measure at Smith & Wesson, is undeterred.
“Shareholders know that these days are challenging for those involved in the firearms business,” Byron said in a statement. “We will support and pray for them as they conduct this assessment and determine what changes to their business they will need to make in order to respect human rights, protect their stakeholders and make our society safer.”
American children and adolescents are more likely to die by gunfire than any other cause, according to the most recent available data from the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 2020, automobiles — long the leading cause of death for youth in the United States — were eclipsed by guns for the first time. More than 2,200 young people died from guns in 2020, by far the highest total in the past 20 years.
There have been more than 230 mass shootings in the United States this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive. The most recent occurred Wednesday, when police say a man gunned down four people at a Tulsa, hospital before killing himself. He reportedly was armed with an AR-15-style rifle that had been purchased about an hour before the attack, as well as .40-caliber handgun; both weapons were acquired legally.
While public outcry has surged in the aftermath of the Uvalde massacre, with many Americans calling for new legislation to restrict access to high-powered weaponry, a parallel reality has emerged on Wall Street. Some of the nation’s largest gun and ammunition makers saw their stock prices rise following the shooting at the Texas elementary school.
Shares of Sturm, Ruger & Co. are up 9.7 percent since the attack, while Smith & Wesson Brands has climbed 12.6 percent, both outpacing the broader stock market.
Such upswings have been seen after mass shootings or significant events that pull the debate around gun control into the national spotlight. The pattern stems from the view that there will be a rush on guns, ammunition and accessories in advance of political efforts to limit access. During the summer following the initial outbreak of the coronavirus, when masses of people took to the streets to protest racial injustice, shareholders of gunmakers also enjoyed a rally.
In the coming days and weeks political leaders advancing gun restrictions will ramp up their messaging on reform.
President Biden will deliver a prime time address Thursday and call on Congress to pass “common sense laws” in the wake of mass shootings in New York, Texas and Oklahoma. The president will focus on the need to “combat the epidemic of gun violence that is taking lives every day,” according to the White House.
Meanwhile, the House Judiciary Committee is debating legislation billed as an emergency response to mass shootings. One bill under consideration could pass the House as early as next week but is not expected to advance in the Senate. | 2022-06-02T21:00:19Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Ruger shareholders call for human rights report - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/06/02/ruger-shareholders-activist-study-human-rights/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/06/02/ruger-shareholders-activist-study-human-rights/ |
White House coronavirus response coordinator Ashish Jha on June 2 said coronavirus shots for the nation’s youngest children could be available as soon as June 21. (Jim Watson/AFP)
White House coronavirus response coordinator Ashish Jha said Thursday that long-awaited vaccinations for children younger than 5 could begin as early as June 21, pending decisions by regulators and public health officials.
States can begin to order vaccines Friday, with 10 million doses initially available. States have been asked to prioritize distribution to high-risk children, hard-to-reach areas and sites such as children’s hospitals that will be able to vaccinate large numbers of children quickly.
Most shots are expected to be administered in pediatricians’ offices. There are about 19 million children under the age of 5 in the United States.
Jha was clear that the date was a planning scenario, not a certainty, and would depend on whether the Food and Drug Administration determines that pediatric vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech are safe and effective. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention must also recommend the shots before they can be administered.
“I’m not here to prejudge the outcome of this process. The administration is hard at work planning all sorts of scenarios based on whatever the outcome is,” Jha said during a news briefing. “If and when FDA authorizes, we move from planning to execution.”
The FDA’s outside advisers are scheduled to meet June 14 and 15 to discuss pediatric vaccines, and the agency is expected to act quickly after the meeting. If the FDA grants authorization, Jha said, the government can begin to ship doses.
CDC’s advisers are expected to meet shortly after the FDA makes a decision, and Jha predicted that vaccinations would begin after the long weekend. June 20 is a holiday and some doctor offices will not be open. He predicted vaccinations could begin June 21 at the earliest.
On Wednesday, Pfizer and its German partner, BioNTech, completed their request for emergency authorization of a three-shot vaccine for children 6 months to 4 years old. Moderna submitted its request in late April for a two-shot regimen for children 6 months to 17 years old.
Frustrated parents have repeatedly wondered why the review of the Moderna vaccine is taking so long, but Jha emphasized that the FDA’s decision is based on the agency’s ability to review the data.
“They have moved very quickly to consume and analyze a very large tranche of data from Moderna,” Jha said. “At the end of the day, we all want to move fast, but we want to get it right.”
Peter Marks, director of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research at FDA, previously told The Washington Post that the review of the Moderna vaccine was not being delayed to allow for concurrent consideration of the two companies’ vaccines. He added that if analyses of the Moderna and Pfizer shots were complete within a week of each other, then the FDA would schedule them to be reviewed side by side.
The Moderna regimen is two shots, given four weeks apart. It was shown to be 51 percent effective in preventing illness in children between 6 months and 2 years old, and 37 percent effective in children 2 to 5 years old.
The Pfizer regimen is three shots. The second shot is given three weeks after the first. The next shot comes two months later. The final efficacy of that vaccine is not known, but an early analysis — which is likely to change — suggested it was 80 percent effective against symptomatic illness. | 2022-06-02T21:00:31Z | www.washingtonpost.com | White House says covid shots for children under 5 could begin June 21 - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/06/02/coronavirus-vaccine-for-children/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/06/02/coronavirus-vaccine-for-children/ |
But trustees warn of long-term trouble for both entitlement programs.
President Franklin Roosevelt signs Social Security into law in August, 1935, file photo. (AP Photo, File) (AP)
The financial outlook for the Medicare and Social Security programs slightly improved this year due to a stronger and faster economic recovery than predicted in 2021, according to an annual government report released Thursday.
A key Medicare trust fund that covers many hospital bills for seniors and those with disabilities will be unable to pay full benefits starting in 2028, two years later than reported last year.
The Social Security Trust Fund, which covers benefits to retirees, workers’ survivors and people with disabilities, will be able to pay full benefits until 2035, gaining an additional year beyond what was projected last year, according to the report issued by trustees for Medicare and Social Security.
But still, the trustees warned about the future of the entitlement programs, among the nation’s largest, expressing concern that both face long-term financing shortfalls. The projections in the report for Medicare — which covers nearly 64 million people — indicate a “need for substantial changes” to address the program’s fiscal challenges, the report states.
The trustees’ report has regularly sounded a note of caution on the fragility of both programs, which are intended to help keep older Americans out of poverty. The aging of the U.S. population, combined with their increased longevity, have compounded the financial pressure, yet congressional action is unlikely amid fierce divisions over how to solve the problems.
The trustees are assuming the coronavirus pandemic — which initially delayed and changed how some older adults receive care — won’t have a long-term effect on the projections for either program’s finances. But the report notes that there isn’t a consensus among experts on what the lasting impact of the pandemic might be, and that the intertwined paths of the economy and the pandemic have grown more uncertain since the development of the reports’ assumptions in mid-February.
The insolvency of the trust funds doesn’t mean the programs will no longer operate. Instead, they may begin paying out smaller benefits. If the Social Security Trust Fund is depleted in 2035, then the government would pay 80 percent of scheduled benefits. And if Medicare’s trust fund for inpatient care runs short, then the program would be able to pay 90 percent of expected costs in 2028, the trustees’ report said. | 2022-06-02T21:00:37Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Outlook for Medicare, Social Security improves slightly - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/06/02/medicare-social-security-trustees-report/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/06/02/medicare-social-security-trustees-report/ |
Biden can’t blame his staff for his flailing presidency
President Biden at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on June 1. (Kevin Dietsh/Getty Images)
President Biden is reportedly upset at his staff for his administration’s low public standing. He should look in the mirror instead.
Political consultants have a saying that a campaign always reflects the candidate. If the person at the top is undisciplined, such as former president Donald Trump, then the campaign will be, too. If that person is reclusive and secretive, like Hillary Clinton, or obsesses over political details and maneuvering, like her husband Bill, then the campaigns will inevitably reflect those tendencies. As 1988 Democratic presidential nominee Michael S. Dukakis said in another context, the fish rots from the head first.
So if Biden is upset that his staff doesn’t provide him with a clear message, might that be because he himself doesn’t have one? After all, he has waffled and wavered on a host of issues throughout his career. He’s been pro-life and pro-choice on abortion. In 1981, he voted for the sort of tax cuts he now decries. Every politician who has been around as long as Biden will have changed their minds on something, but Biden’s protean ability to magically recast himself in the image of the Democratic Party’s current consensus is stunning. And when your primary political talent is changing your views to fit the moment, it’s hard — perhaps impossible — to craft a consistent message.
Nor can Biden complain about his staff’s tendency to walk back his off-the-cuff comments on policy. Biden’s tendency to spout off on issues with little thought is the stuff of D.C. legend. It’s why he’s long been known as a walking gaffe machine, as he himself once acknowledged. That might be cute when the gaffes don’t matter, but it’s dangerous when every word he utters can have global consequences. So if Biden blurts out that he thinks Vladimir Putin should not remain in power, you’re darn right his staff will jump into action to say he didn’t mean what he said. The alternative is too chilling to contemplate.
If Biden really doesn’t want his staff to do that, he should do what any competent chief executive does when undermined: fire the offending personnel. He doesn’t do that, of course, which means he either knows he needs walking back, or he doesn’t have the guts to fire people. Neither trait is commendable in a chief executive.
Biden himself is also to blame for his inability to craft notable speeches and persuade people to adopt his point of view. He’s legendarily long-winded, but how many people can cite one memorable line from a speech he’s given in his 50 years of public life? Arguably one of his most enduring remarks — that he was the first in his family to go to university — was plagiarized from British Labour leader Neil Kinnock, a disclosure that forced Biden out of the 1988 Democratic presidential race.
Biden also demonstrated his failure to excite people in the 2008 presidential contest, when he dropped out after receiving just 1 percent of the vote in the Iowa caucuses. His 2020 campaign was headed for oblivion after a disastrous fifth-place showing in the New Hampshire primary until the party establishment rallied around him in a last-ditch bid to defeat the Vermont socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders. Staff can do only so much with the material they are given.
Biden surely has good intentions, and he has a commendable ability to build deep loyalty among longtime staff. But neither quality is sufficient to effectively wield presidential authority. The person in the Oval Office must be capable of decisive action. He or she must be skilled at persuading people in small and large settings, establishing and keeping to a course through difficult times and ruthlessly promoting staff who can help him and dismissing those who cannot. If the top dog doesn’t have the goods, an all-star team of consultants cannot keep the ship afloat.
Unsuccessful presidents uniformly lack one or more of these qualities. Jimmy Carter alienated potential congressional allies, while George H.W. Bush was notably inarticulate when not mouthing the words of speechwriter Peggy Noonan. George W. Bush stuck with poor subordinates for too long in Iraq, while Trump alienated half the country and couldn’t find or keep enough talented staff to effectively manage the White House.
Biden’s shortcomings thus far look all too familiar. He has reason to be unhappy with his political standing. The fault, however, lies not in the stars, but in himself. | 2022-06-02T21:01:20Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Biden can’t blame his staff for his flailing presidency - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/02/biden-cant-blame-his-staff-his-flailing-presidency/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/02/biden-cant-blame-his-staff-his-flailing-presidency/ |
President Biden speaks from the South Court Auditorium in the White House complex in Washington on June 1. (Susan Walsh/AP)
President Biden is planning to visit Saudi Arabia, a remarkable departure from his vow as a presidential candidate to treat the country as a “pariah” state, according to three administration officials who requested anonymity to share details of a trip not yet announced.
The relationship between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia ruptured after the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist and outspoken critic of the Saudi government. American intelligence has concluded Mohammed bin Salman, the crown prince and de facto leader, ordered the killing of Khashoggi.
Biden is expected to meet with bin Salman during his trip, the people said.
Biden’s face-to-face visit with the crown prince is the culmination of half a dozen discreet visits to the Saudi Kingdom over the last two years by his top Middle East adviser, Brett McGurk, and his special envoy for energy affairs, Amos Hochstein. | 2022-06-02T21:01:26Z | www.washingtonpost.com | President Biden to travel to Saudi Arabia, a country he once promised to make a "pariah" state - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/02/biden-saudi-arabia-oil-jamal-khashoggi/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/02/biden-saudi-arabia-oil-jamal-khashoggi/ |
Microsoft takes collaborative approach to unions to avoid ‘public disputes’
Microsoft President Brad Smith says the company is committed to working with employees if they choose to unionize
Microsoft President Brad Smith on Capitol Hill in February 2021. (Susan Walsh/AP)
Microsoft on Thursday announced a new strategy for dealing with organized labor, attempting to set itself apart from other Big Tech firms like Google and Amazon that have clashed publicly with employees seeking union representation.
In a blog post shared with The Washington Post, Microsoft President Brad Smith wrote that the company will respect workers’ rights to unionize and plans to work collaboratively with organized labor organizations to “make it simpler rather than more difficult” for employees to unionize if they so choose.
Microsoft is in the process of completing a $69 billion acquisition of Activision, a video game company where employees of a small subsidiary voted to unionize in March. That union, the Game Workers Alliance, is a division of the Communications Workers of America (CWA), which in a statement called Microsoft’s announcement “encouraging and unique among the major tech companies.”
Raven Software employees win union election
CWA Secretary-Treasurer Sara Steffens added that “to truly give workers a legally protected voice in decisions that affect them and their families, these principles must be put into action and incorporated into Microsoft’s day-to-day operations and its expectations for its contractors.”
Other Big Tech firms have made headlines and even gotten into trouble with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) for their aggressive and, in some cases, allegedly illegal attempts to dissuade employees from unionizing. The labor board has repeatedly found that Amazon wrongfully terminated or retaliated against workers who were involved with union organizing. Amazon has argued that the board is biased against the company. (Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns The Post.)
Google, too, has had to settle charges with workers who said the company fired them in response to union organizing. Meanwhile, workers at Apple told The Post in April that they were targeted by management for supporting the union and threatened with the loss of certain benefits and opportunities for promotion. Apple said at the time that it valued its retail team and offered strong benefits.
Union elections with the NLRB, undertaken recently by employees at both Amazon and Apple, are a formal process that can be both tense and lengthy. To avoid that effort, employers can also choose to voluntarily recognize a union.
Under the principles announced Thursday, if Microsoft employees voted to unionize the company would pursue “a constructive and amicable process that would enable employees to make that kind of decision without requiring a dispute that would go to the NLRB,” Smith said in an interview with The Post.
Worker-led win at Amazon could provide new labor playbook
“There are times when employees want to reach out and connect with an existing labor organization,” Smith said. “Rather than manage that in a contentious way, we’d rather address those kinds of situations in a constructive and amicable way that lets employees make informed choices and that avoid public disputes that we think can be unconstructive, at least for our company and our culture.”
Smith’s announcement seems to build upon statements previously made by Microsoft general counsel Lisa Tanzi, who told The Post in March that the company “respects Activision Blizzard employees’ right to choose whether to be represented by a labor organization and we will honor those decisions.”
Microsoft says it will respect outcome of Activision Blizzard union drive
Rebecca Givan, a Rutgers University professor of labor relations, said Microsoft’s announcement could mean the company is trying to smooth things over with employees interested in unionizing.
“There’s a lot of actual organizing or talk or desire in the video game sector, and that’s a piece of what Microsoft does. That might be what they’re trying to get out in front of,” Givan said. “Even the nastiest union buster, part of the rhetoric is: ‘We have an open-door policy.’ That’s pretty typical. But if they have the support of unions … hopefully it means they’re committing to something more significant and substantive.”
CWA, which has led efforts to organize tech and game workers in recent years, is a member organization of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), which also lauded Microsoft’s commitment.
“We know labor and management can be true partners in a company’s success, and it’s important for companies to respect workers’ rights.” AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler said in a statement. “Microsoft’s collaborative approach to working with its employees who seek to organize is a best practice that we look forward to seeing implemented at Microsoft and other companies.”
Smith, who has been with Microsoft since 1993, has earned a reputation as a tactful diplomat in Washington who has succeeded in using the company’s positioning as a friend and partner to regulators to avoid the kind of antitrust oversight other Big Tech firms have dealt with.
Microsoft is bigger than Google, Amazon and Facebook. But now lawmakers treat it like an ally in antitrust battles.
This new collaborative approach to labor relations could be a continuation of that strategy, softening the company’s public image while potentially helping to attract and retain talent.
“I think we have to recognize that it’s a different time, and we have a generation with different expectations. Demographically, we’re no longer living in a time when the workforce age population is expanding and growing the way it used to,” Smith said. “There may be days when it feels uncomfortable to learn new things, but I think it’s the right path for the success of a business like ours.” | 2022-06-02T21:02:57Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Microsoft takes collaborative approach to unions to avoid ‘public disputes’ - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/06/02/microsoft-union-activision/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/06/02/microsoft-union-activision/ |
The last Howard Johnson’s restaurant closed, ending an era of Americana
The property with an iconic orange roof is sitting vacant in upstate New York
Howard Johnson's restaurants fueled America's road trip tradition. The last one just closed. (iStock/Washington Post illustration)
The last Howard Johnson’s restaurant has shut its doors, signaling the end of an era for travelers who remember the brand’s fried clams and 28 flavors of ice cream as a road trip staple.
The Lake George, N.Y., location is closed, and the property is up for lease, listing agent Bill Moon of Exit Realty Empire Associates confirmed. However, Moon said, for the last several years, the restaurant wasn’t operated as “traditional Howard Johnson’s experience.”
“It was a local lessee that was running a restaurant out of the Howard Johnson’s building,” he said. The building has been listed for lease since December, he said, and it has been vacant since January or February.
Moon said the 7,500-square-foot space is priced at $10 per square foot, and that the owner is open to selling the building as well. “Existing building is currently operating as a restaurant but can be converted into a large showroom, flagship store, or used as is,” the listing for the building at 2143 Route 9 reads.
Founded in Massachusetts by Howard Deering Johnson, the chain known for its iconic orange roofs had around 1,000 restaurants strategically located by turnpikes and highways by the 1970s. In his book “Ten Restaurants That Changed America,” historian Paul Freedman credited the company with pioneering “several key concepts in the American way of dining out: roadside locations, a family-friendly ambience, franchising, predictability and serving comfort food long before that term was invented.”
Howard Johnson’s declined in part because of competition from fast-food restaurants, and its footprint shrank dramatically in recent decades.
The chain also had motor lodges, but a sale divided its lodging and dining operations in the 1980s. Hotels bearing the Howard Johnson name are operating under Wyndham Hotels & Resorts.
Amanda Metzger, marketing director of the Lake George Regional Chamber of Commerce & CVB, said in an email, “We know many people hold fond memories of dining at a Howard Johnson’s and have visited that location specifically for that feeling of nostalgia and to try to experience a memory.”
A 2012 appearance on hit TV show “Mad Men” replicated Howard Johnson’s in all its mid-century glory, but those days have long since faded. In 2017, Eater described a salad bar “full of soggy broccoli, nearly translucent iceberg lettuce, and runny, unmarked dressings” at the Lake George location, and an empty parking lot outside (there was also not a corporate structure anymore, or other franchisees).
At the time, the restaurant’s operator, Jon LaRock, leased the restaurant and right to use the name from Joe DeSantis, whose father opened the Lake George location in the 1950s, per Eater. DeSantis did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The location appeared in the news later that year, when operator LaRock was arrested for sexually harassing women who worked at the restaurant. He was sentenced in 2018.
One of the last three remaining Howard Johnson’s restaurants closed in Lake Placid, N.Y., in 2015, while another in Bangor, Maine, ceased operations the following year. | 2022-06-02T21:03:03Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Last Howard Johnson's restaurant closes in Lake George, N.Y. - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/2022/06/02/last-howard-johnson-restaurant-closes/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/2022/06/02/last-howard-johnson-restaurant-closes/ |
Britain's Queen Elizabeth and members of the Royal Family watch the special flypast by Britain's Royal Air Force from Buckingham Palace in London on Thursday. (Paul Grover/Pool/Reuters)
LONDON — Nobody pumps out the pomp quite like the British. And so Buckingham Palace and the nation’s armed forces put on an extraordinary pageant on Thursday for their deeply admired monarch, in celebration of Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee, her 70th year on the throne.
Kicking off four days of festivities, the spectacle began with the Queen’s Birthday Parade, the 260-year-old tradition known as Trooping the Colour, with 1,400 soldiers in scarlet tunics and bearskin caps — alongside an Irish wolfhound named Seamus — marching in precision drills, while bands mounted on horses pounded on kettle drums and blew trumpets.
At the end of the parade, there was a record-breaking 82-gun salute and finally a “flypast” by the Royal Air Force, showcasing 70 fighter planes and helicopters roaring overhead, some flying in formation to spell the number “70,” while the queen — in a pair of sunglasses — smiled from the palace balcony.
Was it all too much?
Well, the queen’s great-grandson Prince Louis, just 4 and dressed in a sailor’s suit, did steal the show when he clamped his hands over his ears and made a face as the jets buzzed by.
And afterward, the palace announced that while the queen “greatly enjoyed” the parade and flypast, she “did experience some discomfort” and would miss Friday’s thanksgiving service at St. Paul’s Cathedral.
Queen experiences 'discomfort,’ will miss Friday’s service at St. Paul’s
The fragility of the 96-year-old queen hangs over these celebrations.
In interviews, over and over, the people massed outside of Buckingham Palace on Thursday — many dressed in Union Jack costumes, quaffing a river of Prosecco — told The Washington Post that they wanted to show their appreciation to Elizabeth for a lifetime of service.
A giant banner reading “thank you” was held aloft, an image picked up by overhead cameras and broadcast on jumbo screens outside the palace.
It seemed to sum up the sentiment in the crowd.
And many felt this was not just a big thank you, but a final thank you, as if everyone was making merry but also holding their breath, wondering if the queen would make it to her own party.
“I’m going to get emotional,” said teacher Helen Critcher, 57, who had just watched the queen smile and wave at her subjects, which prompted many to rapturously sing “God Save the Queen” — even if some didn’t seem to know all the words to the British national anthem.
The queen has been “a constant for 70 years in a very changing and frightening world, someone who put duty above everything else,” Critcher said. “I think we just want her to know that she’s very valued.”
People outside the palace also wondered aloud what will happen to this monarchy after Elizabeth leaves the stage. She is the only queen most of her subjects have ever known.
In her recent communiques, she has gently acknowledged that she will not be around forever.
In her jubilee message released on Thursday, she wrote that she hoped “the coming days will provide an opportunity to reflect on all that has been achieved during the last seventy years, as we look to the future with confidence and enthusiasm.”
But the people are happy with their queen. Her approval ratings as high as 86 percent, according to polling firm Ipsos. And most people want her to keep going.
A poll by YouGov found that 59 percent surveyed said Elizabeth should remain monarch as long as she lived, while 25 percent said she should step aside and 17 percent were undecided.
Many of the people gathered outside Buckingham Palace — a self-selecting group, of course — said she should stay put.
“I think she should carry on, she does a wonderful job,” said Elaine Stone, 55, who works in a statistics office.
“And yes, okay, age is holding her back a little bit now, but she’s still got all her marbles and her sense of duty won’t ever leave her,” she said.
Helen Graziano, 67, a retired business development consultant who flew in from Spain to be at the celebrations, agreed that the queen should stay queen.
Graziano liked how the Firm, as insiders call the palace, is working, with a gentle transition underway.
“Charles is doing a bit more, William a bit more … and who is to say, she might outlive Charles,” she said.
Lin Qinn, 72, a retired support worker for people with learning difficulties, wondered if perhaps it might be time to make way for Prince Charles, Britain’s the longest waiting king-in-waiting.
She said of the queen: “I think she’s done a marvelous job, through the war, through everything. I wouldn’t want to do it. She works so hard, every day, every day is a working day for her. She puts her country first and family second.
“I think maybe the time is coming soon, time to let Charles step in and do what he’s been raised to do. I think he’s ready. I think the queen can have a rest and step back and enjoy herself.”
Charles — who has increasingly taken on roles traditionally held by his mother — had the responsibility of reviewing the parading military troops on the queen’s behalf on Thursday, before leading them on horseback back to Buckingham Palace, where Elizabeth was waiting.
Charles and his wife, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, also took to the streets to greet the crowds.
Wearing his royal red military uniform, Charles, the honorary colonel of the Welsh Guards, shook hands and smiled, engaging in a “walkabout” — a custom started by Elizabeth during a 1970 trip to Australia.
Among the public, there was great interest in when and where the runaway royals, Prince Harry and Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, would appear.
As the California couple are no longer “senior working royals,” they were not invited to stand beside the queen on the balcony.
But keen-eyed observers spotted Meghan, wearing a wide-brimmed white hat, in a window above the parade route.
She was photographed playfully chatting with some of the queen’s great-grandchildren, as well as speaking with Harry the queen’s cousin, the Duke of Kent.
Harry and Meghan are expected to be more visible Friday, attending the service at St. Paul’s.
Also notably absent on Thursday was disgraced Prince Andrew.
The queen’s third child (said to be her favorite) was not alongside his siblings Charles and Anne as they took part in salutes on horseback. Nor was he in the royal carriages, which included his younger brother Edward. Nor was he there for the balcony shot.
It now appears that Andrew will not attend Friday’s church service, either.
Buckingham Palace said Thursday afternoon that he had just tested positive for the coronavirus.
Ellen Francis in London and Marisa Bellack in Washington contributed to this report. | 2022-06-02T21:03:09Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Platinum Jubilee: Queen Elizabeth II's health clouds historic celebration - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/02/queen-elizabeth-platinum-jubilee-trooping/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/02/queen-elizabeth-platinum-jubilee-trooping/ |
A Ukrainian fighter smokes in a trench at a position near a front line in the Donetsk region. (Serhii Nuzhnenko/Reuters)
Nearly 100 days into the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Ukrainian forces have suffered significant setbacks: President Volodomyr Zelensky says Russia has now taken 20 percent of his country.
Foreign correspondent Siobhan O’Grady brings us into the trenches of the eastern Donbas region, where Russia has focused its military advancements. Ukrainian battalions are digging trenches, desperate to turn the tide of war.
Later in the show, we meet 16-year-old Anna Melnyk, whose life changed overnight when her family was forced to flee their home in Kyiv and head west for the transit city of Lviv.
Now Anna –– who volunteers as a guide for the displaced at a train station in Lviv –– is undergoing a drastic transformation alongside other Ukrainian teens, who are trading high school concerns for work that will shape the kind of nation they will inherit once the fighting ends.
“She said it makes her feel like she's doing something for her country. That it's a role for her,” says reporter Hannah Allam. “She’s not 18. She can't enlist in the military and then take up arms. She’s not even old enough to drive. So, this was something she could do.” | 2022-06-02T21:52:32Z | www.washingtonpost.com | 99 days of war in Ukraine - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/podcasts/post-reports/99-days-of-war-in-ukraine/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/podcasts/post-reports/99-days-of-war-in-ukraine/ |
Live updates:Russia-Ukraine war live updates: Street battles in Severodonetsk; Zelensky ...
China’s leadership wants to expand assistance for Russia without running afoul of Western sanctions and has set limits on what it will do
Ellen Nakashima
Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Shanghai on May 21, 2014. (Mark Ralston/AFP/Getty Images)
Russian officials have raised increasingly frustrated requests for greater support during discussions with Beijing in recent weeks, calling on China to live up to its affirmation of a “no limits” partnership made weeks before the war in Ukraine began. But China’s leadership wants to expand assistance for Russia without running afoul of Western sanctions and has set limits on what it will do, according to Chinese and U.S. officials.
Moscow has on at least two occasions pressed Beijing to offer new forms of economic support — exchanges that one Chinese official described as “tense.” The officials familiar with the talks spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the matter’s sensitivity.
They declined to share specifics of Russia’s requests, but one official said it included maintaining “trade commitments” predating the Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine, and financial and technological support now sanctioned by the United States and other countries.
“China has made clear its position on the situation in Ukraine, and on the illegal sanctions against Russia,” said a person in Beijing with direct knowledge of the discussions. “We understand [Moscow’s] predicament. But we cannot ignore our own situation in this dialogue. China will always act in the best interest of the Chinese people.”
“That has been difficult,” said a senior U.S. official. “And it is insufficient from the Russian standpoint.”
The U.S. official said that China has tried to find “other opportunities” diplomatically, and through joint military exercises, to bolster Russia. Last week, Russia and China flew strategic bombers over the Sea of Japan and East China Sea while President Biden was in Tokyo, wrapping up his first trip to Asia. It was their first joint military exercise since the invasion of Ukraine and a pointed signal of the growing strategic partnership between Moscow and Beijing.
Russia, China conduct first joint military drill since Russia's invasion of Ukraine
“What China is trying to do is to be with Russia, signal neutrality publicly and not be compromised financially,” the U.S. official said. “Many of those goals are contradictory. It’s hard to fulfill them at the same time.”
“For a long time, China and Russia have maintained normal cooperation in the fields of economy, trade and energy. The problem is not who will help Russia bypass the sanctions, but that normal economic and trade exchanges between Russia and China have been unnecessarily damaged,” said Liu Pengyu, spokesman for China’s embassy in Washington.
Liu added that the sanctions brought about a “lose-lose” situation for all parties and made “the already difficult world economy worse.”
Beijing’s public support for Russia has not faltered. China’s top diplomat, Wang Yi, on Wednesday reaffirmed its commitment to Moscow during a virtual meeting that was also attended by his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov. Wang said China is willing to work with Russia to promote “real democracy,” alluding to a Chinese foreign policy goal of countering what it has described as U.S. hegemony in global politics.
Russia has not requested “weapons and ammunition” to support its war, the Chinese officials said, but declined to comment on whether Russia had requested other items that could be used in military operations including technology and supplies.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday that the United States has not seen any “systematic effort” by China to help Russia evade sanctions, nor has it seen any significant military support from China to Russia.
Biden warns China's Xi not to help Russia on Ukraine
Blinken, speaking at a Council on Foreign Relations event commemorating the centennial of Foreign Affairs magazine, noted a “remarkable exodus of companies from Russia” as a result of the invasion — 7,800 companies, Blinken said, that “didn’t want their reputations to be at risk by doing business in Russia.”
The sanctions themselves did not drive the exodus, Blinken said. “It was really companies deciding on their own that they were not going to do business as usual in a country that was committing this kind of aggression. That’s something I think that China also has to factor in as it thinks about its relationship with Russia.”
Nonetheless, the Chinese maintain that the U.S. and Western sanctions are illegal and that China will continue to do business with Russia. “The Chinese side is willing to fulfill its commitments to the Russian side, and is doing that when suitable conditions are met,” said the person in Beijing familiar with the discussions.
Asked about U.S. warnings that China would face consequences if it aids Russia, the person said, “The true reason is to sow discord between the Chinese side and the Russian side … that will not happen. They will not succeed in undermining the China-Russian relationship.”
Bonnie Glaser, director of the Asia Program at the German Marshall Fund of the United States, said, “I think that the hope of the United States and Europe is that China will be forced to choose [between siding with Russia or with the West] and that it will make the right choice. But China has competing interests, and it will be virtually impossible to compel them to place their long-standing support for territorial integrity and sovereignty above their relationship with Russia.”
Yun Sun, co-director of the East Asia Program at the Stimson Center, said “The whole purpose of standing with Russia is they want Russia to work with them in strategic alignment against the U.S.” But by abiding by Western sanctions, after all the public support it has given Russia, Beijing runs the risk of undermining its relationship with Moscow.
Domestic Chinese bidding documents show that financing for new construction on the strategically significant Russia-China Eastern Route gas pipeline has continued since the war began, with fresh purchases for materials and machinery earmarked for the southern leg of the project. It is expected to provide 18.9 billion cubic meters of Russian gas to China’s economically vibrant Yangtze Delta region by 2025.
China’s Institute of Atomic Energy in April also purchased new services and equipment from Russian nuclear engineering firm OKBM Afrikantov for the Russian-built China Experimental Fast Reactor (CEFR) nuclear project near Beijing, documents show. In the same period, it purchased new supplies and services from Russian state atomic energy firm Rosatom for the Tianwan Nuclear Power Plant, a landmark Sino-Russian project under construction in China’s Jiangsu province.
“Based on the comparative advantages of location and resources, we will analyze the favorable factors and obstacles of regional cooperation between Dalian and the Russian Far East … so as to promote the high-quality economic development,” stated one May 19 document outlining funding for research into investment opportunities in Russia for the northeastern Chinese manufacturing and port hub of Dalian, which is located close to the Russian border.
Chinese officials also said senior leadership had called for new investment and trade with Belarus, which has been targeted with financial and defense sanctions linked to its supporting role in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
CETC and its subsidiaries have already been placed on the U.S. Commerce Department’s Entity List, which restricts exports to listed companies, for their cooperation with the Chinese military. | 2022-06-02T22:05:35Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Beijing chafes at Moscow’s requests for support, Chinese officials say - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/06/02/china-support-russia-ukraine/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/06/02/china-support-russia-ukraine/ |
Amateur Ingrid Lindblad of Sweden shot a 65 in the first round of the U.S. Women's Open. (Chris Carlson)
SOUTHERN PINES, N.C. — When Ingrid Lindblad peeked at the tee times for the first round of the U.S. Women’s Open, she had an overwhelming sensation of disbelief upon seeing she would be in the same group as her golfing role model, fellow Swede Annika Sorenstam.
Then, on her opening hole Thursday morning at Pine Needles golf club, the No. 2-ranked amateur in the world received another jolt of inspiration from Sorenstam when she briefly held the scorecard of the 10-time major champion in her hands, prompting Lindblad to smile broadly before launching her tee shot.
Lindblad capped her storybook beginning to the most coveted major in the women’s game by shooting a 6-under 65, the lowest round by an amateur in any USGA championship, vaulting the junior at LSU into the lead, at the time two strokes in front of Australia’s Minjee Lee and Anna Nordqvist, another Swede.
“I was like this cannot be true,” Lindblad, 22, said of playing with Sorenstam, 51, in a round that began early in the morning at No. 9 before oppressive heat and humidity set in hours later. “It was really cool. We had fun out there. She fist-pumped me a few times for a few birdies.”
Only one amateur has won America’s national golf championship when in 1967 Catherine Lacoste, the daughter of former tennis player Rene Lacoste and 1927 British Ladies Amateur champion Simone Thion de la Chaume, triumphed at the former Virginia Hot Springs golf club.
The last amateur to finish inside the top 10 was Jenny Chuasiriporn in 1998. Then 20, Chuasiriporn lost on the 20th playoff hole to Se Ri Pak at Blackwolf Run Golf Club in Kohler, Wis.
Lurking three shots off Lindblad’s lead were Americans Ally Ewing and Lexi Thompson, the sixth-ranked player in the world who’s seeking to end the longest winless streak of her career. Thompson’s last victory came in June 2019 at the LPGA Classic at Seaview Golf Club near Atlantic City
“Honestly I haven’t looked at a leader board so I don’t even know the position that I am at,” Thompson said immediately following her round. “I’ve just been trying to focus on my own game and my emotions. That’s all I can control, but I know by game has been in a good spot.”
Playing one group behind Thompson, Lindblad carded seven birdies and one bogey, that coming at the 513-yard par-5 10th, behind booming distance off the tee, deft iron play and sublime putting. She sank a 19-footer at the par-3 third hole and an 18-footer at the par-3 13th.
The reigning SEC individual champion and two-time SEC player of the year, who in April sparked the Tigers to the program’s first team conference tournament title in 30 years, logged just 26 putts, matching Nordqvist and American Allisen Corpuz (2 under) for the fewest among players who teed off in the morning.
“I hit a few shots close to the pin, and then my putting was great today,” Lindblad said. “Made a few par saves and made a few putts for birdies. It just worked from fairway to green.”
Lindblad hit 14 of 18 greens in regulation to tame a course where accuracy with short irons is imperative given the severe contouring of the putting surfaces, which are firmer than when Pine Needles last hosted the U.S. Women’s Open in 2007 because Bermuda grass has replaced bentgrass.
Lindblad’s power also proved a significant asset with the fairways having been widened during a course redesign in 2017 that removed much of the rough. Her average driving distance of 267.3 yards at the 6,638-yard layout ranked among the leaders.
“She’s really impressive,” said Sorenstam, who shot 3 over with a bogey on her final hole, the 351-yard par-4 eighth. “I think people see her as a long hitter, but I’m sure you saw her today. Some of those chip shots she hit, especially on 18, that was not an easy one. I was really impressed.”
Lindblad and Sorestam have been acquainted since 2014 when Lindblad played in the Annika Invitational Europe, a junior event, in her home country. Lindblad conceded she did not know at the time how much Sorenstam had accomplished in her legendary career.
Five years later, well aware of Sorenstam’s standing on the Mount Rushmore of women’s golf, Lindblad won the Annika Invitational in St. Augustine, Fla., but had not arranged a ride to the airport in Orlando after the tournament.
Sorenstam graciously offered to give Lindblad a ride, and the two spoke extensively along the way.
“Just listening to her, she can be quite bubbly,” said Sorenstam, the reigning U.S. Senior Women’s Open champion. “She’s authentic. She’s got a special look, but she’s a fearless player. I think she’s confident in her own game. I know she doesn’t shy away from the limelight that maybe I did as a young girl. I think she embraces it quite well.” | 2022-06-02T22:27:21Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Amateur Ingrid Lindblad takes U.S. Women's Open lead - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/02/ingrid-lindblad-amateur-us-women-open/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/02/ingrid-lindblad-amateur-us-women-open/ |
Ryan Fitzpatrick's 17-year NFL career included stints with nine teams, including his final stop in Washington. (Jonathan Newton/The Washington Post)
The Harvard graduate was the last quarterback selected in the 2005 draft, when the St. Louis Rams chose him in the seventh round with the 250th overall pick. He would pass for more touchdowns than any quarterback in that draft class except for Aaron Rodgers.
After cycling through four starting quarterbacks in 2020, Washington signed Fitzpatrick to a one-year deal worth up to $12 million, with the hope that his experience would stabilize the offense while Coach Ron Rivera and his staff continued to develop the roster and build around the quarterback position. But Fitzpatrick partially dislocated his right hip in Washington’s opening loss to the Los Angeles Chargers and was later placed on injured reserve for the remainder of the 2021 season.
In 2018, he became the first player in NFL history to throw for at least 400 passing yards in three consecutive games as a member of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The following season with the Miami Dolphins, he became the oldest player in NFL history to lead his team in rushing yards (243) and touchdowns (four) in a season. Fitzpatrick is also estimated to be the highest-earning seventh-round pick in NFL history ($82.1 million over 17 seasons), according to Spotrac.
Chase Young rejoins Commanders, details recovery from ACL surgery
Fitzpatrick, who also played for the Cincinnati Bengals, Tennessee Titans and Houston Texans, started for all nine teams he suited up for, but struggled with inconsistency and never played in the postseason. He was the only NFL player to throw a touchdown and an interception for eight different teams, and his six picks for the New York Jets against the Kansas City Chiefs in 2016 were the most thrown in one game by any quarterback in two decades.
The quarterback earned the nickname “FitzMagic” for his memorable performances off the bench and timely plays under pressure. In the locker room, he developed a reputation as a player with a knack for keeping it light and easing the nerves of younger players. Outside it, he wore DeSean Jackson’s clothing to a 2018 postgame news conference in Tampa Bay and posed shirtless with Bills fans during a playoff game this January, despite subzero wind chills that night in Buffalo.
Amazon, which will begin broadcasting “Thursday Night Football” exclusively this year, declined to comment on Fitzpatrick’s future, but it has been active during an offseason that’s seen an industry-wide shake-up in broadcasting talent. The company announced in March that Al Michaels and Kirk Herbstreit will call its Thursday night NFL games starting this season. (Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post.)
Fitzpatrick would be the latest quarterback to jump from the field to the booth. Fox Sports announced in May that Tom Brady will become its lead analyst after he retires, positioning him to join a host of quarterbacks-turned-broadcasters including Troy Aikman, Tony Romo, Peyton and Eli Manning and Drew Brees.
Nicki Jhabvala contributed to this report. | 2022-06-02T22:27:27Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Ryan Fitzpatrick retires after 17-year career in NFL - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/02/ryan-fitzpatrick-retirement/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/02/ryan-fitzpatrick-retirement/ |
Bill would reduce mayoral control of troubled D.C. crime lab
Council member Charles Allen introduced legislation to turn the Department of Forensic Sciences into an independent agency.
D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser. (Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post)
Members of the D.C. Council introduced legislation Thursday to turn the city’s troubled forensics arm into an independent agency, a move that would reduce the mayor’s control of the department tasked with analyzing crime scene evidence as violence surges in the District.
The bill, introduced by D.C. Council member Charles Allen (D-Ward 6), the chairman of the Committee on the Judiciary and Public Safety, would shift oversight authority of the Department of Forensic Sciences (DFS) to an independent advisory board and make it harder for the mayor to fire the agency director.
The legislation comes more than a year after the department lost accreditation amid reports of errors and mismanagement. Since then, the city has outsourced its crime scene and evidence analysis to federal and private labs and launched a sweeping review of criminal convictions dating back a decade.
Allen said the bill is a response to poor executive oversight that led the department to lose accreditation.
“These changes are a direct result of those actions,” he said, “and will help ensure that as we get back the accreditation for DFS, we are in a position to make sure we keep it.”
Nine additional council members, including mayoral candidate Robert C. White Jr. (D-At Large) and Council Chairman Phil Mendelson (D), signed off on the bill.
The move to give more power to the advisory board, in addition to a host of other changes, came from recommendations laid out by consulting firm SNA International in a scathing review of the agency in December. SNA was hired by the District to assess the crime lab after it lost accreditation.
Susana Castillo, a spokeswoman for D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D), said in a statement: “The bill includes many of the recommendations from the December 2021 SNA International report commissioned by Mayor Bowser as part of our top to bottom review of the agency, and we will look forward to working with the Council on it.”
The department’s advisory board has been meeting regularly to figure out how to implement the changes outlined by SNA, but there is little indication that the lab is close to reaccreditation.
D.C. Attorney General Karl A. Racine said in a statement that he supports the bill.
“We’re encouraged the Council is taking steps to address the serious and long-standing failures at the Department of Forensic Sciences,” he said. “We look forward to working with the Council and Councilmember Allen to make needed reforms to DFS and restore the integrity of scientific testing and results in the District’s criminal cases.” | 2022-06-02T22:27:33Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Bill would reduce mayoral control of troubled D.C. crime lab - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/02/department-of-forensic-sciences-independent/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/02/department-of-forensic-sciences-independent/ |
Three variations of AR-15 rifles in 2012. (Rich Pedroncelli/AP)
The veterans know.
They know how it feels to fire an assault weapon. They know the smell, the heft, the power it has to tear humans apart.
Military veterans know that to use such a weapon properly, they had to train, to practice, to follow the protocol, to empty their weapons and turn them into the armory every night before going to bed.
And they know that what America is doing right now — letting civilians with zero training buy the same weapons of war — is insanity.
“I’m a combat veteran of two wars, I’ve shot at people with the intent of killing them,” said Joe Plenzler, a retired Marine Corps officer. “And what is going on here in the United States is crazy.”
Plenzler, 50, is speaking up and encouraging like-minded veterans to join the conversation, which, like much of American political discourse, has lost its center. With pressure mounting on lawmakers to act after the mass murder of schoolchildren last month, Plenzler is tired of one-dimensional arguments and says others should be, too.
Mostly, he’s tired of the silence from people like him who want to see meaningful, common-sense restrictions enacted. For that to happen, he said, more people need to speak up who earned their fatigues — instead of buying them online.
Let’s be real. Most American gun owners — the hunters, the folks who carry the night’s cash till to the deposit box after hours, the folks who want something to kill the varmints on their property, the veterans — see the weapons as a vehicle for safety, not harm.
They have no problem with registering them and keeping them locked in a gun safe, and they understand the need for background checks and age restrictions.
But too many are quiet about their agreement on gun control, pushed into the red/blue, one-side-or-the-other nature of this issue. Worried they’d be labeled as “libs.”
And that silence, Plenzler said, is deafening.
Plenzler works with Veterans Council for Everytown for Gun Safety to make his point. Other veterans are using social media to show off their gun collections and talk about gun control — proving they can do both.
“The military trains our troops on the use of these weapons for war,” said Heidi Mae Dragneff, 37, a Navy veteran who is now a stay-at-home mom in Virginia Beach.
She’s got plenty of guns in her home collection and shows them off on TikTok. She and her husband take their daughters to the range. They are not anti-gun. They are anti-violence.
When the kids are at school, Dragneff works with Common Defense and writes and speaks to other pro-gun people — especially civilians — about what guns of war can do.
“Military members have to requalify every year on their weapons,” she wrote in a recent Twitter thread. “They go through rigorous [and] serious training on handling their guns. Plus, they don’t get to keep their weapons [with] them. They are stored at the armory [and] issued only upon deployments or training.”
This is the point that civilians who fight any regulation on guns don’t understand, the part that really frustrates folks like Plenzler.
“Civilians, these guys at the gun range, wearing their cargo trousers,” he said. “They never spent a day in the military, and it’s kind of a cosplay fantasy. … They’re inculcating a misguided sense of manhood.”
I spent an evening trying to talk to the cargo-pants guys at shooting ranges across the region. I didn’t get too far. Most didn’t want to have a deep conversation about gun control. The employees at one range were forbidden from talking, so I asked if their friends would talk to me.
“Nah,” one guy at a Virginia range said. “Most of them are in the gun industry.”
Bingo. It’s not about freedom or safety or the Constitution. It’s about the industry.
Plenzler, a 20-year combat veteran of two wars who is higher-profile than the average veteran because of his years as a Pentagon spokesman, publicly ended his membership in the National Rifle Association in 2017 because he didn’t like the direction they were going, supporting a $70 billion industry.
The group holds outsize influence over Congress, which should be ashamed of its lack of urgency today. It took less than what we saw last month to compel federal legislation nearly 100 years ago, in 1934, after gangland violence claimed the lives of too many federal agents and mobsters.
Then-president of the NRA, Karl Frederick, supported restrictions on the most lethal weapons of the time — machine guns and sawed-off shotguns.
It’s not hard to understand why some Americans carry guns for protection as the list of unsafe places only ever seems to grow: concerts, hospitals, temples, grocery stores, fourth-grade classrooms.
Regular gun owners need to be heard in this debate, especially those who understand what assault weapons are actually for — combat.
“We don’t want to overturn the Second Amendment,” Dragneff tells fellow veterans. “We just don’t need weapons of war in the handle of untrained civilians. And I tell them I own guns too, as many on the left do.” | 2022-06-02T22:27:39Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Joe Plenzler wants veterans to speak up about gun control - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/02/joe-plenzler-veterans-gun-control/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/02/joe-plenzler-veterans-gun-control/ |
WASHINGTON — This is expected to be the best summer job market for teens in 15 years. Researchers at Drexel University’s Center for Labor Markets and Policy predicted in a report last month that an average of 33% of youths ages 16 to 19 will be employed each month from June through August this year, the highest such rate since 34% in the summer of 2007. And the pay available to them — $15 or $16 an hour for entry-level work — is drawing some back into the job market. Teenage employment has already topped pre-pandemic levels even though the overall job market still hasn’t.
NEW YORK — The stock market shook off a wobbly start and ended broadly higher Thursday, marking its first gain in this holiday-shortened week. Technology stocks were among the winners as Microsoft erased an early loss. Trading has been choppy in recent days as investors remain worried about inflation and the interest rate increases the Federal Reserve is using to fight it. The S&P 500 rose 1.8%. The benchmark index has risen 7.1% since coming to the edge of a bear market two weeks ago. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.3% and the Nasdaq rose 2.7%. The yield on the 10-year Treasury slipped to 2.91%.
LONDON — The OPEC oil cartel and allied producing countries including Russia will raise production by 648,000 barrels per day in July and August, offering modest relief for a global economy suffering from soaring energy prices and the resulting inflation. The decision Thursday steps up the pace by the alliance, known as OPEC+, in restoring cuts made during the worst of the pandemic recession. The group had been adding a steady 432,000 barrels per day each month to gradually restore production cuts from 2020. The move to increase production faster than planned comes as rising crude prices have pushed gasoline to a record high in the U.S.
AVON LAKE, Ohio — Ford will add 6,200 factory jobs in Michigan, Missouri and Ohio as it prepares to build more electric vehicles and roll out two redesigned combustion-engine models. The company says it will invest $3.7 billion in the three states, and it will convert about 3,000 temporary workers to full-time status with benefits. A factory near Cleveland will be expanded so it can build an unidentified new electric commercial vehicle, with 1,800 new jobs. A plant in Claycomo, Missouri, near Kansas City, that makes big electric and combustion-engine vans will get a third shift of 1,100 workers. And in Michigan, the company will add 2,000 jobs at three assembly plants as well as another 1,200 at other facilities.
WASHINGTON — A stronger-than-expected economic recovery from the pandemic has pushed back the go-broke dates for Social Security and Medicare, but officials warn that the current economic turbulence is putting additional pressures on the bedrock retirement programs. The annual Social Security and Medicare trustees report released Thursday states that Social Security’s trust fund will be unable to pay full benefits in 2035, instead of last year’s estimation of 2034. The projected depletion date for Medicare’s trust fund for inpatient hospital care moved back two years to 2028 from last year’s forecast of 2026.
WASHINGTON — Fewer Americans applied for jobless aid last week and the number of Americans collecting unemployment remain at historically low levels. Applications for unemployment benefits fell by 11,000 to 200,000 for the week ending May 28, the Labor Department reported Thursday. First-time applications generally track the number of layoffs. The four-week average for claims, which evens out some of the weekly volatility, dipped by 500 from the previous week to 206,500. The total number of Americans collecting jobless benefits for the week ending May 21 fell from the previous week, to 1,309,000, the fewest since Dec. 27, 1969.
NEW YORK — Amazon said Thursday it will shut down its digital Kindle bookstores in China and stop selling the device to retailers in the country. The company said in a WeChat post that the bookstore will stop operating on June 30, 2023. It says customers in China will not be able to buy new e-books after that day and won’t be able to download books they’ve already purchased after a year later. The e-commerce giant’s pullback comes as foreign technology firms have been pulling out or downsizing their operations in mainland China as a strict data privacy law specifying how companies collect and store data takes effect. However, Amazon said its other businesses in China will continue.
WASHINGTON — Average long-term U.S. mortgage rates edged down slightly this week, though interest rates on the key 30-year home loan remain at decade-high levels. Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac reported Thursday that the 30-year rate ticked down to 5.09% from 5.1% last week. By contrast, the average rate stood at 2.99% a year ago. Higher borrowing rates appear to be slowing the housing market, a crucial sector of the economy. In April, sales of both existing homes and new homes showed signs of faltering, worsened by sharply higher home prices and a shrunken supply of available properties. | 2022-06-02T22:31:42Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Business Highlights: Summer jobs, Gulf natural gas - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/business-highlights-summer-jobs-gulf-natural-gas/2022/06/02/213212d0-e2bc-11ec-ae64-6b23e5155b62_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/business-highlights-summer-jobs-gulf-natural-gas/2022/06/02/213212d0-e2bc-11ec-ae64-6b23e5155b62_story.html |
MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA - JULY 06: Thousands of people take part in the NAIDOC march on July 6, 2018 in Melbourne, Australia. The march marks the start of NAIDOC Week, which runs this year from 8 - 15 July. NAIDOC Week celebrations are held across Australia each July to celebrate the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. NAIDOC is celebrated not only in Indigenous communities, but by Australians from all walks of life. (Photo by Darrian Traynor/Getty Images) (Photographer: Darrian Traynor/Getty Images AsiaPac)
Talk is easy. Political change is hard. In Australia, it’s more than two centuries overdue.
Claiming victory in last month’s election, new Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s first words were a vow to redress the unfinished business from the colonial invasion of 1788. His promise to “commit to the Uluru Statement from the Heart” — a set of political demands from Indigenous groups, first outlined in 2017 — puts Australia on the path to the most substantive constitutional change it’s seen in more than half a century. If the resulting referendum succeeds, the country may wind up with a new First Nations elected chamber, an array of treaties with state and federal governments, and a truth and reconciliation commission.
The symbolism of Albanese’s words echoed his Labor predecessor Kevin Rudd, whose first major speech to Parliament after winning the 2007 election was a long-delayed apology to Aboriginal children removed from their families. Politically, however, Albanese’s task is far more challenging. No referendum has passed in Australia since the 1970s. If such a vote succeeds, it will mark just the beginning, rather than the end point, of Australia’s reckoning with its dispossession of First Peoples.
Adopting the Uluru Statement would ensure Indigenous people are “given a seat at the decision-making table where it comes to laws and policies that affect us,” Dani Larkin, a legal lecturer at the University of New South Wales and Bundjalung and Kungarykany woman, told Seven News this week.
In contrast to the US, Canada and New Zealand, Australia’s first colonists didn’t agree to any treaties with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people whose land they took. Until the second half of the 20th century, many Indigenous people in rural areas worked for nominal wages that were little different from slavery; they couldn’t vote in federal elections until the 1960s, and weren’t counted in the census until a 1967 referendum. To this day, Indigenous household income is about half that in other homes and life expectancy is about eight years shorter.
Conventional politics has been ill-suited to addressing this injustice. At roughly 3.3% of the population, Indigenous Australians lack either the force of numbers that helps give the Maori a larger role in New Zealand’s public life, or the legal recognition of sovereignty through which many Native Americans exercise a measure of self-government.
“Public policy no longer requires the imprimatur of the Aboriginal people; Aboriginal participation in the decisions taken about their lives is negligible,” Megan Davis, a Cobble Cobble woman and constitutional lawyer instrumental in the drafting of the Uluru Statement, wrote in a 2015 essay on the halting process of reform. “It is a distraction, an indulgence even.”
Opinion polling on the main elements of the Uluru Statement shows consistent, but relatively shallow support for its measures. That makes it politically risky ground for Albanese. Referendums must be backed by a majority of people in a majority of Australia’s six states to pass. They stand the best chance of succeeding when they’re supported by both sides of politics, as in the 1967 vote.
There’s no guarantee that will happen this time. The new opposition leader, Peter Dutton, boycotted Rudd’s 2007 apology speech, and stands on the right of a party that lost many of its moderate legislators at last month’s election. He’s not yet committed to a position on the Uluru Statement, but his Liberal-National Coalition government blocked moves toward a referendum over five years in power. Should he turn a “no” vote into an issue to rally Australia’s tattered conservative forces, he’d likely have the support of right-wing media organizations who’ve historically opposed improvements to Indigenous rights.
The most likely model for the constitutional change would include brief clauses establishing an Indigenous representative body, but allow the chamber’s precise form to be worked out by Parliament. That will save the referendum process from getting hung up on technical details, but also raises the prospect that future governments may pass fresh legislation to diminish the body.
It wouldn’t be the first time that’s happened. Former Labor Prime Minister Bob Hawke promised a treaty with Indigenous people at the time of the country’s bicentenary in 1988. The proposal was described as “utterly repugnant” by conservative opposition leader John Howard, and ultimately went nowhere. An elected Indigenous representative body established in its stead in 1990 was dismantled 15 years later by Howard, who was by then prime minister. The Rudd government set up a new representative chamber in 2010, only to have it defunded when the Coalition returned to power in 2013.
Achieving change with the advisory chamber envisaged by the Uluru Statement must also contend with a long history of impressively researched, diligent Indigenous advice to government that’s been comprehensively ignored by those in power. The thousands of pages of parliamentary reviews, agency reports, books and articles already written on the statement during a time when political action has been all but non-existent are a fresh example.
And yet, there are signs that Australia is finally changing. Acknowledgements of Indigenous land ownership, still relatively rare when I migrated here 13 years ago, are now routinely given at the start of public performances, parliamentary and legal hearings, as well as on websites and email signatures. Many of the more than 600 Indigenous languages once thought to be destined for extinction are being robustly revived. An Indigenous cultural renaissance of literary, artistic, musical and theatrical works goes from strength to strength each year.
A lackluster revision to the heritage laws that allowed Rio Tinto Group to blast a 46,000-year-old cave site in 2020 suggests there’s a long way to go on land rights, arguably the most insidious and lingering injustice bequeathed by colonial invasion. But recent legal cases have even marginally enhanced the limited rights afforded under Australia’s native title regime.
That gives reason to hope that the current push will succeed where others have failed. The 1967 referendum is remembered now as a high point of Indigenous advancement — but its actual text made relatively minor changes, acting more as a symbol and catalyst for wider reform than as the mechanism which brought social change about.
The three decades of progress that vote ushered in were followed by three more decades of reversals and retrenchments, but the arc of history may finally be bending again. Indigenous people have been calling out for their rightful place in Australia for two centuries. The country may finally be ready to listen.
• How the Legacy of a Civil Rights Hero Was Dismantled in Australia: David Fickling
• Miners Carve Themselves an Ugly Heritage: David Fickling
• Is a 46,000-Year-Old Site Less Sacred Than Profits? David Fickling | 2022-06-02T22:31:48Z | www.washingtonpost.com | How Australia May Finally Redress Two Centuries of Injustice - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/how-australia-may-finally-redress-two-centuries-of-injustice/2022/06/02/2a6bbff0-e2c0-11ec-ae64-6b23e5155b62_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/how-australia-may-finally-redress-two-centuries-of-injustice/2022/06/02/2a6bbff0-e2c0-11ec-ae64-6b23e5155b62_story.html |
DeSantis-drawn congressional map in place for midterm elections
Florida Supreme Court denies a request by voting rights groups to use a judge-approved map instead
Flroida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) speaks during the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Orlando on Feb. 24. (Tristan Wheelock/Bloomberg)
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) prevailed in his attempt to mandate how the state’s congressional district voting lines should be drawn in advance of this year’s midterm elections, which includes the elimination of a district along the Florida-Georgia border with a large population of Black voters.
While legal challenges to the DeSantis map remain, the decision by the Florida Supreme Court on Thursday denying a request by voting rights groups to rule on the issue soon means the map favored by the governor will be in place for the June 17 deadline for candidates to qualify, setting the stage for August primaries and the general election in November. DeSantis is up for reelection this year.
The map gives Republicans a potential advantage in 20 of the state’s 28 congressional districts.
New district map sanctioned by DeSantis passes after protest by Black legislators
Historically in Florida, the governor’s role in the once-a-decade redistricting was limited to either signing or vetoing maps passed by state lawmakers. DeSantis shocked even members of his own party in January when his office put out its version of a congressional map, which was more favorable to Republicans than a bipartisan one that was advancing through the legislature. The most dramatic change was DeSantis’s erasure of a district that runs along the northern border represented by a Black Democrat, Rep. Al Lawson.
DeSantis said in April that he wanted to redraw Lawson’s district “in a race-neutral manner,” rather than one which he said “divvies up people based on the color of their skin.” Lawson in 2017 became the first Black person to represent that area since Reconstruction. The district was created by the Florida Supreme Court after lawsuits filed by voters who said the previous map discriminated against minority voters.
Legislators in Tallahassee passed their maps, but DeSantis vetoed them and called a special session in April in which the GOP-led legislature passed a map drawn by DeSantis’s staff.
A state court judge in May blocked the map, saying it was unconstitutional under Florida’s Fair District Amendment because it reduces the impact of 370,000 Black voters in eight mostly rural counties and “diminishes African Americans’ ability to elect the representative of their choice.”
Analysis: How DeSantis wages culture wars
An appeals court overturned that decision, and the state Supreme Court on Thursday declined to weigh in further, saying it did not have jurisdiction.
Jasmine Burney-Clark, founder of Equal Ground, one of the groups suing over the map, said voting rights groups such as hers will continue to pursue their lawsuit against the “partisan, gerrymandered map.” She pointed to successful lawsuits against previous maps passed by state legislators that were later ruled unconstitutional.
“He does win this one for now,” Burney-Clark said of DeSantis. “So we are going to have to suffer. But this is not a place where we haven’t been before. We know litigation is long, and it is hard, but it is worth fighting for.” | 2022-06-02T22:32:00Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Florida Supreme Court rejects a challenge to the map proposed by Gov. Ron DeSantis - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/06/02/desantis-drawn-congressional-map-place-midterm-elections/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/06/02/desantis-drawn-congressional-map-place-midterm-elections/ |
U.N.: Truce renewed for 2 more months
The United Nations said Thursday that Yemen’s warring parties have agreed to renew a nationwide truce for another two months. The announcement offered a glimmer of hope for the country, plagued by eight years of civil war.
The cease-fire between the internationally recognized government and the Iran-backed Houthi rebels originally came into effect on April 2 — the first nationwide truce in the past six years of fighting in the Middle East’s most impoverished nation. Each side has accused the other of violating the cease-fire at times.
The announcement, the outcome of U.N. efforts, came only a few hours before the truce was set to expire on Thursday.
“The truce represents a significant shift in the trajectory of the war and has been achieved through responsible and courageous decision making by the parties,” Hans Grundberg, the U.N. special envoy for Yemen, said in a statement.
The fighting erupted in 2014 when the Houthis descended from their northern enclave and took over the capital, Sanaa, forcing the government to flee into exile in Saudi Arabia.
Man accused of luring victims on Facebook
State and federal authorities in Mexico said Thursday that they have arrested a suspected serial killer accused of luring young women on Facebook with false job offers.
Authorities said surveillance camera footage from two states shows the man meeting with the victims in public places, and in one case driving a victim away on a motorbike.
The man “is a serial killer of women, and there are at least seven cases of women’s killings where this person could be involved,” said Assistant Public Safety Secretary Ricardo Mejía.
Mejía said the most recent case involved the killing a 31-year-old woman in the gulf coast state of Veracruz after she went for a what she thought was a job interview last month.
Prosecutors in the central state of Morelos said Thursday that the same suspect had killed a 22-year-old student looking for work in April. They said the man used a string of aliases and listed Juan Carlos Gasperin and Greek Román Villalobos as the two most common.
The man and a female companion were arrested in the northern state of Querétaro.
Two Red Cross workers killed in Mali: A vehicle transporting a Red Cross team came under gunfire in western Mali, killing a Dutch aid worker and the car’s driver, the Malian Red Cross said. Witnesses said the gunmen were riding motorcycles when they shot at the vehicle about 6 p.m. Wednesday near Kayes, the Red Cross said, adding that the vehicle had been clearly marked with the group's emblem. Two other employees survived the ambush. Mali has been battling an Islamist insurgency for a decade, and much of the country has long been considered off-limits to Westerners for security reasons.
Four protesters fatally shot in Kenya: A demonstration in Kenya against the threats posed by wildlife turned deadly when four protesters were shot dead, police said. The protesters clashed with security forces, resulting in the fatal shootings, said Mashuru town police chief Charles Chepkonga, adding that police would investigate the shootings. The demonstration blocked the Nairobi-Mombasa highway for hours, as protesters placed rocks and burning tires on the road. Residents have repeatedly called on the Kenya Wildlife Service to find a solution to the conflicts between people and animals.
Macron defends pick for education minister: French President Emmanuel Macron defended his choice of education minister, a Black academic whose appointment has triggered debate over “wokeism” and racism in France. Pap Ndiaye, a specialist in African American history and minority rights, is the son of a Senegalese father and French mother. His appointment was seen by analysts partly as a way to woo voters on the left ahead of this month’s legislative elections. On a visit with Ndiaye to a school in Marseille, Macron said he chose “a man who, through his life, his career, shows what I believe the [product of schools] of the republic should be.” | 2022-06-02T22:32:30Z | www.washingtonpost.com | World Digest: June 2, 2022 - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/world-digest-june-2-2022/2022/06/02/4590a4c4-e281-11ec-9611-6f35e4fddfc3_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/world-digest-june-2-2022/2022/06/02/4590a4c4-e281-11ec-9611-6f35e4fddfc3_story.html |
By Charlotte Proudman
Amber Heard waits for the ruling to be announced at a defamation trial involving the actor and her former husband, actor Johnny Depp on June 1 in Fairfax. (Evelyn Hockstein/PoolAFP/Getty Images
Charlotte Proudman is a barrister specializing in violence against women and girls, and a fellow in law and sociology at Queens’ College, Cambridge.
We lost. We’ve lost before. But this one hurts like an open wound.
On Wednesday, Amber Heard was found by a jury in a Virginia court to have defamed her former husband, Johnny Depp, in an op-ed whose point this case has loudly proved. The result is gutting for individuals who watched the trial, anticipating a victory that could empower them to speak, in belief that the justice system would protect them.
The jury in that courtroom was asked to consider whether three statements in a 2018 Post op-ed were defamatory. This included Heard’s claim that “two years ago, I became a public figure representing domestic abuse, and I felt the full force of our culture’s wrath for women who speak out.” Not once did the article mention Depp’s name.
Yet the jury found that Heard had defamed Depp and acted out of “actual malice”; she has been ordered to pay him $10.35 million. It also found that Depp’s lawyer had defamed Heard, by saying her account of abuse was a “hoax.” For that, she was awarded only $2 million.
This comes two years after a High Court judge in England and Wales dismissed a libel claim Depp had filed against the Sun newspaper — for an article that had called him a “wife beater” — ruling that it had been “proved to the civil standard” that Depp had assaulted Heard on 12 of 14 alleged occasions. (Depp has consistently denied that he abused Heard.)
With the American verdict, Heard has faced more than the culture’s wrath — she has faced global humiliation.
The entire case has been like a “Black Mirror” episode. A dystopian nightmare in which TikToks of a distraught woman detailing an alleged sexual assault were devoured with popcorn and laughter. Twitter hashtags — #AmberIsALiar, #AmbersAPsychopath, #TeamJohnny — made it a trial by media.
Those supporting Heard received death threats, rape threats, a constant bombardment of hate for simply saying, “I stand with Amber.” I know: I got them in bucketloads.
We saw tired, misogynistic methods used again and again to discredit a woman trying to stand up for her rights. Blaming Heard for not leaving, for fighting back, for not being bruised enough, for not having enough evidence. And when she did have evidence? Depp’s team portrayed her as a manipulative liar — and the jury appears to have found this credible.
Heard’s psychologist, Dawn Hughes, testified that Heard had post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of domestic abuse. Psychologist Shannon Curry, a witness for Depp, diagnosed Heard with borderline personality disorder and histrionic personality disorder — despite having never treated her.
As a barrister, I have witnessed the pathologization of survivors become a go-to tactic to discredit them. Slamming a woman’s mental state has always been a quick and easy way to gaslight them — “Oh, she’s crazy,” “she’s so unstable” — “medicine” as a misogynist’s handmaiden.
Many women who watched this trial will recognize this, the classic DARVO playbook in action: “deny, attack, and reverse victim and offender.” And they will fear that they could be next.
The trial reinforced the notion that those who speak out must look, sound and act a certain way. They must conform to the stereotype of the “perfect victim,” one who cowers in a corner, voiceless and powerless. That woman doesn’t speak or fight back.
This is a trope. It rarely exists.
I’ve seen victims behave in all manner of ways in abusive relationships and in the courtroom. Perhaps the only time we see the “perfect victim”? In movies written by men.
As the verdict came, abuse survivors expressed their devastation online. One psychologist told Rolling Stone that “hundreds” of survivors had contacted her to retract victim statements or pulled out from court cases as a result of watching the trial.
The biggest losers here are the U.S. justice system and the women who might otherwise have put their faith in it. Women have been told that if we have enough evidence, we’ll be believed. The truth is, it doesn’t matter how much evidence we have. The system is rigged against women.
Do you think it’s fair that a woman had to testify before a man she says abused her, while that man sat there, smirking? Do you think it’s fair that, throughout the trial, the most intimate and traumatic details were broadcast for the world to see? Do you think it’s fair that Heard was ordered to pay millions of dollars for writing an article that didn’t even name the man who has prevailed in this case?
Heard had the PR team. She had the legal team. Still, she couldn’t win. All we got during weeks of painful testimony was a woman being treated like a villain, a famous man showered with adoration and a justice system failing to protect what it supposedly promises to defend.
The Depp-Heard trial was a circus. The verdict is a gag order. | 2022-06-02T22:32:37Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | The Depp-Heard verdict is a gag order for women - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/02/depp-heard-verdict-is-gag-order-women/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/02/depp-heard-verdict-is-gag-order-women/ |
PlayStation State of Play: ‘Street Fighter 6,’ ‘Final Fantasy XVI,’ ‘Resident Evil 4’ and more
(Washington Post illustration; Sony Interactive Entertainment)
Sony is hosting a 30-minute broadcast to showcase games coming to PlayStation consoles and the forthcoming PS VR2, their second iteration of a virtual reality headset. The company will stream the series of announcements on Twitch and YouTube starting 6 p.m. Eastern on Thursday.
In the first announcement of the PlayStation showcase, Capcom debuted a trailer for a remake of “Resident Evil 4,” the survival horror game which was originally released for the GameCube in 2005. Capcom plans to release the remake next spring on March 24, 2023. The game’s trailer flashed through a few clips of gameplay and cinematics but didn’t show much.
At the end, Capcom announced PS VR2 content for the game as well, and showcased footage of “Resident Evil Village” for PS VR2.
Every Resident Evil game, ranked
“No Man’s Sky,” the sprawling procedurally generated space-exploration game, is coming to PS VR 2. The short trailer did not mention when the title will come to the new headset.
Guerrilla Games revealed a bit more of “Horizon Call of the Mountain,” a spin-off of the original Horizon franchise coming exclusively to PS VR2. In the trailer, the protagonist floats down a river before their boat is completely knocked over by one of the world’s many mechanical monsters. It’s clear you’re not playing as Aloy, the franchise’s main protagonist, but instead some unnamed character who is tasked with finding out why the robots are attacking — again.
The showcase also revealed that Insomniac’s “Spider-Man,” which first released in 2018, is coming to PC.
“Stray,” a game in which players control a kitten exploring a post-apocalyptic landscape, comes to PS5 and PS4 on July 19.
Sony also showcased three games that is promised would get players’ hearts racing, including survival horror game “The Callisto Protocol,” cell-shaded skating shooter titled “Rollerdrome” and the action game dating sim mash-up, “Eternights.”
Capcom debuted a trailer for “Street Fighter 6” on Thursday, based in the game’s Metro City, with what appeared to be an open-world allowing players to explore the New York City-inspired metropolis. The game is expected to be released in 2023.
Indie darling “Tunic” comes to PS5 and PS5 on Sept. 27. “Season: A letter to the future,” another indie game, follows a traveler biking across bridges, exploring forests and walking through purple fields to record, photograph and understand the wider world. The game is coming to PS5 and PS4 this fall.
Sony’s start-of-summer broadcast is the first in a two-week series of prepared announcements and premieres orchestrated by publishers to build hype around their upcoming titles. The news conferences continue next week with the Summer Game Fest on Thursday, June 9 at 2 p.m. Eastern time.
PlayStation reveals PS VR2, the next generation of their virtual reality headset
It’s been two months since Sony’s last showcase. Before the last State of Play in March, the company announced it would be suspending sales of PlayStation consoles and games in Russia in light of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The rest of the showcase in March didn’t include any updates about Sony’s next-generation virtual reality headset and most of the games showcased had previously been shown.
Sony has not published a release date or price tag for the PS VR2 yet. The first PlayStation VR headset sold for $400 when Sony released the device in 2016.
Alyse Stanley and Mikhail Klimentov contributed to this report. | 2022-06-02T22:34:29Z | www.washingtonpost.com | PlayStation State of Play shows Street Fighter 6, Final Fantasy XVI, Resident Evil 4 and more - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/video-games/2022/06/02/sony-state-of-play-2022/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/video-games/2022/06/02/sony-state-of-play-2022/ |
Transcript: Race in America: Giving Voice with Bisa Butler
MS. GIVHAN: Hello, and welcome to Washington Post Live. I’m Robin Givhan, senior critic-at-large, and today we’re continuing our “Race in America” series with my guest, textile artist Bisa Butler.
And I'd like to remind everyone listening and watching that we hope you'll join in on the conversation. You can tweet your questions and comments to the handle @PostLive.
And welcome, Bisa.
MS. BUTLER: Hi, Robin. How are you?
MS. GIVHAN: I am very well. I am so happy that you're here, and I thought I'd jump right in and talking about the really monumental quilt that is currently at the Renwick, that's depicting the Harlem Hellfighters. I mean, I am curious.
MS. BUTLER: Yes.
MS. GIVHAN: There's a lot of history out there that has not been told. What drew you to this specific image?
MS. BUTLER: I'm really glad that in the intro, you had the video, and you showed that black and white photo of the Hellfighters. That's what was--that's what grabbed me. As I was just perusing the National Archives, I saw these, you know, nine amazing, strong, handsome men, and I kind of just thought, of course, that's the Tuskegee Airmen, and then when I looked at that title, "The Harlem Hellfighters," and it's such an audacious title, that I was like, okay, who were the Harlem Hellfighters, and you're telling me that this was World War I? Just by the name and looking at the faces of the young men, I realized that this is a huge story that I had completely missed.
MS. GIVHAN: And when I was able to see the actual quilt in person, I was really intrigued by the fact that even though it is a collage of fabric, the closer you get, you don't lose the distinctiveness. You don't lose the faces the way that you might with a pointillist painting, for example.
MS. BUTLER: Right.
MS. GIVHAN: I mean, is that something that you're very conscious of, the way that the viewer is taking in the work?
MS. BUTLER: I think now that you mention it, because the photo was over--is over a hundred years old, there were some details that were lost, and so I'm not just trying to show what the guys look like, but I'm trying to give the viewer, anybody who looks at the quilt, the experience that I felt when I looked at the photo, as in like trying to uncover who are these guys really, like not just their heroic efforts in World War I, not just the fact that they were out of New York and that they were facing such persecution in the U.S., but like what was the personality of each individual guy? Which one was the funny one? You know, which one is the one who was homesick? Which one is the one who is a natural-born leader? I was trying to discern all of those things. So, when you mention like that, it doesn't get blurrier, and it doesn't lose focus as you get closer. That's like me trying to do that deep introspective deep dive into the psyche of a man.
MS. GIVHAN: And one of the other, I thought, really intriguing aspects--I mean, I know you've talked a bit about this before--has been your choice of the particular fabrics that you use, the colors that you choose, the fact that some of the faces are in tones of blue and others are in tones of reds and yellows. Can you talk a little bit about the way that you choose the colors and what you hope they evoke?
MS. BUTLER: Sure. I mean, when I first started creating artwork, I was a painter, and I was a student at Howard University. And this was like the 1990s. My professors, a lot of them, came directly out of the AfriCOBRA movement, which was the visual arm, if you will, of the Black Panther movement, a way that young Black African Americans in the 1960s could say with their artwork what other people were saying with their speeches and with their marches and with their actions, and that embracing of a Black identity also came with a new color palette, which they wanted to determine for themselves, not only just using color to depict a human being but using color to depict an African American person whose roots are in the continent.
So what were the textiles like? What are the bright yellows and the bright oranges and the reds and the indigos, like what are the colors that you would see if you traveled to Africa in the 1960s, or if you walked in any urban city in the '60s, what were those colors that the young hip people were wearing? And they called those the "Kool-Aid color." So "Kool" as in cool, like actually hip, cool, with it. Young people, what were they wearing? And it's interesting that they were translating those colors into paint, and now I'm sort of translating them back into textiles because they were being influenced by those fashions.
And they also talked to us about using color to express emotion. I mean, you hear that a lot in our language. We say that we have the blues, you know, or somebody is green with envy or, you know, I was so angry that I felt myself go red or I saw red or I felt red. So I'm using those colors in an enhanced way to sort of give that insight.
One young man, one of the Hellfighters, he looks kind of calm. His head is kind of like tilted, leaned back to the side. So, when I see that, I'm thinking maybe this young man is the one who was more cool, more calm. Maybe he was calm under pressure. So I'm using colors that indicate calmness, like the blues and the greens of like a calm water, somebody who has more level vibes.
But, on the converse of that, there's one young man at the top, and he's kind of frowning, in a way. He's looking at the viewer or looking at the photographer like, "I do not trust you, man."
MS. BUTLER: "I believe I'm not only reading you, but I'm finding you inadequate in some way." So I used a lot of reds and oranges with him because I felt like that personality seemed very kind of forceful, and red is that passionate color. It can be anger. It can be passion. It can be power. So I'm using the color to not only reflect like my upbringing at Howard University and my philosophy as far as having an African American color palette, but I'm also using color to express who I think these men are on the inside.
MS. GIVHAN: And another quilt was one of your earlier life-size quilts. You used the--a photograph by Russell Lee, I think, from 1941--
MS. GIVHAN: --of a group of young men, a group of boys.
MS. GIVHAN: And, I mean, they are most definitely serving up all kinds of different attitude there.
MS. GIVHAN: Can you talk a bit also about, you know, depicting them? And, you know, they're not necessarily, you know, these heroic young men. They seem to be just, you know, a group of friends.
MS. BUTLER: Yeah. Well, that--when I worked on that piece, I was still a high school teacher. I was a public high school art teacher for 13 years. I worked for ten years in north New Jersey and three years in my hometown in Maplewood, New Jersey, and--
MS. GIVHAN: As my mother would say, you were doing the Lord's work.
MS. BUTLER: Yes. And, you know, teenagers, they are challenging. They're unique creatures, and I love my students dearly. And so, at the same time as I was beginning to start showing my work more nationally, I was in the classroom, and I'm seeing all these things on the news. And Trayvon Martin had been killed, had been murdered not too long after that piece was made, and I was thinking about this assumption that is always made about young Black men, about people of color. They're just kids like any other kid. Whether or not the kid is poor or the kid does not have the resources that other people have, at the end of the day, the inside of that child is just like any other child, and when I saw this photo of these five boys by Russell Lee, I thought, you know, Russell Lee, he captured exactly what our children are in our neighborhoods. How do the parents want to dress their children?
This is Easter morning, and I was that kid too, that my mother was a teacher and my father was a college administrator. So I wasn't necessarily wealthy, but Easter was very important in the community. It was so important that the children looked clean from head to toe, and when I saw that, some of the boys, you see that the bottoms of their shoes are clean too. So they're brand-new. Their parents and the community care deeply about the welfare of these children and what these children are dressed like and what they project into their community themself.
So my piece was sort of that reflection on the individualism of each child, how each one of them is so valuable and important to the people around them, and then again using color to show who are they, who were they as a group. The way Russell Lee styled them, they're sort of in this diamond formation, and the young man in the center, he's--I depict him mostly in reds.
And that to this date is the only young man who's been identified by name in that photo. I put a query out on Instagram, and I did get some responses from people. They haven't been vetted or proven, but people saying like that's my cousin or that was my mother's cousin's uncle. So trying to use the crowdsourcing and trying to use the community to put a name and identity to these young men is really important to me.
MS. GIVHAN: Although, I mean, in some ways, you have given them, I think, such personality that--not that it stands in for identity, but you really have given them a life beyond that photograph, beyond that time period, just through the vibrancy of the image.
MS. BUTLER: Thank you. Yeah.
MS. GIVHAN: I wanted to ask you about a pretty famous quilt of yours. It's the depiction of Harriet Tubman. We got a tile preview of that just a second ago, and you often look back at, you know, quite famous figures from history and depict them, and it seems that to me that the use of a fabric, the color, the pattern adds another dimension to our understanding of these people that have had a lot written about them. I mean, what do you feel like your--like you've added to our understanding--or your understanding of Harriet Tubman in the process of producing the quilt?
MS. BUTLER: Well, that, that particular quilt was--the source photo that you just projected was only discovered, I think, in 2018. Somebody had it, you know, in their family archives for years and years, and I don't know the backstory of what made them bring that photo to light, but it was shared. And I think it's now being housed at the National Museum of African American History and Culture.
So seeing that carte-de-visite of Harriet Tubman when she was about 40 years old, it brought me a new understanding of Harriet, the woman. We know about her as a Freedom Fighter, the abolitionist, you know, the Moses of the People, the General. I think she was also a spy for the Union Army and I think also led like an armed raid. We hear about Harriet with her gun.
But we never really hear about what did Harriet sound like, her voice. Was she funny? Was she kind of somber? Was she quiet and thoughtful, or was she like spicy and had a mouth on her? Like, what was it like to actually sit and chat with Harriet? And so that part is missing. So I was studying that photo trying to glean that from her.
I saw how precise her hair had been done, how the boning in her top was so stuff and severe and had--she had so many tiny little pearl buttons on her shirt, and I saw a Harriet that I didn't know before, this meticulous woman who cared about fine clothing and how she was perceived. And so it was interesting to see Harriet in not a glamor shot but a shot where she had time to reveal more of herself. So I'm using color to kind of just share with people what I saw in her, and we know that Harriet had to travel at night. And we know that she had to be very stealthy, very quiet, very careful, and very patient. So that's why I have on one half of her, these blues and the greens, again, thinking about quiet, calm, deliberate action, and then on the other side, I had this fiery red because she was known as the General, and like I said before, we know Harriet had that gun. So she wasn't always calm. She had to, you know, be forceful and be powerful. It was life and death, her life, and then the other people's lives who she was freeing. So I wanted to depict the two sides of Harriet.
MS. GIVHAN: You mention that you studied at Howard. You studied fine arts, and you started with painting.
MS. BUTLER: Mm-hmm.
MS. GIVHAN: Can you talk a little bit about why you made the transition from painting to fabric and from what is sort of a two-dimensional medium to one that is so tactile and so--and so three-dimensional? I mean, contrary to what I was supposed to, I really wanted to just like reach out and touch the quilt.
MS. BUTLER: But I refrained.
MS. BUTLER: Yes. Well, you know, quilts are supposed to be touched. So that's a totally natural response to want to feel it, and they're meant to keep us warm and to give us comfort. So there is like a little bit of a bit of a conflict there when we're told don't touch.
But I made the pitch when I was at Howard because one of my professors--and, you know, obviously, I'm a former teacher, but I'll always be an educator. And I'm a believer in professors and educators, administrators who care about their students and care about their success and believe that they have more in them, and thank goodness, while I was at Howard, I had--well, the dean of fine arts was Jeff Donaldson who founded AfriCOBRA.
But my one professor, Al Smith, came over to my house because I told him I was struggling, and I wasn't getting what I wanted out of my paintings. They just weren't giving anything about me the individual. It was just--it was very formulaic. Whatever they said to do was exactly what I put out. It was almost like a paint-by-numbers. And when Al Smith came over, he sat with me and took that time to talk to me and observe me and see me the individual, and it was Al who said, "Bisa, you always dress in these funky, fly fabrics. You use lace, and you're adding leather cuffs on your denim jeans, and you're replacing sleeves with African-print fabric in Dutch Wax. Why do you dress like this, but your artwork doesn't reflect your personality at all?"
So he told me look at the works of Romare Bearden. Go to the National Gallery of Art. See what the collage artists were doing and add fabric onto your paintings. So it was Al who gave me the idea to look into my own background. My mother and my grandmother were not professional seamstresses, but they were very involved and loved fashion, and so I'm looking at their lace and their velvets and their silks, and I'm like, okay, what if I put that and glue that onto a canvas? So that was the beginning of me sort of transitioning.
And then after I graduated from Howard, I went to Montclair State for my master's, and my life-changing moment came in a regular fiber arts class in Montclair State, and they said-- my professor told us, "You should make a quilt. You can make a small quilt. You can make a landscape. You can make a portrait," and so I was like, okay, well, I'll make a portrait. And that was really the moment that my life changed because I realized I didn't have to use canvas at all. I did not have to try to fit this fabric onto this hard surface, but that I could sew, just like my mother and my grandmother did. And I could use my sewing machine, and I could use all those fabrics that I already had.
My grandmother and my mother always saved‑‑and most seamstresses, they saved their remnants. So I didn't have to worry about going to the art supply. I didn't have to like have more money, which I didn't have. I had all of these fabrics that they had been putting away and aside all these years for a project that you never get to, and it was like they had given me their legacy of fabrics from the '50s, '60s, and '70s and '80s, and now I'm using them to create portraits.
So it reminded me, anyway, that I had everything that I needed all along. I just needed to‑‑I needed help, and I needed a professor to help me see that.
MS. GIVHAN: One of the‑‑you brought up the fact that seamstresses always have these remnants of fabric lying about, but what's also quite striking is that, you know, you're using quite luxurious fabrics like silks and velvet and lace‑‑
MS. BUTLER: Yeah.
MS. GIVHAN: ‑‑particularly when you are creating a subject's hair using lace and silk petals and things like that.
MS. BUTLER: Mm‑hmm.
MS. GIVHAN: I mean, why do you choose those more precious fabrics? And I'm hoping you can talk a little bit about your depiction of hair, which is extraordinary in this quilt, "Warmth of Other Suns," which takes its name from the book, "Warmth of Other Suns."
MS. BUTLER: Mm‑hmm. Well, initially, I used the fabrics that my mother and my grandmother had, but as I was working with them, I started using fabrics and tried to tell the story who was my grandmother. She was a woman from New Orleans. She has a Black Creole heritage, and this is a Catholic, very Catholic community. So I thought about the laces that she would have worn to church.
So I'm using the fabric not only to create a portrait of her but to tell about her life style, what was the Black middle class like at that time. And as we know in our community, we've always and often had to deal with less, but we use what we have to create more. We put our own personal sense of style and flair into everything that we do, and as far as our depictions of hair‑‑so I was at first thinking, okay, let me use black fabric to create a dark hair, but then I started thinking, oh, I would like to use velvet because it has that soft texture, and it has a tactile sense in it that gives me and can give other people the idea of what Black hair feels like.
And then there's a whole nother level of that because velvet is a fabric that we use at special events. Velvet is a more opulent, more expensive fabric. So I'm also saying that I feel that our hair is valuable, our natural texture, Black hair, whatever it may be, whether it's straight, wavy, kinky, nappy, that those naps are precious, and so if I use black jet beads that cost $150 just for a small piece or a beautiful silk velvet that's been produced by Chanel, I'm using that to say that I believe that our Black hair is just as valuable as these high‑priced fabrics and materials.
MS. GIVHAN: That kind of leads to an audience question which is from Deborah in Virginia who also was drawn to the fabrics, and she's curious to know, how do you source and find these vibrant textiles? I mean, are they especially made? Do you have an in with Chanel? Where do you find them?
MS. BUTLER: I wish I did. So, hey, Chanel, pay attention to this.
But I look at fabric as my palette, and I'm always looking for ways to emulate the fabrics that I grew up around because my father is from Ghana and my mother grew up in Morocco. So anybody who travels in Africa or if you go to the market, you see that women, like their ordinary house dresses are these beautifully bright, bright, vibrant fabrics. The dresses that they wore in the '70s were called the "booboos," and they were these big draped, crazy, beautiful textiles from Europe and from‑‑and printed in Africa itself.
So those are the fabrics that I grew up seeing ordinary women wear to the market and wear around the house. So, when my grandmother was cooking, she would be wearing these bright, beautiful booboos. So that seeped into my subconscious, and I'm always sort of telling the story of the subject that you're looking at, but I'm also telling the story of me, this transplant girl who has roots in New Orleans and Ghana growing up in New Jersey in the '70s. So you'll see that in the fabric.
And these fabrics, thank goodness, nowadays we can order them online. Like I order from companies like Brisco and Urban Spax [phonetic], and I go right to the Garment District. I live in New Jersey, which is about 30 minutes outside of New York City. So I can go to the Garment District and find, you know, the Chanels and the Marc Jacobs and the Christian Dior fabrics and buy them right then and there.
MS. GIVHAN: Well, you know, I think that particularly now, we are looking to artists to move us, to enlighten us. I mean, what do you see as the role of the artist, particularly now at a time of such upheaval?
MS. BUTLER: Mm‑hmm. I feel like it's not just the role of the artists, right, but the role of all us. I mean, you are a correspondent, you know, writer, producer, and you use your skills that you were blessed with to help. So I feel like we all have this responsibility to try to help, especially when Black people, people are suffering, that we can't just ignore that, because we're in a contentious time.
When we think about how misjudging somebody, getting somebody else's perspective can create situations like what happened in Buffalo and what happened in Uvalde, if by me creating a piece of artwork that lets you see the humanity of a person, the soul of a person, and feel that this person and the artwork is valuable, therefore, the person that I'm passing on the street is valuable, then that's what I can contribute, and that was what we were taught at Howard, that we as the Talented Tenth at that time had the privilege to be able to go to school and be able to get an education, yet many of our people don't have that privilege. So what is your responsibility to try to elevate and help the situation of Black people in the world, Black people in this country, and bigger than Black people, but what is your responsibility to help people, help humanity? What is your purpose? And so I feel that if I can make artwork that can help the situation, then that's what I should do.
MS. GIVHAN: And we just have about a minute left, but I did want to ask, as a former teacher, I mean, do you have still that instinct to educate? Do you still have that instinct to speak to younger generations?
MS. BUTLER: I do. I suppose that will never leave me now. I spent too many years thinking about, you know, what is my responsibility. Every day when I would walk in the classroom, it wasn't just the lessons that I was teaching as the art teacher, but what do I represent as a Black woman? If there were students in the class who never had a Black teacher before, students who looked nothing like me and have‑‑and have no background like mine, what can I do to help them understand who I am, and how can I understand them and help them? And I feel that way with my artwork as well. It's still I'm no longer one‑on‑one with my students, but there's still an audience, and there's still communication where I'm trying to say I'm a human being, and I'm depicting people who were of value, like the Harlem Hellfighters, and I also want the person who's looking at my artwork not to feel undervalued as well. So I'm still trying to have that communication that I see you, and I hope that you see me, and we can have an understanding.
MS. GIVHAN: Bisa Butler, thank you so much for joining us today. I'm afraid that's all the time that we have, but it's been a pleasure.
MS. BUTLER: Thank you so much, Robin. I've enjoyed this conversation.
MS. GIVHAN: And thank you all for joining us, and for more information about upcoming events, please head to WashingtonPostLive.com, and you can register for upcoming conversations.
Thank you again. I'm Robin Givhan. | 2022-06-02T22:34:35Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Transcript: Race in America: Giving Voice with Bisa Butler - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/washington-post-live/2022/06/02/transcript-race-america-giving-voice-with-bisa-butler/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/washington-post-live/2022/06/02/transcript-race-america-giving-voice-with-bisa-butler/ |
Driver charged in crash that killed 83-year-old pedestrian
An Annandale woman has been charged with reckless driving following a crash that killed an 83-year-old pedestrian and injured three others in late May, Fairfax County police said Thursday.
Joana Konadu, 41, lost control of her vehicle in Annandale on May 20 as she was attempting to grab food and a drink she spilled, police said. The Nissan Sentra crossed a median on Maple Place, drove over a sidewalk and plowed into a group of pedestrians discussing a community project in a parking lot, police said.
Eileen Garnett, 83, one of the pedestrians, was taken to the hospital, where she died, police said. The other pedestrians, two women and a man, were treated for non-life threatening injuries. Konadu and a passenger were also taken to the hospital for treatment.
A phone number could not be located for Konadu and no attorney was listed for her in court records. | 2022-06-02T23:02:10Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Driver charged in crash that killed 83-year-old pedestrian - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/02/woman-charged-annandale-crash/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/02/woman-charged-annandale-crash/ |
Capcom and Square Enix games promise a bright future for the PS5
Analysis by Gene Park
At its start during the 1990s, the foundation of the PlayStation brand was third-party support, and two series in particular were instrumental in cementing PlayStation as the gaming destination. Famously, the Final Fantasy series jumped from Nintendo to PlayStation for the larger storage space on the CD-ROM format, forgoing the Nintendo 64′s miscalculated bet on cartridges. “Final Fantasy VII” debuted on the first PlayStation, showcasing a cinematic video game unlike anything the world had seen. Capcom, on its part, aimed to create an immersive horror game for the console, an idea that would become “Resident Evil.”
On Thursday, during Sony’s State of Play event, both series showed up to remind the world that PlayStation is still the go-to destination for these high-quality franchises. Capcom announced a remake of “Resident Evil 4,” the influential 2005 game that revolutionized third-person action games for the 21st century. The game is often cited as being among one of the best ever created, and Capcom has seen massive critical and commercial success remaking its earliest titles in the series. The game is scheduled for a March 2023 release.
Debate over whether “Resident Evil 4” needs a remake has raged for years, but the darker tone displayed in the trailer makes a strong argument for it. Key moments from the game, like mumbling priests in a castle, did stand for a more horror-tinged makeover versus the camp of the original game, and flashes of those moments promise dread. The trailer didn’t showcase the action the title was known for, but it’s a sure bet the fighting system of the original will see an overhaul too.
What makes a remake? Not even developers really know.
The series is also strengthening the lineup for PlayStation’s upcoming VR2 device: A “Resident Evil 8: Village” port was among the titles announced for the platform. “Resident Evil 7” garnered praise as one of the first successful console to VR ports, and the VR version of the original 2005 “Resident Evil 4” was also a hit among those who tried it.
Square Enix also gave an extended look at the highly-anticipated “Final Fantasy XVI,” a console exclusive to PlayStation 5. It’s the first mainline single-player entry in the series overseen by Naoki Yoshida, the celebrated director of MMO “Final Fantasy XIV.” Yoshida is famous for his ability to steer projects toward completion and success, talents that are needed for a series famous for development troubles.
The excitement for the sixteenth installment is heightened by the fact that the company seemed to have perfected action combat as evidenced by 2020′s “Final Fantasy Remake.” The studio creating the Final Fantasy series has experimented with stylish role-playing action for almost two decades. The remake of the seventh game saw the developer finally achieving this after years of iteration, and the prospect of a new game featuring similarly snappy and satisfying action has been tantalizing for longtime fans. The game is scheduled for release during the summer of 2023.
The fighting game community will also need to wait until 2023 for “Street Fighter VI,” likely a PlayStation console exclusive given the series’ history with Sony. The game may feature an online hub world featuring a 3D map to be navigated by the player, a new feature for the series.
“The Callisto Protocol,” launching December 2022, is created by Striking Distance Studios, a studio featuring the original creators of “Dead Space.” That game was famously influenced by “Resident Evil 4,” as the development on that game shifted from first-person to copying that game’s third-person perspective. “Callisto” looks to continue to explore gory horror in space, just as “Dead Space” did.
Thursday’s State of Play was also peppered with smaller indie releases, including the orange-cat puzzle platformer “Stray” launching on July 19, and an energetic, unique rollerblading arena shooter called “Rollerdrome,” launching Aug. 16.
The overarching narrative of 2022′s game release schedule has been pessimistic, with several titles big and small seeing delays to next year. But despite the wait until next year for many of these hotly anticipated titles, PlayStation’s event gave us a lot to look forward to, and showed that third-party releases will continue to strengthen the PlayStation brand well through the PlayStation 5′s life cycle. | 2022-06-02T23:50:02Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Resident Evil 4 and Final Fantasy XVI on PS5, still a year out, promise a bright future - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/video-games/2022/06/02/playstation-final-fantasy-xvi-resident-evil/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/video-games/2022/06/02/playstation-final-fantasy-xvi-resident-evil/ |
For Annika Sorenstam, back in field at U.S. Women’s Open, it’s family first
Annika Sorenstam, 51, is focusing on family first even as she plays in the U.S. Women's Open. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)
SOUTHERN PINES, N.C. — Annika Sorenstam found herself somewhat distracted during the first round of the U.S. Women’s Open, but it had little to do with the rousing ovations the 10-time major champion received throughout her opening 18 holes or even the stifling heat index that gripped Pine Needles by the time she had finished playing.
The three-time U.S. Women’s Open champion instead was trying to locate her family to make sure they were staying hydrated and protecting themselves from the oppressive elements at the season’s second major championship.
Those concerns were not anywhere on Sorenstam’s radar when she won her second of three U.S. Women’s Open titles in 1996 at Pine Needles in a runaway, finishing eight strokes in front of her closest pursuer and as the only player in the field with a final score in red numbers (8-under 272).
A 'fearless' amateur seizes lead at U.S. Women's Open with a record first round
“Yeah, I wasn’t worried about them,” Sorenstam said when asked to compare her experience Thursday to 1996. “Now, it’s like I worry about my husband. I worry about the kids, are they drinking, and then do my kids have enough sunblock. There’s a lot of thoughts going on.”
Which is just fine with Sorenstam, who at 51 is at peace with her current place in the game as an ambassador as well as a mentor to younger players, especially those from Sweden such as first-round leader Ingrid Lindblad, 19, as well as the likes of Linnea Johansson, 28, and Madeline Sagstrom, 29.
Not even a round of 3-over 74 that left Sorenstam in a tie for 100th place in the field of 156 fazed the eight-time LPGA player of the year (a record) and the tour’s career leader in earnings. Sorenstam’s 90 victories around the world are the most in women’s golf history.
Sorenstam announced in 2008 she would be stepping away from competitive golf after that season. Her last professional tournament in a non-senior event came in December 2008 at the Dubai Ladies Masters on the European tour. She finished tied for seventh place.
“I don’t get as mad as I used to,” Sorenstam said. “I kind of bounce off it. By the end of the day the kids want to do something. I probably have to cook dinner, just all those things I enjoy doing off the golf course. I can’t get upset anymore. It’s just great to be here and enjoy.”
Sorenstam qualified for the U.S. Women’s Open by winning last year’s U.S. Senior Women’s Open at Brooklawn Country Club in Fairfield, Conn. Her score of 12 under was eight strokes better than runner-up and fellow Swede Liselotte Neumann.
“It’s amazing to have Annika competing,” said American Lexi Thompson, ranked sixth in the world. “It’s great to have role models like her.”
So comfortable is Sorenstam that she accompanied her son Will for a round of golf earlier this week at The Cradle Short Course at nearby Pinehurst resort instead of devoting extended time to practice at Pine Needles.
Had she focused on her own game, she would have missed Will, 11, record the first ace of his career at the fifth hole.
“I’m a lot more content in my life,” said Sorenstam, who married her second husband, Mike McGee, in 2009 and with whom she has two children. “I’m not here to create a new career or start something new and make a mark for myself. I’m more here to enjoy what I’ve done and enjoy being invited to come here and play and kind of share it with my loved ones.” | 2022-06-02T23:58:44Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Annika Sorenstam is back in field at U.S. Open at 51 - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/02/annika-sorenstam-us-womens-open/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/02/annika-sorenstam-us-womens-open/ |
Georgetown Law official cleared over tweets on Supreme Court pick
Ilya Shapiro, who has been on paid administrative leave since late January, said he will start work Friday
Georgetown University Law Center in Northwest Washington. (Nick Anderson/The Washington Post)
A Georgetown Law administrator who was placed on paid administrative leave this year for his tweets about President Biden’s promise to nominate a Black woman for the Supreme Court has been cleared after a months-long investigation, officials said Thursday.
School investigators found that Ilya Shapiro, who was set to lead the Center for the Constitution starting in February, was not “properly subject to discipline” for his January tweets because they were posted before his employment started, William M. Treanor, the law school’s dean, said in an email to the campus.
Days before his appointment — and shortly after Supreme Court Justice Stephen G. Breyer announced plans to retire — Shapiro tweeted Biden should nominate the chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, but instead would pick a “lesser Black woman.”
Incoming Georgetown Law official placed on administrative leave for tweets about Supreme Court pick
Shapiro’s remarks — for which he apologized a day after they were posted — also included a tweet that said if Biden nominated a Black woman for the high court, she “will always have an asterisk attached.” Another tweet included a poll that asked if the president’s commitment to nominating a Black female judge was racist, sexist, both or neither.
His posts immediately incited some backlash, accusations of racism and a condemnation from the law school’s dean, who declared Shapiro’s remarks “appalling.” But dozens of students and faculty also came to Shapiro’s defense.
Shapiro was put on leave pending an investigation. On Thursday, he said he was “gratified” he will get to do the job for which he was hired.
“I look forward to teaching and engaging in a host of activities relating to constitutional education,” Shapiro wrote in a statement shared on Twitter. “As befitting a Center for the Constitution, all students and participants in my programs can expect to be accorded the freedom to think and speak freely and to be treated equally: a diversity of ideas will be most welcome.”
In a separate tweet, Shapiro said he’d go to work Friday.
While Shapiro has been cleared of wrongdoing, Treanor’s note to campus said the university’s offices of human resources and institutional diversity, equity, and affirmative action — which led investigations into his conduct — found his “tweets had a significant negative impact on the Georgetown Law community, including current and prospective students, alumni, staff, and faculty.”
The dean said Shapiro will participate in implicit bias, cultural competence and nondiscrimination programming — a requirement for all law school senior staff. Shapiro has been asked to avail himself to meet with students concerned about his ability to treat them fairly, Treanor said.
The incident reflects the pressure on administrators nationwide to showcase their schools as sites of diverse viewpoints while also ensuring students feel safe and welcome. Georgetown Law has not yet reached a balance, said Amber Freeney, a third-year student and president of the campus’s Black Law Students Association.
Freeney said the university’s investigators should publicly release their findings into the Shapiro tweets. “I’m outraged,” Freeney said. “I believe in freedom of speech, but I do not believe in freedom from consequences. I feel like Georgetown University Law Center has failed to recognize the difference.” | 2022-06-03T00:03:30Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Ilya Shapiro cleared after Georgetown Law investigation over tweets - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2022/06/02/ilya-shapiro-georgetown-law-investigation/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2022/06/02/ilya-shapiro-georgetown-law-investigation/ |
Suspect in Buffalo killings pleads not guilty to terror change
Suspect pleads not guilty to terror charge
The man accused of killing 10 Black people at a Buffalo supermarket pleaded not guilty Thursday to hate-motivated domestic terrorism and other charges. A prosecutor called the evidence against him overwhelming.
A lawyer entered the plea for Payton Gendron, 18, who is White, in the first case to make use of New York’s domestic terrorism hate crime law. Gendron didn’t speak during the brief hearing, which had a heavy security presence.
Witnesses, police, and Gendron’s own writings and live-streamed video have incriminated him as the gunman who used an AR-style semiautomatic rifle May 14 to target shoppers and employees of a Tops Friendly Markets, and he surrendered at the crime scene after putting his rifle to his neck. Authorities said the store was chosen because of its location in a predominantly Black neighborhood.
Supreme Court allows DeSantis-backed map
The Florida Supreme Court on Thursday declined to block the state’s new congressional map drawn by Gov. Ron DeSantis’s administration,probably ensuring the plan will remain in effect for November’s midterm elections and giving Republicans a boost in their quest to win control of Congress.
The plan has been challenged by several voting and civil rights groups as unlawful because it dismantles a majority-Black district in north Florida held by U.S. Rep. Al Lawson (D).
The groups have also argued that the map violates state constitutional provisions intended to prevent partisan gerrymandering. The new map gives Republicans the advantage in 20 of the state’s 28 congressional districts, four more seats than the party currently occupies.
In a surprise move, DeSantis (R) created his own map, vetoed two less aggressive maps that the GOP-controlled legislature passed and called lawmakers into a special session to vote on his proposal. | 2022-06-03T00:03:42Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Suspect in Buffalo killings pleads not guilty to terror change - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/suspect-in-buffalo-killings-please-not-guilty-to-terror-change/2022/06/02/e35bfda0-de2d-11ec-a744-f4da26d516e8_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/suspect-in-buffalo-killings-please-not-guilty-to-terror-change/2022/06/02/e35bfda0-de2d-11ec-a744-f4da26d516e8_story.html |
David C. MacMichael, CIA whistleblower under Reagan, dies at 93
Former CIA intelligence analyst David C. MacMichael in 2005. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
David C. MacMichael, a disillusioned CIA analyst who accused the Reagan administration of misrepresenting intelligence as part of an effort to overthrow the left-wing government of Nicaragua, claims that foreshadowed the political scandal known as the Iran-contra, died May 16 at his home in Linden, Va. He was 93.
The cause was pneumonia, said his wife, Barbara Jentzsch.
A former Marine Corps captain with counterinsurgency expertise and a PhD in history, Dr. MacMichael joined the CIA in 1981 as a contract employee, analyzing military and political developments in Central America at a time when the region was considered a key Cold War battleground, home to the leftist Sandinista government in Nicaragua and a growing left-wing insurgency in El Salvador.
Amid fears that the Soviet Union was trying to stir up a communist revolution on the doorstep of the United States, the Reagan administration began funding right-wing Nicaraguan rebels known as the contras, justifying the effort by citing a flood of Soviet weapons that the Nicaraguan government was purportedly providing to Salvadoran guerrillas.
But as Dr. MacMichael began studying the situation, he found that the flow of weapons into El Salvador appeared to have stopped in early 1981, soon after Reagan took office. When he questioned his superiors about the lack of intelligence backing the White House’s claims, he was given vague answers. “They kept saying we have it,” he told the Guardian, “but they never showed it to me, even though I was cleared for everything except nuclear matters.”
Over time, Dr. MacMichael said, he learned that Reagan had approved a CIA plan to create a covert force of 1,500 fighters in an effort to destabilize the Nicaraguan government. The claim that Nicaragua was arming Salvadoran rebels, which the White House repeated in statements to Congress and the public, appeared to be little more than a pretext for backing the contras and pursuing regime change in Managua, the capital.
After Dr. MacMichael’s two-year contract with the CIA was not renewed, he traveled to Nicaragua on his own expense to examine the situation on the ground. He then met with members of Congress and began working with a lawyer, trying to make sure he didn’t run afoul of a secrecy agreement he had signed when he joined the CIA. Fearing that Reagan was moving toward “a major military intervention” in Central America, he began speaking out in 1984.
“The whole picture that the administration has presented of Salvadoran insurgent operations being planned, directed and supplied from Nicaragua is simply not true,” he told the New York Times. At a news conference, he went further, saying: “There is a point where exaggeration becomes impossible to distinguish from prevarication. If ever a major public policy of the United States has been justified on such flimsy grounds, such patently unprovable claims, I cannot recall it.”
Those claims were repudiated by senior officials including CIA Director William J. Casey and Secretary of State George P. Shultz, who suggested Dr. MacMichael “must be living in some other world” to deny the transfer of arms from Nicaragua to El Salvador. But his disclosures intensified a debate over whether the U.S. government should support the contras, who were accused of widespread human rights violations, including kidnapping, torturing and executing civilians.
Later that year, Congress voted to cut off funding to the rebels and, effectively, to bar the use of federal money for the contras. Senior officials in the Reagan administration continued to support the group, developing a covert scheme in which arms were sold to Iran in exchange for the release of American hostages held in Lebanon, with some of the proceeds diverted to the Nicaraguan rebels.
When the operation came to light in 1986, it erupted into one of the biggest political scandals in recent decades, leading to more than a dozen indictments and tarnishing the administration’s public image.
Dr. MacMichael said he had initially hoped he wouldn’t have to challenge the official U.S. position on the contras, believing that “the lack of evidence for the administration’s case” and “the wild and overstated pronouncements” of the president and other top officials would undercut support for the group. He changed his mind, he added, “when I realized that people were dying brutally and in large numbers in Nicaragua on the basis of these untruths.”
“You find yourself in this situation maybe once in a lifetime,” he later told author Richard Thieme. “You only come to the plate once and had better take your swings. I took my swings. That was my one ethical plus in a lifetime of unethical behavior.”
David Charles MacMichael was born in Albany, N.Y., on June 5, 1928, and grew up in Leonia, N.J. His mother was a homemaker, and his father was a concert pianist who later worked for the Heinz food processing company.
After graduating from high school, Dr. MacMichael served in the Marine Corps and studied history at Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia, receiving a bachelor’s degree in 1952. Returning to the Corps as an officer, he was sent to Korea and severely wounded during an artillery attack in 1953. He spent 19 months recovering at a naval hospital, according to his daughter Alicia Williamson.
Dr. MacMichael resigned his commission in 1959 and returned to school, receiving a doctorate in history from the University of Oregon and teaching at Dominican College of San Rafael, now the Dominican University of California.
In the mid-1960s he was recruited to the Stanford Research Institute, which had connections to the Defense Department, and was assigned to work on counterinsurgency projects in Thailand.
Dr. MacMichael later testified about his CIA work at an International Court of Justice hearing, after the Nicaraguan government accused the United States of violating international law through its support for the contras. The Reagan administration boycotted the proceedings, saying the court lacked jurisdiction, and the court ruled in favor of Nicaragua, which later withdrew its complaint under a post-Sandinista government.
After Dr. MacMichael left the CIA, he worked for the Council on Hemispheric Affairs, a Washington-based research organization focused on Latin America, and co-founded Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity, a group of former intelligence officials that protested the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.
He also maintained a devotion to physical fitness that he traced back to his years in the Marine Corps. At 65, he walked across the country, starting at Point Reyes in California and finishing near Washington. He later completed the Appalachian Trail and, as recently as last year, chopped firewood for exercise.
His marriage to Martha Ostrander ended in divorce. In 2003, he married Barbara Jentzsch, a German journalist. In addition to his wife, of Linden, survivors include three children from his first marriage, John Francis MacMichael of Portland, Ore., Williamson of Gaston, Ore., and Stephanie Kolkka of Redwood City, Calif.; a brother; and a sister.
Dr. MacMichael told the Guardian that even after he left the CIA, his connection to the agency shadowed his advocacy efforts in Nicaragua, where he sought to volunteer with Witness for Peace, a grass-roots organization, by picking coffee in conflict zones as an expression of solidarity with Nicaraguan workers.
“But I couldn’t get on any team. Every time they heard who I had worked for,” he said, “they wanted me to ring a little bell as I came down the road like a leper.” | 2022-06-03T00:03:54Z | www.washingtonpost.com | David C. MacMichael, CIA whistleblower under Reagan, dies at 93 - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2022/06/02/cia-whistleblower-david-c-macmichael-dead/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2022/06/02/cia-whistleblower-david-c-macmichael-dead/ |
The Texas Democrat has found himself again in a cycle that includes comforting families, attending funerals, calling for change at the ballot box and, so far, coming up short on Election Day
Texas Democratic gubernatorial candidate Beto O’Rourke speaks at a town hall event in Dallas on June 1. (Laura Buckman for The Washington Post)
DALLAS — Right after a 2018 mass shooting in Texas, then-Democratic Senate candidate Beto O’Rourke demanded “red flag laws” that enable authorities to seize weapons from those deemed dangerous and invited victims of the shooting to speak at his events.
Following another Texas mass shooting in 2019, O’Rourke, then a presidential candidate, amped up his response, saying on a debate stage: “Hell yes, we’re going to take your AR-15.”
And since a gunman killed 19 children and two adults at an elementary school in Uvalde, Tex., last month, O’Rourke, now a gubernatorial candidate, has taken an even more aggressive tack — recently confronting Gov. Greg Abbott (R), who he is trying to unseat, during a briefing the day after the killings, addressing a protest outside a National Rifle Association meeting and holding a series of town halls on the issue.
Beto O’Rourke confronts Abbott in Uvalde: ‘You are doing nothing’
More than most Democratic politicians, O’Rourke has infused his campaigns with impassioned appeals to tighten gun laws in the aftermath of mass shootings — including two statewide runs in this conservative-leaning state where gun rights are sacrosanct. He’s found himself in a familiar cycle that includes comforting families, attending funerals, calling for change at the ballot box and, so far, coming up short on Election Day.
“It just was infuriating,” O’Rourke said in a Wednesday interview, recalling his impression of Abbott’s comments at the press briefing he decided to interrupt. “And I just knew right then if nothing changes this is going to happen again, and again and again and again.”
Aides to Abbott’s gubernatorial office and his campaign declined to comment for this story.
In recent days, O’Rourke refocused his campaign on guns, with his team scrambling on Memorial Day to organize a series of three town hall events across the state they are billing as meetings on “protecting Texas kids.”
The first was in Dallas on Wednesday night.
“Hundreds of kids have died just in this very community over the last few years while we treat it as a natural disaster, or an unfortunate storm has passed through our communities, as though we are powerless to do anything,” O’Rourke said, speaking to a crowd of about 600 who came to see him on a rainy evening at the Thurgood Marshall Recreation Center gymnasium.
He ticked through what his own children have done in recent days and asked the crowd to consider the pain of losing a child. “Please try to imagine what that would feel like for 19 families,” he said. “You’re here right now because it doesn’t happen to another family.”
As O’Rourke spoke, news broke about another deadly mass shooting at a hospital in Tulsa, less than five hours north of the town hall. It was a reminder of the rapid cadence of such killings, and some in the audience shouted out that another one had happened.
Public polls have shown Abbott leading O’Rourke and nonpartisan analysts regard the incumbent as the favorite in November. James Henson, a political scientist and the executive director of the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas at Austin, said shifting the focus of the gubernatorial campaign away from issues like inflation, border security and President Biden’s low approval ratings could benefit O’Rourke, though it is difficult to know how long public attention will remain on the Uvalde shooting.
“In cold political terms, the basic issue set strongly favors Governor Abbott,” Henson said. “For that to change, he would need some major disruptions in the status quo. The question is does this represent that?”
In some respects, O’Rourke is an unlikely figure in the gun-control movement, which frequently clashes with Republicans. During his six years in the U.S. House, he charted a moderate course, willing to buck his party on some issues from consumer protection to the environment. He voted with President Donald Trump about 30 percent of the time, according to an analysis by FiveThirtyEight, the political website. And he crossed the aisle to take a road trip from Washington to Texas with Will Hurd, who was then a GOP congressman from a nearby district.
But he won praise for his congressional record on guns when he ran for the Senate. The Coalition to Stop Gun Violence endorsed him, citing his support for universal background checks and reinstating an assault weapons ban. He participated in a 2016 “sit in” in the House to push for gun-control measures following an Orlando massacre.
Still, he tries to hit bipartisan notes while campaigning on guns, careful to say that as governor of Texas he’d push for laws that he believes could attract some GOP support, including new rules about safely storing firearms and universal background checks. He also reiterates his belief that assault-style weapons should be banned, while acknowledging it may not be popular in Texas.
O’Rourke said in the interview that his connection to the issue is personal and that it intensified after the El Paso shooting where a man charged with killing 23 people in a Walmart in 2019 said he was targeting Mexicans, according to police.
“If I had come at this from a distance … would I have a different conclusion?” O’Rourke said Wednesday. “I don’t know.”
Guns are embedded in Texas culture. At the entrance to the Sid Richardson Museum in Fort Worth sits a bronze sculpture by Frederic Remington of four boisterous cowboys, all with guns raised in their right hands. Across the street at a high-end boutique, handmade necklaces include some featuring bullet casings. At a grocery store an hour south, one man had a firearm strapped to his side as he loaded bags into a jeep.
Thirty-seven percent of Texans live in households with guns, according to an estimate by the Rand Corp., a rate that has declined from 60 percent in the early 1980s.
O’Rourke has demonstrated an ability to grab attention for causes that he supports. He put himself in the national spotlight in his 2018 Senate run when he defended NFL players kneeling in protest for racial justice during the national anthem.
But his unfiltered style doesn’t always work. He faced criticism for a Vanity Fair interview where he said he was “just born to be in it” when talking about the presidential race.
O’Rourke said in the interview that he had not planned to confront Abbott and interrupt a news conference last week where officials updated the public on what happened in Uvalde. The moment went viral and has already become divisive — a rallying cry for O’Rourke supporters and an irritant for some Republicans and independents who viewed it as distasteful.
O’Rourke said he drove from Houston to Uvalde after he learned about the shooting. The following day, as he was driving into Uvalde, an aide told him that Abbott was about to hold a news conference, he recalled.
“Let’s go there. Let’s hear what the guy has to say,” O’Rourke recounted saying as they decided to attend. He said he hoped for “strong words” from the governor. Instead, he recalled “hearing so many of the same things that I heard in El Paso,” referring to the aftermath of the mass shooting there.
After Abbott finished speaking, O’Rourke stood up and interrupted him. He was escorted out.
Republicans labeled the moment a stunt, with Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin (R) lashing out at him in the moment, calling him a “sick son of a b----” for disrupting the event.
“It was the wrong time and place to do that,” said Brendan Steinhauser, who has managed winning campaigns for Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.). “He probably knows deep down that his rhetoric and behavior is not that popular.”
As a statewide candidate, the first big mass shooting that O’Rourke contended with was when a gunman killed eight students and two teachers in May 2018 at a school in Santa Fe, Tex., a town of about 13,000 that is southeast of Houston.
He got in touch with families of some victims, leaving his personal cellphone number in a voice mail to Rhonda Hart, who lost her 14 year-old girl Kimberly Vaughan in the shooting. “I’m available at your convenience,” O’Rourke said in the message, which Hart has saved for all these years. She gave O’Rourke a photo of her daughter, which he carries in his wallet.
He lost that year to Republican Sen. Ted Cruz by 2.6 percentage points, coming closer in a strong Democratic year than many had initially expected.
Another major shooting in El Paso hit particularly hard because it occurred in O’Rourke’s hometown, according to friends and aides.
“Beto and I have talked about it,” Hart said. “We have this connection. We’re both survivors. Because as far as I consider it, any town that experiences a mass shooting, that entire community is survivors. I don’t care who you are.”
He suspended his presidential campaign for nearly two weeks after the shooting, scratching events planned in Iowa. His advisers urged him to talk to the media, which he initially resisted believing he was politicizing the events, according to a former campaign aide who spoke on the condition of anonymity to speak candidly about the events. O’Rourke made frequent trips to the Walmart, and he visited victims in the hospital. His campaign had an office so close to the shooting that police locked it down during the shooting.
Though former aides say the event helped reignite his purpose for running, they believe the shooting, and his reaction to it, had little tangible impact on his presidential campaign, which gained little traction. He dropped out in November 2019, before a single primary vote was cast.
When he launched his gubernatorial bid, O’Rourke issued a video where he criticized Abbott’s failure during a massive power outage in the state and his refusal to expand Medicaid. But he also mentioned guns, labeling Abbott’s support for a permitless carry law as extreme.
If O’Rourke wins in November, he will be the first Democrat to prevail in a gubernatorial election in the state since 1990. Asked to imagine what a victory here would signal for the larger gun-control movement, he slipped into third person.
″He wins in spite of — or maybe because of — the fact that he’s willing to tell the truth on this,” O’Rourke said. Such a win could have consequences beyond the state’s borders, he added. “Look at Texas. Look at the outsized role we have on our country’s politics and policies.” | 2022-06-03T00:04:07Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Beto O’Rourke focuses on guns after Uvalde, but faces familiar hurdles - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/02/orourke-texas-guns/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/02/orourke-texas-guns/ |
The global eradication of smallpox more than 40 years ago was one of the greatest achievements in public-health history, vanquishing a cause of death, blindness and disfigurement that had plagued humanity for at least 3,000 years. But, on the downside, it also led to the end of a global vaccination program that provided protection against other pox viruses. That includes monkeypox, which has been spilling over from its animal hosts to infect humans in Africa with increasing frequency since the 1970s. More recently, monkeypox has sparked outbreaks in at least 30 countries, mostly in Europe, demonstrating again how readily an infectious agent that emerges in one country can quickly become an international concern.
From just a handful of cases in Europe in early May, almost 800 cases, mostly in men, were reported across the region, as well as North and South America, and Australia by early June. Experts told a WHO meeting that monkeypox had been circulating undetected in Europe since at least April. Understanding the dynamics of spread is proving difficult. A UK study found anonymous sex has proved a barrier to effective contact tracing, with only 28% of men able to provide the names of recent sexual contacts. This may challenge efforts to stem transmission ahead of LGBTQ pride celebrations occurring in major cities around the world. Data from outbreaks in Canada, Spain, Portugal, and the UK suggest venues where men have sex with multiple male partners are helping to drive spread.
(Adds detail on outbreak in first paragraph, potential role of semen and predominance of cases in men in section 4, details of spread in section 5.) | 2022-06-03T01:34:41Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Understanding Monkeypox and How Outbreaks Spread - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/understanding-monkeypox-and-how-outbreaks-spread/2022/06/02/c5e46382-e2d5-11ec-ae64-6b23e5155b62_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/understanding-monkeypox-and-how-outbreaks-spread/2022/06/02/c5e46382-e2d5-11ec-ae64-6b23e5155b62_story.html |
FILE - In this photo provided by the North Korean government, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, center, watches a military parade to mark the 90th anniversary of North Korea’s army at the Kim Il Sung Square in Pyongyang, North Korea on April 25, 2022. Kim sent a letter congratulating Queen Elizabeth II and the British people for her 70 years on the throne, the North’s Foreign Ministry said Thursday, June 2, 2022. Independent journalists were not given access to cover the event depicted in this image distributed by the North Korean government. The content of this image is as provided and cannot be independently verified. Korean language watermark on image as provided by source reads: “KCNA” which is the abbreviation for Korean Central News Agency. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP, File) (Uncredited/KCNA via KNS) | 2022-06-03T01:35:05Z | www.washingtonpost.com | North Korea's Kim Jong Un congratulates Queen Elizabeth II - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/north-koreas-kim-jong-un-congratulates-queen-elizabeth-ii/2022/06/02/81e048d8-e2d3-11ec-ae64-6b23e5155b62_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/north-koreas-kim-jong-un-congratulates-queen-elizabeth-ii/2022/06/02/81e048d8-e2d3-11ec-ae64-6b23e5155b62_story.html |
BOGOTA, Colombia — Colombia’s soccer federation said on Thursday it had picked Néstor Lorenzo to coach its men’s national team for the next four years. The 56-year-old Argentinian will replace Reinaldo Rueda, who was fired from the job in April after his team failed to qualify for the World Cup in Qatar. | 2022-06-03T01:36:26Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Colombia names Néstor Lorenzo new national soccer team coach - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/soccer/colombia-picks-lorenzo-as-new-national-soccer-team-coach/2022/06/02/600d5b56-e2d8-11ec-ae64-6b23e5155b62_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/soccer/colombia-picks-lorenzo-as-new-national-soccer-team-coach/2022/06/02/600d5b56-e2d8-11ec-ae64-6b23e5155b62_story.html |
MEXCO CITY — The U.S. National Hurricane Center issued a bulletin Thursday on an area of low pressure on Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula that could become a depression or tropical storm and head toward Florida’s Gulf coast.
A tropical storm watch was issued for the west coast of Florida south of the Middle of Longboat Key and for the east coast of the Florida peninsula south of the Volusia/Brevard County line, as well as for parts of Cuba.
On Thursday evening, the area was centered about 80 miles (125 kms) north-northwest of Cozumel, with maximum winds of about 30 mph (55 kph). It was moving north at about 5 mph (7 kph). | 2022-06-03T01:36:32Z | www.washingtonpost.com | US forecasters alert about potential storm aimed at Florida - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/us-forecasters-alert-about-potential-storm-aimed-at-florida/2022/06/02/62f7c954-e2d4-11ec-ae64-6b23e5155b62_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/us-forecasters-alert-about-potential-storm-aimed-at-florida/2022/06/02/62f7c954-e2d4-11ec-ae64-6b23e5155b62_story.html |
Hideki Matsuyama disqualified from event for ‘excessive’ substance on club
Hideki Matsuyama, a past winner at the Memorial, suffered his first disqualification in a PGA Tour event Thursday. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings)
Hideki Matsuyama was disqualified from the Memorial Tournament on Thursday because of what a rules official described as an “excessive” amount of a white substance on the face of his 3-wood.
It was Matsuyama’s first disqualification from an event on the PGA Tour, on which he began to compete regularly in 2013. A 30-year-old native of Japan, he has eight wins on the tour, including the 2021 Masters and a victory at the Memorial in 2014.
Matsuyama has played in the tournament every year since then, with two more top-six finishes, but his appearance this time was brief. Chief referee Steve Rintoul told reporters that he first spoke with Matsuyama about the situation on the fifth hole before telling him to play on while Rintoul conferred with equipment experts from the U.S. Golf Association.
Matsuyama was disqualified after playing nine holes in Thursday’s first round and carding a 3-over 39. He reportedly left the Muirfield Village course in Dublin, Ohio, without speaking to the media.
Analysis: Dustin Johnson is taking the Saudi money — and all that comes with it
Had he not used the 3-wood by the time Rintoul spoke with him, Matsuyama would have been allowed to stay in the tournament, with a warning to leave that club in his bag. However, after confirming to Rintoul that he used it to tee off at the first hole, the “damage was done,” said the official.
“One shot and it’s a disqualification,” said Rintoul. “ … Just unfortunate set of circumstances for Hideki, for sure.”
Rintoul described the substance on Matsuyama’s club face as similar to the white-out fluid used to correct typography mistakes on paper. The substance was arranged in a circle of small lines around the center of the club face, which Rintoul called “excessive” and indicated was likely meant to help Matsuyama’s setup.
“It’s okay to have very small discrete markings on your face for alignment purposes, like a Sharpie dot here and there, that aren’t going to influence the ball,” Rintoul said. “But that much substance is clearly above what the equipment rules allow.”
If the lines had been painted “in the bottom of the grooves where it’s not on the face, not making contact with the ball,” that would have been acceptable, Rintoul added. However, the position and quantity of the substance made it possible to affect the flight of the ball and potentially reduce spin. Rintoul noted that applying lip balm to the face of the driver, which can help keep shots straight, is illegal.
Passage 4.a.(3) of the USGA’s Rules of Golf came into play, said the official. In that section, the rules state: “A player must not make a stroke with a club whose performance characteristics he or she deliberately changed during the round … [b]y applying any substance to the clubhead (other than in cleaning it) to affect how it performs in making a stroke.”
Rintoul said tournament officials learned of Matsuyama’s 3-wood after images of it were posted online and flagged by an unidentified “person in the golf industry” after Matsuyama had started his round. The official asserted that the only silver lining of the situation was that it was handled early in the tournament, as opposed to a scenario in which Matsuyama could have played into the weekend and been in contention before his fairway wood’s markings came to light.
“It’s never a good time to disqualify a good player,” said Rintoul. “But certainly getting it out of the way before it impacts the competition is the best way forward.” | 2022-06-03T02:26:41Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Hideki Matsuyama disqualified from the Memorial for substance on club - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/02/hideki-matsuyama-disqualified-memorial-tournament/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/02/hideki-matsuyama-disqualified-memorial-tournament/ |
Maryland Terrapins attack Logan Wisnauskas won the Tewaaraton Award. (Terrance Williams for The Washington Post)
After leading the Maryland men’s lacrosse team to a national title, attacker Logan Wisnauskas capped his college career by winning the Tewaaraton Award, the honor given to the nation’s best player each year.
Wisnauskas scored 61 goals with 42 assists as the Terps (18-0) cemented themselves as one of the sport’s all-time best teams. Maryland routinely routed opponents, winning games by an average of 8.7 goals. Even as Wisnauskas operated within an offense that had numerous scoring threats, he broke Maryland’s single-season record with 103 points.
Wisnauskas, a Sykesville native who attended the Boys’ Latin School of Maryland, began his career at Syracuse but did not play there before transferring. Wisnauskas spent five seasons in College Park, taking advantage of the extra eligibility granted to all athletes in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, and he became the program’s all-time leader in goals (205) and points (340).
Wisnauskas thanked his teammates in his acceptance speech “for the most incredible journey of a lifetime this year and the previous four years at Maryland.” He added: “While I dreamt about my future an exhausting amount as a little kid, the journey with you guys has been beyond remarkable. What we accomplished at Maryland has been remarkable and historic and my being on this stage is a culmination of your guys’ dedication, selflessness and friendship.”
Maryland men’s lacrosse team caps perfect season with national title
Through Maryland’s run in this year’s NCAA tournament, Wisnauskas scored 13 goals with six assists in four games. In the national semifinal win over Princeton, he scored four times, and in the title game, Wisnauskas notched two goals and two assists. He finished this season converting 48.8 percent of his shots.
Wisnauskas becomes the third Maryland men’s player to win the Tewaaraton, which was first awarded in 2001. He joins Jared Bernhardt (2021) and Matt Rambo (2017) as Terps who have won.
“I came to Maryland for the opportunity to win a national championship while fulfilling my greatest potential,” Wisnauskas said. “And I’m proud to now be an alumnus of the greatest lacrosse program in the world.”
The other male finalists were Chris Gray (North Carolina), Sam Handley (Penn), Brendan Nichtern (Army) and Connor Shellenberger (Virginia).
On the women’s side, Boston College’s Charlotte North won the award for the second straight year. North scored 92 goals with 23 assists and led the Eagles to the national title game. North scored four goals in the championship, but top-seeded North Carolina secured the title with a 12-11 victory.
North, who spent her first two collegiate seasons at Duke and then played three years at Boston College, became the NCAA’s all-time leading scorer in Division I women’s lacrosse, finishing her career with 358 goals.
North won the Tewaaraton over finalists Aurora Cordingley (Maryland), Ally Mastroianni (North Carolina), Jamie Ortega (North Carolina) and Meaghan Tyrrell (Syracuse).
Cordingley, a graduate transfer from Johns Hopkins, was named the Big Ten attacker of the year after recording 67 goals and 51 assists, both team highs. She ranked fourth in the nation with 118 points and helped the Terps return to the Final Four.
Maryland women’s lacrosse has had 27 Tewaaraton finalists, including at least one in each season under Coach Cathy Reese, who took over the program in 2007.
Former Maryland player Kelly Amonte Hiller, the longtime head coach at Northwestern, received the Tewaaraton Legends Award, which is given to exceptional players whose college careers predated the Tewaaraton Award. Amonte Hiller, a four-time all-American, won two national championships and scored 187 goals as a Terp from 1993 to 1996. She has led Northwestern to seven national titles, all during an eight-year stretch from 2005 to 2012.
Dave Pietramala, a former standout defender at Johns Hopkins, also won the Legends Award. He led his alma mater’s program from 2001 to 2020 and now serves as an assistant at Syracuse. New England Patriots Coach Bill Belichick, an avid fan of lacrosse, won the Spirit of Tewaaraton Award. | 2022-06-03T02:26:47Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Maryland’s Logan Wisnauskas wins Tewaaraton Award - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/02/logan-wisnauskas-tewaaraton-award-maryland/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/02/logan-wisnauskas-tewaaraton-award-maryland/ |
Following the third mass shooting in as many weeks, the president says the time has come to confront the carnage. He praised Senate negotiations and said voters should punish Republicans who block action.
President Biden, in a rare prime-time address Thursday, called on Congress to take immediate action on gun control, seeking to transform emotion and anger into change as the nation reeled from a spate of horrific mass shootings from New York to Texas to Oklahoma.
The United States has resisted firearms limits following wrenching murderous attacks that have erupted on an increasingly regular basis over the past few decades, but Biden sought to channel a feeling by some in Washington that this time could be different in the aftermath of a racist massacre and a slaughter at an elementary school that gripped the nation’s attention.
“After Columbine, after Sandy Hook, after Charleston, after Orlando, after Las Vegas, after Parkland, nothing has been done,” Biden said, reeling off a litany of devastating mass killings. “This time, that can’t be true. This time we must actually do something.”
Biden delivered the speech at a delicate moment, as a small bipartisan group of senators worked on a package of potential gun restrictions that they hoped would pass conservative muster. Even modest steps would mark a notable shift from recent years.
The president, however, called for a set of sweeping changes to the country’s gun laws, including banning assault weapons and limiting high-capacity magazines. The political dynamics in the evenly divided Senate make odds on those proposals remote, as many Republican senators and their constituents are deeply wedded to gun rights as a part of conservative and rural culture.
Biden said that if was politically impossible to ban assault weapons, Congress should at least raise the age when they can be legally purchased from 18 to 21. And he sought to nod to the sentiments of gun rights supporters. “I respect the culture and the tradition and the concerns of lawful gun owners,” he said. “At the same time, the Second Amendment, like all other rights, is not absolute.”
But he added, “My God, the fact that the majority of the Senate Republicans don’t want any of these proposals even to be debated or come up for a vote, I find unconscionable.”
Biden has made sparing use of a president’s ability to command attention with a prime-time address to the nation. But the past few weeks have been bloody even by the standards of recent years, creating a sense among many from across the political spectrum that the country faces a far-reaching crisis, even if Americans differ on its nature and causes.
On May 14 in Buffalo, a White gunman opened fire at a Black-run supermarket and killed 10 people. Last week in Uvalde, Tex., an 18-year-old killed 19 students and two teachers at an elementary school. On Wednesday in Tulsa, a man killed four people at a hospital after blaming a doctor at the facility for ongoing pain after back surgery. The president and first lady Jill Biden made trips to both Buffalo and Uvalde after the shootings to meet with victims’ families and law enforcement officials, witnessing the families’ pain and anguish and relaying the survivors’ message to “do something.”
This year alone, there have already been more than 200 mass shootings, defined as attacks in which four or more people — not including the shooter — are wounded or killed, according to the Gun Violence Archive.
Biden has worked on gun safety issues throughout his political career, championing the passage of an assault weapons ban, which expired in 2004, as a senator and as President Barack Obama’s point person on the issue after the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Connecticut. Since the shooting in Buffalo, he has urged Congress to take action, but so far he has stayed out of the direct negotiations on Capitol Hill.
On Thursday, Biden both prodded congressional negotiators and appealed to midterm voters, as he urged boosting background checks for gun buyers, removing legal immunity from gunmakers and requiring safe storage of firearms, among other things.
“I’ve been in this fight for a long time,” the president said. “I know how hard it is, but I’ll never give up, and if Congress fails, I believe this time a majority of the American people won’t give up either. I believe the majority of you will act to turn your outrage into making this issue central to your vote. Enough.”
Some involved in the delicate talks worried that Biden’s speech could upset the negotiations, but others welcomed an emphatic speech by the president.
Both Democrats and Republican senators involved — including longtime veterans of the gun debate such as Sens. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) and John Cornyn (R-Tex.), and perennial Senate negotiators Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) — have signaled substantive progress in recent days. They have also said the window for a deal is limited.
Ahead of Biden’s address, two other senior Republican officials closely involved with the Senate talks said they saw the speech as a sign that the White House believes a deal could be in hand and wants to position the president to take credit should negotiators succeed.
The officials, who also spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the talks, warned that publicly injecting unscripted demands into the discussion could hurt the talks. Whenever the president makes off-the-cuff remarks, such as suggesting earlier this week that a 9mm gun was a “high-caliber weapon” that should be banned, “he sets us back,” one of the senior Republican officials said.
White House officials note that Biden has taken unilateral executive actions to limit firearms — such as regulating “ghost guns” that are assembled at home and have no serial numbers — but say it is up to Congress to enact broader, more permanent measures. “The president cannot do this alone,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said earlier Thursday.
Biden’s speech was a late addition to his schedule, with the White House only announcing it Thursday afternoon and delaying the president’s planned departure to Rehoboth Beach, Del., where he will stay until Monday at his beach house.
Jean-Pierre said Biden has wanted to give a prime-time address on gun issues for some time but has not done so because “he wanted to make sure there was space for negotiations, giving space in Congress to the folks who are leading that conversation.” Now, however, “he just felt tonight was the right time to do that.”
Though a creature of the Senate and the labyrinthine legislative process, Biden has at times made comments that at least temporarily upended delicate negotiations on Capitol Hill, according to lawmakers of both parties. In recent months, the White House has taken care to not put president front and center when it comes to such negotiations.
Though any final gun legislation would be determined by what the senators can agree on, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said in a letter to Democratic lawmakers Thursday that her chamber would vote next week on a broad array of gun-restriction measures that have little chance of passing the Senate.
Those provisions include raising the age when it is legal to purchase a semiautomatic weapon from 18 to 21 years old, making high-capacity ammunition magazines illegal and subjecting buyers of “ghost guns” to background checks. The Senate package is likely to include more modest elements, such as incentives for states to pass “red flag” laws, which allow police to petition courts for the authority to seize the guns of those who have shown they are dangerous.
Jean-Pierre said Thursday that Biden has directed his staff to assess what further executive action he might be able to take to curb gun violence.
“Reducing gun violence has been a top priority of this president since his first day of office and throughout his career, as a senator, as a vice president and clearly as a president,” she said. “He has been crystal clear that Congress needs to act. The president has done more through executive action, as you’ve heard us say, than any other president in their first year in history.”
The House Judiciary Committee also held a meeting Thursday as Democrats approved a wide-ranging package of gun-control legislation that party leaders hope to bring up for a vote as soon as next week. But the committee debate devolved into a familiar spectacle, with Democrats pleading for bold federal action while Republicans countered with objections centered on the accusation that the bills would infringe on the constitutional rights of law-abiding gun owners.
“My friends, what the hell are you waiting for?” asked Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.). “I agree this bill will not alone save every life we will lose to gun violence this year, but it will save some. … The American people are begging for us to address this crisis. Let us not wait one second longer.”
House package omits assault weapons ban
Rep. Jim Jordan (Ohio), the top Republican on the panel, called the bill “shortsighted” and “just another Democrat attack on the Second Amendment.”
“They want to change the country in so many dramatic ways,” he said. “The worst of it is this bill would not address the tragedies we have seen unfold around the country in the last couple of weeks.”
Moments later, Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) delivered a sharp rebuttal: “If trying to make sure that no more kids are put in the ground with a Superman coffin means ‘dramatically change the country’ — guilty. … Why aren’t you trying to dramatically change the number of dead kids going into the ground, Mr. Jordan? Who are you here for, the kids or the killers?” | 2022-06-03T02:35:23Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Biden urges Congress to act on guns in rare prime-time address - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/02/biden-guns-prime-time-address/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/02/biden-guns-prime-time-address/ |
Transcript: NEXT: Laura Modi, Bobbie CEO & Co-Founder
MS. ROSENBERG: Good evening, and welcome to Washington Post Live. I’m Alyssa Rosenberg. I’m an opinions writer here at The Washington Post. We’re so pleased that you’ve joined us tonight for this first installment of “Next.” This is a new series where we bring together rising changemakers to talk about issues at the center of the conversation. For parents like me, that issue has been the ongoing baby formula shortage. And I’m joined today to discuss it with Laura Modi, the co-founder and CEO of Bobbie organic infant formula. Laura, thank you so much for joining us. I really appreciate having you here.
MS. MODI: Of course. Delighted to be here.
MS. ROSENBERG: There's a lot to talk about. Let's dive right in. I think for a lot of parents before the shortage, certainly before the pandemic, formula was something that people thought of as sort of like a public utility, like the water in your tap, the electricity in your socket. It was just always going to be there. You're a formula manufacturer. Talk us through what it actually takes to produce formula.
MS. MODI: Okay. I mean, that's the first kind of missed, you know, understanding is you're totally right. It's just assumed that it's like every other pantry product, and it couldn't be further from the truth. This is the sole nutrition for a baby. So, the level of safety and rigor to make this product goes beyond anything else. And honestly, it should. It should be hard to make this product. So, everything from the sourcing of the ingredients to the testing to make sure that it doesn't have the bacteria or heavy metals that you need to ensure are out of these ingredients all the way through to the manufacturing process. And you can't just flip this on very quickly, which is why we're in the middle of this crisis. I've been getting a question a lot, which is, why don't you just ramp up? You can [audio interference] but you can't move faster, and you certainly can't take shortcuts.
MS. ROSENBERG: Yes. So, I mean, but really back us up. You know, where do you start with the ingredients, especially since you're focused on trying to make organic formula? Where do you start? And then what's the process? What does it take to actually process them into formula? Because I think people have not really understood, for example, that the Abbott plant that was closed down in Michigan, you know, once it starts up, it's going to be a while until that formula gets to shelves. So, take us through step by step. Treat us--you know, treat us like this is the basics.
MS. MODI: Okay, so first off, an infant formula gets treated in many ways. You need to look at it like it's representing breastmilk, and it needs to meet the same nutritionals. So, the profile of that is that it needs to meet the same carbs, proteins, and fats. So, you're looking for a very, very specific profile to be able to make up the nutritional requirements for an infant. Once you've designed the recipe, you've said this is the recipe that we now need to make, you go out and you find the ingredients for it. And you're right. For a product like Bobbie, we've chosen some very specific organic ingredients. So, you're now narrowed down to very few suppliers that you can turn to.
Once you find that one ingredient you want--let's say your milk supplier--we take--we get our milk from small batch farmers, Organic Valley, and we take that ingredient and we test it. And during that testing process, you're essentially reassuring yourself that the nutritional makeup, the spec of this product matches the end recipe that you need to get to. And you do that across all the ingredients.
Once you've done that, then you start to test for different bacterias. And you need to make sure that there's no bacteria found in it even before you put it through to the manufacturing process. We say we do 2,000--2,000--quality and safety checks on the product. And that happens all the way from the raw ingredients, through the batching of it, the mixing of it, the processing, and then on the manufacturing line and the end product itself. So, it's a very arduous, rigorous process to make infant formula.
MS. ROSENBERG: Now, you've talked a little bit about regulation and scrutiny on formula. And when you launched Bobbie, you know, I--my understanding is that you thought you could market it as toddler formula, which has a sort of different profile and regulatory structure here in the U.S. You ended up going through a recall in part because of some questions about how you labeled the original batches. You know, what had that experience taught you about regulation of formula in the U.S., and do you think the level of scrutiny for the product is appropriate? I mean, you've--I think you've implied that you do. But I'd be curious to hear a little bit more about that.
MS. MODI: Oh, I get so much like PTSD when I have this conversation, one because of like, you know, you think about it today, the irony of it is that we've now created flexibilities in the system allowing formula to come in from overseas. And that was exactly the reason we were stopped a few years ago. So, there is a lot of regulation in place to bring a formula into the market, and that I fully believe in. We have to have regulation in place. And in fact, we should have tighter regulation, and we should have higher standards.
But we also need to make sure that it's not preventing companies from being able to get into the market as well. And there's a little bit of tension between those two things. So here we were trying to make our product here in the U.S. But you look at the ability to get it made, and there's very few manufacturers. In fact, there is only one contract manufacturer that makes all infant formula in the country. I mean, that's insane. If you really think about it, you go to any other CPG product, you can pick up the phone, and you can call dozens of different manufacturers to be able to get your product made. So, we often get these two things confused--the difference between regulation versus the ability to enter the market.
I had to go to Germany. I had to go to the birthplace of where they make high quality infant formula, where there was an ample amount of manufacturers to be able to make our product. And over the course of a year, we developed the most beautiful infant formula, high-quality ingredients, and it met the nutritional requirements set by the EC in Europe. But the difference is that European Commission and the FDA, they don't have the same harmony between their nutritionals. So just because it's an infant formula in Europe, does not make it an infant formula here in the U.S., which is why we needed to label it a toddler formula.
MS. ROSENBERG: Now, you know, you mentioned the sort of barriers to entry in the market. And you know, you talked about tighter regulation, the different standards internationally. I mean, do you think that there needs to be some sort of international standardization, both, you know, to ease entrance into the market here in the U.S., but also to eliminate the bureaucracy in that, you know, we've seen accompany the administration's efforts to resolve the crisis here? And you know, should there be some sort of international agreement on factory inspections so, you know, the FDA could trust that European manufacturers are being inspected to the same standards? What are the ways to streamline this process and streamline the standards internationally? Because that seems to be just a huge bureaucratic tipping point, you know, tripping point, really, both in this current situation and in terms of new entrants to the market.
MS. ROSENBERG: I mean, you're nailing it. Like there is--there's babies in one continent, and there's babies in another. And these two continents are saying that there's different rules and standards for how those babies get fed. But why? Why is that the case? We should be looking--and you're right, you remove the bureaucracy, you create a little bit of simplicity in the process, and we may be able to see more entrants.
But today, we are not upleveling our standards here in the U.S. on a regular basis. And because of that, we're about 40 years behind meeting the latest science. In comparison to you look in Europe, the last time they updated their nutritionals was in 2019, and now they have requirements put on industry where they have to put certain nutrients in, where here in the U.S. we don't. So that kind of explains the problem by not doing this. And by harmonizing the standards, we then get to create honestly probably a little bit more pressure and competition to say from everyone raise the bar, raise the bar for everyone, and we all have a level of equality.
MS. ROSENBERG: Well, it also seems like the American bureaucracy needs the resources to do its job. I mean, I think one of the things that's come out is in the middle of this shortage is that the FDA is just really under sourced, under resourced on the food side. Is it your sense that, you know, the FDA just needs more people so if we're going to have this bureaucracy, they could at it more efficiently?
MS. MODI: More resources and more funding I think--personally, I think it will absolutely help move things a little bit faster. But I don't think we want things just to move faster. We need things to fundamentally change. And I have never, I truly have never been more hopeful to see this industry actually change than I have now. So, my only caution is that just throwing more bodies and more money at the same problem never solves anything. I mean, it certainly doesn't in a company. I know that firsthand. But doing it for a government system I can only imagine is exactly the same issue. So, if we do put more money in and more people, I really hope we take a hard look at the system and we go just because it used to be that way doesn't mean it has to.
MS. ROSENBERG: Well, let's talk about this system a little bit, because I think a lot of people don't understand both how concentrated the formula market is in the U.S. and the forces that are driving that concentration. And you know, a major, major driver of that consolidation has been the contracts for people, families who receive supplemental nutritional assistance, the so-called WIC program. And what's happened in the U.S. is that states give out these single source WIC contracts. So, families who received that nutrition prior to this--the current shortage could buy one, you know, family of formula, depending on the state that they lived in. Now the USDA has issued a lot of waivers. So, with families, you know, if they previously could only buy a certain size of Similac canister, could go out and buy that in Enfamil or could buy different sizes or different numbers of canisters. That's great. That seems like something that needs to be permanent.
But given that those contracts have been used to sort of determine pricing, you've got a very thorny system here. Now, you guys are direct to consumer. Your product is comparatively expensive to, you know, a Target generic or a Kirkland generic, something like that. Now, what role do you see yourself playing in this ecosystem? Are--you know, is the long-term plan to scale so you can bring down pricing? Do you see yourself competing for some of those contracts that they got opened up? You know, it's--you've had a very successful business. But this is a big enchilada. Where do you fit into it?
MS. MODI: Firstly, to just complement on your articulation of the WIC program, because it's a complicated thing to navigate. And you know, even watching the narrative and storytelling over how it's structured and what it's facilitating, it's--I'm thrilled to see the knowledge of how it works, and also what needs to change.
And so I created Bobbie with the desire to be affordable and accessible to all. I mean, we should not be just creating high-quality nutrition for a subset of people. And also, when you look at it, formula being a baby's first food, I mean, truly a baby's first food needs to be the first equalizer in everything. And by creating this separation between nutritions at that age already starts an inequality that we shouldn't see. So, I truly believe that upleveling shouldn't just happen for a subset of people. It needs to happen across the board.
So going back to the WIC program, which has been a challenge for a small company like Bobbie, we need to meet certain eligibility standards to be accepted under WIC. And I hope that given some of the crisis situations that we're seeing today that we're going to start seeing flexibilities where companies like Bobbie that have different nutritionals can be available under WIC as well.
Going back to the pricing side of it, I mean, again, this is basic business. Pricing is part of economies of scale. So, if we remain small, if we remain small in comparison to the big players, our pricing is always going to look and appear bigger. And we need to create a little bit more market share equality to get to a place where there's pricing equality too.
MS. ROSENBERG: Well, and I'm sure--you know, you mentioned earlier that you work with a contract manufacturer for formula. For folks at home who don't know exactly what that means, a company like Abbott or Reckitt has its own factories, but some of the smaller formula manufacturers work with a company that produces both Bobbie but also store brand generics and sort of handles that behind the scenes. And so for you to scale up, I mean, do you think it would be challenging to continuing to rely on a contract manufacturer or, you know, do you see a factory in your future since standing up that process has its own regulatory challenges?
MS. MODI: I mean, absolutely. You get to--you get to a tipping point as a business where you need to reassess your own operation. This is not unique to Bobbie. It's across the board in every industry. All of that said, contract manufacturers grow as their own customers grow as well. And there's huge value in having a manufacturer who has the regulatory compliance, the backing, the safety, the decades of expertise. And being a new player in the industry, one of the beautiful things that we've had--and especially for a product like infant formula--is you create what should be a case of like dual accountability. I don't have a conflict with many of their goals. I need to see certain safety standards, certain safety procedures in place. I will put third-party evaluators in there to make sure that I as a customer am very confident with what I'm seeing. That dual accountability, especially for a product like this, is--has proven very successful for us.
MS. ROSENBERG: I wanted to shift the conversation a little bit, because obviously this is a huge business story, but it's a cultural story and it's a personal story for families as well. And I would be curious to hear more about what you think about the conversations that have sprung up around the formula shortage, whether it's people talking, you know, more openly about using formula, whether it's, you know, peer to peer milk donation, which we've seen more of, you know, as people have looked for ways to feed their families. I mean, what are you hearing from your customers about how they feel about feeding their babies?
MS. MODI: Or how they are feeling about not being able to feed their babies, which is, you know, really where we're here in the fire. You know, there's been a pretty big shift in the tone recently. We are watching people go from being disappointed to truly just angry and furious, and rightly so. Over the last--and let's just kind of bring it back to I'm a mom, myself--what mothers and what parents have gone through, specifically moms, specifically women, is that we've been dealing with a society where we're told to do everything, but we're not given the time. We're told to have babies and breastfeed them for as long as possible but not given the time. We're, in many ways, being told to do things and have to do them, but we don't have the resources and means to be able to do it. And now we're dealing with situations where we're even getting certain rights taken away from us. But when you tell a mother, when you tell a woman that they may not be able to feed their baby, all other things go out the door, and we move to anger. And that's what we're seeing. We created a hotline during this crisis, realizing that enough is enough. And what mothers wanted was the ability to vent and explain their frustration at this time to be in a moment where you can't find food for your baby is just unacceptable. Unacceptable. So I'm--
MS. ROSENBERG: And we have some really powerful audio from that. I was hoping we could share that with our viewers.
MS. ROSENBERG: I heard that clip for the first time yesterday, and I really had a hard time with it. I did a project recently where I looked at the data for how much time is spent feeding my son. He's seven months old, and it's 486 hours over the first six months of his life. And I know hearing, "Oh, just breastfeed, just breastfeed, it'll be like--it's fine, it's free, it's easy," just set my hair on fire. And I am sure--I'm sure you've had the same reaction to hearing these stories. It's just--it's infuriating.
MS. MODI: It's infuriating. First off, I read your data and you're--again, your ability to story-tell a very challenging topic, we need more of that. We have to remove the conditioning that we have as a society that breastfeeding is easy, everyone can do it and it's free, because that pressure being put on new parents today--and by the way, it's not that breastfeeding is--and breastmilk is undeniably one of the most personal and dynamic and most beautiful things in the world. But telling someone that that's how you have to do it, when you are unable to and you don't have the support system, the society to guide you through it, is a very, very unfair narrative. We have to change it.
MS. ROSENBERG: Well, and you know, you mentioned the need people have to--just to vent to get this out. But I'm wondering if you are hearing that people are really just radicalized politically, right? Because to me, this has been a story about a sort of fundamental lack of concern for American families. I mean, from, you know, the idea that a dirty factory was operating and potentially making kids sick, and then that the turnaround on getting it operational again is this long, you know, I am wondering if you're hearing that parents are not just angry but radicalized and demanding more from a political system that and--you know, and a commercial system that left them in this limbo, because I certainly have felt that, and I'm sure you're hearing that as well.
MS. MODI: I mean, it's very sad. Just, I mean, it truly is. It's so sad that it's taken a crisis to show that, look, we can't feed our babies to have us stand up and scream. But my God, are people getting loud about it. And you are right. It has become radicalized. And again, I am very hopeful that this radical reaction that people are having is actually going to be the thing that fundamentally changes it--not just changes formula but changes the conversation.
And you know, I mentioned this in a recent interview as well, that my biggest challenge trying to break into this industry was not so much the manufacturing or the supply chain and everything else. That's hard, and that's a given. My biggest challenge was the societal judgment. When you leave a company to start infant formula, you're not being welcomed with open arms. This is not an attractive product or industry. And when you're not even being supported to try and change the industry to put something out that's better--and this came from everywhere, there was a lot of conditioning that there was very little support to say that this is something that you should spend your time on.
MS. ROSENBERG: We have time for just one more question, which is a shame, because I wish we could talk all day. What do you think the administration and the other competitors in the space need to do right now? Because this has clearly opened up. This is not one plan. This is one system, and it's a huge one. So, what does the administration need to do to reassure American families that this--not only that this is never going to happen again, but that this level of contempt for families is not tolerable?
MS. MODI: First, we need to remove any feeling, conversation that this is political, that this is partisan. It's not. This is more than any one brand. It's more than any one party. And it's certainly bigger than just what the FDA can do. If we do not demonstrate that collectively, as an industry, with government--and we're all trying to fix this together on both sides--then we are sending a very bad message to families all across this country. Nothing about this should be political. Collectively, I hope that this is the one issue we all decide to come together on.
MS. ROSENBERG: Absolutely. Laura, thank you so much. This is our last exchange here, but hopefully not the end of our conversation. I really appreciate you taking the time.
And one of the things that's been really interesting about covering this story at The Post is that I am not the only mom who's reporting on this as well. And I wanted to bring in two of my colleagues, Amy Joyce, who runs the On Parenting newsletter, and Helena Andrews-Dyer, who's a pop culture reporter and has a really interesting book coming out about motherhood. Thank you, guys, so much for joining me here today.
MS. JOYCE: Thanks for having me.
MS. ANDREWS-DYER: Thank you.
MS. ROSENBERG: Helena, I want to start by asking you, you know, what has your reaction been to watching this story unfold? Because you're a journalist. You're a mom. What has it brought up for you since I think breastfeeding, formula feeding, these are some of the most fraught issues we face as moms? And I was really curious to just hear how you've been responding to the story in both of those capacities.
MS. ANDREWS-DYER: As a mom, I mean, I can't--I can't divorce sort of like my journalism from being a mother, right?
MS. ROSENBERG: Of course. None of us can.
MS. ANDREWS-DYER: As a mom, I have felt so--it was almost like PTSD, you know, like trauma inducing, my children are five and two and a half, and I had the privilege, the extreme privilege of being able to extend breastfeed with both of them. And when I think about my breastfeeding journey, I think it was so--I think about it being so easy. And yet I had--I can't even think of the word of now like, like, my breasts got inflamed at one point.
MS. ROSENBERG: Mastitis?
MS. ANDREWS-DYER: Yes. My nipples were cracked. With the first one, literally, I want to say the first two months, every time she would latch, I would have to brace myself to the point where I would like--my body would cinch up, right? And I think of that as easy. Like, I think like, oh, that's all I had to do. You know, unfortunately, I didn't--fortunately, I didn't come to a situation where colleagues of mine at The Post were, you know, your kid has a milk allergy, so now you've stopped eating all dairy for however long to make sure there's no longer blood in your newborn's diapers. Like the whole--all of it is so trauma-inducing and stressful. And this just brought--it was heartbreaking reading the stories. It was heartbreaking hearing that mother in the audio that you played just where you're--just at your--you're at your wit's end. And it's just like, I just need to feed my child. Help me feed my child, right? Yeah, the whole--all of it has just been--I've had like PTSD, basically.
MS. ROSENBERG: Amy, I mean, I know you're hearing from a lot of parents individually. I'd be curious to hear what they're telling you about what this has been like for them.
MS. JOYCE: Well, it's a lot like that heartbreaking soundbite we just--we just heard. And I've got to tell you, I'm a reporter. I've reported on some very tough things. I find myself choking up a lot of times with these parents, with these mothers who have talked to me. You mentioned how breastfeeding is so fraught, and it is. And this one mother I spoke with, she had tried for two and a half months, she tried everything to breastfeed her child, her son, her only baby. She even said that she was using a pump that a lactation consultant got her that had--was a similar pump to what was used to help an elephant recover from mastitis. And she had tried absolutely everything, crying on the phone with me, said she finally gave up, finally agreed that it was time for formula. Her baby needed to gain weight. And guess what. This happened. So, parents are distraught.
Dads I've talked to are distraught. They--one dad said to me I spent the measly amount of time I had off to be with my baby searching for formula all over Washington state. So, it's just--it's heartbreaking, story after story. And it's not stopping. I'm still hearing it. It's not slowing down. People might be forgetting that this is happening, because so many other things are happening right now, unfortunately. But parents are still suffering and begging to find ways to feed their children.
MS. ROSENBERG: Amy, I'm curious what you think so far about the administration's response. I mean, Biden met virtually with a group of formula makers yesterday, and he's offered a lot of personal empathy. At the same time, there's sort of a conflicting timeline about when all of these efforts kicked into high gear that I think a lot of us are struggling to understand. So, I'm curious what your impression has been about the administration response.
MS. JOYCE: Well, it sounds like there were sort of a lot of issues. This started, what, back in October, when a whistleblower came forward, and then the report didn't sort of reach the FDA or the people it needed to reach for quite a while. And it sounded like some politicians, some Congress people were starting to figure this out in February. But now Biden is saying he didn't hear about it until it had already started happening. And some reporters said that they would talk to people, you know, in the halls of the Capitol, and these politicians, these lawmakers had no idea this was going on. What formula shortage, some were--some were asked. So it's very frustrating. It sounds like things are starting to move along. The fact of the matter is parents don't have formula. And a lot of parents need specialty formula, and that is even more difficult to find, their babies that have allergies and whatnot. That's not coming on the shelves. We're bringing in more formula or trying to ramp up formula and get it on the shelves, but the specialized formula is even harder to find.
Helena, you know, as a cultural observer, I'm curious what you think about the conversation around the shortage. And do you see shifts in the way that people are talking about breastfeeding and formula feeding? When we were talking before this event, you mentioned the sort of specifically racialized narratives and images around breastfeeding for Black women. And I'm just curious what you make of a conversation that's become public, even though it's one that we've all as mothers have conducted in private for so long.
MS. ANDREWS-DYER: I thought it was really interesting when Laura, sort of--she spoke about the fact that, you know, as mothers, as parents, we're told to do everything, but given no support--no support, no time, no resources. And the shortage, this crisis is lock and step with that, right? It's just the idea that, oh, they'll figure it out. The parents will just figure it out. The moms will just figure it out. Just breastfeed, right? And literally, it goes down to this complete misinformation and ignorance about how women's bodies work, right? You know, if I hadn't been breastfeeding before, I can't all of a sudden start breastfeeding. You know, that is not how your breasts work, and the fact that people simply don't know that. Beyond the fact that the culture around breastfeeding in this country has been so up and down over the last century. You know, we talked about--talk about the fact that historically, you know, women were--did breastfeed for a very long time until the '70s, around the '70s, where U.S. and Canadian women were taught--where it was sort of like this campaign to think that, you know, oh, breastfeeding, that wasn't the best for your child, right? If you really wanted your child to get the best nutrients, you needed to do formula, right? And that's what I think a lot of us '70s, '80s babies sort of grew up on.
And then there was a shift, a cultural shift, like, oh, no, no, breast is best, right? And then it was fed is best. And as a mom, you're just like, you have whiplash. What are you supposed to do? It's really terrifying.
And then when you enter the racialized element of it, right? For Black women, Black women don't breastfeed at as high of a rate as White moms and Latinx moms. And part of the reason is support, right? Part of the reason is support, starting in the hospital. Part of the reason is, culturally, what does--what does it look like for me to pull out my breast in public to feed my baby, as opposed to someone else who doesn't look like me, right? The stares that I get as opposed to someone else. That's why there is the Black breastfeeding week, right? That's been going on for almost a decade, just to normalize breastfeeding amongst Black women. So there--the issue is so incredibly complicated, so incredibly complicated. And it's something that we've just--mothers have just been told to deal with it on their own, right? Until it reaches this crescendo, and now it's a national crisis. But people have been ringing the bell on this for years.
MS. ROSENBERG: I mean, Amy, you and I have talked about what the pumping situation at The Post was in an earlier generation in a different building. You know, those of us who are nursing our kids, who are pumping in the office now have dedicated lactation rooms. But, you know, the fact that we're having this conversation, even across sort of half a generation suggests to me that, you know, that whiplash says and that evolution in some good directions is evident, even among the three of us in this conversation. I mean, how do you perceive that things have changed, both here in our workplace, and you know, in the larger culture?
MS. JOYCE: So, I have a 14-year-old and a 12-year-old. And it's amazing to me. I was thinking about this today before we sat down to chat. You know, they're 14 and 12. They're pretty old. And yet, I remember breastfeeding and pumping as if it were last week. So, it sticks with you. But I am so glad that you all have a better situation than we did. And I know I had a better situation than the women who came before me at The Post. So yeah, I used to pump in a closet, a storage closet. But at the same time, a few of us, we all sort of had babies at the same time. We talked to folks at The Post, and we did get a pumping room, created it through the sports section, I believe. We had to walk through the sports section and go into what was formerly a bathroom. So, we were very proud and excited to have this space.
And now that I see the lactation rooms that exists now, it's incredible. You know, it's just--it's kind of a beautiful space, and it's clean and it's lit well and you've got schedules going on. So, it's great to see how this has progressed over the years. And it's great to know that I saw some of that progression, that I actually had a space it was dedicated--one of the spaces was dedicated for that. But it was still very difficult. And even though the generation of parents who have babies now have these beautiful lactation rooms, it's still difficult. As was already expressed, you know, what did we say? Mothers were told to do everything, but we're not given the time to do it. So even in a place that has lactation rooms, even in a place that allows for pumping--and by the way, companies are supposed to allow for pumping--it's hard, it's very hard to have the time to do it. I think, you know, there are companies, of course, that don't have maternity leave, don't have the space or time to give women. They don't give women time off. There are women who go back to work weeks after their babies are born, before they've even healed. How do you deal with breastfeeding or pumping or finding formula when there isn't formula on the shelves? It's a very frustrating situation. But you know, we've been fighting for maternity leave in this country for over a hundred years, and that still hasn't happened.
MS. ROSENBERG: You know, it's interesting to me that all three of us have talked about nursing. And I think that one of the sort of taboo subjects that has come up in this conversation is why women might want to choose formula, whether to have their bodies back, to have their time back. You know, as I mentioned earlier in the conversation, I put in 486 hours in the first six months of my son's life. And you know, it is--to me, it feels taboo for a woman to stand up and say I want that--at least some of that time back for myself. And you know, if there's something that can come culturally out of this conversation, I'm curious what both of you would wish for. Because, for me, it's just greater honesty about, you know, the cost of all of these choices. But there's so much to wish for.
MS. ANDREWS-DYER: For me, I would say it's understanding that how you feed your baby, how you decide to feed your baby, is an incredibly personal choice. And there are so many different factors--right?--that go into that decision. Like you said, maybe I just want my time back. Maybe I literally don't have the time. I just don't want to breastfeed, like I--that's just not something I want to do. All of those factors are equally important, but they are completely dependent on the woman who is doing it, right? The mother who is in charge of this baby's life, right? I don't get a say in what she does, like her husband, you know, her partner, probably doesn't even get to say what she does with her body. And that's the thing like, literally don't--you cannot tell a woman what she decides to do with her body.
And I think for me, yes, we've all talked about nursing. And for me, nursing was a personal choice, something I wanted to do. But I always had in the back of my head, if this doesn't work out, I can always fall back on formula. I always thought I had that safety net. You know, if I can't do this, if it's too painful, if I can't take the time, I can always fall back on formula. And it's about choice. And I really, really hope out of this conversation, one, we understand that choice is so incredibly important and that women have to have the choice to do the things that they want to do, and that we just understand better as a culture how women's bodies work, and how these babies actually get fed and how difficult it truly, truly is. So yeah, that's the biggest thing, really, choice, and understanding that we need to make sure all those choices are available to all women--not just women with privilege--to all women.
MS. ROSENBERG: Amy, any wish list?
MS. JOYCE: Wish list? Oh, gosh, where does it start and where does it end. But acceptance, and that is across the board parenting. I wish people would just sort of as a society understand that women, that mothers, that parents are trying the best they can in honestly what is not the easiest of situations. We are not the easiest country to be a parent in. And so as we, you know, talk about this formula situation and as it brings up all these issues with breastfeeding and pumping and formula and breast is best and you know, fed is best, whatever the situation may be, I just hope that out of this comes a lot of acceptance. And as a society, I would like us all to figure out how to support parents better, whether it's just, you know, your neighbor, your friend, your colleague, or on a much larger level.
MS. ROSENBERG: You know, Amy, Helena, thank you both so much for the time. I hate to let us go, but hopefully this conversation will continue. And thanks to all of you for watching and being here with us today. I’m Alyssa Rosenberg. You can find out more about what we have coming at WashingtonPost.com/Live. | 2022-06-03T03:06:39Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Transcript: NEXT: Laura Modi, Bobbie CEO & Co-Founder - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/washington-post-live/2022/06/02/transcript-next-laura-modi-bobbie-ceo-co-founder/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/washington-post-live/2022/06/02/transcript-next-laura-modi-bobbie-ceo-co-founder/ |
The Queen’s jubilee can’t shake the ghosts of empire
That world-spanning scope got represented in the ceremonies that unfurled across London. A multiracial army of 25,000 soldiers — featuring detachments from, among other places, India, the Natal in South Africa, and the far-flung islands of Trinidad and Malta — camped out in Hyde Park ahead of the jubilee parade, while some 3 million people journeyed to London for the festivities. Regiments of turbaned Sikhs and Canadian Mounties all marched in procession along with the carriages of Indian princes and the delegations of 11 colonial prime ministers.
“No one ever, I believe, has met with such an ovation as was given to me, passing through those 6 miles of streets,” wrote Victoria in her own diary. “The cheering was quite deafening & every face seemed to be filled with real joy. I was much moved and gratified.”
Mark Twain, a visiting Yankee not quite at Victoria’s court, grasped something deeper about the rapture of the crowd. At the time, Britain’s Parliament and its elected politicians already held greater daily control over matters of state. But Twain saw, through all the pageantry, the almost visceral link between the monarch and the many lands at her feet. The entire purpose of the jubilee in Victoria’s honor was as an ideological spectacle, a showcase of imperial preeminence.
“It was realizable that [Victoria] was the procession herself, that all the rest of it was mere embroidery; that in her the public saw the English Empire itself,” Twain wrote.
There’s no shortage of pomp and circumstance this week as Britain commemorates Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee. On Thursday, 1,400 troops in bearskin caps and an Irish wolfhound named Seamus filed past Elizabeth’s Buckingham Palace balcony. Seventy aircraft from the Royal Air Force carried out a noisy flyover. A four-day holiday weekend in Britain will see a surfeit of parties and parades.
But, as the spectacle of Victoria’s jubilee offered a vision of the world’s most powerful polity, the commemorations for Elizabeth’s long rule can’t hide Britain’s much-diminished state.
The sun set long ago on the British Empire, with the exception of a few wind-battered archipelagoes scattered around the oceans. The dozens of independent states that belong to the Commonwealth are, at best, apathetic about their ties to the British crown. And at home, the tangled politics of Britain’s break from the European Union has raised the possibility of the fracturing of the United Kingdom itself.
Far from possessing the epoch-defining power that Victoria did, Elizabeth and her kin now rule mostly over the realms of kitsch and gossip. They live their lives as bearers of centuries of weighty tradition in a far more banal present. To a gawking public, they are objects of curiosity and even pity. Sometimes, they serve as the subjects of excellent prestige television. More often, they are the source of tawdry tabloid intrigues, from the alleged sexual crimes of Prince Andrew to the House of Windsor’s internal family feuds.
Few Britons look to their royals for visions of grandeur and geopolitical might. Rather, their enduring love for the queen — who, opinion polls show, is undeniably popular — is about something far more cozy. “Celebrating ‘queen and country’ is a way for buttoned-up Britons to celebrate themselves, to wrap themselves in the soft patriotism of Union Jack bunting, as they move past the pain of the pandemic and the endless bickering over Brexit,” wrote my colleague William Booth.
Four-year-old Prince Louis stole the show today, making faces and reacting during a flyover at Queen Elizabeth's Platinum Jubilee: https://t.co/vzzUv97es5 pic.twitter.com/2rPLA9PmT4
But from the moment she acceded to the British throne, Elizabeth was part of an imperial story that extended far beyond Britain’s borders. After all, she learned of the passing of her father, King George VI, while at a wildlife lodge in Kenya, then still a British colony. In the seven decades since, critics argue that she has yet to show much awareness of the misdeeds of the empire for which she remains the ceremonial figurehead, including for the violent campaign of repression carried out by British authorities in Kenya in the 1950s during the anti-colonial Mau Mau uprising.
“To this day, she has never publicly admitted, let alone apologized, for the oppression, torture, dehumanization and dispossession visited upon people in the colony of Kenya before and after she acceded to the throne,” Patrick Gathara, a Kenyan political commentator, told the Associated Press.
In the same AP story, Jamaican academic Rosalea Hamilton explained her position on wanting to remove the queen as her country’s head of state. “When I think about the queen, I think about a sweet old lady,” she said. “It’s not about her. It’s about her family’s wealth, built on the backs of our ancestors. We’re grappling with the legacies of a past that has been very painful.”
Earlier this year, a trip to Central America and the Caribbean by Prince William and Kate, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, was marked by protests and scorn. In Jamaica, a letter addressed to the couple and signed by dozens of prominent leaders and intellectuals called for a formal apology from Britain, as well as reparations for its legacy of slavery and colonial exploitation in the region.
“We see no reason to celebrate 70 years of the ascension of your grandmother to the British throne because her leadership, and that of her predecessors, have perpetuated the greatest human rights tragedy in the history of humankind,” read the letter.
Prince William tells Jamaicans: Slavery ‘stains our history’
Thanks to Britain’s colonial history, Elizabeth remains the head of state of 14 countries outside the United Kingdom. But that number is certain to shrink further. Jamaica and five other Caribbean countries plan to follow the lead of Barbados and cut ties with the British monarchy. And republicanism simmers not far from the surface in major Western democracies like Canada and Australia.
Newly elected center-left Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese honored the queen in remarks delivered Thursday, saying that Australians continue to hold her “in respect and affection.” But he added that his country’s relationship with Britain “is no longer what it was at the dawn of [Elizabeth’s] reign.”
Hinting at his Labor Party’s pro-Republican agenda, Albanese said: “No longer parent and young upstart, we stand as equals.”
Equality, of course, is not exactly a principle that co-exists easily with a hereditary monarchy. Should they feel any disquiet about their political arrangement, most Britons will probably suspend judgment at least for this weekend of revelry and good cheer (though there are some notable exceptions).
Elizabeth’s advanced age and deteriorating health suggest that this may be one of the last moments to celebrate her long reign. Given the unpopularity of her immediate heir, and signs of growing anti-monarchism among young Britons, it may also be one of her country’s last royal jubilees. | 2022-06-03T04:11:06Z | www.washingtonpost.com | The Queen’s platinum jubilee can’t shake the ghosts of empire and colonialism - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/03/queen-jubilee-empire-colonialism-shadow/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/03/queen-jubilee-empire-colonialism-shadow/ |
Ask Amy: My friend was groped at a work event. What should she do?
She let the first incident pass, because they were in a group setting, and she didn’t know how to respond.
Then he grabbed her again. She stormed away and avoided him for the rest of the event. The next day, she told an associate, who confronted Brian.
The next day, she received a text from Brian: “Call me so I can apologize about yesterday.” She felt humiliated by chasing him down for an apology, so she never called. Three weeks have now passed, but the humiliation is still festering in her mind.
Outraged: I disagree with your idea that this should be handled casually on a three-way call.
If your friend asked me, I would advise her to write an account of exactly what happened and send it directly to the association’s head office, naming “Brian,” reporting that he has admitted this behavior to another associate and asking that appropriate action be taken.
Female real estate agents are especially vulnerable, and if your friend reported this and demanded action, the “name” she would make for herself would be as someone who is appropriately concerned about her safety, as well as the well-being of other women who might have the bad luck of crossing paths with this creep.
Dear Amy: Is it ever okay to require a preschool child to finish everything on their plate, when the portions were preselected by someone else?
I don’t want to give too many details, because this is a sensitive family issue.
I’ve brought it to the attention of the perpetrators — gently, I hope — and things seemed better for a while. But now it has reverted to: “There’s one more bite on your plate, then you can have this.”
The child is a good eater otherwise, likes healthy foods and is of average weight and in good health.
Knots: If the child’s parents are the “perpetrators” pushing food, then my main suggestion is that you should understand that they are the child’s parents, and they have the right to handle mealtime the way they think is best.
If you are the child’s parent and the grandparents or other occasional caregivers are doing this, then you have the right to insist they stop.
However, no, I do not believe this kind of prompting will necessarily lead to an eating disorder, a bad relationship with food or a life of crime.
I also believe that most parents stop this behavior once a child enters preschool and finds effective ways to push back.
Mainly, while you are accusing these people of controlling behavior, you are trying mightily to control them. | 2022-06-03T04:24:09Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Ask Amy: My friend was groped at a work event. What should she do? - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/advice/2022/06/03/ask-amy-groped-twice-work/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/advice/2022/06/03/ask-amy-groped-twice-work/ |
Updated June 3, 2022 at 12:07 a.m. EDT|Published June 2, 2022 at 11:51 p.m. EDT
The Boston Celtics hit 21 three-pointers to score a 120-108 comeback victory over the Golden State Warriors in the NBA Finals. (Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)
SAN FRANCISCO — The Boston Celtics and Golden State Warriors arrived at the NBA Finals with the league’s two best defenses — and good reasons to believe those units might need some time to get up to full speed. Boston’s core group would inevitably face some nerves during its first time playing on the championship stage, and rust lingered as a concern for Golden State, which hadn’t played in a full week.
Instead, Thursday’s Game 1 opened with a bang and it never slowed down. Both teams started hot from outside in a free-flowing, back-and-forth contest that was the aesthetic opposite of Boston’s grinding Eastern Conference finals against the Miami Heat. If the game was an exchange of haymakers, the Celtics’ 120-108 victory at Chase Center included a devastating final blow — a 40-16 advantage in the fourth quarter that dealt the Warriors their first home loss in 10 games this postseason.
Golden State’s Stephen Curry set the pace by making an NBA Finals-record six three-pointers in the first quarter, but nine different players combined to hit 20 three-pointers in the first half. This was a good old-fashioned shootout: By night’s end, the two teams had combined to hit 40 three-pointers, with Boston shooting a blistering 21 for 41 from beyond the arc.
“You never go in conceding [outside] shots,” said Warriors Coach Steve Kerr, whose team fell to 21-3 in Game 1s since he arrived in San Francisco. “You have a scouting report on each player. It felt to me like we didn’t close out every well in the first half, and that let [the Celtics] get going.”
Celtics Coach Ime Udoka noted Wednesday that his team, which has won a pair of Game 7s in these playoffs, tended not to get “caught up in the moment.” Those words proved prophetic as the Celtics erased a 10-point deficit in the second quarter to take a lead into halftime and dug out of a 15-point third-quarter hole to regain the lead midway through the final period.
“That’s who we are: We’re grinders,” Udoka said after the win. “We’re a resilient group.”
No matter how hard Curry, who finished with a game-high 34 points and seven three-pointers, tried to put away the Celtics, they responded with answers of their own from beyond the arc.
In the key momentum-swinging stretch of the fourth, Derrick White and Al Horford combined to hit three-pointers on three consecutive possessions to put Boston in front. Horford, who helped keep Boston’s postseason alive with 30 points in a Game 4 win over the Milwaukee Bucks in the second round, was sensational in the first Finals game of his 15-year NBA career.
“[Boston] just came in and played a hell of a fourth quarter,” Kerr said. “You’ve got to give them credit. It’s as simple as that. You didn’t see swings like this a decade ago. You didn’t see teams that could shoot from every position like this.”
The veteran big man finished with a team-high 26 points and six three-pointers, helping overcome a quiet night for Jayson Tatum, who finished with 12 points on 3-for-17 shooting but added 13 assists (including four in the decisive fourth quarter). Jaylen Brown added 24 points, seven rebounds and five assists for Boston.
“This is our first time [in the Finals] for all of us,” Celtics guard Payton Pritchard said. “There’s a little bit of jitters. We want to take care of the third quarter better. But resilient, that’s been the word for this year, and I think it showed tonight.”
Boston’s poise down the stretch left Chase Center, which seemed to be anticipating another comfortable victory, in stunned silence. Golden State has made a habit of sealing wins with strong third-quarter pushes, and it came out of halftime with a 21-8 run that eventually swelled to a 15-point lead. But as Curry went to the bench to start the fourth, the Celtics scored the first nine points of the final period and never looked back.
“It was the way we were moving the ball,” Horford said. “We were just setting them up and knocking them down.”
When the dust settled, Boston’s blistering fourth quarter wrenched away home-court advantage.
For the Warriors, who have long been accustomed to overwhelming opponents with their shooting flurries, it was a rare reversal. They now must quickly regroup knowing that they squandered a top-shelf performance from Curry, couldn’t capitalize on Tatum’s struggles and lost containment completely against the battle-tested Celtics.
“We pretty much dominated the game for the first 41, 42 minutes,” Warriors forward Draymond Green said. “We’ll be fine. It’s not a hit to the confidence at all. Not one bit." | 2022-06-03T04:28:31Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Celtics stun Warriors in NBA Finals opener with fourth-quarter flurry - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/02/celtics-warriors-al-horford-steph-curry/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/02/celtics-warriors-al-horford-steph-curry/ |
Barry Sussman, right, confers with managing editor Howard Simons at The Washington Post in the 1970s. (James A. Parcell/The Washington Post)
Barry Sussman, the Washington Post editor who directly oversaw the Watergate investigation by reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, providing invaluable — if at times unheralded — contributions to the news coverage that helped force President Richard M. Nixon from office, died June 1 at his home in Rockville, Md. He was 87.
The cause was an apparent gastrointestinal bleed, said his daughter Shari Sussman Golob.
In truth, journalism is a far more collective enterprise, with crucial roles played by people whose names do not appear below headlines in the space known in newspaper jargon as the byline. One such person, and perhaps the chief example in The Post’s unraveling of the Watergate affair, was Mr. Sussman.
A Brooklynite, Mr. Sussman began his journalism career scribbling film reviews in the darkened movie houses of New York and came to Washington by way of Appalachia, where he landed his first full-time newspaper job in his late 20s at the Bristol Herald Courier on the Virginia-Tennessee border. Rapaciously curious, and with a savant-like recall of detail, he rose in just over a year to become the newspaper’s managing editor. The Post hired him in 1965 as a suburban editor on the Metropolitan desk.
By Saturday, June 17, 1972, when five burglars wearing business suits broke into the Democratic national headquarters at the Watergate complex in Washington, Mr. Sussman was The Post’s city editor, in charge of 40 to 45 reporters and editors responsible for coverage of D.C.
One standout Metro reporter was 29-year-old Woodward. A button-down former Navy lieutenant, he had been with The Post only nine months but had already distinguished himself with his inexhaustible work ethic and investigative zeal, although not with his literary flair. Mr. Sussman took Woodward on as a protege and personal friend, journalist and Watergate scholar Alicia C. Shepard reported, helping him improve his writing “at a time when colleagues joked that for Woodward, English was a second language” and teaching him “how to take his hard-earned facts and massage them into readable stories.” The morning of the Watergate break-in, Mr. Sussman immediately phoned Woodward at home and called him into the newsroom.
The more renegade Bernstein, 11 months younger than Woodward but with more than a decade of additional experience, sensed intrigue in the Watergate burglary and wanted in on the action. While other editors at The Post had grown exasperated by Bernstein’s more trying habits — he was allergic to deadlines and once rented a car on The Post’s dime, parked it in a garage and forgot about it — Mr. Sussman recognized his value as both a reporter and a writer and argued successfully to keep him on the Watergate story.
Paired by Mr. Sussman, Woodward and Bernstein — known collectively as Woodstein — became the most famous reporters in American journalism with their incremental and inexorable revelations of the political sabotage, corruption and coverup that began with the Watergate break-in, sent numerous Nixon associates to prison and ultimately precipitated Nixon’s resignation on Aug. 9, 1974. During their reporting, Mr. Sussman was detailed to serve as special Watergate editor.
The Post’s Watergate coverage received the 1973 Pulitzer Prize for public service, the highest honor in journalism, and was dramatized in “All the President’s Men,” the 1976 Hollywood movie directed by Alan J. Pakula. Robert Redford played Woodward, convening by night in a parking garage with his highly placed source called Deep Throat. Dustin Hoffman played the shaggy-haired Bernstein. Mr. Sussman was omitted entirely.
In her 2007 book “Woodward and Bernstein: Life in the Shadow of Watergate,” Shepard wrote that the filmmakers excised Mr. Sussman “for dramatic reasons.” The story already had three editors — executive editor Benjamin C. Bradlee, portrayed in an Oscar-winning turn by Jason Robards; managing editor Howard Simons, whose real-life role the movie diminished, played by Martin Balsam; and Metropolitan editor Harry M. Rosenfeld, played by Jack Warden.
If Mr. Sussman was deemed superfluous for the movie — a decision that deeply wounded him, according to Shepard’s reporting — he was by all accounts the opposite in the actual events that inspired it.
Journalist David Halberstam, writing in his 1979 book about American media “The Powers That Be,” described Mr. Sussman as “the perfect working editor at exactly the right level.”
“Almost from the start, before anyone else at The Post,” Halberstam wrote, Mr. Sussman “saw Watergate as a larger story, saw that individual events were part of a larger pattern, the result of hidden decisions from somewhere in the top of government which sent smaller men to run dirty errands.”
Woodward and Bernstein, for their part, described Mr. Sussman as “Talmudic” in his mastery of the most arcane details of the Watergate affair and “Socratic” in his ability to elicit leads from them through his insightful questioning.
The book “All the President’s Men” reportedly contributed to a rift that opened between Mr. Sussman and the two reporters he had supported through the most difficult days of the Watergate investigation, when an error in their reporting involving grand jury testimony invited questions about their credibility, and when Nixon was privately threatening “damnable, damnable” consequences for The Post in retaliation for its coverage.
Mr. Sussman had hoped to co-author the account of Watergate with Woodward and Bernstein, Shepard wrote, but the reporters ultimately moved forward alone with “All the President’s Men,” which became a bestseller. Shepard quoted Woodward as saying that “it was a reporter’s story to tell, not an editor’s,” and that Mr. Sussman’s “role is fully laid out in the book.”
By the time the book was published, Shepard wrote, Mr. Sussman had stopped speaking to Woodward and Bernstein. According to Mr. Sussman, they were “wrong often on detail” in the book and had a tendency to “sentimentalize” the Watergate story.
Mr. Sussman wrote his own book about Watergate, “The Great Cover-Up” (1974), which broadcast journalist Brit Hume, writing in the New York Times, praised as establishing “with clarity the compelling case for Nixon’s complicity in the Watergate coverup.”
Decades later, when Shepard called Mr. Sussman to inquire about his two former colleagues, he replied, “I don’t have anything good to say about either one of them.”
Reached after Mr. Sussman’s death, Woodward said in an interview that “Barry was one of the great imaginative, aggressive editors at The Washington Post during Watergate. We all owe him a debt of gratitude, particularly Carl Bernstein and myself.”
Mr. Sussman graduated in 1956 from Brooklyn College, where he received a bachelor’s degree in English and history, and where he was an editor and columnist on a school newspaper.
In Bristol he met his future wife, Peggy Earhart, whom he married in 1962. Survivors include his wife, of Rockville; two daughters, Seena Sussman Gudelsky, also of Rockville, and Shari Sussman Golob of Potomac, Md.; and four grandchildren.
At The Post, Mr. Sussman became a favorite among his reporters. One of them, John Hanrahan, who went on to become executive director of the Fund for Investigative Journalism, described Mr. Sussman in an interview as “by far the best editor I ever had on any newspaper or any project I was ever involved with.”
“He was wonderful to worth with on deadline,” another, Lawrence Meyer recalled. “When there were holes in the story, he would send you back to fill them and manage to do everything without any kind of rancor.”
Mr. Sussman had long cultivated an interest in public opinion. After Watergate, he became The Post’s first in-house pollster, helping to found the Washington Post-ABC News poll.
Mr. Sussman penned a column on polling for The Washington Post National Weekly edition as well as a book on the subject, “What Americans Really Think and Why Our Politicians Pay No Attention” (1988).
His other books included “Maverick: A Life in Politics” (1995) written with Lowell P. Weicker Jr., the Republican turned independent Connecticut congressman, senator and governor who had served on the Senate Watergate Committee.
In 1987, Mr. Sussman was hired by United Press International as managing editor for national news; he resigned within months in opposition to large-scale staff cuts at the troubled news agency.
Decades after Watergate, Mr. Sussman was sometimes called on to speak about Nixon’s undoing and the ongoing role of a free press in a democracy. All those years later — the 50th anniversary of the Watergate break-in will fall just weeks after his death — Mr. Sussman, ever the attentive editor, still had command of the most granular details of the investigation he had overseen, and had at his fingertips the names of all the president’s men. | 2022-06-03T04:37:31Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Barry Sussman, Washington Post editor who oversaw Watergate reporting, dies at 87 - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2022/06/02/barry-sussman-watergate-washington-post-dead/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2022/06/02/barry-sussman-watergate-washington-post-dead/ |
Others agree. In 2015, when President Barack Obama was invited to deliver a memorial address for former Israeli President Shimon Peres, he compared him to “giants of the twentieth century I have had the honor to meet.” One of those two giants, unsurprisingly, was Nelson Mandela, but the other was the Queen.
Elizabeth personally intervened to stop Kaunda denouncing Margaret Thatcher at the first Commonwealth summit hosted in an African country in 1979 after the diplomats failed, thus paving the way for the Lancaster House Conference, which ended white minority rule in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). Her 2011 visit to Dublin was also a masterstroke for peace, with a walk on the pitch at Croke Park, the home of Gaelic football, where British forces killed 14 civilian spectators in 1920. Her speech in favor of reconciliation genuinely touched Irish hearts as no conventional politician’s could.
At home, the Queen has quietly modernized the rules of the royal game. She instituted walkabouts despite the fears of security staff. Laws of succession were changed to end male primogeniture. She kept a tight rein on her own budget when state spending ballooned and inflation let rip. Whatever the royals cost, they bring back into the coffers of UK Plc many times over in tourist and entertainment revenues.
Today, the British feel a sense of ownership about the monarchy. In the lexicon of dance that has become a cliche about the Queen, “she never puts a foot wrong.” But as the writer Nicola Shulman observes, “it is the Queen’s singular misfortune to be a prime ballerina with a corps de ballet of left-footed clodhoppers stamping on her toes.” She is an outlier in her family, setting a standard none of the rest can attain. | 2022-06-03T06:08:41Z | www.washingtonpost.com | The Queen Has Had Far More Triumphs Than Failures - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/the-queen-has-had-far-more-triumphs-than-failures/2022/06/03/d74b1c54-e2fa-11ec-ae64-6b23e5155b62_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/the-queen-has-had-far-more-triumphs-than-failures/2022/06/03/d74b1c54-e2fa-11ec-ae64-6b23e5155b62_story.html |
Kashmiri Hindus demand government relocation after killings
By Shams Irfan
Members of the JK Awami Aawaz Party protest minority killings in Srinagar, Kashmir, on June 2. (Mukhtar Khan/AP)
SRINAGAR, India — Militant attacks targeting Hindu civilians in Indian-controlled Kashmir have set off massive protests, posing a fresh challenge to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government three years after it revoked the region’s statehood and autonomy.
At least four Hindus have been killed in recent weeks, including a bank worker who was shot dead Thursday at his office in Kulgam, sparking fear and outrage among Kashmiri Hindus, known as Pandits. The Modi government changed the constitutional status of the Muslim-majority enclave in 2019 and has provided jobs and other incentives to Hindus who settle there. Now, Pandits are taking to the streets in large numbers and demanding to be relocated.
In Kashmir, militants target minority civilians, stoking fears of a return to violent past
Avinash Bhat, a 43-year-old teacher posted outside Srinagar, the regional capital, said he has not left his home in 20 days.
“My daughter doesn’t allow me to go out,” said Bhat, a community spokesperson. “She is afraid that I, too, may be killed.”
The protests began after the killing of Rahul Bhat (no relation to the teacher), a 35-year-old Hindu man gunned down at a government office in central Kashmir last month. Pandits say they feel caught between militants targeting them for their faith and a government that exploits their plight for political gain.
Kashmir is a disputed region in the Himalayas, with control divided between archrivals India and Pakistan. Militant groups, some supported by Pakistan, have waged a decades-long insurgency against Indian rule. Tens of thousands of Pandits were forced to flee Kashmir during the height of the violence in the 1990s.
In May, an Indian army commander described the recent civilian killings as a result of the “frustration” of the militants who aim to keep “terrorism alive” in the valley.
“If we leave [Kashmir] again, the government’s claim of normalcy will fall apart,” Bhat said. “We understand that we are part of the optics. But we cannot sacrifice ourselves for anyone’s politics.”
Under the Hindu nationalist government of Modi, Pandits have often found themselves in the political spotlight. Critics say Modi and his party have used the community’s tragic history to stoke distrust of Indian Muslims, the country’s largest minority, and justify the militarization of Kashmir.
In its 2014 election manifesto, Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, or BJP, promised to facilitate the return of the Pandits “to the land of their ancestors with full dignity, security and assured livelihood.”
But life has been hard for those who moved to Kashmir in the years since, despite assurances from authorities in Delhi. Most live in cramped government quarters under heavy security. But that hasn’t stopped the killings, many of which have happened at workplaces.
A software engineer who moved to Kashmir in 2015 to take a government job said he had been looking to buy land to build his dream house. Now, he cannot wait to get out. He spoke on the condition of anonymity, fearing that he could be a target.
The government has “failed to protect our lives,” said the 36-year-old father of two, who is packing up to leave if the government doesn’t move his family to safety.
Civilian killings have been on the rise since last year, and the victims include local Kashmiri Muslims and migrant workers from other parts of India. Many think the violence has its roots in India’s controversial decision to revoke Kashmir’s semiautonomous status in 2019 — a necessary step, it said, to end violence and corruption.
What followed instead was a crackdown. India flew in additional security forces, detained dozens of people and cut lines of communication. Local elections have not been held since, and India has been accused of human rights violations.
Voices from Kashmir: Inside India’s year-long crackdown
“2019 was presented as a panacea. Once we do this, everything will be fixed. That has clearly not happened,” said Ankur Datta, a sociologist at South Asian University in Delhi and author of a book on the displacement of Kashmiri Pandits.
The community is “caught in a political no man’s land” with an uncertain future, he said. “It’s a tragic situation for a people with a tragic history.”
Dozens of families left the region in October after the killing of a prominent Pandit businessman who ran a pharmacy. Among them was Sunny Raina, 32, a government engineer in Kokernag.
“We came back as the government assured our safety,” Raina said. “But nothing has changed here.”
Bhat, the teacher, has decided to quit his government job if authorities try to keep his family in Kashmir by force.
“What kind of life is this if we are not free?” he asked, choking up. “It feels like we have been jailed.”
Masih reported from Chennai. | 2022-06-03T06:09:30Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Kashmiri Pandits intensify protests to leave the conflict-ridden valley after a spate of targeted killings - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/03/india-kashmir-hindus-pandits-killings/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/03/india-kashmir-hindus-pandits-killings/ |
The Kremlin is seeking to ramp up economic pressure to erode foreign support for Ukraine
By Catherine Belton
Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a wreath-laying ceremony after the military parade marking the anniversary of the end of World War II in Moscow on May 9. (Anton Novoderezhkin/Sputnik/Pool/AP)
Putin “believes the West will become exhausted,” said one well-connected Russian billionaire, speaking on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution. Putin had not expected the West’s initially strong and united response, “but now he is trying to reshape the situation and he believes that in the longer term he will win,” the billionaire said. Western leaders are vulnerable to election cycles, and “he believes public opinion can flip in one day.”
The embargo on Russia’s seaborne oil exports announced by the European Union this week — hailed by Charles Michel, president of the European Council, as putting maximum “pressure on Russia to end the war” — would “have little influence over the short term,” said one Russian official close to Moscow diplomatic circles, also speaking on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution. “The Kremlin mood is that we can’t lose — no matter what the price.”
The Kremlin has pointed out that the E.U.’s move has only provoked a further surge in global energy prices and says it will seek to divert supplies to other markets in Asia, despite a ban on insuring Russian shipments that was also imposed by the E.U. and Britain.
The populations of E.U. countries “are feeling the impact of these sanctions more than we are,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in an interview with The Washington Post. “The West has made mistake after mistake, which has led to growing crises, and to say that this is all because of what is going on in Ukraine and what Putin is doing is incorrect.”
This posture suggests that the Kremlin believes it can outlast the West in weathering the impact of economic sanctions. Putin has little choice but to continue the war in hopes the Ukraine grain blockade will “lead to instability in the Middle East and provoke a new flood of refugees,” said Sergei Guriev, former chief economist at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
The Kremlin’s aggressive stance seems to reflect the thinking of Nikolai Patrushev, the hawkish head of Russia’s Security Council, who served with Putin in the Leningrad KGB and is increasingly seen as a hard-line ideologue driving Russia’s war in Ukraine. He is one of a handful of close security advisers believed by Moscow insiders to have access to Putin. In three vehemently anti-Western interviews given to Russian newspapers since the invasion, the previously publicity-shy Patrushev has declared Europe is on the brink of “a deep economic and political crisis” in which rising inflation and falling living standards were already impacting the mood of Europeans, while a fresh migrant crisis would create new security threats.
“The world is gradually falling into an unprecedented food crisis. Tens of millions of people in Africa or in the Middle East will turn out to be on the brink of starvation — because of the West. In order to survive, they will flee to Europe. I’m not sure Europe will survive the crisis,” Patrushev told Russian state newspaper Rossiiskaya Gazeta in one of the interviews.
In another interview last week to the popular Argumenty and Fakty tabloid, Patrushev said Russia is “not rushing to meet deadlines” in its military campaign in Ukraine.
The Russian military has been gradually making gains in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, and rather than seeking an immediate and decisive battle, Putin believes time is on his side, the Russian billionaire said. Putin “is a very patient guy. He can afford to wait six to nine months,” the billionaire said. “He can control Russian society much more tightly than the West can control its society.”
The weeks-long diplomatic haggling over the terms of the E.U. oil embargo was seen by the Kremlin as a sign of faltering western resolve, economists and the Russian official said. Phones calls over the weekend by French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s to Putin about ways to lift the blockade on Ukraine’s ports will have further bolstered that view. When Western leaders call Putin and seek to do a deal, “it means he thinks he has leverage,” a former U.S. government official said.
The Kremlin has insisted the blockade on Ukrainian grain exports is because of Ukrainian mining of the Black Sea — a claim denied by Kyiv — while Peskov said Western sanctions were also preventing grain shipments from being dispatched.
Russia’s potential losses due to the E.U. ban on its seaborne oil exports could be minimal, said Sergei Aleksashenko, a former deputy chairman of the Russian central bank, who now lives in exile in the United States. If Russia is able to divert the entire seaborne volume to India and China, Russian losses as a result of the ban could total only $10 billion, he said.
Putin’s economic advisers will “tell him what the estimated loss is from the embargo, and he will laugh quietly,” Aleksashenko said. “He is not changing his course.”
The E.U. embargo should be seen as “only a first step” in efforts to cut off the Kremlin’s hard currency earnings, said Edward Fishman, adjunct professor of international and public affairs at Columbia University and a former official with the U.S. State Department.
Several current and former senior Western officials have been discussing proposals for the United States and E.U. to form a cartel and impose a price cap on Russian oil, possibly at $30 or $40 per barrel. This step could be more effective than the E.U. ban and help drive down global prices, Guriev and Fishman said. Under the proposal, the United States could impose secondary sanctions on anyone buying Russian oil at a price over the cap, they said.
Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi first floated the idea of creating a cartel of oil consumers at a meeting with President Biden, while the European Commission is now examining Draghi’s proposal for a potential gas price cap.
Putin has declared that “the economic blitzkrieg” against Russia has failed, and on the surface, the economy has been cushioned against the initial shock of Western sanctions by the inflow of nearly $1 billion in revenue per day from oil and gas exports to Europe before the E.U. embargo on seaborne oil. Thanks to capital controls and orders that Russian exporters sell half their hard currency earnings to the state, the ruble has strengthened to prewar highs.
But Russia’s Central Bank chief, Elvira Nabiullina, has warned that the full impact of Western sanctions is yet to be felt. A ban on high-tech imports is only just beginning to bite, while shortages of some goods are only now beginning to be seen. Inflation is set to exceed 20 percent, and Russia is facing its deepest recession in 30 years. Putin’s attempt to protect the population against inflation, estimated at 18 percent, by ordering a 10 percent hike in pensions and the minimum wage falls far short.
With risks growing for all sides, “it is going to be a war of attrition from the economic, political and moral point of view,” the Russian official said. “Everyone is waiting for autumn,” when the impact of sanctions will hit the hardest, he said.
So far, however, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky estimating Kyiv needs $7 billion in aid a month just to keep the country running, Putin appears to be betting on the West blinking first, the former U.S. government official said. Putin’s “goal of subjugating Ukraine and eventually placing a Russian flag in Kyiv has not changed.” | 2022-06-03T07:13:52Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Putin thinks West will blink first in war of attrition with Russia - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/03/russia-putin-economy-attrition-war/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/03/russia-putin-economy-attrition-war/ |
FRANKFURT AM MAIN, GERMANY - DECEMBER 16: European Central Bank (ECB) President Christine Lagarde speaks during a press conference following the meeting of the Governing Council of the European Central Bank on December 16, 2021 in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. The ECB announced to continue its unprecedented monetary policy support for the euro zone economy into 2022. (Photo by Ronald Wittek - Pool/Getty Images) (Photographer: Pool/Getty Images Europe)
Inflation in the euro area surged to 8.1% in the year to May, yet again higher than expected. Up to now, despite signs that inflation was getting entrenched, the European Central Bank had chosen to stand pat. It had its reasons, but they’re no longer persuasive.
The ECB’s task is difficult, to put it mildly — and only getting more so. European Union leaders said this week they’re moving toward a partial ban on imports of Russian oil, an essential step in forcing Vladimir Putin’s regime to end its war on Ukraine. But there’s a drawback. New restrictions on energy imports will deliver yet another supply-side shock, keeping Europe’s prices high and adding to the risk of stagflation.
The ECB’s dilemma is much like that of the US Federal Reserve, the Bank of England, and many other central banks: Monetary policy can’t do everything, the damage caused by the pandemic hasn’t abated, and there’s no painless way to respond effectively to Russia’s aggression. Yet, as best they can, central banks have to strike a balance between supporting demand and containing inflation. The ECB is getting this wrong. It’s become an outlier in its approach and needs to rethink.
The Fed and the Bank of England have both raised interest rates and signaled to financial markets that there’s more to come. They abandoned talk of “transitory” inflation months ago — and acknowledged they should’ve changed course earlier. The ECB is still lagging way behind. It hasn’t yet raised its policy rate, which stands at minus 0.5%. Its latest signaling suggests the first increase will be just a quarter of a point — not when its policy makers meet next week, but at the meeting after that, in late July.
With inflation above 8%, a policy rate that’s less than zero in nominal terms maintains an extraordinary, and increasingly reckless, level of extra demand. Too much stimulus applied for too long adds to the danger of a violent correction later. The cost of avoiding a moderate slowdown now might be a deep recession in due course.
To be sure, the ECB has to grapple with bigger problems than does the Fed or the Bank of England. The EU is more heavily dependent on Russian energy, so the supply-side component of its spike in inflation is bigger. Its baseline levels of growth and employment are lower, giving less room for error on the downside. Economic conditions also vary widely across the euro area, along with degrees of tolerance for inflation. (Prices are rising an estimated 5.8% a year in France, 8.7% in Germany, and 20.1% in Estonia.) The right monetary policy in one country won’t fit the case in another.
Likewise, the ECB has to allow for the fact that coordinating fiscal policy across the 19 members of the euro area is hard. Some have chronic public-debt problems, now compounded by pandemic-related spending. This makes higher interest rates more hazardous and their effects harder to judge.
The ECB’s reluctance to remove stimulus is understandable. But the balance of risk has shifted. The surprising new inflation number justifies — and the broader situation demands — a forthright reset. Without further delay, the ECB should start a deliberate effort to normalize policy, beginning with an increase of 50 basis points next week — not next month.
• Don’t Wish for the Fed to Pause Rate Hikes in September: Mohamed A. El-Erian
• Rishi Sunak’s Helicopter Drop Makes the Bank of England’s Life Easier: Marcus Ashworth | 2022-06-03T07:39:58Z | www.washingtonpost.com | The ECB Needs to Reset Europe’s Monetary Policy - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/the-ecb-needs-to-reset-europesmonetary-policy/2022/06/03/9edd0286-e30b-11ec-ae64-6b23e5155b62_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/the-ecb-needs-to-reset-europesmonetary-policy/2022/06/03/9edd0286-e30b-11ec-ae64-6b23e5155b62_story.html |
More dead cops in exchange for fewer dead kids — it’s the lesser of two bad outcomes, but it’s not the solution
Perspective by Patrick Skinner
Patrick Skinner is a police officer in his hometown of Savannah, Ga. He is a former CIA operations officer and served in the United States Coast Guard as well as the U.S. Capitol Police.
Police officers near Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Tex., on May 25, the day after a shooting there left 19 children and two teachers dead. As the deadly incident unfolded, law enforcement officials waited to confront the gunman. (Sergio Flores for The Washington Post)
Police officers like me are trained to consider the best-case scenario and the worst-case scenario, and take measures to make the best-case scenario more likely — or at least to avoid the worst-case scenario. In mass shootings, and specifically school shootings, all scenarios are horrible. But at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Tex., the best-case scenario would have been this: “More cops dead in exchange for fewer children dead.”
Because this is America, there have been enough massacres that we have “best practices” for responding police officers at schools with an “active shooter” — someone who is actively shooting people as police are arriving or are already on the scene but not engaged with the shooter. We have had so many mass murders by guns in this country that it seems impossible to remember a time before our age of active shooters, but until 1999, the commonly accepted best practice for police responding to gunfire at a school was to contain the threat (keep the shooter from getting away and keep others from getting onto the scene) and engage in a dialogue to find out what the demands were. The massacre at Columbine High School in 1999 taught us that the demands of the active shooter are to kill as many people as possible. After that — after the murder of 12 high school students and one of their teachers — police training for active shooters shifted from “contain and wait” to “immediately engage,” using whatever officers were on the scene. Even if it was just one officer. Never again would police listen to gunshots inside a school while staging outside.
Because this is America, it did happen again. In 2018, at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., police officers waited outside while 14 students and three staff members were shot inside. Now there is Robb Elementary. In light of so many other active-shooter incidents at schools, the reports of police inaction and delay are inexplicable and — with the sound of children calling 911 to ask that the police outside come in to save them, and the sound of gunshots inside that classroom — inexcusable.
We even have best practices for children and teachers and staff, all intended to achieve the worst best-case scenario our country can come up with: slightly fewer dead children. And we are failing even at that. These best practices are usually variations on “run, hide, fight”: At the first sound of gunshots, the first sound of their classmates or colleagues being murdered, children and adults should run to safety; if unable to run, they should hide until help comes — run and hide, that is, in school buildings traditionally designed to deter running and hiding; if unable to run or hide, students and staff should fight their attacker — and because this is America, that means fighting a person who has a semiautomatic pistol or rifle and a lot of bullets in high-capacity magazines.
As a police officer I know that more guns have never led to more safety, but rather the opposite. I’ve worked shootings where everyone involved had high-powered firearms — the ubiquitous semiautomatic rifles collectively referred to as “AR-style,” which individually have many names and many modifications but one purpose: killing as many people as quickly as possible. In none of these cases did having more guns make anything better; insane numbers of rounds were fired onto city streets and those bullets don’t care who was the intended target or the reason they were fired. I see these guns every day, and I see what these guns are doing to us all.
As a police officer, I also know that having more police doesn’t prevent shootings. I’ve worked shootings that happened within sight of dozens of officers. Young adults with anger management and impulse control problems are a parent’s challenge; young adults with anger management and impulse control problems and a Glock 19 pistol with an extended magazine are a nation’s shame. Anger issues among young adults aren’t an exclusively American problem; anger issues among young adults with a semiautomatic rifle and a drum magazine of ammunition are. Dealing with gun violence isn’t a uniquely American problem; dealing with gun violence by adding more and more guns is. | 2022-06-03T07:40:10Z | www.washingtonpost.com | The 'best case scenario' in school shootings is badly misguided - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2022/06/03/uvalde-police-best-case-scenario/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2022/06/03/uvalde-police-best-case-scenario/ |
SAN FRANCISCO — Jaylen Brown fueled a comeback charge and scored 24 points, Al Horford hit six 3-pointers and the Boston Celtics rode the most lopsided fourth quarter in NBA Finals history to a 120-108 victory over the Golden State Warriors in Game 1.
DENVER — Nazem Kadri had three assists in a 2:04 span in the second period, backup Pavel Francouz stopped 24 shots for his second career playoff shutout and the Colorado Avalanche beat the Edmonton Oilers 4-0 to take a 2-0 lead in the Western Conference finals.
PARIS — American teenager Coco Gauff reached her first Grand Slam final by beating Martina Trevisan of Italy 6-3, 6-1 at the French Open.
DETROIT — Minnesota Twins broadcaster Jim Kaat referred to New York Yankees left-hander Nestor Cortes as “Nestor the Molester” during a broadcast, the second offensive remark in the past year by the 83-year-old Hall of Fame pitcher while calling a game.
DUBLIN, Ohio — Just being at the Memorial was a reminder how far Cameron Young has come in the last year. Being part of a six-way tie for the lead was another reminder how well he is playing.
SOUTHERN PINES, N.C. — Sweden’s Ingrid Lindblad shot the lowest round by an amateur in the 77-year history of the U.S. Women’s Open, a 6-under 65 that gave her the early lead at Pine Needles.
POCATELLO, Ohio — Idaho State assistant football coach DaVonte’ Neal was arrested on suspicion of killing a man in Arizona and the school intends to terminate his contract. | 2022-06-03T07:40:49Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Thursday Sports in Brief - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/thursday-sports-in-brief/2022/06/03/8d659ce0-e309-11ec-ae64-6b23e5155b62_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/thursday-sports-in-brief/2022/06/03/8d659ce0-e309-11ec-ae64-6b23e5155b62_story.html |
Queen Elizabeth II and her horses: From first pony to Macron’s jubilee gift
Princess Elizabeth, given a chance to plan how she would spend her 13th birthday on April 21, 1939, decided that between opening presents and hosting a tea party, she would go riding in Windsor Great Park with her father, the King, and Princess Margaret, her younger sister. (AP)
LONDON — Officially, her title is “Elizabeth II, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and of Her other Realms and Territories Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith.”
Missing from the list? Racehorse owner.
The queen is and has been — since she was a young girl — enamored of horses. Riding them, showing them, breeding them, racing them, watching them.
There are stables at every one of her royal residences.
Her biographers have written that the queen reads the “Racing Post” newspaper at breakfast, while munching upon her bowl of Special K and assorted fruits.
Even as her health began to slip a notch, presenting her with mobility challenges, the queen rode horses and ponies — well into her mid-90s.
And so it is appropriate that horses and the equestrian arts figure prominently in this week’s celebration of the queen’s 70 years on the throne, her Platinum Jubilee.
Horses, in fact, have turned out to be a popular jubilee present for the queen.
Last month, the president of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, sent her a small chestnut Karabakh horse named Shohrat. And on Wednesday, French President Emmanuel Macron gifted her a dappled gray named Fabuleu de Maucour. “The shapeliness and elegance of the horse, a seven year-old standard-bearer for the Garde Républicaine, epitomizes French horse-breeding,” the French embassy said in a statement.
The four-day jubilee party kicked off Thursday with the Trooping the Colour military parade at Buckingham Palace, featuring 1,200 troops, 400 musicians — and no fewer than 240 horses.
Like the soldiers, the horses did as they were told. They demonstrated both spirit and training, obligingly walking in reverse across the parade grounds when asked by their riders, and standing calmly amid the ceremonial shouting and the banging of kettle drums.
Elizabeth rode on horseback at the Trooping of Colour from 1947, when her father was king, to 1986, when she pivoted to royal carriages.
She spent 18 of those years riding a majestic black mare named Burmese — also a gift, from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
And like Ginger Rogers — applauded for dancing as well as her partner Fred Astaire, but “backward and in high heels” — Elizabeth rode in these spectacles sidesaddle.
In the 1981 Trooping parade, the queen was praised for her steady hands on the reins of Burmese, when the horse was spooked by an ex-cadet in the crowd who fired off blanks from a pistol at them both (he was arrested and convicted under the Treason Act of 1842).
“She is a marvelous rider, she has a marvelous way with horses,” her son and heir Prince Charles told a BBC documentary.
On Saturday, the jubilee celebrations will merge with derby day at Epsom Downs, with members of the royal family in attendance.
The three Thoroughbreds the queen entered for the main event have all scratched. But her horse “Just Fine” is set to compete in the penultimate race, according to the British sporting press. And five of her retired racehorses will join a parade at the track to celebrate her “unrivaled contribution to the equestrian world,” according to the organizers.
The queen herself, though, may miss the derby. She experienced “some discomfort” during the opening day parade, the palace said. And even before, there were indications she might instead on Saturday celebrate the first birthday of her great granddaughter, Lilibet, named after her by Prince Harry and Meghan.
Forgoing the derby would be out-of-character for the queen.
In sign of her priorities, Buckingham Palace said last month that her “episodic mobility problems” would prevent her from overseeing the State Opening of Parliament, and yet she managed to get herself to the Windsor Horse Show the same week. The Times of London reported that the queen looked “full of life” and that the “secret was simple: horses.”
You want to see the queen go a little nuts?
Watch a video of her watching one of her horses winning.
Her sons and grandsons Princes Charles, Andrew, William and Harry all play or played polo. The queen’s daughter, Princess Anne, was the first British royal to compete in the Olympics. She rode Goodwill, her mum’s horse, in the 1976 Montreal games.
Her majesty’s racing colors are purple, with gold braid, much like London’s new $23 billion underground and railway, the Elizabeth line — which she recently rode.
Elizabeth line: London unveils new Tube line, 10 stories underground
It is said that the queen does not bet on horses.
It is said that not everyone believes this.
Elizabeth’s parents gave her a Shetland pony, Peggy, when the princess was four. She was riding at age six.
With the blessing of the palace, the Windsor Horse Show released an official portrait for the monarch’s 96th birthday. It shows the queen dressed in a dark cape, holding the reins of two of her own stunningly white fell ponies, Bybeck Nightingale and Bybeck Katie.
Twitter said — for the most part approvingly — that she looked like Gandalf from “The Lord of the Rings.”
Elizabeth inherited her breeding and racing stock from her father, George VI, in 1952, when she became queen.
She’s been racing horses for more than 60 years, with Thoroughbreds owned by her taking first place in four out of the five “flat racing” classics: the Oaks and the St. Leger, as well as the 1,000 Guineas Stakes and 2,000 Guineas.
Only the Derby at Epsom Downs has eluded her.
In her new book on the monarchy, “The Palace Papers,” former New Yorker editor Tina Brown dishes that the queen’s wedding gift to her son Charles, when he married Camilla Parker Bowles, was a broodmare.
At the Windsor Castle wedding, Brown reported, the queen slipped out of the reception to an adjoining room to catch a few minutes of Grand National, Britain’s biggest steeplechase — which organizers delayed 25 minutes on her behalf. She was joined at the TV set by Andrew Parker Bowles, Camilla’s previous husband.
Trooping the collar: Seamus the dog marches in Queen Elizabeth II’s parade
In a 2020 article in Horse & Hound magazine, the editors listed the queen’s all-time favorite horses, as revealed by her head groom, Terry Pendry, and her racing manager, John Warren.
Pendry described Elizabeth as a “fountain of knowledge in all things equine, you might say a living encyclopedia.”
He said one of the queen’s favorites was Doublet, a horse that Princess Anne rode when she won the European Eventing Championships in 1971.
Then Pendry slipped in an admiring line, “The Queen bred both the horse and the rider!”
He wasn’t fired. | 2022-06-03T08:32:11Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Queen Elizabeth II, horses and the Platinum Jubilee - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/03/queen-elizabeth-horses-macron-jubilee/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/03/queen-elizabeth-horses-macron-jubilee/ |
Moscow accuses U.K. lawmaker’s son of helping kill Russian fighter in Ukraine
Fighting in the Donbas region of Ukraine, where a Russian National Guard sergeant was recently killed. (Aris Messinis/AFP/Getty Images)
Moscow has accused a son of a British lawmaker, who has fought for Ukraine against Russia since March, of being involved in the death of one of its fighters.
The Russian National Guard said this week that Ben Grant, a Royal Marines veteran, had helped kill Sgt. Adam Bisultanov, commander of a military unit from southern Russia, according to state news agency RIA. The National Guard said Bisultanov had been killed in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donbas, where an armored vehicle he was in was struck by “mercenaries” from Britain and the United States.
Britain’s Daily Telegraph newspaper reported in May that Grant — son of Helen Grant, a Conservative lawmaker representing an area southeast of London — was part of a group of foreign fighters that fired a rocket at a Russian vehicle. That article was accompanied with a blurry image of what it identified as a rocket launcher. The Telegraph also published footage from a helmet-mounted camera that appeared to show Grant, in a separate instance, helping save another fighter after coming under attack in the Kharkiv region.
RIA said that footage of the incident leading up to Bisultanov’s death has been handed over to investigators. Moscow, which has been accused of committing genocide and other war crimes in Ukraine, said this week that it had killed hundreds of foreigners fighting on Kyiv’s behalf.
Grant’s mother said in April that 91 Ukrainian refugees have been relocated to the area she represents and that she has pressed the Home Office to take in more displaced Ukrainians.
Ben Grant could not be reached for comment. Helen Grant and the British Foreign Office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Grant has been a relatively prominent face in British media coverage of foreign volunteers fighting for Ukraine. The 30-year-old father of three told the Guardian newspaper in March that he decided to take up arms after seeing videos of a Russian bombing that left Ukrainian children crying. He said he had not consulted his mother about his decision.
London’s already tense relations with Moscow grew even frostier in the lead-up to war, and the Kremlin and members of Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government have traded insults in personal terms. When Russia placed its nuclear arsenal on high alert in February, the Kremlin blamed British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss.
Britain has been a leader in orchestrating weapons shipments and diplomatic support for Ukraine, though London has said it will not directly intervene in the war. However, Truss had previously stated her support for British citizens who wish to fight for Ukraine in a private capacity. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has called on foreigners to take up arms against Russia, though some have recounted going into battle underequipped and outgunned.
The Biden administration discourages Americans from joining the fight in Ukraine, though some 4,000 had expressed interest as of March.
Russian authorities say about 3,500 foreign volunteers are still in Donbas, where the bloodiest combat is going on, according to RIA. Moscow has said it will not recognize them as lawful combatants protected by the Geneva Conventions. | 2022-06-03T08:32:17Z | www.washingtonpost.com | U.K. lawmaker’s son Ben Grant accused of helping kill Russian in Ukraine - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/03/ukraine-fighters-ben-grant-russia-war/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/03/ukraine-fighters-ben-grant-russia-war/ |
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